Phaseknox’s Top 10 Games of 2022

[Phaseknox]

The following are the 10 best games that I played and finished this year (2022):

10) Tormented Souls
This is one of the better classic style survival horror games that I’ve played. It’s most similar to the original Resident Evil with a creepy mansion setting, methodical gameplay/combat and key item puzzles. The story is completely bonkers, but still somewhat entertaining. My only real complaint with it is that the puzzles can be obtuse at times, and I had to look up the solutions to them a little more often than I would have liked.

9) Ion Fury
This is a classic style FPS similar to Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior in look, gameplay and level designs. It’s a love letter to 90s FPS fans which I am. It was made using the same graphics engine as Duke Nukem 3D to make it authentic to the time period, and that gives it part of its appeal and charm. It’s a fast paced action packed thrill ride the entire time only brought down by its brief and unsatisfying ending.

8) Valkyrie Elysium
The combat in this game is some of the best that I’ve experienced in a third person action game, but unfortunately just about everything else about it including its story, characters, graphics and levels are kind of average. It’s pretty much a linear action hack ‘n slash game that would have benefitted from some adventure elements, platforming challenges and environment puzzles. It’s tightly paced and fun, but a little too basic and repetitive in terms of overall design.

7) Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
I enjoyed this game more than I was expecting to based on its negative reception by critics and gamers alike at release. I played as the female archer Catti-brie, and found her to be an appealing character in terms of appearance, voice actress, gameplay and combat. This is primarily a linear third person action game/dungeon crawler light on story and even lighter on characterization, but the levels are varied and fairly well designed, the combat and platforming are fun and the challenge is just right. It would have benefitted from some adventure and RPG elements, but it’s still a solid third person action game for the most part.

6) Ys: Memories of Celceta
This is a retro style action RPG that originally came out for Vita. It has an isometric view, and I kind of label it as an anime Diablo since it has a colorful anime aesthetic and characters with you primarily traversing somewhat linear and narrow environments battling mobs of enemies. It has towns and villages as well where you interact with NPCs, and visit shops. It’s a little repetitive and longwinded as the levels can drag on a bit, but the story and characters are charming and the combat is a lot of fun.

5) Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider are a couple of my favorite games from the past decade, and while this one isn’t quite as good as those it’s still a really good third person action adventure platformer with puzzles. The graphics are impressive, the levels are well designed, the gameplay is tight and there’s a lot of exciting scripted events and set pieces. The story isn’t too strong and reminds me a little of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but it’s still good enough to drive the gameplay. There’s some open-ish town and village areas that breakup the action, but I found them to be a little out of place and slowed down the pacing a bit.

4) Saints Row
I’m a big Saints Row fan, so I was looking forward to this reboot. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out quite as good as I was hoping for, but I still had a really good time with it despite its shortcomings. While the story and characters aren’t very good, the world and gameplay are. It’s a fun third person open world action game with on-foot shooting, and vehicle traversal. The story missions are fairly varied, and there’s some good side activities as well. Some of the side content isn’t the best, but you don’t have to do all of it so I simply ignored doing the stuff that I didn’t really like. My biggest problem with the game were its bugs, there were quite a few annoying ones that unfortunately hindered my enjoyment a bit.

3) Asterigos: Curse of the Stars
This is the most ignored, overlooked and underrated game of the year IMO. It’s one of the best games that I played this year, and probably the best indie game of the year. It’s a third person action RPG with a fairly entertaining Greek mythology story, an adorable main protagonist, an appealing art style, varied well designed levels, fun combat and a lot of content. It looks good, plays good and is a lot of fun. The character interactions and dialogue can drag a bit at times and it lacks platforming and environment puzzle elements that would have added to the overall experience, but other than that it’s a charming and endearing adventure throughout.

2) Darksiders III
I’m a fan of the Darksiders games, and this is the best in the series IMO. Fury is a badass character with a blade whip, and this game has everything that I like in a third person action adventure game including a great art style, varied well designed levels, solid gameplay, fun combat, cool upgrades/unlockable attacks/abilities/skills, platforming and environment puzzles. It also has an interconnected Metroidvania style world design. I enjoyed every minute of it, it was fun from beginning to end and had a fairly entertaining story, cast of characters and satisfying ending.

1) Far Cry 6
Far Cry 3 is one of my all-time favorite games, and this game is the closest that the Far Cry series has come to matching it since it. This is one of the few games that I played this year that felt like a big budget AAA game with a lot of money and people behind it. As much as I like AA games and indies, I also like big grand games like this that take advantage of all of the bells and whistles of current hardware. Sure I played it on PS4 so it’s technically a last gen game, but it takes full advantage of the PS4 hardware which still produces good looking games IMO. I’ve showed my mom plenty of games over the years and they all pretty much failed to impress her, but this game did. She said that it looked real, and the world does kind of look real. It might not be photorealistic, but it’s extremely detailed and realistically designed. It looks and feels like a real place, and for a first person open world game like this that’s important for immersion. And I got really immersed into this game. I really liked the main character Dani, and I enjoyed going on this action adventure with her that was full of thrills and spills. And explosions, lots of explosions. The story and characters in general were pretty good, and it was a huge open world with varied locations, interesting missions both main and side and a lot of fun gameplay both on foot and in vehicles.

[Phaseknox]

I’ve had this posted for over a week now, and not one reply?

[crimson_tide]

Huh...sorry I missed it fam! Give me a bit and I'll dedicate some time to respond properly .

[crimson_tide]

The following are the 10 best games that I played and finished this year (2022):

10) Tormented Souls
This is one of the better classic style survival horror games that I’ve played. It’s most similar to the original Resident Evil with a creepy mansion setting, methodical gameplay/combat and key item puzzles. The story is completely bonkers, but still somewhat entertaining. My only real complaint with it is that the puzzles can be obtuse at times, and I had to look up the solutions to them a little more often than I would have liked.


Not my genre. I think the last survival horror I played was RE5...which was just an action game

9) Ion Fury
This is a classic style FPS similar to Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior in look, gameplay and level designs. It’s a love letter to 90s FPS fans which I am. It was made using the same graphics engine as Duke Nukem 3D to make it authentic to the time period, and that gives it part of its appeal and charm. It’s a fast paced action packed thrill ride the entire time only brought down by its brief and unsatisfying ending.


FPS ain't my jam fam. I have a very limited pallet apparently

8) Valkyrie Elysium
The combat in this game is some of the best that I’ve experienced in a third person action game, but unfortunately just about everything else about it including its story, characters, graphics and levels are kind of average. It’s pretty much a linear action hack ‘n slash game that would have benefitted from some adventure elements, platforming challenges and environment puzzles. It’s tightly paced and fun, but a little too basic and repetitive in terms of overall design.

I was sold on this one when it was announced. Based on your write up and thoughts while playing it coupled with it's relative brevity, I fully expect this to bey jam fam

7) Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
I enjoyed this game more than I was expecting to based on its negative reception by critics and gamers alike at release. I played as the female archer Catti-brie, and found her to be an appealing character in terms of appearance, voice actress, gameplay and combat. This is primarily a linear third person action game/dungeon crawler light on story and even lighter on characterization, but the levels are varied and fairly well designed, the combat and platforming are fun and the challenge is just right. It would have benefitted from some adventure and RPG elements, but it’s still a solid third person action game for the most part.

Love that you liked this Phase. I assumed everyone went way too hard on it but so many went so hard I figured it was just that bad. Leave it to Phase to be like nah, it's ight


6) Ys: Memories of Celceta
This is a retro style action RPG that originally came out for Vita. It has an isometric view, and I kind of label it as an anime Diablo since it has a colorful anime aesthetic and characters with you primarily traversing somewhat linear and narrow environments battling mobs of enemies. It has towns and villages as well where you interact with NPCs, and visit shops. It’s a little repetitive and longwinded as the levels can drag on a bit, but the story and characters are charming and the combat is a lot of fun.

Honestly, after Monstum Nox, I think I am Ys'd out. I played this on Vita but it didn't hold my attention.

5) Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider are a couple of my favorite games from the past decade, and while this one isn’t quite as good as those it’s still a really good third person action adventure platformer with puzzles. The graphics are impressive, the levels are well designed, the gameplay is tight and there’s a lot of exciting scripted events and set pieces. The story isn’t too strong and reminds me a little of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but it’s still good enough to drive the gameplay. There’s some open-ish town and village areas that breakup the action, but I found them to be a little out of place and slowed down the pacing a bit.


These get too puzzle heavy for me. I need more action.

4) Saints Row
I’m a big Saints Row fan, so I was looking forward to this reboot. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out quite as good as I was hoping for, but I still had a really good time with it despite its shortcomings. While the story and characters aren’t very good, the world and gameplay are. It’s a fun third person open world action game with on-foot shooting, and vehicle traversal. The story missions are fairly varied, and there’s some good side activities as well. Some of the side content isn’t the best, but you don’t have to do all of it so I simply ignored doing the stuff that I didn’t really like. My biggest problem with the game were its bugs, there were quite a few annoying ones that unfortunately hindered my enjoyment a bit.

I was very sad this got such a poor reception. I will give it a go when it's dirt cheap since you saw it through, fam.


3) Asterigos: Curse of the Stars
This is the most ignored, overlooked and underrated game of the year IMO. It’s one of the best games that I played this year, and probably the best indie game of the year. It’s a third person action RPG with a fairly entertaining Greek mythology story, an adorable main protagonist, an appealing art style, varied well designed levels, fun combat and a lot of content. It looks good, plays good and is a lot of fun. The character interactions and dialogue can drag a bit at times and it lacks platforming and environment puzzle elements that would have added to the overall experience, but other than that it’s a charming and endearing adventure throughout.

I feel like this is what I thought Fenyx rising was going to be. Definitely going to wait for a deal with this one.

2) Darksiders III
I’m a fan of the Darksiders games, and this is the best in the series IMO. Fury is a badass character with a blade whip, and this game has everything that I like in a third person action adventure game including a great art style, varied well designed levels, solid gameplay, fun combat, cool upgrades/unlockable attacks/abilities/skills, platforming and environment puzzles. It also has an interconnected Metroidvania style world design. I enjoyed every minute of it, it was fun from beginning to end and had a fairly entertaining story, cast of characters and satisfying ending.

I should make download this sucker again and give it a whirl. Thanks for putting it on my radar again Phase!


1) Far Cry 6
Far Cry 3 is one of my all-time favorite games, and this game is the closest that the Far Cry series has come to matching it since it. This is one of the few games that I played this year that felt like a big budget AAA game with a lot of money and people behind it. As much as I like AA games and indies, I also like big grand games like this that take advantage of all of the bells and whistles of current hardware. Sure I played it on PS4 so it’s technically a last gen game, but it takes full advantage of the PS4 hardware which still produces good looking games IMO. I’ve showed my mom plenty of games over the years and they all pretty much failed to impress her, but this game did. She said that it looked real, and the world does kind of look real. It might not be photorealistic, but it’s extremely detailed and realistically designed. It looks and feels like a real place, and for a first person open world game like this that’s important for immersion. And I got really immersed into this game. I really liked the main character Dani, and I enjoyed going on this action adventure with her that was full of thrills and spills. And explosions, lots of explosions. The story and characters in general were pretty good, and it was a huge open world with varied locations, interesting missions both main and side and a lot of fun gameplay both on foot and in vehicles.

FPS. Nah bruh. Glad it was your jam fam!

[Phaseknox]

I was sold on this one when it was announced. Based on your write up and thoughts while playing it coupled with it's relative brevity, I fully expect this to bey jam fam

It’s a solid linear third person action hack ‘n slash game, but it had the potential to be much more than that. The budget for it seemed kind of low, and the development time for it seemed somewhat short. But the combat is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed my time with it for the most part.

Love that you liked this Phase. I assumed everyone went way too hard on it but so many went so hard I figured it was just that bad. Leave it to Phase to be like nah, it's ight

Apparently it was improved after launch, but I still think that people were probably harder on it than it deserved. It released for $40 instead of $60, so that should have been taken into consideration which it didn’t seem like it was. I enjoyed my time with it, I thought that it had fun combat and well designed levels. The graphics are really good, too.

I was very sad this got such a poor reception. I will give it a go when it's dirt cheap since you saw it through, fam.

This is another game that wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be IMO. I don’t deny that it’s kind of average and that it had a lot of bugs at launch, but I still found it to be really fun to play. It deserved to be criticized for its shortcomings and bugs, but it wasn’t the dumpster fire that many claimed it to be.

I feel like this is what I thought Fenyx rising was going to be. Definitely going to wait for a deal with this one.

This was one of the best games of the year IMO, and deserving of much more attention than it received. Most reviews for it were fairly positive, but it released without any marketing and flew under the radar.

[jfissel]

Man, I have only played 1 game in your list (Tomb Raider - thought it was very good). But if I ever want to play anything else, I appreciate the opinions provided!

[canedaddy]

Nice writeups.

The one that I really want to play on that list is Asterigos: Curse of the Stars. Given my backlog, I'm going to wait a while in hopes of a physical version.

[argyle]

I find it funny that we will have 1 game in common on our top 10 lists this year (I'm working on mine now, hopefully next week) and it's a game that came out 4 years ago - Darksiders III.

Other than that, the only other game I've played on your list is Ys (and a very little bit of FarCry 6, but not enough to count for anything). I have Valkyrie Elysium in my backlog and Asterigos preordered (it is getting a physical release cane, set for the end of Feb. right now - but from what I can see only for the PS5/Series X).

Good list! I'm a little burnt on open world games unless they try to do something different, so I'm not sure that I'll ever get around to stuff like Saints Row, but it's good to know that there is fun to be had there in spite of what the reviews have said.

[canedaddy]

I have Valkyrie Elysium in my backlog and Asterigos preordered (it is getting a physical release cane, set for the end of Feb. right now - but from what I can see only for the PS5/Series X).

[Phaseknox]

Nice writeups.

Thanks.

The one that I really want to play on that list is Asterigos: Curse of the Stars. Given my backlog, I'm going to wait a while in hopes of a physical version.

Like argyle said, it appears that there will only be a physical version for PS5 and Xbox Series X and will cost $10 more than the digital version.

I find it funny that we will have 1 game in common on our top 10 lists this year (I'm working on mine now, hopefully next week) and it's a game that came out 4 years ago - Darksiders III.

I’m curious to see where it ranks on your list, and I’m looking forward to your list in general.

I'm a little burnt on open world games unless they try to do something different, so I'm not sure that I'll ever get around to stuff like Saints Row, but it's good to know that there is fun to be had there in spite of what the reviews have said.

I found it to be dumb fun, I was even somewhat entertained by its story and characters although I wouldn’t call them good. The bugs were the worst part of it, but apparently a lot of them have been fixed now.