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.
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| Again 7 more perfect games and +2% from last year |
2022's biggest new release (on PC) relevant to my interests was probably Tiny Tina's Wonderlands -- kind of a shitty year otherwise. Dying Light 2 fumbled with its writing like the first game, much hyped The Callisto Protocol didn't turn up as the new Dead Space, and Bethesda Game Studios' Starfield was delayed to next year (exact release date still unknown). The year's big banger Elden Ring being Japanese means it's not for me and Sony's God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West are only on Sony's consoles currently.
But, speaking of Sony, two more of their older titles -- God of War (2018) and UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection -- made it to PC and they're occupying the top spots on my wishlist with Tiny Tina. Promising, smaller titles of the year still on my wishlist include: Steelrising, Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, Batora: Lost Haven, Thymesia, Evil West, and The Entropy Centre.
The games beaten this year
Great -- top tier fun; worthy of replays
Mass Effect Legendary Edition [post]
Third person shooter/action roleplaying game in space. The whole awesome trilogy in one complete* package (*excluding ME3's multiplayer and one shitty ME1 DLC). Some unnecessary little changes but the beautified first game and other additions make up for it.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider [post]
Third person shooter adventure game. Didn't add as much as Rise of the Tomb Raider did to the series previously -- maybe thanks to different developer studio -- but still fun. I truly enjoy the gameplay of the whole trilogy.
Fine -- interesting or exciting enough for one thorough playthrough
Assassin's Creed II [post]
Third person action-adventure in Renaissance Italy. A massive improvement from the first game in the series. Introduces one of the most well liked protagonists in gaming, Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
Assassin's Creed Revelations [post]
Third person action-adventure in Constantinople. A worthy finisher for the Ezio trilogy. The most satisfying video game ending I have experienced in a long while.
Chorus [post]
Space shooter. Narrative passable and mechanics shallow but has pretty visuals and is fun to play.
Ghostrunner [post]
First person parkour action game. The premier cyberpunk blade runner. Wasn't the power fantasy I expected but the instant resume and fitting music make it entertaining regardless.
Mediocre -- generally entertaining but with something that hampers the overall experience; average
A Plague Tale: Requiem [post]
Third person stealth adventure game in 14th century France. Very much like A Plague Tale: Innocence in every regard which made it kind of disappointing.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood [post]
Third person action-adventure in Renaissance Rome. Introduces additional challenges for 100% memory synchronization which I found annoying due to their high difficulty variance.
Black Mesa [post]
First person science fiction shooter. A third party remake of Half-Life. Accomplished well what it set out to do but for me the game offered very little.
Curse of the Dead Gods [post]
Isometric action roguelike. Like Hades but less button-smashy in nature. Lacks depth and variation to last for its stretched length.
Far Cry 6 [post]
First person open world shooter set in not-Cuba. Narrative far less offensively bad than the previous game's but the removal of perk trees killed the sense of progression. The setting is kind of passé too, visited too often in games.
Half-Life 2 [post]
First person scifi shooter. Might have been amazing in 2004 but I didn't find the game special when playing it for the first time in 2022.
Journey to the Savage Planet [post]
Goofy first person scifi action-adventure. Pretty fun gameplay. A lot of the forced humor didn't resonate with me.
Weird West [post]
Isometric action roleplaying game. Throws together immersive sim elements hoping they would magically form a great game. Too bad an immersive sim really needs a bigger budget and not as clumsy viewport.
Bad -- games I would have been better off without playing; not a good time
Assassin's Creed [post]
Third person action-adventure set during the Third Crusade. Very rough, tech-demo level beginning of the long lasting series.
Demonicon [post]
Third person fantasy action RPG. Not much of a reason to play unless you're looking to try every adaptation of The Dark Eye tabletop RPG system or something.
Generation Zero [post]
First person open world shooter in 1980's robot-infested Sweden. Authentic environments but has a lot of design problems and lack of features to make it entertaining. Maybe more enjoyable in co-op but what isn't?
Mortal Shell [post]
Third person fantasy action RPG. Succeeds at recreating the atmosphere of the Souls games. Otherwise falls short a fair bit.
Of Orcs And Men [post]
Third person fantasy action RPG. Linear and uninspired; had potential for more interesting adventuring.
Scorn [post]
First person biopunk walking simulator/lite-shooter. The premier Giger-Beksiński homage. Beautiful art but tedious as an interactive experience.
Silverfall: Earth Awakening [post]
Isometric fantasy ARPG. No reason to even know this game exists: so many better titles in the genre. Avoid.
2023 has a whole score of games lined up:
- the aforementioned Starfield
- Everspace 2 from Rockfish Games finally
- Atlas Fallen from Deck13
- Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian Studios
- Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn from A44 Games
- RedFall from Arkane Austin
- STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor from Respawn
- *The* Lords of the Fallen from HEXWORKS
- Lies of P from NEOWIZ (Korean is kind of close to Japanese so I'm a bit iffy)
- Atomic Heart from Mundfish (Russian developer but Microsoft has already paid them for a Game Pass day 1 release, thus the damage is already done if I were to play the game via the service)
- System Shock from Nightdive Studios (surely this remake can't be delayed any further?)
- Dead Space remake from EA Motive
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 from Saber Interactive
- And a few less exciting and/or uncertain date-wise titles
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