Paste Magazine: The 30 Best Games of 2022

[ghostcrew]

We don't have separate threads for every new GOTY list but we do typically host a thread around Paste Magazine's best games of the year feature. Usually because they're full of interesting picks!

I personally always love checking out their lists and picking up some recommendations for things that I've missed.

Any games here that you haven't played yet that you've been meaning to? Anything that you haven't heard of before and are now checking out? Much more interested in that discussion than 'x was robbed' etc.

Without further ado...

The 30 Best Games of 2022

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30. Cultic
29. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
28. Metal: Hellsinger
27: Splatoon 3
26: Weird West
25: Horizon Forbidden West
24: The Last Clockwinder
23: PowerWash Simulator
22: Trombone Champ
21: Iron Lung
20: Rogue Legacy 2
19: Xenoblade Chronicles 3
18: OlliOlli World
17: Kirby and the Forgotten Land
16: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
15: Marvel Snap
14: Soul Hackers 2
13: Stray
12: Cult of the Lamb
11: Wordle
10: Tunic
9: Vampire Survivors
8: Live A Live
7: Neon White
6: Signalis
5: Elden Ring
4: Pentiment
3: Immortality
2: Citizen Sleeper
1: NORCO

Previous top threes from Paste!

2021
3. Metroid Dread
2. Psychonauts 2
1. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

2020
3. Kentucky Route Zero Act V
2. If Found
1. Hades

2019
3. A Plague Tale: Innocence
2. Outer Wilds
1. Control

2018
3. Gris
2. Return of the Obra Dinn
1. Florence

 

[Jawbreaker]

Thought Immortality kinda sucked. Interesting concept with some great acting, but the execution was really poor for me. I'd switch that one out for OlliOlli World.

Lots of great picks here, though. I really need to/want to play NORCO, Pentiment, and Signalis soon.

 

[The Bear]

I'm pretty surprised with Soul Hackers 2 being pretty high on the list. I thought it had a pretty mixed reception, so I skipped the game altogether.

(Also I have to admit that I'm not a fan of these GOTY lists coming out in November – there's still a whole month left!)

 

[D O T]

Now this is a great list that full of interesting games and not one game is similar with each other. Norco as the number one is pretty good.

In before someone complain gow ragnarok not included in the list.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Nice. I have all of these:
4: Pentiment
3: Immortality
2: Citizen Sleeper
1: NORCO

And I haven't played any of them. I'm a sucker for sales and spending money.

OlliOlli World too low IMO.

Only played a little, but love that Weird West and Cultic are on the list.

 

[Corv]

Fun list. Interesting to me that Plague Tale was 3 in 2019 but the sequel didn't make the top 30 this year.

 

[Mekanos]

Glad to see Kirby mentioned. Probably the only time I'll see it on one of these lists, lol

 

[Ricitor]

That's a damn fine list right there. Happy at least one GOTY list (at least so far) places Citizen Sleeper on there, let alone so high where it belongs!

 

[Izanagi89]

Soul Hackers 2 that high is wild lol Super happy to see Live A Live and Signalis there though. Really great list.

 

[Ojli]

Was Wordle this year? Man, my mind is getting mush...

 

[u_neek]

Very interesting - and VERY plot-heavy - top 4.

I need to play NORCO since it's RIGHT THERE on GamePass.

 

[Jencks]

Paste is based, as usual.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Prodeus was probably the most fun I had with any new release this year and I have just realised it's probably not going to be on any of these publication's lists.

Oh well.

 

[Plinkerton]

I'm glad to see PowerWash Simulator getting some love. I can't imagine it'll show up on many other lists.

Also Wordle absolutely deserves to be on a lot of lists, for how it took over the internet at the start of the year.

 

[Sabretooth]

Haven''t played most of those games, but very very glad to see the games that made 1-5 make it there - these games don't get talked about that much.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

I'm pretty surprised with Soul Hackers 2 being pretty high on the list. I thought it had a pretty mixed reception, so I skipped the game altogether.

(Also I have to admit that I'm not a fan of these GOTY lists coming out in November – there's still a whole month left!)

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Soul Hackers 2 was a fun romp through the game. It is along of the lines of standard Shin Megami Tensei fare. If you like these games and the personas and such, you can find many games to spend a worse time in.

I like these types of lists because they are off the beaten path and makes me give double takes to some games that I don't have that are on these lists.

25: Horizon Forbidden West
17: Kirby and the Forgotten Land
14: Soul Hackers 2
9: Vampire Survivors
8: Live A Live
5: Elden Ring
4: Pentiment

This is what I have on this list so far.

 

[Rockin' Ranger]

Nice, I can't complain about the lack of Norco like I have with every other GOTY list I've seen.

Only thing left to criticize now is that none of ebi-hime's VNs made it.

 

[Cali32]

OP there's a typo in the list you've pasted, it should be Xeno 3 instead of 2. :D

 

[ghostcrew]

Also I have to admit that I'm not a fan of these GOTY lists coming out in November – there's still a whole month left!

Click to shrink...

I think the reality with a lot of these lists is:

- they're going to get the most attention a month or so ahead of Christmas - because people are looking for buying guides
- releases tend to dry up towards mid December onwards anyway
- people stop working and take a Christmas break at some point so want to get these discussions done and get the articles out before they do. I'm not in the media but my place breaks up for Christmas in two weeks and we are trying to wrap up what we can now.

You're right though. Could do it in January! I dare say that end of November is actually the perfect time in terms of getting eyes on an article though and, at the end of the day, that's what these sites are here for and trying to do. That's why they write these lists in the first place, because they're popular.

I hope that anything incredible that sites miss is included in next years!

 

[JustTeaThankYou]

I just started playing Norco, really enjoying it so far. Weirdly, it reminds me of text adventure games from the 80s, in that it's full of descriptive language that mostly left games when graphics became the focus. It's making me want to check that scene out again

 

[ghostcrew]

OP there's a typo in the list you've pasted, it should be Xeno 3 instead of 2. :D

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Appriciate it!

 

[APOEERA]

Crazy that God of War Ragnarok isn't even on the list. Did they didn't get a chance to play it or were like "nah we don't think it's that great"?

I've had my eye on Narco but may wait on a sale. PSN sales for recent digital games happen more frequently nowadays.

 

[eXistor]

Now that's a list I can get behind.

 

[ghostcrew]

Crazy that God of War Ragnarok isn't even on the list. Did they didn't get a chance to play it or were like "nah we don't think it's that great"?

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God of War was number 26 in their 30 Best Games of 2018 so fair to say they like the series but not a massive surprise if it fell off this time if there were more games that they liked.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Crazy that God of War Ragnarok isn't even on the list. Did they didn't get a chance to play it or were like "nah we don't think it's that great"?

I've had my eye on Narco but may wait on a sale. PSN sales for recent digital games happen more frequently nowadays.

Click to shrink...

They reviewed it, so they just didn't like it enough to place it on the list. Pentiment released after GoW and ranked #4 too, so it's not a matter of timing either or anything.

God of War Ragnarök Is a Slow, Meandering Sequel with Just Enough of the Original's Spark

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www.pastemagazine.com

 

[ara]

Didn't really click with Immortality either, it was technically very impressive but that's about it for me. Very curious about the other top 4 games, though. Looking forward to playing Pentiment soon, at least.

 

[basic_text]

Now that is a list I can get behind!

 

[GamerJM]

Nice list, though with all the love it shows for b-level JRPGs I'm surprised it doesn't have Triangle Strategy, the best one all year IMO.

 

[ghostcrew]

I haven't heard of The Last Clockwinder. Checking it out!

Also really cool to see Wordle on a list. I totally forgot that it was this year and of course it was a big deal in 2022.

 

[Zweisy1]

Wow actually a decent list despite distinct lack of Return to Monkey Island. I like how it's not just another listing of the biggest AAA releases of the year.. Horizon Forbidden West is still too high though.

 

[ghostcrew]

Wow actually a decent list despite distinct lack of Return to Monkey Island. I like how it's not just another listing of the biggest AAA releases of the year.. Horizon Forbidden West is still too high though.

Click to shrink...

With such an adventure heavy top four, I was kinda surprised to not see Return to Monkey Island there to round out a strong five!

 

[Brat-Sampson]

10: Tunic
9: Vampire Survivors
8: Live A Live
7: Neon White
6: Signalis
5: Elden Ring
4: Pentiment
3: Immortality
2: Citizen Sleeper
1: NORCO

7/10 on Game Pass. Good times.

 

[Ambitious]

From that list, I played Wordle.

 

[N2BearHugs]

I just played Citizen Sleeper. It's very good, so glad to see it so high.

Think Tinykin and Poinpy would make good additions to the list.

You know… this could be an ad for game pass.

 

[Reedirect]

Ideally, all lists would be full of intriguing picks like this one. Tons of overlooked games that rarely get the attention they deserve in year-end reviews. Good work.

 

[Antony]

Soul Hackers above Kirby, Xenoblade, Turtles, Splatoon… genuinely curious what they saw in it and why they liked it so much.

Interesting list as always!

 

[Deleted member 10001]

Much, much better list than that TIME one, that's for sure.

 

[CandySTX]

I hate to say it but my dyslexic-ass really struggles with heavy reading based games.

Bounce hard from stuff like NORCO, despite hearing great things about it.

On the flip side of their list, I'm seriously considering Cultic to be top or near to of my personal GOTY. Something about the whole package just works so well.

 

[DisturbedSwan]

What an absolute piss take lol, not even heard of some of the games listed to be fair so can't speak to their quality but yeah, certain omissions like GoWR are a bit of a joke in my view.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Looks like I'm not the only one who prefers Forbidden West to Ragnarok.

 

[Floex]

Top 4 and I have zero idea what any of them are. I need to keep up 🥵

 

[strudelkuchen]

Great list!

 

[JadedGhost]

Good list with a few gems like tinykin and nobody saves the world absent as well as the obvious ones like gow Ragnarok and plague tale requiem.

 

[Blade24070]

glad to see a list without overrated games like God of Boring

Live a Live getting its deserved recognition

 

[Jawbreaker]

What an absolutely horrendous list lol, not even heard of some of the games listed to be fair so can't speak to their quality but yeah, certain omissions like GoWR are a bit of a joke in my view.

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How is it a horrendous list if you've never heard of most of the games, thus never playing them? Just because one game you liked isn't on there? Not everyone's going to like a game just because it has a high Metacritic score.

glad to see a list without overrated games like God of Boring

Live a Live getting its deserved recognition

Click to shrink...

You mean God of Snore: Ragnarock Me to Sleep, surely.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

OlliOlli World too low IMO.

Click to shrink...

This is going to be this years theme

not even heard of some of the games listed

Click to shrink...

Maybe you should have heard of them before calling it a piss take. Popularity isn't 1:1 with quality and never has been.

 

[Acquiescence]

Clearly no one at Paste has played The Case of the Golden Idol.

 

[Poimandres]

An interesting and diverse list. Good stuff!

 

[AImalexia]

indie enjoyers stay winning

 

[Fezan]

What a bad list. Author needs to play on something else besides gamepads and Xbox. Any list without gow:r is not a real list. Also norco and pentiment in top 4 when they are not even real games is a travesty