Between the rising cost of video games, industry scandals, and the
deceasing quality and originality of triple A releases, I opted not to
buy very many new games this year; instead I replayed a few old
favorites. I also got back into some of my other hobbies, namely
miniature painting, which took up a good deal of my free time. To
clarify, these are not the "best and worst" games of the year.
They are titles I enjoyed or was letdown by based on my own preferences
and expectations. Most of the titles I consider disappointing are not
even what I would consider bad games, they just weren't for me or were
not what I was expecting.
I have ordered the list based on my
overall enjoyment (one being the best) of games I played in 2022. Most
of the games on this list are not brand new 2022 releases. They are
games I played in 2022 that were new to me.
Below Zero is better than the first Subnautica in many ways and worse in others. The base building options are greatly expanded, the lighting is improved, and having a companion to converse with was an interesting change over the fist game. However, the new snow-fox and sea-truck vehicles, as well as the temperature mechanic, and smaller shallower map have received a more mixed response. The eerie music, dark open water, and mega-fauna that made the first game "scary" are gone. The wildlife feels less interactive now and most items (especially the prawn suit) are largely redundant. There are elements that appear to have been left unfinished or were poorly implemented, such as the giant ice worm that kicks Robin off her bike, which I thought was a glitch, but turned out to be what the developers had intended. There is a barren deep zone that I can only assume was added because the first Subnautica had one, but unlike the first Subnautica, this deep zone is desolate. Below Zero also lost its main writer about halfway into development, which may explain the many plot holes, character inconsistencies (such as Alan saying "we" then switching to "I") and a whole lost sister arc that is swept under the rug. Despite the flaws, I still had a good time with the gameplay and look forward to any future entries in the series.
The ice-themed expansion to Monster Hunter World feels more like a "greatest hits" of the franchise rather than a new adventure. Out of the 20 large monsters (excluding variants) introduced by the expansion, only 6 are brand new creatures and only 3 of those 6 are ice-based. While it is exciting to see old favorites looking better than ever and good for new fans to be given a chance to experience these monsters, it was disappointing to get an ice-themed expansion that does very little with the new biome - one that is easily overshadowed by the new multi-biome "Guiding Lands island" that is also included with the expansion.
Capcom must have taken the complaints from gamers who thought the base game was "too easy" to heart, because the expansion is brutal; just look up "barioth" to see what I mean. Monsters are faster, hit harder (30 to 50% health in a single hit), use huge AOE attacks, and are hyper-aggressive. They are better at dodging environmental damage and some items are no longer effective against them. Even with upgraded gear (1000+ raw defense) and elemental attacks, fights are largely spent avoiding being one-shotted. For some reason the hitboxes seem way worse in Master Rank too, or they may have always been this bad and the increased difficulty just brings those flaws to the forefront. Gear also takes forever to upgrade now and several glitches that didn't exist before were introduced. While I love the Monster Hunter franchise, I was definitely feeling the burn-out much sooner in Iceborne than I was in the base game.
#3: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Had
I played this back when it first released I am sure it would have been
remarkable for the time, but viewing Morrowind from the perspective of
the future I can appreciate how far the Elder Scrolls
series has improved over the years. The lack of a quest log in
Morrowind (one is added in with the expansions) makes keeping track of
quests a chore, and without quest markers, it can be very hard to recall
who told you to travel where to retrieve what. Not only that, but
because fast travel isn't a thing yet, you will also need to remember
which boat or silt strider
(beast of burden) travels to what town, and frankly, my memory ain't
that good - especially if I step away from the game for a week or two
before coming back. The quest design is also lacking in creativity,
being comprised overwhelmingly of escort quests, fetch quests, and "go over here to kill X" type excursions. On no less than four occasions did I find a naked Nord barbarian in need of help (Hlormar Wine-Sot , Forstaag the Sweltering, Hisin Deep-Raed, Botrir), three of which had been tricked by witches. The fourth one claimed to just be hot. I also encountered at least two people (Marsus Tullius and Athanden Girith) that had had their guar hides stolen; Bethesda made quite the jump in quest quality with Oblivion,
which has some of the best of any RPG in my opinion. The walking speed
in Morrowind is also agonizingly slow (even with 200% speed boost), cliff racers (pteranodon-like creatures) are the worst, and NPCs are less defined than in later entries.
On
the flip-side, levitation magic is the best thing ever, you actually
need to improve your skills to advance in the guilds, and the
environment and culture of Morrowind is very unique. It was interesting
to see slavery so present in a game world without the game passing
judgment or calling attention to it. There is a secret group
called the Twin Lanterns that is working to free slaves. Appropriately, they are well hidden and
not a faction the player can join, which I love. It makes sense for
them to be hard to find and highly selective of who they work with. I
also love that the player can free slaves of their own volition and it
won't turn them into some 'great savior' or come with a monetary reward.
Instead the player has technically committed a crime that they could be
jailed for. Alternatively, if the player wants to buy their own slaves
or assist the masters of slaves, they are free to do that. It offers so many unique role-play scenarios and is something I haven't seen done in any other game. It's also the sort of thing I can't imagine many companies adding to their games today out of fear of offending someone.
I knew very little about this game going in and haven't played enough to really comment on it. From what I have played, a teen girl visiting her ailing grandad, converses with the supernatural(?) neighbors each day. The player is given two dialogue options when talking with NPCs that amount to roughly the same response. The writing is a bit weird and I find myself not liking either of the options presented. Within the first two chapters the characters haven't resonated with me and I just can't connect with the protagonist. There is also a musical gardening mechanic that factors into the gameplay somehow, but I keep getting lulled to sleep by it.
Another game I knew very little about beforehand. The world isn't as open as it initially appeared in the advertising, consisting of small zones broken up by loading screens. The areas all look the same and there isn't much to do except collect food for healing and battle tainted monsters. Occasionally you may find a part to fix a broken spaceship. The game also puts heavy focus on the activities of the protagonist couple; mostly mundane banter about food and things that don't further the narrative. After several hours of play I knew very little about the two protagonists as individuals, why they ran away together, or why I should care. As it stands, I don't particularly like either one of them and don't detect much in the way of chemistry between them. Haven is simple, repetitive, and just not interesting enough to hold my attention.
Milestone One is a shockingly short (roughly 5 hours long) visual novel that is needlessly wordy and redundant. Its war-story is quickly sidelined in favor of unrelated characters and events in a town that uses robots (resembling teen girls) as free labor in the mines. The narrative touches a tiny bit on 'machines as people' and how cultures interfere and influence each other, but it's all very straight-forward and unremarkable. The way the writers handled the only character implied to have a mental illness, Sara/Rune (a major character), never quite sat right with me either. She is portrayed as a threat to herself and everyone around her. Branded as a "demon-child" by the religious society she lives in, and any attempts made on her part to "act normal" are viewed as "manipulative behavior" by her brother, who rejoices upon hearing of her suicide. I honestly half-expected her to get lobotomized at some point. It is only when Sara/Rune's dad creates a "fixed" version of her at the game's conclusion that she is finally accepted into society and loved by her brother. But maybe that was intentional commentary about society by the writers.
If a double-A company like Spiders can make major improvements between game releases then why can't another European developer with over 20 years of experience? Unfortunately, Piranha Bytes has resisted any sort of self-improvement over the years. The combat in Elex II for example, is only marginally better than Risen 2, a game that come out over 10 years ago. After all this time how have they not developed a decent combat system yet? The battle system is janky and poorly balanced, being either very hard or very easy depending on how much the player meta-games. And you will be fighting a lot in Elex II. The main quests for Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 (of a four chapter game) have the player killing 150+ enemies per quest (no joke). The map is expansive, and the jetpack (the best thing in Elex) makes getting around the world of Magalan a breeze, but outside of literal trash to collect, there is nothing to see or do. The NPCs are generally unpleasant to be around because they swear like sailors and continually try to con the player. I can tolerate this sort of thing when it is just a few individuals or groups of people, but when everyone in the game (including very young children) act like this, it just doesn't endear me to the world. To the contrary, it makes me want to join the sky-invaders in destroying it, but sadly that just isn't an option. There was also a side thing about Jax (the protagonist) and an infected dog bite that was very disruptive to the gameplay because it would teleport the player to random locations while in the middle of a conversation or looting, and I cannot fathom why anyone thought this was a good idea. It was this "feature" that turned me away from the game more than any other.
You don't exactly play these kinds of games for the writing, but this was by far the most nonsensical of Piranha Bytes' games I have played. The player is pushed to join one of five factions in order to form a "sixth power", but I don't follow how one guy becoming a member of another faction creates this 'sixth power'. It doesn't matter, because two of the factions end up not counting, and the player never actually needs to join one to begin with - the game will play out the same regardless. The story then concludes abruptly without resolving anything: the true villain of the game (Adam) gets away, the Skyand invaders continue to be a problem, Dex (the son) dies for literally no reason, and Jax is still tainted with alien dog cooties. I didn't even realize the final boss fight was the final fight until after it was all over and I was left thinking "wait, that's it?". ELEX II just wasn't anywhere close to being worth the $20 I paid for it and was a waste of the 45 hours of my life I put into it. I want to like Piranha Bytes' games but I think they are being too ambitious for the size of their team. Rather than going larger, I think they need to go smaller, focus on refining what they have, improve the quality of writing, and spend more time squashing bugs. There has got to be more quality over quantity.
Even with all the latest patches installed, there are still terrible performance issues a year after launch.
Next Year - Top Games of 2023
Previous Year - Top 10 Games of 2021
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