Perhaps it’s time I stopped rewarding 2K every year for simply putting out another game. While I still have fun with the same modes I’ve been playing for twenty years, I don’t need a new version of this game to do so, and neither do you. The core gameplay is still very good, albeit stuck several years in the past, but everything around it is awful. The modes I still enjoy feel like they’re buried further in the menus every year. It feels like the only way to enjoy NBA 2K23 in a nonexploitive way is to avoid all the parts of it that its creators want you to play. I don’t see this strange dynamic ending soon, so players will continue to have to decide if being the only basketball game around is enough reason to pick it up each year.
Despite presentation that leaves something to be desired, Marvel’s Midnight Suns packs a ton of interesting strategy into its adventure, and smart writing around the edges helps to offset a main story that feels quite generic. Midnight Suns might be a flawed game in some ways, but I also couldn’t put it down, and it’s the rare game that made me truly want to run around collecting everything. Anyone who loves strategy games or Marvel should absolutely check it out.
River City Girls 2 does a lot right. With fantastic presentation, an incredibly exciting soundtrack, and tons of creativity and variety, all of the elements are here for a classic beat ‘em up. Poor performance, though, really brings the experience down, being an almost constant thorn in your side. It’s by no means unplayable, and I still had a fair amount of fun along the way, but this feels like a game that wasn’t ready to release yet. Hopefully, after a few patches, we’ll be talking about it being the great game it could be, but for now, know what you’re getting yourself into.
Despite some strange choices around online play and a story that failed to grab my interest, however, I had a great time with The Rumble Fish 2. It’s easy to pick up and play with fast-paced fights that are exactly what I look for in a fighting game. With interesting mechanics and a varied cast of interesting fighters, fans of the genre should absolutely give this throwback a shot.
Front Mission 1st: Remake often feels old but that’s no huge surprise. It is after all an old game. It released nearly 28 years ago. That it still mostly holds up as an excellent strategy RPG with an excellent story, interesting customization, and strategic combat, is impressive. While it may fall a bit short of what we’d hope for in a true remake, it remains a strong game worth the time of fans of the genre.
While playing EDENGATE: The Edge of Life has plenty of issues, I still enjoyed my couple of hours with it. Mia is an interesting protagonist, the atmosphere is strong, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. This is a case where a game being short plays to its advantage. Considering the game’s low price, I’d recommend anyone interested in it give it a try.
At times the story of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo can be interesting, but it never fully comes together. Succeeding neither as an homage to a great director’s work or on its own terms, it might be better served if it didn’t have the expectations its name provides, but that wouldn’t make it a great game. There are simply better adventure games more worth your time available this year.
A lot of Sonic Frontiers is still a mess, actually, and Sonic himself still doesn’t feel great. Those two things alone will keep a lot of players away, and I can’t blame them. Still, there’s something about Frontiers that no recent Sonic game can match. It’s ambitious, and its core gameplay loop actually works. It’s downright engaging. I spent a lot of my time with Sonic Frontiers having a ton of fun, even if there were just as many moments where I was frustrated and ready to be done with it. This isn’t a great game, but it’s one that should satisfy Sonic fans desperate for an interesting game starring their favorite blue blur, and for the first time in a long time, it feels like the series may have a sense of direction. There’s still work to be done to make it more than that, but this is a big step in the right direction.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn makes some changes to a classic, which meet with mixed success. Qualify of life changes like rewind and simplified class changes are very welcome, but the newly balanced battle system slows down battles that already felt on the slow side. Don’t be mistaken, though, the core game here is still one of the better strategy RPGs of its era, and it holds up in 2022. If you’re a fan of the genre and haven’t gotten the chance to check it out in the past, there’s no need to wait. Pick up Tactics Ogre: Reborn and get ready to lose fifty hours of your life.
Pentiment is one of the most interesting games I’ve played in 2022, going far beyond even what most RPGs can manage when it comes to player choice and consequence. Between its setting, its graphical style, and its fantastic story, Pentiment demands your attention.
Despite its issues, Somerville manages to offer a mostly enjoyable experience. The family bond forged in an opening scene, which is easily the highlight of Somerville, simply works and drove me through the game. I wanted to figure out what happened to my character’s family and see them together again, and that kept me going through a relatively short game. The strong atmosphere, which kept things visually interesting, and a soundtrack worthy of praise don’t hurt either. Unfortunately, with actual storytelling that doesn’t really work, busy areas which are hard to navigate, gameplay that doesn’t stand apart, and glitches that further weaken the experience, Somerville is hard to fully recommend. While fans of Playdead titles who can check it out on Game Pass or for a good price may find it worth the rather small-time commitment, other players should perhaps consider checking into the many similar games which simply execute this formula better.
I’ve never been a big fan of games that require you to invest huge amounts of time before they get good. Our time is valuable and while Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord does eventually get good, the uninteresting grind along the way and lifeless world didn’t do much to pull me back. Fans of the series will still have a great time and if you are willing to invest your time you’ll definitely be rewarded for it, but its frustrating to see so much potential for an even better game left unrealized.
The team at Digital Eclipse has done some of their finest work with Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Creating a collection that could quite easily be translated into a museum exhibit, they’ve set a new standard for the presentation of retro collections, one I hope future collections will follow. While ultimately held back from being the ultimate Atari package, it could have been by holes in the game lineup, Atari 50 is still a fantastic experience. It’s just one that all but the most die-hard Atari faithful will enjoy for a few afternoons before moving on. Still, even those who have never held an Atari joystick could benefit from those few afternoon sessions as they take a crash course through a fascinating history.
Few games released in 2022, or any year for that matter, are as well designed and made as God of War Ragnarök. While it doesn’t completely move beyond its predecessor, it eventually offers enough fresh content to stand apart, and additional variety helps make it the stronger game of the two, even if it’s perhaps a bit less focused. A beautifully told story that carries the themes of the prior game while allowing Atreus to stand on his own kept my interest until the very end. If you didn’t care for 2018’s God of War, then Ragnarök won’t change your mind, but everyone else should absolutely check it out.
There’s a lot more to Bayonetta 3 than there was to the series’ prior titles. A lot of it works really well, offering a game that’s far larger in scale while still nailing the core action the series is known for. While the lack of focus may stop it from being quite as strong a total package as its predecessor, the high points here are as good as the series has ever been.
While it would be awesome if someone would come along and dethrone Shatter from being the King of the Brick-Breaking genre, the way it once did to games like Arkanoid, for now, it’s still the best this genre has to offer, and it’s great to see it become available on modern platforms. While its upgrades are mostly aesthetic, beneath them, Shatter Remastered Deluxe still somehow feels as immediate as it did thirteen years ago.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force admittedly has a number of issues. A poor interface, a main story which isn’t all that interesting, and certain character designs that just look bad. For me, however, its strengths more than overcame those issues, with a truly charming cast of characters, intense and enjoyable combat, and a novel twist in D.U.M.A. who makes moving around both in and out of combat a joy. It won’t be for everyone, but fans of the series or genre who have spent years waiting for a Star Ocean game worth their time will find this is exactly the sort of B game they don’t make enough of anymore.
Vampire Survivors is simple in so many ways. The graphics are basic, with many of the earlier versions’ assets are taken straight from other games and asset packs, but they have a look that reminds players of a beloved series and simply work. Gameplay is literally just moving a character around with some planning along the way. Yet somehow, it’s one of the most addicting games of 2022, the one I most consistently come back to, and one of my favorites of the year. If you have a spare thirty minutes now and then, absolutely check it out.
No game is perfect, but A Plague Tale: Requiem is everything I could have asked for in a sequel. It refines and improves on all of the issues I had with Innocence, creating a game that doesn’t feel all that different, but simply feels far better. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the team at Asobo Studio evolved it instead, making a far better version of an already good game with a refined version of the same formula. Anyone who remotely enjoyed the original needs to check it out.
Almost everything that’s currently present in Them’s Fightin’ Herds is excellent, with the exception of a few platforming sections in the story mode. The issue is that even two years after initially releasing on PC, it still doesn’t feel like a completed game, nor have the developers been clear about when that will change. If what’s here sounds like enough for you, though, or you’re a big My Little Pony fan, you should absolutely give Them’s Fightin’ Herds a chance.