Introduction to the 10 most interesting games in 2022

(retro video game sound effect)

– Hey, 2022 is wrapping up,

so it’s time to wrap up and
talk about some video games.

It’s me, Jake, here to talk
about the best games of 2022.

These are the Gameranx video crew’s picks.

In the past, we usually do

like big crazy award show types of things,

but the last two years,

we’ve been keeping it low key.

We might try to change
things up next year,

but for this year,

we kinda like to keep it kind of like

a simple recommendation list.

We got together, we sat around the table,

and cobbled together some
stuff we really like.

A lot of it’s stuff you’ve
heard of, some of it isn’t.

Either way, just look at this

not as like the end all be all games

we think everybody should
think are the best ever.

No, just kind of like
some fun recommendations

from your friends here

so you can get to know
us a little bit more.

Don’t hate our picks. Leave me alone.

I definitely wanna hear what
yours are in the comments.

If you’ve only played a
couple of games this year,

one game, two game,

20 games, it doesn’t matter.

Either way, leave your own personal list

of some of your favorites,

because believe me, a lot
of games came out this year,

and even if you think it
wasn’t the greatest year

for big AAA releases,
there’s a lot of gems,

so we couldn’t even cram
’em all in this video.

So I’ve been talking way too much.

Let’s just roll right into the first pick.

This is from Juan, one
of our video editors,

who brought “A Plague Tale: Requiem.”

For us, it’s just an awesome sequel

to an already great game that pays off

in pretty much every way,

and for us, really lived
up to the expectations

of the first game, although it does go

in a little bit of a different direction,

and a little bit more crazy,
and action set piece heavy,

and there’s a bit of a tonal shift.

Still, with all the new stealth tools

and just deeper encounters,

and just some really great moments,

it is a memorable game,

not to mention the fact

that it is absolutely stunning looking,

with some really great music,

but also some incredible performances

by the lead voice actors.

If you like stories in video games,

if you like getting whisked
away on an adventure like we do,

we like single player,
straightforward adventure games,

“Plague Tale: Requiem” is a great one.

It’s fun to play, but also
the story is incredible.

It’s more personal this time around,

and it’ll leave you feeling something,

and that’s important to us here.

Sounds corny,

but we love when a game leaves
a lasting impression, dude.

Next up, we have a pick,

one of a few games that we didn’t do

a before you buy a video on,

it’s “Return to Monkey Island.”

This was suggested by our editor,

our gameplay capture guy
behind the scene, Eric,

who suggests that it’s like
kind of an outsider pick,

but you have to mention it.

You know the “Monkey
Island” games are iconic,

so seeing Ron Gilbert, the series creator,

returning after all these
years is pretty surprising,

but also the fact that the
game turned out really good.

Sure, like there was
some hemming and hawing

about the new art style,

but when you see it in
motion, it looks really great,

and a lot of the original
voice cast is back here,

and it’s like grade A stuff.

The puzzles are some of the best designed

in the entire series, and
the humor is pitch perfect.

It’s not like too goofy,
it’s not trying too hard.

It’s just natural, and it
just worked for us here.

It’s not just a return
to form for the series,

it’s up there with some of
the best adventure games

of all time.

The puzzles are challenging,

but not too obtuse or random.

The dialogue is snappy and good,

but it doesn’t bog the game down.

You never have to spend too much time

hauling around environments,

and the built-in hint
system is really awesome

and very helpful.

It’s just an all around
great adventure game.

Even if you’re not
nostalgic for the series,

we still just think it’s
really, really good,

and worth checking out.

Next up, we gotta give
some love to a JRPG,

“Xenoblade: Chronicles 3.”

It’s an epic a hundred-plus hour JRPG

that streamlines a lot of
the overly complicated stuff

from the previous games

while still feeling better
and more interesting,

and then it tells a more
personal, and relatable,

cool sci-fi story.

The writing is a standout

compared to most of
the games of this type.

It’s just a lot better
than what we’ve seen

in recent years touching a lot of games.

It’s a massive, beautiful
game with great characters,

stellar voice acting,

some incredible, almost God-tier music,

and a fun and mostly
intuitive battle system.

Yes, basically the game
is like one big tutorial.

You know, you’re still
getting pop-up tutorials

like almost literally a
hundred hours in the game,

but it just keeps

expanding its battle
system and other systems

and opening things up to the players

so it doesn’t really feel stale ever.

It’s got everything you want
in these types of games,

cool environments to explore,

some despicable bad guys

with some over-the-top bad
guy music and voice acting,

and a good amount of options

for building out your characters.

There’s a lot more side
quests this time around,

and they’re actually worth doing,

because a lot of the side quests

just don’t give you basic
rewards, you unlock new members.

It’s the most refined,
fun, and approachable entry

in the series, and you
don’t have to have played

the previous games to jump into this one,

so consider it if you’re a Switch person.

Radically switching
gears, myself and Falcon

both come to the table with “Evil West.”

“Evil West” is not a perfect game.

It’s flawed.

It can feel cheap, it can feel corny,

but it still manages to be so unique.

While on the one hand you’ll look at it

as kind of like a a third
person shooter mashup

with new, like the new, modern
“God of War” style gameplay,

what they built here kind
of feels like an homage

or a love letter to
early to mid-2000s games,

like those games from I’d say the late PS2

to like the PS3/360 era,

those mid-tier, wild, wacky games

like “Darkwatch,” and just
a million other random games

that ended up in the bargain bin,

but were still really charming and cool.

“Evil West” is exactly like that,

not to mention the fact that
it’s just got cool monsters

and a really fun combat system.

It’s not super complicated.

There’s not too much to say about this

other than that like we’re just backing up

what we’ve been saying for years here.

We love straightforward, single
player, fun action games.

And while like there’s been a lot of talk

about like “Bayonetta 3” and
highlighting stuff like that,

we wanted to give a little
bit of love to “Evil West.”

Now, one that I personally
wanna give a lot of love to

is “Cult of the Lamb.”

“Cult of the Lamb” did not get enough love

from this channel this year,

but it’s one of my favorite games.

I’ve put a ton of hours into it

for just how unique and special it is.

It is like the perfect hybrid

of like an “Animal Crossing”
kind of town management game

mixed with a dungeon crawler
with a cool demonic spin.

You are tasked with
straight up building a cult,

but like in a cynical, funny way,

like you’re taking advantage

of these poor other little
creatures in the woods.

Progressing, building
up, powering things up,

and then going into dungeons

with some fun action
dungeon crawler gameplay

to get more rewards and progress things,

with some pretty good boss battles,

but also just a really
good vibe, tone, atmosphere

that’s like a little creepy,

but has a lot of levity
and some incredible music.

Just like really good lo-fi jams.

The game is quirky and charming,

and while it looks a little
cutey on the surface,

it’s got a bit of an edge to it,

but ultimately, it’s just a good game

with a lot of addictive
video game qualities,

and it’s like a big pot of soup

that takes a bunch of elements

from all different types of games

and makes something really
cool and really unique.

It’s definitely not like anything
we’ve played in a minute.

Next up, switching gears,
we’re getting a little crazy.

You’re getting a little controversial,

but Falcon wanted to bring
up “Sonic Frontiers.”

Yes, his before you buy
was fairly critical,

but it was from a place of love.

You know, Sonic team
finally got their crap

figured out somewhat,

and made a pretty darn good game

that is only made better
by a physics model on PC

that adds momentum and
tightens up turning,

but even if you don’t play with that,

if you like Sonic enough,

and can put up with some
jenk here and there,

“Sonic Frontiers” has some
good gameplay moments to it.

I know some people trashed it,

and it’s pretty fair to
be very critical of it,

but ultimately it left us
excited for the future of Sonic.

Even though the game needed more love

and more time in the oven,

they figured out a lot of Sonic
elements in an open world,

and we’re excited to see what comes next.

Next up, from Juan, we have
a game called “Neon White,”

another one that we didn’t
do a before you buy for,

and didn’t have a lot of time to cover,

but essentially, in his words,
this is fun and addictive.

It’s got solid gameplay,

and the sense of speed and
movement is so satisfying.

The randomness that cards
bring to this gameplay,

this whole element of traversal
will really get you hooked

and turn you into a leaderboard person.

You know, a perfectionist.

There’s a story, there’s a
sense of style with this game

that is very different,
very cool, you know,

you might be a fan, but you might not,

but still it’s that raw gameplay,

that fricking fun factor
that this game brings

that is unbelievable.

“Neon White” is just
really cool, straight up.

Next up, we have a game
that I’ve talked about a lot

on the Friday news show,

and Andrew brings it to the
table, “Vampire Survivors.”

In his words, it’s a game
that shocked me twice.

First, I couldn’t believe

that people were losing their minds

over something where there’s
one controller input,

but then I couldn’t
believe how good it was

after I played, and how I still
play it often to this day.

There’s something that’s such a blast

about picking your vampire hunter,

and building them up to
the point of taking on

what seems like hundreds of enemies

while firing off like
five different weapons

as straight up pandemonium

is happening all around you.

In this game, you’re like
the embodiment of chaos,

and it gets so crazy that
it’ll make you dizzy.

You drop in, you take out
enemies, you collect currency,

and you keep on leveling
up as your hunter,

as enemy mobs get more
crazy and more challenging,

which you match by getting
more and more powerful.

And you do that for like
a half an hour or so

until death shows up and rocks your shit.

Then you do it all over again,

slowly unlocking different hunters

and more weapons and abilities.

This is a little bit of a subgenre,

and people will always argue
that like there’s a better one

or there’s a different one,

but “Vampire Survivors”
has such charm to it,

the way it is clearly like a love letter

to games like “Castlevania,”

but also just being like this
little endorphin rush thing

of an addictive game, and
it’s really fun On Steam Deck.

That’s where Andrew and
I both played it a ton.

But it’s on multiple platforms now,

including mobile, which is dangerous.

Some of you guys are gonna see this game

and just think we’re
crazy and full of shit

’cause it just looks like
this boring idle clicker,

and like, okay, I get
it, but can’t help it.

We really loved it,

and sunk a ton of time into it this year.

Our next pick from Eric
is a game called “Tunic.”

“Tunic” really manages to capture

like the mysterious feeling

of playing an old game back in the day

when you had no idea what you were doing.

It has some of the most
rewarding exploration,

and some really amazing like aha moments,

where things finally click,

and you realize you could do something

that didn’t seem possible
just moments ago.

It’s a really fascinating combination

of a “Legend of Zelda” type thing

with something more mysterious
and weird, like Fez.

It’s never too tricky,

but it makes you feel like a
genius for figuring things out.

That can be really satisfying.

This is honestly a game
where it’s best to go in

as blind as possible and
discover things for yourself.

It’s not just the “Zelda” fox game.

It’s so much more than that.

Next up, another small indie title.

This is from Juan.

It’s called “Norco.”

In Juan’s opinion, it’s one

of the most underrated
indie games of the year.

It’s a point in click
adventure game with yes,

a lot of reading, but it’s
in this surrealist Louisiana.

It’s a location, and a vibe, and a tone,

and an atmosphere you
would not really experience

in a game like this typically,

and it is absolutely dripping with it.

It is a very cool story,

and it’ll probably sink its teeth into you

if you give it a try.

I do believe it has a demo on Steam,

so maybe consider that.

It’s been a hell of a year for
point and click adventures,

between “Norco” and one
of my personal favorites,

“Pentiment,” from Obsidian.

There’s just a lot for players
who like clicking on things,

picking things, and reading good stories.

Is it “Fortnite”? No.

Is it cool? Yes.

All right, time for one of
the best Christmas sweaters

and one of the best games of the year,

one of my personal favorites,

and also Andrew’s choice here, “Sifu.”

“Sifu” is super tight,

and honestly, that will
be enough to sum up

how we feel about this game,

but we can’t just give you four words.

I mean, why is it super tight?

Well, it’s essentially a kung fu movie

meets that hallway fight scene
in season one of “Daredevil”

with like the vibe and tone of John Wick.

it’s kind of the holy trinity,

or the big three, or whatever.

The developer, Sloclap, here

really, really nailed
the combat mechanics.

They took what they
learned from “Absolver,”

put it in a cool different structure,

and refined some things and made a game

that really pushes you,
really challenges you

to learn the hell out of it,

but it is so rewarding, because
every moment, every level,

every encounter is so memorable,
the sense of style is wild,

and the progression that
you’ve probably heard about

where every time you die you age,

it’s just really unique.

The way it’s set up, it really
makes for one of those games

where it’s like just one more run.

Come on, just one more time.

And that makes it all the more impressive

considering like they just figured out

how to make combat and beating
people’s ass in a room,

that endlessly replayable.

They’ve added stuff to it.

They’ve added like different
options, different modes,

different skins and stuff like that,

since it did release earlier in the year,

but it is so satisfying.

When you get good at this game, it is, mm.

In Andrew’s words,
“Sifu” is an achievement.

It’s simplicity in overall structure,

and the intricacies of the combat combine

to create what we would describe
as a perfect video game.

That’s high praise, I know,
but we got another solid one.

We’re getting into predictable territory,

but “God of War: Ragnarok,”

all of us here pretty
much put this on the list

just because we loved “God of War” 2018.

We got a lot more of it here.

More gameplay, more
encounters, more in-game stuff,

more to kill, more side quests,
bigger, explorable areas,

but also a good story.

We’re all kind of arguing,

we’re still kinda like,
you know, tossing it up

whether or not it’s better than
God of war 2018 story-wise,

but still, doesn’t matter.

It’s still a well told
and interesting story.

Seeing Kratos kind of
lighten up a little bit

after all this time is very interesting.

Seeing Atreus grow into what
Kratos kind of taught him

and kind of beat him into
submission to be was really cool,

and seeing more of this
Norse mythology world

that they’re building out,

and some good old
fashioned “God of War” gods

that are just shitty,
and you wanna punish them

was really good to see.

They definitely delivered
on a lot of that stuff.

The game is still new,

so like we’re not gonna go
into spoiler territories

or anything like that.

A lot of people are still
working their way through it,

because there is a lot of
game here, a lot of gameplay,

a lot of side quests and stuff,

but it is all very satisfying.

“God of War: Ragnarok” is damn good,

from the music to all
that gameplay that I said,

but for me personally,
really like the story

and the performances and stuff,

it’s worth highlighting,
it’s worth celebrating.

They did it, you know.

They didn’t screw it up,

and also like we’re wondering

where the hell things could go next.

Last but not least, all of us here,

from Atul behind the scenes,
Eric, Andrew, Juan, all of us

in terms of like the game we’ve
played the most this year,

and the videos you guys
have watched the most,

and videos we’ve made the
most about, it’s “Elden Ring.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

I mean, yeah, “Elden
Ring” won Game of the Year

at the Game Awards.

Many other websites have
given it its Game of the Year,

so like we hate to just
be like, yeah, us too,

but like it is what it is.

It’s really good.

We really like it.

Especially for me here personally,

it’s probably like the less
of the Soulsborne person

of the crew, it really,
really hooked its claws in me

more than any other FromSoftware game,

and that’s just because

of the really, really cool open world,

that it was just riddled with things

to discover every moment.

Like, there’s just so
much hidden out there

that it’s really up to
you to just go out there,

figure it out, and have fun,

and that’s what I liked about it the most.

Not to mention just some
good old from soft RPG stuff

with unique character builds,

and a lot of flexibility
and variety there,

and some of the best boss battles,

and also bosses with cool lore behind them

that we’ve seen in a From game in a while.

For many people, and many of us here,

like this is that type of game.

This is like what many video
games are supposed to be,

the ones that really push
you, that challenge you,

that like mold you into a
different type of player.

I like how the sweaties can get with this,

but for me it was all about the vibes.

I just thought it was cool, mysterious,

challenging and fun, and I mean frankly,

at this point I don’t know
what else we could say

about “Elden Ring.” we’ve
talked about it to death,

other than that we’re looking
forward to some possible DLC,

or an expansion pack or
something at some point,

but that’s a pretty
straightforward year, dude.

That’s 2022.

So I wanna know what you
guys think in the comments

in terms of what you are playing.

Like I said, consider
these just recommendations,

some stuff we really loved this year,

so recommend some stuff back to us.

We haven’t played everything here,

so we’d love to know
what you’ve been into,

because it was a stacked year.

I mean, there’s so many things

that we didn’t include on this
list that we also enjoyed.

I’m like actually stressing out right now,

freaking out about it,

but like “Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles,” or “Dying Light.”

I could keep going, but whatever.

Let me know your list
down in the comments,

and most importantly,

I think before like,
subscribe, blah blah blah,

I think it’s important to say
thank you for a great year.

Thank you guys for watching us,

whether you’ve been
around for years and years

from the beginning to just recently.

Thank you for showing up.

Thank you for watching.

We hope that we help,

whether just to have something
to watch in the background

or listen to, or genuinely informing

your video game knowledge,

your purchasing decisions,
anything like that.

Thank you.

It’s cheesy, but like you watching

helps us like feed our families
and like live our lives.

So thank you.

Anyway, if you celebrate the
holidays, happy holidays.

If you don’t, have a great day.

Everybody, just be safe out there.

Have fun.

I’m Jake Baldino.

Catch me on the Friday show.

Catch me on the before you
buy videos and anywhere else.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

See you next time.

Pizza’s on me, and Happy New Year.