The Best Game of 2022 - IGN (2023)

Considering 2022 was a "quiet" year for new games, the quality on display was undeniable. From blockbuster releases to smaller but equally impressive indies, the last 12 months have been an outstanding year whether you play on console or PC.

Two long-awaited behemoths lead the pack, with Santa Monica Studios' God of War Ragnarok capping off the latest chapter in Kratos' epic journey in style, while Elden Ring proves once again that FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki are raising the bar in everything they do place. . Immortality boasted strong performances and a compelling story, Tunic's challenging and uncompromising gameplay was equally charming and rewarding, and Marvel Snap revolutionized the trading card game genre with truly new ideas. Mario is back on our best games list, but this time alongside the bunnies in a game that takes a big step up from its predecessor, and Vampire Survivors is a deceptively simple roguelike that sinks its teeth deep.

Without further ado, IGN's Best Game of 2022 is...

alter Ring

After 13 years of iteration on the Souls series and more decades in diverse areas of game development, renowned Japanese studio FromSoftware has done what seemed to be more difficult than even Dark Souls' most brutal boss fight: it created a huge global success while continuing to cater to hardcore fans and expertly crafting the often imitated, never replicated formula for which it is best known. Elden Ring is a monumental achievement in video gaming, a vast and endlessly rewarding masterclass in open-world game design where grand vistas and towering cities are as important to the experience as the intimate conflicts that occur within. .

At the center of it all is you, the player, exploring a beautiful and intriguing, yet grueling and punishing world that drives hard. You will often die in brutal and seemingly invincible ways at the hands of beasts, beasts and environmental hazards, but you will never feel alone. You have a nearly endless combination of weapons, spells, armor sets, and even human players to call to your side. Play as a mighty knight wielding a truck-sized battle-axe at the head of a fire-breathing dragon, or as a withered sorcerer unleashing cosmic horrors on enemies from afar. Elden Ring is your story to create, and you can shape your tarnished hero.

While Elden Ring may be slightly narrative in the more open-ended and traditional form of video games, it more than makes up for it with its lore and world-building, rewarding players with intricately designed characters in side-quests hidden in corners of the world. . As with most things here, the more effort the player puts into figuring it out, the more rewards they will earn. It's a fundamental tenet of the philosophy behind what makes Elden Ring so special, and it's something no studio can accomplish like FromSoftware.

Ironically, one of Elden Ring's most enduring gifts to a game about a lonely journey through a hellish world is that it has become a global cultural phenomenon, inspiring millions of players around the world to share mysteries and incredible moments. . We all cheered for each other, spent countless hours discussing our strategies against the toughest bosses, and proudly posed our characters in their best (and craziest) costumes and builds.

We'll probably spend the rest of our lives thinking, talking, and playing Elden Ring, but until then and for now, Elden Ring is IGN's Game of the Year for 2022.

These are our nominees for Best Game of 2022.

alter Ring

Just look,Elden Ring could be confused with Dark Souls 4, which would undoubtedly be enough to win him Game of the Year. But developer FromSoftware has masterfully applied their polished and unforgiving formula to a massive open world, and it's this combination that really makes Elden Ring such a new and unforgettable experience. Not since Zelda: Breath of the Wild has we had a game that offers an expansive world so densely packed with liberating possibilities and amazing discoveries. FromSoftware's shift from linear to open-world design brings its medieval fantasy closer to the realm of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. This is your story, your adventure, and you can pursue your destiny in almost any way imaginable. Such an open structure also means there's always something else to do in The Lands Between whenever you need to take on one of FromSoft's infamous challenges; something to help you build your strength and get past that sticking point. That's key to making Elden Ring the most accessible game from FromSoftware, and something that has made it not only a huge success but a true cultural phenomenon.

God of War Ragnarok

God of War Ragnarok has accomplished everything it set out to do. A breathtaking blend of harrowing action and tender drama, it's a nuanced story full of memorable characters and moments that will keep you guessing. Its mix of rhythmic combat, clever puzzles, and nourishing side stories combine to create an unforgettable journey through the stunning Norse realms, where you will meet the unique gods that call them home. Ragnarok pushes God of War further into emotionally complex spaces it once never dared to enter, while never forgetting to give a nod to the series' story. Not only is God of War Ragnarok one of the best games of 2022, it's the culmination of nearly two decades of reinvention and refinement. Thus ends another mythical saga of Kratos and cements his place in the pantheon of great video game characters.

immortality

Immortality might seem like a strange concept on paper: you're tasked with discovering the mysterious fate that has befallen up-and-coming actress Marissa Marcel, but to do so you'll have to analyze a box set of three previously unreleased feature films whose plot chapters and distinctive features can only be experienced on paper. completely. out of order, as if the scene selection is stuck in random mode. It could have been an incoherent mess were it not for the authenticity of its production values ​​and the powerful performances of its cast. It pulls you in and convinces you that you're poring over fragments of real footage lost over time, coupled with a nifty frame-matching interface that prompts you to examine every single frame for clues. Manon Gage remains a consistent cast in the title role no matter how many times you watch and re-watch each scene, but not to mention Charlotta Mohlin takes the turn as the enigmatic presence of "The One" that gives Immortality its most intimate and intimidating moments of the most frightening surprises. A chaotic, maze-like and extremely intriguing puzzle to solve,Immortality presents an intriguing narrative like no otherwe will experience in 2022 or in any other year.

Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

There are two types of great sequels: those that play it safe and stick with what worked, and those that take a risk, turn around and hit a second big win.Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the latest, following Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, the unexpectedly powerful game that delivered Nintendo's mascot two pistols, mixed it up with Ubisoft's weird non-verbal rabbit characters and threw them into XCOM-style turn-based battles. Sparks of Hope is still all of that, but a lot bigger and more open in more ways than one, with an excellent customization system that lets you attach some cute floating stars to your characters to give them your own special traits and elemental bonuses . Attacks At the same time, it pulls out the grid under the tactics board, allowing Mario and his friends to roam as freely as we are used to, and expands the overworld map to five different open-world planets to explore and puzzle-solve. . A fantastic example of how game developers can reinvent and expand upon a wonderful idea, rather than just repeating it, without preserving the odd personality that helped make it special.

Marvel-Add-on

Marvel Snap not only leverages the Marvel license, uses a great cast of characters and locations from the iconic comic book, and celebrates some absolutely incredible artwork, but it also turns a lot of the conventions of the CCG genre on its head. . Designed primarily for mobile, the decks are small, the games are short, and both sides play their cards simultaneously, so the game is all about anticipating what your opponent will do and adjusting your game plan accordingly. The three locations where you play your characters in each game are also randomized, adding another important wild element. Marvel Snap even eschews the traditional booster packs used by virtually every CCG since Magic: The Gathering, instead tying card acquisition to a progression path that players work through over the long term. While some of these design elements have serious drawbacks,Marvel Snap continues to be a breath of fresh air and full of personality..

To you

This tunic is largely the work of one person (Andrew Shouldice) who worked on the project for seven years, and that makes its brilliance all the more impressive.Tunic looks like a nice tribute to The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past, right down to the green robe, well... worn by its anthropomorphic fox hero, but it looks more like an isometric view of Dark Souls, complete with a gallery of extremely challenging bosses. But its fusion of old-school charm and new-school challenge is offset by its impressive worldview: there is no dialogue in Tunic, instead its game instructions are conveyed through hidden pages in the game, which looks like an illustrated game manual as if it were direct ripped from the early 90's. It's an addicting action-adventure that stands out despite his fox's small stature.

Vampire Survivor

One of these candidates is not like the others. Watch a game with sprite graphics that look like they've been ripped out of a long-forgotten late '80s fantasy arcade cabinet, and controls equivalent to a single joystick and button to say "OK Saying if you take your new weapons here along with nominees like Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok also surprised us... but it wasn't long before we started playing Vampire SurvivorsWe were amazed at how much it can do with seemingly so little. Rapidly unlocking your dozens of auto-firing weapons and passive upgrades makes each roguelite survival run more interesting than the last: you'll find new combinations of upgrades and evolve them into more powerful forms until, before you know it, countless beeches are falling, revealing caves of strange secrets and your screen fills with psychedelic destruction as swarms of thousands of enemies part before you like the Red Sea before Moses.

All IGN Best of Games 2022 Category

• Best game 2022
• Best Action Game 2022
• Best Action-Adventure Game of 2022
• Best Video Game Music 2022
• Best Video Game Art of 2022
• Best Console Exclusives of 2022
• Best Continuing Game of 2022
• Best Achievement in a Game in 2022
• Best puzzle game of 2022
• Best racing game 2022
• Best RPG 2022
• Best Shooting Game 2022
• Best game story of 2022
• Best Strategy Game 2022
• Notable breakthrough in gaming accessibility in 2022
• The best gaming hardware of 2022