Year in Review 2022: Yahoo editors' favourite games of 2022
With so many great games to choose from, which did our editors like the best?
It was an eventful year for the video games industry, with loads of new titles released and updates that breathed fresh life into others.
Like many other gamers, members of the Yahoo Southeast Asia team found ourselves spoiled for choice when deciding which to invest our time in.
That said, some titles stood out for us more than others, so here are the editors' picks for their favourite game of 2022.
Horizon Forbidden West (Aloysius Low)
Aloy's take:
While there's stiff competition from Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West stands on its own with an amazing story about our far future.
There's a huge spectacular world to explore, with plenty of amazing stories to discover, and combat is insanely fun.
The motion capture and voice acting is also *chef kiss*.
And while it doesn't yet conclude Aloy's story, it delivers an epic build up to the forthcoming sequel that will leave you gasping in shock.
Total War: WARHAMMER III (Kurt Lozano)
Kurt's take:
Creative Assembly's classic RTS series, Total War, opened itself up to an all-new universe of possibilities when it partnered with Games Workshop to bring Warhammer Fantasy to life in Total War: WARHAMMER back in May 2016.
Almost six years later, that culminated with the release of Total War: WARHAMMER III in February 2022. The scale this third title brings to the series is unprecedented, giving life to the human realms of Kislev and Cathay as well as the forces of Chaos. On top of that, the game also brings the trilogy together through the Immortal Empires campaign.
While the game is not without its issues, the sheer scale of stories and possibilities available to players in both battles and campaigns is nothing short of impressive.
Fans of both Warhammer Fantasy and Total War like myself have already offered hundreds of hours of our lives to the Chaos gods because of this game, so why not join us? The entire series is currently on sale in Steam!
Stray (Anna Bernardo)
Anna's take:
One of the reasons Stray is so enjoyable is that you get to play as a cute cat the whole time amidst a post-apocalyptic setting that is both bleak and charmingly optimistic.
For a cat lover like myself, I found some of the protagonist's movements so endearing as they reminded me of the antics of my own pets.
The game's five-hour runtime crams in some platforming, puzzle solving, and item hunting.
And while the protagonist's movements were quite limited compared to a real cat's, and the ways you can combat enemies are pretty limited, the world in the game, and the design is well thought of.
The story pulls at your heartstrings, not just because of the Stray cat's adventure but also because of the Companions it encounters.
Elden Ring (Dominic Ng)
Dom's take:
The horse that is beaten to death, Elden Ring from FromSoftware, is my pick for the game of the year simply because of its different way of telling a story. It doesn't hold the hands of the player in finding and completing quests like any other story-based game out there.
The combat is a refined version of the all the Dark Souls games combined, giving the player many ways to tackle the obstacles in the game as they like.
Although initially difficult, once you understand how the game works, you can either choose to still keep it at 'hard mode', or cheese your way through the game with some overpowered weapons.
There are a lot of discoverables in the game, and the developers have still been adding on content to the game, despite it being published in February this year.
Expeditions: Rome (Bryan Huang)
Bryan's take:
Expeditions: Rome is the latest in the Expeditions series of games, a turn-based tactical from historical eras. This one, as the title puts it, has you assume the role of the young heir of a Roman noble family towards the latter years of the Republic, on the run thanks to some politicking and forced to fight your way to justice with the might of a Roman legion behind you.
The story takes some liberties with history, of course, but history buffs will definitely find something interesting here and there. For example, if you play a female main character, you'll only get to choose your family name and a nickname (the cognomen for you history buffs). If you choose a male character, you get to have a first name, too, echoing the naming conventions of that era in Rome.
The combat itself will appeal to turn-based tactical RPG fans, with both classes and weapons playing a part determining what skills you and your team can use. Certain weapons and skills work better against some enemies, and some missions give you a bonus if you can complete them in a specific manner.
There's also an element of role-playing, with certain choices having an impact on your game (save frequently if you don't want to miss things). There's some base building and a hint of a visual novel, but the large part of the game will be in combat. And it's not like everything will be fine after you're out of combat, either; injuries linger and can become more complicated if not treated in time.
You'll also need to manage your legion and centurions, as they may react differently to the choices you have to make along the way, which could hurt their morale or worse. And, with several different endings depending on what your choices were, there is a fair bit of replay value, too.
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