My ten favorite games of 2022

Video games: I like those!

I’m not sure I feel like I have much I want to say about my favorite games of the year. Not because there isn’t much to say about them, there definitely is. It’s primarily because I find myself struggling to write more this year than previous years; in all honesty, 2022 was an awful year for me. That said, video games were there to pick me back up again when I needed it most, and thankfully there were plenty of amazing ones.

I’ve opted to just compose a few short sentences about each game with the purpose of documenting my final list. I may expand on these games in the future, but for now this is what I’ve got. Enjoy!

Honorable mentions:

• Butterfly Soup 2
• Stray
• Tunic
• Rollerdrome
• Chained Echoes
• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

My ten favorite games of 2022:

Signalis is a bleak throwback to survival horror games of old, with gameplay mechanics that will bring you right back to the days of classic Resident Evil games and a visual style that is remarkably grotesque; perfect for a horror game! It’s not the most original or even “fun” game I’ve played all year, but its grimy aesthetics and scattershot (but also compelling) story kept me coming back for more.

Pentiment is a game that might have been closer to my top five had it not come out at the same year as other very strong narrative-focused games. It’s brilliant all the same, with an unforgettable art style and some of the strongest writing I’ve seen in a game in quite some time. It has its quirks, but in the end I can’t deny Pentiment had me hooked from the beginning and never let go until the end credits rolled.

Return to Monkey Island isn’t going to stand out for its story or puzzle design, but instead for being a reminder of why so many people love this series and this style of adventure games as a whole. It’s a love letter to one of the greatest adventure game series of all time, but doesn’t feel bogged down in nostalgia, and the few moments that rely heavily on it are done so well I can’t be mad about it. Best of all, the final note from Ron Gilbert and his team after the credits roll brought a tear to my eye. A wonderful experience all around!

What Lies in the Multiverse came out of nowhere for me, and based on everything I’ve seen, many people haven’t checked this one out, much less even heard of it. It’s a puzzle-platformer that isn’t especially groundbreaking and it starts out pretty silly in terms of the story it’s telling, but the big hook for me was where that story goes, especially towards the end. Give it a chance and you may come away as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Norco is another story-heavy adventure game in a year full of great ones, but still manages to stand out thanks to its excellent writing and twisty narrative that kept me guessing until the very end. I found myself poking around every corner and talking to as many characters as possible to squeeze as much out of this wonderfully constructive setting as I could. If you’re craving an adventure game unlike anything you’ve played before, I can’t recommend it enough.

Tinykin is probably the most pure fun I had with a game all year. Running around this world, finding collectibles and solving the various puzzles scattered throughout brought me joy in a way few other games have in 2022. It’s just a blast to play from start to finish and as soon as I wrapped it up, I was already itching to replay it.

Elden Ring actually did it. It managed to not only convinced me to play more than a few hours of one of From Software’s modern releases, I actually saw it through to the end. I have a lot of qualms with Elden Ring, especially in final areas of the game, but the majority of my time with this was about the joy of discovery more than anything else. I don’t know if I need to play another game like this again, but I’m sure glad I spent so much time in this world.

Immortality is a game I had high hopes for as a fan of Sam Barlow’s previous work and it still managed to surpass them. I played through this game in about two sittings, and when I wasn’t playing it, I was thinking about everything I had encountered so far. The final moments will especially stick with me for a long time as I still have chills thinking about the ending. Even compared to Barlow’s previous work, I have never played a game like Immortality and likely never will, at least not for some time.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 really took me by surprise. I consider myself a fan of the series, especially the original, but I was completely captivated by XBC3 from the first few scenes alone. I found myself at multiple moments throughout nearly in tears, enraptured by this world and these characters who continued to grow on me for the damn near 100 hours I spent with them. This is one of those RPGs that I will remember alongside some of the best of all time.

Citizen Sleeper might just contain the best and most cohesive writing I’ve ever seen in a game. Every character, every interaction, every choice and consequence left me with more to think about than entire games on this list. I picked this game apart as much as possible, dug into every possible story I could, and continued to play it even after I experienced the ending(s) I thought best suited my character. I even returned to this world twice during the year to play the free DLC released, something I rarely do, and am eagerly awaiting the final chapter in that particular story to see how it all wraps up. I found myself at home with Citizen Sleeper more than any other game this year, and I could easily see it on a list of my all time favorites. It’s a wonderful experience I won’t soon forget.