I typically don’t write video game reviews like I once did, and that’s a shame. I wish I had the time. Instead, now I typically just blurt out my thoughts in real-time during my semi-monthly updates, when and where I can. But I do still like to do a year-end review, of sorts.

One reason I do this is to remind myself exactly what I played. At any given time, I usually have a few games on the go, and I don’t replay games as a rule, one and done, on to the next. So, I burn through a couple dozen games each year. And it’s nice to look back every now and then.

So, the following list is the big games I played in 2022. Doesn’t necessarily mean they were released in 2022, as some games can sit on my shelf or on the HDD for years before I find the time/motivation to start them. In most of the cases I have beaten the game or abandoned it, sufficiently happy with my time/money invested.

Where did January go? I swear it was just here when I was working on this list. February is half over? Seriously? I don’t even have any excuses…

Let’s jump into it:

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The Gunk (2021)

The Gunk felt like a call back to simpler times in games. No micro transactions or loot crates or season passes. Just a stand-alone game with no multiplayer component. Like N64 RARE games. Only now with modern visuals. You’re dropped onto a planet and then you fight / puzzle your way to the end of the game. You unlock upgrades / abilities naturally, as dictated by the level design requirements. There’s not even a lot of fighting / combat in this game, mostly puzzles and platforming and an overall enjoyable experience. I played the game at the start of 2022 to offset my time in Halo Infinite and wrote a bit about it [HERE] and [HERE]. Here’s some in-game photos:

Watch Dogs Legion (2020)

One of the few games I’ve written a full review on, [HERE]. To summarize my impression of the game:

Overall the game was just OK. The main story villains played their role, but like our generic operatives, didn’t leave any lasting impressions. The final “who did it all” bad guy was a let down. The gameplay remains a fun mixture of stealth and gunplay. The anybody-is-a-recruit idea makes for a fun playground. However I did experience some issues with the collectibles and completion type of activities, like drinking at every bar location or completing all the paint-up wall paintings, as the achievements never unlocked for me.

The Pedestrian (2022)

Pedestrian started out being an enjoyable puzzle game. Imagine a street sign: flat, very simple design. That is the level design. Now add a 2D man, and then add platforms and elevators and doors, on the sign surface. Pretty smart design and initially fun but got very complicated and I never finished it. The game starts involving multiple rooms and background to foreground doors and intricate switch mechanics that involved multiple steps and screens and puzzles. And it stopped being fun. A shame really.

Maybe the difficulty peaks at that point and then dials it back but I’ll never know.

Borderlands 3 (2020)

Sadly, this game fell off our radar. I really should go back to finish it. Maybe I can convince the wife to play it with me in co-op. Borderlands has always been a great property with multiple main titles and spin-offs and just a lot of fun to play. But it’s one of those games I enjoyed playing in co-op, and if you can’t get the friends to sit down and play, then it falls off the radar into the background and eventually uninstalled. But I want to play through it, and then get Tiny Tina’s Wonderland expansion.

Far Cry New Dawn (2019)

Another Far Cry game, this time a sequel set 17 years after the events of Far Cry 5 (one of the endings, anyways, where the nuke goes off – spoiler alert) and it’s a very colourful and vibrant game, in a post-apocalyptic setting, with mutated animals and Mad Max style gangs. For the most part it was fun, as is all Far Cry games, but the gameplay is very boring now as there hasn’t been any changes to that formula. They try and mix it up with how your levelling and progression works but the core gameplay loop of running around with a gun, shooting enemies, and capturing outposts/bases, with animal hunting on the side, is still all the same as previous games in the series – just a new map. Or in this case, not even a new map – a recycled recoloured map. Another complaint I have with this series is the co-op progress does not retain. You can join another player’s co-op game and play the missions and complete the outposts/bases, but all you will get in return in the resources and money and XP progression, but no “story” progression.  If you load up your own save you will not be any further in the story or made any progress unlocking the map. You also don’t unlock “story” related achievements. A real bummer. See Far Cry 6 further down for more of the same complaints.  

Golf Club Wasteland (2021)

A fun, quiet, somber 2D indie game. The story is that Earth is now a wasteland and humanity has left. Only those rich enough travel back to Earth, and what do rich people do? They play golf. So, the setting is a run-down wasteland where you play golf through sewers and abandoned factories and malls. 2D level design. A fun game though.

Grounded (2020 early access)

Grounded has been a game that’s been interesting to watch progress through Early Access. Started out as essentially just a playground with a short introductory story, and as the years have passed, the team has added more content, story, achievements, and now they’ve finally gone 1.0.

The game is Honey I Shrunk the Kids for all intents and purposes. You play as shrunken kids with no memory about why you are suddenly small and in your back yard. You walk among ants and other small bugs, and fight off menacing spiders, and explore, and try to find out what happened and how to return to normal. Game is playable in 4 player co-op.

The game involves quite a bit of crafting and base-building that allows you to build up your character to take on bigger and badder bugs, like stink-beetles and ladybugs, and mosquitoes.

I’ve jumped into this game during a few of the early stages, and then spent quite a few hours once the achievements started popping. But I have not yet jumped in since the game went 1.0. Not sure if I will.

Shredders (2022)

Shredders is a fun indie snowboarding game with absolutely, terrible writing and voice acting. But I think that’s part of its charm. You play as a snowboarder who has a friend filming him doing fun jumps and stunts and sort of stumble your way into a X-Games-ish tournament only because the original participant broke his leg and saw your social media videos. Pretty solid mechanics, easy to learn but deep enough to try harder tricks made this game fun enough to jump into on occasion – but mostly because it’s been a few years since I’ve gone snowboarding myself due to covid and struggling to find the time after having kids. There was a bit of yearning that made me keep coming back to this game.

Mortal Kombat 11 (2020)

The Mortal Kombat / Injustice games haven’t really evolved much. Better visuals, and more characters. But the story is usually decent and lengthy. I played through the main campaign but haven’t made it through the Aftermath DLC expansion yet.

Sea of Solitude (2019)

An emotional indie adventure game. Has themes dealing with loneliness and depression. You sail a little boat around a sunken submerged city and work through navigation puzzles and some minor platforming. I liked the visual style, reminding of Rime. A short game, completed in a few couple-hour sittings.

FAR Changing Tides (2022)

FAR Changing Tides is a sequel to the previous FAR game. You’re tasked with piloting a land-boat-ship thing with a big multi-faceted sail. Requires a lot of micromanagement of the different parts of the ship, whether it be the sails, or the furnace that powers the engine. Sometimes parts break down or catch on fire. You also need to exit the ship occasionally to do some minor exploring to gather resources like fuel, or minor puzzles to open the gates or doors or barricades that block your path. The game is like a 2.5D side-scroller left-to-right deal. The sequel also added an under-water component, so now the ship is part submarine. Fun little game.

Dead Cells (2018)

Typically, I’m not a fan of rogue-like, rogue-lite? games, where every time you die, you re-spawn at the start of the game. There are minor progression elements where you can unlock newer weapons or perks or abilities, which would make each subsequent run theoretically easier or allow you to explore further into the game. There was a recent update to this game that made it much easier to play. With that difficulty adjustment I did enjoy playing this game.

Sniper Elite 5 (2022)

Played Sniper Elite 5 in co-op with Illestrader. We played 3 and 4 like that, and the Zombie spin-off games. New story, new map, but the series hasn’t evolved much. Still WWII setting.

Grand Theft Auto III Remastered (2021)

I sadly have not played this game as much as I had originally hoped. Haven’t gotten to Vice City or San Andreas either. Nostalgia alone hasn’t kept me interested.

Hitman 2 (2018)

I really wish I could just play this game in a linear fashion without feeling compelled to replay each mission to complete the different kill scenarios. I sometimes feel that my drive for achievements ruins games for me. After repeating the same level over and over, my interest will wane and then I stop because I’ve grown bored, and then I don’t advance the story. I should finish this so that I can move on to Hitman 3 in another 4 years, probably.

A Plague Tale – Innocence (2019)

I sat on this game for far too long, and only started playing it when the sequel was nearly coming out, and this one was leaving Game Pass. The game originally came out in 2019, but I played the Xbox Series X visual upgraded version from 2021, A very decent stealth adventure game. The setting is in medieval times and there’s a plague of rats, but they are supernatural, and your quest is to get your sickly brother to the doctor to heal him, but what ails him is related to this supernatural thing. Long live the rat king.

GRID Legends (2022)

A very standard racer, like previous GRID games. This time around they’ve added a story campaign about a rivalry between different car teams, using live action videos for the story elements. I’ve always liked the GRID games, but much prefer the DIRT series. But the open map in the Forza Horizons Series will always be top.

Riders Republic (2021)

Another Ubisoft attempt at a big online multiplayer filled world, like Steep but now with bikes and lots of other terrain sports, not strictly tied to the snow. I haven’t gotten as heavily engrossed in it like I did Steep, but it is fun in co-op on occasion. My chief complaint is the odd numbered achievements. I mean, WHY!? Why 16G and 32G Why?

Death Stranding (2019)

Wow, OK Death Stranding. My game of the year. Here’s the in-game photo album. Originally, I bought this game on the PS4 in 2019 when it came out, but never got around to playing it (see: I don’t really play PS4 as much, still haven’t played Days Gone or Last of Us II). But then it somehow made it’s way to PC Game Pass WITH XBOX ACHIEVEMENTS, and suddenly I made time. Sometimes all I need is the right motivation. This game is amazing from a technical gameplay perspective and bizarre from a story perspective. Both sides very much Hideo Kojima. You play as Sam Porter Bridges as a delivery person. You must carry boxes and gear and equipment as you try and reconnect the small cities remaining after the world ending event. The navigation and traversal of the land is the core gameplay loop. Mountains and gullies need to be crossed, while you are carrying huge amounts of cargo on your back and shoulders and legs. Balance and stamina need to be monitored so that you don’t fall over and lose everything you’re carrying. Sounds boring and tedious right? I can’t even begin to explain the story – but I’ll try. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where an event called the Death Stranding wiped out most life on earth and sort of caused life and the afterlife to merge in a way. Our job is to basically reconnect the remaining cities to the same network, and we are a bit special because we can survive in this world and the afterlife “beach” and travel in between in a fashion. The game is very good, also very weird. And I cannot do it justice with my words.

Forza Horizons 5 (2022)

More car racing. Like its predecessors, pushing the visual boundaries. Game takes place in Mexico now.

Fall Guys (2020)

I got back into this game when it switched to a free-to-play cross platform model. I played through the 1^st season pass unlocking everything, and still jump in occasionally now. My son also enjoys playing.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2022)

Another game I got mostly to just play with my son. Cartoony beat-em-up game like arcade games of old.

Far Cry 6 (2022)

Another Far Cry played in co-op. These games are “fun”, but they don’t add anything after each iteration. Tired gameplay. Tired story. I feel like the last good one was Far Cry 4. But I continue to play these because co-op makes it worth it.

Halo Infinite (2021)

I’ve talked a lot about Halo Infinite this year and it wins the award for “most played game” of the year. For the first chunk I strictly played the multiplayer, completing the first season pass. Haven’t pick up multiplayer much since. After the first season I jumped into the Campaign and played that solo Legendary. Currently now playing the campaign co-op. The game is the best campaign of the series in my opinion.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

GotG was a treat. A single player story with great writing. Gameplay was fun, a 3^rd person action game with a mix of shooting and exploration/platforming/puzzles. You don’t really see stand-alone single player games like this with no multiplayer or seasonal content or micro transactions or DLC to speak of. I think they’re hard to sell, even harder to justify buying I think at full price. But it made its way to Game Pass and that’s when I got the chance to play it. Here’s some in-game photos of my time:

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Well, that was my 2022. Looking forward to 2023. I’ve kicked off this year with Immortals : Fenyx Rising, and have committed myself to playing The Witcher III, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

iRogan
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