Greetings, internet. Shall we?

As per my usual rules, a game does not have to be a 2022 release. It MUST be a game I largely played for the first time this year and “got” this year, ya feel me? But first:

Fortnite

My perpetual honourable mention. With dozens of wins, hundreds of hours sunk, so many friendships forged, rivalries kindled and dances danced, I'm very glad to still be playing this game. I'll be playing it until Epic turns to dust.

And now our feature presentation.

10 Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

ZTD’s extremely weird mixture of terrible point-and-click “escape the room” gameplay & puzzles and a very, VERY anime story about time travel, multiple timelines and being able to “leap” into other versions of yourself across these timelines left my head spinning by the end. But it was the good kind of head-spinning, with a “true ending” that I cheered for when I got it.

9 The Artful Escape

As someone who still wonders “what could’ve been” from time to time, Francis’s cosmic quest to escape his family’s long shadow, escape the unfair expectations that have been thrust upon him and truly discover who he truly wants to be did many things right storywise. I just wish there had been more of an actual GAME here, but the spectacle was astonishing.

8 Papers, Please

I have a problem: when I hear about some great game, a part of me wants to go back and play the developer’s entire works. I still haven’t touched Hades because I want to start Bastion, and in the case of Return of the Obra Dinn, I wanted to get to Papers, Please first. And that was a good call.

On paper (heh), this game sounded terrible but it really works. The act of checking peoples’ passports feels like one giant puzzle: checking for errors & discrepancies, rejecting them, letting them through, potentially cooperating with “terrorists” or just keeping you head down and thinking “glory to Arstotzka” while you go home to your cold apartment all sounded atrocious to me, but it works VERY well in practice. To make things crazier, I played the PS Vita version! Now I understand why this game was never ported to consoles: the clickable / touchable interface is absolutely essential. This was a dark horse game that just managed to slide into my 2022 and I’m very glad it did.

7 Axiom Verge

T-Prime’s not-actually-annual “Metroidvania of the Year” this year goes to Axiom Verge, a very fun game that adapts many of Metroid’s tropes in inventive ways but also includes many of its frustrations. It is beautiful to explore, fun to backtrack looking for weapons and powerups and the fast zombie enemies CAN KICK SO MANY ROCKS, but it still occupies my thoughts after many months AND it got me even more usage out of my Vita, so it clearly did something right.

6 Life is Strange: True Colors

True Colors is a worthy carrier of the Life is Strange name. LiS as a series has always done weighty stories very well and the mystery that Alex Chen stumbles upon in her new home is only the beginning. Alex is a great character, her supporting cast is amazing, her abilities are fun to use and this is the best LIS since the original.

5 RE Village - Shadows of Rose

To me, Resident Evil has always been a series in which each game gets better the more times you play it. Even after 3, 4, 5 playthroughs of Village I still had questions and Shadows of Rose gave me answers AND had its own great gameplay twists. Despite being set in the same areas as the main game, every place felt fresh with new puzzles and some TERRIFYING changes, (looking at you, dollhouse!!) Rose's powers are fun to use in combat and for puzzles, and the final payoff felt so nice. I hate this phrase but it works: if you liked the main game of RE Village you’ll like Shadows of Rose.

4 Stray

Strip away the USP of “playing as a cat” and Stray may not be that remarkable, but everything about it works in the moment. The platforming, the puzzles, the world at large, and all the accidental (and intentional) meowing and going to sleep made Stray a game I was happy to play multiple times.

3 Alien: Isolation

I did NOT have "go back to and actually enjoy Alien: Isolation" on my 2022 bingo card, but here we are. After years of being too chicken to get further than chapter 5, returning to Sevastopol and guiding Amanda Ripley on her quest to stay alive and finally find closure for her mother’s disappearance was a pleasant surprise for me. I guess I just wasn’t ready for this kind of game back then, but hot damn did it scratch an itch now. Yes, the alien deaths are cheap AF and yes, the game stretches itself out ridiculously by the end, but the ultimate climax was very satisfying and I have finally joined the Alien: Isolation fan club.

2 Bloodborne

My first Souls game, the one that finally opened my eyes.

With some helpful tips and guidance from my community, I finally broke through the Soulslike wall in 2022 and it was a ride. Figuring out enemy patterns, boss weaknesses, correct parrying timing and just trying to make sense of where the heck I was supposed to go next made Bloodborne incredibly cathartic and enjoyable. Still couldn’t tell you more than two things about the plot, tho. 😆

1 Horizon Forbidden West

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Forbidden West isn't perfect, but it does absolutely everything right. Some quality-of-life improvements were really all that Zero Dawn needed, and with Forbidden West we got what might be as close to a perfect video game as possible.

Ok, ok, it isn’t perfect. Some enemy attacks feel very cheap, the unease of getting too many weapons in the first few hours was overwhelming and (no spoilers) knowing that this is the middle chapter of a trilogy are minor ticks against it, but Forbidden West was the perfect sandbox and Aloy continues to be one of my favourite video game protagonists in all her badass, sure-of-herself glory. It had an extremely entertaining main quest that continued to flesh out the world AND an zillion side quests that made me put off the main quest for days at a time, and all those little side quests were also very fleshed out & well acted, with characters and plot lines you’ll actually give a damn about. Any flaw I can think of is more of a dumb nitpick: I even loved how Aloy talks to herself to remind the audience how to solve a puzzle or what to do next because it feels like something she would do, not just something shoehorned in. When you can equally feel the urgency to solve the big problem, AND want to help everyone you come across, AND want to take time to listen to every dialogue tree, you’ve struck gold.

The combat flows great, the stealth is nice and challenging without being punishing, the world is jaw-dropping to explore for hours on end and the greatest Nora outcast ties it all together perfectly. Horizon Forbidden West is my 2022 Game of the Year. Elisabet would be proud, Aloy.