Top 5 Most Overlooked Games of 2022

Setting goals is important, I’m told. Maybe for people who haven’t achieved the physical, mental, and emotional perfection that I have. But for those of you who have room for improvement, it’s good to know the specific ways in which you would like to improve. While we don’t have time to fix the entire dumpster fire that is your life, one way you might make your life markedly better would be to diversify your gaming habits. Yes, you can play all the “game of the year” AAA mainstream video games you like, but you really ought to make some time for the underappreciated gems that will make you a more interesting, well-rounded person. I’m not saying that if you play the following five games (plus however many honorable mentions I decide to include) that you will achieve the same level of perfection that, again, I have already achieved, but I will say that you will be one small step closer at least, and maybe that’s the best you can realistically hope for.

Oh, and I say this every year when I write this list, but it does bear repeating: the following games aren’t all game of the year candidates, but they do all deserve more appreciation than they have received. I say this both because I want to manage expectations and because I feel like there are already plenty of “best of” lists out there this time of year, so it’s unlikely you’ll miss out on those kinds of recommendations even if you managed to miss something great during the year. Plus, “best” is such a subjective concept, making it impossible to truly arrive at an objective consensus about what the–it’s Elden Ring. Like, I’m sorry if there was something you liked better this year or if you don’t get down with Soulslikes, but you are objectively incorrect if you think anything was better than Elden Ring this year. Heck, there might not be anything better than Elden Ring next year. Or the next. Or for the next decade. It’s that good.

So instead of talking about how great Elden Ring is for the next ten paragraphs or so, let’s talk about the games you might have missed out on from 2022 that are worth your time. First up…

Honorable Mentions

Evil Dead: The Game

Okay, so we may have reached critical mass on asymmetric multiplayer games (especially those with a horror vibe) and you may have already found yourself done with the genre, but Evil Dead: The Game is still worth a look nonetheless. Unfortunately, because it’s an online multiplayer game that released all the way back in May, it’s probably not worth picking up in 2023 since all but the most hardcore of its player base has almost certainly fallen off by now. (There is an admittedly short but enjoyable enough single player mode, but that’s like saying Fortnite technically has a single player mode. That’s not what you’re here for and you know it.) So unless you’re insanely good at this kind of game or don’t mind losing a lot, this entry pretty much only exists to remind you of the fun you could have had if you had gotten in on this game earlier. Hey, you can’t say we didn’t warn you in advance.

Scorn

I know I just said it, but I should reiterate that the games on this list aren’t necessarily “game of the year” material. That’s extra true with Scorn, which is actually a pretty hard game to recommend with its intensely unpleasant visuals and somewhat inscrutable puzzles. But is that really a bad thing in a horror experience? It’s supposed to be gross, inducing feelings of dread and danger. It’s supposed to feel alien (not just because it looks like H.R. Giger’s designs for the Alien franchise without all the subtlety and restraint) so of course there aren’t on-screen prompts to tell you what to do and where to go. I guess what I’m saying is that I fall more on the Escapist side than the Stephanie Sterling side when it comes to this game. It may not be the most fun game ever, but unlike The Callisto Protocol (a game that was intended to be a spiritual successor to Dead Space but only succeeded at being an unpleasant collection of QTEs and gory scenes when you failed said QTEs) or Agony (another one-word horror game with disgusting visuals and confusing design that I kept confusing for this game pre-release despite the fact that it released in 2018) I think Scorn is actually worth your time if you like sci-fi horror and don’t mind some not-great combat. It may not be for everyone, but I’m not convinced it’s actually as bad as some might have you believe. (I do still enjoy the Jimquisition most of the time even if I occasionally disagree with their opinion sometimes.)

Lost in Play

Just about every year it seems like there’s a game that flies under my radar for most of the year before becoming one of my favorites as soon as I become aware of it. Lost in Play is that game for 2022. The art style reminds me of some great animated series from recent years like Owl House, Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall, or Star vs. The Forces of Evil, and the sense of wonder and fun reminds me a lot of those shows as well. It also helps that I’m a sucker for classic point-and-click adventure games, which this game owes plenty of its success to as well. Sometimes you just want a big heaping helping of feel-good childlike imagination to make you feel nostalgic for a simpler time, and developers Happy Juice delivered that in a major way with this game.

Now to the top 5!

5. Silt

2022 was apparently a pretty good year for horror games, with two of my honorable mentions and now one of the main list games fitting the genre. As soon as I saw a preview of this game, I knew it was going to be a personal favorite for the year. The ocean is endlessly fascinating, but it is also a downright terrifying place, and Silt manages to capture both in a relatively simplistic package that ends up being more than the sum of its parts. The art style immediately calls to mind Limbo, another indie puzzle classic, and the sound design heightens the feelings of isolation and unease as the lone diver in a huge threatening ocean is forced to either possess or run from every creature you encounter. The true nature of the threats facing the diver reveal themselves slowly throughout the game’s short runtime, and while the puzzles aren’t on the level of something like The Witness, I felt like the mystery of the game’s environmental design should keep most players going even if the gameplay isn’t a tremendous challenge. “Atmospheric” is a term that gets thrown around a bit too much sometimes, but I feel like there is no better description for Silt. Spiral Circus Games absolutely nailed the tone and the visual design of the game, which is extra impressive considering it was their debut game, and the gameplay is enjoyable enough for the majority of its runtime and doesn’t overstay its welcome. I’ll take short and memorable over drawn-out and forgettable any day.

4. Beacon Pines

I’m not sure if I would classify Beacon Pines as horror in the same way as Silt or Scorn, but jeez it was a good year for horror. (I just barely left off The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow as well so…yeah, good year for horror. Consider that another bonus recommendation.) Mystery and vaguely sinister vibes lurk just barely under the fairly cutesy surface of the game’s art style and cast of youthful animal characters. The gameplay itself feeds into that sense of intrigue as the player collects words to change the story in the game’s frame narrative to figure out what is truly going on and create a satisfying ending for its characters. Beacon Pines is well-written with characters who are easy to invest in, and the inventive gameplay keeps the player coming back trying to tweak words here and there to see what will happen. I absolutely love the combination of cute and creepy, and developers Hiding Spot Games found the perfect balance between those two elements in this game. Beyond reminding me of Over the Garden Wall (again) I want to make what is probably going to sound like a really strange comparison: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated. It looks like a children’s show but isn’t afraid to go to surprisingly dark places by the end, and I absolutely love both. But, y’know, Beacon Pines is a video game and came out in 2022, so that’s the only one that really counts for this list. But also watch Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated if you haven’t.

3. Steelrising

As good a year as 2022 was for horror, it was also a pretty good year for Soulslikes, and Steelrising was one of the better games in this genre released this year that got relatively little fanfare. It’s hard to say why this game wasn’t a bigger deal, because there was a lot to set it apart from other Soulslikes – it’s a more vibrant, colorful world than you’d ordinarily expect from the genre, except Elden Ring also had a more vibrant, colorful world than most Soulslike games that came before. Okay, well Steelrising has a unique living marionette-style protagonist equipped with lethal weapons, except everyone got hyped this year for Lies of P, which was previewed at Gamescom and features a Soulslike Pinocchio. All right, so maybe I’m starting to see why this game was a little overlooked. Heck, another Soulslike, Thymesia, was released right around the same time. Ah, but Steelrising has the benefit of a unique setting, taking place in alternate history Paris during the French Revolution era, except…no, that one’s actually unique. King Louis XVI is using an army of automaton soldiers to put down the populace uprising, and Marie Antoinette tasks you with putting his reign of terror to an end. The setting is gorgeously realized and many of the enemy designs are inspired even if there isn’t quite as much variety as one might have liked. The combat is solid if a little janky – after all, it was made by Spiders, the French developers who make good but somewhat unpolished games like Greedfall and The Technomancer – and I liked the classic Souls-style shortcuts and looping paths that make you go “Hey, I know where this is!” Steelrising may not have moved the genre forward in a massive way, but it took a working formula and applied it to an under-explored setting. Sometimes that’s all you need to produce a good game, but apparently people were too busy pouring all their Souls energy into Elden Ring, for whatever reason.

2. Dorfromantik

If I was ranking the games on this list based on how much time I spent playing them in 2022, Dorfromantik would probably be at the top of the list. I haven’t checked and there are longer games on here so that may not be 100% accurate, but I was surprised by just how engrossed I got in a game I bought for my wife because it seemed like exactly the kind of chill “game for non-gamers” kind of thing that she would enjoy. It turns out it’s also a great game even if you consider yourself a gamer. Its incredibly simple premise – place hexagonal tiles to build a quaint countryside village with houses, farms, rivers, railroads, and forests – belies just how satisfying yet challenging it can be to craft an aesthetically pleasing and functional town. The art style is simple yet gorgeous, and there are few games that deserve to be described as “cozy” more than Dorfromantik. Developer Toukana Interactive nails all the little details like boats floating along the waterways, windmills lazily spinning in the breeze, and small puffs of smoke raising from the chimneys of the miniature towns. If you’ve ever wondered why grandpas get so obsessed with miniature railways, play the creative mode of this game for five minutes and you’ll understand. Also, I fear I’ve just admitted I’m on the verge of turning into an old man with a model railway in his basement, so let’s quickly move on before I start extolling the virtues of Werther’s Original and eating dinner at 4 o’clock.

1. Islets

Hey, remember when I said two entries ago that it was a good year for Soulslikes? Well, this was the best one (besides Elden Ring, obviously) that sadly few people played in 2022. I suppose this game is better compared to something like Hollow Knight (please Team Cherry when are we getting Silksong it’s been so long please let me give you more of my money please I just want to know when I can finally play more Hollow Knight I cannot wait any longer *DEEP BREATH* okay I got that out of my system, sorry) since it’s a 2D Metroidvania-esque action RPG. It’s almost the anti-Hollow Knight, though, because it actually has colors besides sepia and gray. (Yes, I know there are other colors, you get my point.) And not just green grass and blue skies like Elden Ring – this game is actually vibrant and colorful like a cartoon in places. Sure, there are also some creepy enemies with spidery limbs and unpleasant eyes and like…moss growing on them and stuff. Look, you can only murder so many cutesy enemies before you start to wonder if you might secretly be the bad guy in all of this. There have to be enemies that you actually want to kill just by looking at them. Developed by Kyle Thompson and published by Armor Games Studios, Islets is a massive departure stylistically from almost every other punishing 2D action RPG that tends to be dark, brooding, and foreboding. As much as I love Hollow Knight, it isn’t exactly cute or cuddly. It’s bugs, people. No matter how cartoony the Knight and some of the other friendly characters may be, it’s all bugs. So it was a bold choice for a game like Islets to go so far in the opposite direction. The world itself is charming and you just want to fix things to make it all nice again, because the central concept is reuniting a series of islets (oh, now I get it) that have broken and drifted apart. The gameplay is tight and enjoyable, which is key for a game like this, and as much as I’d love to see a sequel or expansion, I can’t fault the game for being a little short given that it was developed by one person. And best of all, while it is a decently challenging game, it won’t leave you wanting to smash your controller or pull your hair out – I can confidently say we could all use as much hair and unbroken controllers as possible going into 2023. You’ll see why. Soon enough.

So that’s it for another year in overlooked games! Oh, and that’s it for another year full stop. Thanks for checking out FilmIronic in 2022 whether this is your first or 100th time on the site, and I hope you’ll check us out again in 2023. If you’re looking for more to read, why not check out my list from the beginning of 2022 in which I predicted that *checks notes* Tunic, Stray, and A Plague Tale: Requiem would be good? What a video game Nostradamus I am! (Please disregard the other games on the list that either didn’t come out or weren’t that good.) And of course, stay tuned for more great content in 2023! Game on, gamers!