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berdenb

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Favorite Games I Played/Completed in 2022

Me making and writing a list about my favorite games I played/completed in 2022 would feel incomplete without me first talking about the Steam Deck. Seven of the games on my list I either exclusively played on my Steam Deck or primarily played on it. It's the perfect blend of a capable handheld for Triple A games and the perfect device for smaller indie games. It's also just the perfect device for me given my love for handheld consoles, I'm already a PC gamer, and I love having a new device to tinker with. My first month with the machine was just spent setting things up, seeing how well games ran, figuring out Linux, and when I did finally start actually playing games on it the first game I played was Brandish, a PSP game! Now-a-days I have a dock, monitor, keyboard, and X-Box controller I keep at work so I basically treat the thing as a Switch, just kind of ass-backwards. I also mention that because I'm typed most of this list out whilst on my Steam Deck with my work set-up! I absolutely love this thing and look forward to updated versions of it.

List items

  • I have been playing this game on and off for over a year now but getting my Steam Deck and being able to play LIke a Dragon at work got me to finally dig in and do just about everything this game had to offer.

    Yakuza: Like a Dragon is one of the best JRPGs I've ever played. The story and characters are complicated and intricate. The game is chock-full of side missions and mini-games that are well worth the time for their stories and their rewards (along with having full blown games like Virtua Fighter 5 inside the game!). Ichiban Kasuga, the protagonist, is the most endearing and likable character; he wins over everybody in game, and the people playing the game. On top of all of this, holy shit is this game hilarious. (SPOILERS) I fought a giant roomba that a scientist made to help "clean the streets", and once I did I was rewarded with having said giant roomba as an employee for the business management game (something you should definitely not skip out on if you play this game). And let me tell you, that roomba is an absolute killer on the board of directors.

  • Endwalker is the finale of the bat-shit insane main story that has carried through from the beginning of the game up until now. (SPOILERS) You literally go to the moon and kill Hades, which in turn re-sparks the Armageddon that it was preventing and so you go back in time to when the Armageddon first began to figure out why it happened so you can stop it. This then leads to you going to the edge of the universe to deal with the cause of the Armageddon and after you prevent it you then have the most glorious and epic battle with your good ol' buddy Zenos. I'm honestly selling the story found in Endwalker short but there's way too many pieces and interesting characters (mainly the Loporrits) for me to want to cover them all.

    It wasn't all just the story that I enjoyed about this expansion though. The art style of the game from the locations, the armor, the music, basically everything except the boring ass human faces is just amazing. Endwalker also introduced a new job to the game, the Reaper. I've been mostly sticking to two jobs (Ninja/Bard) throughout my time with the game but decided to check out the new job and fell in love. Mind you, FFXIV is still an MMO so the gameplay is what it is, but the Reaper just feels at home for me.

  • I ended up buying Tinykin because of a perfect storm of hearing about it and that it had a demo, checking out the demo on my Steam Deck, loving how well it ran and looked on my Steam Deck along with it being a fun game, and then it being a $25 game at full price.

    Tinykin is a platformer collect-a-thon where you're a tiny person inside of a house where each stage is a different room and, along with a few other items, you pick up Tinykin that are akin to Pikmin and you use them to access new areas on each stage or use them to gather Pollen (basically your progession of each stage).

    Tinykin is one of those games where it's pretty simple on why I like it: It has a charming look, the sound effects are very well done, it's a game that while the only real goal is collecting things it still doesn't overstay it's welcome, and it just feels good to platform in this game, especially with your soap board. Also why the hell not for $20 when it's on sale!?

  • I am a fickle bitch for the Roge-Lite genre. There are so many that have great ideas and gameplay (Hades, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy 1 & 2) but I also never seem to fully complete any, or have only completed a full run once in any rogue-lite. I still have yet to even do a full completion of Rogue Legacy 2 but I'm just loving how this is a better version of the original along with enjoying it's progression systems compared to other rogue-lite games. This along with the classes/weapons in this game (e.g. - boxer/boxing gloves, chef/cooking pan, pirate/cannon) have me feeling I'm going to actually complete this one.

  • Vampire Survivors is a game where you auto-attack, you move around, and you choose upgrades. Vampire Survivors is a game where after 20 minutes of game time you either feel like a god or you're on your next play-through to try something new or fix what you did wrong. Vampire Survivors is a $5 game that is on many Game of the Year lists. Vampire Survivors.

  • I had never before played any Half-Life game before this year. I finally decided to given I mean to eventually play Half-Life: Alyx (a game I bought last year and have still yet to play) and I may as well experience the previous games given they're not too long and well regarded. But also instead of playing original Half-Life 1 I opted to play Black Mesa, the fan made remake.

    Black Mesa has a No Clip documentary on it's creation and it's pretty crazy, but the thing I took away is that the worst part of the original game (Xen) is what I enjoyed most about Black Mesa. Xen is the alien planet you teleport to and is where you spend the last chunk of the game. In Black Mesa this world is beautiful and the boss battles are epic. Comparing to what I saw of the original it is a night and day difference. If you're a fan of original Half-Life and haven't played Black Mesa yet, it's definitely worth it.

  • As I had mentioned at the beginning of this post, my first month with my Steam Deck was just spent tinkering away. I was just turning games on, play them for 5-10 minutes to see how they would run, try to fix things if they wouldn't work, and eventually just move on to the next game/emulator. It wasn't until I got back to Brandish, a game I already knew I was interested in when I checked it out on my phone (which use to be my old way of playing emulated games), that I finally stuck with a game and just played it.

    Brandish: The Dark Revenant is apparently a remake of a SNES game. It's also a 3D isometric, tile-based, dungeon crawler. It's like the developers REALLY didn't care about making money. Here's the thing though, I found out from Etrian Odyssey on the 3DS that I am a huge fan of well made dungeon crawlers.

    Brandish gave me Etrian Odyssey vibes immediately but instead of turn-based combat it's a semi action based where you have to move to the tile by your enemy and swing your sword at them. The combat isn't too involved but does require some strategy on knowing when to attack, block, and evade. But the game is all about exploring each floor methodically to watch out for traps, deal with the enemies, find secrets, treasure chests, keys, and eventually the stairs to the next floor. I did also side-step a bunch of frustration by playing it through an emulator where I can quick save. This game does have some frustrating parts, and I certainly would have never completed it without quick saves.

  • The first Atelier Ryza game was an amazing surprise for me. The Atelier series is long running and I had never even really seen anything about the games let alone play one. All I knew was that they dealt with alchemy and the main protagonist was always a cute teenage(ish) girl. What I found was a game that is completely my jam.

    The original Atelier Ryza was light on story and more about going on adventures with your friends and watching each one of them basically become more mature. This in my books is great because you can put the game down for a month or two and return and not have to worry about what you forgot! The fun of the game was some-what the combat, but mostly the alchemy. You make everything in that game. From your weapons/armor, combat items, quest items, and even your gathering tools. At the start of the game you only have so much you can do in the creation of the item but by the end of the game you can make absolutely broken use items, and gear with insane stats.

    So I explained the first game because Atelier Ryza 2 is basically just a better version of the first game. Your in a new place with new places to explore but its still about growing up with your friends and going on adventures. Ryza 2 does add a few new elements where your unlocking the story of each dungeon you are in and gaining a currency that you spend to unlock new recipes and such in an alchemy tree. Also the combat is improved and is a lot more engaging.

  • Tunic on its surface is a zelda inspired isometric action/adventure game where you're a cute little fox who wakes up on an island with no idea of what's going on and as you make your way through this island you pick up pages of the game manual that has hints on where you're suppose to go and help you figure out how to do certain things on the island. I enjoy the game on this merit alone, along with the amazing sound design, music, boss battles, and one of the best upgrades in any action/adventure game. The thing that really sets this game apart though is when you figure out what the holy cross is and you start seeing things that you didn't see before, even though it's been there the whole time. There's a certain accomplishment that you feel once you've crossed the Golden Path.

    I will say one thing though, this game can backfire quickly if you don't have some help or if you get frustrated easily.

  • I'm well aware that the beginning of every WoW expansion, myself and many others are just so excited about new content that we think the game is back and better than ever! So I'm not here to sell this expansion but just to say, yes, I'm enjoying it. Of course I would be, it's still new and fresh.

    The big thing with Dragonflight is it's a back to basics expansion. Almost all the new and updated things are for parts of the game that will continue past this expansion.

    - The User Interface was updated for the first time in...ever? Now you have actual customization options for the UI without the use of mods.

    - The Talent system we've been using since 2012 got completely overhauled. The update to this is unbelievably substantial and not worth my time or effort explaining.

    - The old routine of not allowing flying in the new expansion for months until they added achievements/requirements you had to do to unlock flying has been completely replaced with dragonriding (granted this feature may not move forward, time will tell); an active system of flying that lets you fly in the new zones from day one(!), let's you move faster than ever in the game, and makes flying in WoW fun, instead of a thing you do.

    - Professions were completely overhauled and now have depth, along with there being ways for people to place Work Orders you can fulfill.

    - Mythic Keystone dungeons now have seasons and each season will rotate in new dungeons. This first season has four of the newer dungeons and 4 dungeons from previous expansions. This is a two-fold QoL improvement given it gives life to old content along with not wearing everyone on the new dungeons.

    - Just recently Blizzard provided a 2023 content road-map for the game, something that they have never done. Normally something is broken and content gets pushed back, but everything seems to be in place to allow for them to share their calendar.

    - They've announced an upcoming feature called the Trading Post where you will be able to buy transmogs, pets, and toys with currency you own by playing the game (remember it's still a monthly subscription), and by doing in-game activities that you would probably already have been doing. They also say that this will be a way to aquire items that are no longer available and/or have only been an item you can aquire with that real life currency.

    On top of all of this we don't have some sort of Azerite/Artifact/Anima Power grind that was never account wide and would normally shoe-horn you into a certain spec.

    What Dragonflight is is World of Warcraft with less bullshit, more account wide features, actively flying around and only using flight-paths if the plan is to afk, grinding only being for reputations to unlock profession patterns & toys/pets/transmogs, and your character's "power level" only being tied to the gear you're wearing, which in turn makes it easier to play the other specs of your class. On top of this I've been enjoying my time even more since I have a friend playing WoW again and it's been fun getting to run dungeons with him (especially since he's a tank).
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