My Top 5 Games in 2022

 My favourite games I finished in 2022 as well as my game of the year!

It’s that time of year again: the time people go over their favourite games, movies etc. Admittedly most already published their lists in December but, call me weird, I prefer to publish mine after the year has actually concluded.

Before I dive in, we’ll have to over my disclaimer again. These lists traditionally only include games released in said year. For me, all games I finished for the first time in 2022 are eligible regardless of their age. I do this because I’m a ‘patient gamer’. I play more ‘old’ games than new. Off the 22 titles (including expansions and whatnot) I finished this year only 5 were 2022 titles. I could make a full list with that but that wouldn’t be a proper reflection of my gaming habits in 2022. Stuff I didn´t like that much would be on the list by default. So, my way it is!

Also: this list are my subjective opinions and do not reflect the objective quality of a title or is general consensus. I also won’t go over each title in great detail. Just why I liked them so much alongside some anecdotes here or there. If you do want to know more, get a more objective and detailed opinion on them, you can read my review of each title by clicking their purple header.

All right then. Now it's time to dive in! From my trusty old Switch to the relatively new PS5, here my favourite games I finished in 2022!

5. Pokémon Legends Arceus

Kicking off the list is 2022’s first release I picked up. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the semi-open-world Pokémon experience set in the past in the Hisui region aka Feudal Sinnoh. Of the 2 new Pokémon games that were released this year, this is my favourite.

Game Freak took a gamble by making a core series game set in the past, that focuses more on exploration and catching Pokémon and recontextualizes many elements. From the crafting of your own Pokéballs to the revamped catching mechanic. Bringing a wild Pokémon’s health down by fighting them still works but what is a lot more fun and often rewarding is to try and catch them without fighting them. Craft the right Pokéball with the materials you find with your Pokémon, finding the perfect spot to remain undetected and line up your throw. Use Berries to distract them etc.

The game's robust and nicely varied roster of side-quests, along with the expanded way you fill out your Pokédex with the research task means there’s always something to do. That, or you can just walk around the world and take it all in. The geography of Hisui.  All the fun ways they recontextualized Poké Balls and the like for the older time period. Just seeing the Pokémon world this much earlier in history is something to behold.

And then there’s the soundtrack. Oh, the soundtrack! I never knew that I wanted a Pokémon version of the Breath of the Wild OST but now that is here I can’t stop listing to it.

Pokémon Legends Arceus moves the series in an exciting new direction by going semi-open world, combining lots of elements that make these games so appealing with Pokémon. The result of this is the most refreshing and best Pokémon game in years, one that streamlines a lot of elements while honing in on what makes Pokémon so very appealing. The atmosphere, the refreshed gameplay loop, the plethora of regional forms, and the quality of life improvements. It all adds up to the most unique Pokémon experience amongst the current crop of games. The first game to give something close to that ‘perfect’ Pokémon experience many imagined as a kid.

After the controversial Sword & Shield and the lacklustre Brilliant Diamond & Shing Pearl, Legends Arceus was a game the franchise and its fans surely needed. Something new. Something different. Something that everybody can just agree on is good, relax with and have conversations about without any toxicity.

Pokémon needed that. I needed that from Pokémon.

4. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition

As you will read, 2022 was a PlayStation year. Makes sense. I got my PS5 in November of 2021; the first PlayStation console I myself bought and the first since the PS2 that I played on. 2022 has thus been a year in which I’ve been catching up with PlayStation titles I missed out on. From some PS3 titles that got PS4 ports, like Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition to a whole lot of PS4 titles. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition among them.

To be honest, when I bought Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition during Black Friday 2021 I only did so because of A. I wanted to throw some money, support, a Dutch developer and B. it was cheap at only 10,-. I only booted the game up because I want to play the games I bought thinking, all the while, that I wouldn’t like it but that it would be good to give something I don’t like a shot every once in a while. Well, as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover!

I ended up falling in love with Horizon Zero Dawn. The combat isn’t quite my forte, I’m really not good at and the human models especially are stiff and plastic-y, but I adored everything else. A well-crafted AAA open-world game that is thoroughly enjoyable with its well-written narrative and breathtaking world. I loved the story, solving the mystery of Aloy’s birth, the world etc. Loved rummaging throughout the world, going through ruins, helping the people, meeting the characters and so forth. I became a glorified Horizon fan practically overnight. I played the DLC, the Frozen Wilds, immediately after I finished the story, put Horizon Forbidden West at the top of my Birthday list and even got myself the Lego Tallneck set.

I spent 70 hours on the title and there are still things for me to do should I return to it. I never found and never went to the Hunter’s Lodge, for example.  And I might just do that if those rumours about a PS5 remaster are true. I know, I know. That would be hypocritical of me since I criticized the Last of Us Part I but hopefully, Sony won’t go that route here. Make it a remaster released at a budget price alongside an even cheaper update path for current holders.

Anyhoozle, I spent the first half of 2022 engrossed in the world of Horizon and I have this game to thank for it all!

3. Xenoblade Chronicles 3

At number three is Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The third entry and the concluding entry of the Xenoblade trilogy or at the very least this chapter of it. Around 2018 came the realization that looking back at my library, I tend to gravitate towards RPGs. So, when my time in Octopath Traveller´s Orsterra came to a close I started looking at other (J) RPGs I could dig my teeth into. My eye landed on the then still relatively fresh Nintendo Switch exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and put it on my Christmas list.

The first hour or so was rough. I hadn’t dug that deep into the title since and I found the combat jarring. I sat it out and am thankful I did. I got used to how battles were thought but most importantly: I fell in love with the world and its characters. I had a blast those 100+ hours and promptly became a Xenoblade fan. Played through Torna: The Golden Country and Xenoblade Chronicles:Definitive Edition in the years after.

I was thus eagerly awaiting the, surely inevitable, 3rd entry. The one we’re talking about now. I had a lot of fun playing through it. I had some concerns going in, mainly how the title would handle the merger of the 2 worlds of Xenoblade 1 and 2. How the world would be without any Titans around and wasn’t thrilled with the two main characters of XC1 and 2 respectively were seemingly the big-bads of the game. But, thankfully, the title handled these aspects well.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the result of Monolith Soft improving and refining this formula for years. The gameplay is streamlined. You can switch characters on a whim, don’t need to waste hours pressing buttons to pick up items, the tutorials are easy to understand and so forth. The story was once again an epic, fun and engaging one. The graphics are good, there are some beautiful locals, and the soundtrack is excellent. All in all, I had a lot of fun going back to his universe and got out of it exactly what I wanted.

It’s not my personal favourite game in the series, that honour still goes to Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna the Golden Country, but it is hands down the most refined and polished entry to date.

2. God of War (2018)

The runner-up is God of War, but not the God of War I’m certain you were all expecting. The reason for this is simple. I haven’t finished God of War Ragnarök yet. I’m somewhere around the middle, I reckon. Thus, it’s not eligible for this list of mine. Even if it had been, I don’t know if I would’ve put it above its 2018 predecessor. Ragnarök is a much bigger, more epic title that improves on nearly every aspect of the 2018 entry that takes players across all 9 realms, has deeper and more involved combat and more content altogether. Stuff I’m still a bit hesitant to talk about since it wasn’t in the marketing and I’d hate to spoil it for you all.

Even so, God of War 2018 nudges it out at the moment because of its smaller and more personal nature. Bigger isn´t always better or in this case, isn´t always what I´m in the mood for. Sometimes, I´d rather play a great game that doesn´t take me too long to complete and give me a fulfilling experience than an excellent title that takes a long time to finish. God of War 2018 was that for me.

I already knew about the Baldur and Loki´s twists thanks to the internet and the ´I don´t have a PS4, so it doesn’t matter’ mindset I had for a while. Even so, the game drew me in thanks to its very personal father/son narrative that is at its core set in the world of Norse Mythology that just oozes passion for the source material. It looks great, plays great and sounds great.

I didn´t need to hunt down every collectable, dive into every side quest the game offered or beat all the Valkyries. I just went with Kratos and Atreus on their journey to scatter their wife/mother’s ashes from the highest peak in all the 9 realms, crossing paths with Æsir and Vanir Gods, Dwarves, Elves etc. along the way, and had lots of fun doing so.

1. Horizon Forbidden West

Coming in at the top spot is, you guessed it, Horizon Forbidden West. The second Horizon game isn´t a perfect title by any stretch. It has been buried in the conversation ever since Elden Ring came out, getting snubbed at The Game Awards and is overlooked by many at these end-of-the-year lists. As a big fan of the game, it´s annoying to see it get overlooked so consistently but I can´t say I don´t understand it. It´s very standard in everything it does.

The world adheres to the tried and true ´Ubisoft open-world formula. It’s a formula that holds up but it has been used a lot. This overuse has naturally resulted in a lot of titles feeling similar to one another. Invited a lot of criticism. HFW also played it safe and didn’t innovate much. Just like with Bayonetta 2, it didn’t do anything wildly different. It focused mainly on improving and refining what was already there. That the story wasn’t as strong as that of its predecessor didn’t help the game either to stand out amongst the crowd. Especially the crowd it found itself: Elden ring. Just like Breath of the Wild did with Zero Dawn back in 2017, that game launched close to HFW and became an absolute phenomenon. Yeah, Guerilla has a history of launching their games close to Game of the Year winners.

But I digress. This isn’t ‘the 4 reasons Horizon Forbidden West got buried this year’. This is ‘My top 5 games in 2022’ post. And Horizon Forbidden West isn’t just on it, it’s number one. It’s my Game of the Year 2022 because I liked it. A. Lot.

Yes, the story indeed wasn’t as interesting as HZD’s. The mystery at its core, the Far Zeniths; who are they and what do they want, just isn’t all that interesting. The rest of the game though is so much better than the first in my eyes. The graphics are beautiful, not that HZD was bad looking, but it’s just so much better here and the dreaded ‘plastic-y’ character models I already mentioned before are completely gone.

The combat is a lot deeper and smoother. Exploration is much improved, with better controls, more scenic and stuff to do and Breath of the Wild style glider. The story might be worse off, but the bigger cast means that we got a lot more personality and perspective on the world. Said world had its lore deepened, with answers given but also a lot more mysteries and questions raised that make me wish for even more content in this world. New societies that spin the series’ unique flavour of post-apocalyptic. The music is wonderful, more present than it earlier and ‘Into the Floods’ is a lovely piece. 

I also played HFW a lot more than HZD. Dug my teeth a lot deeper into it than I did with HZD. For the latter, I felt satisfied with it a lot earlier with the game than I did with HFW. That’s quite a feather in any game's cap, no? That you just can’t stop playing it?

After getting invested in the Horizon world with HZD and the Frozen Wilds, Horizon Forbidden West released at the perfect moment for me to dive right into it straight after finishing those two. HFW was the game I played for months on end and could forget my real-life troubles for an hour or so a day.

For all of that, for all the fun it gets the crown this year!