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Our 43 most anticipated games of 2022Time to break out those wishlists
Time to break out those wishlists
2022 is finally here and that can only mean one thing. We’ve got another year of hip new video games to look forward to, and we’ve been busy rustling up the ones we’re most excited about. In truth, there are tons of games on the horizon that could easily sit on this list, and some of them are so close to release we can practically already see the pixels on our screens morphing into their lush, polygonal landscapes. Games likeMonster Hunter Rise, God Of War and Rainbow Six Extraction. You won’t find them here, but trust us, you’ll be seeing a lot of them over the coming weeks.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
A Plague Tale: Requiem - Gameplay Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2021Watch on YouTube
A Plague Tale: Requiem - Gameplay Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2021
Release date:2022From:Steam,Epic Games Store,Game Pass
Katharine:The first Plague Tale has been on my ‘to play’ list ever since it came out in 2019, but when Microsoft showed off that first trailer for sequel Requiem at E3 last year, it shot to the top of my backlog queue. Siblings Amicia andHugowere a delightful warm and compassionate pair of protagonists in this grim but engrossing third-person action adventure through plague-ridden medieval France, and I’m intrigued to see what they get up to in this direct sequel.
A Space For The Unbound
A Space for the Unbound - Coming in 2022Watch on YouTube
A Space for the Unbound - Coming in 2022
Release date:2022From:Steam
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – First Look TrailerWatch on YouTube
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – First Look Trailer
Release date:2022From:Ubisoft Connect
Ollie:Look, I love Avatar. I think it’s an absolutely marvellous film. It’s well-trodden ground, but that doesn’t stop it from being great. And that’s more or less how I’m approaching the prospect of an Ubisoft-made Avatar game. Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora will be an open-world, first-person action-adventure game. We already know what we’re getting ourselves into with this. It’s Ubisoft. It’ll be a good-looking game with a decent enough story, almost certainly drowned in map markers and side-quests.
Bear And Breakfast
Bear & Breakfast Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
Bear & Breakfast Announcement Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Hayden:IfBear And Breakfastwas just a cute management sim focused on running a bed and breakfast in the woods, I’d be interested. Decorating my cabin, cooking for guests, keeping them all happy with their holiday. It all just sounds lovely, doesn’t it? In Bear and Breakfast, there’s a little more to it. To renovate your cabin and make it hospitable, you’ll need to travel deep into the woods in search of supplies. As you hunt for materials, you’ll meet a quirky cast of critters and discover how Pinefall Resort fell into ruin many years ago.
Bear And Breakfast’s main loop is a blend of managing your business and exploring the woods for supplies, which is all laid back and chill. However, the trailer ends with an eerie warning: do not disturb the wildlife. As the camera flickers onto an angry fox-like creature and then cuts to black, it seems like a not-so-subtle hint that there are some strange mysteries to uncover deep in the forest. With that, I’m hooked. Or, as Hank the Bear would say, excited bear noises!
PS: I wonder if Hank and Horace would be friends? I bet Horace would take up too many rooms, being endless and all.
Alice Bee:The demo for this wasso fun and cute. You cleaned up the trash in the forest to exchange for goods as a form of currency. Isn’t that cool? Yes, it is. I’m excited to spend more time arranging tasteful furnishings in my cabins, and also building a shower that isn’t just a tub with a hose attached. Plus: I admire games that take such a literal approach to their title.
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly - Teaser TrailerWatch on YouTube
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly - Teaser Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Company Of Heroes 3
Company of Heroes 3 // Gameplay Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
Company of Heroes 3 // Gameplay Reveal Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Katharine:Strategy games have always been a bit of a blindspot for me. I’ve dabbled, but never properly bitten the bullet, you know? But seeing as it’s a new year and all, one of my New Year resolutions is to make a concerted dent on this behemoth of a genre, and Company Of Heroes 3 is 100% on my 2022 hit list. I never quite got round to playing the alpha build last year, butNate’s previewhad me hooked. The Mediterranean setting of this WW2 RTS gives the whole thing a lovely splash of colour, and it looks like there will be plenty of different tactical avenues to explore thanks to the open-ended nature of its campaign maps. Plus, seeing as most of my recent RTS diet has consisted ofDesperados 3, Desperados 3 and more Desperados 3, I think Company Of Heroes 3’s new tactical pause feature and I will end up getting along swimmingly. Sign me up, sarge.
Cult Of The Lamb
Cult of the Lamb | Sacrifice Yourself in 2022Watch on YouTube
Cult of the Lamb | Sacrifice Yourself in 2022
Release date:2022From:Steam
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
Watch on YouTube
Release date:February 22nd 2022From:Steam
Alice0:Savathûn has been the most delightful of Destiny’s adversaries, even while operating mostly in the background with her stories mostly told in lore books, always playful and curious while pursuing her own goals. Her introduction as a velvet-voiced charmer in Season of the Lost, well,hello thereSavathûn. Someone had to take responsibility for instilling the next generation with a strange fondness for women who might murder them, and Bungie stepped up. I hope we don’t have to murder her, like we did her nerd brother. She’s such a delightful presence telling one-sided truths and pulling strings. Savathûn has spent millennia building a paracausal Heath Robinson contraption and is very pleased with herself, barely able to contain her excitement for you to see what she’s done. I’m very happy for her; I hope the final phase of her plan is not an alarm clock ringing to startle a cat to pull an iron off a shelf and split reality like an egg.
Distant Worlds 2
Distant Worlds 2 || Ackdarians TrailerWatch on YouTube
Distant Worlds 2 || Ackdarians Trailer
Release date:March 10th 2022From:Steam
Alice0:Every year brings a few games whose complexity is beyond my ken but creates stories I adore hearing. This year, I hope Distant Worlds 2 will be one of those games. BothAdamandSinhave raved about the Distant Worlds: Universe across the years, detailing the complexity of 4X space strategy game simulated universe, the many moving parts which rely on and effect each other. The mechanisms of an Eve-like MMO, but with AI filling in all the roles. I have enjoyed reading about it, nodding my head, saying, “That sounds amazing,” to myself, then absolutely not playing it. I’d like to think that might change with Distant Worlds 2 but, well, at the very least I hope to hear about it.
Dordogne
Dordogne Extended Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTube
Dordogne Extended Gameplay Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Hayden:If 2022 is set to be another year of flitting between my desk chair and sofa, then I’ll need games like Dordogne. This narrative adventure is split between two timelines: present Mimi explores her dead grandmother’s house and solves some puzzles, while past Mimi wanders around Dordogne and makes a scrapbook. As she explores, Mimi can take photos, capture sounds and find objects to document in her journal. It’s that second part I’m most interested in. Not only does it sound extremely relaxing (learning how to relax is definitely on my to-do list in 2022), but the watercolour recreation of Southern France is astonishingly beautiful. I don’t feel comfortable hopping on a plane just yet, but Dordogne will hopefully help my brain escape this bedroffice for a moment or two.
Katharine:I’m also extremely here for Dordogne’s lovely watercolour work. Gorgeous stuff.
Elden Ring
ELDEN RING - Official Gameplay RevealWatch on YouTube
ELDEN RING - Official Gameplay Reveal
Release date:February 25th 2022From:Steam
Alice0:I’ve been avoiding Elden Ring as much as is possible within this line of work (not much, sadly) because I am so keen to see its secrets, surprises, and wacky deathtraps for myself.
Katharine:Will this finally be a FromSoft game I’m not terrible at? Chances are slim, but hey, I’m ready to be proven wrong. Let me discover your secrets, Elden Ring, I beg you…
FAR: Changing Tides
FAR: Changing Tides | Feature Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
FAR: Changing Tides | Feature Reveal Trailer
Release date:Early 2022From:Steam,Epic Games Store
Katharine:FAR: Lone Sails was one of the most brilliant, bite-sized delights of 2018, so more FAR gets a big thumbs up from me. Whereas the first game saw you pootling through a dried up, post-apocalyptic seabed in a giant red train/truck/sailboat contraption, Changing Tides will see you take to the ocean properly. We haven’t seen much of how Okomotive will be building on the environmental puzzles of the first FAR just yet, but we do know Changing Tides will feature a new protagonist and a new, flooded world that will see you battling fierce storms and even diving deep beneath the surface as you continue your way east. Whatever challenges it brings, I’m ready for ‘em.
Forspoken
Forspoken | Story Introduction TrailerWatch on YouTube
Forspoken | Story Introduction Trailer
Release date:May 25th 2022From:Steam
Katharine:The Luminous Productions making Forspoken may not be made up of quite the same people who madeFinal Fantasy XV, but cor, I love that you can still tell this is a Luminous RPG, you know? There’s a texture to this fantasy landscape that instantly calls to mind the jagged, eye-drawing horizons of Eos, only here it looks like we’ll have a lot more fun traversing it thanks to protagonist Frey’s springy super legs and natty grapple hook. The way she leaps and bounds across rooftops and scales rock faces in an instant like some sort of invincible mountain goat have me itching to try it out for myself, and I hope she feels as good to control as she does to look at onscreen. I have high hopes for her magic powers, too, after the spectacular elemental lightshows of old Noctis and co. Fingers crossed it also has an interesting story to match its lovely visuals.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo – Gameplay Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
Ghostwire: Tokyo – Gameplay Reveal Trailer
Release date:2022From:TBA
Alice0:I’m still not sure what shape the horror FPS from Tango Gameworks will take, but their twoThe Evil Withingames had some cracking horror and fun violence so yep, I’m up for more. I like how colourful it looks too, mashing weird monsters on the streets of Tokyo. Not sure what it is; do want to know.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink
GRANBLUE FANTASY: Relink - Teaser TrailerWatch on YouTube
GRANBLUE FANTASY: Relink - Teaser Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Ed:I have zero knowledge of the Granblue extended universe but I’ve followed this JRPG’s development over the last couple of years. Namely, because I’d heard that Cygames and PlatinumGames were working on it together. Being a sucker for Platinum’s flashy combat, I was all-in, basically. Their partnership came to amysterious end in 2019, with Cygames taking over full responsibility, but I’m still on board. The game has a dash ofTales of Ariseabout it, with fast, fluid combat and a gorgeous anime world. Yet Relink seems like it holds something more? From the gameplay I’ve seen over the years, the animations and exploration seem more dynamic than Tales. I don’t know, it just has an air of charm about it that’s hooked me in. Here’s hoping it turns out okay.
Have A Nice Death
Have A Nice Death | Official Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
Have A Nice Death | Official Announcement Trailer
Release date:March 2022 (early access)From:Steam
Ollie:Have A Nice Death has me very excited indeed. What a splendid idea for a roguelite. You are Death, founder and CEO of the corporation that handles all things death and afterlife. But you’re also experiencing severe burnout after millennia of hard work, and your employees have started to run rampant, leaving you no choice but to cancel your holiday plans and sort them out the old-fashioned way.
It looks incredibly stylish and quirky, with a beautifully smooth animation style and fast-paced movement and combat reminiscent ofDead Cells(no wonder, given that Dead Cells’ Sébastien Bénard is helping out with the development). I’m most looking forward to how developers Magic Design Studios root the mechanics in the world they’ve created. From what they’ve said so far, it sounds like they’ll do a great job here. I mean, just listen: “Taking more power for yourself is a controversial move in Death Incorporated’s company culture. For instance, adopting a Curse upgrade for yourself might result in the Labor Inspector granting your subordinates enhanced powers, or worse, raising the cost of koffee and other items that are vital to your work output”. Fabulous.
Homeworld 3
Homeworld 3- Gameplay First Look TrailerWatch on YouTube
Homeworld 3- Gameplay First Look Trailer
Release date:Q4 2022From:Steam,Epic Games Store
Katharine:Homeworld is another one of those big, beloved strategy games that I’ve always looked at fondly from afar, but never quite built up the courage to earn my space wings. However, the most recenttrailer at The Game Awards last yearhas convinced me that 2022 is the year I’m finally going to dip my toes into this sci-fi RTS, because cor, those space battles sure do look amazing.
Alice0:I’m also excited to see what 19 years of technological advances have done for those iconic ship trails.
Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City clips for #PitchYaGameWatch on YouTube
Little Kitty, Big City clips for #PitchYaGame
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
James:In addition to the game where you play as a warmongering superhuman religious fanatic (see below), I’m also interested in the game where you play as a cat. Someone at Double Dagger Studio evidently realised that felines are, in fact, the perfect video game protagonists: they’re intelligent, independent, and are pretty much expected to perform bizarre acts of chaos for fun. We all sneer at the ridiculousness of Solid Snake earnestly jumping in a cardboard box, but when a cat does it? Phones out, oh that’s so cute, do it again in a different box etc, etc.
Little Kitty, Big City does apparently have a “get back home” narrative, but you can tell from the first trailer it makes plenty of time for you just potter about, doing cat things. Stealing fish, pouncing on objects that clearly aren’t alive, slinking into places you shouldn’t and so on. It appeals to every part of my brain that, when I’ve looked at my own cat, has thought, “Lucky bugger, not having human responsibilities.” And for that, I want it.
Rebecca:2022 is looking like a banner year if you want to play a game with a cat protagonist doing fun and cute cat things, but don’t want to actually romance the cats. (That’s at least one sub-genre of dating sim I haven’t been won over to yet.) Little Kitty, Big City plusStrayand maybe even Peace Island if we’re good — this could be the year of cat-centric adventure games, and I’m here for it.
Katharine:As another resident cat parent on the team, I’m also very much looking forward to both this and Stray.Good video game catsare finally getting their due!
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Marvel’s Midnight Suns | Gameplay RevealWatch on YouTube
Marvel’s Midnight Suns | Gameplay Reveal
Release date:Second half of 2022From:Steam
Alice0:I am well up for a new turn-based tactical game from the studio behindXCOM. They basically already made a superhero game with XCOM 2’s War Of The Chosen expansion so I’m curious to see how daft things might get with actual superheroes. Large parts of Midnight Suns look familiar, but they’re shaking it up with cards for abilities and other bits and yeah, I’m curious. While I haven’t returned toXCOM: Chimera Squadafter finishing it, unlike the two main games, I enjoyed how it pushed familiar aspects in new directions. I want to see what they’re doing now.
Katharine:I’m no Marvel buff, but I too am intrigued to see how well the beefcakes I’ve seen at the cinema gel with tactical XCOM fare. Superheroes aren’t known for waiting their turn to dropkick enemies into the tarmac, but everything I’ve seen so far looks pretty damn fine. I’m also keen to see just how Persona-y the Abbey bits are when you’rehanging out with fellow supesin your downtime between missions. Because a tactical RPG superhero game that also takes the best bits from FiraxisandAtlus? Now that’s something I’ve gotta see.
Men Of War 2
Men of War II - Official Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
Men of War II - Official Reveal Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Katharine:Continuing my odyssey into the realm of the big strategy giants, Men Of War 2 also has my interest well and truly piqued. While we don’t know exactly when it’s coming out yet (I may have had my fill of WW2 RTS games if it ends up launching anywhere near Company Of Heroes 3, for example), Men Of War 2 does at least have itsnifty-looking Direct Vision featureto help set it apart. This lets players assume direct control of individual soldiers and units from a first-person viewpoint, allowing you to get up close and personal with its impressive looking battlegrounds. If nothing else, I want to see who wins the war of the best WW2-themed strategy game this year. Men Of War 2, or Company Of Heroes 3.
Naiad
NAIAD / Guardian of the river (Trailer)Watch on YouTube
NAIAD / Guardian of the river (Trailer)
Release date:Q2 2022From:Steam
Alice0:This summer, I swam down a mile-and-a-half of the River Tweed. Walked up the riverside path, ate a nice lunch, chatted with pals, splashed about a bit and dove off a nice big rock, then drifted, stumbled, and swam back down to the starting point. So, I’m glad someone is making a new video game based on my life (the first being, of course,Streets Of Rage). Naiad is a gentle-looking game about a water spirit swimming down a river: enjoying the sights, befriending animals, maybe solving some gentle puzzles. Then I assume when she reaches the end, she puts on a leather jacket, eats an entire chicken from a bin, and starts punching punks.
Nightingale
Nightingale Game - Official Reveal Trailer | Game Awards 2021 4KWatch on YouTube
Nightingale Game - Official Reveal Trailer | Game Awards 2021 4K
Release date:2022 (early access)From:TBA
Ollie:From former BioWare devs comes Nightingale, a survival crafting game set in a fantasy world known as the Fae Realms. Except that’s not where you’ve come from. You actually hail from a much more Victorian-inspired world connected to the Fae Realms (and presumably many others) via an arcane portal network. But with the sudden collapse of that network, you become stranded in the Fae Realms, and must act quickly to survive amid its many fantastical and horrifying dangers.
The clash of worlds and inspirations gives Nightingale a lot of scope for creativity, and we’ve already seen some fantastic enemy design from its reveal trailer at The Game Awards 2021. I’m particularly looking forward to the first time I get jump-scared out of my skin while chopping a tree that turns out to be a massive sentient jumble of roots and bark that, understandably, took issue with my burying an axe deep into its sternum. Overall though I’m really looking forward to a shared world survival crafting game with high production values and a good creative vision. I don’t expect this game to reinvent the wheel, I’m just looking for a creepy, fascinating, dangerous world to get lost in for a while with my friends. Oh, and good weather.Valheimmade me realise just how much I like it when a survival game gets rain right. Please, Nightingale, rain on me.
Park Beyond
Park Beyond - Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
Park Beyond - Announcement Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Alice Bee:One of those games that I wouldn’t be surprised to see delayed a wee bit, Park Beyond is a very ambitious business management sim. It aims to be just as fun for people who like pouring over quarterly earnings reports and tweaking how far the park toilets are from the drinks stands to find optimum Time To Piss windows, and those who like making really pretty fun parks, rollercoaster, fairytale theme, big giant donut, wheeee! This is a very difficult circle to square, and developers Limbic havetalked about their “impossification” theme– that is, making rides frikkin’ gravity defying monstrosities that I would have nightmares about. I’m into it, in theory, and really hope it works in practise.
Planet Of Lana
Planet of Lana - Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
Planet of Lana - Reveal Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Katharine:I love me a good Ori-like, and Planet Of Lana couldn’t be more up my street. I need to play it this instant.
Redfall
Watch on YouTube
Release date:Summer 2022From:Game Pass
Alice Bee:The age of the big concept Left-4-likes continues. Redfall is Arkane’s play for the co-op team shooter, which means it’s a bit more sexy and goth than the other options available. Details are scant, but it’s set in an open world, the bad guys are big giant vampires who are blocking out the sun a la an episode of The Simpsons, and the player character cast is diverse. They have cool weird powers like telekinesis, or a robot pal, or they’re like… a ghost sharpshooter? I don’t know, but it’s cool. One of them is like, a cryptozoologist YouTuber. It all resonates a bit more with a millennial like myself, you know? Like, souped up Goosebumps where people swear and have big guns. Yes please, show me more.
Alice0:I’ve been waiting for a new FPS which calls the laaads together for good times and tomfoolery; I’d be very pleased if it were an Arkane game.
Replaced
REPLACED | Announce Trailer | Coming 2022Watch on YouTube
REPLACED | Announce Trailer | Coming 2022
Release date:2022From:Steam,Epic Games Store, Game Pass
Katharine:Replaced was easilymy standout game from E3 last year, and wowzer, every time I watch that trailer I just get more excited to see it in action. Its pixel art is just HNNNGH, I mean look at it. Look. At. It. Stunning. That lighting? Perfection. And those fight scenes? Beautiful. Gorgeous. KAPOW. I want to play it this instant and find out exactly what’s going on in this alternate 1980s post-apocalypse. At E3 we were told we’d be playing as R.E.A.C.H, an AI trapped inside a human body against its will. We’ll also be digging into the murky underbelly of Phoenix City to root out corrupt overlords, and man oh man, I need to play this with every fibre of my being. I just hope it feels as brilliant under the thumbs as it is to look at.
Rumbleverse
Watch on YouTube
Release date:February 15th 2022From:Epic Games Store
Ollie:Rumbleverse is a silly, goofy, and somehow utterly brilliant melee battle royale. The object, as always, is to be the last player standing, but here there’s a distinct lack of guns, and a surplus of bodyslams, suplexes, and bashing each other with traffic signs ripped from the ground.
Just before 2021 came to a close,I had the chance to play a couple hours of Rumbleverseand was astonished to discover that it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a battle royale. It strikes a balance between absurdity and logic, with a deep and rewarding combat system and plenty of opportunity to come back from the brink of death to create a heroic comeback story that you can talk about with friends afterwards. Rumbleverse is, as of the time of writing, absolutely the game I’m most looking forward to playing in 2022.
Saints Row
SAINTS ROW – Game Awards Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTube
SAINTS ROW – Game Awards Gameplay Trailer
Release date:August 23rd 2022From:Epic Games Store
Alice Bee:Aside from my vague annoyance that we’ll have to save this game in the website system as Saints Row (2022), a reboot of Volition’s most successful series wouldn’t go amiss. It sounds like it’s going to wind back some of the over-the-top weaponised-dildo wackiness of the later entries in this crime RPG action romp, which I’m okay with. Although in interviews and promo stuff the dev team are at extreme pains to be like,“it still has insurance fraud in it, dw!!!”. It’s a new cast of characters in a new place, building a crime empire from the bottom and taking out rival gangs. You know, the Saints Row deal. The bit I’m most interested in is the setting, a big weird playground called Santo Ileso. It looks big, and weird, and like a fun playground. That’s three ticks right there.
Alice0:Yeah, I think they’re not really sure how to market this one. Different people have grown attached to different parts of Saints Row across the years and I get the feeling the marketing gang are a bit hazy on how to work with that. I think the way they’re doing it works for me: I want a slightly sillier GTA with good character customisation and dress-up options.
Silt
Silt - Announcement Trailer | ESRBWatch on YouTube
Silt - Announcement Trailer | ESRB
Release date:Early 2022From:Steam
Katharine:Having heard developers Spiral Circus talk aboutthe weird and wonderful inspirations behind Siltat EGX last year, I am very much looking forward to discovering more of its watery, monochrome secrets later this year. I’ve already played the opening 20 minutes of this mysterious deep-sea diving puzzle adventure, and I can safely say that fans of Limbo and Inside will want to keep an eye out for this one. As well as paddling through the murky depths avoiding all manner of deadly aquatic wildlife, you also possess the curious ability to transfer your soul into this fishy friends and use their unique abilities to help you progress. A piranha chomp here, a hammerhead shark bash there… You get the drift, and I’m excited to see what else Spiral Circus have in store for us. In short, I’m hooked.
Somerville
SOMERVILLE Teaser Trailer #3Watch on YouTube
SOMERVILLE Teaser Trailer #3
Release date:2022From:Steam
Ed:I’m all for an emotional rollercoaster, and sci-fi adventure Somerville looks set to make me weep openly. You play as a bloke trying to “make his family whole again” amid a large-scale conflict. Trailers show moments of quiet as you glide over planets in your spaceship, soaring orchestral music, and lots of running away from things. There’s also a dog, which can only signal a crushing moment of loss.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Сердце Чернобыля — Официальный геймплейный трейлерWatch on YouTube
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Сердце Чернобыля — Официальный геймплейный трейлер
Release date:April 28th 2022From:Steam,Epic Games Store,Game Pass
Alice0:I have more reasons to be cynical about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 than I do fingers on my hands, and that’s after I gained a few fingers in a mutation (though later lost several to an anomaly). And yet, new S.T.A.L.K.E.R., man! New S.T.- alright stuff that, new Stalker! The originals are still an astonishing experience so I want to believe. And Stalker 2 will be on Game Pass, so it won’t be expensive to gawp.
Starfield
Into the Starfield - Ep1: The Endless PursuitWatch on YouTube
Into the Starfield - Ep1: The Endless Pursuit
Release date:November 11th 2022From:Steam,Game Pass
Strange Horticulture
Strange Horticulture - Story TrailerWatch on YouTube
Strange Horticulture - Story Trailer
Release date:Early 2022From:Steam
Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN | Release Date Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN | Release Date Announcement Trailer
Release date:March 18th 2022From:Epic Games Store
Ed:I’ve weighed it all up and yeah, I’d like to kill chaos. Especially as it’s Team Ninja and Final Fantasy VII Remake devs who’ve set me this mission, marrying action RPG Nioh’s deep combat with Final Fantasy’s storied universe. While I often adore FF’s largely turn-based battles and their takes on real-time skirmishes, I’m an impatient individual. When I’ve got to grind out a few levels, or whittle down a boss for what seems like an age, my teeth start to grit. In Stranger Of Paradise, I can finally fulfil my fantasy: just smash and crash my way through anything that grants me EXP. Chaos, I am coming for you.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Watch on YouTube
Release date:March 25th 2022From:Epic Games Store
Ed:Definitely one for me and the pals, this. Like many Borderlands fans, I thought Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep DLC was a corker. It was inventive and surprising, with terrible jokes and a hint of DND about it. So to have an entire game spun off Tiny Tina’s unhinged DND campaigns could be a real treat. The Borderlands lootathon formula remains, only with a fantasy twist. You use guns, yes, but also swords and bows and axes. Should keep me co-oping in 2022.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me - Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me - Announcement Trailer
Release date:2022From:TBA
The apparent premise of The Devil in Me admittedly didn’t grab me quite so immediately as the three prior games in the anthology. A Saw-style serial killer and body horror with corpse puppets is, to be honest, the gruesome sub-genre I usually turn away from in favour of a good psychological thriller, ghost story, or creature feature. But Dark Pictures games are known for their shocking twists, and while players are often divided over whether said twists are actually any good or not, one thing I’m sure of here is that we haven’t seen nearly the full picture in those 90 seconds. My money’s on surprise werewolves, but we’ll have to wait and see. Just hopefully not for too long.
Total War: Warhammer 3
The Dawn of Grand Cathay | Total War: WARHAMMER IIIWatch on YouTube
The Dawn of Grand Cathay | Total War: WARHAMMER III
Release date:February 17th 2022From:Steam,Game Pass
Disclosure: Former RPS co-founder Alec Meer (RPS in peace) has been writing for Total Warhammer 3, and Nate (also RPS in peace) writes for Games Workshop’s publishing arm Black Library, albeit in the Warhammer 40K camp.
Trek To Yomi
Trek to Yomi | Gameplay Trailer 4KWatch on YouTube
Trek to Yomi | Gameplay Trailer 4K
Release date:2022From:Steam, Game Pass
Ed:Come on, justlookat it. Trek To Yomi oozes the style of classic samurai films and captures their spectacle. Backdrops for sword clashes look gorgeous, not to mention exploration in general, which takes you trotting through eery mines, burning markets, and vast forests. I’m confident this won’t be “just another game set in Feudal Japan”. Again, justlookat it.
Disclosure: RPS co-founder Alec Meer (RPS in peace) is the writer on Trek To Yomi.
Two Point Campus
Two Point Campus | Official Announce TrailerWatch on YouTube
Two Point Campus | Official Announce Trailer
Release date:2022From:Steam
Hayden:Oh man, I feel silly. For years, I’ve shied away fromTwo Point Hospitalbecause the sheer mention of hospitals gives me anxiety. I didn’t even watch a trailer. But when Two Point Campus was announced, I knew this was for me. I’ve always been interested in school sims (as a kid, I’d spend hours teaching and managing my pupils in Imagine Teacher) and now I’ll discover why Two Point Hospital was so beloved in a setting that I can stomach. Everything looks suitably weird as well. Instead of math and English, the pupils are attending Knight School and Gastronomy. That seems like a big tonal shift away from serious medical procedures and anxiety-inducing hospitals?
Again, I feel very silly because, well, Two Point Hospital is very silly. Sigh. Why did no one tell me the patients all have wacky diseases like Cubism and 8-bitten instead of deadly viruses and serious infections!? It’s safe to say I’ve now fallen in love with the wacky nature of the Two Point franchise and can’t wait to dive into Campus later this year. In the meantime, I’m excited that I can finally try out Two Point Hospital without sinking into a state of panic.
ValiDate: Struggling Singles In Your Area
ValiDate GameplayWatch on YouTube
ValiDate Gameplay
Release date:August 2022From:Steam,Itch
Rebecca:I only started paying attention to visual novels and dating sims relatively recently, but since then every year has brought at least one new indie title weird enough to pique my interest. ValiDate: Struggling Singles in Your Area is 2022’s promising prospect. ValiDate has a few quirks right off the bat: instead of creating a character, you pick who to play as from the game’s 13 protagonists, with the other 12 then acting as your NPC romance options. All of your potential dates have a sense of their sexual identity as well, and might reject the avatar you’ve chosen if they don’t match their preferences, instead of being obligingly player-oriented.
Anything with “Vampire The Masquerade” in the title
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong | The InvitationWatch on YouTube
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong | The Invitation
Release date:May 2022 (Swansong), Spring 2022 (Bloodhunt & Sins of the Sires), TBA (Bloodlines 2)From:Epic Games Store(Swansong),Steam(Bloodhunt),Steam(Sins of the Sires),Steam(Bloodlines 2)
Rebecca:Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines is my favourite game of all time, and despite the increasing outdatedness layered over the original bedrock of jank, I’ve replayed it nearly every year since 2004. But in the intervening 17 years (wait, it’s beenhowlong?!) since its release, I’ve become a huge fan of all things VTM, and I know now that there’s a lot more to that world than just Bloodlines. I can’t really complain that I’m sitting here in agony waiting for Bloodlines 2 news when both Swansong and the full release of Bloodhunt are so close I can taste the O-negative, with Sins of the Sires (the fourth chapter in Choice of Games' text-based series) following close behind.
Disclosure: Cara Ellison, who used to write for RPS, was also working on Bloodlines 2 before leaving the project in September 2020.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Warhammer 40,000: SPACE MARINE 2 – World Premiere Reveal | The Game Awards 2021Watch on YouTube
Warhammer 40,000: SPACE MARINE 2 – World Premiere Reveal | The Game Awards 2021
Release date:TBAFrom:TBA
James:I love it when games come back from the dead, and once THQ shup up shop, any possible Space Marine sequel seemed as cold and stiff as they come. And yet, a decade after the stompy, shooty, original, Space Marine 2 lives. And it’s got Titus in it!
Alice0:I hope we finally meet Spice Maureen this time.
Weird West
Weird West - Journey TrailerWatch on YouTube
Weird West - Journey Trailer
Release date:March 31st 2022From:Steam
Katharine:A new immersive sim from the former creative director of Dishonored? Say no more. I’m in. Seriously,everythingI’vereadabout Weird West so far just sounds delightful. I love a good western, and Weird West’s stylish take on supernatural cowboys and the eldritch horrors the great outdoors looks like it’s going to be right up my street. It’s a shame it got delayed a bit, but a slip from January to March isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. I sure it will be worth the wait.
And the rest…
As I mentioned above, there are simply too many cool and exciting new games to list them all here. We’d honestly be here all day. But rest assured, the likes of:
…are all things we’ve got our greedy, beady eyes on as well.
