According to my Steam replay for 2022, two of the games I’ve played the most this year have been Apex Legends and Destiny. Steam is of course not counting the hours I spent in a non-Steam game like Overwatch. Yet, none of these games are on my list of games of the year.
It seems despite my enjoyment of multiplayer shooters, I grow increasingly tired of their progression systems. Every multiplayer game has a battle pass. Every game is a grind. For a time some of this grind is even mildly enjoyable. But only for a time, eventually I get tired of them. I slogged through an entire season of Apex Legends, bought the battle pass for the next one and then lost interest part way through.
So for my 2022 list of games of the year I have a list of single player games I consider good or interesting or weird or all of those things. More importantly all of these games don’t have an endless treadmill. They end.
Here they are, in no particular order.
Cyberpunk 2077
The most flawed game on this list, I have a laundry list of problems I have with this game. And yet, by the end of it I found myself liking the characters, the story, I liked Johnny Silverhand played by the inimitable Keanu Reeves who I thought put in a fantastic performance. Panam, Judy, I loved them both. Once the DLC for this game comes out I am planning on doing another playthrough so I can do the Panam romance that I couldn’t in my first.
NORCO
The weirdest game on this list. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a lot of the details of this story since it was early in the year. What I do remember is that game is dripping aesthetic. The art in this game is gorgeous. The weirdness of the magical realism that permeates this game can be seen through the game’s art.
Stray
A game where one plays as a cat exploring a strange world of robots. I don’t know what else there is to say about this one. You can scratch on things and curl up to sleep for as long as you’d like. Yeah, let’s do more of that kind of stuff.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
The swingiest game on this list. I don’t think that’s actually a word but also goddamn the swinging mechanic in this game feels incredible. Insomniac Games really nailed that with the 2018 game and they continued it here. This one was short and sweet, a nice story about protecting Harlem with Miles as the protagonist. Personally I think Miles Morales is a far more interesting Spider-Man than Peter Parker. I would play another Miles Morales game.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon
The best overall game of the year. A party of characters I cared about. An interesting world. A story that kept me on the edge of my seat through. Laughing out loud one moment and crying my eyes out the next. Incisive political commentary about the nature of the law. A sidequest about a dominatrix and a masochist who stopped feeling all pain until he meets her.
This game’s got it all and then some. I played this one in December and it is the last game I played on this list. Perhaps that’s poetic, the best for last. 10/10. I recommend this game without any caveats.
Honorable Mentions
These are game I played this year that I thought were decent but were not up to what I would call a game of the year for a variety of reasons.
- Unpacked
- OPUS: Echo of Starsong
- Vampire Survivors
- Elden Ring
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
- Ghostwire Tokyo
Concluding Thoughts
2022 was an interesting year of games for me. I played a fair variety of games, tried games I usually wouldn’t play like Elden Ring or Metro: Exodus.
Going into 2023 I am revisiting games I’ve played before, I am currently doing my second playthrough of The Witcher 3. After that I want to start fresh on Elden Ring and give that one another try. And as I mentioned earlier, C2077 also gets another playthrough whenever that DLC comes out.
Other than that, I don’t think there are any 2023 releases that are exciting to me. At least nothing comes to mind right now. Having said that, I am still looking forward to see what video games in 2023 have to offer me.
Happy New Year y’all, I hope it is a good one for you.