I liked Primal so much I ended up buying the gold edition of this as soon as I saw it on sale. Does it live up to the hype in my head? Overall, I'd say so. Exploring the gorgeous world is crazy fun with all the different modes of transport you can use. I liked being able to use guns and the selection was great. The story was intriguing, the antagonist was hilarious, and I got hooked 100%ing this game identical to Primal. Although, there were much more frustrating moments in this game than with Primal (mostly with missions and the way some skills were locked), I found this game a bit more tiring than Primal, and 100%ing this game is much more tedious, everything else was just so good that I'm still willing to say I like this more than Primal, and a solid contender for best game I played through in 2022.

My first real foray into the Far Cry series starts with the one WITHOUT guns, mostly because I was curious about the setting. I don't often play games set in older times (though Kingdom Come: Deliverance is on the list), but I really liked the atmosphere! It's just you, nature, your tamed animals and the sounds of nature. The characters were unique enough, taming animals was fun, leveling up to unlock various perks was satisfying, getting kills with primitive weapons was good, exploring the map and locations was fun, and while I played on Hard for most of the game, I felt a good sense of challenge. Of course weapons were kinda limited, trying to heal/ride my animals acted up sometimes, and the game felt a bit 'same-y' at times, but it was a pretty relaxing/chill adventure with satisfying moments and I just had an overall fun time with it. I ended up going straight into buying FC4 as soon as I saw it on sale.

I usually don't spend more than $30 on a game these days, but I loved the first game so much I ended up grabbing this one as a means to help keep me going from how 'well' 2022's been going. People rave about this game having better features and QoL, and for the most part I agree. Tools no longer break, more options for building and residence management, no progression gets "lost" between levels etc. I did find the game a bit TOO linear exploration-wise and the game does come to a bit of a slog at the 3rd main world. It took me a little over 40 hours to beat the main story. Still, at the end I'd say both this and DQB1 are equally excellent games.

Nightdive once again hits a homerun. I never heard of PowerSlave until earlier this year thanks to Civvie, and I'm so glad I did because this is the most unique retro FPS I played, taking on a metroidvania style. All the weapons are really cool and/or useful. The satisfaction in acquiring upgrades and re-traversing the maps blazing through them is high. Quite a bit of replayability for achievements and finding new ways to skip areas. Blood: Fresh Supply is probably my favorite retro-FPS brought to the modern day, but PowerSlave: Exhumed comes so close I could taste it.

Series reboots are tough to pull off, but id did a solid job with DOOM 2016. I played this right after 3 and man was it refreshing! Fast and responsive combat. Rewarding exploration like the OG titles. Kickass music. The demons look better than in 3 and more resemble the OG demons we grew to love (to hate), especially the cacodemons. Upgrading your gear and the mod system on the weapons was a refreshing touch on the series staple weapons. The story was handled well too. I only played on Hurt Me Plenty but I can definitely see myself doing a UV or Nightmare run in the future.

I'm sure this is going to be on a lot of people's top 10s for this year, rightfully so. Elden Ring takes the Souls formula, throws it in an open-world adventure, and really runs with it. It encourages you to explore. It encourages you to respec your build and check out different skills and spells. It's not like the other Souls games where you're stuck if you can't beat a boss, you CAN go back and do other things! The lore is great and the combat is fun. Easily one of my favorites for 2022, but would've been even higher if the 'distribution' of items for different builds was better (I barely found Faith spells or Dex weapons early-game, for example) and co-op wasn't handled in the same nonsensical way as every other Souls game.

Grounded is one of the most unique, charming, and fun survival games I've played recently. Basically in a 90s-esque era playing in a backyard fending off all kinds of critters. It's incredible how they took such a concept and really ran with it! Building bases is fun, exploring and unlocking upgrades is really fun, the landmark locations are cool. The combat is surprisingly complex. The game is generous with its death penalty. Don't let its $40 price tag intimidate you; if you're even a little curious and/or were a 90s youth, take the plunge. I didn't even beat the game yet and I threw it on this list because it's so good.

I'll admit, I love rhythm games and used to play a lot of Stepmania/FFR back in the day. The DJMAX series always casually interested me, so when the sales came around I dipped into this one. It's really good. I like that the keys play beats in the natural song to help with that immersion. Every song has a video to it. The songs overall are great and the gameplay is simple but solid. Easy to get into, but hard to master. Even the non-level music is so good and it's overall a polished product. My complaints? Mission mode is a bit too misleading with its difficulty, too many DLCs that cost too much and bring not a lot of value given the base game's cost/quantity (although every rhythm game does this now and again, they are polished), and the DRM. Still, the pros far outweighed the cons to me, and I can see myself coming back to this now and again.

A souls-lite Metroidvania? Can't go wrong with that. The art style and OST in this game are excellent. The atmosphere is rather dark and gloomy, and storytelling is told via notes you pick up. It works well, and while it is souls-y, it's much easier. Many people mention it's a game that respects your time, and I agree with that. Lots of fast travel, no penalty on death, rooms highlight if you pick up everything. Worth the asking price.

Probably the game I was most excited to try when I got a VR headset, and I'm glad it was worth it. I played quite a few rhythm games on VR and this one is a mile above the rest in most regards. Lots of songs included with base game. Extremely easy (and encouraged) to run custom songs. The songs actually make you feel like you're doing dance moves. I really liked the song selection too and there's a decent variety of new artists to get into. The art style is fantastic.

My honorable mention for the year. I was really impressed with the game, more-so when I learned about its history of being a Doom conversion mod. Every single weapon was neat. The music kicked ass. The artstyle was cool and everything felt polished. The way it focused on story too was neat. I also liked the melee-focused difficulty, I wish more games like this had a similar option. However, the pacing was not good and the difficulty got a bit annoying in the second half. The amount of backtracking I had to do and getting lost in a couple of the maps was tedious. Not Hexen bad, but I did feel like I had to push myself to finish those maps.