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2022 was a year of massive releases both in size and impact. Elden Ring took the Souls-like formula in a new direction and dominated online conversation for months, Sonic Frontiers gave fans a look at a hopeful future for the beloved but troubled series, and God of War: Ragnorok continued the beloved story of Kratos and BOY! While these are just a few of the massive hits that arrived over the course of the last year, there were also a lot of excellent, engaging, and unique games that players might have missed while traversing The Lands Between or The Nine Realms. Whether they were smaller indie titles that flew under the radar, were overshadowed by a larger game, or simply didn’t hit the zeitgeist in a way that matches their quality, these are games that came out during the last year that should be given greater recognition, even if they all did review well and were mostly praised by those who played them. These are games that should have a much large audience as they are some of the best that the last year has to offer even if many players don’t know it yet. These are 10 overlooked games from 2022 that you might have missed!
The Best of 2022:
51 Best Single Player Games Worth Playing In 2022 | 12 Best Open World Games of 2022 | 10 Best Easter Eggs & Secrets Of 2022 | 10 Hardest Bosses of 2022 | 10 Weird Twists of 2022 We Didn’t See Coming | 10 Best Secret Bosses You Need To Fight In 2022 | 10 Best Secret Endings We Couldn’t Miss In 2022
#10. Card Shark
Some games see you as a conquering hero trying to save the world, others see you trying to care and protect for a loved one, but Card Shark gives you the true video game fantasy: being able to hustle and scam your way through 1770s France! As you head across the European country on the brink of Revolution, you will meet some wacky characters as well as some of the important figures from the time, all of which can easily be separated from their money if you literally play your cards right.
Mechanically simple yet thoroughly engrossing and sometimes fairly challenging, Card Shark will teach you nearly 30 different cheating techniques to make sure that you win some cash. This means players are always getting new ways to cheat their way to gold which keeps the game fresh all the way through. With a distinct art style and shockingly engrossing narrative that uses its own sleight of hand with how it unfolds, this is an experience unlike any other released this year.
#9. The Entropy Centre
A game that wears its Portal influences on its sleeves, The Entropy Centre takes the framework of Valve’s masterpiece and tasks players with thinking in reverse rather than with portals. Taking place in the titular Entropy Centre, Aria Adams must navigate through a series of puzzles with a Handheld Entropy Device known as Astra. This gun is able to rewind objects through time up to 30 seconds. Like its inspiration, all of the puzzles found throughout the facility use this mechanic in unique ways that will have you wrapping your brain to figure out how to move on to the next challenge awaiting you. For players that want that familiar Portal gameplay with a bit of a new flavor, The Entropy Centre is a great get.
#8. Endoparasitic
When discussing games with some of the most unique approaches to their gameplay, Endoparasitic is definitely one of the titles that immediately jump out in the mind of those who played it. You find yourself having both of your legs and one of your arms ripped off, only being kept alive by a parasite inside your body as you try and escape the space station you find yourself on that is infested with escaped experiments and creatures infected by the same deadly parasite. With only one limb at your disposal, all of your actions can only be completed with this arm, from moving through the bloodstained halls of the facility as you drag yourself inch by inch, to firing your weapon and reloading each individual bullet, even the most simple action takes full commitment to perform.
This limitation of actions is where the tension of the game comes from. Even the smallest parasite-infested rats can be a problem if not properly prepared. This simplicity also makes this a system that players can really master as they become fluent in moving, changing equipment, and fighting, giving a real sense of improvement over the course of the game. This along with well-placed introductions of new weapons and monsters means the game always feels engaging. While the game is fairly short at just a couple of hours, the game can provide a great high-tension horror experience with a unique gameplay style that will have you wanting more.
#7. Midnight Fight Express
While Sifu stood atop the beat-em-up genre this year (so much so that it was nominated for the best fighting game at the Game Awards despite not even being a fighting game), this year saw several other titles in the brawling genre. Midnight Fight Express places players in the shoes of Babyface, an amnesiac that is promised to be told about his past if he is able to save his city that has been taken over by criminals. This takes both him and the player through the many streets, alleys, and buildings of the neon-soaked city, taking down the major crime bosses found across its 40 levels.
The game never lets up and only really presents the player with downtime between the levels themselves, but the kinetic energy of combat is always at a high. Each hit is physical, whether it be brawling with fists, throwing hammers across the room, or using any of the firearms found during missions. With new cosmetics and multiple skill trees to go down, new mechanics are constantly being introduced, not only making new levels exciting to go through but making revisiting completed missions all that more enticing as you work towards completing level-specific challenges as well as those S ranks with the game’s style meter.
#6. Roadwarden
Roadwarden is an adventure game set on a medieval peninsula that is inhabited by many different tribes, guilds, and monsters. Playing as a Roadwarden, you are hired by a merchant’s guild to journey across the land and secure safe trade between people and the guild, bring these different tribes closer together, and make the dangerous world safer for the people who live here by making the roads easier to travel by clearing out monsters and bandits. On a regular playthrough, you will have 40 days to accomplish this, no pressure.
The game is a text-heavy RPG with beautiful pixel art for all the locations that you visit. For a game defined by its writing, it’s good that it is able to really capture the feel of its fantasy setting that wouldn’t feel out of place in a novel. As more and more of the world map is revealed, new unknown paths are traveled down, and new characters with their own goals and views are connected, it is easy to really get engrossed in this world. One of the earliest choices you make in the game is to decide why you became a Roadwarden. Fame? Escape from the path? Simply to help people? Whatever the choice, this ethos for the character is challenged at every turn as you trudge across this unforgiving world as autumn quickly approaches.
#5. Immortality
Game writer and director Sam Barlow has really become a face of modern-day FMV games since his acclaimed work Her Story in 2015. His latest title, Immortality, delves into the life of Marissa Marcel, an actress that was once marked for stardom before all of her projects ended up being cancelled and she disappeared from the world. The game we are playing is a collection of each of these three films, though they are broken up as unedited raw footage with the film, starting with action and ending with cut, as well as many different interviews and rehearsal shoots littered throughout. In order to unlock new footage, you need to click on an item in a given scene, which will then match the cut to another scene with the item that you just clicked on.
A clear love letter to the process of filmmaking and forgotten cult classics, Immortality does not abandon the fact that it is a video game. In fact, like Barlow’s previous titles, the game really uses the medium to its advantage as your path to the truth will be different from literally everyone else that plays it. Scenes and reveals will be given to you the more you engage and the jumbled order of information really sells the idea of going through lost footage and really solving a mystery. When all the mysteries are laid out, you will find a game with a unique presentation, story, and themes that really make it stand out.
#4. AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative
From a mystery FMV game to a mystery anime adventure game, AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative comes from game writer and director Kotaro Uchikoshi and is a sequel to 2019’s AI: The Somnium Files. Just like its predecessor, nirvanA Initiative is an absolutely mind-bending detective visual novel that fans of the 2019 title will enjoy with both new and returning faces while also being a standalone story that new players can jump right into.
Taking place across two different points in time, players take control of detectives Kuruto Ryuki and Mizuki Date, members of the special investigation unit known as A.B.I.S. as they both attempt to solve the strange case of the “Half-Body Serial Killings,” a series of murders being claimed by an enigmatic “Tearer” that sees bodies vertically cut down the middle appearing in impossible situations.
Players will travel across Tokyo across these two points in time as both characters, each one with the aid of their partners, A.I. that exist in their left eyeballs known as an Ai-ball. They also have access to a machine called Psync Machine that allows them to sync with a person and enter their dreams. Yeah, get used to these puns because they are everywhere in both titles but do add to the games’ distinct charm. Just as charming are the characters that you meet, each one having their quirks as well as secrets that you will want to unearth and figure out how they relate to such a strange case.
The plot unravels in several shocking ways that always have you rethinking the case as any good mystery should. For those who want to solve a mystery with a charming look and likable cast, this is definitely one to check out!
#3. NORCO
NORCO is a game that takes the tried and true genre of point-and-click adventure titles to tell an all-too-relatable story against an alternate version of the real-life titular town found in Louisiana. The game sees players take control of Kay, who returns to the town that she grew up in following the death of her mother. From here, you find yourself in a wonderfully written story based heavily on the experiences of the game’s developer, Yuts, as it delves into ideas of class, religion and faith, and self-actualization. Along with the stellar writing is poignant pixel art that is able to express the beauty and disgust of the world that these characters inhabit, with each new person you meet imprinting something about them onto you. Along with Roadwarden and the next game on our list, NORCO is a game that will have a profound impact on those who play it.
#2. Citizen Sleeper
A chance to begin a new life with the echos of the past surrounding you at every turn, Citizen Sleeper is another narrative and text-heavy RPGs similar to Roadwarden and NORCO to release this year that gives players the chance to become lost in a beautiful sci-fi world with a compelling story and world that will intrigue and haunt players the more they learn about it. Playing as a Sleeper, an android containing the emulating consciousness of a person, players find themselves on The Eye, a space station at the edge of the galaxy, after escaping from your corporation. Now on the struggling station, it is time for the Sleeper to create a new life for themselves.
The RPG elements of the game are made apparent right away, as the game quickly becomes a balancing act of all of these different choices, their outcomes, and the limited actions you can take that really make the game as impactful as it is. Each day, you are given a limited number of actions you can perform a day, with these tasks including talking to a character, buying food, working on a quest for someone, or simply going to work in order to make money. It’s this balancing act of trying to interact with these characters and making sure the Sleeper can survive where the game truly comes into its own.
The fact that the game forces you to make tough choices of which actions to partake in really makes every single choice matter. Not just what to say to a character to see their quest continue, but also something choosing between spending your credits on food or a scrap ship that has a rare item that is leaving after today. Each decision you make informs future decisions, which can quickly snowball out of control. This crushing feeling of constant debt of lack of time does give way to the warmness of people on the station and makes those moments of calm or happiness all the more impactful, making the world feel as alive and vibrant to play through as it is to look at.
#1. SIGNALIS
The survival horror genre is very important to me. The first game I ever played was the original Resident Evil and these types of games have had a lot of influence on me. SIGNALIS doesn’t simply wear its survival horror influences on its robotic sleeve but has the history of the genre as well as other media like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell thoroughly ingrained in its DNA. From the number of inventory spaces given to you being a reference to the original Resident Evil, the red save screen only mission the main character’s reflection from being a direct reference to Silent Hill 2 and 3, and even endings being unlocked the same way that James Sunderland’s fact is decided, fans of the history of this incredible genre have a lot to appreciate here. The greatest success of SIGNALIS is how all of these parts taken from the past create something wholly unique, terrifying, and powerful. Playing as Elster, a Replika that navigates a mining facility that has seen everyone in it either killed or turned into infected monsters. She makes her way through the facility as reality itself starts to give way, all to make sure she keeps a long-held promise.
Presented in a great low poly aesthetic that really captures the feel of those PlayStation 1 classics like the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the game presents a story about the self, promises, and tragic love in the face of doom. The atmosphere is second to none thanks to the previously mentioned look as well as its sound design and music being absolutely impeccable. Throw in some cosmic horror to really place you in a nightmare that will disorientate as much as it will unsettle. All while the gameplay provides one of the tightest experiences in the genre. With puzzles that make you think, resource management forcing you to make tough choices, and masterfully placed enemies that make each room a terrifying encounter, the gameplay is as tense as it is rewarding.
A celebration of survival horror while also standing on its own as a great entry in the genre, SIGNALIS is not just a game that you might have missed this year and should definitely pick up and play (especially for those who love the survival genre) but is also one of the best games released this year and should go down as a classic in years to come.
