The Best Indie Games of 2022 see us reshaping our existence through death, discovering importance of how we spend our time with others, and explore the importance of a single word.
MOONYOLK
MOONYOLK sees two young men floating upon the sea, confessing their feelings for one another as an uncertain, apocalyptic future awaits them. It’s heartwarming to hear them speak their feelings so purely and freely to one another, but it’s also intensely sad that it took this destructive future to bring about this truth. The game is a stirring look at the feelings we keep bottled up inside ourselves for fear of what will happen if we tell people how we really feel. It’s not an unreasonable fear, I know, but there will probably be a time when we regret having said nothing. It’s a reminder to me to say what I feel to those I care about so they can know before there’s no time left to talk.
“MOONYOLK is brief, but immensely touching all the same. It’s a reminder that sometimes we need to say what we feel, as we’ll all run out of time to say it eventually. Maybe not apocalyptically, but we all have finite time to express what’s in our hearts.”
Read our review of MOONYOLK.
Anglerfish
Dying is arguably the most terrifying thing that can happen to you in a horror game, but it’s often the most predictable moment of the game. Fear is often tied to the unknown and the promise of death. When it happens in a horror game, all you really do is go back to a previous point in the game and usually watch a death animation. Now, you’re replaying a segment where you already know when all the scares happen. You’re repeating something you’ve done already, which undermines the fear. Anglerfish strives to be an answer to this issue, shifting the world in various ways depending on where you died. It makes the whole experience feel connected, makes death an intriguing element, and keeps the terror and tension high as the unpredictability never stops. A stunning feat in horror and deserving to be among the best indie games of 2022.
“Once you die, that’s when things get really strange. Dying has an effect on the game’s world, and things will change based on how you died. This makes the dangerous world very unpredictable and keeps the stakes high. It’s hard to prepare yourself for danger when everything keeps changing. This allowed the game to really surprise me in places, keeping the scares fresh.”
Read our review of Anglerfish.
Wayward Strand
Wayward Strand sees you hanging out in a flying hospital during your holiday break. You can spend this time getting to know anyone on the staff or among the patients, but you’ll only see their story through if you choose to keep talking to them. Lose track of them or get distracted and you’ll waste the little time you have. These people have real lives and things happening to them in real time, so if you squander the time you have, you’ll never see their stories through. That ability to lose someone before their story’s finished asks the player to think of how they choose to spend their own time in their lives, and who they might be ignoring in the pursuit of something else. It reminds us that we are all on limited time, and that we really need to think about how we want to spend those hours and days.
“You won’t be able to hear every story in Wayward Strand on one playthrough. There’s too many events happening in real time to keep up with them all, which created a sense of regret, at times. I felt sad that I had abandoned certain people in my pursuits of other stories, and while this is a game, I think that feeling of regret is important. With it, the game provides a vital reminder that the people around us won’t be here forever. If we don’t prioritize the people we care about, or take the time to get to know folks, then those lives and tales will be gone and never come back. There’s something sad about the silence of the stories we don’t hear, and in them, a call to make sure we’re listening to the people around us who need to be heard before they’re gone.”
Read our review of Wayward Strand.
Forward: Escape the Fold
Joel – This game grabs a hold of you and just doesn’t let go. It’s just so deceptively simple. You’ve only ever really got two or three possible decisions you can make as you move your way through a path of cards, but there’s so much complexity within those paths. I don’t even care much for roguelikes or card games, but this game gets its hooks in deep as you just want one more turn at it. One more shot at finding the best route to make it to the end. It takes a lot to really drag me into a game these days, especially one I shouldn’t even like. That tells me it’s definitely one of the best indie games of 2022.
“Forward: Escape the Fold may not sound terribly challenging and involved. Only picking from three cards doesn’t seem like much, right? But you sweat over those decisions so much. And when it’s rolling, the game moves briskly, giving you the tension of the roguelike experience in something you can play through in a few minutes. Assuming you don’t get yourself killed constantly like I do.”
Read our review of Forward: Escape the Fold.
Beacon Pines
Joel – I keep coming back to the importance of a single word in Beacon Pines. Choosing a single word in the right situation can alter your entire story in ways you might not suspect. While this makes for an extremely compelling, involved story, it also asks us to remember the weight of the words we say. The things we say to someone can, and often do, shift lives. Words we say when we don’t really mean them, when said out of anger, or whispered in those moments when we can’t help but say how we truly feel, can shape the universe. This game captures that feeling in an impressive way, which earn it a place among the best indie games of 2022.
“Beacon Pines is fun to play just to see how the words you choose shape the story. It’s also incredible to see how some of these seemingly-small word choices can lead to disturbing ends or staggering revelations. It’s a sharp testament to the power of words, and also to how the smallest of events and decisions can change your whole life.”
Read our review of Beacon Pines.
The Case of the Golden Idol
Joel – Detective work is so hard to capture in a game, because, eventually, most players expect to solve the puzzle in the end. The developers have to be willing to create a situation where the player never gets an answer if they’re not willing to truly engage with the story. However, the mystery has to be presented in such a way that the player does get a LITTLE help, lest they be adrift with a mystery that’s a little too hard to solve. This is a complex dance to get right, but The Case of the Golden Idol absolutely nails it while giving you a mystery that will occupy your mind for some time after the game is done.
“The Case of the Golden Idol is the sort of mystery game that plays in your head even when the game’s off as you mull over every possibility. The kind of thing where you shoot out of bed in the night because you’ve finally connected a vital event or person. It’s endlessly compelling to tug at its mysteries and figure out its answers…if you can manage to think your way through them.”
Read our review of The Case of the Golden Idol.
McPixel 3
Joel – This is easily the funniest game I’ve played in a very long time. It has an incredible sense of comedic timing and excels at catching you off-guard in ways that will have you burst out laughing hard enough to wake everyone in the house (maybe don’t play this at night like I did). It incentivizes failure in a delightful way, as screwing up is the only way to squeeze every last joke out of this game. There’s so much fun and goofball humor to be found here that it deserves to be on everyone’s playlist for this year.
“I really don’t want to spoil any of the oddball situations and solutions you’ll find in McPixel 3, so I just want to tell you that it’s the funniest game I’ve played in years (likely since the first McPixel). It’s continually surprising and endlessly hilarious, and made for some of the most fun I’ve had with a game in a while.”
Read our review of McPixel 3.
Who’s Lila
Joel – Guiding a story based on the look on your face was an impressive feat. That you could guide this in so many ways with a smirk, frown, or a vacant look touched on the ways we can often affect the trajectory of our day with a single look. My face tends to tell more about what I’m thinking or feeling than my words ever could, but that’s something I never expected to see in a video game. That it works so well, and also simultaneously conveys menace and humor, made it one of the best indie games from 2022.
“Who’s Lila? is an impressive take on the genre with a conversational tool that definitely felt unique. With so many different directions to take the story in, there’s a lot to try. By conveying it all with your face, it makes things feel a bit more chaotic and unexpected as well. You know what you’re getting into when you pick dialogue options in a game, typically, but when you’re letting your face do the talking? Unexpected things can come in a way that’s delightful.”
Read our review of Who’s Lila?.
Suzerain (Mobile)
Dann – Back in late 2020, Suzerain (one of my favourite games of all time) was released. Just this month, the developer released the mobile version into the wilds. So, that makes it a candidate for this year’s list! Suzerain puts you in the role of Anton Rayne, newly-elected president of Sordland. Sordland, and the nations that surround it, are reminiscent of the world we know, with both Democratic and Communist powerhouses looming to the East and West and a cold war threatening to turn hot. Sordland, however, hasn’t been playing geopolitics; in the last thirty years it has instead seen two civil wars, starting with the collapse of the monarchy, and a refugee crisis from a neighbouring country.
It all starts off with you tailoring Anton’s history, giving an indication of the past that lead to his election and the politics that he hopes to spend the next few years delivering. After that, though, it all starts racing forward. A renowned MP is assassinated, rival factions rise, foreign nations loom as they look for weaknesses in your country, and all this happens while a recession grasps your nation, unemployment skyrockets, and a nationalist party is on the rise. It’s an amazing web of decisions that all play out through the 12-15 hours you’ll spend in the hot seat. And while your assistants, cabinet and council might be quite stubborn in how they see the future of Sordland, there is a chance to really make changes to a country in need. My first-ever playthrough ended with my country still independent, with education and transportation reforms, human and women’s rights improved, and the Oligarchs kicked out of my country. That’s the positive, though, as some of my choices didn’t turn out so well.
Any fan of narrative-heavy decision-making games will find it incredibly hard to pull themselves free from Suzerain‘s beautiful, wordy grasp.
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