Game of the Year 2022
Well! IT CERTAINLY HAS been QUITE THE YEAR for this site hasn't it? I started my last GOTY list that way, rather foolishly assuming it wouldn't get any wilder this year. Strange year for my game playing as well, and I'll say: I haven't finished a few of these yet, or they'd probably rank higher. But if an unreleased game can win GotY, then so can games I didn't finish. Don't like it? Don't eat it.
(DIS)Honorable Mentions:
Normally I'm pretty positive about my honorable mentions, but while I liked most of the following games quite a bit, I'll say that each one had a fatal flaw or two that kept them off my list.
Cult of the Lamb: On-paper, a game combining Stardew Valley with Hades, two of my favorite games of the last ever, should be an absolute slam-dunk, but unfortunately: when you set the bar that high, it can be impossible to jump over. I'd have taken a latter-day Harvest Moon combined with Curse of the Dead Gods, but unfortunately, a great many glitches in an incredibly weak final act robbed the game of a lot of its simple pleasures for me.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers: Another fantastically wild concept, a 4v1 battle for survival against Dragon Ball's biggest villains where you play an "ordinary" person who can be gifted bursts of power to fight back. But the general rule is: survive and escape. Unfortunately the balance was nowhere close to what it needed to be and the lackluster tutorial tools and poorly explained currencies and mechanics felt far more at home in a free-to-play game, and certainly not a $40 one. To say nothing of imprecise controls and incredibly ho-hum graphics and sound design.
DNF Duel: This one's on me, I just don't have the brain for anime fighters any more, it seems. If I ever did. Even this "approachable" and "easy to pick up" game had me stuck at lowest ranks online, despite a suite of excellent tutorial tools.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes: After the one-two punch of "Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity" and "Persona 5: Strikers," I actually had fairly high hopes going into this musou take on the Fire Emblem: Three Houses world. And unfortunately, the game was simply "good enough." Good enough to play, good enough to engage with, but not good enough to stand out to the surprisingly high standard of licensed musou games, and I still can't believe I write that 100% without irony.
Warhammer 40,000 Chaosgate-Daemon Hunters: The tactics game I have spent the least time with, and still another in the long list of "XCOM-but-DIFFERENT," I find myself really enjoying it while I play it but rarely with the urge to return to it. It'll probably be my go-to PC game for the next year or so, but it doesn't really inspire me.
Vampire Survivors: I have really enjoyed this game, and have played a great deal and unlocked a great deal, but can't quite shake the feeling that it's a joke to which I don't understand the punchline. I enjoy it while playing it, but it doesn't quite vibe for me in the way I wish it did when I read others' takes on it. It feels like I'm playing Inscryption without ever getting to the last part of the Leshy battle.