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FakeKisser

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Fakey's 2022 Games of the Year

Note: As always, I include my favorite games I played this year, even if they were released before 2022.

2022 was a rough year for me... In hindsight, it was harder than even 2020 and 2021 in a lot of ways. However, my family, like many others, also started getting back to a "new normal," with my kids now old enough to be doing multiple activities while becoming more independent...and playing more videogames themselves on the Switch or 3DS.

Making this list also reminded me how varied the games are that I played in 2022. I started out by completing the God of War trilogy, and I then played a large number of amazing indie games.

So, making this list was difficult to compare all the different styles of games, not to mention the different quality purely based on the year they originally came out. However, I did my best with my Top 10 this year, given those caveats.

Biggest Disappointments

Elden Ring

Let's get the most controversial one out of the way... I'm not saying Elden Ring is a bad game here, but I'm not a person that enjoys difficult games, and Elden Ring made me just feel awful in so many ways I eventually had to put it down. I did put in 30-40 hours, though. Part of me still wants to return to it, but knowing there is a big dragon waiting that I have to tackle first is a deterrent for me. So, basically, I wanted to love Elden Ring, but it is just not really my type of game, in a variety of ways.

God of War III

Again, I'm not putting this here because I think GoW 3 is a bad game. I liked it, and I did complete it. However, I didn't like it as much as the first two games, and I found it a bit too exhausting and frustrating with some of the fights. I like the big spectacle of the fights, but I wanted more "quiet" moments to round out the game, like the first two. So, in the end, it wasn't the wrap up of the original trilogy that I wanted, but I was still very happy to play through it and complete it.

Honorable Mentions

Before Your Eyes

Before Your Eyes is the game that uses your webcam to change certain scenes when you blink. It's a very cool mechanic that worked very well for me, and the overall story was good. I didn't fully buy into the twist, but I did enjoy the unique experience.

God of War: Chains of Olympus & God of War: Ghost of Sparta

I played the Remastered versions of these games on PS3, and I really enjoyed them. I felt like they'd be a slog to get through, but I think they are really great games, and they did right to make the story, the gameplay, and the length match the scope of the games. I honestly enjoyed them more than God of War III in many ways...

Spiritfarer

I started Spiritfarer in 2021, but I got burned out on it, kind of confused at what I was really supposed to be doing. I went back to it in 2022 with my Steam Deck, and I played it every night until I finished it, with all the DLC. I think it should be shorter to sustain the emotional impact, but it's still a really great game that I was very happy I went back to and finished.

We are OFK

I had a lot of fun playing through OFK. As an older dude, I didn't fully relate to the characters, but it was an engaging story, and the music is great.

Games I wish I finished in 2022

God of War Ragnarok

I caught up to the God of War franchise in 2022, including playing through GoW 2018 on PC. However, I wasn't able to get through Ragnarok before the end of the year. I would be very surprised if Ragnarok isn't on my list next year...

Yakuza 5

I started Yakuza 5 in December of 2022, but I found Part 1 very tedious and pretty boring. Part 2 wasn't boring but was still a bit tedious. So, it took me 6 months to get through that first half of the game. I just picked the game back up a week or so ago, and I'm happy to say that I loved Part 3, and it gave me renewed vigor to complete this game and move onto Yakuza 6. I was hoping to have finished 5 and 6 in 2022, but if I can get through both early in 2023, I can then play Like A Dragon: Ishin before moving on to Yakuza 7.

And My favorite Games of the Year I played in 2022!!:

List items

  • I'm honestly surprised to see this one at the top of my list - not because I didn't love it, because I did, but it is a smaller title that really is very restricted in scope. However, I was really addicted to it when playing it, and when I think back, I just really can't find many complaints and would gladly play a sequel or more DLC in the future. The feeling and atmosphere this game gives with just the music, soundscape, and writing is very special.

  • Of course, The Darkness is a very old game, from 2007. I am primarily a PC gamer, but I got a PS3 at the very end of its life and bought this game but never played it... I decided to knock this one and its sequel off my backlog in 2022, and I really loved the atmosphere and the story. The second game plays better, especially for me, because I played it on PC with mouse and keyboard, but the first game greatly surpasses the sequel, because the first game has a dark, mob-movie style pace and feeling to it that I just loved. I even bought a graphic novel that brought together a lot of the comics and read through it because of my love for the game.

  • I really like God of War 2018, but because I played it 4 years after its initially release (I played it on PC), after hearing so much about it, I was honestly a tiny, tiny bit let down. I love the setting and the story, but the pace of it threw me off a lot. It didn't feel like a big open world, but it also constantly distracted me from the main story, and it simultaneously felt very long and also ended suddenly. I almost wish I would have mainlined the story and only gone back to the side stuff after.

  • I really like point-and-click adventure games. I really grew up on them with some of my earliest memories being about King's Quest and playing that with my grandparents. So, I'm right at home playing Norco. I really loved the atmosphere and the story, though it went a little too off-the-rails at times. In the end, though, it is definitely a masterclass in adventure games, especially of this style.

  • Again, I'm way late to another game that has been on my backlog for a decade. I got burned out on the Arkham games after Origins, and with all the technical issues Knight had upon release, it just kept falling down the backlog. However, I finally played it and had a ton of fun with it. I have a huge problem with them locking the real ending behind the Riddler collectibles, but I just ended up watching that on YouTube after doing everything else.

  • I'm not a cat person. I'm very, very strongly a dog person, but I really loved the idea behind Stray from the first time I saw the first trailer. In the end, I got frustrated at some of the chase scenes and felt like it did get reduced to a more simple puzzle game than I expected, but the world and the story and some of the moments (especially the ending) were so strong for me.

  • I played both Plague Tale games this year, basically back-to-back. Both have frustrating stealth sequences and try to stretch beyond what I think the game engine or game design was meant to do, but I ultimately really enjoyed the scope and story of the first game much more. The second game is prettier, but the first game (except for the final boss fight) had more personality to me (very similar to what I said about The Darkness games above).

  • I played Lake after hearing the Nextlander crew talk about it, and I really loved it. It was very relaxing, and I just enjoy playing games, sometimes, about the mundane. No super powers, no huge dramatic stakes or events. Lake felt real and easily made me relate in a powerful, somewhat emotional, and restful way.

  • 80 Days is such a funny one on here, but I honestly got very addicted to it, in much the same way I did Citizen Sleeper. I wanted to go to the next stop and see what was in store for me. I didn't succeed in my first play through with getting around the world in 80 days, but it was still very fun, and I was very glad it didn't just cut me off with a "Game Over" screen.

  • I played The Artful Escape on my Steam Deck, and it was such a great game to play sitting in bed. I really liked the musical aspect, as well as the art style. I would have liked more variety in the gameplay, but I was very into the entire vibe of the game.
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