taterchimp's games of 2022!

Presented below, for your reading enjoyment, a ranked list of all the games I beat in 2022.  It felt like a very solid year of gaming with a lot of deep, deep dives into games for 100%, or just because I was having too much fun.  There's a few games started late in the year that I am really looking forward to wrapping up as well.

Unbeaten/Other: 

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - scraped the surface.  “How offensively evil can we make every character.”  Combined with quick deaths and bad gunplay, put it down.

Final Fantasy 14 - Nope, not for me.  Everyone said it isn’t like other MMOs, but it is exactly every MMO.  Did a charity stream, got a mount, good enough.  Oddly enough, I could still kill a lot of time playing it, but I wouldn’t be enjoying it.

Dungeon Encounters - take away everything from an RPG except shops and combat, and this is what you get.  Turns out, you need a story to drive turn-based combat to make an interesting game.

Deathloop - good presentation, I liked the theming, but the gameplay was just awful.  The invasions from real players was a complete pace killer, and having to re try the same sections of the same levels wore me down.  

Crypt of the Necrodancer - still really good.  After many runs of shaking the rust off, I was able to make it to Act 4 pretty reliably, but never beat the necromancer.  As Cadence.  The rest of the roster is too far past my skill level.

Final Fantasy Type 0 - I tried, but the gameplay just didn’t grip me.

Idle Champions of the Realm - this isn’t a game.  It’s a number growing simulator.  You watch your money grow until it stops growing at a pace that lets you win, then they suggest you buy (with real currency) to buy a chest that lets you get some random bullshit that will let you win.  It’s boring at its core, it’s predatory, and I sunk a bunch of time into it because it is somehow very calming to play.

Ability Arena (Dota 2 Mod) - another autochess variant.  It requires a bunch of knowledge of the base game (abilities, stat growth, and cast points), but can be played really passively and feels like it rewards good decision making, so reduces the stress of the ‘real’ game.  

OMORI: The game just feels oppressively depressing, so much that I couldn’t get far enough in to get a foothold.  It's probably great, but I’m not in the headspace to find out.

Dead Estate: Its a fun game with lots to unlock, but I kind of let it go onto the backburner for other things.  Great art style.

Dead by Daylight: its a fine game to play every once in a while, but I think it feels bad if you are playing it regularly.  Fine to stick to just a few sessions a year.

Bad

Mass Effect Andromeda:  Underneath all the removed jank is still just a pretty bad game.  Wasn’t really invested in much, but spent more time than I thought I would on it.  Good enough to see it through to the ending I guess?

Xenoblade Chronicles - Nope, nope nope nope.  Way overstayed its welcome to the point where I turned the difficulty down just so I could finish it.  Overly simple quests, and some really questionable design choices.

Deadly Premonition 2 : Even if it ran well, the poor gameplay, baffling mechanics, and mediocre story wouldn’t be worth it.  There are glimpses into the brilliance of the first game, but they are few and far between.  Don’t play this game.

MASS Builder: A great Gundam maker, but a mediocre game.  Still has the benefit of early access to help it figure the rest out.

Void Bastards:  Needs so many more voice lines for the enemies.  Otherwise, it’s a pretty enjoyable FPS Rougelite with a unique visual flair.  

Death’s Door:  Good game, reminds me of some XBLA classics.  Not overly difficult, pretty chill, big tonal dissonances.  Doesn’t overstay its welcome at all, which is nice.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. The parts that are Star Wars are good, the graphics are good. Having to do a sliding section every ten seconds, climbing for half an hour, and other menial tasks is not good. A fairly 'meh' experience.

Cruisin Blast - It’s an all syrup slushie of a game.  Scratch the surface and its buggy with the worst kind of AI, but on the other hand you are nitro blasting a unicorn while a tornado blasts through the race track.  Needed the discount to be ‘worth it’ I would say

Okay

HUNDRED FIRES: The rising of red star - EPISODE 1.  It feels almost exactly like Metal Gear.  Little things remind you it isn’t (pressing the shoulder button doesn’t unequip, reequip last used item/reload gun), but it’s really a testament to how well everything else works that the nuances feel off.  Budget, nostalgia, fun.

Strangers of Paradise - as a huge fan of Final Fantasy the first, this was a really, really fun, campy experience.  Great models, music, and a pretty cool story if you see it all the way through.

Donut County -  Super charming, very entertaining, but also short and hollow.  Love it, glad I got it on sale.

I MAED A GAM3 WITH ZOMB1ES 1N1T!!!1 - lol

Vampire Survivors - A great way to waste time and 3 dollars.

FF13-2: I half hate it half love it.  Raised a lot for charity, so that’s a plus, but the ending is just something else.

Wonderlands:  More restrained in damage numbers, but build synergies are pretty nutty.  Overall I enjoyed the experience a whole lot, but that comes as someone who has liked the entire franchise.

Lightning Returns: If this game wasn’t tied to Final Fantasy, I would probably be raving about it non stop.  It has a bunch of crazy ideas on how to do an RPG while on the razor's edge of not being an RPG.  It's worth playing, even if it's on easy mode.

Streets of Rogue: Better than I thought it would be, but not everything on the back of the box.  A lot of opportunity to be open in gameplay, and the characters are varied.  Fun.

Tales of Berseria: Only played Symphonia before.  Turns out Tales games are all pretty good.  Plays like a fighting game, Magilou is best character, and was overly sexy.  Slightly overstayed its welcome in my mind, but still glad I came back after 4 years to beat it.

Path of Exile: Mindless grind, free to play in the good way, and now works with a controller well enough.  Got really hooked into it, and plan to play the end game a bit, probably until the league ends.

PlateUp!: So much better with friends, but it captures a very rare fun kind of stress.

Tiny Folk:  Bumping music, simple gameplay, a good time.

Atomicrops:   What if Harvest Moon and Zombies Ate My Neighbors had a roguelike baby/  Great art style, and a really fun gameplay loop.  Wears me out after 1 run, so I ‘only’ made it to year 7 out of 10, but really glad I played it as much as I did.

FF 10-2: I wanted an RPG, and this gave me a good one.  The systems are really fun to play around in, even if the story is pretty mid range for a Final Fantasy game.  I think if you play this years after playing the original, it probably holds up better.

Yakuza 0: First ‘real’ Yakuza game.  I don’t know how to bucket what kind of games these are, but the story is good at least.  Majima has way better story and management, Kiryu had better combat options.  Was fun, will play Kiwami later.

Borderlands 3 - If you ignore all the plot and dialogue, this game is really still very fun.  I tried to snipe, and the game doesn’t really want you to.  I also did each DLC for the first time!

Moxxi’s Heist - it was fine, but nothing really blew me away.  The ending loot pool is very nice.
Guns Love & Tentacles - enemy variety was very good, and the plot was pretty serviceable.  Gaige got on my nerves, and her ‘emotional’ moment fell super flat for me (if it was to be taken seriously?)
Bounty of Blood - a slow burn, but with some deadpan or more subtle humor.  Have to say I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and I think a standalone story helped with that.
Psycho Kreig - The most emotional of the bunch, but I was rushing through to get on the to the next game

Good

LISA:  Starts off as a dark humor kind of game and ends just dark.  Good, but brutal and not just as far as story goes.

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.  Still the king of roguelikes, although a bit dated.  Tons to do with great run variety.  Installed a mod to tell me what everything does, though, because I can’t be bothered to get soy milk’d again.

VVVVVV: Fantastic game with an amazing soundtrack, but much shorter than I remember it.

Portal: Plays more like a tech demo than a full game right now, but still very entertaining.

Peglin - What if Peggle was a roguelike is short but sweet.  Needs a lot more time in the oven to get me fully invested, but where its at right now is fun, adorable, and really easy to space out with.

Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice: A game that demands your full attention with such amazing sound design backed by insane visuals.  Well worth a revisit.

Titanfall 2 - great mechanics.  You get to play as Dio Brando for a while, which is great. Lived up to the hype, but also very short.

Alien Isolation - Great game.  The Alien isn’t so bad once you get used to it.  Very tense all the way through.  Facehuggers could have been done better so it wasn’t a “Flamethrower equipped or die” check walking into some rooms, but this is a minor complaint.

Bloodstained: Would be a much better game if Symphony of the Night didn’t exist.  Still good in its own right with plenty of interesting puzzles and fun boss fights.

Tetris Effect - Still a really fun game to kill an hour or two

Dark Souls:  Always a pleasure to play this game, still holds up very well except the parts that obviously don’t (Bed of Chaos.)  Takes me about 5 to 6 hours to beat nowadays, so it's fairly bite sized.  So good I played it twice.

West of Loathing - This game’s sense of humor is right up my alley.  Somewhere between Disco Elysium and Fallout New Vegas in terms of what to expect.  Glad I decided to replay it.

Catherine: Full Body  : They made the game easier than ever before and still some levels are blindingly difficult.  After 11 years of not playing it, I'm glad I beat it.  And boy, the game goes some crazy places that I really enjoy.

Forza Horizon 5: a perfect comfort food game.  Fun to just wander as a car, or go race to race.  However, that being said, the ‘director’ in the game is obnoxious, and any kind of glare on the road or bloom obliterates the racing line, which can be rather frustrating.

Nier Replicant - Yep, still great.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night: Holds up incredibly well. First time playing it, but I played all the Advance/DS games previously, so I felt right at home.  Controls like a dream, full of secrets, and just a really good romp.  Some bosses are far too simple, but overall, really glad I played.

Link to the Past: Exceptional in every way.  Beaten in a single sitting, and the music at the ending still brings up all the emotions it did when I was a child.

Cyberpunk 2077 - in a vacuum, right now, on PC, for 20 dollars, this game is really good.  Fun moment to moment gameplay, some interesting sci-fi concepts, good combat, horrible driving.

Persona 5 Royal (all achievements): Exactly Persona 4 Golden but with a fresh coat of paint, and that’s pretty awesome. The Royal aspect kind of overstays its welcome after the main content, but the game is fantastic nonetheless.

Metal: Hellsinger - Really good rhythm shooter with a focus on fun.  Level design pushes you forward and the arcade based scoring adds a lot.  Loved it.

Resident Evil 8 - Downhill after the castle, and very forgiving for a Resident Evil game, but still just some good fun.  Ran like a dream on my PC, too, which helps.

GOTY #5: Inscryption - the card game itself is very swingy.  The other elements were compelling enough to finish.  A neat little thing, but not my absolute favorite.

GOTY #4:Deep Rock Galactic - This game has so much love put into it, with a bunch of really cute minor touches, and a really cool player base. The gameplay itself is easy enough to zone out to, and didn’t blow me away, but it was a fun comfort food to play when I didn’t know what else to do, or was half drunk (no one seems to mind).

GOTY #3: Yakuza Like a Dragon:  Amazing.  A great interpretation of Yakuza as an RPG, one of the most unique RPGs I have played, a wonderful story with fantastic characters, and plenty of pachinko.  Some bosses / enemies are way too tanky, but that is just about my sole complaint.

GOTY Runner Up: Dwarf Fortress:  You cannot beat this game.  I got my enjoyment out of it, and will continue to treasure it as a wonderful storytelling experience.  So much happens, in such detail, constantly.  The fresh coat of paint plus a coherent tutorial make it very easy to get into, and really hard to get out of.  Since it released I put over 80 hours into it, and I still consider myself learning some basic mechanics at this point.

GOTY: Elden Ring (all achievements):  Everything I wanted from the game and more. Love it.  To say the game is 'better' than Dwarf Fortress is to say that Ice Cream is better than Heavy Metal, but as far as broad appeal goes, and the personal attachment I have to the souls series, this game is the cream of the crop.  Iterating beautifully on the genre, being masterfully designed, and more of what I absolutely love.  

LOOK WHO CAME:

taterchimp   

Gajknight   69

absolutfreak   21

Boxman214   11

Avoclefo   8

Sweaty Dungus   6

Morty   5

beatlemaniaxx   1