Gamers have had a good first half of 2022. In the past few years, there has been a huge backlog of games that have been delayed. Now, the dam has broken, and the first half of 2022 has been filled with some great games.
No matter if you like strategy, action, or horror games, the game industry has spent the last seven months making sure there is at least one must-play game for you. Even though games like Starfield and Breath of the Wild 2 have been pushed back to 2023, don’t worry: the number of world-class games that have already come out this year will keep you busy for a long time.
The Best Video Games of 2022
Here are the games that we think are the best so far in 2022:
Horizon Forbidden West
Playable on: PS4, PS5
Horizon: Forbidden West doesn’t do much to change the formula that 2017’s Zero Dawn set up, but Aloy’s move to the PS5 has given developer Guerrilla Games the freedom to expand, well, just about everything.
As you explore the vast territory of the Tenakth tribe on a mission to fix the terraforming AI GAIA, you’ll be able to use more weapons and melee options, fight more robots, learn more skills, and find more collectibles, and finish more side quests.
Not everything is better—the added combat abilities push the control scheme to the breaking point, and the complicated RPG weapon system can really get in the way—but the easy charm that made the first game a hit is back in spades, and it’s made even better by deeper side characters and a few big, heart-wrenching moments.
It helps that Guerrilla has learned from being in Breath of the Wild’s shadow. The new climbing system and open exploration make the Forbidden West feel much more free than Aloy’s old home.
Horizon is getting a VR spin-off and a TV show, and Forbidden West reminds us why everyone was so excited about the game in the first place.
Kirby And The Forgotten Land
Playable on: Nintendo Switch
Even though Kirby is one of the Nintendo franchises that the company is most eager to try new things with, most of his adventures since Kirby: Triple Deluxe came out on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014 have felt more or less the same. This is not the case with Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which is probably the biggest change to the series since Kirby got the ability to copy powers on the NES.
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the game’s main character is taken away from the familiar places of Planet Popstar and put into what looks like a post-apocalyptic version of Earth. This is the first time that his 2D gameplay has been adapted to 3D. The end result looks like a mix between a kid-friendly version of The Last of Us and Super Mario 3D World, and the gameplay feels new and exciting just because there is a third dimension. When you add Kirby’s new “Mouthful Mode” powers, in which the pink powerhouse takes on the traits and abilities of real-world objects he wraps himself around, there’s never a dull moment. Want to use the power of a vending machine to beat up a bad guy? Here, you can do that.
Forgotten Land won’t win any awards for best story at the end of the year, but HAL Laboratory has once again shown that if a game has beautiful graphics, catchy music, and fun gameplay, long cinematics would just get in the way of us having fun. Do you have a Switch? Don’t miss this game.
Sniper Elite 5
Available on: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5
Sniper Elite 5, the latest game from Rebellion to kill Nazis, is an exercise in leveling up. Before, the snipe-’em-up series was kind of cheesy, like a B-movie thrill ride for people who didn’t mind iffy AI and rough edges.
No longer. With Sniper Elite 5, it seems like Rebellion has found the right formula. The open-world levels are complex and interesting, and the enemies are just hard enough that you can play however you want. Many of the big names in stealth games have gone away, but Sniper Elite 5 has shown that it can carry on where they left off. Read the review of Sniper Elite 5.
The Quarry
Elden Ring
Playable on: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5
Elden Ring is so good that you feel bad for any other AAA game that comes out in 2022. Because of the amazing effect this game has had, not only on returning FromSoftware fans but also on a whole new, untapped audience, this type of action role-playing game, which was once a bit of a niche, is now firmly in the spotlight, and with 13.4 million sales and counting, it looks like it’s going to stay there.
FromSoftware has been getting better at what it does for a long time. Its games have artistic, beautiful environments and smooth, methodical battles. Extravagant bosses have always been a mainstay, adding hard and rewarding challenges to the gameplay, and rich lore has always run through it like marble through rock. Elden Ring is the pinnacle of this design because it takes these key parts and takes them to a level that has never been seen before.
Instead of the linear gameplay of past games, this one has a beautiful open world where you can go in any direction you want. Never before has that sense of adventure felt so pure. It really is FromSoftware’s best work, and even though people kept talking about it for over two years, it lived up to every expectation. So, we got another unique experience from FromSoft. This shows how confident the studio is and how important artistic vision is above all else. There are no better games than this.
Rogue Legacy 2
Available on: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Rogue Legacy 2 started out as an Early Access game in 2020. The game’s developer, Cellar Door, calls it a “genealogical rogue-lite,” which means that instead of upgrading one character, you build your legacy. On each new run, you choose one of your previous character’s three ancestors. When you die, your character is retired. This is different from other games in the same genre where the focus is on improving one main character.
By hopping around 2.5D levels and killing bad guys who get in your way with swords, bows, magic, and other weapons of death, you earn gold that you can use to improve your headquarters. This huge castle base is a skill tree that the player has to keep unlocking and improving before each run or they risk losing gold they’ve already earned.
Cellar Door didn’t change anything that made the first Rogue Legacy so great. They kept everything that worked well and added a lot of new features, unlockables, and upgrades for players to go after. On top of that, the game has a cute, refined art style and controls that are very tight. The only bad thing about this situation is that you’ll lose hours before you realize it.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Playable on: PS5, PC
It doesn’t take long for Ghostwire: Tokyo’s dated open-world architecture to become obvious. You may appropriately describe Shibuya as empty or dead as you follow the formulaic framework of gradually opening up the areas you can explore and more icons of missions and trinkets take up the space as if a mysterious fog had swept away the city’s normally teeming and lively populace.
Despite these problems, the game’s setting is always interesting. With its first-person view, which makes the game even more immersive, this is probably the most detailed and accurate representation of Japan’s capital outside of the Yakuza games. It’s also on a bigger scale, since you have to cross the city’s rooftops to see the beautiful views and save the ghosts of its people.
But Tango Gameworks also pays attention to Japanese culture by giving its collectibles and quests a lot of detail. For example, the yokai you meet are based on Japanese folklore, and even the most random-looking collectibles have something to say about Japanese history and culture today. It’s completely irresistible as a piece of virtual tourism, even though it’s full of scary visitors that you’ll have to fight off with your own supernatural powers. This is especially true since a trip to Japan after Covid is still out of the question.
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