It's March, and I just realized I never finished writing the third part of my Favorite Games of 2022 list - so here it is!
And in case you missed the first two, part 1 is here, and part 2 is here.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
This one was a surprise - I'm pretty out of the loop on my Marvel movies, but I like the Guardians franchise. Still, Marvel games are rarely appealing to me, and I tried this one only on the recommendation of a friend (and it was on Game Pass).
It turned out to be a lot of fun. The humor is good (even if it gets a little old over the course of the game) and the story is interesting. The graphics are excellent. It's one of those games that I bought as it left Game Pass and had no regrets.
Tunic
I wrote up a longer review for Tunic, but I liked this one a lot. The way the game makes you play it as sort of a retro experience, where you are learning more about it as you play and referencing the (in-game) manual is a cool mechanic that did bring back a lot of memories of looking at strategy guides as a kid.
Thankfully, the game has some accessibility options that let you enable invincibility and other helpers, because about 75% of the way through, it gets brutally hard - and it doesn't give you many options, save for grinding potions, to make things easier.
It's really shocking how the game went from a challenge to an absolute impossibility for me. Were it not for the invincibility options, I couldn't recommend it.
Stacklands
I read about Stacklands in a Polygon article, and thought it sounded fun. And it was!
It's a little on the basic side, in that the exploration you take on feels a little meandering but on a linear path, but it's still fun to try out things and watch your small community grow and conquer growing dangers.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
My wife got me an Oculus Quest 2 for my birthday in 2022, and I was pleased to be able to finally play Rhombus of Ruin, a game that I'd watched other play somewhat enviously since seeing it demoed at PlayStation Experience, back when we were trying to hype people for Divide. I finished it in two epic sessions and loved every minute of it.
Seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff from the development of Rhombus of Ruin in the recently released PsychOdyssey documentary has been really cool as well.
Trover Saves the Universe
I played through a good bit of Trover on my Xbox in 2020 but stopped playing it at some point and just sort of forgot about it. When I finally got a VR headset, I knew I had to try the game again, and so in 2022 I picked it up once more and have really loved the immersive humor.
First Steps for Quest 2
Last, but not least, my first game experience in the Quest 2 was a fun one - and it's just a demo designed to get you familiar with the headset and controllers. Still, the different game modes are fun to play around with and the physics and gizmos you can mess with feel great. It really exemplifies the idea that VR doesn't have to be complicated to be fun.
And that's about it for my favorite games of 2022. Whew, what a list!
I might have to get started on the 2023 edition early with this lateness on my record! 😅