Eurogamer picks the must-play games of a wonderful year.

But in the void left by the blockbusters, some truly sensational alternatives have appeared.

2022 was, against the odds, a banger of a year for video games.

2022 best games - a blue line drawing of gaming tech with the Eurogamer Essential badge overlayed in gold

In those cases we can only apologise for our terrible taste.

But still: these are the 37 best games of 2022.

We don’t really know - it’s just how many we loved.

2022 best games Drainus - a giant grey boss ship on the right fires a purple-blue beam towards your ship against a crimson background and hail of projectiles

It’s a testament to the joy thatVampire Survivorscreates that this question doesn’t really matter.

Don’t stop to think, just chug through the popcorn crush of enemies.

So what if there’s little to aim for except for the next unlock?

2022 best games Immortality - a central image of Marissa Marcel and a Hitchcock-like director, infront of a montage of film stills

Some games are like this: ingeniously mindless.

And very hard to put down.Read our Vampire Survivors review

Christian Donlan

34.

Stay alive, take out enemies, don’t fall off the map: you know the drill.

2022 best games Vampire Survivors - you launch a wave of blue fire against pixellated enemies from the centre of a green-coloured screen

The whole thing is brisk and lingering, like a summer nightmare.

It didn’t have to work this well, though.

Victoria 3

PC, Linux, Mac

Victoria 3 is grand strategy of the very grandest kind.

2022 best games Hyper Demon - an iridescent monster curves out of the darkness

Nintendo Switch Sports

Nintendo Switch

The sports are great, aren’t they?

Nintendo knows tennis and Badminton, and the addition of Golf was a lovely autumn treat.

Meanwhile sword fighting and volleyball are there to bring a bit of bloody-mindedness to proceedings.

2022 best games 40K Chaos Gate Demonhunters - one of your grey knights in the character building screen where you pick out weapons and gear

But where Nintendo Switch Sports really works is the unexpected touch of worldbuilding that knits everything together.

Play Badminton surrounded by shipping crate cafes.

Play tennis - or is it volleyball?

2022 best games Victoria 3 - screenshot of North Africa, with a large menu on the left detailing your Diplomatic options in the Balkans

  • under the looming glass of a bookstore/coffee shop.

Nobody but Nintendo would think to add this stuff.

What a treat.Read our Nintendo Switch Sports review

29. mega mode that young strategy nerds dream of.

2022 best games Metal: Hellsinger - shooting at a fiery boss of skulls and fireballs

For the Dark Gods!Read our Total War: Warhammer 3 review

28.

It’s the best I’ve played in ages.

It has all the inventive spark I’d expect of Nintendo EAD.

2022 best games Total War Warhammer 3 - a blue-purple landscape with jagged rocks in front of a great light blue column of magic and a bright pink sky

Tripley impressive from a young, independent, two-person development collaboration.

“Read our Patrick’s Parabox review

Edward Hawkes

27.

There’s no pretence at being a shooter, really.

2022 best games Patrick’s Parabox - a blue square puzzle with four small cubes inside, one blue, one an outline, one red and one green

And I love that.

But it’s not only that.

The confidence I talked about: it extends to the game’s personality.

2022 best games Live A Live - the four party characters look out at a classic Western Duel in a typical Western town

It’s a bombastic package.Read our Neon White review

Bertie Purchase

24.

“Read our Kaiju Wars review

Chris Tapsell, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

23.

Gran Turismo 7

Gran Turismo 7’s been on quite the journey in 2022.

2022 best games God of War Ragarok - Kratos and Atreus look at Brok

Marvel Snap

PC, Switch and Xbox

This one crept up on us.

Does anyone really need a new collectible card game in 2022?

When it’s this clever and compulsive, yes.

2022 best games Neon White - a level with water at the bottom and white columned podiums in front of a blue sky

All of this against the backdrop of modern day piracy.

Best fonts, too - and that’s including Pentiment.Read our Swordship review

18.

Sniper Elite 5

Pchaoooowwww!Can we leave it there?

Kaiju Wars review - a messy image of battle, some tiles red, some blue, the outer rim peachy orange, a fighter jet green, a kaiju and some tiles on fire, witha retro UI along the bottom.

As Rick Lane put it in our review: “Sniper Elite has been dependably entertaining for a while.

It just needed a spark of inspiration to make it excellent.”

Consider it sparked.Read our Sniper Elite 5 review

17.

2022 best games Prodeus - an orange and red hued room, firing a mini gun and DOOM-like enemies

Why are pirates called pirates?

  • where an endless line of sinister strangers need various herbs and fungi for various mysterious reasons.

There’s some absolutely dazzling stuff here, and the map screen alone is a proper classic.

2022 best games Gran Turismo 7 - a black Chevrolet and yellow Honda Civic line up at the starting grid at dusk

c’mon play this - it’s brilliant.Read our Strange Horticulture impressions

14.

An understated masterpiece.Read our Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review

12.

Head out into the night to find your friends.

2022 best games Marvel’s Midnight Suns - Dr Strange and Captain Marvel read books and phones respectively on the sofa

Light bonfires, hoard matches, and keep track of the plot’s many threads.

Make too many mistakes and the town reassembles itself around you.

Albeit a very dark kind of magic.Read our Saturnalia review

11.

The digital card game Marvel Snap. A Rocket Raccoon card dominates the screen here. It’s bright and colourful.

Signalis is everything good about survival horror, and then some.Read our Signalis review

Jessica Orr

9.

Roadwarden

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell called this “one of the finest historical fantasies you’ll play.”

Is it worth buying a shield I don’t really know how to wield?

Swordship level 2 - a green background with bright yellow and orange explosions

When gambling with the village youth, do I flirt or focus on the dice?

Should I sit next to or across from somebody I’ve just met?

Who do I trust to faithfully translate a wax tablet?

2022 best games Sniper Elite 5 - at night, dressed in black, the sniper walks out towards the edge of a platform overlooking a burning city

Can I work out where a fellow traveller calls home from their accent?

“Read our Roadwarden review

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

7.

Mothmen 1966

PS4, PS5 and PC

Some games show their true qualities over time.

2022 best games Arcade Paradise - a view at an angle of an arcade cabinet screen with a classic game playing

It contains a really good Solitaire variant too.

Former Eurogamer EIC Oli Welsh would be proud.Read our Mothmen 1966 review

6.

And repeat and repeat and repeat.Read our Rollerdrome review

5.

2022 best games Return to Monkey Island - inside a small room with a man lit by moonlight through the window

This one’s a real gem.Read our Citizen Sleeper review

4.

In turn, this lets Kirby traverse the game’s worlds in a myriad of really rather unusual ways.

Tunic

Like Fez, Tunic is a work of nostalgia that’s never happy to settle for nostalgia alone.

2022 best games Strange Horticulture - a book of notes on plants and magnifying glass in the foreground, with a shop full of plants in the background

Strange, familiar, intricate and built with love.Read our Tunic review

1.

Elden Ring

FromSoftware’s open world epic has dominated the conversation this year.

Have you defeated Malenia yet?

Hob’s Barrow - your character approaches a pile of grey stones on a mossy green hill, with a woman playing violin on stood on top of them

Which of the Ashes of War is most overpowered?

Have you seen the underground yet?

But Elden Ring is a game that warrants such conversation.

2022 best games Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - a battle with a large monster and an extraordinary amount of bright orange UI information on the screen

No other game this year has generated such fervent discussion.Read our Elden Ring review

Ed Nightingale

2022 best games Saturnalia - in pencil-shaded style, a silhouetted man stands in a dimly lit doorway surrounded by darkness

2022 best games OlliOlli World - five quirky characters chat on a bright blue platform in front of coral pink buildings and structures

2022 best games Signalis - close up of a woman’s face with sci-fi UI readings either side, like a heads-up display

2022 best games Pentiment - your character chats with a monk called Gernot outside a chapel, all drawn in medieval illustration style with medieval fonts

Roadwarden - on the left, beautiful sepia-coloured pixel art of a watchtower by a road; oni the right, three paragraphs of text with several options for what to do, and some inventory/character info

2022 best games Mothmen 1966 - in CGA style, a bat in turqoise hue with a splat of red blood is displayed, with descriptive text underneath explaining that you get out of your car to find it

2022 best games Rollerdrome - the TV studio level, with retro TV camera in the foreground and a hybrid skatepark/TV studio in the background

2022 best games Citizen Sleeper - a character called Sabine talks to you, with their comic-style character art central, and dialogue to the right, space station background to the left

2022 best games Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Kirby on a yellow right in a very bright land of green grass, pink flowers and blue skies

2022 best games Norco - in murky pixel art, two characters ride away towards dusk on an empty highway, against a blue-brown sky and distant background of chemical plant lights

2022 best games Tunic - a floating island with a rocky mountain and tiny outcrop of grass, amongst a pink, orange and blue sky and fluffly clouds

2022 best games Elden Ring - a portrait image of an imperious knight with battleaxe in front of a white lion creature with flowing mane