BleakOptimism: Lauren's Top 7 Games of 2022
Hey, I’m Lauren, but everyone calls me Bleak and today I am happy to be sharing some fantastic games with you all. I couldn’t play all of the amazing titles I wanted to this year, there are just too many and sadly, time and money are not infinite resources, but I played some pretty amazing games and have the honor of sharing with you those that really stood out to me. Thanks for all the hard work you put in this year game devs!
Honorable Mention: Unpacking
I want to start with this honorable mention as Unpacking came out in 2021, BUT I didn’t discover it until 2022 and I am so very glad that I did. I’d initially ignored the game because I HATE unpacking boxes, I’d only moved a few months before and didn’t want the stress of doing it again, but boy was I wrong about this game. Yes this game is about unpacking boxes, but it is so much more than that. We follow one young lady’s life from childhood to adulthood, we never meet her, we just unpack her belongings, but what a story those items tell. You get a feel for who she is, what her interests are and how she grows and changes over time. I’ve played through this short game 3 times now, and every time ends up with me sobbing beautiful cathartic tears during the end titles. The unpacking part turned out to be incredibly satisfying too, you get to organise the belongings relatively however you want, but the real gem here is the story of which is quite simple, told with images rather than words, and that simplicity opens the game to people from all backgrounds and languages. To do so much with such a simple game just blows me away, and all the love this game has received is very much deserved.
7. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Sadly I did not collect them all. I did, however for the first time, get to the end of the main story of a Pokémon game. Even if this isn’t a standard Pokémon game, I finished the main story (I’m sorry Arceus, I couldn’t catch them all yet) and for that I am super proud. I have been playing Pokémon games casually since the 1990’s and have always given up after a few gyms, but the unique story and open world here drew me in. Either navigating around the regions progressing the story or just spending the day cruising around hunting for Pokémon, it was a pretty fun world to be in. There’s just something about hunting down the Pokémon you want, painstakingly stalking it through the grass, sitting for ages waiting for it to turn its back to you so you can run in and smack it in the back of the head with a pokeball and capture it, to join your ever growing menagerie. I won’t ever forget the excitement of catching my shiny alpha Ursaluna on the first shot, no lure, and that pokeball closing and sealing the deal. If you played it you get it, if you haven’t played it you should…unless you don’t like Pokémon and …well… wait, you don’t like Pokémon? My biggest issue with this game is that I was a literal child and could not marry my one true love Adaman! If I wasn’t supposed to lust over him, why did they make him so handsome?
6. Strange Horticulture
Well, when you cross Lovecraftarian tales and mystery with puzzles and plants you end up with Strange Horticulture. The game takes place over 17 days, you run a plant shop located in a rather bleak occult world. Each day you have clients who enter your store looking for various plants to aid them with everything from simple ailments to thwarting enemies. You need to identify and expand your collection of strange and curious plants, along the way making decisions that will guide how the story ends. I loved this game because of how the story is told, mostly through your customers chatting to you as you work, there is something sinister brewing in the lands around the town of Undermere. I had fun, although it turned a little grim and bleak, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but as a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of Eldritch terrors, this was completely up my alley. A short playtime of around 6-8 hours to finish a single playthrough with some replayability to try and get all the different outcomes, this game isn’t for everyone, but for those with a fancy for something a little more grim, who enjoy a good puzzle this is an excellent little game and there’s just something special about organising all your revolting fungus on their own little shelf. Most importantly of all, you have a kitty named Hellebore and he likes to snooze on the counter of the shop all day…and you can pet him as much as you like, there will be purring.
5. The Quarry
The Quarry was fun, plain and simple. You control a group of teenagers packing up after a summer of being camp counselors, who want just one last night to let loose a little before they return home. Sadly for them this is a horror game, very reminiscent of a teen slasher movie, so their one night of fun probably isn’t going to go as planned. There’s nothing amazing about the gameplay here, every so often between cutscenes you get to control various characters, walk them around, look for objects, make decisions, but so many of the decisions in this game are timed, so you really have to think fast. There’s no right or wrong way to play this game, but the better you do, the more of your teens will survive the night, if that’s what you’re aiming for, you could be trying to get them all killed. The best part of this game is the replayability, because each decision can change the course of the game, want to try and save everyone, see what happens if you go left instead of right? This game is perfect for that, plus its simple controls make it fairly easy for anyone, regardless of skill level, to play this game. Personally I had a blast being put on the spot, there was real tension trying to save my favorites and there were some characters I was angry at so I didn’t go out of my way to help them. For the first run I did pretty well and got MOST of my teens out, sadly the sweetest bean in the game met an untimely end, BUT I can say I had a great time on the ride. I felt like I was in a movie and there were lots of jump scares and plot twists, and I look forward to playing again and trying to do things a little differently this time.
4. Dinkum
As an Australian, I was particularly drawn to this Minecraft meet Animal Crossing world building, farming, life sim game. The graphics are simple but perfectly suit the game. You get dumped in the middle of the post apocalyptic outback after an old lady ‘hires’ you to help her build a better life outside the cold, miserable city everyone now lives in. Sure old lady, let’s just pack up and go live in the middle of woop-woop. In the same fashion of Animal Crossing, it is up to YOU to build this town and everyone’s new life, but to be fair, old ladies probably can’t do much in that respect. So you shape your town, lure in merchants that visit the town to do business to maybe stay a little longer, put down roots, and these new townspeople will send you out to gather items for them to strengthen your friendship. Strangely they all have a scary interest in flies, why do they want so many flies? The map is randomly generated but the northern areas will always be tropical and house animals similar to those found in the north of Australia, the Wary-Mu is just as terrifying as the actual Cassowary it is based on, and in the south you have a lot of apples and some fire breathing devils, I will add, I am very thankful that real Tasmanian Devils DO NOT shoot fireballs, or even breathe fire and yes Tasmanian Devils are real animals. You can spend hours just flattening an area so you can build a new area for your pet chickens or giant mutant wombat creatures, spend the day gathering resources or you can go exploring the mines. Oh the mines, they are terrifying, pitch dark, toxic crocs and angry fire devils, there’s a lot of loot down there but it’s good to take a friend.
Now I am one of those people that isn’t big into multiplayer games, I am a lone duck, forging my own path most of the time, but I actually played a bit of multiplayer on this and had an absolute blast, we did raids for Wary-mu eggs, explored the mines and made packets of money while having a ton of fun. This game is the work of one individual and they did an amazing job, and running around pretending to be Mad Max meets Tom Nook was super fun.
3. My Time at Sandrock
My Time at Sandrock is a follow on from My Time at Portia, it takes everything that was great about Portia, and refines it into an even BETTER game than its predecessor. What can I say, I love a farming/life sim and My Time at Portia came into my life at a time I desperately needed an escape from the real world, and despite some questionable voice acting and some janky graphics, the story and gameplay were just perfect, and I sunk MANY hours into it. As soon as I saw My Time at Sandrock was being released I was ecstatic! Set in the same world as Portia, this game is set in the town of…Sandrock, yep who’d have guessed! You play as the town’s new ‘builder’ which entails you making just about anything and everything the townsfolk could, would and do ask for. All the charm of MTAP is here, but with everything just a little bit shinier. The graphics style isn’t for everyone, but boy does everything look amazing to a fan like myself. The characters are wonderful, the world is lovely and you could spend days just tidying your inventory and feel satisfied. I have many happy hours yet to spend in the world of Sandrock and I am looking forward to all of them. Also there are angry ‘rocket roosters’ called Cock-a-Doodle Doom for you to beat up, and they seem to be wearing underpants, this is reason alone for me to play this.
2. Coral Island
I’m a massive Stardew Valley fan, with close to 400 hours of play time, it is one of my happy places. I can farm, I can adventure, I can romance the fine townsfolk, I can immerse myself in its little pixel world. Well not long after starting Coral Island, I felt that same sense of comfort that I get from Stardew Valley. The thing is, this game isn’t pixel graphics, there is so much depth to this world I was immediately in love with the island. Sure it’s a farming sim with the same old premise, move into your family’s old run down farm, make a life for yourself, meet and help the townsfolk and help take down an evil corporation, but there is so much more here. Now the game is still in Early Access, so the story is limited to the first year, the island expansion is locked and a lot of the seasonal events etc have not been implemented yet, but even as it stands this game is GLORIOUS! Not only do you have your standard farming and mining, but the game has an Animal Crossing-esque museum where you donate bugs, fish and relics that you gather, plus there’s a magical underwater world that hints to merfolk. There is so much to see and do in this game and if the early access is this good, the full release next year is going to be absolutely amazing. Also, hold tight, the romance in this game hasn’t been implemented yet, but your dating candidates are all ridiculously good looking. Why would they do this to us?
1. Wylde Flowers
This game caught me off guard. I was expecting a fun little farming sim, what I got was an AMAZING journey. I was totally blown away by Wylde Flowers, yes you can farm in it, and running your farm is a pretty big part of the game, but there is so much more. First let me say the controls on this game are *chefs kiss* so SO good. This is what farming sims should strive to be. UNLIMITED BAG SPACE! Anyone who’s ever played Stardew Valley or another similar game can tell you how frustrating the bag size mechanic can be, and Wylde Flowers takes that and tosses it in the bin, no need for bag slots because you have unlimited space, and you know what, it doesn’t detract from any feelings of satisfaction of progression. The controls are simplistic but intuitive, just one button is all you need to press, and no digging around looking for the right tool, no no no, you stand near a rock, you use your pickaxe, stand near your crops, your watering can will deploy and so on. It was a pleasure to not have to spend time doing busywork digging around looking for the tools you need, the game just knows.
Then… then we have the bit of the game that took it above any of my expectations, a fully voiced in depth story where you are really pulled into the moment, the lives of the residents on the island, their struggles and complexities. Everyone on that damn island is an onion, so many layers, so many personal stories. Oh and the story had me sobbing multiple times, you come to care about the people here, get invested in them. The voice acting is also amazing, the VA’s brought a lot to the table here, and they really help bring the characters to life. Oh, and to top it all off, turns out your character Tara Wylde, well she’s a witch, and this is a magical adventure. I honestly wasn’t expecting too much from this game but it turned out to be my top game of the year. Such a WYLDE journey (sorry).