InReview is pleased to announce its fourth annual Revvies Awards: Gaming Edition for 2022. The following awards have been selected by InReview’s editors and writers. To be eligible, all games had to have content published during the calendar year 2022, and a member of staff had to have played it.
Winning games’ analysis by InReview Gaming Editor Andrew Baillargeon.
Best mobile game
- Animal Revolt Battle Simulator – Winner
- Madden NFL 23
- The Startup
- Diablo Immortal
Suffice it to say, this was a slow year for mobile gaming. Unfortunately, plenty of poor games flopped on the market, and the most financially successful of the bunch were mostly just popular names already on console or PC brought to mobile. However, Animal Revolt Battle Simulator is surprisingly a breath of fresh air, and didn’t simply win here for complete lack of competition. As far as simulators go, generally mediocre to be fair, ARBS is by far the best to ever hit the mobile market. Simulated fights are smooth, comprehensible and, most importantly, give the player a ton of options. The idea to allow players to craft their own animals, publish them online, and download the works of other players is what truly sets it apart from other sims. On its own merit, this is a B to maybe even low A quality game, and one I’m planning a separate review for in the near future.
Best Indie Game
Moonscars – Winner
Stray
Citizen Sleeper
Immortality
Mobile games may have had a 2022 to forget, but Indie games sure didn’t. Between Stray somehow garnishing enough attention for a Game of the Year nominee and Citizen Sleeper being designed by a grand total of one person, this was a nice year to point to when making the case to invest time into Indie Games. Among them, the best one, and the one with the best development cycle story, would be Moonscars. It was created by former From Software employees who, unsurprisingly, took direct influence from their experiences. However, it isn’t just an average Soulslike — it’s a 2D platformer with Soulslike mechanics, and it works really well.
Best Narrative
Elden Ring – Winner
Dark Pictures Anthology – The Devil In Me
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Last of Us Part I
This one, like another award Elden Ring won here, was a complete and total no-brainer. Elden Ring’s narrative is not only generally interesting, but the From Software secret recipe of conveying this narrative was masterful as always. Lore behind impactful characters is so astoundingly thorough, it almost feels like it’s happened in real life many years ago. The general premise of the story is simple- the player is to acquire two Great Runes, advance to Leyndell and become Elden Lord. However, in addition to a mid game plot twist, the actual adventure going into achieving that is different every single playthrough. This is the story that keeps on telling over and over again, and even managed to beat a couple of games which are completely and entirely story driven.
Best overall gameplay
Evil Dead: The Game – winner
Pokémon: Legends Arceus
Elden Ring – co-winner
Last of Us Part I
In the interest of not just shoving Elden Ring into every category it can possibly fit into, even though doing so would be justified, I’ve decided to anoint a “co-winner” for this one.
Evil Dead was a new, interesting take on the 1v4 asymmetrical horror game sub genre. Unlike its competition, the “4” actually spend the game directly fighting and engaging with the “1” for the majority of a given match. The team of four is comprised of notable characters from the Evil Dead franchise, such as Cheryl Williams, Annie Knowby, Lord Arthur and, of course, the main man himself in Ash Williams. The “1” is represented by the Demon player, who will use antagonists from the franchise such as Henrietta Knowby or Evil Ash. Maps, weapons and AI also pull direct inspiration from the movies.
Overall, combat is incredibly solid with no serious issues and is fast paced. The game isn’t brainlessly brawling for thirty minutes, however, as both sides have objectives. The survivors are meant to find two artifacts, use them to destroy the Dark Ones, then hold the demon at bay for two minutes as the Necronomicon goes to work trying to banish the demon. The demon’s objective is to either simply kill the survivors or destroy the Necronomicon. There is just enough variety to not make games feel particularly stale and, with plenty of playable characters with clearly defined personal traits to play, this game offers replayability as well, making it a good pick for the list.
Of course, with DLC having been very recently released, the all new Battle Royale mode indeed provides brainless brawling. Because of how smooth combat in general plays out, it’s fairly solid. Perhaps it will be enough to receive a mention next year?
Best Soundtrack
Elden Ring – Winner
Dying Light 2: Stay Human
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Evil Dead: The Game
On top of it not being a fantastic year for soundtracks in general, Elden Ring’s was the exception. It wouldn’t feel right to name a co-winner for this one. Elden Ring offers an incredibly wide variety of soundtracks for various boss fights and areas to explore. Pretty much every single one of them fits the respective fight perfectly. The soundtrack for Mohg, Lord of Blood fittingly feels like fighting a major demon in hell, which his aesthetic isn’t far off of. Fighting Godfrey the First Elden Lord at the Elden Throne provides a theme befitting of a climactic end game fight, and the soundtrack for his alter ego in Hoarah Loux is equally appropriate for the fight suddenly getting a lot more wild and chaotic. Finally, the themes of areas, mainly Crumbling Farum Azula and Leyndell, are perfect white noise that add a lot to them. From Software knocked it out of the park in this aspect, no question.
Best Graphics
Pokémon: Legends Arceus
Dying Light 2: Stay Human
Evil Dead: The Game
Elden Ring – co-winner
Stray – co-winner
Graphics in general seemed to take a major leap forward in 2022. Any of the games listed this year would have easily taken first place last year. While gameplay is generally more important, presentation is a priority as well, and immaculate presentation is what landed Stray a nomination for Game of the Year. Stray is a generally novel concept of a video game, but its presentation is just top notch. The atmosphere largely sets the stage for this one, as weaving in and out of a few different puzzles feels really smooth and looks quite satisfying. Everything, from drops of rain spilling down a window, to dust kicked up by the cat’s feet, into the cat’s authentic simple movement is perfect in this one.
Game of the Year
Elden Ring – Winner
I mean, come on, what did you expect? Even listing other nominees feels weird, because Elden Ring was by far and away the best, most complete video game we got in 2022, maybe in all of video game history as well. This was properly reflected by Elden Ring similarly beating out God of War: Ragnarok for Game of the Year at the Steam Awards. Simply put, anything and everything in this game gathers S+ rankings in every respect: gameplay, narrative, graphics, general presentation, even niche stuff such as voice acting quality, script writing and competitive game balance are all just superb and unmatched. As such, again, it feels silly listing other nominees because even the worst parts of Elden Ring outperformed the best parts of all other games to come out in 2022. It’s no wonder, then, that it won with authority at the aforementioned Steam Awards.
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