The Best Video Games of 2022… So Far

For most of 2022, the video game industry has been defined more by its past than its future. Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard, a gaming giant whose stable of franchises includes Call of Duty and Warcraft. Sony’s biggest “release” so far this year is the revamped PlayStation Plus, a subscription service that, for an additional monthly fee, grants access to old games from the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3. Even some of the year’s most discussed games feel rooted in the past: More than a year after its disastrous launch, Cyberpunk 2077 got a massive patch in February that moved it much closer to the game it should have been all along.

Fortunately, 2022 has also seen a solid lineup of new games, released on a variety of platforms, though some haven’t been easy to find. Which games might you have missed? GQ is here to help. This list excludes all re-releases, remasters, and remakes — so no Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Capcom Fighting Collection, or Live A Live here.

Here are the best new video games released so far in 2022, along with where you can play them:

14. Card Shark 

(Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac)

The most enjoyably tense stealth game released so far in 2022 doesn’t ask players to sneak past guards or shoot security cameras with a silenced pistol. Instead, you’re dropped into the shoes of a mute servant in 18th century France, teaming up with a scheming nobleman to cheat rich idiots out of their gambling money. As you peep at your mark’s cards, dropping silent clues for your ally while trying not to be noticed, you’ll feel like a conman worthy of an Ocean’s Eleven prequel.

13. OlliOlli World 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows)

If Tony Hawk is the definitive skateboarding video game series, OlliOlli World is its adorably goofy little cousin. This addictive, arcade-style 2D platformer drops all pretenses of realism to give gamers the skating experience of their wildest dreams, zipping along fantastical tracks with a customizable cartoon avatar.

12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge 

(PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows)

An absolute explosion of nostalgia for anyone who dumped too many quarters into Turtles in Time at their local arcade, this 2D beat-‘em-up invites you and up to five (!) friends to nload on the Foot Clan. But while it looks, sounds, and plays like the Turtles you remember, Shredder’s Revenge makes a few clever updates to the formula, including character-based progression and rewards for completing challenges in each of the game’s 16 levels.

11. Trek to Yomi 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows)

A lean-and-mean side-scrolling action game set in Japan’s Edo period, Trek to Yomi stands out due to its striking black-and-white art style and fixed camera, which turns each sword battle into a painterly tableau reminiscent of a Kurosawa film. The combat might have benefitted from a little more complexity, but it feels so good when you dispatch a small army of goons with a series of perfectly-timed strikes and parries that you probably won’t care.

10. Ghostwire: Tokyo 

(PlayStation 5 and Windows)

This timed exclusive (it will release on other platforms soon) flew curiously under the radar when it dropped at the end of March, but action-horror fans shouldn’t hesitate to scoop it up. Set in a modern Tokyo beset by creepy ghosts and monsters, the player controls a young man who teams up with a (relatively) benevolent spirit to put them back to rest. The flashy-looking combat eventually gets repetitive, but the eerie world Ghostwire conjures up is worth the price of admission.

9. Rollerdrome 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows)

It’s not hard to imagine the elevator pitch meeting that led to Rollerdrome: “What if there was a Tony Hawk game where you also had a gun?” This absurd, stylish blend of extreme sports and arena combat gives the player a pair of rollerblades and a small arsenal of weapons, then challenges you to do tricks and clear the arena of baddies with as much panache as you can master.

8. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows)

After oversaturating the market with everything from Lego Jurassic World to Lego Incredibles over the past decade, Traveller’s Tales wisely took a few years off before soft-relaunching the series with Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which ambitiously adapts all nine movies in the mainline Star Wars franchise. It paid off: This is easily the best Lego game the studio has ever released. Even Rise of Skywalker is fun when it’s made of bricks.

7. Stray 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows)

Stray got a ton of pre-release help for promising to let the player experience life as a stray cat (albeit one stuck navigating a weird dystopian city full of robots). Great news: It does what it says on the tin. Stray definitely has flaws, but they’re much easier to forgive in a game that delivers on the simple pleasures of meowing, pawing stuff, and slinking around.

6. Rogue Legacy 2 

(Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows)

Like its predecessor, Rogue Legacy 2 is an ideal marriage of two diametrically opposed game genres: The roguelike, known for its difficulty and hostility to the player, and the 2D platformer, known for its straightforwardness and pick-up-and-play approachability. As you navigate a castle that reconfigures itself every time you die — and you’ll die plenty, switching into a new character with a different skill set for every run — you’ll end up in an addictive loop that offers just the right sense of forward progress.

5. The Quarry 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows)

One of several story-focused games that dropped over the summer, The Quarry gleefully leans into every slasher-movie trope you can imagine. A group of teenagers at a summer camp, played by actors like Justice Smith and Ariel Winter, discover they’re being stalked by someone — or something — intent on picking them off one by one. Anyone can live or die, making the player’s actions particularly consequential, and like any good horror experience, the game is best enjoyed with a group of friends.

4. Horizon Forbidden West 

(PlayStation 4 and 5)

Somehow, Sony’s big-budget open-world has become an underdog. The franchise-starter, 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, was overshadowed by the release of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and we’ll get to what overshadowed this sequel in a minute. But while Horizon Forbidden West sometimes suffers from the bloat that characterizes most open-world games, it also has uncommon strengths, from the colorful and strange post-apocalyptic setting to the brilliant strategic rhythms of the combat, which challenges players to uncover the weaknesses of imposing robot dinosaurs with little more than their wits and a bow-and-arrow.

3. Pokémon Legends: Arceus 

(Nintendo Switch)

A much-needed shakeup to a formula that basically hadn’t changed since 1996, every experimental flourish in Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels like a hint about where one of Nintendo’s most durable franchises might be going in the future. In this prequel, set in an era where humans barely understand and frequently fear Pokémon, the player is tasked with filling out a notebook by catching, battling, or even just observing these creatures in their natural habits. To top it off, random encounters have been replaced by a series of diverse regions to wander, encouraging exploration and unique approaches that break up the series’ increasingly stale rhythms.

2. Tunic 

(Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Mac)

At first glance, Tunic looks like yet another indie Zelda clone (albeit one that lets you control a sword-wielding fox instead). But the game soon evolves into an elaborate and unexpected tribute to one element of old-school gaming you might not even realize you’ve missed: The instruction manual. As you play the game, you’ll collect digital pages that offer hints about how to progress — and you’ll need them, because Tunic’s ability to squeeze in challenges and secrets is apparently bottomless.

1. Elden Ring 

(PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, Windows)

Every game on this list is well worth playing, but Elden Ring is something else: An instant phenomenon that somehow managed to surpass the insane hype that surrounded it from the day it was announced. Everything about this massive dark fantasy open world stands out, from its endlessly interesting, show-don’t-tell approach to storytelling and worldbuilding to the sheer individuality with which each player can build their character, It’s not uncommon for someone to put in the 100-plus hours it takes to finish the game, watch the credits roll, and immediately start with a new character class to see what else Elden Ring had to offer. Instant classics don’t come much more classic than this.