Red Pages Podcast
Red Pages Podcast Games of the Year 2022
2022 was a no-holds barred cage match of quality, with many strong contenders for the throne as the pandemic began to abate. Much like the highlander, there can only be several that rise above the fray. These are those fray-risers, shining and glorious.
Roadwarden
Roadwarden was a dark horse last-minute victor. By virtue of being on this list, obviously it's great. The writing and worldbuilding is done well - much better than in more "expensive" PC RPGs I've played, which make the blunder of dumping mountains of text on you, transforming every NPC into a lorebook where it is impossible to tell what text is relevant and which is just flavor. That kind of reading quickly grows exhausting, and the writer here has thankfully mastered the art of making a lot out of a little. You learn what you need to know, with a smattering bit of worldbuilding, never all at once, and never in a way that is overburdensome. As a result, your understanding of the politics, characters and world grows organically as you move through the game. I "won," for some definition of the word, in about four hours, but there was so much in my 40 days of in-game playtime that I did not see or do that I already want to try again and see if I can figure out how to resolve the dozen or so threads that went unaddressed before I had to pack up and head south. Mechanically, I loved that combat losses could be instantly replayed, running out of resources was never a roadblock, and that I constantly felt rewarded for my character creation choices. The designer of this game understood that the story came first and that things like combat served as flavor enhancers; not trials to roadblock your progress but spice that is deployed strategically to enhance the dish. Perhaps most effectively, the game made me really think about how to solve some lingering issues with a PC RPG that I started designing years ago and has been back-burnered, and made me excited to work on that again. That's probably the best praise a game can get, right?
Elden Ring
I am not going to summarize Elden Ring. To do so seems ridiculous. More has been written about Elden Ring than many famous historical figures or works of literature. If you want to know about Elden Ring please, by all means, look up the game yourself.
Runners-Up & Miscellaneous Awards
Most Genuine Award: He Fucked the Girl Out of Me
- This raw, harrowing and very rough to get through Game Boy game deals with the developer's experience as a transgender woman doing sex work. The trigger warnings are real and the trauma is real. It's possible that this game saved the developer's life, and that's not nothing.
Most Confusing To Hear About Award: Vampire Survivors
- The Red Pages Slack buzzed with constant conversation about this game for months, and literally none of it made any sense to anybody who hadn't played the game. Big ups to the developer, poncle - he pulled a rabbit out of a hat here with impulse purchase pricing combined with addictive gameplay, achieving the word-of-mouth success most marketing teams only dream about.
Most Aesthetic Award: Scorn
- Scorn is not a game that plays particularly well, but it is entirely carried by the visuals and premise: you're trapped in H. R. Geiger's black angus blackburger factory and must survive. Recommend playing it until you tire of the visuals, which may just last you the game's three or four hour (not accounting for dozens of poorly-checkpointed respawns) runtime.
Best Worst Song Award: Triangle Strategy
- A weirdly catchy melody but hearing this already goofy title sung with passion and earnest conviction is too much. Make it stop, I cannot handle it.
Most Obliged Award: Dwarf Fortress (Steam Edition)
- Every single year, Gord demanded that Dwarf Fortress be anointed Game of the Year, because it was the best game he'd played that year. Every single year, I told him that when it came out on Steam, we could give it an award. This is that award. Congratulations, Dwarf Fortress. You did it.
Not From 2022 Award: Sakura Wars (1996)
- Thanks to a fan translation released last year, the megahit franchise's first game finally becomes available for those who do not speak Japanese. It was immediately obvious why this franchise spawned a dozen games and a long-running series of stage shows that continue to this day: it's because this game slaps. It is incredibly my aesthetic, both visually and gameplay-wise. The combat is definitely dated and the macro plot is cliche but it is so upbeat and fun that I found it hard to fault these obvious flaws. The second game is supposedly better, but this one is definitely worth your time. Get to know the members of the Imperial Combat Reveue in this very incredibly 90s anime dating sim tactics strategy social life sim mashup. Available on Sega Saturn in English, or on Sega Dreamcast in Japanese, with a full remake in Japanese for PlayStation 2.
Audience Choice Award: Faith: The Unholy Trinity
- After years of development and earlier episodes, the full FAITH trilogy was finally completed this year. This award has not been approved by the Vatican.