1): As always, only the games that I both played and reviewed are eligible to be on any of these lists. The usual piece of advice that I give is to look at the navbar to see all the titles you'll see here, but this year I was unusually short on time, so given the amount of fanfare-less crunch review pile-ons I did, there's no way you'd be able to tell. But just know that that's the self-imposed rule I live by. It's possible that Sonic Frontiers is the janky step in the right direction that fans are claiming it is, but I only got a couple minutes into it before shutting it down. Similarly, I may have bought not one, but two copies of Bayonetta 3 purely to spite Helena Taylor (who is a liar), but I honestly never had any interest in actually playing the thing, so I didn't. An addition to this rule I added in recent years is that unless something very small and very important to me comes out in December, my cutoff for considering new games is December 1st. With that in mind, games that come out in the month of December are eligible for these lists in the next year, kind of like at The Game Awards, but with less cringey advertising. So it could be that The Callisto Protocol runs acceptably now, or it could still be in shambles, but I haven't bought it and even if I had, it wouldn't be making any lists until next year. As in previous years, the games that I generally don't play are roguelikes, multiplayer, and sports...with one notable exception this year.
2): You're a grown adult (presumably). I'm not gonna pat you on the back, open up a Fortnite let's play, and tell you "these are my opinions and if you disagree, that's ok!" These are my opinions. You wouldn't be here if you weren't curious what they were, right? So take it or leave it, but I'm not gonna give you a blankie if you disagree.
3): You should assume that there are spoilers for any given title on any of these lists. I generally will try to avoid them, and I'll always keep the little headline above the blurbs spoiler-free, but when it comes to the meat of the blurb, I find it unsatisfying to beat around the bush (both in writing it and reading it). So if you see that a title is mentioned that you haven't played and/or want to avoid spoiler details for, probably best to move on to the next blurb, just taking mental note that whatever it was in that title was good enough to earn a spot.
4): Like last year, in the interest of time I'm just going to be using pictures where necessary (such as graphics or characters). It's not ideal, but it's a necessary thing these days.
5): Beto O'Rourke needs to just....go away now, please.
Without further ado!
This!
Is!!!!!
..and here is where I'd normally put the banner, but I lost all my files when the laptop I usually do this stuff on went Kaputt, so now I don't have that and I HATE css and don't wanna put this off any longer...so, let's go!
-------------------------- --------------------------
The Technical Awards
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Realistic Graphics
As we do every year, we're going to start off the technical awards by discussing "realistic" graphics. The games eligible for this category are the ones that attempt to create an at least somewhat lifelike setting. Less Pokemon, more Grand Theft Auto, if you see the point (which I'm guessing you probably did before you even started reading this blurb). A trend we always see in this category is that money talks. After all, a bigger budget means more realistic strands of hair or whatever. But that's just how it goes! These were the games with the best takes on realism in their graphics.
#5): Stray
#4): Elden Ring
#3): A Plague Tale: Requiem
#2): God of War: Ragnarok
Realistic Graphics of the Year: Horizon: Forbidden West
The original Horizon game won this category back in 2017, and its 2022 sequel decided it wasn't through with the heavyweight belt. Forbidden West was clearly made to sell PS5s, as it utilizes the hardware to really push what can be done with graphics. Unparalleled lighting, more foliage, shadows, etc on screen at any given time than any game developer from a couple years ago could dream of, pristine animations, textures that appear just as detailed from a million miles away as they do up close, etc? I mean, there was never a contest this year. If you read my review of Forbidden West, you'll of course know that I have my qualms with the game as a whole, but when it comes to realistic graphics in 2022, it's the clear winner.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Artistic Graphics
To define artistic graphics is just as simple as its realistic counterpart, but it's a little bit harder to judge. There are far more ways to craft an artistic style than a realistic one, and money very rarely plays a part in the quality. So, while in the previous category it's just a matter of measuring fidelity, it's not quite as simple. So, to decide on place winners, I just go with my gut!
#5): Ooblets
#4): Neon White
#3): OlliOlli World
#2): Tunic
Artistic Graphics of the Year: TemTem
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Performing
We've now spent some time talking about graphics, but they're far from the only thing that determines how a game looks. You can have the single crispest-looking AAA graphical budget out there, but if your game runs like crap, that's what players are going to be focused on. For a game to truly be a solid technical package, it needs to be able to keep a stable framerate under pressure. Whether that's from countless particle effects or under extreme speed, no matter what the challenge, these were the games that rose to it in 2022.
#5): Tunic
There were many games that could have earned this spot because they performed well, but they did so mainly because they don't put much stress on their respective engines. So with that in mind, it was a matter of me picking which one I wanted to win a spot. Congratulations, Tunic for being the winner of that lottery!
#4): OlliOlli World
Just about every second of gameplay in OlliOlli World moves at a breakneck pace, and as we discussed in the graphical awards, this breakneck motion happens in environments littered with details. But with the way the game performs, you'd never suspect that maintaining such a stable framerate is difficult from a programming perspective! Given the necessity of precision timing in pulling off tricks or making it to a faraway rail in some of the harder levels, this technical strength makes nailing this timing doable even for a first time staking game-player like myself.
#3): Metal: Hellsinger
If developing a solid enough technical foundation to accommodate a game as fast as OlliOlli World is a difficult task, then accommodating a game where almost everything on the screen has to move exactly on beat to music is herculean. And yet, the developers of Metal: Hellsinger pulled it off across a smorgasbord of tempos. Fires flare, crystals move, and in-game items turn to the beat of whatever song accompanies a level while the player and large numbers of enemies onscreen move independently, and yet the frames never stop coming in smooth.
#2): God of War: Ragnarok
In the case of Ragnarok, the pressure on the system doesn't come from speed or tempo, but rather from overwhelming graphical fidelity. Action is mid-paced and I don't think there are ever more than 10 enemies in an arena at any given time, but it doesn't really matter because that mid-paced action and handful of enemies are so impressively rendered that any lesser game would crumble under the weight of the lighting, animations, and textures required to accomplish it. Tie this together with some of the game's major set piece moments and it's incredible that this single-shot-style game stays running as well as it does for the full runtime.
Most Stable Game of the Year: Neon White
For the clear winner of this award in 2022, we once again return to speed as the main point of challenge to a game's performance. Unlike OlliOlli World, however, Neon White is a first-person 3D kind of game, and it's actually even faster. So the action is not only more demanding, it's demanding across all axis (axes?). There's really not that much more to say about it, so look up some gameplay and see what I mean if you're still curious!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Controlling
Not to be confused with control schemes, this category is about the feel of controlling a character. How easy is it to get the character to do what you want them to do, go where you want them to go, etc. Another way of putting it would be to say that games like Red Dead Redemption II aren't allowed within a mile of this category! But anyway, these were the 2022 games that felt the most responsive to player actions.
#5): Halo: Infinite
With Infinite's newfound focus on freedom of exploration, the team at 343 needed to ensure that getting around was as intuitive as possible.....and Halo has literally always felt excellent to control, so they didn't actually need to try very hard. But they did up the ante quite a bit with the inclusion of one of the best grappling hooks in any game I've ever played, so they didn't just earn this spot by sticking to the tried and true!
#4): OlliOlli World
A lot of the movement in OlliOlli World is done for you, so what you're really in charge of controlling is the tricks you perform. It takes a little bit of practice to get the super technical tricks down, but at any given time you can be doing 3 or 5 different things midair, and it always feels both intuitive and satisfying to do! It's largely due to bits of auditory input and the like, but c'est la vie!
#3): Valkyrie Elysium
Valkyrie Elysium is an odd case in that it earns a spot on this list specifically for how it circumvents problems in how the character controls. As the titular Valkyrie, your movement can feel a little floaty and as you stack up combos there's a bit of a tendency for her to hit an enemy, then keep going in that enemy's general direction, but past them. Doesn't sound like much of a winner for this list, does it? But it's as if the development team knew they weren't going to have the budget to take some of the jank off, so they compensated for that in gameplay itself. You're equipped with a kind of grappling hook, and several kinds of button combinations see the Valkyrie slide across the floor in a specified location to land a unique attack. So to the untrained eye, it's more like the game is just that much more high octane. I was able to tell it was compensation, but I do have to give credit where it's due here!
#2): God of War: Ragnarok
For newcomers to this rebooted God of War saga, a thing that there's a bit of a learning curve on is just how much control you actually have over Kratos. Every weapon Kratos wields comes with its own set of special moves that are activated in specific ways, and it can be a bit overwhelming at first. But once you come to terms with it, it's quite astounding to behold. Take movement, for instance. We're so used to dodge rolls in games thanks to the works of From Software, and while Ragnarok does feature a dodge roll, you accomplish it with a double tap of the button, making it more of a desperate measure than the thing to keep doing. A single tap of the button has Kratos simply sidestep out of the way, which works perfectly well, but again, there's that bit of unlearning that needs to be done. In terms of combat, I'll give one example of the amount of control you have. If you're using, say, the leviathan axe and you suddenly find yourself in need of crowd control, you have two options. You could instantly switch to the blades of chaos and start wailing on enemies in all directions, or you could wait for just a second after an attack for Kratos to switch stances, then start using the axe again. In that second scenario, he uses the axe as a giant chakram circling around him, causing the same effect as switching to another weapon. There's a bunch of stuff that Kratos can do, and there are plenty of ways Kratos can move, and the thing that puts Ragnarok so high on this list is the fact that for literally all of it, Kratos does exactly what you say when you say it.
Best Controlling Game of the Year: Neon White
Perhaps it comes as no surprise that a game that largely serves as an introduction to speedrunning had a lot of development priority centered around your ability to control your motion, but that's just how it goes! If you haven't seen any of Neon White in action, you should know that it's a first person parkour-centric game. Other games have attempted this concept before (the likes of Mirror's Edge and Dying Light being among the most famous), but they all infamously had problems in execution. After all, you're looking at a screen, the depth perception just isn't there to be as calculating as you might be in your everyday first-person view. Neon White, on the other hand, has managed to circumvent this in a way that I'm not quite sure I know how to describe. If I had to take a stab at it, I'd give this example: There are several levels that see you getting up to the top of a tall structure by running into balloon-esque demons that lift you up when they pop. A lot of the time, this means you'll be trying to jump face-first into them, and there's really no way to tell if you're actually close enough or not. However, it's as if developer Ben Esposito put this game through the QA wringer to try and tell exactly what people would try to do and modified things like hit boxes accordingly. Throughout my several times replaying every single level of the game, it always felt like if I felt confident about a jump, it would pay off. Anytime I missed a jump and/or came up just short of the distance I needed, I always realized this was the case the second my feet left the ground. There's just something under the hood here that installs an innate sense of how your character is going to move without you realizing it and without tutorializing. The name of the game in a game like this is control, and Neon White is by far the most shining example of control done right.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Sound Design
Sound design is perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of gaming. People tend to take it for granted...but I guarantee you if you play the ring collection sound from the classic Sonic games, the alert sound from Metal Gear Solid, or the coin collection sound from Mario, just about anyone will recognize it. Folks don't realize just how much sound design affects a game experience, so for your reference, these were the games that I felt did it best this year and why.
#10): PowerWash Simulator
Obviously in a game like PowerWash Simulator, the sound samples for the running water, walking through a wet area, water hitting different types of surfaces, etc., are excellent. But there's a little bit of extra rewarding done exclusively through sound in the form of the little *ding* that plays when you finish cleaning a piece of your overall project. The water sounds keep you hooked, and that rewarding little dinging gets you pumped to move on to the next surface!
#9): Pokemon Legends: Arceus
The thing that earns Pokemon Legends: Arceus a spot on this list is the team's handling of PokeBall sounds. These are primitive models of the iconic monster catching machines, so the associated sounds are more earthy, more wooden. Paired with the little firecracker that launches up instead of sparks when a Pokemon is successfully caught, it all makes the act of catching Pokemon all the more satisfying. And good thing, too...after all, this particular installment is all about catching, not battling, so you hear the PokeBall sounds hundreds upon hundreds of times.
#8): Tunic
Everything in Tunic just sounds right. When you cut down the little boxey bushes, they make a fitting *plop plop* noise. When you collect gems, they make just the right amount of jingling and chiming as you absorb them. When you descend into the horrific corrupted mines the very air radiates an utterly mind-breaking screech of radioactive noise that could drive the most sane man to insanity.
#7): Halo: Infinite
This franchise has had quite a long time to perfect the sounds of its guns, so it's probably a given that this installment earns a spot on the list. I will say though, that the zzzzzzzz-ing sound of the grappling hook as it reels you towards your destination is a welcome add that puts the audio experience in Infinite above and beyond its predecessors.
#6): Elden Ring
Like in Halo: Infinite, From Software have been using a lot of the same sound effects from game to game, so it goes without saying that it still holds up.
#5): Neon White
The name of the game in Neon White is speed, and thus, most of the sound effects are used to instill the sensation of rapid motion. Whether its the wind blowing against you as you fly through the air or the rapid *ch-chk*s of your gun cards as you clear out demons in front of you, everything works together to perfectly make you feel the forward momentum.
#4): OlliOlli World
I feel like this one needs minimal explanation. The majority of sounds you're going to be hearing in a game like this are going to be wheels hitting the ground and rails. Sound samples for those situations aren't exactly difficult to do, but the team at roll7 really knocks it out of the park. Just the sound of rolling along the track on the skateboard was enough to make me envision a board beneath my own feet, and ever time I missed a trick and ended up...slamming, I think it's called? Every time I did that I gritted my teeth a little bit. The audio needs for a game such as this are minimal, but the team, once again, really nailed it!
#3): A Plague Tale: Requiem
For A Plague Tale: Requiem, audio is used in service of its atmosphere. The crackling of a nearby fire, the skin-scrawling noise of thousands of hungry rats squeaking, those kinds of effects are obviously well done. But then there are sounds like the crack of your sling to make a kill or the clang of a rock against a box of metal to distract enemies. The sounds of actions like these are slightly louder and sharper than everything else, which adds to the tension of the moment. For the former example, other enemies might have gotten alerted, thus this crack of the sling puts the player on edge even if nobody else notices the sound. It's a similar effect in the latter example. By hitting a box of metal with a rock, you're intentionally putting an enemy on alert. He might raise the alarm, or he might happen to turn back around as you try to sneak behind him. Either way, once again, the sharp clang of that rock brings that extra bit of tension into the atmosphere....look, I get that this is a pretentious take, even for me, but I stand by it!
#2): God of War: Ragnarok
Rather than go into detail about specific examples, if you want to see/hear my reasoning on this decision, go and look up a video of Kratos turning Vanaheim from night to day and vice versa. The astute ear will understand what I mean.
Sound Design of the Year: Scorn
I'm going to keep the gross details minimal, but I do have an example to explain how the sound design in Scorn is unparalleled. Late in the game, you're tasked with retrieving a dead body and carrying it across a room and through a door. This dead body was alive until recently, and in the moment, it's being operated on by some robotic doctor automaton sort of thing with multiple mechanical legs, each with a tool that does some surgical action. As you liberate the dead body from this machine, you accidentally take one of those robot arms with it, and it keeps doing its thing as you walk. If memory serves, what's actually going on is at the very bottom of your screen so you aren't even necessarily seeing it, but essentially that robot arm has a little curved knife, and it reaches down and slices every couple seconds. The body is dead and you're likely looking elsewhere as you try to walk across the room, but the sound of that arm moving and cutting made me seriously feel like I was going to throw up. There's no fleshiness to the sound or anything, it's just the sharp, mechanical *schwing* and *schnip* of the arm methodically playing every couple seconds. In my review, I likened the effect to the torture chamber portion of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, where the game instilled horror just by forcing you to go up to a contraption and hear what it would've sounded like. No screams, no flesh noises, just the sound the instrument of pain would make as it was used. You'd be surprised how just sound with no immediate disturbing context can affect a person. That's the kind of thing I meant in the intro to this blurb when I said sound design is an underappreciated art, and I have to hand it to the folks at Ebb Software...they sure did nearly make me lose my lunch with sound alone.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Soundtrack
This year I've decided I'm going to do something a little different with this category. Normally I take this time to talk about why a soundtrack works well within its game's context, then in the next category I list out the best soundtrack pieces of the year. Well, this year, I feel like just rolling the two up into one thing and making it much simpler. In fact, I'm just going to let the music speak for itself this year. I'll be including my favorite track from the ost as an ambassador, kind of like how I handle my best albums list on my other blog. So, these were the game with the best soundtracks in 2022 and a little snippet of each
#10): Neon White (Machine Girl) - Techno-ish
#9): Ooblets (Pedro Silva) - Lo-Fi
#8): Scorn (Aethek & Lustmord) - Bass-heavy Choral
#7): Tunic (Janice Kwan/Lifeformed) - Relaxing
#5): Valkyrie Elysium (Motoi Sakuraba) - Choral
#4): Elden Ring (Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa, Yoshimi Kudo, Others) - Epic Choral
#2): A Plague Tale: Requiem (Olivier Deriviere) - Old School Monastic Choral
Soundtrack of the Year: God of War: Ragnarok (Bear McCreary) - Epic
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Level Design
A developer can't just plop you into an empty room and call it a game....unless they're an insecure asset flipper uploading their usual garbage on steam. But I digress. You could have the most well-realized gameplay of all time, and it wouldn't matter one bit if you didn't give players compelling levels in which to utilize that gameplay. These were the 2022 games that took this idea to heart.
#5): A Plague Tale: Requiem
Being largely a stealth game, Requiem needed to have wide open levels with plenty of places to hide and/or retreat back to if spotted, but not too many places like those. It also needed to scatter resources along the levels just sparsely and just generously enough to make the player go looking when the going gets tough while not giving them so much that they can run around willy nilly. It admittedly take the game a little bit to get this balance right, as the early game errs too much on the side of sparsity, but once it nails that balance, it fires on all cylinders.
#4): God of War: Ragnarok
In start contrast to what I said in the opening blurb for this category, you could probably plot Ragnarok into an empty room and still have it be fun. But as it stands, every combat arena in the game is also designed to give the player plenty of options to take the already stellar gameplay and make it just the slightest bit more stylish. Whether that means bouncing the leviathan axe off of mirrors to hit unsuspecting enemies, hitting nearby plants to create a poisonous area-of-effect, or knocking enemies off of well-placed cliffs, the levels are your oyster!
#3): OlliOlli World
A game as simple as OlliOlli World lives or dies by its levels. The whole point of the game is to skate across different tracks, after all. But it's stunning just how much variety there is in terms of track layouts, challenges, secrets, and opportunities for extreme tricks for massive point gains! Even for a beginner like me, a lot of the levels are intuitive enough once you've gone through once or twice that you can start showing your skills pretty quickly. There's only so many ways to describe the level design in a game like this, but I think you get the drift.
#2): Tunic
Tunic wears its inspirations on its sleeves, mainly the early Legend of Zelda games. That means it naturally is brimming with secrets to find if you just flex your curiosity a little bit! There were some secrets that I felt were a little obtuse (such as items being intentionally invisible due to the fixed camera angle the game boasts), but overall I constantly wanted to keep engaging with the game and looking for more stuff to do just because you're rewarded so much for doing so.
Level Design of the Year: Neon White
Folks have described Neon White as a good trainer for speedrunning, and it's not hard to see why. Every level has an intuitive, straightforward path to the end, and those paths are so well-designed and fun that the game likely would have won this category if that were the end of it. But unlike most games, every single level in Neon White is also designed with several weaknesses in mind, several ways for you to cut corners and shave seconds off of your completion times. As the levels get progressively harder and harder, the secret solutions become more and more wild, and the game gradually trains you to spot these weaknesses in the levels and exploit them. By the time the credits roll, if you're anything like me, you'll have made some calculations and taken some risks that somehow paid off, and while it does feel good to accomplish these things, developer Ben Esposito expertly designed these levels in such a way that just about anything you can imagine is possible if you have the skills.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Atmosphere
Atmosphere is the ultimate reflector of a game's technical strengths...sometimes. This year is a little bit different than most for reasons that will become clear as we go along. But anyway, these were the games that had me absorbed into their worlds the most strongly in 2022!
#5): Tunic
#4): Elden Ring
#3): God of War: Ragnarok
#2): A Plague Tale: Requiem
Atmosphere of the Year: Scorn
-------------------------- --------------------------
The Character Awards
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Character Development
To be honest, this category was a little hard to put together this year. Character Development just wasn't as strong as in prior years. But regardless, I was able to scrounge together a full five items, so let's go!
#5): Elden Ring
The character development in Elden Ring is about as good as in any other Souls game...that is to say "good if you really invest." But this time around, at least, there are a handful of characters (such as this game's blacksmith or Ranni the Witch) that do get some more straightforward development for us casuals.
#4): Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
Good character development is good character development even if it doesn't require that much work. Such is the case with Three Hopes, which takes the existing characters from Three Houses and just does their character development again in slightly different ways....see what I mean when I said this year was harder to do?
#3): Neon White
Neon White has gotten some criticism for the trope-y nature of its characters, and its not hard to see why. But this is kind of a smooth-brained take if left at that. As Neon White's plot progresses, the player gradually learns that these tropes are merely masks that the characters wear (as the Polygon review puts it), and a major point of the narrative is these characters learning to break from these simplistic characterizations and be who they really are. So yeah, Neon White does have stereotypical waifus who talk about how much of a problem having large boobs is, but the point of it all is to gradually introduce us to what's underneath.
Underneath the facade, you pervert.
#2): A Plague Tale: Requiem
To explain this spot choice, I'd like to focus just on our protagonist, Amicia de Rune. Many comparisons have been made between her and Ellie from Neil Druckmann's 2020 torture porn disaster, The Last of Us: Part II. Both young women are so short-sighted and single-minded in pursuit of their goals that they embrace violence to a frankly psychotic degree, after all. But the difference is this: Amicia changes. Sometimes its for worse, sometimes for better, but over the course of the game, she's constantly grappling with this crippling flaw that she now has in her single-minded desperation to protect her little brother. At times the rage overtakes her, at times she finds herself staying her hand in an effort to keep Hugo from going down the same dark path she has. It makes for compelling drama!
Character Development of the Year: God of War: Ragnarok
If 2018's reboot of God of War successfully remade iconic game protagonist Kratos into a tired, more thoughtful father figure (which it did), then Ragnarok successfully completes this arc by having him fully come to terms with both the pride and the heartbreak that comes with fatherhood. How well that alone is done would be enough for this game to win this category, but it also happens to develop several other characters similarly. Freya, once just a helpful witch of the woods, is now a grieving mother who has to make the right decisions in spite of herself. Atreus, once a little boy with the occasional bit of attitude, is now a determined, hard-headed teenager trying to help his father understand him and vice versa. Everyone's favorite dwarves, Brok and Sindri....well, you'll just have to wait and see about them. And that's to say nothing of Thor, Odin, and the rest of this game's many Norse gods.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Voice Actress
Funnily enough, this year was also a bit rough in the voice actress department. The ones that knocked it out of the park did exactly that, but just like in that last section, this one took a bit of barrel scraping. But be that as it may, these were the 5 best voice actresses of 2022.
#5): Kate Kennedy as Fenrir (Valkyrie Elysium)
#4): Courtney Lin as Neon Violet (Neon White)
#3): Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Ranni (Elden Ring)
#2): Danielle Bisutti as Freya (God of War: Ragnarok)
Voice Actress of the Year: Leopoldine Serre as Amicia de Rune (A Plague Tale: Requiem - French Dub)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Voice Actor
Unlike the last section, there were actually plenty of options to choose from for Best Voice Actor. But here's the thing...when I did my rough draft of placements for this list, I sat back satisfied, had another look, and realized "oh crap...it's just God of War: Ragnarok." I always try to include as much variety as can be justified on these lists, so I had to go through and pick a handful of the other worthwhile nominees to make this list more interesting. Just know that there were God of War: Ragnarok actors eligible than spots on this list....and a further reminder that when it comes to scoring for categories, a game only gets points for the top spot it earns, so Ragnarok wouldn't have earned the full 15 points at stake in this category.
#5): Whoever the hell plays Arnaud in the A Plague Tale: Requiem French Dub
#4): Steve Blum as Neon White (Neon White)
#3): Adam J. Harrington as Sindri (God of War: Ragnarok)
#2): Sunny Suljic as Atreus/Loki (God of War: Ragnarok)
Voice Actor of the Year: Richard Schiff as Odin (God of War: Ragnarok)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Animal Character
Established last year as a way to bring wheelie dog Chorizo into the spotlight, this relatively new category seeks to celebrate the non-speaking good boys and girls in games. It's a chance to give them the spotlight they otherwise wouldn't have. So, here we go!
#5): Torrent (Elden Ring)
#4): The Fox (Tunic)
The Fox from Tunic is what we in show business call "a good boy." He travels world solving puzzles, fighting bad guys, and getting lots and lots of jewels as a reward. He braves the depths of corrupted mines and horrors beyond the comprehension of such a good boy, all so that he can save for the world! Lemme ask you this, when was the last time you saw a fox in your backyard or on a hike and thought "yep, he's gonna save the world"?
#3): Platypet (TemTem)
#2): Fenrir (God of War: Ragnarok)
Animal Character of the Year: The Cat (Stray)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Love Interest
*sigh* This category was hard to put together. Are you noticing a pattern yet? Unfortunately, this year suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked for story-based games, and even those had little-to-no romantic edge at all. So I had to get pretty liberal here in terms of what counts.
#5): Rika (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet)
#4): Morlund (Horizon: Forbidden West)
#3): Fia (Elden Ring)
#2): Neon Red (Neon White)
Love Interest of the Year: Faye (God of War: Ragnarok)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Supporting Character
A lot of the time, it's the supporting characters that bring the most to their respective plots. Without the burden that comes from being the eyes through which we see the narrative world, such characters typically have the freedom to steal the show. Did anybody actually watch Jimmy Neutron for Jimmy, for example? Or did they watch it for Hugh? I don't think I need to say more. These were the best supporting characters of 2022.
#5): This Guy (Scorn)
*violently throws up*
#4): The Blacksmith (Elden Ring)
#3): Neon Yellow (Neon White)
#2): Max (TemTem)
Supporting Character of the Year: Freya (God of War: Ragnarok)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Antagonist
For most traditional narrative structures, the antagonist sets the stakes for the plot. As such, they need to be a couple things in order to succeed in their roles. First, they must be a credible threat. Second, their motivations need to be believable. And while not 100% necessary, thirdly they should somehow hit the consumer of the narrative where they live in some way. These were the antagonists that either excelled in one of these factors or mixed and matched excellence across more than one in 2022.
#10): Neon Green (Neon White)
#9): Byleth (Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes)
#8): Team Star (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet)
#7): Thor (God of War: Ragnarok)
#6): The Parasite (Scorn)
#5): The Mayor (PowerWash Simulator)
#4): The CEO (Horizon: Forbidden West)
#3): Odin (God of War: Ragnarok)
#2): Gideon the All-Knowing (Elden Ring)
Antagonist of the Year: Heimdall (God of War: Ragnarok)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Protagonist
Being the eyes through which we see the narrative world, the protagonist is arguably the most important character in any narrative. This doesn't necessarily mean they're the best character, but they're always necessary to give us as consumers a playing field to start on in terms of the world and the circumstances. Sometimes they say nothing at all, leaving us to interpret things literally as they see it, other times they give us an honest account, and still other times we come to doubt their reliability. These were the best game protagonists in 2022.
#5): Scorn's Protagonist
#4): The Washer (PowerWash Simulator)
#3): Neon White
#2): Kratos (God of War: Ragnarok)
Protagonist of the Year: Amicia de Rune (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
-------------------------- --------------------------
The Aspect Awards
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Writing
This one feels a little self-explanatory, but suffice it to say that you can have the best plot imaginable, but if you don't have good writing to back it up, it's meaningless. These were the games with the best written scripts in 2022.
#5): Neon White
Line about boob sweat notwithstanding, a lot of the humor on display in Neon White does what it's supposed to do, and I ended up becoming invested in every character's growth. Given how gameplay-centric this game is, it didn't need that much in terms of writing, but it's worthy of note given the clear effort put into it.
#4): Elden Ring
Inasmuch as any From Software game is well-written, Elden Ring is a standout title. A little less reliance on creepy laughter, a bit more meat on the dialogue bones.
#3): OlliOlli World
Stepping into Radlandia is a lot like I imagine stepping into a late 80's/early 90's surfer movie would be like. Everyone's a little single-minded in their love of the sport, the whole thing kinda feels a little alien, and the jargon you hear going around sounds outdated in its own time. But that's not a bad thing! In fact, it's part of why I love OlliOlli World's writing so much! It's so endearingly self-indulgent in the skater lingo, with words like "gnar" being used unironically left and right. There's so much charm and passion on display here that I can't help but love it!
#2): A Plague Tale: Requiem
Requiem largely earns a spot on this list because of how it improves over the original game in this aspect. While the whole "rat superpowers" thing does continue in this game, there's at least not a moustache-twirling marvel villain at the center of it all this time around.
Best Written Game of the Year: God of War: Ragnarok
Gaaaaah the writing in Ragnarok is so good. And it's not just the dialogue. It's the "screenplay" too. We'll get more into that later on, but for now let's focus on characters and dialogue. This game introduces a whole suite of new characters alongside familiar faces from the previous game, and somehow they all manage to be excellent. We didn't meet a single one of the mainline Aesier gods in the previous game, and yet somehow by the time the credits roll on Ragnarok, they're the best developed versions of these characters in recent memory. And that's to say nothing of how flawlessly the team over at Sony Santa Monica wrap up Kratos' character arc. It's all just so good, and there was basically no contest in terms of the winner for this category this year.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Cutscene Direction
You may be noticing a pattern this year. I say this because this category was difficult to scrounge up a full 5 entries for, much less the ideal 10 entries. But I digress. Cutscene Direction is yet another underappreciated aspect of games. In fact, they tend to be skipped entirely by some people who don't want anything getting in the way of gameplay. Therefore, when a developer puts a lot of effort into this aspect, I find it worthy of noting. These were the 5 games in 2022 that showed off the best effort and thought in their cutscenes.
#5): Elden Ring
While cutscenes are few and far between in Elden Ring, they do their jobs well. In almost every case, a cutscene is the intro to a boss. In this sense, the cutscenes either get the player hyped or going "ohhhh no" before the fight begins, setting the stage for a memorable encounter.
#4): Horizon: Forbidden West
In the case of Horizon: Forbidden West it's less about thought and more about use of camera angles. As previously established, this is the game with the greatest realistic graphics of the year, and it seems like every time the game gets a chance to throw in a sweeping vista or the like, it does so. In this sense, the cutscenes are formed to cater to the game's biggest strength. While that may sound like damning with faint praise, it isn't, it's legitimately a great way to go about doing this!
#3): The Quarry
The game is almost literally 100% cutscenes, so of course it's going to do them well if the developers have any idea what they're doing. In this case, the game just isn't as scary as its spiritual predecessor Until Dawn, but the cutscenes do make effective use of camera angles/obscuration of little details, etc to create an effective horror environment.
#2): A Plague Tale: Requiem
Much like how Forbidden West utilized its cutscenes to show off its environments, Requiem does roughly the same thing, but for different reasons. For this game, the graphics are impressive, but that's not the point. Rather, much like in the previous game, cutscenes are geared to show off the grimeyness and bleakness of the world. Enclosed, intimate conversation are lit only by torchlight, showing off the impressive character models in an almost claustrophobic sense. Sprawling vistas are undermined by hundreds of corpses or tens of hundreds of rats. Everything on display here is meant to immerse the player in this somehow even more unpleasant than in reality version of 14th century France.
Cutscene Direction of the Year: God of War: Ragnarok
This category was literally created in 2018 specifically to praise that year's reboot of God of War for its masterful cutscene direction. What else was going to win in a year with a direct sequel? Once again, Ragnarok utilizes the one-shot style that the previous game boasted, making the entire game feel like one seamless experience from beginning to end, but this time it was a much harder feat to accomplish. We transition from real life to dream sequences to transitions between playable characters, and literally every one of these transitions is handled flawlessly. From simply turning the camera while a character is lying down to move into a dream where the character is standing with their arms folded to hanging the camera view at a wall for a second as a different character comes up to interact with it in a different location, the tricks used are numerous and accomplish their goals admirably. Again, there was likely to be no other winner for this category given that the category literally exists because of this franchise, but I still have to sing the game's directorial praises from the proverbial rooftops!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Quest
With RPGs kind of falling out of my interest in recent years, there aren't typically as many games with traditional "quests" on the docket. But this year was a clear exception, as it's one of the few categories I was able to drum up a full 10 entries for! There's no real overview to give for context as to what makes a quest good, especially in as much of a mixed bag as this list is, so let's just get right into the best quests/levels/whatever you wanna call them of 2022!
#10): Into the Crater (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet)
Unironically, the final push in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is possibly the best one. Through the game's runtime there's this whole mystery surrounding the off limits crater in the center of the Paldea region, and in the story you come up against strange new Pokemon with only descriptors in place of actual names ("Iron Tusk"/"Scream Tail"/etc). There's so much buildup, and when you finally get to enter the crater, the start of the discovery process alongside the new tension in the plot makes for one satisfying quest to go on...
If only the game wasn't ugly as s**t, didn't perform like s**t, and could actually stick the visual side of the landing to make the journey downward really pop.
#9): Carnival Rides (PowerWash Simulator)
Over your career as a power washer, you're sometimes called by the owner of a fairground to clean his long-defunct fairground attractions. The Helter Skelter, The Ferris Wheel, The Merry-go-Round, all the classics. These are some of the longer jobs to perform, and what makes them so rewarding to do is the sheer color of it all. Every job is satisfying, but washing away ridiculous amounts of dirt and gunk to reveal bright lightbulbs and bold primary colors makes the effect go the extra mile.
#8): Acheron (Metal: Hellsinger)
All the levels in Metal: Hellsinger are headbanging triumphs, but Acheron has one simple advantage that puts it over the top...the vocals for the song are done by Randy Blythe, vocalist for my all-time favorite metal band, Lamb of God. It's really that simple in this case.
#7): Companion Challenges (Neon White)
The companion challenges in Neon White are a whole different breed of challenge. While your ultimate goal is the same as any other quest (to reach the end having killed all the demons as swiftly as possible), these challenges throw another wrench in the works depending on the companion. Neon Yellow, being the dude bro that he is, makes it so that you can't actually use discard abilities that you'd normally rely on in levels. That means you'd have to only shoot and somehow get to the end without flinging yourself up higher or whatever. Neon Violet, being a sadist, has levels that demand pinpoint precision to navigate horrific deadly obstacles. And Neon Red simple demands mastery of certain weapons' discard abilities and your ability to use them economically. Take the already great base gameplay and add these little twists, and it's no wonder they're worthy of a spot!
#6): Faroh's Tomb (Horizon: Forbidden West)
This entry, like in an early spot winner, is largely dependent on the story context, but I'm not waiting to give spoilers on this one. Early in this article I introduce the CEO as one of the year's best villains, and this is the quest that comes with him. Convinced that he and you are the reborn incarnations of the ancient world's premier scientists, and with a blindly optimistic view of the partnership between these two figures of history, you're forced to play along with this creep's ego trip more and more as the truth begins to come to light as you descend into the secret bunker of the man he believes himself to be the reincarnation of.
#5): Ragnarok (God of War: Ragnarok)
It kind of goes without saying since Ragnarok is the main event of the game, but starting from the moment Kratos blows Gyallarhorn to officially begin the twilight of the gods, all the tension and epicness (yeah, I said it) is turned up to 10. This whole mission sees Kratos and all his allies cutting their way through hundreds of Odin's dedicated soldiers as the long-foretold events of the prophecy come true in the background. Fenrir starts trampling through asgard, taking several Einherjar with him. Jormungandr and Thor begin fighting in the distance (with Thor being so small compared to the serpent that he's represented by a flying bolt of lightning). The whole thing is just a wicked spectacle to witness through the quest's runtime.
#4): Ranni's Questline (Elden Ring)
As much as any From Software questline can be considered "straightforward," Ranni's is pretty straightforward. You seek her out, go to the most beautiful part of the game to retrieve something, go through another cool part of the game you might never have found, and at the end of it all, you get access to not only an area exclusively unlockable through this questline, but you also get the ability to trigger what I think is the best ending when the time comes. That may not sound like much, but in this case, it's all about the moment-to-moment journey of this questline.
#3): The First Puzzle (Scorn)
Long before horrible combat starts to get in the way of everything Scorn has going for it, you get to experience some truly great puzzles. Because absolutely everything is alien in this game and you have no idea how anything works, this first puzzle forces you to use your noggin' to figure things out. You know you have to get through a door, but there are two levels that need to be pulled at the same time. What do you do now? Well, by exploring and getting a sense of how the current area probably works, you might end up seeing a couple bits of machinery on either side of the area. You might also see a set of tracks and a strange pedestal on top of a staircase that can change where certain parts of the track point. This is all great, but how does it help? Well, in continued exploration, you might end up finding a higher up spot and coming in contact with a sliding block puzzle of sorts. Then, upon completing it twice, you'd see through signposting that something has changed down below. So you'd then go back down and notice there's now a pitiful looking alien being locked in some kind of exoskeleton in a cart on the tracks and.....
remember that joke I made about that side character lending you a hand? Upon further deduction, you'd realize you're meant to align the tracks in such a way that you can lead this poor miserable creature to one of those frightening bits of machinery. You won't know what either of them actually do, but you'll know this is likely what is required. From there, whether you have this being circular-sawed out of his exoskeleton so he can limply follow you as you force his hand into a device that will let him interface with the other door level and then leave him to die, or whether you have his whole body sliced up and tossed in the proverbial garbage, leaving only a hand left, you'll have solved the puzzle just through logic and trial and error. To say I enjoyed this puzzle would be...incorrect (you have to look that guy in the eyes for a loooong time while he mewls and vocalizes as you push him along the tracks of fate), but this puzzle was the bit of cerebral questing that 100% sold me on Scorn.
#2): The Golden Path (Tunic)
For now, you're just gonna have to trust me on this one, but don't worry, we'll get into it later.
Quest of the Year: Blue Medals (Neon White)
The blue medals are the top honor you can get in any given level in Neon White. You get a bronze medal for completing the level, a silver medal for completing the level in x time, a gold medal for y time, and a blue medal for the hardest time. And I have to imagine that the development team went through an ungodly amount of qa for this, because every single blue medal time to beat was insanely difficult to do, but not so difficult as to appear impossible. I would have to constantly tweak my strategies to save literal milliseconds on my times and different angles to jump from to cut down even further, but when I came up short of the required time, I would always think "I can do better." There was never a time where I felt what the game was asking of me was unreasonable, no matter how many times a borderline insane maneuver I pulled off came up short. There was always room to shave off just a bit more time, and this process would consistently rinse and repeat until I'd completed that blue medal challenge.
To put a bit more emphasis on this: I 100%-ed this game. I've earned the blue medal on every single level. That's how much fun it is to do and how doable it is if you're serious about it. To put even more emphasis on it: With everything except bosses (which you do have to physically come back to to re-try, if memory serves), I got the blue medal on each level before I moved on to the next level. Starting from level 1, I would play the level over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until I got that highest honor, and only then would I move on. I would deliberately put off the next new, equally or more fun level just to get that high rank. Reader, that kind of thing isn't what I like to do on a small scale. Give me a big environment to complete before moving onto another big environment and that's a different story. But here we're talking about levels that take like 3-4 minutes at MOST and playing them repeatedly for however long it took to get it down to a science and start getting sub minute results. If that doesn't speak volumes about why these Blue Medal challenges were the best "quests" of the year, I don't know what will!
{HE-HEY, CRAZY CATS!!!! Adding in a little disclaimer here to let you know that I had COVID starting from when I started writing this next section (probably long before, but whatever), but I didn't find out until the day I started writing the "Best Setting" section...so if at any point it feels like someone with a high fever and severe grogginess wrote the following...that's because your instinct is on point!}
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Enemies
While not a necessary aspect of gameplay, in most action-centric games, enemies serve as much-needed context for the combat goings-on. Whether as the minions of an evil army that help the player feel like they're sticking it to the forces of darkness or just something that feels fun to kill, enemies can take a working gameplay formula and make it stick the landing even further. So, these were the enemy types that made their respective games more worthwhile in 2022.
#5): Basic Soldiers (Elden Ring)
While the basic soldiers you encounter in the early areas of Elden Ring are simply fun to fight, they also serve as an excellent tutorial for the challenges ahead. Their attack patterns are predictable enough to be a worthy training opportunity for your parry or dodge reflexes, and they do just enough damage to hammer the importance of those timings home without just killing you outright. An excellent enemy type for their location in the game, all around!
#4): Demons (Metal: Hellsinger)
"Demons" were an enemy type in several games this year, but they were at their best as the obstacles you face in Metal: Hellsinger. Every demon poses a different kind of challenge, and in certain late-game loadouts, this causes the player to have to flex their gameplay muscles bigtime. But I mean that in more than just the sense that they test your shooting ability. Each also poses a different challenge in terms of the game's "more damage for playing on-beat" factor. The most basic melee demons are meant to overwhelm the player and get them to shoot more willy-nilly, the bigger melee demons are meant to make the player master the art of dodging to the beat, and shielded demons test the players' ability to make accurate shots on beat, to name just a few examples.
#3): Einherjar (God of War: Ragnarok)
Being basically the most story-relevant enemy type in the game, it makes sense that the Einherjar (the reborn souls of warriors from Valhalla who fight for Odin) would be the best. The Einherjar bring the full might of the game's systems to bear upon the player. Certain units carry ranged weaponry to whittle Kratos' health down from afar while he's distracted fighting melee foes. Certain units command Wyverns to add another wrinkle to combat. All the melee units are a force to be reckoned with either because of their use of shields or their strength with larger weapons. And to add insult to injury, all of those aforementioned unit types can utilize Bifrost damage, which is a kind of scratch damage that builds up and can be regenerated over time, but which is all completely lost the second Kratos takes another hit. As the game progresses, various loadouts of these different unit types get thrown together, and there is no more challenging and entertaining foe to fight!
#2): TemTem Tamers (TemTem)
Imagine if trainers in Pokemon games had a single brain cell amongst the lot of them, and you have the average tamer you fight in TemTem. That's really all there is to say about that! These tamers are, for all intents and purposes, Pokemon Trainers...but they actually use strategies and kind of act like they actually want to win!
Enemies of the Year: Machines (Horizon: Forbidden West)
This category was conceived after 2017, so the original Horizon game didn't have a chance to win this award in its year, but that tragedy is rectified here. I mean, really, the machines are the entire draw of the game! As great as the graphics are, nobody comes to a Horizon game specifically for those. The sales pitch isn't "it looks good." The sales pitch and reason people play these games is "you get to fight robot dinosaurs." This time around, there are twice as many types of robots, so the roster is bigger and better than last time! What's more, there's as much creativity in the combat design for these new robots as there were for the roster in the previous game. Seriously. If you come away from a fight with the new robot Plesiosaurs where they fly in the air with rapid spinning water jets or with the new robot Spinosaurouses that shoot lightning out of their maws and you say "naw, that wasn't cool," I'll call you a liar. In fact, if you read that previous description and say "naw, that doesn't sound cool," I'll call you a liar then too!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Boss
In the high school classroom that is any given game, bosses serve as little progress checks. Sometimes they're pop quizzes that come out of nowhere. Sometimes they're a midterm that makes sure you've been paying attention up until this point. And sometimes they're the power-tripping Vice Principal sending you back to class because the teacher didn't sign your hall pass exactly the way that's specified in the school handbook. These were the bosses that were not that last example. Moreover, these were the bosses that served as those aforementioned tough bur fair skill checks!
#10): Chak 'Lok (Halo: Infinite)
#9): Judge Aspects (Metal: Hellsinger)
#8): Lady Lottie (TemTem)
#7): Hilde (Valkyrie Elysium)
#6): Urd (Thymesia)
#5): Berserkers (God of War: Ragnarok)
#4): The Boss Scavenger (Tunic)
#3): Malenia (Elden Ring)
#2): Thor (God of War: Ragnarok)
Boss of the Year: Neon Green (Neon White)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Weapon
One of the many considerations game developers need to make when coming up with their primary gameplay loops is the vehicle through which that loop will be delivered. This category is called "best weapon," but I take a pretty liberal view of what constitutes a weapon, as you'll see. For something to be considered for this list, it needs to be an enjoyable thing used in gameplay, in other words. And in 2022, these were the best of the best.
#10): The Sword (Tunic)
The sword that our little fox friend uses in Tunic comes in at number 10 because unfortunately its reach is just slightly too small, but there's a satisfying little "thunk" feeling when you hit enemies with it, so it's fun to use!
#9): Bows (Horizon: Forbidden West)
A bow is a bow, obviously, so it would be fun no matter the context. But you primarily use bows to strip away individual pieces off of a machine in Horizon. Until you've taken the time to fully draw an arrow, let it fly at a machine, hear an explosion, and see the little canister you were aiming for fly off, you haven't lived!
#8): Soap (PowerWash Simulator)
See what I meant when I said I take a liberal view of this category? Any given nozzle will do the job on any given dirty surface in this game with enough patience, but a lot of these jobs take a long time to handle. So if you want to speed things along, you can purchase soaps made for particular kinds of surfaces (stone, glass, etc) and spray that out of a massive AOE nozzle that blows away the grime in a large circle. It's a gentle-looking effect, but even so, you can clear away large walls worth of dirt in record time by using soap, and the effect is oh-so-gratifying!
#7): Dual Pistols (Metal: Hellsinger)
A key aspect of Metal: Hellsinger is, of course, shooting on rhythm. There are a handful of weapons in the game, and they each have a different timing to them that has to be considered alongside the beat in order to perform well. I like the dual pistols not just because they're the fastest, but because they also fire on every half beat. So instead of "BANG, - , BANG, -," you can go "BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG."
#6): Chains of Chaos (God of War: Ragnarok)
Given that the chains of chaos are the weapons Kratos used in the original God of War games, nostalgia goes a long way. However, in Ragnarok, they also serve as excellent crowd control. When surrounded by enemies, you can whip these babies out and have Kratos start dancing as if he's wearing a midriff-exposing colored veil, slicing everything around him in firey whiplashes as the blades scream through the air.
#5): Leviathan Axe (God of War: Ragnarok)
But as great as the chains of chaos are, the reboot-specific leviathan axe takes the cake simply for how godlike it makes Kratos feel. It sends weaker enemies flying with the kind of weight you'd expect from a weapon like this. And weight is really the key here. Maybe it's just the PS5 controller making use of that haptic feedback or whatever, but as you throw the axe, have it land in an enemy's skull, then recall and catch it, it just feels...like I already said, godlike, to use.
#4): MR-18 (Halo: Infinite)
It's a bit of a cheap shot to put my favorite weapon in any Halo game in this spot, but it's my list and I haven't played a Halo game since Halo 4. I just love using the MR-18. It's like a marriage between a sniper rifle and an assault rifle that can be used as both!
#3): Spears (Valkyrie Elysium)
As I may have already mentioned, crowd control is an important aspt of moment-to-moment gameplay in Valkyrie Elysium. What I haven't yet mentioned is that spears are the only weapons that are suited to that. But that deficiency in the game design aside, the developers clearly understood what would make using a spear fun! You can pole vault off of them, throw them like a helicopter blade, and twirl them in the same way! That may not sound like much, but when you're surrounded by enemies and you swing yourself around on a spear, kicking everything away, it's quite the spectacle to behold!
#2): Bloodhound Fang (Elden Ring)
Like, literally just pick it up and use it. I had to ban it in my builds after a while because it so clearly became the best weapon to use for every build I wanted to do, and it was hurting the variety.
Weapon of the Year: Cards (Neon White)
Cards in Neon White have two functions: shooting and discarding. Shooting is about as straightforward as it sounds. Depending on the picture on the card (pistol, shotgun, etc), you shoot at enemies with the specified type of gun and have an ammo capacity to match. It's the discard side of things where Neon White spices it up! Every given weapon has something that happens when you throw away its card. For the pistol, it triggers a double jump. For the rocket launcher, it shoots out a grappling hook. For the submachine gun, it triggers a ground pound. These little effects are important not just for taking out enemies, but for traversing the environment (and more often than not, both). So, you could be flying through the air towards a platform in the distance, pop a couple pistol shots at the demons on the platform to kill them, and with one bullet left, discard the card to give yourself the airtime you need to actually land on the platform. Pair this with the fact that you can carry up to 3 of any given card type, and you can mix and match for some interesting results!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Setting
Full disclose: for this category, I found coming up with things to say about every winner a difficult task, so I truncated the list down to the top 5. The 6-10 spot winners are still figured in my calculations, but this was for the sake of me being coherent....I had written those past couple sentences before going to sleep, and in the morning I tested positive for COVID, so I guess that explains why I was having trouble. So...bear with me as I continue to power through this with a cough, a fever, and the capacity to pass out at any moment!!!
#5): Radlandia (OlliOlli World)
The world of Radlandia is all about one thing and one thing only: skateboarding! The cities, the deserts, the coastlines, the cultures, anything and everything that can be about skating is about skating! The land is ruled over by the Skate Godz (sic), and the prophecies of the land speak of a foretold skate wizard who would be "both rad and gnar"! It's such a charmingly single-minded continent that I can't help but love it.
#4): 14th Century France (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
As someone who studied religion in college, a major field of study intertwined with my field is history. That's part of what I've always found fascinating about A Plague Tale. From Amicia's steadfast catholicism to the church's hostility against the inquisition in the previous game due to their interest in the occult, the historical accuracy and attention to historical details is part of what compels me to play these games. While this sequel is slightly less realistic, there's still plenty of little tidbits for people like me, such as the gang stumbling upon pilgrims on their way to the Pope's jubilee.
#3): The Archipelago (TemTem)
A floating archipelago is already an interesting setting in and of itself, but TemTem's whole culture revolving around the pansun in the middle of the islands is fascinating!
#2): The Lands Between (Elden Ring)
Based loosely on Norse Mythology, the Lands Between represent some of the best world design featured in any game this year. From the Erdtree that stands above the whole realm, to the small Erdtrees seemingly connecting the world, to the underground realm of the Siofra river, which seems to contain its own entire cosmos, George R.R. Martin has created something truly special here.
Setting of the Year: The World of Scorn
There are many uncertainties that I have about Scorn's world. That I wouldn't want to live in it is not one of them! But I digress...this is the kind of world that becomes more and more interesting the more you look into it. A symbiotic marriage of flesh and machine, everything in this world appears to be connected, but for what purpose? Well, if you look deeply enough and have enough of an understanding of the game's artistic influence (the works of H.R. Geiger), you might be able to form a picture. My personal favorite takeaway is that this is a world that has somehow seen the extinction of every female member of its dominant species, and so the fact that every inch of this world is a flesh and machine-infused monstrosity all speaks to horrific efforts to somehow create the process of conception and childbirth without the natural biological ability. Whatever your takeaway, this is an immensely creative world that is ultimately unlike anything we've ever seen before in a game.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Biggest Disappointment
In every year there are disappointments. Sometimes it's a full game, sometimes it's an aspect of a game, sometimes it's controversy surrounding a game that detracts from the experience. In a good year there aren't that many, but there's always at least a couple...and these were the biggest disappointments in 2022.
#5): Thymesia Jank
I legitimately believe that Thymesia is a great game. It's a completely respectable Sekiro-like with a Bloodborne coat of paint, and it's a lot of fun to play! Unfortunately, there's just too much jank, and the low budget was on display in the worst possible ways, so this worthwhile game will sadly not get nearly as many people playing it.
#4): Aloy's Character (Horizon: Forbidden West)
In my review of Horizon: Forbidden West, I mentioned that I really like Aloy in the original game and that I don't think I've become an incel since then, but she just irked me this time around. Whether it's just Ashley Burch's terrible phoned-in performance, the abysmal writing, the fact that Aloy just doesn't grow at all or have hardly any human moments, or a combination of all of these, I just couldn't stand our leading lady this time around.
#3): Rollerdrome
Rollerdrome should've been a home run in my book. A shooting game where you do your shooting while rollerblading around an arena doing stunts? That's like, perfect for me! Couple that with the fact that the game was developed by the developers of OlliOlli World, and this really, really, really shouldn't have been as much of a letdown as it was. But terrible controls, a horrible sense of overall control, and all kinds of jank all conspire to make it a game I picked up for a little bit, put down, then never returned to.
#2): Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Technical State
Even though from a pure gameplay perspective, Scarlet/Violet may be my favorite mainline Pokemon games to date, did you know they received the lowest score I've ever given a Pokemon game? I was the first to jump in and say the truthful statement that the removal of the National Dex was the greatest decision GameFreak ever made back in the Sword/Shield days, and as a fan of Dragon Age: Origins, I was quick to say that the meme tree wasn't a big deal. So it's safe to say that I'm fairly forgiving of this franchise I'm so nostalgic for. But Scarlet/Violet is simply unacceptable. Every technical issue you can think of is present here, and given that this is the single most profitable franchise in the world, GameFreak MUST start doing better.
Biggest Disappointment of the Year: Scorn's Combat
It's not an exaggeration to say that Scorn would have won my GOTY award if it weren't for the combat. I'm serious. We aren't even at that list yet, but I'm telling you that one way or another, Scorn would have been GOTY were it not for the combat. It's also not an exaggeration to say that the combat in Scorn is literally the worst combat system ever implemented into a game. Literally the worst one. Ever. You can't avoid attacks, your main weapon recharges so slowly that it's impossible to kill even a single enemy without taking several hits. And that's before there start being multiple enemies in the room at the same time.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Most Rewarding
This category tends to vary from spot winner to spot winner. What makes a game rewarding just isn't that simple to provide an overview of. That and I still have COVID and coming up with these overarching blurbs tends to still be a little difficult. So let's just get into it!
#10): Ooblets
In the friendly little hamlet of Badgetown, you run your own farm. You spend your days planting seeds, removing weeds, and walking around town talking to the natives. And for literally every one of these activities (and many more) there's some kind of benefit for doing so. Obviously planting seeds leads to new plants that you can harvest and sell, but pulling weeds can yield new seeds, breaking rocks can yield metal bits to build equipment, talking to locals can net you miscellaneous items, and so on and so forth. It's always little things, but this is a chill game that runs at a slow pace, so it fits pefectly!
#9): Horizon: Forbidden West
Literally every thing you can do in Forbidden West yields oodles upon oodles of loot with varying degrees of rarity and usefulness. Little scraps of metal, little specific parts of machines, bits of wire, not a mission, enemy outpost, or minor objective goes by without a little something for you to show for it. For some that doesn't mean much, but if you're like me and getting these things make the happy chemicals flow, it's always satisfying!
#8): Elden Ring
Elden Ring actually scores pretty low on the reward factor compared to previous From Software games given that about 90% of what you pick up is crafting components that don't have much use, but if you simply focus on the rewards for going into a dungeon or fighting a boss, it's the exact kind of experience we've come to expect from this developer!
#7): TemTem
TemTem gets a spot on the list for quite different reasons than other winners. Reason being: battles in this game give so little experience and so little money that the exp/in-game economy is totally bonked and not rewarding at all. However, if you engage with the game's in-game auction system (which uses exclusively in-game currency), you'll find yourself quickly becoming hooked, somehow clinching a new TemTem that you want so badly, and finding yourself doing much better in combat.
#6): Valkyrie Elysium
This one is actually quite simple. Much like any other early God of War/Devil May Cry-style spectacle fighter, killing enemies yields hundreds upon hundreds of colored orbs that are used for various upgrades. These orbs are collected once the combat sequence is over, so in addition to feeling like a badass because of all the cool s**t you pulled off in the sequence, you get the dopamine-creating little jingling of hundreds of colored orbs being absorbed into you.
#5): OlliOlli World
With OlliOlli World, we start getting into the games that are rewarding because of what they demand from you. Of course, you could just go through the game completing the tracks and having that be the end of it. But if you're anything like me, you're gonna want to get better and better times on certain levels. This forces you to master the many tricks at your disposal, fit as much stuff into your aerial stunts as possible, and nail your landing times. If you do so, the feeling of getting a new high score is just *chef's kiss*!
#4): PowerWash Simulator
Really, playing PowerWash Simulator is its own reward. You'll be presented with something coated with more dirt than seems realistic, and you'll spend a decent amount of time methodically cleaning it all off. That alone is rewarding enough, but you also get a pleasing *ding* when you finish cleaning a particular piece of the job. And if that weren't enough, once you're done, you get a little replay of your progress from beginning to end. For people who find power washing hypnotic, it's a perfect system to reward you for your efforts!
#3): Tunic
With Tunic, curiosity is key. Because this map maintains a static camera angle throughout, it's ultimately up to you to challenge any given level's geography in search of secrets. Literally everywhere in this map is bursting with secrets just waiting to be discovered if your curiosity leads you in the correct direction. See a treasure chest at an inaccessible point? Tried approaching it from every possible angle to see if there's a hidden path leading to it? Maybe throw a couple sticks of dynamite around and you might uncover a hidden entrance!
#2): God of War: Ragnarok
Like in most well-made games, the more you engage with Ragnarok's world, the more prepared you are for challenging late-game combat. Going off the beaten path isn't required, of course, but your experience will be all the poorer for it if you don't! Firstly, of course you get upgrades to your health and rage as well as experience and currency for doing so. But you can also get plenty more story context by doing some of the game's many "favors".
Most Rewarding Game of the Year: Neon White
Obviously I've discussed the time trials for Neon White at length, but the main reason the game wins this category is because of what you get for completion. For just completing the game, you unlock a handful of level gauntlets that allow you to play the entire game over again and go for better and better times in that context. But if you take the time to find all the collectible gifts for all your companions, you unlock additional level rushes with different criteria! Seriously, the value-for-money proposition is off the charts here if you'll engage with the game enough to let it reward you!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Moment
We once again come to my personal favorite category, "Best Moment!" I love this one because I get to really get in-depth with spoilers if I so desire, and I get to relive my favorite moments in gaming from the year! So let's just get right into it!
#10): The Book of Life (Neon White)
Having acquired the books of life and death, White finally defeats Green and is given a choice of which book to write his name in. If he chooses to write Green's name in the book of life, then Green is forgiven and ascends to heaven in spite of everything he has done. It's not exactly the most tearjerking scene in the world, but it's a nice little cap on this story that revolves so much around forgiveness and not letting the past drag you down.
#9): Wash Playback (PowerWash Simulator)
This one is a bit self-explanatory, but there's just nothing like spending two hours methodically cleaning, say, a pyramid, then getting to watch a quick replay of the whole process from beginning to end.
#8): Ragnarok (God of War: Ragnarok)
The entire game has lead up to this point. Try as the protagonists might to avoid it, Ragnarok was always an inevitability of this storyline, and in fact, in order to win, they need to trigger it to start. So, when Kratos takes Gjallarhorn and blows into it in Tyr's temple and the doors to all the nine realms open as the music swells, it feels like a moment that has been in the making since 2018. Kratos is now going to take the fight to Odin not as the God of War he once was, but as the God of War he is now...just...freaking watch it and tell me it doesn't hype you up!
#7): Ranni's Ending (Elden Ring)
Now, I'm sure some egghead somewhere can explain to me what the significance of Ranni's ending is, but I'm not entirely sure. As far as I'm concerned, it's the ending to an excellent questline and the prettiest ending of the game to look at!
#6): A New Adventure (TemTem)
There was just something about starting up TemTem for the first time that felt like starting up a brand new Pokemon game. I mean, it's not hard to see why, but getting to start a new monster collecting adventure in an entirely new context with entirely different designers and different rules...t's just the kind of thing you don't really get to experience that often, and I commend the development team for being able to capture that magic of going to chose your first little pocket monster all over again!
#5): Everything Before Combat (Scorn)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Scorn would probably have won GOTY if it weren't for the horrible combat. It's so, so frustrating. Everything before the combat started was exactly the kind of game I've always dreamed of playing: a completely dialogue-free alien landscape with unfettered atmosphere and absolutely no explanations at all. Just the world, its rules, and us, floundering around to try and get everything figured out. But then combat came along and ruined it all...
#4): Be Better (God of War: Ragnarok)
One of Kratos' iconic lines from the previous God of War is a line he says in response to an apology from Atreus: "Do not be sorry....be better." Fastforward to Ragnarok, and tensions between father and son rise and fall as the rebellious Atreus clashes with his protective father. Eventually, everything comes to a head for both characters. Atreus realizes the ways in which he has been selfish, and Kratos does the same. So after a father/son quest to undo some damage Atreus caused, we see Kratos apologize to him for the first time. And Atreus' response? None other than the line his father used to say to him...a gesture that symbolizes the newfound understanding between the two.
#3): Storming the Zeta Hideout (Horizon: Forbidden West)
As Aloy and team take the fight to the Zeta colonists (futuristic people who left the earth before the apocalypse, live forever, and can fly), there's one aspect of the plan that all characters are silent on. There are little hints that something is coming, but there's no hint as to what until the moment in question. As the assault on the hideout proper begins, robot dinosaurs start appearing by the hundreds and fighting alongside our heroes. Is it stupid? Of course! But I defy you to tell me that rushing into battle with robot T-Rex's fighting by your side isn't just about the coolest thing of all time!
#2): The Twist (God of War: Ragnarok)
One aspect of Ragnarok that was included in the game's advertising was the recruitment of Norse Mythology's God of War, Tyr. There seemed to be this idea of two Gods of War joining forces in this game, and the recruitment of Tyr actually happens quite early on. But what isn't included in the game's marketing material is the fact that Tyr has ultimately been broken by Odin and no longer seeks war. From the very beginning, Tyr is insistent that he will never take up a spear or engage in even the slightest violence ever again. So, it's a clever little red herring of sorts on the part of Sony Santa Monica. Nevertheless, Tyr remains at our heroes' home base throughout the plot to offer advice on the current predicament. He scolds our heroes when they turn to violence for any reason, and it's a little hard to disagree with him on some fronts. At every point, he seems to appeal to the better nature of every character he comes into contact with ("war as a first resort? That's not the Freya I know..."). But as the plot progresses, his brokenness and idealism seems to slowly fade away as the reality of the plot stakes seem to set in. For instance, after the home base is subjected to attacks from realm tears opened up due to a mistake Atreus made, he profusely apologizes for not helping, acquiescing that nonviolence shouldn't be forced to apply when it comes to defending one's home. This all keeps escalating up until the highest point of the narrative. Atreus has finally completed the mask that Odin has been hoping to complete, meaning that our heroes have the one thing Odin wants, and if they launch an attack on Asgard, they can get the drop on him and possibly get him to do anything they want. It's at this point where Tyr finally feels ready to take up his mantle. Seeing that they have the one thing Odin wants, he is so overcome with excitement at the possibility that Odin could actually be defeated that he vows to lead them all alongside any armies he can muster to war against Asgard. It's just so nice getting to see this character finally reach the end of his arc!
......
Oh, did you think that was the twist? I definitely wrote it with the kind of line I'd typically use to wrap up a twist description, so I wouldn't blame you for thinking so!
See, all that does happen. And then Tyr starts to go off to gather some things, mask in hand, to lead the team to a secret entrance to Asgard. But for one character, things aren't really adding up. The vulgar dwarf character, Brok, questions why Tyr has been withholding a secret entrance to Asgard all this time, why he's holding the mask, why he's calling Atreus by his giant name, Loki, etc, getting more and more abrasive with each question. As much as the other characters try to calm Brok down and convince the naturally distrusting dwarf that Tyr is on their side, he simply can't let it go.
And then Tyr stabs him through the chest, finally revealing that there never was any Tyr in this story. The team had rescued Odin in disguise, and all at once, everything in the narrative makes sense. Odin is so forgiving of Atreus' mistakes and so willing to let him come and go from Asgard as he pleases because if Atreus spills any of his secrets, "Tyr" will hear about them. "Tyr" spends so much time appealing to the better nature of our heroes because, while his observations are 100% accurate, by getting them to listen to their consciences, he has a higher chance of succeeding. Do you see why this game won "Best Writing" from me? I mean, seriously, that's top-tier writing!
Moment of the Year: Amicia's Prayer (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
As I've alluded to a couple of times, A Plague Tale: Requiem is very, very sad, and now's the time to discuss why. The whole premise of this sequel is that Amicia is trying to help her little brother Hugo find a cure for his blood curse, referred to as "The Macula." They try and they try and they try, but they never find one, and things just keep getting worse. After witnessing the death of their mother, Hugo becomes almost entirely consumed by the curse, but is pulled from the brink by Amicia. However, towards the end, Hugo believes that Amicia is dead and gives himself up fully, and what follows is the stretch of the game that all gets wrapped up in this moment. As Amicia enters ground zero for Hugo's surrender (it's a little hard to describe, but imagine it as a giant alternate reality surrounded by rats), she finds herself up against mental trials, guided by Hugo in a gentle voice. The music starts to swell a little bit as she struggles against these trials, as the ultimate lesson Hugo is trying to teach her is to unlearn everything she knows about fighting the Macula. She has to stop following directions, put out the lights, etc. Eventually, Amicia comes back into contact with a representation of Hugo, who calmly tells her about the destruction he is currently wreaking across the continent, about how the rats he commands will kill everyone if the Macula isn't stopped, at which point Amicia tells him she'll help him however she can. The two step through a door and Hugo disappears, leaving Amicia at a point of hysterical (the sad kind, not the funny kind) desperation. Hugo's voice comes down from the sky to remind Amicia that the Macula must me stopped, and as she asks what can be done, he simply replies, "you already know..." In case you're a few bricks shy of a load here, this means that at this point, the only way to keep all life from being devoured by the rats is for Amicia to kill her beloved little brother (who, I remind you, is maybe 6 years old at most). Remember when I said that Amicia's actress, Leopoldine Serre, sells this game? This is where that comes into play. It's about a minute of playtime between this revelation and when she actually does the deed, and the whole time is filled with blubbering lines about how she isn't ready and how she loves him, and it's just...f***ing...devastating to listen to. The hysteria behind the constant sobbing isn't the type of thing that makes you want to cry, it's the kind of thing that just makes you go, "gaaaaaaaah, man....". Finally, Amicia does what is needed.
The game then fastforwards ahead about a year in time, and we see Amicia preparing to leave the country, but before she does, she takes a detour up to the top of a mountain. Here, there's a small gravesite that she kneels by for a moment. She starts to talk to the gravesite, getting emotional about leaving it behind and about the context in general before removing a small necklace from it and putting it on. From here, she regains her composure for a second, bows her head as music starts to play, and begins a small prayer beginning with, "May this earth remember how much you loved running through it," and that's about as much as I caught before the sadness got to me a bit much and I had to stifle some sniffles. It's a moment that solidifies the tragic truth that this whole plot was for nothing and Hugo still died, but it's also a moment that establishes that Amicia is now strong enough to move on to leave a legacy for whoever the next Macula holder and protector will be, so that future generations may not have to suffer such heartbreak.
-------------------------- --------------------------
The Big Picture Awards
-------------------------- --------------------------
Most Unique
While a game certainly doesn't have to be unique to be a GOTY contender, there just isn't that much in the way of innovation these days. So I like to do this category every year to recognize the games that did at least something a little different to help them earn a couple more points!
#5): Scorn
Scorn is unique in two ways: one that earns it a spot on this list, and one that keeps it at the bottom. The latter is obviously combat, which I've already discussed. However, as horrible as the combat is, it's uniquely designed...so that's that. But on the positive side, Scorn is unique by virtue of its sheer confidence in its world. There's absolutely zero handholding, and unlike most of the games that pride themselves on that point, Scorn is the only one that actually has none.
#4): Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Honestly, people were so starved for innovation of some kind in Pokemon, that if GameFreak did anything new at all it likely would've been considered revolutionary. But as it stands, they actually decided to go and release an actually revolutionary Pokemon game in Legends: Arceus. Set during a time period where Pokemon were still considered wild beasts and at which point PokeBalls had just been invented, Arceus ultimately tasks the player with completing the first ever PokeDex as a way of helping people and Pokemon form an understanding between each other. It eschews a lot of what tends to make games in this saga tedious and streamlines so much that it's a shame that it all got rolled back by the time Scarlet/Violet came out...
#3): PowerWash Simulator
Simulation games with a singular focus are kind of a dime a dozen on steam. There's a "simulator" for everything, after all, even Harambe back when that was the big thing. But here's the thing....none of them are good. You never see a simulator on lists like these. So that's where PowerWash Simulator breaks the mold: it's not only good, it's also content-rich and filled with passion!
#2): Rollerdrome
As we've already discussed, Rollerdrome is one of the biggest disappointments of this year in my book, but that doesn't mean it isn't unique. In fact, it's darn unique! I mean, it's a rollerblading shooter!
Most Unique Game of the Year: Neon White
Tell me this: when is the last time you heard of a deck-building first-person shooter platformer visual novel with an emphasis on speedrunning? Never? That's because it's never been done before. Developer Ben Esposito had a clear, distinct vision when developing this game, and it's been a long time since I've seen such a unique concept come to fruition in such an excellent way!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Developer
Not to be mistaken with publishers, the developers are the boots on the ground team that comes up with the narrative and gameplay styles, then bring the whole project to fruition. Whether as their own self-contained team or with the backing of a large publisher, these were the developers with the most impressive additions to their resumes
#5): The Outsiders (Metal: Hellsinger)
For as long as rhythm games have been around, there's been an unfilled niche for metal music. Sure, there have been Metallica renditions of Rock Band and some games that get close to filing this niche such as BPM: Bullets per Minute. But with Metal: Hellsinger, The Outsiders have truly stepped forward to give metalheads the headbanging rhythm game we've always wanted! Hell, it's not just that they did that, it's that they came up with a completely original soundtrack alongside some of the biggest names in the genre!
#4): Ben Esposito (Neon White)
Esposito received no small amount of acclaim after releasing his previous game, Donut County, but that game was so unassuming and cute that nobody would have guessed that his next project would be something as groundbreaking as Neon White. As tempting as it is to hand Esposito and Neon White yet another top spot win for this category, I feel like the upcoming spot winners overcame slightly greater odds to earn their success.
#3): Asobo Studio (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
With the original A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio did what was long thought nigh impossible: They created a AA game with backing from an infamously janky publisher that released to critical acclaim. Even so, nobody was expecting/asking for a sequel, so when the announcement was made, I (alongside many others) was skeptical that the team would be able to capture that lightning in a bottle twice. Whether or not they actually did will depend on who you ask, but for my money, the team took the increased funding they got for this project, put it to use in places that the money was sure to impress, and gave the story they began the sendoff they wanted.
#2): Crema (TemTem)
Having seen the effort that has gone into 2022's Pokemon releases, how could one not give such a high spot on this list to the developers of the supposed Pokemon-killer, TemTem? I mean, really. The most profitable franchise on the planet couldn't pony up for even a stable 30 frames per second in Scarlet/Violet, much less the bare minimum QA work to keep Nintendo (perhaps the greediest of all greedy companies when it comes to refunds) from giving refunds! And yet this small team of people, with only the money they received from their Kickstarter backing, somehow managed to make a far superior Pokemon game with actual challenge, a strong technical standing, good designs, a compelling story and characters, etc? Like, give me a break!
Developer of the Year: Roll7 (OlliOlli World/Rollerdrome)
And now, I wait for the news to come out that Roll7 crunches their workers....
but until then, there's no contest for this category this year. Obviously I've said several positive things about OlliOlli World thus far as well as several negative things about Rollerdrome, but this developer put both of these games out in 2022. They somehow put out a solid skateboarding game so fun that it captured the heart of someone like me (who isn't even interested in skateboarding) in the same year that they put out a game unlike almost any other in Rollerdrome. It doesn't matter that I didn't like the latter title, it was still a wholly unique concept executed to the best of their ability! That's two ultimately solid games released in just one year....and it'll likely be because their developers have been crunched, but until that's confirmed, I'm gonna just stick my fingers in my ears for this one!
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Story
Sadly, despite this being one of the penultimate categories in this whole article, there just weren't enough good stories to fill out the usual 10 spots this year. Even if I got really, really liberal in my interpretations of "story" and "good," there just wouldn't be enough. So, I really hope developers do better in 2023 so we don't have a short list like this one again. Anywho, as I always say when opening up this blurb, there are two ultimate sides to a game that can make it good: story and gameplay. One of these sides can pull double-duty to elevate a game beyond what it would've been with its weaker other side, but ultimately a game is at its best when both sides come together in harmony. These were the five games in 2022 that held up on the story side of this equation.
#5): Neon White
Every year, Heaven becomes overrun with demons. To mitigate this problem, the denizens of heaven put together an annual contest in which the souls of the damned compete to see who can kill the most demons the fastest. Whoever comes out on top is granted a year's residency beyond the pearly gates, while all the other contestants return to hell until next time. These contestants are called "Neons," and we play as Neon White, an apparant newcomer to the contest. But there's definite history between our hero and the folks he finds himself surrounded by, including the years-long reigning champion, Neon Green. Will White stand a chance at earning some time out of hell? Who was he in life, anyway? All of this is up to you and your skills to find out!
#4): TemTem
It all begins in an unassuming village on one of the islands of a floating archipelago. Here, a young person chooses a TemTem to be their adventuring partner, and what starts off as an innocent journey all about friendship and the like quickly turns into a battle for the fate of the archipelago. Clan Belsoto, a mysterious team of villains, wages war across the world, hoping to install a self-proclaimed King to rule the archipelago by force. From a high-level overview, it's Pokemon, but it's the moment-to-moment plot details that set it apart!
#3): PowerWash Simulator
In the quaint village/town of Muckingham, a local opens a powerwashing business. He takes on all kinds of jobs from vehicles to buildings to amusement parks, anything that pays. But as he takes on higher and higher profile jobs, he finds himself in the thick of situations he didn't sign up for. Illicit political maneuverings made under the distraction of a missing cat, ancient magics emanating from equally ancient relics, even the fate of the world itself.
#2): A Plague Tale: Requiem
In 14th Century France, young noblewoman Amicia de Rune travels with her mother, her younger brother Hugo, and her mother's apprentice to the headquarters of the Golden Order of Alchemists, who may have the answers required to cure or control the Macula blood curse that corrupts Hugo from the inside. However, after the curse goes awry casts our heroes to the wind once again, our start siblings find themselves with just one lead: a mysterious island that appears in Hugo's dreams....an island that also just so happens to be depicted in drawings on walls and alchemical journals. But time is running short as Hugo becomes more and more distressed by the death his curse causes, and as Amicia goes down dark paths in her single-minded pursuit to save her brother.
Story of the Year: God of War: Ragnarok
It's been a couple years since the events of 2018's God of War, in which Kratos and his son Atreus learned of Atreus' half-giant nature as well as the name the giants gave to him: Loki. Fimbulwinter has spread across the nine realms, and Kratos remains steadfast in his desire to ensure Atreus is ready to survive without him, should the need arise. But Atreus is more focused on searching for answers. Who exactly is Loki, and what is he supposed to be doing in the eyes of prophecy? All these questions are ultimately academic...until suddenly, the god of Thunder himself appears at our heroes' doorstep, with the all-father not far behind. From there, it's Ragnarok like you've never seen it before.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Best Gameplay
On the other side of the equation, we have gameplay itself, which this year was obviously a much better showing for! While story can more than make up for a lack of good gameplay, gameplay is the one thing that games have that other media do not, so it's arguably the most important thing to nail. So in 2022, these games put their money where their mouths were and provided the best gameplay experiences of the year!
#10): TemTem
Picture the tried-and-true gameplay formula you see in Pokemon: Turn-based strategy where you send out monsters of various elemental affinities to fight. Now picture it being more than just a rock/paper/scissors match. TemTem utilizes a stamina system as the base of its gameplay: weaker attacks might only take one turn to charge up and require minimal stamina to use, while stronger attacks might take multiple turns to charge and deplete most of your stamina. Depleting or going underneath your available stamina damages the TemTem in question, but it can turn the tide of battle in a pinch. This risk/reward system truly elevates the gameplay formula that TemTem could've easily just aped from its inspiration!
#9): Tunic
A more slow-paced kind of gameplay experience than a lot of winners on this list, Tunic sees our adorable little fox protagonist going up against only a couple of enemies at any given time. But that doesn't mean it's easy-going! Because of its emphasis on timing and stamina management, players have to balance aggression and caution in equal parts. See, the lower your stamina, the more damage you take. With this in mind, if you decide to get greedy and start wailing on a boss or a tough enemy, that's all well and good, but you'd better be prepared to block or to dodge the second the situation demands it. If you don't, well, that's a lot of stamina you just used to deal damage, so if you get hit, you're going to be punished extra hard for your greed! But don't let that scare you away if you just want to play a fun game about a cute fox! The game also features a no-death and no-stamina-management mode for the sake of accessibility, so while I have to heap praise upon this game for its interesting approach to stamina relevance, it isn't a necessary feature of the game experience!
#8): Horizon: Forbidden West
While pretty much the exact same formula as the gameplay formula from the original game, that just means more (and I mean a lot more) of a really good thing! You'll quickly dodge out of the way of machine attacks, despearately nocking and releasing an arrow in the miliseconds of downtime you get, just like you're used to, and it's just as fun here! But what makes Forbidden West just the tad bit better than its predecessor in the gameplay department is the fact that the game no longer seems to expect you to always be using traps. I've never gelled with using traps as a weapon in any game ever, and the original game's emphasis on them was a major letdown, so I was glad to never feel pressured to use them in this sequel!
#7): PowerWash Simulator
This one is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't insult your intelligence. However, I will go ahead and say that an advantage PowerWash Simulator has beyond just the base fun of its gameplay loop is how easy it is to pick up and put down quickly. It's not even a close margin, the game that I came back to most often when I needed to kill some time was PowerWash Simulator. It's not just fun, it's bite sized fun that you can get as much from in 15 minutes as you can in an hour.
#6): Halo: Infinite
Take the winning formula that has made Halo a household name since the original Xbox days and add a grappling hook to it, it's foolproof! I'm serious! That may sound like a cheap reason to give an established gameplay formula such a high spot on this list, but until you've spent several hours swinging through trees shooting at aliens as you fly, running out of ammo and grabbing another gun from afar like you're in an action movie, or pulled an explosive container your way for a cinematic toss at a boss-level enemy, you seriously don't know what you're missing out on with this ever-so-small addition to the gameplay!
#5): OlliOlli World
I'm not a skateboarder, nor have I ever really had any interest in skateboarding. OlliOlli World was not meant for me. And yet, when I decided to take a chance on this game, I could hardly get enough of it. It's so simple, and yet so complex. All you really do is flick the controller sticks in circles and half-circles to pull off tricks, but there are so many small calculations that go into other button presses/holds to maximize the points you get in any given combo. When you manage to make so many little things happen in a combo and it all comes together just right, there's nothing like it!
#4): Elden Ring
It's the tried-and-true From Software gameplay formula with more possible build diversity than ever before, how could it not get a high spot on this list?
#3): Valkyrie Elysium
To paraphrase one reviewer, as a spectacle fighter, Valkyrie Elysium isn't going to be making Devil May Cry or God of War quiver in their boots anytime soon. However, it's still good enough to warrant coming in third place for the best gameplay loop of all of 2022, so the folks over at Square Enix that denied this game a marketing budget are hopefully kicking themselves a little bit! You likely already know how these spectacle fighters operate, so let's briefly discuss what makes this one different. In addition to your weapons, you have two radials accessed by the R1 and R2 buttons, with one opening a summons menu and one opening a spells menu. With the summons menu, you'll summon one of your Einherjar for approximately 15 seconds to fight enemies and grant your weapon elemental damage based on which Einherjar you sent out. With the spells menu, as you've probably already guessed, you'll use a magic attack that takes maybe 3 seconds at the longest to cast. Use of spells depletes the combat arts gauge while use of summons depletes the summons gauge, and both of these gauges are filled by engaging in combat naturally. So what this looks like on a moment-to-moment basis is a draining and regaining of both gauges every quarter minute or so as you pull off cool button combos, summon several handfuls of Einherjar, and top everything off with rapidfire spells! Valkyrie Elysium may have had basically no budget to speak of, but they made sure to spend as much of the money they had on spectacle as possible, and the results largely speak for themselves.
#2): God of War: Ragnarok
Take the gameplay that made 2018's God of War stand out so spectacularly from the original trilogy and make it bigger, better, and more badass, and you have Ragnarok. The whole point of the gameplay in these games is to make you feel like a god, and with the kinds of serious smackdown you can bring to the poor monsters of Norse mythology, that goal is more than sufficiently met. Whether kicking lighter enemies up in the air like some kind of Scandinavian rotisserie chicken and cleaving them in half with one swing of your axe before they even start to fall, screaming your throat out as you whip the burning blades of chaos in helicopter patterns around you, sending enemies flying off in every which direction before you finally clang then chains together in one powerfully explosive slap of force, or getting caught up in the moment after throwing your axe and just pummeling a powerful enemy into a bloody pulp with your bare hands inbetween knocking its teeth out with your shield just before summoning your axe back to slices its arms off before landing the mercy kill, every single thing you do in combat communicates one crucial reminder to anything and everything that tries to take you on: "I slaughtered the entire Greek Pantheon." Never before, not even in his original outings, has Kratos felt more like an absolute powerhouse to control. And what pushes gameplay in Ragnarok even further is the newfound degree of build customization. All armor can be improved to exactly the same level, but each set has different effects and different stat priorities, so not only can you feel like a god, you can feel like the kind of god you want to be without things starting to feel unfocused. I've played literally every game in this franchise (even the spinoffs that were originally only released for the PSP or some crap like that), and I have to ask....is it even possible to make a God of War game that isn't a perfect gameplay experience?
Gameplay of the Year: Neon White
But as great as the combat in Ragnarok is, there's just no denying that Neon White outclasses absolutely everything else in terms of its gameplay. This game didn't have a predecessor to speak of, the development team just up and thunk it up out of nowhere and it turned out as good as it did through sheer passion, hard work, and QA. I've talked about it at length at this point, but let me bring up something that hasn't been brought up yet because I frankly didn't know about it until the day I wrote the blurbs for this category. Remember how the "Best Quest" winner was the blue medal challenges? Well, as of the day I started writing this category I learned there's a super secret fourth tier of time trial that isn't indicated anywhere: red medals. These nigh-impossible medals represent the top times of the developers themselves, and as such, beating these times and earning these never mentioned medals requires knowledge of the game's levels and systems akin to that of someone who actually worked on the game. So you know what I did instead of starting my writing when I was supposed to? I jumped back into Neon White, looked up the times for some of the earliest levels, dedicated an hour or two of profuse sweating and practice, and earned 2 red medals out of the 6 or so I tried to get. That's how great the gameplay is. I just up and decided to pick it right back up after a long absence and managed to beat the developer times for two levels, even though I didn't have that kind of luck for long. It's gameplay that's fun enough to make one want to come back, but it's also intuitive enough that even after a long absence, one can pick it up and be almost as good as they were when they last left off...like, come on! When was the last time you saw such impeccable polish on a gameplay loop?
-------------------------- --------------------------
Honorable Mentions
-------------------------- --------------------------
As always, before we get to the big final top 10 list, there are some Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions to reckon with first! I handle this kind of thing a little different than other outlets, as these aren't games that didn't make the cut for the top 10 list. Rather, this is more of a section to give a spotlight to categories that either couldn't possibly garner 5 entries or are just stronger with a single winner. So, let's get started.
Samus Aran award for Strongest Female Character
The original Honorable Mention I conceived back in the day, the Samus Aran award for Strongest Female Character in a game serves to celebrate the one female character in a given year that was both the best developed and, as the name suggests, the strongest. This award came out of spite in a series of years where the "I can handle myself" female character was everywhere, as a way of telling lazy writers how it's done. And in 2022, the Samus Aran award goes to...
Freya (God of War: Ragnarok)
-------------------------- --------------------------
Gears of War award for Most Raw Fun
Over the years, my tastes have changed in such a way that there tends to be little distinction between the winner of this Honorable Mention and the winner of the "Best Gameplay" award. After all, this award was conceived in a pre-Doom 2016 world where I was still largely more into RPGs than anything. But regardless, this award always serves to celebrate the title with the single most dopamine-inducing gameplay loop. That doesn't mean it's the best-constructed, that doesn't mean it's the most unique, it just means that it's the most straightforwardly satisfying experience. And the 2022 winner of the Gears of War award for Most Raw Fun is...
-------------------------- --------------------------
Undertale award for Biggest Surprise
Though it pains me to say it, I'm not always right. Whether I go into a game with no expectations or with expectations that are 100% subverted, every year there's always at least one thing that comes out of left field. Named for my 2015 GOTY, the Undertale award for Biggest Surprise is a celebration of such things, and in 2022, the winner is...
-------------------------- --------------------------
Hyper Light Drifter award for Actual Honorable Mention
Every year there's at least one game that just doesn't quite cut it for the big final GOTY list. The first of these games in my own experience was Hyper Light Drifter in its year, which lost the #10 spot to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. It's always a struggle for me, because there's very rarely a solid cutoff in quality after that #10 spot, even if I include a runner up! There's usually at least one more high quality game that I want to gush about, but that just doesn't make the cut. It serves as a bit of a spoiler for the big final list of course, but in 2022, the true Honorable Mention is...
-------------------------- --------------------------
Spec Ops: The Line award for Most Important Game
Unfortunately, though this particular Honorable Mention is one of my favorites, it was difficult to select an obvious winner. Sure, there were games about things like extinction and environmentalism that would've been easy fodder for an award like this that celebrates games with a message to send, but I just didn't play any. So, the hand-wavey winner for this year is...
-------------------------- --------------------------
Kingdoms of Amalur award for Worst Writing
And now we come to the first of our DIS-Honorable Mentions! As I always say, this one isn't necessarily indicative of a game's overall quality, it's merely a judgment about the writing. The award's namesake, after all, was a sleeper hit that did interesting gameplay things that have yet to be re-attempted. However, it did contain the line "what was that? It could be {enemy type in the area} but it could be something else!" So, it's a special little award! And the winner of the Kingdoms of Amalur award for Worst Writing is none other than...
The entire game literally happens for this reason: A dude bro is sad that his over-the-summer girlfriend is breaking up with him, and he thinks that if they can have one last night at summer camp together, that he can convince her to stay with him. So he out of the blue asks the game's smartest character how he could, hypothetically, sabotage their only car so they couldn't leave that day. This character tells him two options, despite having overheard that whole bit of bellyaching about "if we could just have one more night." So, dude bro chooses one of those two options and sabotages the car, and the character that told him those options thinks nothing of it.
*rubs temples*
Gah, even by old dumb slasher movie plot standards, it's so, so dumb.
-------------------------- --------------------------
Borderlands award for Most Yawn-Inducing Game
While it may be easy to think that the worst crime a game can commit can be to be boring, that's not exactly true. A game can be technically polished, maybe even unique, and still be boring, after all. So it's a crime for sure, but it doesn't go hand-in-hand with being the worst game of a given year. In 2022, the game that, like the original Borderlands, was the most boring game of the year was...
-------------------------- --------------------------
Brink award for Worst Game of the Year
I always used to say that if this appeared as an honorable mention it meant it was a pretty good year for games, but in recent years I just haven't taken that many chances on things I thought looked like they could be remotely bad. But I digress. This is perhaps the most self-explanatory of the DIS-Honorable Mentions, so let's get it over and done with! The Brink award for Worst Game of 2022 goes to...
-------------------------- --------------------------
Top 10 Games
-------------------------- --------------------------
And with that, here we are, folks!!!!! It's the moment you've all been waiting for! Time to stop screwing around and get down to my picks for the top 10 greatest games that 2022 had to offer. Before we get into it, I'll once again give you a look at my process so you have a bit more of an idea of how certain items got to certain spots. As always, I have the final decision over everything, but having a somewhat empirical process helps fill in the gaps. It's not exactly easy to choose what goes in spot #8 vs spot #7 without that kind of thing to guide you, you know? So, like in previous years, the first step is to calculate the "raw" score for each game. In some years I've capped it so that only games earning a 7 or higher are eligible, but this year I just decided to let the chips fall where they may, so I went through this process for everything that I gave a numbered score. Using the score I give a game in its respective review as a base, I factor in a couple other things such as where I'd subjectively put it on the GOTY list (with fifth place being my usual go-to if I'm not sure), whether I replayed it (and how many times), whether or not I reached 100% completion, and how deserving of GOTY I think a game would be from 1-10 (and if I say 10, the game earns an extra 10 points as a bonus to ensure that the rich get richer, so to speak). Summing the numbers from all of these considerations creates the "raw" score, a look at how good the game is just as an experience, without factoring in specific things that it does well. Then, once I make my final decisions on where certain games/game aspects end up on the many lists you've just finished reading, I take those positionings and give each game additional points based on where they land, only using the top spot any given game earns as the point winner (so first place in a list with 10 winners would net a game 10 extra points, 9 extra points for second place, etc, and if a game won both first place and spot #6, it would only get the 10 point it earned from that top spot). With those overall raw scores and the points earned from specific category wins combined, I get a draft of the list that I then poke and prod at as I see fit. Once again, it's ultimately my call, but honestly, I don't typically make any massive changes once the process has spoken. This year was just the slightest bit different, however. You're still seeing mostly what the process decided, but the thing is, as you may have noticed while reading, things tended to change on the fly this time around due to Covid-related distractions. There were two new categories that I had set up in the big picture section that I ended up scrapping in the end, for instance. Yet I didn't take the points I'd awarded away, even though the lists were no longer there. So, if you were to go through this final list with a fine-toothed comb looking to break down the numbers exactly, you'd come up with several discrepancies and probably a couple different positionings. But by the time I came down with Covid, I was more than satisfied with this, so I decided not to touch it. Now, one last thing before we begin: This time around I decided I wanted to do something...a little more "cinematic" with the reveals. Rather than list out the spot winner, I decided I'd like to make it a bit more like an awards show and instead link to a trailer or some other kind of representative footage. I'll of course still be including the title and a blurb for each spot, but if you feel so inclined to humor a guy on the verge of recovery from illness as he tries to make this whole thing a little cooler, then click on the spot # (#10, etc), turn away, and let this whole thing feel more like an event than just a reading experience. Now, without further ado, the top ten games of 2022, plus one runner-up spot!
And with that, we come to the top 5. All of these games obviously get my highest recommendations, but the next 5 games were the true cream of the crop, the tip of the top, and boy do I wish I had a third saying that rhymed and made sense, but you get the picture. To give a sense of how these all made it this far up the list, all of these games have a couple things in common. For all of these, I either reached 100% completion, completed the game multiple times (or completed levels multiple times, depending on the structure), or some combination of those. So that should indicate just how far above the competition these next games were in 2022. And with that, let's keep going!
I'll admit that little self-deprecating thoughts like that always cross my mind when the darling child of the year doesn't reach the number one spot for me. It was like that in 2017 when I had The Legend oi Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a shared 10th place with What Remains of Edith Finch, it was like that in 2018 when I had Red Dead Redemption II in 7th place, and it's like that here as I put Elden Ring in 3rd place. I'll also admit that in years where GOTY goes to exactly the same thing for literally everyone, there's a little part of me that wants to be different. But I'm always guided by my gut feelings, and I'm always true to myself. Breath of the Wild is NOT a 10/10 masterpiece worthy of GOTY, Red Dead Redemption 2 is far too flawed to even be considered for the role, and while Elden Ring does fall short of two other titles in the end, I would've been 100% fine with it winning my GOTY award if the cards fell in its favor, because it's a damn good game that has made this year's suite of GOTY lists boring for earned reasons. I mean, do I even need to elaborate about why Elden Ring is worthy of such a high spot on this list? It's everything people love about the From Software formula applied to a never before seen scale! The world is beautifully realized, and I would've said that even if the only well-realized area was Siofra River! The characters, for my money, are more endearing than in any other From Software title! The story is....well, a From Software story, but it's at least recognizable as an underdog narrative that gives your victories the kind of context that other Soulsborne titles tend to lack! The gameplay is exactly what you expect, but with the kind of polish that comes from having made these games for so long. And perhaps most importantly of all, the roleplaying possibilities are unprecedented even for a soulslike. You can play as just about any kind of character you'd like (within reason, of course), with my personal favorite run being my run as Sigrun, Queen of the Valkyries (the run in which I reached 100% completion). The boss designs are some of the best in the genre. Honestly, were it not for some fatal flaws like still-persistent technical issues and an objectively unfair difficulty spike towards the end, I'd fully deserve to be dismissed as a try-hard nonconformist! Pair these things with the fact that the jury is still out for me on whether this or Sekiro (my 2019 GOTY) is the best From Software game, and you have a game that is 100% worth its legendary status and a spot this high up on the list of the best games of 2022...but one that for me just doesn't grasp the title of "best."
With that, we come to the final 2, and to be honest, I agonized over the placements of these last 2 more than in any other year on record. My eventual GOTY and the runner-up for that spot are both so good, and not only are they so good, they're so good in equally well-rounded ways. This is where that discussion about the rich dessert versus the large bag of chips was ultimately heading. See, one of these games is the former, while the other is the latter. Both are strong on just about every front I judge these games on, but they're just entirely different beasts. And what made this decision even harder was the fact that, for this specific context, I had even more control over the outcome than I normally do, so just using the numbers wasn't enough. I had to actually make a decision instead of letting my process give me an option, so within my control was the competition between these two titles, and making that decision was a process that took pretty much the entire writing period of this article to figure out, and even then I go back and forth. However, I'm ultimately at peace with how things turned out, and though I would've been equally satisfied had the positions been reversed, for reasons that I'll get into in the GOTY blurb, I think it really couldn't have turned out any other way. All of this is to say that both of these games are GOTY in my heart, but there could only be one for the purposes of this article. So....enough stalling. Let's get down to the final two, the best two games of 2022!
So....what could possibly beat that for GOTY? As I re-watched clips from this game as I wrote, I would become convinced that it should actually win GOTY every time, but at every turn my gut has told me that this honor belongs to none other than...
So, that's it! 2023 seems to have a lot of promise....eventually. In the meantime, the first review you're likely to see from me in the new year is for High on Life, and perhaps another visit to Cyberpunk 2077 now that I've been playing that with two years' worth of patches and a free next-gen upgrade and it doesn't suck anymore! I hope you all had a great holiday season, and I look forward to continuing to bring you content in this upcoming year!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thoughts? Questions? Think I'm full of it?