2022 overall has been a weak year for video games, we're 2 years into the New Generation of Consoles are we're still not really hitting on full cylinders. Microsoft had no new gen games this year and sonys offerings although were spectacular were all playable on the previous gen console. Usually at this point into a console generation all the heavy hitters are coming out and you're really starting to feel what's under the hood of the consoles. We're obviously still feeling the effects of covid and hopefully next year it'll be a fantastic year for video games, and looking at what's expected I think it'll be one of the best years for games.
That's not to say this year hasn't had some fantastic games, when I started thinking about my list I struggled to get it down to 10 and kinda of combined two games in one slot. Before I get into what is considered my top 10 I want to give 3 special mentions
Cyberpunk 2077 - The next gen update came out this year and it fixed a whole bunch of issues that had plagued it the last couple of years. I absolutely adored my time in night city. Exploring, and meeting the people who live there. It looks beautiful on next gen systems and I really really recommend people check it out.
Tormented Souls - Tormented Souls is a throw back to old survival horror games with fixed camera angles, it's rough around the edges, and has B tier voice acting but it's an absolute delight to play especially if you're a fan of original resident evil and silent Hill. It has tones of character and atmosphere. Some genuine edge of your seat moments and a really great story.
Pentiment - Pentiment is the game I wish I'd found more time to play, it's an absolute delight the time I've spent with it so far and will definitely be the game I play over the Christmas break. Pentiment tells the story of an artist during the medieval times who works at an abbot. Things turn sour and you're scooped up into a murder investigation. It's a bit point and click/ text adventure there's a lot of reading but some absolutely fantastic writing and characters. It feels a lot like disco elysium. I really recommend people check this one out.
Okay let's gooooooo
10. MultiVersus
Multiversus came out right slap band in the summer draught. It's a 2v2 smash bros style fighting came. It's got loads of character and depth, it's crazy fun to play and there's so many layers of tactics to it. Finding your character getting good with them and dominating the online play is some of the must fun I've ever had with a fighting game. If I was younger I'd have spent waaaaaaaay more time playing this. Its free to play and a blast. Haven't tried it, but I'm sure it would be great with beers and mates.
9. The Quarry
Its a teen horror game by the folks behind until dawn and the dark pictures anthology. Slow moving choices based game heavily story driven. The Quarry is THE BEST one of these games they've made since until dawn, I think it's better then until dawn. It tells the story of a bunch of teens stuck on the last night at summer camp. Things go horrible wrong and fast and they're being chased around the camp by mad men and creatures. I don't want to spoil it because it's worth experiencing. These games rely heavily on their cast and this one has a fantastic cast. There's some great scares and moments along the journey.
8. Pokemon Legends/Pokemon violet
Both these pokemon games absolutely blew me away this year. Legends tells a totally different story with a whole bunch of different systems, being able to creep up on pokemon and throw pokeballs at them without battling was a wild concept and it works brilliantly. Exploring that vast world was a joy and the story and characters were super interesting. I hope we see more Legends games in the future.
Pokemon violet takes some of the amazing open world stuff from Legends and crams it into an old style pokemon game. But it's totally open and there's more too it then just gyms and defeat the bad guys, there's titans to defeat, challenges, and what genuinely feels like a lived in open world. It's the best old style pokemon game to date. I love it. I just wish I performed better on the switch. Nintendo really really really needs new hardware.
After these two games I'm definitely excited for pokemon again and what they do in the future.
7. Resident Evil 4 VR (Meta Quest 2)
Back in 2017 I was blown away by resident evil 7 in VR it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. When I heard they were remastering resident evil 4 in VR I didn't think it would work. Then the reviews came out and everyone was gushing over it. I ended up buying a meta quest 2 specifically just to play resident evil 4 in VR and what an experience. Somehow they've managed to make a game that feels incredibly familiar and old feel fresh and exciting. Picking a clip from your belt and reloading your gun feels effortless. Scrambling around in a house being swarmed by enemies really gets your heart racing. Special shout out to Ashley for standing right in front of you when you enter most doors and scaring your half to death! Resident Evil 4 VR is some of the most fun I've had in VR and its a most play experience. Its the best looking and feeling game on the meta quest 2 by far. Its worth the £350 for the headset just to play it.
6. Horizon Forbidden West
Forbidden West came out a week or so before elden Ring, which meant I fell off it and didn't return until I'd finished elden ring. When I came back to Forbidden West although it was some of the best graphics I'd ever seen it took me a while to get into it. But once I got into it I was hooked. Exploring the world was really fun and they really made good on a bunch of story stuff they'd set up in the first horizon game. It has a great cast of characters and some of the most interesting missions and stories come from the side content. Once you reach the mid point and the game really opens up its incredible and all the different mounts you get to explore. I wished there was more underwater stuff would have loved to see some sort of underwater civilisation.
5. Return to Monkey Island
I spent a whole bunch of my childhood playing point and click adventure games, broken sword, Zak mckrakken and the alien mind benders but one that really stole my heart was monkey Island. The story of pirate in training guybrush threepwood. Return to monkey Island is a return to form of those original 3 games. It's still a point and click adventure but the puzzles are less obscure and if you get stuck there's a handy tips book in the game. It's an all star cast of returning characters and it's just Genuinely funny and heart warming. For me the game felt like coming full circle. Very early on its revealed guybrush and a son and he's telling his son about an adventure. I've grown up with guybrush and he has a family now as do I. The bond between him and his son feels really special and something I feel with my own son. Really recommend it if you're a fan of those old games!
4. Plagues Tale Requiem
Plagues Tale the original is one of those games that nowhere near enough people talk about. It's a fantastic action adventure set during the Plague and tells a really interesting story about a boy (hugo) who's infected with a disease that causing all the rats to come. It absolutely goes off the rails and gets wild but its really interesting and fun. Requiem picks up where the last game ends you continue playing as Hugos sister amecia as you try and protect her little brother and cure him of his disease. The game wastes no time in pulling you from a nice moment to horrifc events. One thing that the game does is it has moments of downtime when it shows you really beautiful moments and locations in the world and it let's you soak those in before it all goes to shit. The voice acting and performance from the cast are incredible and had me laughing and crying. It's about 15 hours long but it's a pretty tight experience and worth playing. It's also on gamepass.
3. Lost Judgement
Lost Judgement came out late in 2021 and I ended up playing it in early January so it's technically not a 2022 game but it is hands down one of the best games I played in 2022. Lost Judgement is a beat em up style game similar to the first 6 yakuza games. You play as an ex lawyer now private detective. You get asked to investigate some bullying at a high school which soon leads to a murder investigation and the whole story goes off the rails with twists and turns. It's a roughly 50 hour campaign and I was absolutely hooked to my seat. I couldn't stop playing every night and ended up finishing it within 2 weeks. The combat is really fun and there's some wild wacky characters you meat along the way.
2. God of War Ragnarok
GoW Ragnarok is a master piece. It's combat is super tight and fun, each of the three weapons you get in the game all feel different and super fun to master. Exploring that world is super fun I was constantly bimbling off the path to explore, find chests, do side quests etc. Some of the side quests in that game are so much fun, from the characters and additional bits of story to the boss fights and places you go. When the game really shines is its story telling and performance its Oscar winning levels of performance you'd be hard pushed to show me any movie or TV show that comes anywhere close. Ragnarok picks up a few years after the 2018 game everything is going to shit and ragnarok is looming. At its heart the game is telling the story of a father coming to terms with his son growing up and having to release the reigns and hope that he's done enough for him to survive in the world. It's genuinely moving and had me in tears multiple times. I've never seen or experienced anything like it. Video games can make you feel emotions more then and tv show or film can and this really pushes the medium forward in that.
1. Elden Ring
Elden Ring is the first video game I've been properly addicted to since my old world of warcraft days. Any minute I could be playing elden Ring I was. As soon as my son went to bed at 7pm on a night I was straight on elden Ring playing it till 1/2am every night for about 6 weeks straight it very nearly lead to me getting divorced.
But what an incredible game, there's something about exploring that world and finding new things to explore or kill set of endorphins in my brain. The slog of spending night after night bashing your head against a super hard boss and then the release when you finally killed it. Learning the lore of the world and how everything was connected. It was such an amazing magical experience. Somehow the people at fromsoftware managed to take that feeling of playing a table top rpg like dungeons and dragons, exploring a world and they turned that feeling into a video game. Just thinking about it as I write this gives me goosebumps. I await whatever dlc comes to elden Ring. It's a true masterpiece and one of the best video games in the last 10 years.
