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Games to watch in 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC
If you’re reading this, congratulations: You made it to 2022. It certainly wasn’t easy, but some of 2021’s best games helped us get through another 365 days of ups and downs.
While 2021 was another rough year for just about everything and everyone, many of us found refuge in games. While there were many, many delays — it was a year without an Elden Ring or a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — we took comfort in colorful stories like Chicory and Psychonauts 2, and enjoyed the spooks and scares of Resident Evil Village and Metroid Dread. There were a few surprises along the way, including Inscryption and another journey in the strange solar system of Outer Wilds.
The 2022 calendar is already jam-packed with big, blockbuster, triple-A game releases, including long-awaited titles like God of War Ragnarok, Starfield, Bayonetta 3, and the aforementioned Elden Ring. In fact, many of the games on Polygon’s 2022 most-anticipated games list were delayed from 2021 — and games like Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, which appeared on last year’s list, aren’t on this year’s list due to even more extensive delays. There are also smaller but still exciting games, like Somerville and Cursed to Golf, to watch out for.
There are many games coming in 2022 that have yet to be announced, or that have not been given a release window. But as of now, here are the 50 games (listed alphabetically) that point to a brighter year.
Nintendo and Intelligent Systems’ addictive turn-based strategy military games, originally released for Game Boy Advance, are coming to Nintendo Switch with a glossy makeover. Re-Boot Camp includes both Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, with lengthy campaigns and Versus Mode multiplayer, when it launches on Switch sometime in spring 2022.
In a year already stuffed with Left 4 Dead-likes, how does The Anacrusis stand out? Well, it’s set on a funky retro-futuristic space cruiser, it features fantastical sci-fi weapons like a laser rifle and time-stopping grenades, it has a very weird collection of angry aliens, and it will launch in early access on Steam and Xbox Series X so its player base can help shape its development. Developed by Stray Bombay (ex-Valve developer Chet Faliszek’s new studio), The Anacrusis will be available Jan. 13, 2022 in early access, with a full release expected later this year.
It feels incredibly risky to imply that a new entry in James Cameron’s Avatar saga will release on time, but publisher Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment (Tom Clancy’s The Division) still have Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on their schedule for 2022. With Avatar 2 finally on the horizon (scheduled to hit movie theaters Dec. 16, 2022), Frontiers of Pandora will tell a stand-alone tale of a Navi fighting against humanity’s Resources Development Administration. The first-person action-adventure game is coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox One, and it will be playable on Amazon Luna and Google Stadia streaming platforms.
Another co-op shooter with a retro-futuristic sci-fi aesthetic that shows promise in 2022 is ARC Raiders, the first game from Embark Studios. Founded by former senior Battlefield developers, ARC Raiders is a free-to-play, third-person sci-fi shooter in which players fight to repel a mechanized alien invasion. ARC Raiders will launch on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Bayonetta, the gun-wielding witch whose third outing was announced more than four years ago, will return with next year’s Switch-exclusive Bayonetta 3. This time, she’ll fight mysterious (and gigantic) new foes using new abilities, including the Demon Masquerade, where she fuses with a demon to wield strong magic powers, and Demon Slave, which gives Bayonetta the power to control Infernal Demons.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, the stylish, Jet Set Radio-influenced action-graffiti game from developer Team Reptile, is coming in 2022 to “all relevant platforms” — which definitely includes Nintendo Switch and Windows PC. Players will create a custom cypher and “dance, paint, trick, face off with the cops and stake [their] claim to the extrusions and cavities of a sprawling metropolis in an alternate future,” all with Dreamcast-inspired visuals.
Glen Schofield, co-creator of the Dead Space series, returns to sci-fi survival horror with The Callisto Protocol at his new home, Striking Distance Studios. Set on the second-largest moon of Jupiter, players will take on the role of an inmate at Black Iron Prison who, over the course of the game, unravels a mystery about the prison and the people behind it. With the next Dead Space game still a long time off, The Callisto Protocol promises to scratch that same itch when it (hopefully) comes to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
Survival-horror train game Choo-Choo Charles looks like an unusual combination of Blair Witch and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, wrapped in a Thomas the Tank Engine-fueled nightmare. Charles is terrifying a local village, and it’s up to you to destroy him. You’ll complete missions for local townsfolk, loot for scraps to upgrade your train’s armor, mobility, and damage, and ultimately take down Charles when the game comes to PC in the first quarter of 2022.
The Dark Souls of side-scrolling golf roguelikes is quite the pitch, but Cursed to Golf looks like it’ll pull that premise off. Swing your way out of Golf Purgatory through randomly generated dungeon-like holes with the help of a ghostly Legendary Caddie as you putt your way back to the land of the living.
Ahead of the game’s fifth anniversary, Destiny 2’s next major expansion will bring with it new story, a new raid, new dungeons, and a new weapon type, the Glaive, when it launches in February. Also coming back? Mars. The Witch Queen’s story will revolve around Savathûn, sister of Oryx, who was the antagonist of the original Destiny’s beloved major expansion, The Taken King. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen launches on Feb. 22, 2022 across all the game’s platforms.
Dune: Spice Wars is a new real-time strategy game with 4X elements being developed by Shiro Games (Northgard). Dune: Spice Wars will include multiple asymmetrical factions and the ability to sabotage, assassinate, and spy on your opponents. Players will even be able to pull at the political strings of power by leveraging their influence among the other noble houses of the Landsraad. The final game will include a multiplayer mode and a single-player campaign, but neither will be available when the early access version initially launches. Dune: Spice Wars will enter early access in 2022, and will be published by Funcom.
Techland’s Dying Light 2 Stay Human refines the original game’s first-person parkour action gameplay with a focus on swiftness and skill. Once again, you play a hardy protagonist who must leap across rooftops, trying to avoid direct engagements with zombies. Useful items, like hooks and paraglider wings, can help. The game’s city-based location is built in such a way that higher elevations are less dangerous than lower floors. Dying Light 2 Stay Human will finally arrive Feb. 4, 2022 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
When EA Sports and Tiger Woods in 2013 ended their 16-year video games partnership, many also suspected that was the end of Augusta National and The Masters Tournament’s video game appearances, too. But, in a move that’s almost as surprising as EA Sports returning to licensed golf simulations after a 7-year hiatus, the publisher also brought the United States’ most exclusive club with it. The Masters will no doubt be the star of EA Sports PGA Tour’s show when the game launches sometime in spring 2022. But all four major tournaments of professional golf will again be playable, on their current courses, in a console video game.
The last time the foursome of the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship teed off together, EA Tiburon delivered its strongest golf game ever. Although its outstanding historical golf mode likely won’t return, it’s a good bet that a deep player career mode and plenty of online matches and tournaments await gamepad duffers.
The long-awaited Elden Ring, an ambitious open-world take on the Dark Souls formula of challenging-but-rewarding action RPGs that FromSoftware is now famous for, finally arrives on Feb. 25, 2022. Players will explore the Lands Between, a vast medieval world inhabited by giant dragons, deadly warriors, and demigods; as the protagonist, they’ll embark on a quest the restore this broken land and become its new Elden Lord. After a brief taste of the game in beta form from November, players will have more to explore in February, when Elden Ring comes to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis brings together the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 sub-series into a single package including flip-phone game Before Crisis, PlayStation Portable game Crisis Core, and the Vincent Valentine-starring PlayStation 2 game Dirge of Cerberus. The Turk-focused storyline in Before Crisis was never officially released in English, and Crisis Core has never seen a port, despite its importance to the Final Fantasy 7 story. Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis comes to Android and iOS platforms in 2022.
Developed by former Final Fantasy 15 developers and written by a quartet of Western creators, Forspoken stars a young woman from New York City who has been transported to a desolate fantasy world where magical spells and a sentient bracelet help her battle an evil force known as the Break. Forspoken is a classic fish-out-of-water story: Heroine Frey Holland is magically whisked away to the strange fantasy world of Athia, where she’s not only capable, she’s incredibly powerful. Frey will use magical spells to battle Break-mutated creatures and traverse a vast, deadly open world using “magic parkour.” Forspoken comes to PlayStation 5 and Windows PC on May 24, 2022.
GhostWire: Tokyo takes place in a version of Tokyo where nearly every living person has disappeared. Players have to use a combination of magic and martial arts to combat the ghosts that now occupy the city. The new game from the developers behind the Evil Within series looks bizarre and intriguing, even if its story remains a complete mystery. Based on its completely bananas trailers alone, GhostWire: Tokyo will be worth checking out when it’s released in 2022 on PlayStation 5 and PC.
Coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022, God of War Ragnarok returns to the realm of Midgard, where Kratos immigrated with his son, Atreus, following the defeat of the Olympian gods. Both are now involved in the eschatological conclusion of Norse mythology, and presumably the rebirth of their world, in what developer Sony Santa Monica describes as the “finale” for Kratos’ Norse saga. Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy) will voice Thor, while Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will play Odin, Kratos and Atreus’ primary antagonist in the sequel to 2018’s God of War.
In Gotham Knights, Batman is dead, and it’s up to the rest of the Bat family — Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood, and Nightwing — to watch over the streets of Gotham. The game’s not set in the world of Rocksteady Games’ Arkham series, although it is being developed by WB Games Montréal, the studio behind Arkham Origins. The action-adventure game will be released for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X; it’s a single-player game, with the option for two-player co-op.
Polyphony Digital’s racing sim is back with a numbered sequel in 2022. Gran Turismo 7 promises to be the best looking Gran Turismo yet, with support for 4K, HDR, and 60 fps frame rates, and will be a showcase for the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller, with haptic feedback and adaptive trigger features that should make the “real driving simulator” more lifelike than ever. Expect hundreds of cars, super-fast load times, and features from more than two decades of Gran Turismo games in this follow-up to Gran Turismo Sport.
For many years, fans of Harry Potter have longed for an open-world adventure game set in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. Warner Bros. plans to deliver that in 2022, with Avalanche Software’s upcoming role-playing game in which a player-designed character learns magic at Hogwarts during the 1800s. Many fans who once longed to play a game like this one are no longer looking forward to it, though, as franchise creator Rowling has become a prominent figure in the growing movement to roll back transgender rights, and she’s lost many fans (and potential Hogwarts Legacy players) as a result of her bigoted views.
In 2022, Guerrilla Games will release its sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, the 2017 post-apocalyptic open world game about a warrior woman who starts off looking for her long-lost mother and ends up unraveling the reason why her world is ravaged by mysterious animalistic robots. Ashly Burch returns to voice the heroine Aloy, with Lance Reddick also returning as Sylens, Aloy’s reluctant and mysterious helper in discovering the secrets of the world around them. Horizon Forbidden West will be available on PlayStation 4 and 5.
The closest a Kirby game will ever get to The Last of Us, HAL Laboratory’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land sends the pink puffball on a new adventure in a forgotten civilization. Kirby will, of course, steal his new enemies’ abilities in an all-new 3D platforming adventure that’s coming to Nintendo Switch this spring.
A follow-up to one of this decade’s most important, interesting, influential, and innovative games should have you very excited. The sequel to Breath of the Wild for Nintendo Switch will be a direct follow-up to the previous game — a rarity in the Legend of Zelda series — and should build on the open-world systems and secrets-rich environment of the first game. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has also proven that Nintendo has all kinds of backstory just waiting to be discovered in the Breath of the Wild universe, which means that the sequel should have even more story hidden throughout its world.
A far cry from the last few Lord of the Rings games, Gollum is a stealth game that tells the story of one of the ring’s most ardent admirers and tragic victims. The game will follow recognizable and important Lord of the Rings moments, but from Gollum’s perspective. The game is set to release sometime in 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Windows, and Nintendo Switch.
A tactical RPG set in “the darker side of the Marvel Universe,” Marvel’s Midnight Suns brings together Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Blade, Magik, Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and an all-new hero called The Hunter to stop the invasion of Earth by Lilith, Mother of Demons, summoned by the bad guys at Hydra. Developed by Firaxis, the XCOM team is trying something different; this isn’t just XCOM with Marvel superheroes. Publisher 2K Games plans to bring Marvel’s Midnight Suns to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X in late 2022.
Indie company Leikir Studio will release Metal Slug Tactics on Nintendo Switch and Windows PC in 2022, the next highly anticipated game in the Metal Slug franchise. It’s different from the other entries, though: It’s more turn-based tactical gameplay than run-and-gun shooting.
Warner Bros.’ Super Smash Bros.-inspired platform fighter MultiVersus will let Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy, Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark, Tom and Jerry, and other characters you might’ve seen in Space Jam: A New Legacy battle it out in 2022. Developer Player First Games hope to distinguish MultiVersus from similar games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl by releasing the game as free to play, cross-platform, and with a team-based 2v2 format. MultiVersus is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Nightingale is the debut game from Inflexion Games, the new studio from ex-BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn. It’s a shared-world survival/crafting game set in a magical “Victorian gaslamp fantasy” world where players become a Realmwalker, survivors of a magical cataclysm. They’ll travel to a variety of dangerous realms, accessible by portals, as they search for the last bastion of humanity. Realmwalkers will be able to team up and cooperate with other players to gather materials and construct massive settlements, and build tools and weapons to battle monsters when Nightingale comes to PC in early access in 2022.
In OlliOlli World, you play as a skater who joins a new crew that decides to take a road trip around the whimsical world of Radlandia. You grind effortlessly along tracks, timing jumps and tricks to pick up speed for more jumps and tricks. In other words, a pretty standard skateboarding game. But the cool, summertime vibes of OlliOlli World help it stand out from developer Roll7’s previous games, OlliOlli and OlliOlli 2. The ambitious new skateboarding adventure game is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on Feb. 8, 2022.
The Outlast series goes multiplayer in 2022. The next title in the spooky game franchise, titled The Outlast Trials, will explore developer Red Barrels’ survival horror universe with friends, featuring cooperative play for up to four players — there’s also a solo mode — as part of a Cold War-era experiment.
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals is set five years after the events of the original story-driven adventure game and stars a new group of characters, including Riley, who returns to her hometown of Camena to investigate mysterious radio signals. Developer Night School Studio — now owned by Netflix(!) — said players will be able to “shape [the story] is unexpected ways with the choices they make.” Oxenfree 2 is coming to Mac, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC in 2022.
Return to the Sinnoh region of long ago in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, coming to Nintendo Switch on Jan. 28, 2022. Expect a grand Pokémon role-playing game adventure in the Hisuian region’s semi-open world, new battle mechanics, and some familiar and fresh Pokémon faces. Pokémon Legends: Arceus will introduce new Pokémon forms for Voltorb, Zorua, and Growlithe, alongside new evolutions Basculegion, and Kleavor.
Developed by Arkane Austin, Redfall is Bethesda Softworks’ open-world, co-op shooter about a city overrun with vampires, and the game sits somewhere between multiplayer and single-player. Arkane Austin has previously developed games like 2018’s Prey reboot, as well as games in the Dishonored franchise. The studio’s new project is led by creative director Harvey Smith and co-creative director Ricardo Bare, and is coming to Xbox Series X and Windows PC this summer.
I have had the burning desire to play a new farm sim for a long time. After burning through Stardew Valley multiple times on different consoles, I want to play something fresh. That’s where Rune Factory 5 comes in. The farming, the combat, and the cute designs provide everything I could ask for from a farm sim/action-RPG.
Sloclap’s Absolver was an action-RPG with a sharp concept but a few issues on execution. The Parisian studio gets a rematch of sorts this February with Sifu, a stylish kung-fu opera that sends the player on a mission of revenge, one that will literally take years off the protagonist’s life. We previewed Sifu in September and marveled at the fluid melee combat chains, improvised strikes, and flurry-of-punches finishers. Players will tour several elemental themed levels, concluding with one-versus-many boss fights in the grand traditions of video game beat-’em-ups.
Who doesn’t love a good slime? Slime Rancher 2, due sometime in 2022, continues the adventures of Beatrix LeBeau in an all-new region: Rainbow Island. That new landmass is full of secrets, including “ancient technology, unknown natural resources, and an avalanche of wiggling, jiggling, new slimes to discover,” developer Monomi Park says. Harvest slimes with your vacpack, build new gadgets, and expand your colorful slime conservatory when the game launches on PC.
The debut game from Jumpship, a studio co-founded by animator Chris Olsen and ex-Playdead (Inside, Limbo) CEO Dino Patti, is a sci-fi adventure set “in the intimate repercussions of large-scale conflict.” Players will set off on that adventure to make their family whole again in the wake of an unspecified catastrophe. In an interview, writer-director Olsen said Somerville is not quite a puzzle game, not quite a platformer, but players will uncover its mysteries when it comes to Windows PC and Xbox Series X sometime in 2022.
Sonic Frontiers is described by Sega as an “open-zone-inspired experience” and will feature an original storyline from Sonic Boom writer Ian Flynn — so from a purely academic perspective, who doesn’t want to see how an “open-zone” Sonic the Hedgehog game turns out? We don’t know too much about Sonic’s next big 3D adventure, but we’re exceedingly curious. Sonic Frontiers is scheduled to hit Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X sometime in holiday 2022 — nearly five years after Sonic’s previous mainline 3D adventure, Sonic Forces.
Nintendo’s stylish squidkid splat-’em-up series returns on Nintendo Switch in 2022 with Splatoon 3. For the third outing, Inklings and Octolings head to the Splatlands, a sun-scorched desert, and Splatsville, the metropolitan heart of that dusty wasteland, for an all-new story. Splatoon veterans can look forward to a new bowlike weapon, new customization options, and movement abilities that should breathe new life into the series’ 4v4 Turf War multiplayer mode.
STALKER 2 is set in the outskirts of an alternate-world Chernobyl, in a world full of radiation and mutants. But far from the wacky and weird world of the Fallout games, STALKER focuses more on simulation-style shooting and survival as you hunt for the treasure and mysteries of the post-nuclear world — something players might be more ready for in 2021 than they were in 2007. STALKER 2 is set to be released on Xbox Series X and PC sometime in 2022.
The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda Game Studios is headed to deep space for Starfield, the studio’s next grand role-playing game. Think of it like Skyrim in space, says game director Todd Howard, where you’ll get in a ship, explore the galaxy, and “do fun stuff,” Bethesda says. “Starfield is about hope, our shared humanity, and searching for the answers to life’s greatest mystery,” Howard said when the game was officially announced this year. Starfield will be released Nov. 11, 2022, for Windows PC and Xbox Series X, where it will be available on Game Pass.
Jack, the hero of Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, is here to kill Chaos in this prequel of sorts to the original Final Fantasy from 1987. Developed by Team Ninja (Nioh, Ninja Gaiden), Stranger of Paradise is an action-
RPG in which Jack Garland — yep, that Garland — and his allies fight evil as Warriors of Light. Along the way, they’ll use Final Fantasy’s jobs system and don new gear, upgrading Jack from wearing a lowly T-shirt to ornate armor, to overcome Chaos. Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin comes to PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on March 18, 2022.
A cyberpunk story of a different sort, Stray stars a lost stray cat who roams neon-lit city streets, uncovering the mysteries of a world inhabited by droids and deadly creatures on their journey home. Players will be “stealthy, nimble, silly, and sometimes as annoying as possible,” publisher Annapurna Interactive says, as they interact with the cyber-city’s inhuman inhabitants. Stray comes to PlayStation 5 and Windows PC in 2022.
Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady’s version of the Suicide Squad stars Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark as Task Force X on a mission to take down Brainiac. Standing in their way are Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League, who have all been brainwashed by the alien-with-intent-to-conquer. The open-world action game will be set in Rocksteady’s “Arkham-verse” version of Metropolis, so Batman villains like The Penguin will be present. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set to be released for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2022.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge sends ninja turtles Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello — and April O’Neil! — into battle against the Foot Clan, Bebop, Rocksteady, and, of course, Shredder, in a brawler evocative of Konami’s classic arcade games. Confirmed platforms include Nintendo Switch and Windows PC, but hopefully we’ll see the new TMNT beat-’em-up on every modern console in 2022.
Borderlands’ lovable/grating Tiny Tina gets her own full-fledged spinoff game, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, on March 25, 2022. Expect Borderlands-style loot and open-world cooperative action, but with a Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG twist: In addition to the usual bajillions of guns, grenades, and rocket launchers, players also have magic, swords, and crossbows at their disposal in combat. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands will boast an all-star voice cast, featuring Andy Samberg, Will Arnett, and Wanda Sykes, when it comes to PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Similar to the way Mass Effect gathered momentum over the course of three games and several years, Total War: Warhammer 3 feels less like a singular release and more like the culmination of a gargantuan effort. Not only will developer Creative Assembly give us seven new factions to wage war with (making good on the studio’s promise to include all 15 of Warhammer Fantasy Eighth Edition’s armies), it will also combine each of the three games’ maps into one colossal world. In many ways, it has the potential to be the “biggest” game of 2022. Time will tell whether Creative Assembly can stick the landing. Total War: Warhammer 3 is coming to Windows PC on Feb. 17, 2022, and will be available on Microsoft’s PC Game Pass on day one.
Triangle Strategy for Nintendo Switch looks like the closest thing we’ll get to a new Final Fantasy Tactics from Square Enix for the foreseeable future. The latest in the RPG maker’s HD-2D series of retro-inspired games (see Octopath Traveler), Triangle Strategy lets players command a group of warriors in turn-based battles, strategically using terrain and chained elemental effects to secure victory. Square Enix promises a “tangled plot” where your decisions and convictions influence the story. Triangle Strategy takes its turns on Switch on March 4, 2022.
Heaven forbid that we don’t actually get the sequel to Breath of the Wild this year, at least we’ll have Tunic, a Zelda-inspired isometric adventure starring a cute and cool fox. Publisher Finji and developer Andrew Shouldice promise a hostile and intricately connected world, hidden treasure, scores of secrets, and challenging boss battles. Tunic is coming to Mac, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on March 16, 2022.
