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majormitch

Playing FF7 Rebirth is giving me the Bad Thought of replaying other FF games.

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GOTY 2022

It’s kind of wild to think that this is the 15th year running in which I’ve posted my personal game of the year list on this here website; for anyone counting, that’s every year that Giant Bomb has been alive. So much has changed both for this website and me personally since 2008, but that’s not going to slow either of us down anytime soon! As for 2022 in video games? To put it bluntly, I don’t think it was a strong year in the relative scheme of things, at least for me and my tastes; it’s hard not to notice a sharp drop in the quantity of games I liked when compared to most years, going back decades. I did, however, genuinely enjoy the 10 wonderful games on this list. Even the slowest gaming years have some really good games, and I’m happy to reflect and share the ones that clicked with me the most. And with that, I will stop my rambles, and present my favorite video games of 2022. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day :)

But first, a special mention!

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Into the Breach is one of my favorite games, period, and its Advanced Edition update this year was an incredible surprise. Between new squads, mission types, enemies, pilots and abilities, and a new difficulty mode, Into the Breach feels fuller than it ever has, and all of that new content gelled seamlessly with the old. Updates like this can often feel perfunctory or unnecessary, but this one made an all-time great meaningfully better in every way; it borderline feels like a sequel. As a result, I spent dozens of hours diving back into this classic, and it’s hard to overstate how much fun I continue to have with it. Being a free update to a four-year-old game, I’m choosing to not include it on my official list largely on a technicality. But if I’m being real here, Into the Breach: Advanced Edition is one of the best video games I played in 2022.

List items

  • There were a few moments during my lengthy time with Elden Ring where I started feeling the fatigue. When I discovered yet another catacomb, or fought through another mob of generic undead soldiers, or read “try finger but hole” for the 500th time. But before that fatigue could ever fully set in, there was something around the corner to re-energize me: a hauntingly beautiful vista, a rewarding shortcut or puzzle, a clever bit of world design, an interesting character to meet, a new item or weapon I wanted to try, or a weird-ass boss to fight. Elden Ring is an impossibly massive game, a world so large that it continues to grow in multiple directions dozens of hours after starting. And the impressive thing is that, despite some (understandable) open world bloat, the overwhelming majority of Elden Ring’s world is worth experiencing; I wouldn’t have spent over 150 hours combing every inch of it if I felt otherwise. It takes a special game to get that kind of time from me, and Elden Ring earned damn near all of it.

    There is so much more I could say about Elden Ring, all of which has been said by many before me. Its approach to open world design is excellent in the way it trusts players to find their own way. Its world is crammed full of diverse locals, fascinating characters, and exciting secrets and surprises. Its combat, bosses, dungeons, and online features are all highly engaging. It has some of the best art in the business. It’s a singular, impressive achievement that somehow manages to exceed the unrealistic expectations placed upon it, and also broaden the appeal of From Software’s design philosophies that have proven divisive for many over the past decade. In the end, there is simply no way around it: 2022 was the year of Elden Ring. It was a colossal, unavoidable hit that dominated the gaming landscape for months on end. And most importantly for this list, it is my clear game of the year.

  • At first blush, Tunic presents as a classic 2D Zelda-style game – complete with a beautiful visual style and fantastic musical score – but the more you play the more it subverts that notion. The adhesive that glues it all together is its gorgeous collectible in-game instruction booklet; its art is incredibly charming, swimming in nostalgia for the days when many of us eagerly flipped through instruction manuals. Then, as you collect more pages, it begins to reveal just how little you know about the world. It teaches you how to interact with your surroundings organically, shows you what mysteries you’ve passed by, and hints at what mysteries may lie ahead. Tunic is a magical journey that captures the joy of discovery in video games like few others, even for those of us who have been playing games since the era of its inspirations.

  • The Case of the Golden Idol regularly produces the kind of lightbulb moments I want from a good detective game. After sorting through a complex web of detailed information, it’s highly satisfying to make that final connection at the end of each scenario, and I greatly appreciate how you unravel character motivations and plot points naturally as you examine clues. Then it all builds beautifully to form a cohesive whole; the biggest light bulbs go off when you realize just how connected everything is. What follows is a brutal tale on how a few people’s lust for power can drastically warp society, and it all works through excellently balanced puzzles that feel challenging without being overwhelming. The Case of the Golden Idol is an elegantly designed detective game, full of smart touches and memorable moments.

  • Triangle Strategy starts way too slow, but once it got going I was hooked by its particular mix of storytelling and tactical combat way more than I expected. Narratively, as things start popping off and characters grow in their convictions, they lay everything on the line in daring ways that lead to big twists and wild confrontations. Tactically, I like how distinct each unit is, and I had a great time learning how to use them to the best of their unique and powerful abilities. It eventually became a mechanically and narratively rich game that kept me guessing with memorable moments on and off the battlefield, all the way through the totally bonkers final chapters. I feel like I shouldn't like Triangle Strategy as much as I do for the clear faults it has, but it won me over anyway.

  • As a free-to-play mobile card game, Marvel Snap has no business being on this list, and I’m no big Marvel fan either. Yet being a mobile game is the very aspect that led to me playing way too much of it, as it has a lot of touches that make it work so well for the format: the matches are fast and snappy, deck-building is simple but robust, you earn cards and rewards at a decent clip, it has great art, and the monetization feels surprisingly fair (so far). Most importantly, it’s a good card game I genuinely enjoy playing. Despite its simplicity, Marvel Snap has just enough strategic depth and fun interactions to consistently produce exciting matches with big plays and big swings, where I often don’t know if I’m going to win until the final flip.

  • What a weird game. The people what made XCOM designed an excellent tactical combat system featuring Marvel heroes, and then decided to wrap it in a mediocre-at-best social simulator that sucks up way, way too much time. And yet, even as I groan through the bad writing, there’s a certain charm to the idea of spending an evening meditating with Blade, or stargazing with Captain Marvel. Midnight Suns is an endearingly goofy game, though it wouldn't work if the tactical core wasn't as legitimately good as it is. The characters are all distinct with fun abilities, the environmental effects are dynamic and meaningful, and the card system adds just enough randomized nuance to keep me on my toes without ever feeling unfair.

  • Like my favorite puzzle games, Patrick’s Parabox likes to introduce an interesting new twist on its strong core mechanics, give you a few introductory puzzles to help you wrap your head around the idea, and then ramp up to some devious and often trippy brain-teasers. Then, once you’ve mastered that concept, the next area resets and tries out a new one. It’s a game bursting with clever ideas, but knows how to pace them to remain simultaneously challenging and manageable throughout; with some ridiculous logic-defying paradoxes that mesh everything together available on the side for those who want them. Patrick’s Parabox is a smart, friendly game full of excellent, varied puzzles, and one of the best puzzle games I’ve played in years.

  • When I first started playing Sparks of Hope, I wasn’t that impressed; it felt like a solid but unremarkable follow-up to Kingdom Battle, a game I liked but didn’t love. Yet the more I played, the more it won me over: the diversity of abilities among the characters and sparks you recruit, the meaningful skill trees and progression, and the surprisingly good soundtrack grew on me over time. Most importantly, in a year full of tactics games, Sparks of Hope’s movement mechanics stood out as a uniquely fun spin on the genre. They imbued the otherwise solid tactics with a noticeable Mario feel, which made for enticing battles I felt engaged with from start to finish. Also, any game where Luigi is a stone cold killer is alright by me.

  • I’ve never participated in an escape room before, but if Escape Academy is any indication, it’s something I would be very into. Despite a handful of issues – a few of the puzzles are a little clunky, and we ran into some technical hurdles – my partner and I had a great time teaming up to solve every challenge it put before us. There’s good variety in the scenarios here, with enough different types of puzzles to keep things fresh, and the time pressure creates an exciting dynamic that tests your ability to think under pressure. But I will most remember Escape Academy as a rare co-op game that successfully promotes genuine cooperation, and relying on each other’s brains made for a worthwhile and memorable experience.

  • For all the gripes I could levy against Pokemon Legends – of which there are many – it achieved something that Pokemon hasn’t achieved in decades: it made the act of finding and catching pocket monsters feel magical again. No longer confined to slowly whittling down health bars in combat, I found real joy in roaming the world, sneaking through tall grass, and just… throwing a Poke Ball. It sounds so simple, but along with a super smart revamp of the Podedex and its associated challenges, it put a spark back in the entire concept of Pokemon that I haven’t felt since I was a kid playing the originals. Despite most other parts of the game being mediocre at best, that core is strong enough to (barely) get Pokemon Legends onto this list.
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