The top 10 games of 2022 according to Post Arcade

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Trying to identify some kind of common fabric that can connect my 10 favorite games of the last 12 months is futile. It’s like trying to draw parallels between Immanuel Kant and vanilla ice or Hawkins Cheezies and steel I-beams. The best I can do is to note that these are games (although in the case of Stray even that is debatable) and they are viewed on screens.

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And that’s the whole preamble you get. Here are my top 10 games of 2022.

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10. Marvel’s Midnight Suns (PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S/X, Windows, Switch)

At first glance, Firaxis’ turn-based superhero strategy game looks pathetically outdated for a $90 release designed for the latest consoles. Its stiff characters and simple environments feel detached from a decades-old game. But as I played, I realized that the thoughtful and often funny portrayals of the game’s roster of popular characters were combined with clever, enjoyably challenging card-based combat to overcome any graphical flaws. Give him a chance and maybe he’ll convince you as much as I did.

9. A Plague Tale: Requiem (PlayStation 5, Xbox S/X, Switch Windows)

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If you don’t like rats, it’s best to avoid this sequel to the surprise hit 2019 from French game publisher Asobo Studio A Plague Story: Innocence. Rodents are once again a plague in the 14th-century French countryside, and they’re still somehow connected to Hugo, the little brother of the main protagonist Amicia, a teenager simply keeping what’s left of her family alive amid political turmoil and rampant disease want. It’s a dark, beautifully realized tale of tragedy and horror unlike anything you might have played this year.

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8. Stray (PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows)

BlueTwelve Studios’ Stray is a classic example of a journey more important than its purpose. This tranquil cat simulation is set in a dystopian future where robots inhabit our ruins. We take on the role of a stray cat wandering through the rubble. There is a progression and an ending, but the real joy comes from our four-legged avatar, whose modelling, animation, behavior and jokes are just great — and the reason why this game spawned a meme in which people filmed real life cats intensely watching and reacting to the game’s furry protagonist. Stray is short, sweet, and a fine example of how games are about much more than just guns and blood.

7. Nobody saves the world (PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S/X, Windows, Switch)

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Drinkbox’s from Toronto Nobody saves the world is the kind of game that will make you smile from start to finish with its charm, wit and visual panache. A top-down dungeon-crawling action RPG, its titular star is a shifting hero who takes all sorts of shapes — Necromancer, Snail, Mermaid, Dragon and Monk just to name a few — Each of them has their own powers and abilities that have different uses and synergies. There are hardly any limits to creativity, breathing welcome new life into a genre that is almost 40 years old.

6. The Callisto Protocol (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, Windows)

This sci-fi horror game is almost criminally derived, but if you come from such great sources as dead space and Foreigner — Glenn Schofield, creative director of Striking Distance, served as executive producer on the former — Chances are the end result will be terribly fun. It’s also perhaps the most beautiful game of the year, giving us a darkly beautiful moon of Jupiter to explore and some really scary monsters that do a good job of tearing our hero apart in all sorts of imaginative and bloody ways. Aside from a couple of painful, poorly designed boss fights towards the end, I had a great time.

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5. Cult of the Lamb (Switch, Xbox One and Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows)

This deliciously weird little indie pokes fun at cults and pokes fun at cults too. As a lamb saved from slaughter by an older god, your second coming positions you as the leader of a fledgling religious sect. You do what you must to build your community of devotees by performing dark rituals — including victims! — to keep them shyly obedient while occasionally ducking into randomly generated dungeons to fight strange Cthulu-like beasts. Think Binding of Isaac with a small construction/community management simulation.

4. Mario + Rabbids Beacon of Hope (Switch)

The original Mario + Rabbids was a breath of fresh air for fans of turn-based tactics, hiding some surprisingly complex and original strategy mechanics beneath its cute, childlike facade. The sequel to Ubisoft Milan/Paris refines the experience, giving us larger, Super Mario Galaxy-inspired overworlds to explore, filled with fast-paced but satisfying bite-sized battles punctuated by the occasional epic white-knuckle mega-brawl. Do yourself a favor and play on the hardest difficulty level; The simpler settings in this one are really meant for kids.

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3. God of War Ragnarok (PlayStation 5)

Packed with memorable characters both old and new (Angrboda!) and featuring an absolutely superb world-building, where the environment and dialogue work together to create a deeply compelling sense of place, Sony Santa Monica’s latest chapter in the epic story of Kratos is a treat. It doesn’t stray too far from its immediate predecessor’s formula in terms of action, puzzles, or exploration, but it doesn’t have to, as it was also one of the best we’ve seen in recent years.

2. Elden Ring (Xbox One and Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows)

If there is life after death and I am called before whatever deity guides it to defend the choices I have made in physical form, I am pretty sure I will be called upon to justify the time that I spent 2022 playing FromSoftware’s sprawling fantasy masterpiece. My answer would be simple: I’m a hedonist who revels in the masochistic joy of battling an endless procession of brutally tough enemies scattered across a wondrous strange world. No regret.

1. Horizon Forbidden West (PlayStation 5)

The sequel to the triumph of speculative fiction from Guerrilla Games builds on the original’s gripping story set in the distant future, where humanity first succumbs to and then is reborn from its technological hubris, and ends on a forever cliffhanger that will leave me wanting made the series drool. third (perhaps final?) chapter. The icing on the cake is the vibrant combat that’s equal parts strategy, skillful coordination, and cinematic spectacle. I wasn’t bored for a minute.