2022 is upon us, 2021 is long gone into our distant memories, it’s January which means looking ahead to some of the most anticipated games of 2022. There’s plenty to be excited about this year, we have loads of big hitters to look out for, plus the unannounced surprises too.
Without further delay let’s jump into the list
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
The next game from Dotemu is scheduled for release this year and it’s one I’ve been looking forward to since the announcement. Following on from a successful release of Streets of Rage 4 back in 2020, it’s time to revive the Turtles arcade scrolling beat ’em up classic. I don’t think this one is going to be full of too many surprises. If you play scrolling beat em ups, you pretty much know what this is going to be. This has gorgeous pixel art graphics, all the Turtles are here, plus we should have April O’Neil and Splinter as playable characters too. We don’t know exactly when this is going to be released, but we should have some news soon.
Sea of Stars
This one was announced fairly late in 2021, but it’s from the same team who made The Messenger, which gets me excited about the game. This is very much in the mold of the old-school turn-based RPG, thinking of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. The combat system looks interesting and brought up to date with Sabotage Studio saying
“Pressing the action button in sync with the animations increases damage output while reducing incoming damage. Along with timed hits, combat features multi-character combo attacks, boosting, and a strategic locks system offering options to play with different damage types in order to hinder enemies while they are channeling powerful attacks or spells, all in an immersive take on the genre; no random encounters, no transitions to separate battlefields, and no grinding.”
This one is due on Nintendo Switch in Winter 2022.
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is set in a dark fantasy interpretation of the setting for the original Final Fantasy game, with a group of people drawn into it from another world. The main character is Jack Garland, a man consumed by a need to destroy Chaos. He is accompanied by other companions, including similar newcomers Ash and Jed, and during the journey faces a knight who has taken on the role of Chaos; while seemingly the foretold Warriors of Light, each has doubts as to whether that is their role.
Stranger of Paradise is an action role-playing game in which players explore environments and fight monsters of the Final Fantasy series. Combat takes place in real-time, with Jack being able to switch between two assigned jobs and use physical and magical attacks. Once an enemy’s “break gauge” is depleted, Jack can perform a finishing blow that crystallizes the enemy, allowing Jack to harvest them and restore a portion of his magic meter.
This one has big Neo vibes, the action-combat looks tough and could be a big deal this year.
Forspoken
Forspoken has had much of the spotlight from Square Enix in the past few months, featured on Sony’s State of Play, then Square Enix gave influencers and media outlets hands-on time with it. Looking at the fluid movement plus the action, it’s one of my most anticipated for 2022.
The gameplay in Forspoken appears to be action, adventure, and RPG. Frey moves incredibly fast across the environments, amongst high fidelity backgrounds. As well as traversal across the environments Frey can climb and run up cliff surfaces and jump too, in similar gameplay to that of 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man. Enemies look tough and imposing which include a massive Golem and a zombie Bear, plus some terrifying Sabertooth Cats.
Frey has magical abilities which include forming a shield of light and making vines explode out of the ground at a moment’s notice. Frey can also fire high-speed projectiles at enemies, so it seems like Frey has a decent arsenal at her disposal.
Somerville
We don’t have much to go on when it comes to Sommerville, but the trailer at E3, plus the credentials of the developers made me sit up and pay attention to this one.
Somerville is an upcoming video game and the debut title by the independent studio Jumpship. The studio’s co-founder, Dino Patti, previously co-founded Playdead and worked on Limbo and Inside as executive producer on both games.
Similar to Limbo and Inside, Somerville is an adventure game played from a third-person perspective, most often at times like a platform game. The player controls a family of three, a father, a mother, and their young son, as well as a pet dog, in the wake of a post-apocalyptic event on Earth. The player must guide one of the characters through the ruins of civilization, avoiding strange alien artifacts that try to kill humans, and working with human survivors to find safety for the family. Like Limbo and Inside, the game is presented without dialogue, instead using the setting, environments, and animations to tell the story.
Horizon Forbidden West
In Horizon Forbidden West the story of Aloy continues. She’s a young hunter from the Nora tribe sent on a quest to the Forbidden West to find the source of a mysterious plague that’s killing all it touches. As Aloy makes her way across the lands she encounters larger machines, hostile enemies who can now control the machine they ride, and deadly traps. The environments in Forbidden West have been expanded too to include deserts, mountains, valleys, tropical beaches, and ruin cities.
Aloy has some new tools to play within this new adventure which are going to help her cross the lands and fight against the machines. The Focus Scanner helps highlight climbing areas, which are otherwise hidden to us. The Pull Caster, aka the Grappling Hook, helps Aloy traverse the environment. The Shield Wing, looks and operates in a similar way to Link’s glider in Breath of the Wild and the Diving Mask allows Aloy to swim underwater for long periods of time.
As well as the new items to help Aloy navigate the environment, there are also new weapons too. Guerilla Games showed off an impressive battle during the State of Play recently, with Aloy battling a Tusk thing. Aloy has a new spear, which when used at close range can be used to chain multiple combos. You can also apply buffs, which are known as surges to help take down powerful enemies. Aloy has a number of special arrows now which can strip back armor or help expose weak spots. Aloy can also pick up weapons that enemies drop, which was shown off in an impressive sequence against the tusk. Combat in Horizon has always been precise and thrilling, and it looks like it’s going to be taken to the next level in Horizon Forbidden West.
God of War Ragnorok
God of War Ragnarök is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and will be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). It is scheduled to be released in 2022 for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PlayStation 5 (PS5). It will be the ninth installment in the God of War series, the ninth chronologically, and the sequel to 2018’s God of War. Loosely based on Norse mythology, the game will be set in ancient Scandinavia and feature series protagonists Kratos and his teenage son Atreus. Serving as the finale to the Norse era of the series, the game will cover Ragnarök, a series of events that bring about the end of days and depicts the deaths of the Norse gods, which was foretold to happen in the previous game after Kratos killed the Æsir god Baldur.
Taking place three years after events of the previous game, Fimbulwinter is drawing to a close, and it is prophesied that Ragnarök will begin once it comes to an end. A now teenaged Atreus, still reeling from the revelations of the previous game, seeks answers about his identity as Loki, as well as a way to prevent Ragnarök from happening. To uncover the truth, Kratos and Atreus set out to find answers, searching for the giant Norse God of War Týr, who was previously believed to be dead. Whilst traversing the nine realms, the duo must face new threats, including Thor, the enraged God of Thunder, and Freya, their former friend and ally, both seeking vengeance following the deaths of their respective sons by Kratos’ hands.
Lost Ark
This could be the game, other than Destiny 2, that I sink most hours into in 2022. Having played the closed beta in 2021, Lost Ark convinced me it’s something of a special game. Lost Ark is a free-to-play MMOARPG and the gameplay is from a perspective similar to Diablo, and you have classes, loot, exploration, and combat. You can customize your skills, weapons, and gear to spec into different playstyles.
The combat is in an ARPG-style and you’ll be able to level up your weapons and armor through quests and raids, battling world bosses and also PVP opponents too. Lost Ark promises easy-to-learn combat features that lean into their Tripod system where you can unlock three tiers of customization for your abilities, letting you control how you want to fight. It’s easy to control, and there’s the potential for massive battles, and this is going to be an awesome game to jump into with friends. Given it’s free to play, then hopefully getting some friends together shouldn’t be a major issue. If that is, then there’s pretty good matchmaking available.
One of the promising facts about Lost Ark is the fact it won 6 awards at the Korean version of the gaming Oscars in 2019. This means the game is out there, people are playing it and loving it. From the visuals alone you can see this one has potential but it won everything from character creation options, sound, technical achievement, and also the People’s choice award. It’s also been out since 2018, meaning the developers have had time to hone the game based on player feedback.
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is perhaps the most anticipated game of the year, and it’s pretty high up there for me. Since the reveals in 2021, we’ve also had the closed network test where fans could get their hands on the game, and the hype levels have just increased. Some are touting this game could be the best game From Software has ever made.
This is apparently FromSoftware’s biggest game to date. Perhaps highlighted with the horses, which is something new to FromSoftware games. In other games, we’ve always walked around on foot, however, this time we have a horse and it looks like we can fight on horseback as well as jump super far. That was one of the most memorable moments for me in the trailer, seeing the horse leap vertically at the speed of a jumping pad. Given we have horses this feels like the land we traverse could be very big indeed, something on the scale of The Witcher III or Ghost of Tsushima.
We’re going to be able to explore and fight during the day and night, plus there’s dynamic weather on offer too, making for a very realistic environment to explore. Day and night cycles have appeared in FromSoftware games before, however, they have been linked to specific encounters. All of the NPCs in the game have deep lore, and this time we have the benefit of the collaboration between Hidetaka Miyazaki and George RR Martin. We don’t know to the extent that GRRM is involved, but it’s likely to attract a new audience. According to the press release characters will have “unique motivations for helping or hindering your progress” and they all have “profound backgrounds”.
Destiny 2 The Witch Queen
Destiny 2 The Witch Queen Expansion comes out in February, at the business end of a jam-packed month. We’ve had a huge build-up to this since Beyond Light was released, but also with Savathun really since 2015… so it’s been a long time in the making.
With the Witch Queen expansion we’re getting a new weapon archetype with The Glaive, Weapon Crafting, a new 6 person activity, a new raid, new exotics and all that Destiny 2 goodness we’ve come to expect. We’re also getting a complete rework of the void subclass to bring it into line with the newer subclass 2.0 system like we have with Stasis right now. In terms of the story Savathun has somehow managed to get hold of the light, and bestowed this on her Hive Brood, so we’re going to be fighting Guardian enemies for the first time in Destiny history.
Destiny 2 had a great year in 2021 when it comes to the narrative and the seasonal progression, story telling and the wider sandbox balancing. More work needs to be done on PVP, and reworking the light subclasses into the newer system, but it’s going in the right direction and I’m looking forward to what Bungie has in store for us.
Breath of the Wild 2
My most anticipated game of 2022 is Breath of the Wild 2. I was hoping this would be released in 2021, however, Nintendo has been hit pretty hard with covid restrictions, so hopefully this is going to happen in 2022.
Nintendo showed off their latest glimpse of Breath of the Wild 2 at E3 2021, has introduced the game to the world at E3 2019. The first thing to notice here is the Link that’s falling from the sky appears to have a corrupted right arm, whereas the Link with the Glider appears as per the original Breath of the Wild. It looks like there could be 2 Links in this game, perhaps similar to Ocarina of Time where we play as Young Link or Regular Link.
We see Link running through Hyrule, long hair flowing, again with a corrupted arm. In the distance, we can see floating islands in the sky. This appears to be the theme for Breath of the Wild 2, with Hyrule dramatically changed from the first game and parts of Hyrule have floated up into the air.
Next up in the trailer we see Link wielding some new powers. A spikey ball is falling down a hill towards him, and it looks like Link can either turn back time or use some kind of kinetic power to push the spikey ball back up the hill. A rewind time mechanic would be very cool, and this opens up a lot of possibilities for puzzles in the game. We also see Link wielding what looks to be a flame thrower, but this is on his other arm when comparing it to the corrupted arm.
In the final scene, we see castle Hyrule shaking and rumbling against the backdrop of dramatic music, and then it raises itself into the sky. There clearly is an event that leads to this, whether it’s the discovery of the Ganondorf-like corpse underground, or the corruption escaping and affecting Hyrule is some way. The latest trailer closes with the castle in the sky, Zelda’s lullaby playing in the background against a beautiful sunset over Hyrule and fades to black with the number 2022 left on the screen.
There’s plenty of questions surrounding Breath of the Wild 2, but Nintendo are keeping their cards very close to their chest.