RPS Selection Box: Additional 2022 James Games

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We loved so many games this year that we couldn’t fit them all into the advent calendar. Everyone on staff picked a checkbox for the bonus games they would like to give honors to. Menches for 2022.

Don’t look at me, I’m just the hardware guy. But I recommend looking at these favorite games he also ran that weren’t impressive enough to win a spot on the RPS Advent Calendar 2022. Of all I’ve played this year, these are the avatars of enough, satisfying sultans. Good prime ministers.

I’d also probably tip a hat on Warhammer 40K: Darktide, but Alice0 really caught it for her honorable mention, and honestly there’s enough shootybang stuff here as it stands. But, also: testing the quality of a toilet’s build, driving Nazis into cement pits, and more than a hint of the ’70s. Check them out.

Slot Desk Job Developer: Valve Publisher: Valve From: Steam

An unexpected return to the mad science of Portal, Aperture Desk Job could easily have been restricted due to its utilitarian purpose of serving as a tutorial for controlling the Steam Deck. Instead, Valve went ahead and made a cracking little comic. It’s not at all mentally or mechanically taxing, so don’t go expecting Portal 3, but the hilarious, hilarious voice performance that helped make the first two great is there and right. JK Simmons even returns as Aperture CEO Aperture Cave Johnson, and while the game is cut short, he’s not lost in the slightest.

Also credited: comedian Nate Bargazzi as Grady, your overworked but friendly robotic supervisor. Grady is a regular source of laughs, and the main driving force behind the way the menial Invader Inspection mission goes so badly – a narrative necessity given you’re always standing at an honorary desk. Still, it’s not too hard to really come to terms with this Grady story. Bargatze’s earnest delivery and some flawless animation work make him a fine companion, even as he drags you, the desk, and the toilets to a wholly unexpected crescendo.

For anyone with a brand new Steam Deck on their hands, Aperture Desk Job should be one of the first games you install. It’s free and really helps if, like me, you see things like gyroscope controls with a kind of deranged horror. It’s playable with plenty of regular gamepads, too, so when you have 30 minutes to spare, you can give it a spin on your desktop instead.

Sniper Elite 5 Developer: Rebellion Publisher: Rebellion From: Steam, Game Pass

The most Game Pass-y of all Game Pass™ games I’ve finished this year. I had to be brought up playing Sniper Elite 5 in the first place, by a friend in need of a friend co-op, and yet I’m not sure I’d ever pay for it in full. As part of a cheap subscription, consider it enough to be a thoughtful sandbox game worth your time.

I hadn’t played any of the previous Sniper Elites, and basically knew them as a WW2 series where you commit war crimes in the first, and then spend the next three just trying to blow up the legacy of the Nazis. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to treat French farmhouses/castles/submarine bases #5 as I might in Hitman or Deus Ex: not just abusing premium points, but silently gliding around the bad guys softly before dumping them in the trash. I know Hayden didn’t care about close-quarters action in his review, but I found those moments – from sneaking up to plant bombs on fully-crewed tanks, freezing on a general with his bodyguards just feet away – tense and totally rewarding as they land the perfect kilometer-long headshot.

It is not necessary to play. For starters, stealth isn’t quite as deep as your average Hitman, and while you can deploy the occasional environmental distractions and hazards, it’s not as richly systemic as Deus Ex. Burnout is also a risk, as some tasks can take more than an hour to wind down, especially if a momentary break in focus suddenly calls half your SS on you. But enjoy it nonetheless, and for Game Pass money, you can too.

Anacrosis Developer: Stray Bombay Publisher: Stray Bombay From: Steam, Game Pass, Epic Games Store

Apparently, we’re allowed early access for games on this stuff, and I’ll admit Anacrosis gets pretty heavy early on. Only two of the planned five campaigns were available at launch, and while that has since been slated to four, the most recent one is categorized as beta. So, like, double early access.

Oh alright. At least it’s already Left 4 Dead-but kinda fun, in this case it’s “but in space and cool too”. In a year filled with dark sci-fi horror, this shade is a lot lighter than a rehab, with plush spaceship lounges instead of gut-wrenching cold hallways, laser-pio rifles instead of box guns, sharp suits instead of tactical uniforms. Anacrosis has style — dare I say it, a cool vibe — which isn’t a bad thing in a subgenre of co-op shooters that has become as crowded as its hordes of zombies.

With even a relatively benevolent AI manager happy to hurl thick waves of tentacled monsters at you, bolstered by a diverse mix of specials, survival depends on how you handle the perks and gear upgrades you can equip from crafters. There’s a strong RNG element to this, but there’s always a good choice of bonuses, with enough effect to reward you for adapting your tactics mid-mission. I like to go into a combat medic build, and adapt goo grenades—which squirt slow shrapnel to an enemy on the ground—to heal my teammates when they’re in it themselves. really great.

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