Games I Finished in 2022

Looking at the list of games I beat this year, I think there were more suspect ones than usual. But at least the current backlog is looking to be of somewhat higher quality, although it has its unknowns as well. I almost beat all the games I had a year ago on my backlog but subscription services again and the sudden Assassin's Creed series binge prevented that from actually happening. Currently my backlog is about the same size as it was at the end of 2021. Theoretically it's once again doable in a year but backlogs have a tendency to grow, as one knows.

Of Orcs And Men

There was still one more older Spiders game I was slightly interested in: Of Orcs And Men (2012) that Spiders co-developed with Cyanide Studio. The latter went on to make two prequels to it later on -- the Styx stealth games I have already played.

Half-Life 2

After having bought (and played) Black Mesa, I thought I might as well get Half-Life 2 (or HλLF-LIFE² as it's stylized) and experience first hand how Gordon Freeman's journey ends. The game's second standalone DLC, Episode Two, which was released in 2007, teases another sequel but Valve has not been willing to create one so far. In 2020, they did release a virtual reality game called Half-Life: Alyx (stylized with an upside down lambda as y which I'm unable to reproduce in text) but its events are concurrent at best (though the game does add to Episode Two's ending a bit).

Black Mesa

I have not been interested in Valve's Half-Life games because I knew I wouldn't be able to appreciate the possible innovations they did at the time: I have already played newer games that have done same things better. Half-Life and its sequel would just feel old to me. Despite that however, due to a deep discount last year, I bought Black Mesa (or BLλCK MESA as it's stylized on the cover with the lower case Greek lambda letter) which is a third party remake of the first Half-Life (1998). Originally it was a free mod but later Crowbar Collective got approval from Valve for a commercial release.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

Everything I wrote about A Plague Tale: Innocence applies to its 2022 sequel, Requiem, as well. I don't know myself how one would exactly expand the adventure-stealth gameplay but you'd expect that at least the story would have some progression. But even that in Requiem is pretty much the same thing all over again.

Scorn

Back in 2019, on my Agony post I noted how some people had mixed it up with Scorn and had been disappointed. Well, here we are in 2022 and Serbian Ebb Software's Scorn too is finally out -- and it's not exactly much better than Agony. Visually Scorn is without fault -- it is one massive, masterfully created moving digital painting -- but its gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

Silverfall: Earth Awakening

Years ago, I eyed up Silverfall, an isometric action roleplaying game developed by a now-defunct French company Monte Cristo, wondering whether I should buy it. I decided against it -- which was a smart decision because there are dozens of more interesting and entertaining titles in the genre out there, especially these days. However, last year I saw someone on my Steam friendlist pick up the game and its standalone expansion Earth Awakening -- most likely entirely for collection purposes -- while they were next to free on sale. Against my better judgment, I bought them too but with the intention of actually playing through them. (Don't do that.)

Legend

I borrowed Legend by David Gemmell (1948 – 2006) from the local library because I remembered reading one of his novels a couple of decades ago and wanted a refresher on how his heroic fantasy was like. There's a pretty high chance the novel was this one because only two of Gemmell's works have ever been translated into Finnish. The other one would be the second volume of this same Drenai series, called The King Beyond the Gate whose Finnish title for some reason was quite liberally set, instead meaning 'prince of shadows' (Varjojen prinssi).

Far Cry 6

My Ubisoft game binge continued even further when Ubisoft+ was free for a month again right after I was done with Assassin's Creed Revelations. In addition to Far Cry 6, I was going to use the month to play through AC Valhalla's DLC but they announced the game would be still getting one final story update (which it just got now in December) so I decided to postpone that until next time. Far Cry 6 also took a lot longer to beat than I had anticipated. I did however briefly revisit AC Odyssey as well for the crossover story it got. Turns out there's not much actual crossover on Odyssey's side: Kassandra just has a bit of a holiday trip and prepares to live through the ages with the Staff.

Edgedancer

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson is a novella in the epic fantasy series The Stormlight Archive, set between its volumes two and three. Its protagonist is Lift who we already met in an interlude of Words of Radiance. Sanderson felt Lift needed a longer introduction before she becomes more important in the series.

It

I don't know what prompted me to read It by Stephen King. I must have seen some reference to it or something. It has been a while since I watched the 2017 and 2019 film adaptations too (which I barely remember). I rarely even read horror fiction -- not because it's scary but the opposite. The whole thing kind of loses its point if there's nothing else to it.

Assassin's Creed Revelations

Unlike previously in the series, Assassin's Creed Revelations' (almost) whole open world is unlocked very early on. I did right away pretty much everything that didn't progress the main memory sequence and thus had an unusually story-focused playthrough after sequence 3. That may have had a slight effect but I think that even without beelining the story, Revelations' ending is a very satisfying and conclusive finale for the Ezio trilogy.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

I started Assassin's Creed Brotherhood expecting a quick and cheap standalone expansion kind of deal. To my surprise, it instead polished and added enough to stand on its own as a separate game.

Assassin's Creed II

It's like I had skipped a game in the series. The first one truly was like a tech demo, a proof of concept, so much does Assassin's Creed II improve from it. The potential was claimed and the result is a well-rounded game that is surprisingly close to the newer end of the series, at least feature-wise -- there's still room for polishing.

Assassin's Creed

My Assassin's Creed franchise run (of the pre-Syndicate games) started earlier than intended when Ubisoft in July (I think it was) announced that on September 1st they would again decommission online services (i.e. anything that requires an online connection, including the redeeming of unlocked Ubisoft Connect rewards) of a selection of their older titles. At the end of August, Ubisoft postponed the decommissioning by a month, allowing me to finish all of the affected AC titles in time.

Project Hail Mary

It's such an optimistic thought that humanity could ever be capable of interstellar travel. A tremendous amount of energy would be needed to be harnessed for a spaceship to reach a feasible velocity for so vast distances. Science fiction novels like presenting different ways to accomplish this, with varying degrees of plausibility. In Andy Weir's third published novel, Project Hail Mary (2021), the solution is quite an imaginative one, quite the fantasy for the required technological leap. It is also the problem that raises the need for interstellar travel: the Sun is dimming.

Children of Ruin

Children of Ruin would have been far more deserving for the Arthur C. Clarke award than Children of Time (though I suppose this sequel wouldn't exist without the first book). I found it far more interesting a read. It has more concepts, bigger ideas, and surprises. I was few times reminded of Blindsight by Peter Watts -- I wonder if Adrian Tchaikovsky had read and been influenced by it.

The Blade Itself & Before They Are Hanged

Fantasy author Joe Abercrombie's name has been popping up whenever I've searched for new books to read. I finally decided to check his stuff out: his First Law trilogy is available here in libraries as Finnish translations. I've already read the first two novels.

Chorus

I was impressed by Rockfish Games' strong 2017 debut Everspace, but while it's indeed the studio's first title, I have later learned that the founders Michael Schade and Christian Lohr weren't exactly newbies at making space combat games. Back at their previous company, Fishlabs Entertainment, they had been releasing for good many years a similar game series for mobile called Galaxy on Fire. Fishlabs ran out of money in 2013 and after brief bankruptcy proceedings it was acquired by Koch Media (now Plaion) who placed the studio under their Deep Silver publishing arm. (And Schade and Lohr proceeded to found Rockfish.)

Weird West

In my Prey: Mooncrash post I speculated there was more than family reasons behind Arkane Studios' founder and president Raphaël Colantonio quitting in 2017. Since then, in an interview, he has added that there had been "creative anxiety" involved with delivering big titles, having to make products rather than focusing on other things. Neither did he seem too happy about the Prey name that had been bestowed upon his last project.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Since Crystal Dynamics were busy, after having been tasked -- punished -- by Square Enix to make Marvel's Avengers, was the final Tomb Raider Survivor trilogy game developed mainly by Eidos Montréal instead. They didn't really take any risks and Shadow of the Tomb Raider turned out pretty much what I would've expected had it been made by just Crystal Dynamics. The gameplay felt instantly familiar, even down to keybindings. There are however some differences that I think show the Deus Ex prequel studio was handling the reins in this one.

Demonicon

If I recall right, Demonicon was a pure impulse purchase for me: I saw a deep discount and the logo of the German tabletop RPG, The Dark Eye, which I had encountered before in the Blackguards games. And I suppose my backlog wasn't as lengthy as it is currently. Demonicon didn't turn out to be the worst experience ever but there's just not much of a reason to play it over something else.

Generation Zero

I was already in the process of writing a post how I quit Generation Zero before beating it but then ended up returning to the game to finish its main story (if you can call it that) and see the credits roll. It's definitely not a great game even if it has untapped potential. There have been quite a few post-release updates but I feel they have mostly focused on adding more endgame content, which while nice, is not what the game would really need: having its systems reworked and core problems fixed.

Curse of the Dead Gods

Curse of the Dead Gods, an isometric action roguelike by Passtech Games definitely got overshadowed by Hades. The games were concurrently in early access for a time but Hades released fully 6 months earlier and became a massive hit: not much room to succeed after that. I do wonder though if Curse sold more copies simply because people (like me) wanted more Hades.

Children of Time

I picked Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky from a recommendation on Youtube (what sold me on the novel again already forgotten when I finally got to it). Curiously enough this science fiction book had multiple reservations lined up and it took a while for me to get it from the library. I suppose it having received Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction of the year in 2016 may have something to do with its popularity.

Journey to the Savage Planet

My purchases from Epic's summer sale last year were great deals at the time (largely thanks to that renewing 10€ coupon combining with already discounted prices). However, three of the four titles I bought got within the next 6 months, if not better, maybe still a more beneficial deals: both Ghostrunner and Journey to the Savage Planet were Prime games of a month and Curse of the Dead Gods turned up on the PC Game Pass later.

Ghostrunner

Too bad the name 'bladerunner' had been taken; it would have described Ghostrunner even better than its actual name: a cyberpunk first person katana-action platformer. I wishlisted it immediately upon the first opportunity because it had seemed like a game I would enjoy -- and I did. However, it was less of a power fantasy than I had thought it would be from watching someone else play the game. But I'll get to that in a bit.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Mass Effect to be remastered had been requested by fans for quite some time as I recall, although I think the wish was really more for just a re-release so that playing the game on newer consoles would be easier or even possible -- on PC that was never a problem. EA did eventually jump on the remaster bandwagon and BioWare got to put together Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Leviathan Falls

Leviathan Falls is an underwhelming finale to the 9-volume Expanse novel series. The difference is stark between how it all started in Leviathan Wakes and how it ends here. Gone is the gripping plot and excitement for things to come. The leviathan ends up paddling in a lukewarm puddle.

Words of Radiance

It took me almost half a year to read Words of Radiance, the second book of The Stormlight Archive. That's not entirely because of the novel; I was simply doing other stuff for entertainment (mostly playing games). However, there is definitely a good two to three hundred page section that I found outright boring. Only when someone else reserved the library book (or books -- a two-volume Gollancz print again), meaning I had to return it finally, I managed to power through it.

Mortal Shell

Of the games of its genre I have played so far, Mortal Shell is the first one trying to have the exact same atmosphere as the genre defining FromSoftware titles (at least for someone who has only watched the latter being played). It has a similar cryptic setting and lore -- often manifesting as detached quotes -- and the visuals have the same washed-out colors. However, it's probably safe to say that mechanically and scope-wise Mortal Shell is far simpler. I don't think Cold Symmetry is a big studio and thus they didn't have the resources to exactly recreate their favorite game.