My thoughts on every single game I played last year, starting with my Top Ten favorites

10. What Comes After developed by Fahmitsu

What a beautiful game. It centers around the mistaken death of a young woman. As she travels on the train to the afterlife, she gets to meet everyone who is on this journey. Going from car to car, she meets and talks with people, animals, and even plants about what it means to live and what it’s like to transition from there. The amount of thoughtful, poignant perspectives presented in this piece is astounding, all with a balancing dose of humor and whimsy. It is a game that gently challenges you with tough subjects without making them feel oppressive or morose. Since the young woman’s death was mistaken, she is given a complimentary round trip back to the land of the living, but in the process, she gains a brand new outlook on the world and all the things within it. On a sad note, the maker of this game, Indonesian game developer Mohammad Fahmi, passed away this year unexpectedly. This game already resonated with me before his passing, but it hits a different note now that he has.Check out this amazing human here :mohammad fahmi - YouTube

9. A Plague’s Tale: Requiem developed by Asobo Studios

No matter how dark, grim, and nihilistic this beautiful 14th-century Gothic game got, I constantly felt compelled to see it through to the end. This game made me ugly cry. Let me explain: in the middle of a run-of-the-mill "door puzzle," the main character you play as, Amicia, asks her brother and friend to stay behind as she figures out the puzzle. As soon as you walk around the corner, out of sight, your character involuntarily falls to their knees. This was the first time she felt allowed to process the overwhelming amount of tragedy she had experienced so far. She couldn’t show this vulnerability in front of her two younger companions, as she’s been their source of strength to make it through all this far. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I loved it. The game also went the extra mile to not minimize the act of killing. A trope that most, if not all, videogames gloss over. You see the consequences of children surviving in violent times, and it’s heartbreaking. There are a few moments of levity provided by colorful side characters, enriching environments, and a delightful mini-open world level to cut the darkness. Let me tell you, those moments are very much needed and appreciated.

8. Tunic developed by Andrew Shouldice

Tunic is both one of the most familiar-feeling games I've played this year and also completely unlike anything I've ever played before. I knew nothing about the game going in, but I decided to pick it up on GamePass. The coolest thing about this isometric adventure/puzzler is that it doesn’t tell you anything about how to play. Instead, you pick up pages of an old-school game manual, completely out of order, that help you learn as you go. What’s more, the manual is written in a made-up language, so you have to use its pictures, context clues, and trial and error to figure out how to navigate this world. And let me tell you, it’s a world worth navigating. Every revelation of the new game mechanic elicited swaths of joy within me as I realized all the new places I could go or enemies I could take on. It somehow captured that wonderment of when I was a teenager, getting my hands on a Japanese game, having zero idea how to play it, but figuring it out little by little. In short, Tunic is brilliant.

7. Neon White developed by Angel Matrix

Who wants some tight-ass game design!? This is a "first-person shooter/card-based/puzzle-platforming/visual novel/speedrun" game, and while that sounds confusing on paper, the diabolically adept designers of this title make it all make sense as soon as you get your hands on the controller (or keyboard for you PC peeps). I was smiling ear to ear while figuring out the plethora of delightfully rewarding puzzles, marveling at the ingenuity and execution of those tight level designs, and nefariously cackling every time I broke one of my friends' fastest times. I was pleasantly surprised to find the maker of this game is also the developer of Donut County, a game that could not be more different from Neon White. All this to say, Neon White was the perfect summer game that left me feeling nothing but gratification by the end of my playthroughs.

6. Marvel Snap developed by Second Dinner Studios

I don’t know exactly what to say about this iPhone, card collecting, and strategy game except that it has taken over my life. I started playing it the week it came out in what? November of ‘22, and I’m still playing it on a daily basis even as I’m writing this, which is well into 2023. No seriously… I’ve taken too many breaks from typing this document to sneak in a couple rounds of Marvel Snap matches as I write. The development team is composed of the makers of the wildly popular digital card game "Hearthstone" (a game that, by itself, absorbed my life for half a year). Well, they did not miss with this one. It has quick, exciting gameplay, deep, versatile strategies, and wonderful use of the Marvel IP, where the cards themselves not only look great (with superb comic-inspired art), but they also play in ways that honor the heroes or villains they represent. Once I lost against a player who, at the end of our match, surprised me by revealing to have played the Agatha Harkness card (a card that takes over all your cards and autoplays the entire match for you), I audibly whispered, "It was Agatha all Along"( a sweet callback joke to 2020’s wonderful Disney+ series WandaVision)...that brilliant and super clever game design is present throughout the entire game, and I can’t help but simply applaud their attention to detail. With new features added like a "vs. your friends" mode and many more cards and special events, I see myself playing this game well into this year and maybe even some more. Also, fun fact: not only is it one of my most played games this year, but it’s also free. I haven't spent a dime on it.

5. Horizon Forbidden West developed by Guerrilla Games

This game's predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn, was my "Game of the Year" back in 2017, beating out the lauded Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the acclaimed Nier Automata. It's the fact that this game melds exploration and combat into a seamless form that feels so damn fluid and freeing. Yes, this sequel makes the game map even bigger, and yes, this sequel makes the story even wilder, but it's all grounded in the absolute stellar mechanics of your ability to navigate their gorgeous world. The combat continues to feel fresh and fair as you engage in epic battles against mechanical dinosaurs, some of which are multiple stories high and others that fly. You uncover a really fun sci-fi plot involving a world once destroyed and on the brink of annihilation again, but with a nice twist of intergalactic melodrama. You’re greeted with stunning visual after stunning visual as you traverse the harrowing landscape before you. A lot of criticism, understandably, stems from fatigue with the open-world genre. So please know that my penchant for that type of game world is very high. I fortunately never felt that twinge of overwhelmingness, so I simply got to have a carefree time traversing this breathtaking landscape. You also get to fly a robot pterodactyl! A. Robot. Pterodactyl.

4. Citizen Sleeper developed by Jump Over the Age

"Role Playing in the Ruins of Interplanary Captialism." This is my sleeper hit of the year. It took a minute for this visual novel and dice-rolling RPG to get their hooks in me, but once they did, I was all in. You play as a human who's had their mind put into a robot, and you have just broken away from your "slavery adjacent" employers and become a refugee on this bustling space station. While looking for a way to eat and treat your chronic illness, you pick up a job, make new friends, unravel a space conspiracy, babysit, fix space ships, hack a robot mafia, and so much more. Not only did this game hit me deeply emotionally, but it also drove me to go back and see every single ending and every bit of content I missed in my first playthrough. Really wonderful stuff here.

3. Cyberpunk 2077: Next-Gen Update developed by CD Projekt RED

I had no idea I would fall so madly in love with this game. After it left such a bad taste in my mouth when I played it back in 2020, I was more than weary to believe that a good game was salvageable there. My wife played it at launch and sang its praises, so that was enough for me to want to give it a second chance. So I picked it back up in 2022, and my first thoughts were "It’s fine". While the quests were interesting enough, I found the character still super cringy. Luckily for me, the combat updates were really spicy. But then something happened. I was traversing this fictional 80s-drenched Neopacalypse world, probably 20 hours into the story, and it clicked... I suddenly fell in love with this world. The city, the surrounding desert, the suburbs, the cherry blossom trees, the upsetting yet peaceful mountains of trash—I just dug the world building that this game was throwing down. Coupled with the fact that halfway through my playthrough I lucked out and developer CDProject Red released the huge Next Generation Update Patch that overhauled so many negative aspects of Cyberpunk that it truly felt like I was playing a whole new game once the patch downloaded. Getting to experience this game before and after the mega update has made me appreciate the incredible hard work the developers were willing to put in to see their game become what they envisioned it to be from the start. And what it is is nothing short of stunning.

Main character is still kinda a prick though IMO.

2. God of War Ragnarok developed by Santa Monica Studios

"God of War: Ragnarok" felt like I was playing an HBO-quality series. For real. The cinematic quality of its cutscenes, the stellar voice and motion capture performances, and the epic storytelling of gods and monsters made it feel bigger than a video game. This just goes to show you how much Santa Monica Studio strives to push this medium beyond what people think it is capable of. "God of War" drives home a heavy narrative experience supported by intelligently designed gameplay in a way that feels natural and earned. The way they play with some of the ambiguous parts of Norse mythology is just delightfully fun; inferring vague lore in clever ways to create powerful character moments and put forth captivating action scenes was truly impressive. The heart of God of War, however, rests within the emotional journey of Kratos and his teenage son, Atreus. Seeing the emotional tug of war play out between these two was equally heartbreaking to watch and thrilling to experience. The themes of fate and destiny also allowed them to incorporate Faye, Kratos’ deceased wife, further into the fabric of the plot, fueling the power of connection between father and son. God of War: Ragnorok also had a twist in it that I'm still reeling from. Damn…. I’m still not okay with it.

1. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands developed by Gearbox Studios

I’m so surprised (and delighted) that this is my game of the year! I’ve never finished a Borderlands game. I have been starting and restarting them for ten years now. Every time I try at some point, I dunno, maybe the world gets bland or the guns get overwhelming? I’m not sure, but I always fall off. Well, not with Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands! This game got me so bad that after dumping 200+ hours into it, I was still asking for more. This is largely due to the heavy Dungeons & Dragons influence that permeated throughout this title. By being a spoof, parody, and immature satire of my favorite tabletop role-playing game, it tickled a special part of me that felt seen. The character builds were dynamic and deceptively deep; the gunplay was silly yet satisfying; and the story was one big inside joke or love letter for fans of tabletop role-playing games. To top it all off, I got the special privilege to play this game all the way through with my actual D&D group. How special is that? From parading and posing in ridiculous costumes, swapping loot we found to help each other's builds, crunching numbers to get our perfect combat synergy, to simply laughing ourselves silly night after night, this game felt like it was purposefully made for us, and in a way it was. When I look back at my favorite experiences in gaming in 2022, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland hits me with the most memorable moments per capita, and what’s even greater is that those are moments I get to share with some of my closest buds. Tiny Tina’s Wonderland is my 2022 Game of the Year.

______________________________________

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER (54 games played this year)

-Title (Developer) My Rating-

A Plague’s Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studios) Stunning!

No matter how dark, grim, and nihilistic this beautiful 14th-century Gothic game got, I constantly felt compelled to see it through to the end. This game made me ugly cry. Let me explain: in the middle of a run-of-the-mill "door puzzle," the main character you play as, Amicia, asks her brother and friend to stay behind as she figures out the puzzle. As soon as you walk around the corner, out of sight, your character involuntarily falls to their knees. This was the first time she felt allowed to process the overwhelming amount of tragedy she had experienced so far. She couldn’t show this vulnerability in front of her two younger companions, as she’s been their source of strength to make it through all this far. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I loved it. The game also went the extra mile to not minimize the act of killing. A trope that most, if not all, videogames gloss over. You see the consequences of children surviving in violent times, and it’s heartbreaking. There are a few moments of levity provided by colorful side characters, enriching environments, and a delightful mini-open world level to cut the darkness. Let me tell you, those moments are very much needed and appreciated.

Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers (Fiction Factory Games) This is Great!

Just a pure delight. I adored the previous game made by Fiction Factory Games, and I was ecstatic to find out they were making another. Where the first visual novel/dating sim game took place in a small arcade with a character who was ridden with critically low self-esteem, this game sees you as a cocky new pro-gamer joining a fledgling esports team. All the characters are quirky, interesting, and so goddamn endearing that you can’t help but get wrapped up in all of their lives in the most wholesome way possible. And the game's got a cute sense of humor too.

Backpack Hero (Jaspel) This is Great!

A quick, chill game to play. I found it while aimlessly browsing ich.io. I launched it and was quite surprised with how engrossed I instantly became with this dungeon-crawling inventory puzzle game. Very clever; check it out!

Bad Writer (Riddle Fox Games) it’s good, not great, but good.

It cost a buck on the Nintendo Switch Store, and its premise caught my attention, so I said, "Why not?" You play the role of an author, but you're having trouble finding inspiration. So you walk around your house, make tea, go to the park, watch TV, sleep, chat with your friend, and simply try to find anything that may give you an idea to pump out a story or two. Through prompts, you get to send off your writings, hoping they’ll get published and fretting that they’ll be ignored. I think I remember a "mood meter" too, like if you sleep too much or get rejected too often, you’ll hit writer’s block, and that's it. The game is all about finding your balance between your work, your home life, and your art, and it was only $1, so give it a whirl.

Bear & Breakfast (Gummy Cat Studio) oh no, this is not for me

Oh, how I wanted to like this game. I even bought it on the day it came out. And while yes, it delivered on its brilliant premise, playing as a bear that runs a bed and breakfast, I was shocked to find myself wanting more than that. Don’t get me wrong, the game tosses in lots of cute critters with funny professions, and you get weird offbeat side quests to fill in the world, but in the end, running and managing multiple B&Bs became a special brand of tedium that I simply wasn’t ready for. I ended up falling off the game after getting about 80% through it. Half of that time, I was playing just because I felt I had to.

Before Your Eyes (Goodbye World Games) Stunning!

What a freaking premise! You play this game by blinking your eyes. Yes! You turn on your computer camera, and it monitors when you blink. The game starts with you as a baby, but every time you blink, the story progresses. In this way, you get this heart-tugging story of Benjamin, who is on his deathbed, reflecting on his entire life. One blink at a time. Brilliant use of technology, especially the part where they made me blink through my watery eyes.

Children of Morta (Dead Mage Inc.) Stunning!

This game knocked me on my ass in the best way possible. How did I miss this gem when it came out? It’s a tight top-down dungeon action combat game with great mystical lore and a compelling fantasy world. Just incredible game design, top to bottom.

Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over the Age) Stunning!

This is my sleeper hit of the year. It took a minute for this visual novel and dice-rolling RPG to get their hooks in me, but once they did, I was all in. You play as a human who's had their mind put into a robot, and you have just broken away from your "slavery adjacent" employers and become a refugee on this bustling space station. While looking for a way to eat and treat your chronic illness, you pick up a job, make new friends, unravel a space conspiracy, babysit, fix space ships, hack a robot mafia, and so much more. Not only did this game hit me deeply emotionally, but it also drove me to go back and see every single ending and every bit of content I missed in my first playthrough. Really wonderful stuff here.

Clickpocalypse II (MINMAXIA) its ok I guess

Very crude I-phone game. It's a Dungeon Crawling Simulator, operating with a “Clicker” style game design. Fun for a bit, but as is the norm with Clickers, it gets boring.

Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt RED) Stunning!

I had no idea I would fall so madly in love with this game. After it left such a bad taste in my mouth when I played it back in 2020, I was more than weary to believe that a good game was salvageable there. My wife played it at launch and sang its praises, so that was enough for me to want to give it a second chance. So I picked it back up in 2022, and my first thoughts were "It’s fine". While the quests were interesting enough, I found the character still super cringy. Luckily for me, the combat updates were really spicy. But then something happened. I was traversing this fictional 80s-drenched Neopacalypse world, probably 20 hours into the story, and it clicked... I suddenly fell in love with this world. The city, the surrounding desert, the suburbs, the cherry blossom trees, the upsetting yet peaceful mountains of trash—I just dug the world building that this game was throwing down. Coupled with the fact that halfway through my playthrough I lucked out and developer CDProject Red released the huge Next Generation Update Patch that overhauled so many negative aspects of Cyberpunk that it truly felt like I was playing a whole new game once the patch downloaded. Getting to experience this game before and after the mega update has made me appreciate the incredible hard work the developers were willing to put in to see their game become what they envisioned it to be from the start. And what it is is nothing short of stunning.

Main character is still kinda a prick though IMO.

Deep Rock Galactic (Ghost Ship Games) it’s good, not great, but good.

You play as a space dwarf mining for resources on comets and shit. Like…"hell yea". What a solid promise! As you drill into these caves, you work together through multiplayer (for me, my wife and I played together), solving puzzles, collecting ore, and trying to survive hoards of bugs and other nasties trying to end you. It’s thrilling and silly, and it has a pretty good loot system to make you want to keep going back in. As you progress, the amount of time you put into completing levels rises, as does the stress of getting gutted by an enemy, losing everything, and therefore wasting your time. That stress ended up getting the better of us when we almost got wiped out after getting stuck and surviving for almost two hours in a cave run. I did not want to experience that again. Oh! You can drink beer and dance at home. Good shit.

Dicey Dungeons (Distractionware) it’s good, not great, but good!

Fun strategy game, obviously very luck-based, but there’s a good level of deck strategy and item management at work here. It all moves at a lively pace, which makes for a very fun, flashy game. I played it on Microsoft Game Pass.

Dragons of Stormwreck Island (Wizards of the West Coast) This is Great!

So I became a dungeon master this year. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is the first D&D module I’ve run to completion. While the actual content of the module is rather light, the inspiration it gave me to mod and craft this small campaign into a big ol' custom adventure for my friends is extraordinary. It has inspired me to put together a multi-arc campaign that hopefully will entertain and thrill my friends (and myself) for a real long time to come. I’m bristling with excitement over here; look at me...bristlin!

Elden Ring (From Soft) oh no, this is not for me

Ok.

I’ve been observing my friends playing these "From Soft/Dark Souls" games from afar. I know they are super punishing, and conquering them is said to release this euphoric sense of accomplishment that I’ve always envied. So, with Elden Ring coming out and taking the gaming world by storm, I decided I would finally jump in to see what it’s all about. I played close to 30 hours of this game before I had to accept that Elden Ring is just not for me.

I absolutely love the mystery and exploration of the world. They created this "sense" that anything could happen right around the corner, and I loved losing myself in that. What I couldn't get over was the repetition of combat against the many tough bosses. You lose, you learn the bosses' behaviors, then you fight them again, getting a little better every time. "Lose...learn...fight...lose...learn...fight" until BOOM, everything in you clicks, you become one with the combat system, and you win. Don’t get me wrong, I loved this cycle for the first few times. I just didn't want to do that loop over and over. Getting around that loop meant grinding on lower-level creatures until I was powerful enough to overpower those big bosses, but that also got boring for me. My only real connection to the game was its wonderful landscape and atmosphere. Worth noting: I’m also a very narrative-driven gamer, and this game hides that lore pretty well. While the mystery of this world is super intriguing, after a while, the intrigue wasn’t enough to motivate me to care about my character’s place or mission in this world.

In the end, the most fun I had with Elden Ring was linking up with a friend who had beaten the game multiple times. I would just sit back and watch him demolish dragons and behemoths while we chatted, laughed, and caught up.

All this being said, I totally understand why this game is regarded so fondly. I intellectually get why this is considered one of the best games of the year and even the decade. But I also realize that those merits simply aren't to my liking. My apologies, gaming world, don’t hate me!

FIFA 22 (EA Vancouver) This is Great!

I’ve been wondering what "offsides" means in soccer since I was in high school. What I did know about it made me go "Why would they make that rule? That's dumb". Well, jumping feet first into this EA Soccer game not only got me to fully understand what "offsides" means, but it also got me to realize why it's a brilliant rule (it creates this great tension on the field and keeps the ball play tight). That epiphany applies to my whole outlook on soccer. You see, back in 2016, I played NBA2K, and by getting into the videogame rules of basketball, it opened my eyes to how great a sport actual basketball is. It even got me, a "non-sports guy", into sports. Since then, I’ve tried to play one sports simulation game a year with the hopes that it will unlock this same epiphanic interest in me that is beyond just "put the ball in the net". Well, FIFA did not disappoint. I loved this game; I loved making both my male and female characters; I loved learning the role of a center forward; and I loved the feeling of seeing a full season of matches come to a head. And I had a wonderful coach to guide me through it. Shout out to @hasselapalooza. What sports game should I play in 2023? Let me know!

The Forgotten City (Modern Storyteller) Stunning!

Time loops are dope! I have a soft spot for them in any form, such as "Groundhog Day," "Happy Death Day," "12 Minutes," etc. The idea of time loops electrifies my brain in a wonderful way, and "The Forgotten City" is one of the best applications of this mechanic in gaming. With a super deep mystery, you replay a cursed day over and over again in this hidden Roman city, trying to uncover murder, magic, and everything above. By the end, I was practically applauding out loud for the makers of this game. I was nothing short of awed and fulfilled when the credits rolled. That being said, the game runs on the modified engine of Skyrim, an 11-year-old game, so the animations look dated and stiff. However, this minor detail doesn’t detract from the overall wonderful experience."

Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (Worm Club) This is Great!

Delightful, funny, and charming. I love a game where you can feel the direct hand of the maker. In many ways, this game reminded me of one of my favorite indie titles, "Dominique Pamplemousse in 'It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!'" Both of these games overflow with creative love from their makers and have their signatures imprinted on them. Have yourself a feel-good evening and play "Frog Detective".

God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studios) Stunning!

Halfway through playing this game, I was talking to a friend, and when they asked about GOW, I mistakenly said, "it's such a really robust TV Series". "God of War: Ragnarok" felt like I was playing an HBO-quality series. For real. The cinematic quality of its cutscenes, the stellar voice and motion capture performances, and the epic storytelling of gods and monsters made it feel bigger than a video game. This just goes to show you how much Santa Monica Studio strives to push this medium beyond what people think it is capable of. "God of War" drives home a heavy narrative experience supported by intelligently designed gameplay in a way that feels natural and earned. The way they play with some of the ambiguous parts of Norse mythology is just delightfully fun; inferring vague lore in clever ways to create powerful character moments and put forth captivating action scenes was truly impressive. The heart of God of War, however, rests within the emotional journey of Kratos and his teenage son, Atreus. Seeing the emotional tug of war play out between these two was equally heartbreaking to watch and thrilling to experience. The themes of fate and destiny also allowed them to incorporate Faye, Kratos’ deceased wife, further into the fabric of the plot, fueling the power of connection between father and son. God of War: Ragnorok also had a twist in it that I'm still reeling from. Damn…. I’m still not okay with it.

Godfall (Counterplay Games) it’s good, not great, but good!

I played the free version of this loot-driven action combat game, which contained only the endgame content. Much to my surprise,the endgame missions were comprised of levels from the full version of the game but randomly distributed.

Your boy Troy here realized there was a way to acquire the full 100% completion Platinum Trophy through this free version of the game if I was just patient and lucky enough. And you better believe I did.

To tell you the truth, I needed the extra objective of getting PlayStation Trophies to hold my interest in the game. It plays well, and the character builds are exciting and number-crunchy in the best way. But the enemies and environments get a bit repetitive, and the story, from what I hobbled together, leaves quite a bit to be desired. All in all, I more than got my money's worth for this free game, so in the end, I have zero complaints.

Gorogoa (Jason Roberts) Stunning!

Mind-trippy and beautiful. My wife played this game on her smartphone years ago, and I’ve been meaning to get to it since. Luckily, it popped up on the Game Pass service, and I immediately installed it. Boy, am I glad I did. It truly is like playing inside a fine art painting. The puzzles are mind-bending, and the metaphorical tale they weave is nothing short of poignant. A great indie title.

Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital) it’s good, not great, but good!

I’ve been playing Gran Turismo games since I was in middle school. I still get a delightful bit of nostalgia whenever I boot up the latest iterations of this franchise. But as usual, once that "good-feeling nostalgia" wears off, I tend to get pretty bored with the title. Gran Turismo is a game made for car nerds. I wish I was a car nerd, but sadly, my deep interest in cars piqued around 10th grade. The game is technically incredible; you can customize your cars inside and out, tweaking every single part of your machines to perfection.

My problem was with the unreliable way to earn currency in this game. Currency allowed you to "supe up" and modify your cars. Unfortunately, loot boxes that often gave me low-value drops or grinding a single race over and over to make money got really old. Eventually I found myself being boxed out of doing what I liked most about this game because I was too poor to afford to fix my car, you know, like in real life. And that’s how I fell off. I have deep respect for the achievement of this title; it just didn't have the legs I’d hoped for.

Graveyard Keeper (Lazy Bear Games) Stunning!

What a smash hit for me! My wife and I parallel-played this game, which made it even better. I had this "farming simulator type game" itch, and while this game is not farming, it still scratched that itch and then some. With the wonderful premise of being the caretaker of a graveyard and also a stand-in as a funeral home operator, dead bodies are delivered to you from "locations unknown," and you're in charge of preparing the body for burial or cremation. You’re also in charge of crafting the tombstones and arranging the graveyard. It’s dark but humorously wrapped in an 8-bit cute-looking world that also delivers a surprisingly deep "Twin Peaks bizarro" story beyond it all. A stunning game from top to bottom.

Halo: Combat Evolved (Bungie) This is Great!

I first played this game in 2003, the summer after I graduated high school. I loved it back then, and I love it even more now. I’m not an Xbox guy, so I played this game originally at a friend’s house and haven't played it or any of its sequels since. Lucky for me, Game Pass has almost all of them. So my entire January of 2022 was spent catching up on the Halo Series.

What made me love replaying the first game was seeing how similar it was to its spiritual predecessor and one of my favorite FPS games, Destiny. Seeing the origins of enemies and mission types in Destiny really thrilled me. I also enjoyed watching YouTube reviews and press from the game’s release; it felt like I was back in the early 2000s.

Halo 2 (Bungie) Stunning!

Alright. This game knocked me on my ass. This is the title that made me fully understand why Halo is a juggernaut in the games industry. And it was mainly the story that hooked me. Half of this game you play as the mega-hero Master Chief, and the other half you play as The Arbiter, a member of the enemy faction you’ve been slaughtering this whole time as Master Chief.

This ping-pong narrative between two sides of a war was way before its time. At least in regards to video game narratives, I became so engrossed with this story mechanic. It was fun, fast, and challenged the notion of there being "right or wrong" sides to war. Big fan.

Halo 3 (Bungie) it’s good, not great, but good!

So yeah, this game is fun. It plays like a jam-packed blockbuster summer action movie. But it’s obvious that the company received flack from critics and fans about Halo 2’s deeper narrative, so this addition is all "let's just shoot and blow sh*t up" the game. And that’s fine; like I said, it’s a lot of fun, so I’m not angry, but it didn’t leave any kind of lasting impression.

Halo ODST (Bungie) This is Great!

I truly appreciated the non-linear storytelling this presented. Bungie really flexed its ability to break conventional narrative forms with this game. Slowly putting together a tale from multiple perspectives turned this into a mystery of sorts. Add on top of that the snappy shooting mechanics we’ve come to expect and a refreshing neo-urban setting, and you’ve got yourself another great sequel in the Halo series. Great stuff.

Horizon: Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games) Stunning!

This game's predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn, was my "Game of the Year" back in 2017, beating out the lauded Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the acclaimed Nier Automata. It's the fact that this game melds exploration and combat into a seamless form that feels so damn fluid and freeing. Yes, this sequel makes the game map even bigger, and yes, this sequel makes the story even wilder, but it's all grounded in the absolute stellar mechanics of your ability to navigate their gorgeous world. The combat continues to feel fresh and fair as you engage in epic battles against mechanical dinosaurs, some of which are multiple stories high and others that fly. You uncover a really fun sci-fi plot involving a world once destroyed and on the brink of annihilation again, but with a nice twist of intergalactic melodrama. You’re greeted with stunning visual after stunning visual as you traverse the harrowing landscape before you. A lot of criticism, understandably, stems from fatigue with the open-world genre. So please know that my penchant for that type of game world is very high. I fortunately never felt that twinge of overwhelmingness, so I simply got to have a carefree time traversing this breathtaking landscape. You also get to fly a robot pterodactyl! A. Robot. Pterodactyl.

Lake (Gamious) This is Great!

What a delightful surprise this game was for me! You drive around a small town, delivering mail, listening to indie folk music—that's basically it. You play as Meredith, a woman who grew up here but moved away. She got a big city job, but now you're back for a couple of weeks to relax and run your dad’s postal route while he is on vacation. You date townies, catch up with the diner lady, reconnect with old friends, and balance your big city job along the way. It’s a slow-burner of a game, but one I truly appreciated by the end. I still hum some of those indie radio songs from time to time.

Loop Hero (Four Quarters) This is Great!

Looking at this game doesn’t do it justice. It’s almost indecipherable as a game, by the looks of it. But as Loop Hero, this dungeon simulation, hero management, and strategy game gets going, all the pieces start coming together in a way that is both brilliant and disarming. This is essentially a dungeon-crawling game, but you don't have to worry about the actual combat. Instead, you manage the loot, loadout, and placement of the adversaries as your hero automatically battles their way through it. The brilliance comes in the form of allowing you to manage the terrain of the dungeon by slowly ramping up the difficulty with hopes of better rewards. I never finished Loop Hero; I got four worlds deep before the slow grind of late-game advancement ultimately beat me. But I still feel very satisfied with the dozens of hours I spent delving into the mystique of this game. Also, the soundtrack effing slaps.

Mario Golf SuperRush (Nintendo) it’s good, not great, but good!

I did not expect to actually learn about golf by playing this Mario game. Yes, it has a lot of cartoon tomfoolery with the whole Super Rush "Golf Racing/Sprint to Your Ball" mechanic. But for many hours before they even introduced that gameplay hook, they simply taught you golf. I learned the differences between irons, fairway terminology, driving vs. putting strategy, accounting for wind, and more. I found myself getting so engrossed in simply learning about and playing golf that when they introduced the silly "racing golf" mechanic, I was like "No thank you, I’m good with vanilla golf, please". It does make me interested in maybe checking out one of the golf simulations I’ve been avoiding for years; who knows? Is 2023 my golfing year?

Marvel Snap (Second Dinner Studios) Stunning!

I don’t know exactly what to say about this iPhone, card collecting, and strategy game except that it has taken over my life. I started playing it the week it came out in what? November of ‘22, and I’m still playing it on a daily basis even as I’m writing this, which is well into 2023. No seriously… I’ve taken too many breaks from typing this document to sneak in a couple rounds of Marvel Snap matches as I write. The development team is composed of the makers of the wildly popular digital card game "Hearthstone" (a game that, by itself, absorbed my life for half a year). Well, they did not miss with this one. It has quick, exciting gameplay, deep, versatile strategies, and wonderful use of the Marvel IP, where the cards themselves not only look great (with superb comic-inspired art), but they also play in ways that honor the heroes or villains they represent. Once I lost against a player who, at the end of our match, surprised me by revealing to have played the Agatha Harkness card (a card that takes over all your cards and autoplays the entire match for you), I audibly whispered, "It was Agatha all Along"( a sweet callback joke to 2020’s wonderful Disney+ series WandaVision)...that brilliant and super clever game design is present throughout the entire game, and I can’t help but simply applaud their attention to detail. With new features added like a "vs. your friends" mode and many more cards and special events, I see myself playing this game well into this year and maybe even some more. Also, fun fact: not only is it one of my most played games this year, but it’s also free. I haven't spent a dime on it.

Multiversus (Player First Games) This is Great!

Take Batman, Steven Universe, Arya Stark, and Lebron James, toss them all in a brawler, and out comes Multiversus. At first glance, this seems like nothing more than a branding gimmick, but if you spend time learning how each character fights, you find a really interesting multiplayer fighter. What differentiates this game from the very obvious influence of Super Smash Bros. is its emphasis on playing as a duo. A lot of your move set relies on smartly buffing or enhancing your teammates while they enhance you. They baked cooperation right into each move set so no player can simply strong-arm their way to victory alone, and I really dig that. My mains were Batman (getting those gadget combos felt real good), Wonder Woman (deftly using your shield and making your teammate invulnerable at just the right moment also felt real good), and Tom & Jerry (who were the hardest to learn but worth it just for their fantastic fighting animations). In the end, this free-to-play game is a blast if you are willing to put the time into it; otherwise, it’ll just come off as chaos incarnate.

Neon White (Angel Matrix) Stunning!

Who wants some tight-ass game design!? This is a "first-person shooter/card-based/puzzle-platforming/visual novel/speedrun" game, and while that sounds confusing on paper, the diabolically adept designers of this title make it all make sense as soon as you get your hands on the controller (or keyboard for you PC peeps). I was smiling ear to ear while figuring out the plethora of delightfully rewarding puzzles, marveling at the ingenuity and execution of those tight level designs, and nefariously cackling every time I broke one of my friends' fastest times. I was pleasantly surprised to find the maker of this game is also the developer of Donut County, a game that could not be more different from Neon White. All this to say, Neon White was the perfect summer game that left me feeling nothing but gratification by the end of my playthroughs.

Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo) oh no, not for me

Kind of boring. All these years later, the tech for these sports anthology games seems just as off as it did 15 years ago. At least then, it was exciting "new gaming tech". Now it just feels like, "Why am I doing this to myself?" I did like Team Volleyball; my wife and I worked out some pretty good strategies together, and we also worked up a good sweat too. Other than that, I was just not impressed by what this title had to offer.

Nobody Saves the World (Drinkbox Studios) Stunning!

This was my COVID game. I dodged the "Coco" for over two years, but once it got me, I decided to settle in and ride it out by playing "Nobody Saves the World" while sucking on endless cough drops . My time with COVID was gratefully not hospital-inducing, but I was "laid the fuck out" as my temperature got as close as it could before we’d have to take a ride to the ER. All that to say, my mind was in a very weird and worn-out place when I decided to play this game. I can’t say I remember all the details, but I do know that it was just challenging enough to stimulate me and not so tough that my fevered brain couldn’t handle it. What I mean to say is that Nobody Saves the World provided me with so much fun and entertainment when I needed it the most this summer. The way you progress in this world (leveling up a "smorgasbord" of colorful characters and unlocking new powers and skills) led to a level of unique playability that I had not experienced in a dungeon crawler before. I relished every moment that I had with this game, and it will forever provide at least one pleasant memory when I think back on my time with COVID.

Overwatch 2 (Activision Blizzard) This is Great!

The sequel to the game on which I’ve spent the most gaming hours of my life came out this year.

and it’s fine.

I won’t lie... The problems with Blizzard as a company have tainted the "wide-eyed zest" I’d had for Overwatch, yet it still remains one of my favorite games of all time. Mechanically, it’s just as fun and exciting as it’s always been, and maybe even more so with the changes to the gameplay.

The switch to having only one tank per team has naturally centralized the action of the match around the tank. This helps synergize teamwork without having to smash the "Group Up!" voice line as much. Matches are faster and hit harder, yet the thrill of the "on-the-fly strategy" playing Overwatch gives me is just as electric as ever.

However, curbing the cosmetic aspect of the game really bums me out. I love dressing my heroes up, but I’m not into spending hundreds of dollars to do it.

Overwatch has been in my top ten for multiple years; it's not any more. Nowadays, it's just like an old friend that I talk to every couple of days. It’s not "wowing" me with anything new or different, but I always enjoy the conversation.

Powerwash Simulator (FuturLab) This is Great!

I am so glad games like this exist. Whether it’s House Flippin’, Lawn Mowin’, or Powerwashin’, these games tap into the satisfaction of completing housework without actually having to do housework. Sign me up for a laundry simulator or gutter cleaning simulator, because yes, doing these "chores' ' in real life does net me a great deal of satisfaction when completed... but all that sh*t beforehand? Getting a ladder, finding my gloves, getting up the ladder, forgetting I need a trash bag, falling off the ladder, going to the ER... Getting to play a video game where I just get the part where I clean a thing and move on feels great. The Powerwash Simulator is, just like the real act of power washing, uber relaxing. The game comes with multiple nozzle types, so you can optimize your washing through lots of fun, grimy ass levels for you to polish up. Meticulously spending my time cleaning every single inch of that dumb playground felt so good. A bare-bones but still fun multiplayer mode allowed me to play with my wife, and we honestly had a blast washing up a house together. Getting to say things like "Cool babe, yeah, I got the porch awning; you got the garage roof? Sweet". In the end, however, the levels didn't hold my attention long enough for me to play through every level the game had to offer (even though some levels involved Mars! ), and I found myself satisfied with my experience to walk away after 4 or 5 of them. That being said, I walked away feeling good about my experience, knowing that if I ever wanted to relax, pop on a podcast, and clean up a dirty ass lattice fence, this game would be there for me.

Signs of the Sojourner (Echdodog Games) Stunning!

This game was made for me. I absolutely love narrative-heavy, empathy-driven video games, and I absolutely love card-collecting strategy games. Somehow this game mixes those two genres together in a way that I feel totally incapable of adequately explaining. But what I can say is that they pull it off in one of the most fascinating, unique, and smartly designed games I’ve ever played. The gameplay revolves around a series of conversations. As the owner of a shop, you travel the country convincing people to sell you items that you bring back to your shop to turn a profit. In the game, it’s not about what you're saying that matters, but more about how you say it. To aid in this concept, you are given cards that represent conversational types. You play these cards to converse. When you encounter someone who talks differently, you pick up some of their conversational tropes. The more diverse ways of talking you’re exposed to, the more cards you pick up, and the better you become overall at communicating. It's a really striking metaphor to play through. And it works so well. It does get tough in the end, but if you're listening (just like in real life), you'll get through it.

Six Cats Under (Miles Äijälä) This is Great!

Want a free, silly, yet dark ass game? In Six Cats Under, you die alone in your apartment filled with like 15 cats. As a poltergeist, you then have to manipulate the environment to help your cats escape your locked apartment. It’s cute and smart, and did I mention it's free? Go look it up.

Sort the Court (Graeme Borland) it's good, not great, but good!

Another free game I found on itch.io

The premise is simple: you're a royal, and people approach you with a litany of problems... and you sort them out. The art design is simple and clean, and the gameplay is straight-forward, allowing you to get into the action very quickly. and once again, it's free.

Steel Rising (SPIDERS) This is Great!

Big news with this game: Steel Rising is the first "Souls Like" game that I’ve enjoyed. I honestly relished everything about this game. From its Gothic/Victorian setting to its fascinating combat mechanics to even its hilariously madcap twist on French history. Unfortunately, however, I stopped playing it. I don't know what happened! I was honestly having a great time relishing my first Souls-like game, and then I think maybe I got busy with work, and then two months went by and I was like, "Wait..did I not finish that game?" Every day since then, I have told myself that I will get back to it. but I never do. At this point, I’m going to have to come to terms and let this wonderful Robo Noir Marie Antoinette Horror game go. But I’ll never forget how it finally showed me the appeal of the "Souls Like" genre.

Stray (BlueTwelve Studios) This is Great!

It’s that cat with a backpack game! While this game could’ve been a winner simply with the premise of being a cat, the developers at BlueTwelve Studios went the extra mile to create a fascinating dystopian futuristic landscape drenched in longing yet sprinkled with hope. While it was the cat that got me to initially pick up the controller, it was the atmospheric storytelling that got me to stay till the end.

Super Mario Party (Nintendo) oh no, not for me

Wow. I’ve played a lot of Mario Parties in my day—all of them a menacing swirl of fun and frustration. This one, however, dials the frustration up to eleven. It wasn't the random rolls; it was bonus stars at the end; it was simply asinine level design. We spent the whole game chasing stars that were one square away, but we couldn’t touch them because we needed to use our full movement. One square! Yet I roll a 12, so I have to figure out a way to run away and then back to Star... but oops, I can only get it if you rolled an odd number. Oy! But I thought to myself, "Troy, don’t be mad; you are not the target demographic for this game; kids will find this fun". WELL NO. I played this with my nieces, both under 10 years old, and they also found it super frustrating and ultimately boring. In the end, at the very least, we all got to laugh about how mad it made all of us, so I guess... "Good job, Nintendo?"

Thunderbird Strike (Elizabeth LaPensée) This is Great!

I researched Elizabeth LaPensée, a developer, for our podcast. She has Indigenous heritage and made a game about a Native God flying through the land, saving animals, and destroying pipe lines. SUPER DOPE. The lore behind this game revolves around a real ancient tale speaking of the Thunderbird rising in the land to fight the big black snake (pipes) that will ruin the world.

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep (Gearbox Studios) This is Great!

This is a stand-alone expansion minigame that came out in 2021. The developers experimented with the idea of theming levels around the madcap fun of tabletop role-playing games (like D&D). The results were pretty surprising. For a one-shot, there was plenty of content to get lost in, and the story itself bravely touched on how role-playing games can be used (both healthily and poorly) to cope with heavy issues like grief and depression. All in all, a great quick romp with a few friends It also set up the stellar full-sized sequel that you're reading about next!

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (Gearbox Studios) Stunning!

I’ve never finished a Borderlands game. I have been starting and restarting them for ten years now. Every time I play them; at some point, the world gets blands, or the guns get overwhelming. I’m not sure, but I ALWAYS fall off. Well NOT with Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands! This game got me so bad, that after dumping 200+ hours into it, I was still asking for more. This is largely due to the heavy Dungeons & Dragons influence that permeated throughout this title. By being a spoof/parody/satire of my favorite tabletop role playing game, it tickled a special part of me that felt seen. The Character Builds were more dynamic and deceptively deep, the gunplay was silly and engaging, and the story was one big inside joke/love letter to fans of Tabletop Role Play Games. To top that all off, I got the special privilege to play this game, all the way through with my actual D&D group. How special is that? From parading and posing in ridiculous costumes, to spending hours crunching numbers to get the perfect combat synergy, to simply laughing at ourselves into the night; this game felt like it was purposefully made for us…and in a way it was. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, might be a redressing of the standard Borderlands formula, but to us..it was our goofy story and one we still think of fondly to this day.

Tour de France 2021 (Cyanide Studios) oh no, not for me

It’s an elite road cycling simulator. If you’ve ever seen one on TV, then you know one race can last for about 5 hours. Thankfully, this game lets you skip to the parts of the race that are thrilling and fast, like when they go downhill or... the end of the race. I, however, decided to try and "keep it real". Big mistake. Cut to Troy: 1 hour and 15 minutes in, he's periodically mashing the X button to keep up with his team. His mind was numb, and his fingers were unfulfilled. I came in last. 2 and a half hours of playing one race—dead last. But I did learn a bit about how a team can race together and the strategies that team cyclists use to give each other breaks or create openings for passes. Next time, however, I might just play those downhill parts.

Trek to Yomi (Flying Wild Hog) This is Great!

Yeeees. It's Kurosawa, the videogame. This game initially felt more like his films than Ghost of Tsushima did. I think it was the fixed camera angles and that the black-and-white grain look wasn’t a filter but was built that way from the start. The visuals themselves are the reason to play this. My jaw dropped with every new frame that came into view. The story is pretty classic, and the combat feels good. It gets a little "samesy" towards the end, but that’s fine. I had an absolute ball playing this game right up until the end, when I encountered a game-breaking glitch. With no choice but to start over, I decided to simply hop on YouTube and watch the final battle and the finale. A bit of "womp, womp" to end what was a really magical journey

Tribes of Midgard (Norsfell) oh no, not for me

Nope. Not for me. Next please. The mechanics of this Norse-themed RTS game simply never hooked me. With "slow burn" games like these, the journey of building up your defenses has to be just as much fun as the defending itself. I felt both were dry and lacking.

Tunic (Andrew Shouldice) Stunning!

Tunic is both one of the most familiar-feeling games I've played this year and also completely unlike anything I've ever played before. I knew nothing about the game going in, but I decided to pick it up on GamePass. The coolest thing about this isometric adventure/puzzler is that it doesn’t tell you anything about how to play. Instead, you pick up pages of an old-school game manual, completely out of order, that help you learn as you go. What’s more, the manual is written in a made-up language, so you have to use its pictures, context clues, and trial and error to figure out how to navigate this world. And let me tell you, it’s a world worth navigating. Every revelation of the new game mechanic elicited swaths of joy within me as I realized all the new places I could go or enemies I could take on. It somehow captured that wonderment of when I was a teenager, getting my hands on a Japanese game, having zero idea how to play it, but figuring it out little by little. In short, Tunic is brilliant.

Vampire Survivors (Poncle) Stunning!

Visually, this game looks like "gobbledygook". It’s definitely one of those titles you have to get your hands on to understand the magic. Be warned, however, as this game is addicting as fuck. What started as a mild curiosity for me turned into a full-blown week where all I could think about was this game. "What characters would help me survive longer, what weapon combos I could craft, which abilities to upgrade?" The euphoric state it puts you in, when all the stars align and your strategy starts working, is everything. That all led me into this beautiful yet dangerous "I’ll play just one more" mentality. I lost my mind that week. My wife was probably concerned. Luckily! The hold broke after I had accomplished enough in the game and stepped away, but even now... I still think about going back. Also, seeing that this little game won a BAFTA for Best Game warms my little ole heart.

What Comes After (Fahmitsu) Stunning!

What a beautiful game. It centers around the mistaken death of a young woman. As she travels on the train to the afterlife, she gets to meet everyone who is on this journey. Going from car to car, she meets and talks with people, animals, and even plants about what it means to live and what it’s like to transition from there. The amount of thoughtful, poignant perspectives presented in this piece is astounding, all with a balancing dose of humor and whimsy. It is a game that gently challenges you with tough subjects without making them feel oppressive or morose. Since the young woman’s death was mistaken, she is given a complimentary round trip back to the land of the living, but in the process, she gains a brand new outlook on the world and all the things within it. On a sad note, the maker of this game, Indonesian game developer Mohammad Fahmi, passed away this year unexpectedly. This game already resonated with me before his passing, but it hits a different note now that he has.Check out this amazing human here :mohammad fahmi - YouTube

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?(Wales Interactive) Oh no, not for me

I really wanted to like this. A Full-Motion Video Whodunnit Murder Mystery? Right up my alley. I played through it once, but this is the type of game where you only get the full story by replaying and making different choices. Slowly, the whole picture starts coming together. Unfortunately, subsequent playthroughs of this game had me sitting through the same scenes over and over just to get to the one part of the conversation where I could make a new choice. Those scenes are also unskippable. In the end, I simply didn't have the constitution to see this game through to its true ending. Also, the lip sync would often get all catawampus. Shame, because I was pretty into the mystery.

Wordle (Josh Wardle) Stunning!

What a darling way to start off the year! I love when a game gets so mainstream that it feels like you can strike up a conversation with anybody on the street about it.

Wordle had that kind of magic. RhytmnBastard made me aware of this game ("before it became popular," I might add)::snooty glasses push:: and I instantly fell in love with it. Dark Mode, Hard Mode, starting with random words—I loved the daily challenge and checking in on the internet to see how everyone else did that day. As soon as midnight hit, it didn't matter what I was doing; I would stop everything to play the new Wordle. That type of zeitgeist for me hasn't been felt since Pokemon Go or maybe HQ Trivia with Quiz Daddy, Scott Rogowsky! I was so taken by this game that I even played its spin-offs: Quordle, Movie Wordle, Game Wordle, and Swear Wordle. I was "in it to win it" with these games. While there was a lot of fallout after The New York Times bought it, I was overjoyed that the creators got their big payout and bounced. The cleanest success story I’ve seen

____________________

Thanks for Reading, check out my reviews of every movie and tv show I saw in 2022:

2022 Movies: We Happy Review!

2022 TV Series: We Happy Review!