Back 4 Blood provides fantastic action with some of the best shooting offered this year. The card system provides long-term value by allowing players to experiment with the 8 characters to choose from, offering a variety of ways to go about the game. In its current state, the difficulty is a mixed bag, proving to be very inconsistent and impossible at times, especially if you mostly play with randoms. Team play with friends is highly encouraged because Back 4 Blood puts a premium on synergy and communication, which may be hard to come depending on your habits.
House of Ashes is a welcome entry for The Dark Pictures Anthology as the action-horror pivot really works for this series. With the addition of several mechanics, it draws you into the story with its slightly creepy start and goes all out as it escalates the title all the way to its rip-roaring finale. The combination of likable characters and a semi-serious horror adventure leans into many of its tropes and embraces its campy nature, allowing you to have fun with it.
Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is highly enjoyable because of its classic JRPG roots paired with a fantastic audio-visual onslaught that results in a short but sweet adventure. While I wanted more out of the experience, I very much liked what I got plus it tickled my appetite for more NieR. The adventure was easy to get into and the collectibles kept me around until the eventual end.
Don’t let the retro exterior fool you. Demon Turf, for all its quirks, is a fun and challenging platformer to pick up if you like platformers like Psychonauts 2 and even if you’re looking for a replacement for Balan Wonderworld. Extra points if you like the 90s cartoon aesthetic and style and while I might find the story cringe-inducing, others may find it endearing.
Riders Republic takes the extreme sports gaming genre and marries it with their Ubisoft style open-world exploration and it surprisingly works. They've created an accessible world where you don't have to be skilled or even interested in the sports provided to be able to enjoy.
Forza Horizon 5 is the gold standard of open-world arcade racers and a game packed with value and enjoyment wrapped in a glossy next-gen packaging that will hook you visually and then charm you with its many activities. If you have an Xbox Series console, this is THE game that you've been waiting for.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is an enjoyable detective simulator despite its brief runtime. The superior detective mechanics, as well as improved combat, make it an accessible experience and while the open world is ripe for improvement, what’s presented is quite serviceable and allows for a decent amount of exploration.
The Legend of Tianding hands down is one of my favorite indie action/adventure games for the year. It is a tried and tested concept improved by a fresh Taiwanese perspective usually dominated by Western and Japanese influences. You have likable heroes, fun gameplay mechanics, and a quasi-open world to explore and challenge, making it well worth the price of admission and then some.
The Halo Infinite campaign has numerous flaws and an obvious air to being incomplete, however, despite all odds, 343 Industries delivers a serious shooter that doesn't have to rely on its brand pedigree. The groundwork of a legendary shooter is definitely present in this campaign, with hordes of unique classes of enemies, a wide arsenal of weaponry, grand vistas of the Zeta Ring, and an engaging story.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection deserves a place on your collection whether you are a long-time Uncharted fan or a newcomer who wants to see what the hype is all about. With the additions on the PS5, it really makes for an excellent port that serves up superb visuals and a soundtrack to remember. The collection turns a great game even better, with lightning-fast loading times and subtle DualSense support which honestly could have been improved.
OlliOlli World is a fun game that lets you pick it up and proceed at your own pace. Depending on how much you want to put into the game, there’s something for just about anyone willing to give it a try. While the later levels may come across as intimidating, you’ll learn how to do tricks and advanced techniques like a natural in no time thanks to its fantastic tutorial.
Combining different gameplay mechanics such as platforming, rhythm game, and a personalized dialogue choice mechanic, it is a title that needs to be experienced firsthand. While the story is told from Francis’ perspective, much of what personalizes this game is your individual choices that create his superstar persona.
Horizon Forbidden West successfully builds on the lore and story of Horizon Zero Dawn, bringing to life a world that offers exploration as a reward of its own. The vast lands are breathtaking, paired with photo-realistic designs and an epic soundtrack to boot, Aloy's continued adventures are dazzling, to say the least. There is a magnificence to Horizon Forbidden West, and despite being bogged down by some questionable choices and decisions, the game is another masterful display of talent from Guerrilla Games.
Despite my opinions about the creative choices of The King of Fighters XV, the gameplay remains slick and fun with its fast-paced combat and combo-centric interface. Probably the best performing SNK game in a long time, but also one of the most accessible King of Fighters game so far, bridging the gap between beginners and competitive pros. While its disappearance for 6 years didn't really amount to a full visual overhaul that sees the return of fairly flat character designs and backgrounds, King of Fighters XV makes great improvements to where it counts the most, such as rollback netcode for online matches.
Overall, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a decent game that provides a surprisingly fun time with its open world and intriguing side quests, but it may not be a game for everybody as the action and open-world mechanics will expect some effort from its audience. Despite that, the game deserves a playthrough for its unique immersion and thematic elements, and I hope Tango Gameworks takes this groundwork and improves on it for future titles.
Road 96 is an enjoyable narrative journey that makes the most of your first run to the best of its presentation. While it may not win over gamers of certain political mindsets, its strengths are more derived from how it made a narrative game entertaining enough that doesn't forget that it's a video game first. I'm always looking for creative ways to tell a story and these vignettes that chronicle a country's turning point through the eyes of its disillusioned youth are what inspire me to continue perusing interactive media as it pushes the boundaries as a storytelling medium. Long story short, Road 96 is certainly a journey worth taking.
Sifu is a definite must-experience beat-em-up for 2022, and for those who have passed on this title because of the crushing difficulty, you can rejoice in the fact that the developers have added difficulty settings that allow you to experience the game at your own pace but still keep the overall experience. While the original really pushed for the aspect of lifelong mastery through its difficulty setting, the new update really opens up the game to a fuller experience that a wider base can experience instead of being intimidated by it. There is more to Sifu than this, boasting its atmosphere and immersion to breathe life back into the beat-em-up genre that’s really been relegated to retro games or remakes of retro games.
OlliOlli World: VOID Riders adds a ton of value to the base game with a new technique, new cosmetics, and new backbreaking challenges to keep you playing. It makes an amazing game even better, with the caveat of getting good if you want to enjoy the elite rewards. VOID Riders is a great expansion that adds more of what made OlliOlli World an already fantastic experience, and that’s definitely not a bad thing in our book.
Deliver Us The Moon, I would say, deserves a place up there with the likes of Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Gone Home. It presents an engaging story and an even deeper sense of immersive storytelling seen through the collection of codex, environmental cues, and exciting set pieces that propel us to find out the answer to the ultimate mystery. While it is a short experience and replayability is relegated to completing your codex, Deliver Us The Moon is a title that should be experienced to be believed. With good use of gravity mechanics and actual cues for adventure, your first run of the game will surely be a blast.
Your dose of nostalgia, especially from 90s fighting games, will be realized with the Capcom Fighting Collection. With ten unique games to choose from, it’s definitely worth the price of admission especially if you’re a die-hard fighting fan looking for a great time by yourself or with competitive play. As a fighting game casual, I still found myself enjoying the single-player options that many of these titles offered. Whether it be for the more popular titles like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Hyper Street Fighter II or the more obscure ones like Cyberbots and Red Earth, the Capcom Fighting Collection is a superb compilation that shows the great lineage of Capcom titles.