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Recently, the BAFTA Awards were held, where the best games and movies of the past year were honored. After looking at the results, we realized that we had forgotten to summarize the results of the past year. A year that none of us would want to remember, but… tradition is tradition. Even if it was a bit late, we decided to decide on our favorites. This time, we had a lot less games to review. Some of them we played ourselves months after the release, and some of them we never got a chance to try. Unlike other publications, we don’t rewrite other people’s opinions or copy the results of other such lists. Therefore, this is a classic disclaimer: if your favorite game is not on the list, don’t complain – most likely, we just haven’t gotten around to it yet. If we missed something, tell us about it in the comments!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
12. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
How is it possible that a Pokémon game is in our top? Yes, most of the time I just complain about these games, which always disappoint with their visuals, gameplay, and just a complete lack of ambition. But this is not the case with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which has taken a big step forward for the first time in… decades. The essence remains the same (and it doesn’t need to be changed), but everything else has been modernized. It’s still a very problematic release, but I know how important it was for all the fans of pocket monsters.
11. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
We have been waiting for this game for years. At one time, it seemed that it was canceled altogether, but it was not. Perhaps few would argue that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the boldest and most fundamentally fresh creation of Traveller’s Tales in about ten years. It’s hard to overestimate the monumentality of the release: the game incorporated the stories of the entire original Star Wars trilogy, and then for some reason added the third trilogy from Disney’s time. The result is a very beautiful game, completely new (it’s not a remaster or even a remake of the original) and extremely ambitious. But, as usual, the studio has its own problems: bugs, poor optimization (PS5 was especially affected), and a suboptimal co-op mode spoiled our impression.
10. OlliOlli World
When I released my review of OlliOlli World on February 4, our lives were better, simpler, and brighter. So is this game: light, colorful, and full of optimism. A sequel and a significant update to the previous two games in the OlliOlli series, it deserves the outpouring of praise I gave it back then. This is the best skateboarding simulator of recent years. It’s just a damn cool game that I recommend even to those who never got to fall in love with skateboarding and Tony Hawk games.
9. Gran Turismo 7
What a year for Sony! The fourth PS5 game on our list easily wins the title of the best racing simulator and possibly the best new title for VR. Here it is – the long-awaited return to basics. No emphasis on online, no cut content. Gran Turismo 7 is a flagship that has absorbed all the best from its predecessors. And something worse that is already there: I simply cannot forgive its requirement to always be connected to the network.
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
It’s hard to review games that exploit nostalgia. On the one hand, it’s a cheap trick. On the other hand, a game is a game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is neither a remake nor a remaster. But it is a great example of how to take the best of classic games and make something new. Funny, beautiful, made with love, and equipped with a great soundtrack, it deserves the attention of anyone who grew up watching Ninja Turtles cartoons in the nineties. And everyone else will not regret it.
7. TUNIC
It’s very rare for games to approach the level of elaboration of Nintendo releases, but TUNIC is an exception. Beautiful, mysterious, and truly unique, it incorporates elements of the best action platformers. With a little bit of Dark Souls, a handful of The Legend of Zelda, and a galaxy of their own ideas, this creation of Isometricorp Games is a must-see.
6. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Last year turned out to be a very big year for Kirby. The legendary hero of more than thirty games about the pink furry animal is feeling better than ever, and in 2022 we were treated to perhaps the best game featuring him in many years. Or maybe even the best. HAL Laboratory has surpassed itself: the first fully three-dimensional game has a new structure, new gameplay elements, and the best graphics in the history of the franchise. This is a monumental creation that cannot be ignored.
5. Stray
Stray is a wonderful gift to all of us. It’s not a continuation of a long-standing series, not a new release from a giant studio, and not another attempt to capitalize on nostalgia. No, it’s a small release from the still unknown BlueTwelve Studio, released by the award-winning publisher Annapurna Interactive. A magical fantasy story about the fading world of robots that inherited the Earth from humans (it’s especially scary to write about this in the context of newfangled AI) made a charming street cat its main character. Mysteries, puzzles, and a great atmosphere, both cozy and frightening, made us fall in love with this title.
4. The Last of Us Part I
Possibly the most controversial game on our list, The Last of Us Part I is very difficult to review objectively. We’ve seen a lot of criticism online, and most of the time, this criticism was justified. Seventy dollars for a remake of a game that no one wants… I was outraged and spitting in the same way. I agree – the price is too high. Yes, the game didn’t need a remake. But if we put all this context aside and look at it as neutrally as possible, we have a phenomenal game that makes players laugh, cry, and scream in terror. Thanks to the new facial animations and improved visuals, it has an even greater effect than the original. It’s not a perfect remake, and this is especially noticeable against the backdrop of the excellent Dead Space. It needed more changes, and we’re disappointed that the innovations from the second installment didn’t make it over. But it’s still one of the most moving video games in history.
Note: we played on PS5 and can’t say anything about the port issues on PC.
3. Splatoon 3.
We all have our favorite shooter. There is a lot of choice, to put it mildly. But for me (and I’m not writing on behalf of the site here), there is simply nothing better than Splatoon. This colorful multiplayer game, where you don’t even have to kill anyone, gives me everything that its analogues do not. It requires no grind, no money, no nerves. One cartridge already has everything: the main mode, the second mode, the story campaign, and even a card game! Since the second part, everything has become a little better, and the formula is as good as ever. Verdict: play for everyone!
2. God of War Ragnarök
Perhaps the main flagship of PlayStation, God of War Ragnarök only miraculously did not become the game of the year on the Jeff Keely show. In our opinion, few games can compare to the brainchild of Santa Monica when it comes to narrative action games. The first installment was a monumental reboot, and Ragnarok is an even more ambitious and ambitious sequel. Its only problem is the same as in Horizon Forbidden West – the plot begins to sag significantly towards the end, which makes the experience a little smeared. But in terms of everything else – graphics, music, combat – the new product has almost no competitors.
1. Horizon Forbidden West.
In our opinion, Horizon Forbidden West, the most award-deprived game, somehow didn’t appeal to the Game Awards jury. But the question “why” is not so easy to answer. According to our criteria, the game gets top tens almost everywhere: it has the best graphics of the year, great acting (we’d like to mention Lance Reddick, who left us and did a great job), a great soundtrack (listen to In the Flood), and polished gameplay… in other words, if you want to immerse yourself in an interesting and elaborate open world, Horizon Forbidden West in 2022 was second to none.
Individual awards
- Best Actress (Female) – Ashley Burch (Horizon Forbidden West / Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands)
- Best Performance by an Actor (Male) – Sunny Saldzik (God of War Ragnarök)
- Best Soundtrack: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
- Best Graphics: Horizon Forbidden West
- Best Sound: The Last of Us Part I
- Best Newcomer Studio: BlueTwelve Studio
- Best narrative design: TUNIC
- Disappointment of the year: Saints Row. The disgusting attempt to relaunch the revered franchise is striking in only one way – how much went wrong. Ugly graphics, terrible optimization, crummy story, boring gameplay – everything is bad here.
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