Hey all. First off, I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. My attention has been elsewhere and life has been busy. Despite that, though, I’ve managed to squeeze a little time into games, and I wanted to write about those this year (like last year).
Like before, I’ll try to stick to a paragraph or so per game. Unlike last year, I’m going to list some games that I’ve played, but not necessarily “finished”, at the end. (For my purposes, “finished” means I’ve reached the ending credit sequence, or the final main quest in a quest chain, where applicable.)
1. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: The Fate of Atlantis
The story for this DLC was much better than in the first DLC. There were plenty of new maps and beautiful areas to explore, each packed with mythology and adventure. Probably my only complaint is, there was an over-reliance on grindy, repetitive quests that seemed to exist solely for padding the runtime.
2. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
MUA3 was… fine? The action and story were OK on their own, and the huge roster is a plus. However, the dialogue itself was painfully cheesy throughout, and I often felt I was fighting against the combat system, rather than working with it for a pleasant experience.
3. No Man’s Sky
I know you can’t technically finish the game (there seemingly isn’t a “main quest”), but I did complete the objective of reaching the center of the universe.
I liked it quite a lot. It was much better than when it first released. The wide variety in worlds to explore and things to do was quite the treat. I suggest that anyone who initially wrote it off give it another shot — they’re still updating the game, as of December 8th (the last major update was September 1st).
4. Geneforge
Geneforge is a classic-styled turn-based RPG that involves exploring an abandoned island and its secrets. I enjoyed it a lot; despite the rough exterior, there is a ton of lore and story to uncover, and a large world to explore. I’m looking forward to diving into the rest of the series down the road. In fact, I did make some headway into its direct sequel…
5. Marvel’s Avengers: Future Imperfect
Future Imperfect was enjoyable; I liked the new biome and the variety of comic-inspired story elements. Like all content drops for Avengers, it was just too short. You can read more of my thoughts here.
6. DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two
An epic conclusion to DOOM Eternal’s story, I enjoyed this expansion a lot. Even more than the first DLC, even. My gripes are few; The Ancient Gods Part Two is DOOM, through and through. You can read some more thoughts of mine here.
7. Chasm
I had been meaning to finish this one for a while. Chasm is a procedurally-generated metroidvania. There’s a wide variety of biomes and enemies. I thought it was mostly good. The story is a little barebones unless you go looking for lorebooks, and the combat feels a little weird. Still, the exploration is very satisfying, and there were some item types and effects that I hadn’t seen in other genre titles.
8. Mind: Path to Thalamus
Mind: Path to Thalamus is an exploration of several psychological themes, and quite gorgeous to boot. The puzzles can be a bit clunky, and the final product (even now, years after its initial release) still has some technical issues, but I enjoyed my time in the game.
9. Destiny 2: Beyond Light
I’m admittedly a very casual Destiny 2 fan; I don’t jump into the raids, and I don’t participate in the season pass events. I really only play for the yearly story expansions, and that’s because I enjoy the gunplay and the little bits of the complicated lore I’m able to pick up in a limited time. To that end, Beyond Light was exactly what I was looking for.
10. Borderlands 2
Kind of behind on the times here, but… I thought it was fun. I could have done without a lot of the humor and writing, but honestly… who plays Borderlands for the writing? If you want to go bonkers with a barrage of ballistics, Borderlands 2 works just fine for that.
11. The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood
ESO’s yearly stories have only gotten better with time. Exploring a previously-seen area of Cyrodiil and part of Black Marsh was a treat, and of course I enjoyed the main quest and many of the side stories. Admittedly, I am getting a little tired of the format (as the yearly expansion’s main quest seems to suffer for length as a result), and the constant need to save the world from yet another catastrophic event (though it does sound like 2022 will see that reined in a bit).
12. Marvel’s Avengers: War for Wakanda
War for Wakanda was generally “good enough”. The story was good, and playing as the Black Panther was a lot of fun. However, the “expansion” was extremely short; despite a little more extra side content than previous content drops, the main campaign itself ended almost as soon as it started. The Wakanda-themed raid didn’t even launch with the update; it arrived several months later.
13. Axiom Verge 2
I had been waiting for this one ever since finishing the first one, and the wait was well worth it. Despite the slow beginning, Axiom Verge 2 improves on its predecessor in almost every way; the soundtrack, graphics, exploration, platforming, and lore are all a treat. I recommend giving this one a try.
14. Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty
Not much to say here; it’s more Borderlands. I did quite enjoy the pirate theme, though.
15. LEGO® Builder’s Journey
This… wow. Builder’s Journey is very different from any other LEGO game; many of the bricks in every level can be used to construct a solution to a puzzle, which often just equates to getting to the other side of the screen. The bricks are rendered hyper-realistically (if you look closely, you can see scratches and blemishes on the bricks), and the sound effects are all oh-so-satisfying. I recommend giving this a try; you can get it on Steam or Apple Arcade.
(And if you like the sound of LEGO bricks too, they’ve released a whole album that consists almost exclusively of those sounds. I wrote a short review about it.
16. Fallout 76: Steel Reign
The conclusion to last year’s Steel Dawn update (review here), Steel Reign was disappointingly more of the same. The opening minutes try to get the player to sympathize with an unlikable character, and the story itself felt drawn out and boring.
17. Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage
Again: it’s more Borderlands. I had a lot of fun.
18. Undertale
Um… hm. This one’s tricky. I liked the premise: an RPG where killing is not only completely optional, but it’s the only way to get the best ending. It’s got a fairly positive and wholesome tone, despite the darker themes present. The gameplay is… fine? Nothing extraordinary, but it serves its purpose well. Despite the positives, I felt that the game itself (and its story) was extremely overhyped for what it was. It was okay. It’s not going to re-define the genre, but it’s not completely terrible either.
19. The Search
The Search is a short point-and-click exploration puzzler. I enjoyed it; the puzzles weren’t too difficult, and each of the areas were a treat to explore. (I’m a sucker for just wandering around in an area, taking in the sights.) It’s worth the asking price.
20. Pokèmon Sword
It had been a while since I played a Pokèmon game, and I downloaded this one to essentially scratch an itch. To that end, Sword served its purpose well. It’s more of the same monster-collecting gameplay, with some splendid quality-of-life features (I’m a seriously huge fan of the always-on XP share). Still, there are plenty of improvements still to be made (why can we still not auto-sort our boxes alphabetically?).
21. The Elder Scrolls Online: Deadlands
A grim conclusion to this year’s story, ESO: Deadlands provided an open world version of the Deadlands (previously seen in limited form in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), as well as a lot of new lore for fans to pore through. As with most ESO content, I enjoyed it quite a lot, and am always looking forward to the next DLC they’ll unleash upon us.
22. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
I’ll admit, I was very skeptical about this game. Between only playing as one of the Guardians, a somewhat lackluster trailer, and it being published by Square Enix (after Avengers…), I initially avoided Guardians of the Galaxy. Turns out that was a mistake; GotG has better-written characters and story elements than their Marvel Cinematic Universe counterparts (Drax in particular is a huge standout), and the gameplay itself, while not perfect, is satisfying enough for what it is. I highly recommend it.
23. An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs
That title is quite the mouthful, but it sums up almost exactly what this game is: you travel to different airports run by stock photo dogs and help them with their various tasks, talk with them, and pet them (of course!). I thought it was quite fun, wholesome, and heartfelt. The environments were a treat to look at, despite the extremely simple graphics. Probably my only complaint is the repetition prevalent throughout the game, but it was still enjoyable.
24. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
I’d never played a Luigi’s Mansion game before this. I thought it was quite fun. The environments, the very simple story, and the gameplay were all fairly satisfying.
Other Games
Some other games that I played, but didn’t finish:
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Anniversary Edition): Look, we can joke all day about how much Skyrim has been re-released, but there’s a reason it’s still being played over a decade later: it’s fun and highly extensible. If Skyrim doesn’t fit your mold of a “perfect game” out of the box, there are tons of mods that you can use to refresh your experience. (Maybe I’ll share my own mod list some day…)
- Pokèmon GO: I played it on launch, and then abandoned it for a while. This year, my wife started playing it again, and convinced me to give it another GO. It’s quite a lot of fun; they’ve added many more creatures and features to the game, and the gameplay/reward loop is fairly satisfying (though not without adjustments to be made). If you’d like to add me in-game, my trainer code is in the sidebar.
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions: I started playing this because I wanted to play a Spider-Man game, but did not have access to a modern PlayStation console. I didn’t finish it, but I thought it was quite fun when I did play it. I hope to come back to it in 2022.
- Valheim: this is an early access survival game with a lot of Norse lore at its core. I was having quite a lot of fun with the challenge and exploration, though I’m holding off on playing much more until the base game is finished. Maybe. If one of my friends jumps in again, well…
- Temtem: an early access MMO suspiciously similar to any main Pokèmon game. I enjoyed it a lot, though like Valheim, I held off until the main objectives are available to actually finish in-game. Though as of December 2021, you now technically can, so I think I’ll be jumping back in soon…
Conclusion
Another year in the books. I hope you all have a 2022 that’s better than expected.
Comments