Most Anticipated Games of 2022 (Part 2)

Most Anticipated Games of 2022 (Part 2)

2022 looks to be an amazing year for gaming. With all of the scheduled and expected release dates for the year, 2022 could possibly be the best year in gaming…ever. Breath of The Wild 2, God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon: Forbidden West, an open world Pokemon, Starfield, and the list goes on. These are also only the games that we know about in some form. Obviously, throughout the course of the next few months, the gaming picture of 2022 will come into focus a little better with concrete dates and new announcements.

On top of all of these amazing potential experiences, there is also the possibility of some fantastic hardware including the speculated Switch Pro, which could come alongside Breath of The Wild 2 as well as the PSVR2, which is currently targeting a holiday 2022 release date. When you add up all of the hardware and software possibilities for 2022, it’s a great time to be a gamer. This leads us to the matter at hand and that is a list of the most anticipated games of 2022.

This list isn’t going to include the typical games you are going to find on every list like God of War: Ragnarok, Breath of the Wild 2, Metroid Prime 4 or Starfield because everyone is already anticipating those games. Everyone is going to play those games. The awareness for those titles is equal to the anticipation for them.

In case you missed the first part of the list check here

Here is the second part of our most anticipated games of 2022 in order.

Tunic #5

In the words of the developer, Andrew Shouldice, Tunic is a game about a small fox in a big world. If that is all that you know about the game there is little chance that you would get interested, but if you were told that it is basically The Legend of Zelda but with a cuddly fox as the main character, then you might be more interested.

Having finished the demo, Tunic has a chance to be a very touching and excellent experience that resonates with people. What made believe in Tunic wasn’t the level of quality of the game, because within the demo, there with magical lands that were begging to be explored an adorable fox as the protagonist that you instantly fell in love with and an audio score that made the exploration serene. Instead what made me believe in the success of Tunic was Ori and The Blind Forest and how the two games are similar.

There was no shortage of Metroidvanias in 2015 when Ori and The Blind Forest was released but it had very tight gameplay, gorgeous art style, stunning audio design, and most importantly, it had a big heart. After playing about an hour of Tunic, all of these elements feel present and the only thing left is to be able to take all of those elements and connect them together for the whole experience.

As Ori and The Blind Forest gave fresh air to Metroidvanias in 2015, I think there is a possibility for Tunic to give fresh air to top down adventure games or Zelda likes some fresh air as well. If you enjoyed Links Awakening remake from 2019, then there is a strong chance that you will like Tunic.

Tunic is due out March 16 as an Xbox console exclusive, sadly, it doesn’t look like Tunic will be coming to Game Pass on day one which feels like the perfect title for the subscription service since people tend to be a little more hesitant with indie titles. One of the biggest things working for and against Tunic is that it was developed by one person. In 2015, developer Andrew Shouldice decided to take his weekend passion of creating his own game into full time.

Even though Tunic will have been in development since 2015 in a full time capacity, we are only talking about one person and there is only so much that one person can do without help. Here is hoping that a single vision can elevate Tunic to the levels that Ori and The Blind Forest reached.

Little Devil Inside #4

First announced at the PS5 Showcase way back in June of 2020, Little Devil Inside has something indescribable working in its favor. According to the description from PlayStation, Little Devil Inside is an action adventure RPG with survival elements that is set in an atmospheric, semi-open world. The art style says this game is more than just a simple Legend of Zelda clone and people are interested. The video on YouTube has almost 2 million views which is quite high for an indie title.

At the State of Play in October of 2021, fans were treated to a slightly longer trailer featuring almost five minutes of gameplay, however, there was still an absence of a release date. The world has a imaginative stye with otherworldly monsters that seems like a joy to discover and conquer. You take on the role of asurvivalist, treasure seeker looking for monsters and supernatural at the turn of the 20th century. Coming as a surprise the game is also available in co-op but to what capacity has yet to be seen.

What originally started as a Kickstarter in 2015 has seen many transformations and delays from being promised on the Wii-U to supporters to being a timed console exclusive for the PS5. Since being revealed as a PlayStation game, Little Devil Inside had a temporary release date in July 2021, and then 2022 and finally Winter 2022. As this game is being developed and published by indie studio Neostream and they have shown a pattern of missing release dates and Winter 2022 seems like a different way of saying hopefully 2022, it seems easily plausible that Little Devil Inside gets delayed into 2023.

If Breath of The Wild 2 does get released in 2022, it woudln’t be a bad idea for other action adventure RPG’s to slowly get out of the way and give people plenty of time to scour every last inch of those worlds.

Replaced #3

Sad Cat Studios is a small indie team from Belarus that was founded in 2017 and their debut title Replaced is set to hit Xbox in 2022 as an exclusive. Replaced is a 2.5D cinematic retro-futuristic action-thriller set in a dystopian alternative version of the USA in the 80’s. You play as an AI that is trapped in a human body and you need to explore and push your mortal body to the limits.

From the trailer, Replaced gives me vibes of games from Blackthorne, Inside, Deadlight, and Flashback to movies such as Alien and Blade Runner 2049 . This is a diverse canvas to work with and the potential of Replaced is high. Replaced changes what we remember from the 80’s and imagines what life would have been like if a Nuclear Bomb went off in the 40’s and human organs are now common currency.

Replaced features a pixel art style that pairs with the 80’s aesthetic the game is using. The alternative timeliine plot combined with the gameplay and the art style leads to hope that this game will have depth just beyond its catchy visuals. The fact that Xbox saw this game and was able to secure rights for exclsuvitiy bodes well for the quality of the game as Xbox has shown an eye for securing excellent indie titles over the years including games like Ori and The Blind Forest, Limbo, Firewatch and Cuphead jump off the top of my head.

The other great thing about the Xbox exclusivity is that Replaced will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass. Based on this style of game and where games like this tend to get releases it wouldn’t be shocking to see it land around July, August or September after the E3 window, if it makes 2022

Somerville #2

Jumpship is co-founded by Dino Patti, who was half of the founding team behind Playdead games, who are known for the extremely critically successful games Limbo and Inside, The other co-founder of Jumpship is Chris Olsen who was a film animator.

After a split in creative differences from the two founders at Playdead, Dino Patti formed his own studio, Jumpship and here is where Somerville enters the picture. Somerville is an Xbox exclusive that we have seen minimal glimpses of from trailers at E3 2021 and The Game Awards 2021.

What can be extracted from those trailers is that the mood and art style seem very similar to what Playdead was known for. The game looks nothing like Playdeads previous work but the vibe seems strong. The vibe from the trailer is that Somerville looks like some type of post apocalyptic style where you are trying to survive in world that is evocative of HG Wells War of The Worlds. Minimalist art style, moody and somber music set the tone from what looks to be a mix of 2D and 3D worlds.

Playdead was never known for being a development factory that churned out games, which is why there is skepticism that Somerville gets released in 2022. The silver lining is that Jumpship was founded in 2017, and it will have been five years, which is a expectable window to release an indie game.

Although the original trailers evoked the mood of Limno and Inside, they also evoked a similar play style, but the team at Playdead clarified that Somerville is difficult to describe beyond science fiction adventure game as it lacks both puzzle and platforming elements that the Playdead titles were known for. Somerville is an Xbox exclusive and the even better news is that the game will be available day one on Game Pass.

The Callisto Protocol #1

Glen Schofield, the original creator of Dead Space has made enough success for himself since 2009 that he was able to open his own studio, Striking Distance, at Krafton and his first game is basically the spiritual successor to Dead Space. Third person survival horror? Check. Distant future Sci-Fi setting? Check. Limited Hud? Check.

The Callisto Protocol was announced at The Game Awards 2020 and showed prisoners who were located on one of Jupiters moons, Callisto, during an alien outbreak. Callisto is also set a few hundred years in the future in the year 2340, which could allow for a lot of interesting ideas.

The connection that Striking Distance has to Dead Space is goes far beyond the founder, Glen Schofield, because out of the 150 employees the studio has employed, roughly 30 worked on the Dead Space series. This also includes the co-developer of the original Dead Space and the series lead for Dead Space 2 when Glen Schofield left to form Sledgehammer Games.

Need more, how about the animation director on Dead Space also being part of Striking Distance, the list goes on. These are people that are deeply passionate about the series and always had strong visions of taking the series down different paths instead of the ones that EA chose for the series, which ultimately led to its demise.

If you loved Dead Space or Dead Space 2, then it seems like it will be impossible for you not to love The Callisto Protocol, especially considering its only in development for the next gen or technically now current gen systems including the Xbox Series X and PS5. The team is also noting that it will take advantage of the features of the PS5 including the 3D audio, haptic feedback and other dual sense features. If an alien grabs a hold of you and all of a sudden you can’t use your triggers would be a cool feature that could help the immersion. Part of the reason for being next gen only is that the team wants to make sure the game is as scary as possible and the lighting effects needed would only be available on the newer consoles.

As an added bonus of being developed at a Krafton owned studio, the game is also tied to the PUBG universe in some way, which could be very interesting to see what kind of yarn can be spun. There seems to be plenty of potential to create an engaging story line that ties everything together.

My concern with The Callisto protocol is that Striking Distance was founded in June of 2019 and has a targeted release date of 2022. Yes, the idea is something that Schofield had before forming the studio, so that part of development was eliminated, but finding 150 employees likely took a little time and not to mention the pandemic, which makes a three year turnaround on a brand new game seem like a tough accomplishment. The original Dead Space is easily somewhere in my top ten games of all time and I can't wait to experience more of the original.

There you have it, that completes the list of our top ten most anticipated games of the year.

#5 - 01:55

#4 - 04:23

#3 - 06:29

#2 - 08:25

#1 - 10:20