Games of the Year We Played in the Year 2022
There is something to be said for living in the zeitgeist (and playing Elden Ring along with literally everyone else in the world), but there is just as much to be said for the personal journeys our individual game libraries take us on. The best games stand the test of time, not because retro is better, but because greatness is timeless. Elden Ring will be remembered 10 years from now, almost certainly, but this year we discovered many gems from an era past (or recent) that were just as compelling.
These are the best games we played in the year 2022.
Best Detective Game
All of these games bring together the best parts of a good detective story: a daring crime, followed by clever twists and unexpected betrayals, until finally evil is brought to justice through the temerity and unerring dedication of the detective. In the case of Costume Quest, it’s a pack of neighborhood children solving a kidnapping; for Hitman III, its solving a murder while cosplaying as a detective. For Tower Song, we played detective not in the game but as a participant in its development (full disclosure: Michael created the game, while the rest of us play-tested it), discovering bugs and new features as the game progressed. But in every case, we hit the streets with nothing more than our notebook and our wits, and we did not rest until justice was found.
Our favorite detective games we played this year were:
Costume Quest (… and the case of the kidnapped corn.)
Disco Elysium (… and the case of false start communism.)
The Forgotten City (… and the case of the golden rule.)
Hitman III (… and the case of the false detective.)
Tower Song: Eternal Knight (… and the case of the volunteer QA.)
Tunic (… and the case of the forbidden language.)
Best (Also Horny) Game
Once again, Melinda’s pursuit of comedically horny games led to unexpectedly mechanically-rich games that did not fail to arouse interest. (Ahem. - Editor) But Melinda was not the only one given cause to question sexual orientation or shift uncomfortably in her seat at the suggestible and suggestive games in her library. Some of these horny - but otherwise compelling games - were more heteronormative than others, but none of them failed to satisfy - or even horrify - our base urges.
The horniest and also good games we played this year were:
Cloud Meadow (so much porn)
Cyberpunk 2077 (capitalist porn)
Deep Rock Galactic (beard porn)
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp (monster porn)
Scorn (wet porn)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (just regular anime porn)
Most Relaxing Game
Life is full of pressures, and games (or are these toys?) that refuse to exert negative pressure on the player hold a special place in our heart. Not all of our nominees are aimless - some of them invoke violence, whether abstractly or otherwise - but in every world listed here we found harmony, hope and peace.
Our most relaxing games to play this year were:
Cozy Grove (it’s right in the title)
Dicey Dungeons (no fuss, no muss)
Dorfromantik
In Other Waters
Raft (at least once we had metal siding to fend off sharks)
Sable (on a rocket bike, with nothing but sand, rocks, and horizon)
Best Game We Played Again
When life is full of uncertainty, there is something comforting about replaying old favorites and re-discovering them all over again. Or in the case of Overwatch, Destiny 2, World of Warcraft and every other life service title demanding our hearts, bodies and minds - new content but also the same content, forever. But we could never put these games down forever, and it is unlikely 2022 is the last time we shall visit these worlds.
Our favorite games to return to this year were:
Cozy Grove (at points, even rewinding the in-game clock)
Destiny 2 (I have no life and I must grind)
Frog Fractions: Game of the Decade Edition
Overwatch 2 (because let’s be honest, it’s not a new game)
Risk of Rain 2
Xenoblade Chronicles
Most Emotional Moment
Games moved us in many ways this year, from the somber environmental storytelling of Kena to the triumphant discovery of the meta-thinking-outside-of-the-box puzzles in The Talos Principle. We continue to turn to games to tell us the secrets of our deepest selves, and this year we found triumph and grief in equal measure throughout our gaming library.
Our most emotional moments in gaming this year were:
Facing Siluria in Elden Ring
Discovering the injured world in Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Opening the city in Stray
Escorting the hedgehog in Spiritfarer
Shouting “Eureka!” in The Talos Principle
Beating the odds in Triangle Strategy
Best Short Game
Unpacking
In the dictionary next to “environmental storytelling” is a picture of Unpacking. It perfectly captures the life story of a nameless character as told through unpacking one’s belongings over the course of many moves - from a child’s bedroom, to a boyfriend’s flat, back to mom’s again and then all the way to a family home with kids on the way. Unpacking compels with its endless deluge of objects, and the re-appearance - or disappearance - of objects over the decades says so much about who you are (and are playing as). In the end, it’s a game in which we learn not only about our fictional hero but also about ourselves. I will never look at an old stuffie in a cardboard moving box the same way again.
Runners-Up: Best 2022 Games
Best 2022 Game We PLayed
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is a triumph, rightly praised across the blogosphere and amongst the critical press. There is not much new that can be said about it at this point, except to admit that it gripped us as tightly as anyone else. Almost all of us played it, and it’s very likely almost all of us will continue to play it well into 2023.
Runners-Up: Best Games We Played
Game of the Year That We Played in the Year 2022
Dark Souls (and Elden Ring)
Truth be told, our weighted voting system came out to a tie between Dark Souls and Elden Ring. And it’s a fitting tie. There is a purity to Dark Souls’ vision that Elden Ring cannot achieve for the simple fact of it building on top of the other, albeit with a much greater budget and scope. Yet even in 2022, when Elden Ring so dominated so many of our hearts and minds, the fact that Dark Souls still has an impact says a lot for the strength of its design over a decade later.
My favorite aspect of Dark Souls, by far, is the thematic weight of its worldbuilding. Its a game that grapples with the notion of myth, legend and godhood. As you beat back the darkness and free humanity from the nightmarish apocalypse it has been sentenced to, you mythologize yourself. Your valor becomes legend as you link the fires, and the story of this legend grows 1:1 with your own path through the game.
Or maybe it’s the other way around. Humanity is held back by forces past their prime, and it is only by letting the final fires fade that you can free humanity from its shackles and let it grow into the fullness of its destiny. An Age of Darkness - but not for us. For them.
The beauty of Dark Souls is that no matter how you play it and interpret the story, it harmonizes with you. Light or darkness - either way, the only one left to tell the tale is you, so who is to argue?