There have been some very good games that will lead the conversation throughout 2022. elden ring – From blockbusters to high-profile indie games. But the flip side is that, as always, many great experiences are simply overlooked.
i spent the whole year Collect a huge list of great indie games We don’t have time to show you all 250+ games, but here are 5 top rated games that you absolutely must not miss before wrapping up 2022.
of Golden Idol Incident
In the scenario “I can’t believe this wasn’t the mechanics of previous games, it’s so simple” golden idol incident It’s the brilliant mystery game you really need think It ties gameplay and story together on a very basic level for the information provided.
Play over 10 scenarios, golden idol Trace the mystery surrounding that idol through a colorful cast of 18th-century aristocrats. Every scenario is a snapshot surrounding an often gruesome murder. It’s up to you to observe the scenes, unravel the identities and motivations of each character, and piece together the truth behind what really happened.
Click to see a list of words such as names, things, and feelings. You’ll have to match this with clues, letters, and statements to decipher exactly what’s going on. A great system that makes you think about how the pieces of this puzzle actually fit together.
And if, for some reason, compelling detective work isn’t enough, the narrative weaves here is exceptional. It’s amazing how invested you are in these characters, and how the mysteries and revelations are made even more compelling by your deductive expertise, even though the images you’re looking at are functionally static. It seems pointless, but when you play it, you’ll realize that you’re reading a great mystery novel and writing yourself in real time.
The art might seem a little gaudy at first, but after a while the charm shines through, especially with some great looks. Return of Obradinthis game is an absolute must play.
Betrayal at Crablow
Since then, I’ve been a big fan of Cosmo D’s work. I fell in love With a surrealist bent on capitalism and humanity Story of an off-peak cityBut while previous games were vessels for atmosphere and story, Betrayal at Crablow It’s more mechanically focused, pulling in recent hits like Disco Elysium for inspiration.
Focusing on unique buildings, crabrow Lean into the wide potential spaces of centralized locations beyond the narrow lanes of wider communities. Using a dice-based structure for every action taken, several different skills determine the path through the club to reach the goal. Often with hilarious and thought-provoking results.
For example, first you have to actually enter. There is a bouncer at the front door, but he doesn’t like people standing in line. If you want, you can use Physique to challenge him to a fist if you happen to be buff. Or you can slip through the line somehow. Perhaps you can be deceitful and sneak past those waiting, or you can use your wits to confuse, distract, and slip through the crowd with timeless parables. These interactions are passed/failed by rolling dice, with each statistic determining the likelihood of success. myself? I crept to the side door, where I persuaded the dozing guard to let me in with a witty cheeseball.
crabrow With 11 different endings possible, it’s like an unfolding puzzle box that encourages multiple playthroughs with different styles and stats to figure out exactly what’s going on here. . It’s been a really great tabletop-esque hour, and I can’t wait to see how Cosmo D continues to expand on this mechanical quest by pushing the game forward.
Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum
You’ll be given objectives such as “retrieve the Macguffin,” but the cool part is that you can take on missions however you like. There was, but the realities and limitations of game design let me down and crushed my wildest dreams. Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum.
Incredibly readable and surprisingly smooth, but thanks to its more simplistic graphical style, DDS is incredibly wide. Set in a cyberpunk dystopia, you’re graciously given the chance to pay off your ever-growing debts from giant corporations by participating in a shady corporate espionage campaign. Who you are and how you complete your missions is entirely up to you.Sure, you can shoot guns, but there’s So Play with many other fun toys.
almost hackable everything – Cameras, turrets, doors, people, guns, individual bullets, refrigerators, you name it. You can become invisible or teleport. You can also become a necromancer and raise the dead. True openness is at your fingertips.
This is all expressed in a great lo-fi aesthetic that permeates beyond the simplistic graphics into the music, endless rain, and chat logs with your handler. Incredibly polished and playable from start to finish When We have a free demo. Early Access is for (solo!) developers to add side content, fun tools, skills, and more. This game may legitimately be the best immersive sim on the market right now.
yes, that’s good.
Taiji
talking Taiji ‘2D witness‘ is reductive, but it’s also the strongest touchpoint for what to expect when diving into this East Asian-inspired puzzle game.
There is an open world with bespoke puzzles about the location. In order to solve more puzzles, there are simple puzzles that must be solved to understand the puzzle rules. The mechanics behind these challenges are both incredibly simple and deceptively profound. They penetrate the environment in incredibly clever ways.
a little like baba is youyou can sit there and stare at the screen Taiji You spent 15 minutes doing nothing, repeatedly declaring that this puzzle was impossible, but suddenly something clicked and you realized how incredibly simple the puzzle was, and you is a bloody genius.
It’s like learning a whole new language. At first, everything in front of you seems utterly incomprehensible, but when you begin to explore what you already know and push the boundaries of what you have yet to learn, a whole new world opens up before you. begin to appear. feet.
grid slayer
grid slayer is a game that does a lot with very little. A simple grid map with a basic card representation of the characters paves the way for a deck-building roguelike experience. kill the spire Deck building progress, Into the Bleachs foresight and divine original sin Battlefield interactivity. Also it rocks.
Playing as a single unit and building quickly to become an absolute powerhouse, every map sees an increasing army of enemy combatants, all about to see you buried in the ground. The myriad of mechanics such as health, movement, armor, draw capacity, card abilities, action timing, etc. can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but a good tutorial explains it all with minimal fuss. However, how well these disparate parts come together to create an overwhelmingly enjoyable whole.
Improve map interactivity grid slayer Take it to the next level. Let’s say you have an arrow attack card that deals lightning damage. Three hostile goblins are closing in on you, but between them is a barrel full of water. If you can find a way to break that barrel, water will spill out all over the place, drenching goblins. A single arrow shot opens up the opportunity to paralyze all.
there were many How many grid-based tactical games have come out this year? grid slayer It easily sticks in my mind as one of the best. The space of possibilities and possibilities to build are wild, and progression with increasingly difficult handicaps balances an engaging experience.
For more on the best games of 2022, check out the rest of our games of the year coverage.
Stay tuned for a more curated list featuring special guests from the gaming industry.
