The best video games of 2022: These are our ten gaming highlights

"

Vampire Survivors

"

Vampire Survivors may look like a Windows 95 screensaver, but it's probably the most influential game of the year.

As an automatically attacking hero, you have to survive ever-increasing waves of monsters.

The clou of the game from a single developer lies in the fact that it gets stronger every minute: upgrade after upgrade, we turn our character into a deadly whirlwind with ever new combinations of items and magic.

The game principle is simple, but compelling: Like a one-armed bandit, »Vampire Survivors« serves up targeted, precisely timed bursts of endorphin and never lets you go.

The game's success has spawned numerous imitators and epigones, but the original remains unbeaten.

Great fun in miniature.

»Stray«

Having a good mascot can be worth more than any advertising campaign.

»Stray« showed that this year.

Videos from the game have been shared thousands of times on social media: a cat running over piano keys, throwing cups off tables and squeezing through the narrowest cracks in house walls.

A few weeks before and after the release, the game was a net phenomenon.

Fortunately, there is a work with substance behind it.

»Stray« depicts a cyberpunk world deep underground inhabited by robots, all of whom behave in a strangely human way.

A cat is controlled that was separated from its pack, fell into this world and now wants to find its way back.

In the approximately ten hours of play, a fascinating world unfolds, through which a worthwhile story leads - experienced through the eyes of a cat who looks in amazement at the oddities of mankind.

»Elden Ring«

The most epic game of the year is the open-world counterpart to a cult series: »Elden Ring« is »Dark Souls« in XXL, a dark action role-playing game full of secrets and challenges.

The games from the Japanese development studio From Software are famous for their complexity and toughness: without patient training and a touch of masochism, their appeal is not revealed.

Small and large opponents are deadly, the game systems are only explained cryptically, especially at the beginning, and the story is only told in fragmentary and dark whispers.

Anyone who still finds access to this exceptional game, which is a touch more beginner-friendly than other From-Software titles, will sink into a melancholic fantasy world that is unrivaled in terms of size and variety.

»Elden Ring« is undoubtedly a game that will be talked about for a long time.

»God of War Ragnarok«

In terms of graphic finesse and cinematic narration, »God of War Ragnarök« surpasses the competition this year.

The game leads through its mythical world without a single camera cut.

As a player, you are always close to the characters, which are written in a clever and complex way.

They feed on both Norse and Germanic mythology, but also know the problems of modern people.

»God of War Ragnarök« also convinces playfully.

It offers a complex combat system with different weapons and abilities and different characters whose strengths and weaknesses have to be used well.

There are also puzzles that require you to think outside the box.

Little of it, however, feels truly new or surprising.

"God of War Ragnarök" is still fun - and that's what a classic video game blockbuster should deliver, after all.

»Citizen Sleepers«

The science fiction role-playing game »Citizen Sleeper« is a real insider tip: The game mixes elements of classic tabletop role-playing games with resource management and a branching, excellently written story with a lot of heart and depth.

As a person stranded in space on a remote space station, you have to build a new life here, organize work and food every day and get to know your new environment and its idiosyncratic inhabitants.

Developer Gareth Damian Martin created his game almost single-handedly, proving that you don't need a large team and budget to create touchingly written games with original game mechanics.

»Citizen Sleeper« is great science fiction that does without violence, aliens and space battles.

»Cult of the Lamb«

"Cult of the Lamb" mixes various hip genres into a chaotic and entertaining gaming experience.

It's a roguelike in which players scour procedurally generated dungeons and battle all sorts of enemies to collect loot.

It's a strategy game about building a thriving settlement.

And because of its management elements, the well-being of all residents must also be kept in mind at all times.

The game doesn't take itself too seriously, which is very refreshing.

It's about building a cult community that pays homage to a sheep possessed by the devil.

Ritualized killings and sacrificial offerings are just as much a part of day-to-day business as watering the fields and a successful harvest.

So if you want to experience a turbulent genre mix that doesn't always run smoothly, but is always highly amusing, this is the place for you.

»Dwarf Fortress«

Actually, this game is already 20 years old - that's how long its makers, the American brothers Zach and Tarn Adams, have been working on it.

»Dwarf Fortress« enjoys cult status, its alpha version has been available to play for free since 2006.

The indie classic has directly inspired games like »Minecraft« and »Rimworld« and has even been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York since 2011.

At the beginning of December, a commercial version of the game came onto the market for the first time, with nicer graphics, tutorials and, above all, a simplified user interface including mouse operation.

The legendary complex simulation of an entire fantasy world in which we micromanage the fate of a colony of dwarves becomes so much more accessible.

The game, which the IT specialist publisher O'Reilly once dubbed as perhaps the "most complex video game ever created", can only be recommended, even more so in 2022: It is an endless generator of absurd experiences.

»Horizon: Forbidden West«

An open world works well when it has atmosphere.

When tracks cross the country that are worth following.

Here lies the strength of »Horizon: Forbidden West«.

Artefacts from the people who once inhabited this planet - before the machines took over - can be found in his game environment between the robotic primal beings and the threatening end of the world.

The game in no way reinvents the open world.

Rather, it is important to do the usual tasks: defeat opponents, solve small puzzles, find objects.

And of course level up, improve weapons and master the combat system.

But in this atmospherically dense game world, even the usual feels important again.

The game creates a red thread that always remains visible.

Whether in the ruins of Las Vegas or on the highest peaks of a mountain.

»

pentiment

«

»Pentiment« is a very special game: the detective adventure with role-playing elements is not only set in the late Middle Ages on the border to modern times, but also looks like book illustrations and woodcuts from that era.

As artists, we are on the trail of a decade-long series of murders in a village and monastery in a Bavarian town in 1518.

Thanks to the collaboration of a team of historians, the characters, themes and events in »Pentiment« are as authentic and close to the epoch as one would otherwise only expect from the best historical novels.

The game shows a lot of empathy with its character staff, which has grown over the decades, and tells an enigmatic story that goes far beyond the individual characters.

The result is a small work of art that non-gamers could also like.

»

signals

«

If you're tired of the complexities - and lengths - of an open world, a game that reflects on the strengths of a bygone era is recommended.

»Signalis« is a horror game in the optics of the games for the first Playstation.

»Resident Evil« founded the survival horror and gave the players only one goal: survive!

But not by wildly shooting around, but by skilfully managing resources.

»Signalis« builds on this tradition.

It's a simple game, but that's exactly why it's effective.

The low-polygon look leaves gaps that the players should fill.

Horror is not created here by detailed modeled monsters.

It's the constant feeling of being threatened, coupled with an extremely tight inventory, that creates the terror.