2022 Gaming--A Year in Review

With the end of 2022 looming, it's time to roll out all those end of the year lists.  I'll admit that I'm a sucker for the fun little "wrapped" videos and do find it enjoyable to compare lists with others (*although parents who share Spotify with kids have valid gripes when their lists are tainted by their kids who listen to the soundtrack to Encanto five thousand times).  Steam decided to join the fun and created a personalized "re-play" list (here's mine).  While their list is a fun way to look back at what I played this year, it doesn't necessarily capture what I truly enjoyed...just what I played the most.  So, here are my thoughts and personal picks of the games that released in 2022.

The Game I Played the Most

Ugh, irradiated space rocks are the worst!

Two Point Campus topped my list and there's nothing surprising about this fact.  I love the Two Point games and the release of Campus was a pleasant addition to 2022.  Campus doesn't change the Two Point formula much--the signature goofy humor and semi-serious management aspects from Hospital are still there, but in a college setting.  The Space Academy DLC added in three new campuses and new space themed courses, rooms, and challenges, so I saw myself returning to the game after I had completed the 12 base campuses.  If you enjoyed Two Point Hospital or are just looking for a relaxing, light hearted management sim, give it a try.  (If you haven't played in awhile, it's worth going back to check out the very affordable DLC and the new holiday themed challenges)

The Best Game to Relax To

One of my Dorf Romantik maps.

As I've gotten older, I've definitely lost my desire to come home after work to even more stress.  I'm always on the look out for something that's low stress for times when I just want to throw on a podcast (or some music) and let the stress of the day wash away.  I found myself frequently drawn to Dorf Romantik--even though it has a bit of a strange name, it's a cute little puzzle game about piecing together random tiles to create cities, forests, and other features.  Even though it looks relatively simple, figuring out the best placement for tiles provides challenge.  Ultimately your goal is to keep growing your map, but if you fail it doesn't feel that bad...and you get to start a brand new map!  Each map winds up feeling different--sometimes you build large cities; other times you have sprawling railroads or huge forests.  

Surprising Indies

Even though they didn't crack the top of my Steam re-play list, many of the games that I remember the most are the many unique indie games.  In particular, two of them made a big impact on my 2022.  Strange Horticulture offers up a novel experience in the detective/mystery genre--it's a game where you have to identify and use plants to solve a supernatural mystery.  While it sounds fairly bizarre, it turned out to be a lot of fun (in fact, I need to go back and replay it sometime seeing as how there are multiple endings).

Spending each dice is Citizen Sleeper is a choice.

Citizen Sleeper was another indie that I wound up finding myself truly enjoying.  The gameplay is so deceptively simple--the dice-based system is totally ingenious--but figuring out how to best spend those daily resources and which path you want to pursue...well, it turns out to be a bit agonizing.  Like Strange Horticulture, it's also a game that has many paths and plenty of replayability (in fact, they are still releasing additional content for it).

I would highly recommend checking out both games (and, the good news is that you can buy both of them relatively cheaply).

My Personal GOTY

You can pet the dog (and cats too!) in Pentiment.

When the big sales roll around, I generally find myself taking advantage of those sweet, sweet deals.  The most recent (and currently still ongoing) holiday sale is no exception.  I bought exactly one game...and it turned out to be absolutely amazing!  Pentiment is a point-and-click adventure/mystery game set in a beautifully illustrated, semi-medieval setting.  Being a history teacher, I found the historical setting to be very genuine and the events that shaped the world play out in the game (in a much more personal way than simply reading about it in a history book).  The story is choice based and it's one of those games where your choices are final--there aren't any convenient saves to reload.  It's so well-written and engaging that making those choices is extremely difficult--I constantly found myself torn between the varying factions in the story.  The story plays out beautifully and I immediately wanted to start over and make different choices.  And, the best part, you can pet the dogs and cats!  (I plan on writing up a full review for Pentiment, so look for that in the near future).

Let's hope our 2023's are filled with lots of fun games!  Happy New Year to all!

(**Something weird happened with the formatting on this post and I can't figure out what it is.  Please forgive the weird white background on half the post!)