Starter Quest: Alessandro's Top 10 Games of 2022
Hello all you lovely sailors on the Offshore Gamescast!
I am Alessandro and I’m part of the Starter Quest podcast, a show where I introduce some of the gaming classics to my wonderful partner Jen to try and share my love for gaming with her. After a few instances of late-night fanboying with Dylan over wrestling, Jen and I have both been invited to share our games of the year with you fine readers. While Jen’s list is going to focus more on what we’ve covered on our podcast, I thought I’d take this time to look at the games which released in 2022 and reflect on this year in gaming.
Since starting the podcast, I’ve come to realise that it’s hard to increase focus on one hobby without decreasing your attention from another. A lot of that time poured into editing came from my previous hobby of keeping up with current releases. To that end, there’s a lot of major titles which passed me by that in previous years I would have been more open to experiencing. Let that be my excuse why I’ve not put in the required 100 hours needed to see whether Elden Ring to make this list. Even so it’s been quite a mixed year for the ones which did get my time.
So, here are the 10 games I played in 2022 which left the best impression on me.
Honourable Mention: Sifu
Can I in good conscious recommend a game which I did not get into fully? For a beat-em-up style game with rogue-like elements, the game itself never really clicked with me. The game’s main rogue-like mechanics will have you getting stronger with each failed attempt in exchange for years of your life. Under this system I made it through a few bosses, but it always left me too panicked to waste too many lives on lower-level areas. I totally get that’s the point. We are on a kung-fu vendetta that is throwing his adult life into avenging the death of our father, but it still never sat well in my own personal way of playing games.
Even still, I felt the need to put this game somewhere in this list as I have a lot of enthusiasm for what was attempted here. Slolap studios tried a game which brought the gritty kung-fu formula to gaming without forgetting that the reasons for the fight matter more to the plot than the actual fights themselves. It didn’t quite work on me, but I would still recommend it for you and see if it’s more your speed.
10. Digimon Survive
I was always one of the weird kids who would sing the praises of Digimon even as my classmates were deep into the Pokémon craze. The original anime series’ more desperate fight for survival in a strange new world gave the series a much more exciting energy than you were getting on the adventures of Ash and his Pikachu. Even still, I went into Digimon Survive with my eyes wide open. Despite the name and how much it would suit that original series, it wasn’t going to be a survival game. Instead, this game is more a visual novel with turn-based battles and RPG elements. That was fine with me as long as the combat was good. Thankfully, there were enough nuances in the type & elemental pairings that combat was an enjoyable puzzle to solve. Which fighters to bring, picking your moments to Digivolve, planning your turns, it all fell into place to deliver enjoyable battles.
Sadly, when it comes to RPGs, if the story isn’t there then it’s always going to make the experience that much harder. The amount of meaningful dialogue is lost in a repetitive loop of characters oversharing their thoughts. Thoughts you need to indulge if you want to raise your Affinity with each member of your team. In a game which rewards multiple playthroughs, I gave up on this one on the second time through when I felt the story wasn’t delivering me enough to keep me vested to see it finished a second time. Even then though, I do have a good opinion on my time with the game. It’s a fun game of tactics from a series which doesn’t normally offer such style of play. I always welcome innovation rather than repetition, and if putting up with a slow story was the price to pay for a new style of monster tamer RPG then that’s fine with me.
9. Horizon Forbidden West
There are a few PS4 titles which gave me hope for the platform. It was good to see Sony shake off the misfires with the PS3 and the PS Vita to remind us all of the company which toppled titans back in the nineties. Horizon: Zero Dawn definitely distilled such feelings in me. An active open world game which gave fun combat and interesting collectables that got me highly excited in its sequel.
Playing Horizon: Forbidden West however, I came away from my time with it disappointed. Games like this and A Plague Tale: Requiem are beginning to burn me out on this repeating gameplay style that tries to marry combat & stealth without making either fun. Sneaking through a world which is actively hostile and too strong for me to take on multiple enemies at once doesn’t keep engagement up for me these days. However, Horizon: Forbidden West makes up for this repetition with a story which did make me want to see how it ended.
And that’s not to say there’s no joy in the combat. Taking out bots and rivals one by one as you stalk the area clear does make for an enjoyable if repetitive way to soften up a battle. Horizon: Forbidden West does offer plenty of interesting ways to complete such a task, but what got me to finish this game it was that the story left enough hooks baited for me to fight through and see the end. I was halfway through the game when I decided I was giving up with the side quest stuff and stuck to the main path, just to see how the story would conclude. I hope they get better mechanics sorted in time for the inevitable third instalment to bring it up to par with the rest of the game.
8. Mario + Rabidds Sparks of Hope
The fact that this game exists still baffles me. When Sega announced Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, it felt like a once in a blue moon kind of marketing deal as Nintendo haven’t been a brand known for letting outside companies touch their leading man. Nintendo then letting Ubisoft make games involving Mario and their seemingly praise-resistant Rabbids brand was an insane turn in a similar direction. It comes from that same kind of bizarre logic that could only be explained if the two companies shared an office building and they got talking over an elevator ride. I picked this up on recommendation from a friend, and upon trying this game out for myself I was impressed by its design. The game is a top-down real time strategy game which has Mario and friends teaming up with the Rabbid lookalikes of themselves. You pick your squad, head into a map, and shoot your way around the enemies to complete the objective.
The different objective types will get you to experiment with each of your party members, finding which missions they do best in to get the most out of each team. Add in the Sparks which give each team member boosts and new special attacks and there is a surprisingly deep layer of tactics you can bring to each battle. I appreciate that movement isn’t dictated by square spacing but by movement discs, reminding me of PS2 classic Phantom Brave as a better way to dictate movement. It never quite reaches the military tactics needed in your average Total War game, but it is perfect for your Switch as a great way to break up any train ride or bathroom break.
7. Overwatch 2
OK, this is one I am trying my hardest to be objective with. After a long time of online FPS abstinence between Halo 3 and the first lockdown, I had utterly convinced myself that online competitive shooters where just not my bag and I would rather avoid the toxicity. However, it was in the early pandemic days of April 2020 I finally gave in to my friends who had been recommending the first Overwatch game since 2018. It won me over, I can’t deny, and even when I started the chatter about Overwatch 2 was loud. The planned sequel was just going to be the PvE mode with the first game remaining to offer PvP. This was a much different Blizzard planning it back then as to the game we actually got this year.
Overwatch 2 has been on a rough ride since its release. A monetisation strategy which is both far too expensive and far too underwhelming to encourage players to put in the coins. A massive influx of toxic behaviour now that bans can be circumnavigated for those with access to multiple phones. While at the same time locking out those players without such a luxury. Some serious balancing issues which I have promised Jen I won’t keep whinging about. And yet… there’s something that keeps bringing me back. That drive of “ack, one more game. Maybe I can get something good out of this one” keeps me prodding my friends to form a party every now and then. There’s no underestimating that Blizzard have got a fun game with this one. It would just be nice if they set their prices to a much more realistic standard.
I reserve the right to complain about this more after I see how they handle the introduction of new hero Ramattra come December.
6. Stray
I’ve never been much of a cat person. We grew up with dogs in our house and I’ve rarely met a cat who hasn’t introduce themselves to me claws first. So, I can say confidently that I never bought into the Stray hype based on the cat alone. Even with those tempered expectations, this game still managed to wow me. It’s a fun action/adventure game which can be as deep or as shallow as you’re willing to put in to the adventure and its side quests, but at the quickest will still deliver an adventure of excitement, suspense, and heart-warming sweetness.
Set among the lives of sentient robots in a world long since abandoned by the humans, a cat falls into the haunted underworld of these slums with the plan to climb back up to the concrete jungle above. Programmed with all the perfect jumping precision you’d expect from a cat, your journey through this world of darkness and neon feels a lot more inviting than such a world would suggest. You feel a cat-like sense of wonder in exploring the world, nuzzling up to every android you can find just to see their reaction, meowing needlessly thanks to its dedicated “meow” button, and fighting your unbreakable urge to knock things off ledges just to see them fall.
All we need is a button to lick your genitals with your legs spread wide and we’d have the complete cat experience.
5. Two Point Campus
Anyone who had a good enough PC to experience them back in the nineties will tell you that Bullfrog was the first example of EA’s poor outside publisher management to truly burn the gaming public. Our first scar of many which left us all now praying that our favourite developers never sign the dotted line with the company that dares to label themselves “Artists”. It has been uplifting to see how those games created by a group which somehow survived the madness of Peter Molyneux have been getting out to rekindle those fun gaming times. The Dungeons series and Two Point Hospital perfectly evolving their games into the modern era. On the back of Two Point Hospital though, hearing the team were putting that system into a new experience had me excited for the result.
Two Point Campus definitely goes further than keeping it locked to the hospital setting would allow. Building multiple buildings on an expanding campus to try and fit which studies would complement the rooms available without overcrowding the halls left this game as a perfect new step. It will take time, planning, and a lot of patience to 3 star every scenario in your quest to the top, but if you have the time to spare then this game does keep the growth of your perfect little degree mill turning. I can definitely say I got the most out of my college running years.
4. Return to Monkey Island
At the end of 2021, Jen and I finished our episode on Secret of Monkey Island pining for the dream that Ron Gilbert would return to the franchise he made famous and did the ending he planned for the series. It was after that that I was smiling from ear to ear when they announced that some dreams come true. Return to Monkey Island worked well to plug straight back into that part of me which loved this series back when I first played it. An adventure with magical pirates that had me laughing throughout the journey still serves as a great experience.
It is the kind of dream sequel that we secretly hope for our forgotten franchises, except had the almost perfect recapturing of its brilliance. There are parts of the ending which I do feel didn’t quite land as I can tell it was intended, but even with that sin the game goes a long way to prove that the point & click adventure game is far from dead. Just a little love can turn any silly story into a gripping adventure full of pirates, puzzles, and three-headed monkeys.
3. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
If my hipster opinions of the Digimon franchise didn’t give me away as someone who gets turned off by overhype, it’s still been a long time since I found myself enjoying a Pokémon game. It was back when I was halfway through Pokémon White that it dawned on me that I couldn’t name a single member of my battle party outside of Oshawott unless I was looking at my party, instead remembering them for their types and move-sets than even noticing their names. The formula had been exhausted for me, and I could never muster up any enthusiasm for the series since.
There was still hope for the rare occasions they mixed up the formula. Let’s go Eevee did end up in my Switch while looking for a game to play on a plane ride, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus caught my attention for being the kind of open world game we all dreamed about when we were kids.
I do like monster tamer games which encourage me to think outside my 6 favourites and train other monsters. Getting to do so did encourage me to try many of the strange monsters I found in my time exploring the Hisui Region, building our Pokédex by seeking out the information for ourselves. Even the combat itself, deciding if you should go for a strong attack to finish quickly or hit quickly so you can hit again brought battle strategy to the series which went beyond the usual plan of play the weakness advantage. It brought passion back to the Pokémon series that it’s badly needed.
Absolutely none of that passion has me caring much for Violet & Scarlett. I can now see what this series can be when you stop remaking Red & Blue every generation.
2. Arcade Paradise
I might be alone in this pick, but no game surprised me as much as Arcade Paradise did. A game I only picked up out of due diligence into a musician who provided the theme for our Resident Evil episode (go give the works of Mono Memory a listen). Having no expectations of this game only somehow stunned me into how great it turned out be.
It’s a curious first-person management sim where you slowly go from running a laundromat with a few arcade machines in the back, to slowly convert the building into a full-fledged arcade. Each arcade game not only fully playable, but you’ll be expected to play each game over and over to help build up a hype for the machine. This is before we include the compelling tale of a young adult inheriting their father’s laundromat who disapproves of arcade games (voiced by Doug Cockle of Geralt of Rivia fame). With your big sister helping you convert the laundromat behind dad’s back, each upgrade made to the building and new machine bought has you hungry to see what happens next.
There’s an amazing tour of the arcade history of gaming in this title. It’s all knock-offs to get around copyright, but there are games which serve as a homage to arcade classics. You’ll find games paying respect to Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Arkanoid, Puzzle Bobble 2, DDR, Qix, and others 80s and 90s classics in gaming. It makes the game also a digital museum for this bygone era, delivering the feel of days when being lost in a labyrinth of machines each promising you fun in exchange for your money was such an adventure.
Maybe I’m just the right age to be nostalgic for this era of gaming. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a story about someone growing up in their father’s shadow working hard to shine beyond its shade. Even still, this game got me in just the right place at the right time.
If there’s any single game I highly suggest you check out on the back on reading this, Arcade Paradise is the one I recommend the most.
1. God of War Ragnarok
If I’ve ruled out Elden Ring from my list then it has to go to this game, right? I hate to be predictable, but the more time I spent with God of War the more I found myself desperate to see what happens. As a long-time fan of the God of War series, the 2018 reboot will stand as my own personal standard on how to soft reboot a franchise perfectly. It appeals to new fans with story & mechanics easy to grasp, while appealing to old fans who will get more from the experience as a reward for sticking with it so far. Going into Ragnarök though I was a bit unsure if the 2018 game was as stunning as my memory told me it was. Within my opening hours of this game, I can confidently say that memory served me perfectly well since so much of its previous entries’ standards run through this new instalment.
It’s a rewarding combat system that makes you feel the improvement happing directly with each dodge, block, and parry of enemy attacks, picking the best moment to start to counter and wail into them with a range of skills & weapons. The story also kept me guessing all through its adventure up to the final boss as to which Norse deity would serve as the final boss. Depending on if they wanted to hold something back for a possible threequel to this Norse chapter in the story of Kratos.
Finishing this game left me a little sad that there wasn’t more. All while delivering relatable characters, from our protagonists to your side characters to the antagonists. Seeing the icy demeanour Kratos has with Atreus reflected in the relationship Thor has with his daughter Thrúd was a deeply humanising moment for a Norse deity we’ve only been introduced to in this game. The game is littered with interactions like this. The strange mother/son dynamic between Atreus and Freya who is still pissed at us for what we did to Baldur on our last family outing, the family feuding full of love between dwarven brothers Sindri & Brok which will have you laughing at some points, and worried at others.
If you’re after more than just hack & slashing fun, you are certain to find plenty here.
Thank you once again to the guys on Offshore Gaming for inviting me to come do this. If you want to know more about our podcast Starter Quest, I suggest you check out my partner Jen’s list of top games we’ve covered this year. I hope I’ve raised your intrigue on at least some of the games I mentioned here. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to go write my God of War fanfiction where Kratos and Thor go out for a beer at a local tavern and share stilted stories about their children.