The Impact Factor’s Top 10 Games of 2022
As expected, 2022 was more of the same with regards to my gaming habits. More lifestyle, easy-to-pick-up-and-put-down kind of games. Fewer 50-100 hour AAA or AA games, RPGs in particular, that I used to really enjoy. Much fewer indie titles, oh man, so many less. And as a result, fewer “games that I need to play to be a part of mainstream Game of the Year discussions” played, too. So many of the highest rated games fell by the wayside — and this was the year I finally came to terms with the reality that I just won’t play them. In the past, I convinced myself that during some magical December window I would get to all of those critical darlings and finally become one with the discourse. Well. That’s not me anymore.
I get the sense in so many conversations with people, interactions online, that people fall out of their hobbies. Video games in particular. “Oh yeah, I used to play a ton in high school, and then I just stopped.” I was always afraid I would be one of those people. Belligerent that I wouldn’t be. And, to be clear, I’m not. But 2022 was the year I finally laid to rest my video game enthusiast persona, the wannabe outlet reviewer or podcast influencer, and just admitted that: I’m just a guy who plays video games. And that’s ok.
Anyway, enough philosophy. The smoldering embers of my old self still burns brightly enough to compel me to write this Top 10 GOTY list. I hope that never changes. We’ll see.
About 2022 in particular, I found fewer titles that really moved me. Even ignoring the whole identity crisis thing you just read. Of these top 10 or so games, I only feel super passionately about the top… two? Maybe even only top one? Just wanted that place setting so you can understand how I ranked ‘em this year.
Quick note, just like last year, if this list ever becomes the Top 10 Games I Played and Enjoyed the Most This Year, Regardless of Release Date of course Genshin Impact would rank highly. As you can see below, 41% of all time spent on PS5 this year (my primary console) was Genshin Impact. Over 2 years out, and still going strong. It’s not a game for everyone, but it sure is a game for me.
Without further ado, here are my top 10 (+1) games of 2022.
Does This Count??? Entry Omitted From Top 10 Because It Came Out 2021
??. Inscryption
Boy was I finally glad to get around to this one. The discourse was gushing about this indie-darling from creator of TIF-famous Pony Island last year. And it sounded like everything I would love: a rogue-like card game with horror vibes. But it was only on PC last year and I just don’t play there. But when it made its way to PS5 this fall, I just had to try it. And I loved it! What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I love the tone, I think the card game mechanics are extremely solid & I love how the game breaks them to allow for narrative and progression, I love how the game evolves over time into essentially three different but closely related card games, the FMV inserts, etc. I could go on. I was less sold on the Slay the Spire-like first iteration of Inscryption, but man did I love the other two more deck-building focused variants. Super super fun title, and one that I wish I had more of a reason to go back to. This would be my #3 GOTY if it counted, just FYI.
10. The Quarry
As a huge fan of Supermassive’s Until Dawn and a moderately sized fan of their games in the Dark Pictures Anthology, I was pretty excited to jump into The Quarry when it released this summer. Specifically, playing this game side-by-side with my wife, experiencing all the twists and turns and character deaths together. The Quarry is a less shocking, less novel experience than Until Dawn was when it first released, but The Quarry is a damn good time. I really enjoyed performances by Brenda Song, David Arquette, and Miles Robbins. The setting was fun — a summer camp besieged by werewolves and the unfortunate teens that have to deal with the horror. Gameplay was fine enough, with a few new twists on interactivity as we played through the story. But overall it was just fun to sit down on this rollercoaster ride next to my best friend. More of these, please!
9. Vampire Survivors
A latecomer to this list (I only played following iOS release in early December), but one I had heard a lot about from the discourse. The game is incredibly simple: all you can do is move left-right, up-down, and avoid an increasing number of heavily Castlevania-inspired monsters that slowly chase you down. I was a bit confused at first — why was everyone hyping this game up? But then I played, died, played again, unlocked some new power ups, died again, played once more, settled into a groove with a new item build and oh no. Yep. I get it. Vampire Survivors is a devilishly smart, deviously simple rogue-like that just builds and builds and builds. You go from slowly whipping a bat every few seconds to fighting thousands (not an exaggeration) of bats and zombies and ghosts from all directions. It is a sight to behold. A delicate dance of dodging and carnage. An exquisite bullet hell, at times. This might have been higher on my list had I played it more, but now ~5 hours in I GET it. Happy to keep up with this one for a while.
8. Rumbleverse
Rumbleverse is a professional wrestling-inspired third-person action brawler battle royale. A bit of a mouthful, sure, but an extremely fun game. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed this neat little mash-up. I am sure I have talked before about my Sunday gaming sessions with my old friend and former TIF-star— and this is where Rumbleverse shined brilliantly. Deceptively simple with huge mechanical complexity, Rumbleverse combines all the stuff we enjoy from battle royale (looting, surviving, builds, resource management) with the technical precision of fighting games (footies, frame traps, reading opponents, combos). There is a low skill floor but an extremely high skill ceiling; and it was extremely fun to climb that skill ladder as our characters climbed buildings with their bare hands. And then elbow dropped from 80 stories up. By the end of the year, the two of us were pulling off some disgusting wombo combos of grabs into throws into uppercuts into spinning pile drivers. Despite being ugly (and man I hate the art direction of this game), Rumbleverse is just so freakin’ fun to play.
7. Horizon: Forbidden West
This next pair of games (7 & 6 on the list) have a lot in common. They’re both major first-party Sony “prestige” 3rd person action-adventure RPG semi-open world games. And for both, I liked them quite a bit. But at the same time… I don’t know how much these kinds of games speak to me anymore. Or maybe each entry was weaker than I think? Who knows. Anyway, I had a good time this year with Horizon the second one. It improves on pretty much everything from the first game. Bigger, better open world. Better movement. Better combat. Way better facial animation (just watch a video of Horizon Zero Dawn if you’ve forgotten the horror). And while the story did not have the as strong a narrative hook as the first game (we we in the US the whole time!!!), I think Guerrilla games did a good job in Forbidden West expanding the world and stakes. I won’t spoil anything in this list but I loved the new technologically advanced faction you meet about 1/3 of the way through. What a cool moment. Ultimately, and why this game does not rank higher, is it just felt a bit bloated and lacking direction. I often found it a chore to go back and do things in the open world. Combat is good but became super samey super fast. And the narrative took too long to start, and then too long to finish. There were some phenomenal moments throughout, but ultimately Horizon: Forbidden West is just a really good game, not a great one. I platinumed this game.
6. God of War: Ragnarok
Yeah. If anybody read this I’m sure I would hear about my take from them. But let me be clear up front: God of War: Ragnarok is just a good game. Not a great one. And it is worse than its prequel. Much like Horizon, there are some truly fantastic moments in Ragnarok. Especially those in which the player is given fully agency with their experience (looking at you, dragon crater) and less so when being railroaded down encounter-filled hallways during the main narrative. God of War: Ragnarok has serious pacing problems. The narrative did not feel cohesive, or like it is doing much of anything, until I hit the 25 hour mark. That’s a problem! And even then, I don’t think the game is saying anything super meaningful? Basically “as a parent, it is hard to know when to let go of your kids and let them being who they are.” Maybe it would be more resonant if I were a parent. The game is often bloated (hence 25 hours to get to the final act) and the combat, while really fun, also became pretty samey pretty quickly. I would dread said-combat hallways because I just did the same, efficient, series of actions each encounter. But that’s enough ragging on Ragnarok because despite all that I had a really good time playing! Spectacular visuals, cool bosses & great encounter and enemy diversity, so much granularity to your Kratos build, and yeah, that dragon crater was some of the most fun I’ve had with games this year. And Richard Schiff was robbed at the Game Awards — Odin is BY FAR the best character of the year. God of War: Ragnarok is a really good game; just a shame I didn’t like it more. I platinumed this game.
5. Stray
It’s the cat game! Stray is a third-person (cat?) adventure game with light exploration and puzzle solving. Set in the post-post-apolcalypse, Stray tells the story of a lost cat in a robot-filled city trying to find its way back to the outside world. As far as gameplay goes, Stray is just alright. It’s pretty simple stuff, with some unnecessary stealth & combat thrown in. “B game” quality. But what really makes Stray sing is its world, characters and, well, cat design. I loved exploring this quiet, grimy, neon-lit city and the robot inhabitants left behind. How are the robots different than humans? How are they not? The game is filled with absorbing little side stories about friendship and life in a sunless world. The game moves at a pretty brisk pace, nothing outstays its welcome. But the cat was the real star here. Great animations and controls really sold the feeling of being a cat. Smart magnetic platforming allowed you to feel the grace and dexterity of being a cat. The design here was very clever, and made for an altogether engrossing experience. Nice little gem of a game.
4. DNF Duel
Maybe this isn’t the right spot for this, but I don’t care. I really, truly enjoyed DNF Duel this year. It’s probably my favorite fighting game of the last several years. And it all comes down to how it plays. DNF absolutely sings during moment-to-moment gameplay. This 2D “anime” fighter from Arcsys had a lot to prove — it is using characters from an IP that has little cache in the West, with a small roster, and barebones modes. It needed a solid gameplay loop. And it did! The fighting feels fast and powerful. The control scheme was simplified so even complex, flashy combos, required only a moderate mastery of physical execution. I do not know how to describe game feel other than “you could tell some former Marvel vs. Capcom devs worked on this.” But above all? I loved that MOST of the cast felt “broken” or “unfair”. You can pull off these ridiculous, long, often touch-of-death combos. I wrote a whole article back in the day that argued that “balance” is not the pinnacle of game design. DNF Duel is a case in point. Super dumb, super fun fighting that’s fast and rewarding. It is a shame that the game didn’t sell well — after about a month I just couldn’t play online anymore. I got crushed by like the 100 hardcore people still playing. And DNF Duel essentially got no support (DLC, adjustments) for 6 months. Ah, well. I won’t soon forget the time I spent playing. It was fantastic.
3. Pokémon Violet
The lowest critically regarded mainline Pokémon ever is my number three game of the year?! Yes. It rules. Let’s get this out of the way up top — Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and / or Gamefreak need to do something about how they develop these games. I don’t know whose fault it is, but recent Pokémon games (from a technical perspective) are awful. The games run terribly, huge performance and visual hiccups, the graphics look PS2 era, bugs, glitches, etc. Pokémon Violet needed at least another six months of development. But still. But still! This is the most fun I have had playing a Pokémon game in a long time, and I actually quite liked Sword & Shield. This is the first truly open-world Pokémon game. And the devs leaned into it. Quest structure & progression was totally up to the player. You could go anywhere, see anything, catch whatever ‘mon caught your eye. The diversity of biomes was fun, and I think this generation has some of the wildest new creature designs ever. There are so many quality of life additions in Violet, like crafting TMS, flying wherever whenever, free remembering of moves, etc. The game also has fun with tweaking expectations for “gym battles” and raids. And the story actually had some really great characters? And moments? My wife played before me & it was so fun to watch her grow her team and explore Paldea. I had a ton of fun playing, too. I hope this is the future of the franchise, but they just GOTTA release a game that looks & runs well at some point…right?
2. Marvel Snap
This is a game I was excited about for years. As anyone reading this probably knows, I am a huge Hearthstone fan (GOTY 2014, right here on TIF!). Several of the key developers left Blizzard to found Second Dinner, and Marvel Snap is their first game. Snap is a tightly designed, perfect paced, infinitely replayable collectible card game. The objective of each game is to have more total points in 2 of 3 lanes. Four cards can be played in each lane, each card has an energy cost and point value. What struck me the most is just how thoughtfully every single element is designed; how optimized it is for a tight play experience on phone. Games are never more than 5 minutes. At 12 cards, deck building is easy and accessible to all players. Rewards are constant, with non-stop progression. The snap mechanic (essentially a wager for speed up progression on the ranked ladder) is brilliant. Marvel Snap is simple enough for anyone to pickup, but deceptively complex at higher levels of play. As someone pretty deep into superhero and Marvel fatigue, Snap handles the huge IP superbly. It’s so fun for each card to have a special animation, voice line, or card text that reflects the spirit of the character (Hulk is just a high power finisher card, Taskmaster copies the power of the last card played, Wolverine comes back into play even if it is destroyed, etc.). Played in short bursts or long sessions, Marvel Snap is something I’ve enjoyed every day since launch. Super super fun.
1. Elden Ring
Pretend to be shocked, everyone! Elden Ring is a masterpiece. It is a true evolution of everything From Software has achieved with the Sekisoulsborne genre. This was head and shoulders better than every other game this year, and is probably my favorite game since… Persona 5 in 2017? I am in total awe of how much, and how well, everything is accomplished in Elden Ring. It evolves Dark Souls combat meaningfully, creating even more options for character builds and how you approach fights. The world is beautiful, horrifying, and sprawling. There is at least 2-3 full Souls game content stuffed within Elden Ring. It has some of my favorite boss fights and areas of any Souls game. It not only takes what has worked previously about open world RPGs, it adds something new (progression, world design, traversal). I loved the lore, and I loved all of the emergent narrative moments that happened throughout my 100+ hour journey. I’m at a time in my life in which it is so hard to make time for big experiences like these, but Elden Ring was instantly compelling and demanded that concessions be made in my life to accommodate. It’s one of those games that’s so good, I wish I could erase my memory and play again with fresh eyes. Very few games fall into category. If I sound effusive, well, I’m effusive. I can’t help myself. Elden Ring is one of the greatest games ever made, and it is The Impact Factor’s 2022 Game of the Year!
