Incline Games you have beaten in 2022

[Tavar]

The Chronicles of Myrtana - Archolos
Ghostrunner - Project_Hel
Neon White

Currently working on Persona 5 Royal, but there is no way I'll beat it until the year is over.

Maybe you'll beat it before 2024. It took me 9 months. My save was 100+ hours.

I already have 102 hours in it (I just beat Shido), so I'm cautiously optimistic . The game would be even better if they had trimmed it down a little, though.

 

[CootKeeper]

Disco Elysium Really enjoyed that one. 5-1-1-5 stats. I'm thinking of replaying it again with a 1-5-1-5 character.
Alan Wake American Nightmare not finished, gave up half way through. what an awful game.
Konung 1 I tried to enjoy it. Found a widescreen mod but it also turned the UI text in Russian which I can't read. The dialogs were good though. Gave up after releasing a village from a witch (33% done?), where you have to go pixel hunting to cross a bridge. I spent an hour clicking like a madman to cross the bridge to no avail. Hard as balls and unfair.
Tides of Numanuma Second playthrough, this time to the end. Bad game. This is my last InXile game ever

 

[deuxhero]

Actually beat? That might be tricky since a lot of what I played in 2022 had no ending (sandbox, play a near infinite number of player created levels), and I'm bad at actually "beating" games.
From Steam
Ion Fury: It's falls just short of 5/5, with the big issues being the enemy variety and ammo placement limiting most of the weapons to be super situational.
Deus Ex (Female Denton mod): Deus Ex is, of course, still a . The mod is , it's an excellent what could have been and excuse to replay the classic with a small twist, but it has just enough micro issues to prevent saying its perfect.
Jedi Academy (OpenJK): There's a reason I regularly replay this, and it's that the only things remotely like it are Dark Messiah (which I also replay pretty often) and Jedi Outcast (which has enough parts with really bad level design I don't touch it nearly as often). I'd still love to see a new level pack/standalone expansion/sequel with minimal changes as part of the retro FPS wave if kept free of Disney's BS.
Sonic Adventure (PC, some mods): - : A strong contender for the game with the most wildly inconsistent quality I've ever played. I'm not talking about a game that's slow at the start or underdone at the end, this is a game that rapidly flips back and forth between two extremes of quality: This was a Dreamcast launch title and it shows. Sonic has really good levels, but also some horrifically bad ones (Casino), though he really benefits from a SA2 style light dash mod. Amy's levels (all three of them) are all actually rather fun if you mod the game to give her her SA2 physics (which gives her extant speed/acceleration). Gamma's levels are also excellent, if too short, and can see why they reused that style of gameplay for SA2 (the better Eggman stages are easily up there with some of the speed stages IMO). Tails is mostly recycled Sonic stage segments that aren't really of much interest but are doable. Then you have Knuckles (why they decided to recycle this gameplay mode for SA2 is beyond me) and, of course, Big and everything about the Duke Nukem voiced giant cat's gameplay that needs to be said has already been said.
Trials of Mana: Another very strong It's a very solid action RPG that has no bullshit in it (no current year, no DLC nickle and dime, etc.). The difficulty (which is too easy, except for some parts like Angela's bonus boss which are stupid levels of bullshit) and the combat only being good (rather than amazing) in a game focused on it is the main things keeping it from 5/5
Scribblenauts Unmasked: Don't touch it if you haven't played Unlimited, but it's a solid standalone expansion pack for what it goes for now.

Let's see what stuff that Steam didn't cover I can be relatively sure I "beat" this year (this list is non-exaustive)
Kirby Air Ride: : Beating this game is a bit arbitrary, but I think unlocking all the "major" unlockables is enough to say I have. It's an excellent racing game with some original mechanics and unique controls that are never annoying. Why did this never get a sequel?
Mega Man X: Would be a 5/5 if not for the fatal flaw of Chill Penguin's stage having the boots, which makes the "fight bosses in any order" thing pointless, and some of the upgrades being stupidly esoteric.
Pokemon TCG GB: Way too short, rares are too rare, and the card game at this point was way too exploitable. Sequel wasn't replayed this year, but it's a too, since it broke some things (forcing you to use certain types of deck is just annoying and grindy) as much as it fixed stuff.
Mega Man V: : Capcom US really dropped the ball by dropping the "World" subtitle, making everything think the GB subseries of Mega Man games was just ports instead of original games. Bar some slowdown, V is one of the best Mega Man games ever. Someone was working on a DX romhack with color and less slowdown, so might be worth waiting for that. Edit: Its been out for two days, so go play MMV with it.
Advance Wars 2: (with some dips): Campaign maps too often force you into certain strategies and CO balance is kinda crap, but its otherwise excellent.
Advance Wars DS: : Has as many quality regressions as it does improvements. The campaign is way more friendly to experimentation and picking your strategies, but Dual Strike is such a shit mechanic it centralizes everything (since the enemy uses it, you have to use Sasha as one of the characters on every map past early game to get rid of it). I think a romhack that forced every campaign battle to be one CO for both sides and always made the second front player controllable could easily send the campaign to stats.
Pokemon Conquest: Has a lot of flaws, including exceptionally crappy balance, a stupidly repetitive post game, and single weak overworld map that makes the strategic layer utterly pointless. Could easily have had a 5/5 sequel (Three Kingdoms instead of Sengoku?), but it never happened despite strong sales.
Golden Sun: Dawn of Djinn: I didn't beat the final bosses before moving to new PC (still have save, so might cross this off before New Years) but close enough to call this one. Difficulty is just a tad overtuned, but otherwise I like how the dev managed to work with the limited mechanics and assets to make something new of the classic. Would love to see what the creator could do with TLA's more fleshed out systems. Edit: It is now beaten. Trick to Lord of Djinn boss is that toxin works on it, which near trivializes it since the damage for venom is percentage based. After its dead you get an absurdly powerful charm (literally lets you take two turns). That makes any re-fights easier (you can fight it multiple times) and lets you get multiples. With three of them (the charm that lets you seal enemy magic, bypassing immunity, is a better use of Ivan's ring/charm slot) Deadbeard and the final bosses fall easily.

Edit: Checking, I beat the following as well
Metal Max 2: Reloaded An excellent jRPG and open world game. The remake makes it shine.
Disaster Report 3: A game about escaping a crazy and over the top series of disasters. While there's plenty of gameplay the dialog is the real treat, and the it actually varies a lot between the male and female MC options (the girls acknowledge you're a dyke when flirting with them). You frequently get dialog options to be a horrible person or a pervert. Unfortunately the flags and values to get the non-bad ending is overly opaque.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

This year I beat :
Pheonix Point
UFO Aftermath
UFO Aftershock
UFO Afterlight
Bloodrayne Terminal Cut
Blasphemous
Fallout Tactics
Mordor Shadow of War
Dex
Tiberian Sun
Tiberian Dawn (the original, not remastered)
Sunset Overdrive
Genesis Alpha
Steamworld Dig 2
Symphonia

That's what I can remember.

Edit : Oh, and Hollow Knight. I can't believe I forgot about that one, that's a good game.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Kirby Air Ride: : Beating this game is a bit arbitrary, but I think unlocking all the "major" unlockables is enough to say I have. It's an excellent racing game with some original mechanics and unique controls that are never annoying. Why did this never get a sequel?

I was obsessed with the game as a child but found the racing modes to be sub-par when compared to Mario Kart. Most of my time was in City Trial which is a great experience with a decent amount of secrets to discover. I hoped sequels would expand upon this concept by having multiple cities. Not likely to ever happen but a man can dream.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Well, I started the year with a resolution to not buy any new games and grind my backlog. Then Elden Ring came out and wrecked everything for me. According to that Steam replay thing, 47% of my game time for the entire year was Elden Ring.

There were a few titles I played but didn't complete, like every year, including Wrath of the Righteous due to chronic restartitis and putting it off until more patches had come out. I assume I won't be beating anything else before the end of the year.

Things that I completed:

Pillars of Eternity - replay. Game's still reasonably okay, but the expansions are definitely better than the OC.
+ White March 1
+ White March 2

Warhammer 40k: Battlesector - pretty easy, but otherwise alright. Scratched a certain itch of burning xenos to death with my squad of angry incels.

Tomb Raider (the Crystal Dynamic reboot thing from whenever) - surprisingly solid action adventure thing. I enjoyed it.

Elden Ring - destroyer of free time, this thing possessed me for a time until I finally hit the uninstall after beating it completely like 4 times and having a few other aborted playthroughs. Very solid if you're into Souls and/or open worlds.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - overhyped, but a solid arcade beat 'em up that you probably saw a million times if you stepped into an arcade in the late 80s / early 90s.

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga - very easy FFT wannabe that reminded me a lot of Langrisser (Warsong), not bad otherwise. Story was retarded even among its peers.

Triangle Strategy - probably more of a VN than a tactics JRPG, but the tactics gameplay was satisfying and it scratched a certain itch for me. I liked this a fair bit, but if you're not down for watching "storytime" you're not going to have fun.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Meh campaign storyline and stuff, but with some reasonably memorable encounters and places. Best part about this is the DM toolkit and the ruleset implementation. Solid workhorse of a title.
+ Lost Valley Eh... about the same as the OC overall. A few things were better, a few things were worse.

MMO / 5 - not going to rate these but I finished each of the story campaigns. Good for what it is.
Guild Wars 2 OC + Heart of Thorns + Path of Fire + End of Dragons - Like other MMOs, a good way to realize you're wasting your life by doing this. Unlike many MMOs - it's at least free to do so, after the box price. OC is F2P now. Meh.

Honourable mention:

Vampire Survivors - I didn't actually complete this, but I did a bunch of runs before putting it down. Arcade bullet hell that is a lot more fun than the price tag would suggest. I tried this one on Game Pass and then went to Steam and paid the man his shekels. Worth checking out imo, especially if you were into any twin stick stuff like Robotron 2084 - it isn't a twin stick shooter but it felt similar in a lot of ways.

Dishonourable mention:

D&D Dark Alliance - By far the worst game I've played in ages. Didn't complete, will not return. Tried it for on a $1 Game Pass trial and still felt ripped off. A terribly shitty game.

 

[Dadd]

Elden Ring - destroyer of free time, this thing possessed me for a time until I finally hit the uninstall after beating it completely like 4 times and having a few other aborted playthroughs. Very solid if you're into Souls and/or open worlds.

I disagree with this rating.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Elden Ring - destroyer of free time, this thing possessed me for a time until I finally hit the uninstall after beating it completely like 4 times and having a few other aborted playthroughs. Very solid if you're into Souls and/or open worlds.

I disagree with this rating.

Ok, Momm.

 

[Talby]

I think Elden Ring was the only one.

 

[Vic]

just beaten GTA 5 towards the end of the year, I have to say, I felt zero accomplishment as that game was dumb and piss easy, BUT it's an awesome driving/walking sim that I see myself booting up when I want to listen to an audiobook.

 

[Catacombs]

it's an awesome driving/walking sim that I see myself booting up when I want to listen to an audiobook.

Would be more immersive if you listened to the audiobook through the car speakers

 

[kangaxx]

- System Shock 2, at least once per year since 1999, and 2022 was no exception. No discussion needed.
- WOTR, a massive disappointment with the worst compulsory minigame I've ever seen (crusade management).

Very slim pickings, although SS2 is always great to play.

Edit: closest I got with another game was 60% of Weird West. I enjoyed it but the game loop became too repetitive and I put it down.

 

[newtmonkey]

-=CRPGs=-
Icewind Dale (PC)
My favorite game this year. Perfect atmosphere with beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds and a great soundtrack. Addictive combat and party building kept me playing hour after hour, and I loved every minute of it.

Diablo (PC)
The creepy atmosphere, rarity of magical equipment, and mobs of tough enemies make it feel like playing a survival horror game at times. Short but sweet, and it does what it does perfectly.

Geneforge (PC)
Nice writing, a large (mostly) open world to explore, multiple factions to join, and quests that can be solved in multiple ways. Unfortunately, the combat is too easy, and there's too much of it. Even so, an amazing RPG.

Baldur's Gate (PC)
I (mostly) enjoyed this massive game all the way through. I didn't care for some of the boss battles that seemed more like trial-and-error than anything. I also got annoyed with the inconsistent writing. Those are only small complaints, though, because it's a great game.

Grim Dawn (PC)
I made the mistake of not enabling "Veteran" mode, making the game ridiculously easy. With a proper difficulty level, this would be a a 4/5 game easily.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun (PC)
Extremely linear with 100% fixed encounters, so it feels like you are just being carried along through the story. The dialog was awful, easily some of the worst I've ever read in a game, and there is so much of it. Having said all that, there were some cool areas later in the game, and party/character development ended up being pretty satisfying.

Ember (PC)
At first glance, this seems like mere mobile trash. However, playing it a bit reveals that it's a decent game. It's got a somewhat large open world to explore with lots of optional stuff to do. Combat is all in real-time and sucks. An enjoyable lite-RPG.

Avadon: The Black Fortress (PC)
There's nothing interesting about the world or setting, combat is boring, and character development has you spending skill points on tiny skill trees. However, the various locations are designed quite well with expansive maps full of interesting stuff to find.

Eschalon: Book I (PC)
Surprisingly good for what it is. There's really only so much you can do with a single-character RPG with turn-based combat (that's not a roguelike). The world is large and fun to explore, and many quests actually have multiple solutions.

Shadowrun Returns (PC)
Extremely linear RPG with "tactical" combat, that I found to be short but sweet. Cool setting/atmosphere, and a great soundtrack.

Torchlight II (PC)
Quite an improvement over the first game, but still just okay. It's not very long, but feels too long for what it offers.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
This was a bit of a pleasant suprise, actually. I played/completed it after completing Skyrim, and much preferred it over its sequel. Writing and quests are better (still dumb), some of the main quest dungeons are pleasantly mazelike, and I like how you end up not being the chosen one, but instead the guy that just helps the chosen one.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)
It seems awesome for the first 5-10 hours, but then you realize you are just doing the same thing over and over. The poor dialog/writing, linear dungeons, and insulting use of the same two stupid puzzles multiple times throughout the main quest all bring down the whole experience.

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror (PC)
An ugly game that just wastes your time. The writing is bad, the setting is boring, and you just do the same thing over and over and over. It's playable and not broken, and that's the best thing I can say about it.

Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress (Apple II)
Horribly broken garbage. The quest itself is interesting, but 99% of the game is spent just sailing around killing monsters to build up enough gold to make progress in the game.

-=JRPGs=-
Final Fantasy VIII (PSX)
Annoying characters and juvenile writing/dialog ruin an otherwise decent story. However, the junction system is cool and the game has some of the best pre-rendered backgrounds on the system.

Mother 2 (SFC)
It's too wacky for its own good, and it's also really easy, but it's somehow enjoyable. I thought the rolling HP counter would be a gimmick, but it actually ended up being a cool mechanic. I liked the first game in the series much better.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
It looks and sounds great, the setting is fantastic, and the characters and story are a lot of fun. Unfortunately, combat is the very definition of "trash" with enemies that never pose a threat (outside of a couple of bosses), but waste your time thanks to their lavish animations. A decent lite-RPG, but definitely a lot of style over substance here.

Star Ocean (SFC)
A broken mess of a game that is still somewhat endearing. It has an extensive skill system to customize your characters, but the game is so easy that it's all meaningless. Combat is in real-time, and it sucks; you can complete the game simply by mashing the attack button for pretty much every encounter including bosses. The world is also tiny and extremely linear, similar to the corridor world of FF13 in many ways.

-=Other=-
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (PC)
The game starts with a great hook ("get laid"), and is just a ton of fun all the way through. The parser is decent, and the game is good about providing you with all the information you need to complete it. Surprisingly fair for a Sierra adventure.

Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter (PC)
I was pleasantly surprised at how fair this one is, too (except for a couple of annoying parts). Fun, with some cool backgrounds and imaginative puzzles, but a bit generic.

Blaster Master Zero (PC)
A nice remake of the classic NES game, though it suffers slightly from way too much awful dialogue interrupting you. Short but sweet, and worth a play.

Lords of Thunder (Mega CD)
It looks and sounds great, but it's ridiculously easy; I was able to clear it on one life during my first attempt at the game.

 

[Grauken]

Sparklite

How was Sparklite?

Solid entertaining roguelite, a bit easy maybe, works like this: imagine the original Legend of Zelda (the NES one) with SNES Zelda graphic fidelity, no dungeons and you go around and need to beat 4 or 5 bosses to finish the game, with 5 areas overall. There's some stuff that carries over after death and some neat updates. If you get it on a sale, worth it if the above descriptions sounds like something you would enjoy.

 

[4249]

OK I dont have time to beat any more games this year.

ATOM RPG Trudograd -
Definitely scratched that Fallout itch. In good and bad ways. More good.

Darksiders 3 -
I remembered liking Darksiders and dropping Darksiders 2, managed to finish this one, even though it was pretty so-so in the end. Trying to piggyback on the Soulslike hype, but falling flat on the gameplay tbh. Dodging felt infuriatingly weird at times.

Fight'N Rage -
I really appreaciated what this one did (deep fighting mechanics, multiple paths and endings, jigglin tiddies), even though I kind of remembered that beat 'em ups aren't really for me. I guess you could argue that you haven't really beat the game until you've done it on a higher difficulty or 100% or some other bullshit, but I finished it on normal on Gal and Ricardo, and that was enough for me.

Hedon: Crystal Heart & Bloodrite -
Original and interesting setting, weird ass fetishist art, good gameplay. The minor immersive sim influences were a nice touch as well. There were some jarring parts, but overall really enjoyed these.

It Lurks Below -
Mostly got this due to David Brevik, but I enjoyed the ~35 hours I put into this. I think I beat the final boss on the highest difficulty, so didn't feel grinding any more after that. Encountered some progress halting bugs along the way, that got fixed within days after reporting them on their discord.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance -
Dan Vavra is a bro and KCD was a glorious mess which I loved for the most parts. Got those Gothic feels from the scarcity of resources and general difficulties during the start on Hardcore mode. Unfortunately the game quickly lost that, but remained fun nonetheless.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance -
Haven't touched Metal Gear since MGS on the Playstation, I didn't remember them being _this_ silly. But cool cyborgs and that Platinum Games gameplay. Had a lot of trouble with the last boss, since I hadn't learned how to dodge, after which it got really easy.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition -
Wanted to play a pretty game with the new computer, this one definitely filled that purpose.

Monster Sanctuary -
Interesting mix of genres with plenty of good and some bad. Didn't expect the team building to have as much depth as it did. Could get quite monotonous at times and some parts required a bit too specific synergies.

Necromunda: Hired Gun -
Kind of already knew what to expect from this with Streum On. Best part was definitely the aesthetics, gameplay just didn't really click for me at any point.

Neon Chrome -
Solid twin-stick roguelike. Not much else to say.

Nioh -
Took a while to grow on me, but really loved it in the end. Played up to a bit of the Way of the Wise, at which point I kind of got enough of it. Playing an axe wielding Tatenashi juggernaut really helped overcome the handicap of being crap at action games. Need to get Nioh 2 at some point.

Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas -
A low budget, originally mobile, Zelda clone. Not much to write home about.

Resident Evil HD REMASTER -
Never actually played a RE, other than seeing the first one played back in the day at a friends. Really cool game. Thought I was playing on normal but on finishing it revealed that it was easy. Oh well, I think I didn't really enjoy the survival horror parts that much anyhow.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse -
Good metroidvania, plenty of jiggling tiddies, but a bit too easy overall and quite short. Want to go through the other Shantae games as well, even though this one was the best one apparently.

Telepath Tactics Liberated -
Finally got around to playing this after buying it back in 2015. Not too well versed with SRPGs, but enjoyed this one a lot. The lack of RNG was an interesting take.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos -
Enjoyed both the gameplay and the humor.

The Last Remnant -
First foray into Saga games. Originally attempted to play this years ago, but lost interest. Probably due to the obtuse mechanics. This time it clicked with me and I did manage to kill the True Conqueror and most of the optional later bosses. Building up your unions was just really cool in the end and some of the fights got tough as nails. Did resort to guides regarding missable quests and whatnot.

TOEM -
Short but fun little timesink. Very easy overall, but there were some imaginative puzzles. Getting cheevos for trying stupid things was nice.

Valfaris -
Top notch graphics and music. Fun af gunplay. I'm pretty crap at these run & gun platformers, but felt the difficulty was pretty spot on.

 

[Zlaja]

Deus Ex (Female Denton mod)

47% of my game time for the entire year was Elden Ring.

 

[deuxhero]

Deus Ex (Female Denton mod)

It was new and an excuse to replay the game. Deus Ex was originally planned to have the option like IW did, but budget and disc space restrictions forced it to be cut (this is why the console commands use DeusEx.JCDentonMale ). The problems are things like "voice splicing is obvious for some lines" and "doesn't include the unofficial patch while being incompatible with it", rather than anything Current Year.

 

[Insect Hordes]

Beat 2016 Strider. Boring. Mush combat. Weird progression gating. Didn't get stuck or mad and it was over in 6 hours. Vegas wedding.

Replayed Symphony of the Night. Did you know the wolf can swim and has a unique dog paddle animation and can bark underwater? I used to just use leap stone and turn into wolf to get those bullshit nooks and crannies in the inverted Underground Caverns for the last quarter century. More fool me. Swimming wolf was way more interesting than when I played the garbage Saturn port in 2008.

Replayed Ys Oath in Felghana. FUCKING GREAT. Origins is also great. Napishtim kinda sucked when I played it on PSP 5 years ago. Lot of boring A to B back tracking at the beginning because there wasn't teleporting. I want more of this good shit. Nayuta is where Ys should've gone with the boss fights. Since Ys 7 the bosses haven't been memorable at all. Less faggy trails in the sky garbage. That shit stinks. "cook all the meals" busywork is in all their fucking games now. It's fucking lame. Mothers be toasting a load about the story like it's some high class Merchant Ivory PBS jackoff session. Read a book nigger. I want some levels some treasures and some bosses then wrap that shit up in less than 20 hours.
---
Elden Ring. Played about 7 hours since May over 3 sessions. Just seems lame. These weird windup animations are just getting goofy. It's like being stuck behind an old lady driver. Yer just chopping on legs. Where are the levels? Poop. Gigantic amazing looking boss creature comes at you and yer just chopping on legs. Where's the game? They got wimpy skyrim caves. I open a treasure chest and I'm wondering what in the fuck I just got that I can't use. These guys have been bilking cork-sniffers since 2009. Demon's Souls is good in the same way Vampire Hunter D on VHS in 1993 was.

Gunvein: still haven't beaten the last level.
1943 Kai: I've seen the credits but I'd like to learn more.
Been hooked on Crimzon Clover's arrange mode. Still suck.

 

[Derringer]

Duke Nukem 3D
Spyro 1
Phantasy Star I and II (I gave up with III and just turned off enemy encounters midway)
Final Fantasy 4 and 5
Romancing SaGa 3
SMT1
Shining Force 1-2
Tactics Ogre (SNES)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Metal Max (NES)
Illbleed
Dragon Quest 4 (NES)
Dragon Quest 7 (PS1)
Castlevania 3, Bloodlines
Final Fantasy Adventure
Riviera The Promised Land
Grandia
Breath of Fire 1
Mario and Luigi 2
Wild Arms 1
Space Harrier and Space Harrier 3D (SMS)
Fantasy Zone II (arcade remake)
Mix of games I already completed or didn't complete but replayed, mostly casual console stuff (I start and drop FPS, 4x and RTS games).

 

[HansDampf]

Weak year. I was struggling to find new games I would enjoy. Ended up playing lots of Metroidvanias. Then revisited some old games with mods. And Doom. Why is it always Doom?

* = replay

Games in the order I finished them:
Ashes 2063: Looks like a nice game of which I'm not the target audience.
Metroid Dread: Disappointment of the year. I want to rate this lower, but it is still a serviceable game. There are just too many degenerate design choices that are also present in Returns. 2D Metroids are dead.
*Metroid: Zero Mission: Short, linear, and (too) safe remake of the first Metroid.
*Super Metroid: This is still one of the best Metroid games.
Axiom Verge: Overrated Metroidvania.
Environmental Station Alpha: Hidden gem. Best hookshot.
*Ion Fury: Fun game that is held back by countless micro issues, even after all those patches.
Blood: Death Wish: Better than Blood.
*Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64HD): The definitive version of MM with better controls.
Patrick's Parabox: Mindfuck Sokoban puzzle game.
*Jagged Alliance 2 (Stracciatella, DiD): Best game I played this year.
Cyber Shadow: Modern take on NES Ninja Gaiden games. Fun and highly replayable.
Kero Blaster: Ok side-scrolling shooter made by Cave Story dev.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Great platformer. Boring boss fights.
*Secret of Evermore (Balance Patch): Nostalgia/5
Into the Breach: Satisfying tactics puzzle game, but ultimately too easy.
Stardew Valley: Promising game at first but ends up eating way too much of your time for what it has to offer.
TUNIC:

Taiji: Solid Witness clone with 2D pixel graphics.
A Plumber For All Seasons (SMW hack): Polished SMW campaign with high detail graphics. Leaves great first impression, but plays it too safe, and the level design repeats itself too often.
Kamek's Revenge (Yoshi's Island hack): Some cool ideas in here. A bit harder than the original game. Annoying secrets.
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight: Short, simple, and somewhat forgettable Metroidvania.

---

Games I dropped after 1 hour (that I can remember):

UNSIGHTED: Looks and feels like amateur work.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: I've come to the realization that I don't like Castlevania games.
Sekiro: Not a fan of story and setting. Why are there stealth elements in this game? And a context sensitive hookshot? Get that shit away from me.
Ashes: Afterglow: See Ashes 2063.
*Disco Elysium - The Final Cut: ... ... ... I hate the voice acting!
Slay the Spire: Eh...
Hyper Light Drifter: Set framerate to "60 fps", still feels like 30. Slow and sluggish.
Dead Cells: Ridiculous number fetish and bland procedurally generated metroidvania dungeons.

Notable Doom WADs (that I can remember):

Fractured Worlds: 8 lengthy maps with creative/gimmicky combat setpieces and rewarding secrets. Pleasing to the eye, but tough. Play this on HMP difficulty (or lower) first.
AUGER;ZENITH: Doom X Cyberpunk. Recommended to anyone who likes Doom.
*Ancient Aliens (UV-Max):

Elementalism Phase 1: Big maps with earth, water, and fire themes, lots of new monsters, high quality soundtrack, boss fights, and Unreal-like atmosphere.
Lullaby: Just a 1 hour long map with amazing visuals and uninspired combat.
Finely Crafted Fetish Film: 7 surreal hipster maps with lots of puzzles and obscure secrets, some of which require intimate knowledge of the engine.
Crumpets: 9 small and fairly challenging maps with low monster count.
Summer of '69: Sunlust rejects.
Pepper: 3 short "reality" maps you have to beat without taking damage.
JUMPWAD: No monsters. No weapons. Just jumping and collecting gems. Surprisingly well-made.
Swim With The Whales: 3 beautiful, "underwater" maps. Play on HMP.
Overboard: 6 short, action-packed, boat-themed maps by mouldy, who also made Going Down. Similar combat style and humor.
Wormwood (I-IV): A series of Halloween maps with fun (and sometimes mean) gimmicks. Play on HMP.
Not Even Remotely Fair: A megaWAD that is designed exclusively for Nightmare difficulty. Episode 3 is still WIP.
*Sunlust (UV-Max): Not going to finish it this year.
(I know that Ashes is also technically a Doom WAD. But it's a TC so far removed from classic Doom that it's a different game.)

 

[Rahdulan]

I've had horrendously dubious taste in video games this year. I'll escort myself to JRPG and Ubisoft containment units.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

I underwent a sort of mellowing out while summarizing my thoughts regarding Final Fantasy 7 Remake and it was probably for the better. Initial reaction to finishing this beloved JRPG classic was one of terrific care and effort put to include more of the expanded universe, but also flawed with approach to story and structure. In the end having a tight combat system which managed to marry action and ATB approaches was what sold me on the game more than all the flashy graphics or orchestrated soundtrack. Even if unnecessary padding turning what was originally a relatively brief part of the game into a far grander affair via side chores, tacked on weapon upgrades and other drivel it could've done without. It just makes you wonder “what are you doing next?”.​

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order is a perfectly solid blend of action adventure, meets Souls, meets metroidvania that perhaps has to wear one hat too many and loses some of its identity in the process, but license and outstanding production values arguably manage to deliver. Young Cal Kestis is dragged from his life of hiding and tasked with recovering the holocron that may well decide the future of the Jedi Order as post-Order 66 Empire's Inquisitors are constantly at his back. This premise is somewhat betrayed by dull moment-to-moment story that could've benefited from more fleshing out to eliminate some of disjointedness. Revisiting planets with new abilities, coming across familiar characters and trying lightsaber combat got me investing some 18 hours into Fallen Order with no regrets.​

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Werewolf: the Apocalypse – Earthblood manages to marry action and stealth in a manner where neither is slighted, but action is the real deal here. Werewolf Cahal returns to his Pack after five years of exile following a disastrous mission only to see they've gotten in deeper fighting an evil corporation out to endanger the world. Get ready to hunt for spirits throughout levels with magical vision in order to upgrade your skills, skulk around as a wolf and cause havoc in werewolf form once the alarm starts blaring. Story is there with all its “save the planet” glory, but it's the freedom to play your way that sold Earthblood to me. Even if you'll mostly fight similar enemies for a while and monotonous warehouses and office locales. Good pinky dip for the franchise and here's hoping for more.​

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

A slow burning JRPG featuring dynamic adventures of siblings Joshua and Estelle as they strive to become full-fledged Bracers, Trails in the Sky wears many narrative hats and somehow does it all successfully. From a coming of age story, extensive world building and underlying political struggles there's a lot here. Mechanically we're looking at a turn-based affair as our duo travels across the kingdom of Liberl and handles guild work via Requests handling shorter story arcs. Some might dislike the way game regulates its structure by cutting off previous chapters or determining who's in your party at any point in time, but I'd say all of that is worth it to experience a world where every NPC is named and has their own comment. That ending! Makes me want to rush to SC, but I'll give FC some time breathe.​

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate fits into the role of a sidestep that ends up relying too much on the earlier game for inspiration. You could almost say it's a competent game where most of the attention didn't go to Batman's adventure in Blackgate tackling the usual rogues' gallery, but rather adapting the existing Arkham formula for 2.5D Metroidvania format. Story along the lines of what you'd expect, combat surprisingly taking a backseat to even greater focus on level exploration with acquired gadgets, and incessant reliance on manually inspecting objects as if game lacks any confidence in player figuring it out. This is one of those short packages, with intended replay value provided you want to get everything, where Batman holds greater appeal than genre itself.​

Celestian Tales: Old North

Crowdfunded, turn-based JRPG drawing more inspiration from the likes of Game of Thrones than your usual kitchen sink fantasy, Celestian Tales: Old North is a solid offering. If there are two issues I'd raise they'd be as such; game could've benefited from a difficulty choice as it's way too easy, and choosing one of the six characters as your main one doesn't change much beyond the opening/ending bits and some self-contained choices there for flavor. Latter is excusable given the scope developers had to work with. I also wish this genuinely fleshed out setting had more room to breathe, but end result is a gorgeous watercolor-looking game you can nonetheless finish in under five-six hours. Replaying to see those minute differences that promise to matter in the sequel is always an option, though.​

Assassin's Creed Unity

At the time a next-gen title, Assassin's Creed Unity is a troubled one. Trimming back and refining the formula ends up hampered by ever-expanding bloat elsewhere and textbook design. Arno's revenge story doesn't do much beyond providing a vehicle for the ongoing faction war during the French Revolution where setting is far more interesting than any narrative or characters themselves. It's in the expanded parkour system and well-realized Paris where the game shines the brightest... if only to be balanced out by darker aspects of the ungainly gearing system, underlying monetization and now familiar glitches. End result is sadly an average title I'll probably remember more for its size than anything meaningful even if I did like a variety of non-combat content and pacing of combat itself taking a step back.​

Saints Row (2006)

Heavily inspired by GTA: San Andreas, Saints Row manages to make a mark of its own despite very light offering in almost all things. In effect, you could say this third-person shooter set against a backdrop of urban gang warfare was a testing ground for more to come. What's included, however, is a competent game encouraging the player to go out, do whatever he wants to earn Respect and spend it on progressing through all of three main story lines. Betrayals and shootouts aplenty when rival gangs show up on your turf and cut in on your daily income. Build-your-own protagonist is sadly almost a mute non-entity in the story, but that just makes everyone else have WAY more personality in return and makes his very few lines all the funnier.​

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Assassin's Creed Syndicate edges into my “solid” category, and solely because all the work it puts into memorable personalities and stories barely nudges it in. Following the uneven Frye twins as they undertake liberation of London from Templar's rational domination there's a mixed package here. Immense decline of parkour thanks to the zip-line gun cannot be overstated enough, but I liked Ubisoft pulling back on the gear system and game overall being more manageable. I was glad to see some features return even if it was in simplified form, like for some controllable allies as Rook gang members or ability to distract with prostitutes in the DLC. On the other hand, making you do missions to fill out reputation bars in order to unlock more goodies didn't sit so well with me. Sign of things to come?​

Tales of Graces f

Following in established series' fashion, Tales of Graces f takes after the action party route when childhood friends see their lives dramatically changed and brace for the future with a time skip. Straightforward combat with no pointless frills does wonders for keeping Graces accessible with half-dozen playable characters each with their own approach to combat. Cook food to heal yourself, enjoy character banter at save points, do town requests for rewards, and above all engage in battles to unlock and progress character Titles and power them up in a story ultimately about friendship and redemption where much of the experience rides on characters. Rather, how much you enjoy typical stereotypes with protagonist Asbel getting the most character development. Familiar and safe action JRPG.​

 

[deuxhero]

*Jagged Alliance 2 (Stracciatella, DiD): Best game I played this year.

What's DiD? Overlap with a common word makes it unsearchable.

 

[udm]

Jupiter Hell - Very fun roguelike but a bit too simplistic in some ways.
Hard West - An alright clone of nusuxcum (which I can't stand). The thing that makes it more bearable is deterministic CTH but it has every annoying element carried over from the game it tries to emulate.
Ctrl Alt Ego - Unique experience. The only thing holding it back is the lack of build diversity. There are many ways you can play it, but only a few are viable on higher difficulties.
Vampire Survivors - Addictive. However, once you've found the best builds, it's just a matter of unlocking all the hidden characters, which gets a bit tedious.
Ghostrunner - Good game, too linear for its own good though.
Serious Sam 4 - Best gunplay in the series, but falls short in most other areas.
Serious Sam 4: Siberian Mayhem - Takes the formula from SS4 and puts it in better designed maps, so that gives it half a point more.
West of Loathing - Good atmosphere and takes the best of humour from KoL, which saves it from its shortcoming of having overly simplistic gameplay.
Frog Fractions: Game of the Decade - Alright for a free game. One of those "subverting your expectation" games, but short enough that it can be completed in a couple of hours.
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell - The worst Saints Row game. I would have given it a lower score, but the flying around is pretty alright.
Arthurian Legends - This would have been my first 5/5 game for the year, were it not for the save game glitch. FFS if only the dev had bothered to get it fixed once and for all.
Highfleet - Didn't complete and doubt I ever will unless I can find the time to do so, but I've clocked in enough hours. But what's there is very well-made, and despite being hard on a masochistic level, I never felt like the game was cheating.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Didn't complete but I could have easily done so if my GPU hadn't died. Combat is better than the legendary v0.751, but everything else including the perks and strategic parts of the game are broken AF. Never change, Taleworlds.
Easy Red 2 - The best WW2 FPS I've played since BF1942. A good combination of realism and arcade, but with low production values.

Replayed and completed:
Red Faction Guerrilla Re-mars-tered -

Huh that's more games than I thought actually. No games for me this year unless you count RFG.

 

[Abu Antar]

Beaten in 2022:

1. The Last Remnant -
2. Heroes of Might & Magic V -
3. Heroes of Might & Magic V: Hammers of Fate -
4. Heroes of Might & Magic V: Tribes of the East -
5. Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos -
6. Ultima Underworld -
7. Ultima Underworld 2 -
8. Iratus: Lord of the Dead -
9. Yakuza: Like A Dragon -
10. Samorost 3 -
11. Way of the Samurai 4
12. Tales of Xillia 2
13. Betrayal at Krondor -
14. Avernum 5 -
15. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd -
16. Avernum 6 -
17. Tower of Time -
18. Barro -
19. Lovers ' Smiles -
20. Cat Simulator -
21. after HOURS -
22. Cultist Simulator -
23. Absolute Drift -
24. Championship Manager 01/02
25. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin -
26. Unlimited SaGa -
27. Betrayal in Antara -
28. Draw Slasher -
29. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle -
30. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume -
31. Tempest -
32. Return to Krondor -
33. Bravely Default II -
34. Eliza -
35. Warhammer: Chaosbane -
36. Zodiac XX -
37. Wilmot's Warehouse -
38. Volantia: Kingdom in the Sky -
39. Scribblenauts: Showdown -
40. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel -
41. Live A Live -
42. Bug Fables -
43. Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar -
44. Syndicate -
45. THORN.N -
46. Syndicate Wars -
47. Beautiful Desolation -
48. Sands of Destruction -
49. Demon's Rise - Lords of Chaos -
50. World of Final Fantasy -
51. Carmageddon TDR 2000 -
52. Sanitarium -
53. Brave Battle Saga - The Legend of The Magic Warrior -
54. Beyond Divinity -
55. Jagged Alliance II -

Some of these were started years ago, like HoMM5, that is a decade old save file that I resumed. Others are games that I didn't have time to beat in 2021. The rest are games that I started in 2022.

Adding:

56. Hidden Folks.

And that's my year of beaten games in 2022.

 

[Roguey]

Ghostrunner - Good game, too linear for its own good though.

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a clear example of why nonlinearity is a bad thing for this style of game.