Due, at least in part, to the large number of games postponed in 2021, 2022 inherited one of the most promising game line-ups we remember, at least in recent times. More than a hundred games are expected in 2022, and with the new year just around the corner we decided to highlight the most promising projects, from first-party titles of great depth such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, God of War: Ragnarok and Starfield to great cross-platform games like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
There is a lot to keep an eye on in the coming months, so let’s get started: these are the 48 most important games coming in 2022 , listed by release date and only chosen from those officially confirmed for release next year.
Rainbow Six Extraction
Ubisoft begins its 2022 with Rainbow Six Extraction, the PvE spin-off of its hugely popular Rainbow Six Siege shooter. Built on the foundations of Siege, Extraction pits a team of three against the threat of a deadly alien parasite. Since its announcement at E3 2019, the shooter has suffered multiple delays and faced a name change, given the pandemic situation since Covid-19.
Laying Pokémon: Arceus
With Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Game Freak and Nintendo will launch the first major Switch exclusive of 2022, taking the beloved monster-hunting franchise in a bold new direction. Arceus, the first main chapter of the series set in a sort of open-world, shakes the saga to its foundations by studying new ways to meet and capture Pokémon.
Dying Light 2
Seven years after the release of the original, Dying Light 2: Stay Human takes players to a new undead-haunted world of Techland. This time around, the explorable scenario is four times the size of the city from the first episode, with the Polish developer working hard to create an even smoother and more satisfying combat and parkour system. Actress Rosario Dawson (The Mandalorian) will play a major role in the story of this sequel.
Sifu
Sifu is a new kung-fu game from Sloclap, the studio behind the 2017 ambitious fighting game Absolver. In addition to extremely smooth and fulfilling martial arts-based gameplay, Sifu offers a unique mechanic based on the concert of death and rebirth: every time you die, the character will come back to life a little older than before – a kind of metaphor that it means the wisdom that is acquired with age and experience. However, by aging excessively (read: dying too many times), the player will encounter a definitive “game over”.
CrossfireX
The hugely popular PC shooter Crossfire will debut for the first time on consoles at the beginning of next year, more precisely from 10 February: the developer Smilegate is working on the free-to-play multiplayer mode, while the Remedy team (Alan Wake, Control ) made the two single-player campaigns – Operation Catalyst and Operation Specter – both available at launch.
Total War: Warhammer 3
Sega’s acclaimed strategy series will return in 2022 with Total War: Warhammer 3, a chapter entrusted to the Creative Assembly team. The developers are introducing two new playable factions – Kislev and Cathay – for this third episode, in addition to the “largest array of legendary heroes, gargantuan monsters, flying creatures and magical powers the series has ever seen”. Total War: Warhammer 3 will be available on day-one as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription on PC.
Horizon: Forbidden West
The first, huge PlayStation exclusive scheduled for 2022 is Horizon: Forbidden West, the sequel to the role-playing game by Guerrilla Games that will let us experience the second act of Aloy’s journey as she investigates a mysterious threat that risks compromising what remains of the life on Earth. Forbidden West is one of the most anticipated games of the year and promises to be one of the most amazing adventures of 2022 for PlayStation users.
Fire Ring
FromSoftware sent soulslike fans into a frenzy on the occasion of the presentation of Elden Ring at E3 2019: the new third-person action role-playing game promises to blend the experience gained with the likes of Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Bloodborne with the fantastic worlds of George RR Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire who collaborated on the project. We won’t have to wait too long to discover Hidetaka Miyazaki’s new creature, which will arrive on February 25 on PC and consoles.
Evil Dead: The Game
The trend of asymmetrical multiplayer games based on classic horror franchises will continue in 2022 with Evil Dead: The Game, an experience characterized not only by a PvP mode (in which one player will control the Kandarian demon), but also by single-player and cooperative modes. . Best of all, Bruce Campell will lend his voice to the project, reprising the role of Ash Williams.
Babylon’s Fall
After almost four years from the announcement at E3 2018, Babylon’s Fall is ready to debut on PC and PlayStation consoles: it is yet another game of PlatinumGames focused on fighting, with the studio authoring excellent action games of the caliber of Bayonetta and Nier: AutomatA who has decided to try their hand at a sort of Game as a Service playable both in single-player and in cooperative with three other people. Regardless of how you decide to play, Babylon’s Fall will need a constant connection to the network.
Grand Touring 7
Gran Turismo will make its PS5 debut on March 4, 2022. Racing fans are really eager to find out how Sony’s driving simulator will fare when debuting on next-gen consoles, following Microsoft’s success in 2021 with Forza Horizon. 5. With Gran Turismo 7, Polyphony Digital aims to create a video game capable of respecting the 25-year history of the franchise and looking at the “present and the future” at the same time.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Stranger of Paradise is a new spin-off of Final Fantasy: it is a soulslike created by the team of Ninja Gaiden and NiOh, which despite the significant differences in terms of gameplay compared to the traditional chapters of Final Fantasy, will maintain an identity recognizable by the fan. As told by Tetsuya Nomura, creative producer of the project, “there is no doubt that the blood of Final Fantasy runs in the veins [of Stranger of Paradise]”.
Kirby is at terra perduta
Kirby’s first major chapter since the 2018 episode, Kirby and the Lost Land is a new 3D adventure set in an abandoned city where nature has reclaimed what’s hers. The Switch exclusive will arrive by the end of next spring.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderland
This Borderlands spin-off inspired by Dungeons and Dragons will arrive on PC and consoles in late March. Tiny Tina will be the Dungeon Master in Wonderlands story, which will see the return of everyone’s favorite unicorn, Butt Stallion, and take players on an epic journey to defeat the Dragon Lord. The cast of voice actors includes great talents like Will Arnett (Lord of Dragons), Andy Samberg (Valentine), Wanda Sykes (Frette) and Ashly Burch, who will return as Tiny Tina.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
After multiple delays spanning more than a year, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is now slated for 2022. Referred to as the “greatest” LEGO game ever by developer TT Games, The Skywalker Saga aims to fully narrate new all nine main Star Wars movies, all within a game engine recreated from scratch by the software house.
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals
Night School Studio’s supernatural adventure will have a sequel in 2022. Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals is set in the same universe as the original chapter, but will boast a new cast of characters led by an environmental researcher named Riley. The mechanics of Lost Signals will be largely similar for those who have already played the first chapter, with the return of the typical dialogue system of Oxenfree.
The prophesied
Forspoken has all it takes to be Square-Enix’s new success. From the interesting Isekai premise to its fast-paced “magic parkour” system, the open-world action RPG created by the Luminous Productions team has the potential to do great things both in terms of storytelling and pure gameplay. The developer aims to create the “highest visual quality ever” for an open-world game, topping it all off with a story written by a team of superstars that includes Gary Whitta (Rogue: One: A Star Wars Story) and Amy Hennig. (Uncharted).
The Day Before
The Day Before suddenly became one of the most anticipated titles of 2022 following the release of the first gameplay trailer on IGN, which garnered over 4 million views on YouTube. It is an online mass survival set in a fully explorable world that mirrors a post-pandemic America full of zombies. In addition to the standard elements of mass gaming, such as a PvP combat system, resource gathering, and the presence of social hubs, The Day Before features a base-building system similar to that of Animal Crossing.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
The next game created by horror legend Shinji Mikami and his studio Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within) is Ghostwire: Tokyo, a first-person paranormal adventure set in a world where 99% of Tokyo’s population has mysteriously disappeared. . Despite the studio’s pedigree, Tango argues that Ghostwire isn’t exactly survival horror, but rather an action-adventure “full of mysterious and disturbing elements”.
Star Trek: Resurgence
Resurgence is a narrative adventure set after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, created by a new studio that has over 20 developers from Telltale Games in its ranks. Unsurprisingly, given the staff’s pedigree, the game focuses on dialogue options and multiple conversations, although developer Dramatic Labs claims there will be no shortage of action sequences to spice up the gameplay experience. The adventure will tell us an original story involving the clash between two alien civilizations and will include not only new characters, but also old acquaintances like Spock.
Saints Row
Volition’s Saints Row reboot is decidedly less extravagant than the previous two chapters of the series and will try to maintain a minimum of balance between the seriousness and extravagance of Saints Row: The Third. The game has been greeted with some skepticism from longtime Saints Row fans, but Volition trusts in its vision and doesn’t intend to back down, confident of winning over even the most suspicious fans with this new adventure set in Santo. Ileso.
Redfall
Redfall is the next game from Arkane Austin, the studio behind 2017’s excellent Prey. Set in the island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, the co-op shooter will offer up to four players to explore an open-world full of vampires. It will be an Xbox Series X / S and PC exclusive, and as usual it will debut on day-one on Xbox Game Pass.
Scorn
When Scorn reappeared in May 2020 with a new trailer, we were both shocked and delighted by the aesthetic clearly inspired by the works of HR Giger. The first person horror game will finally launch in October 2022 on PC and exclusively on console on Xbox Series X / S.
Starfield
Another Xbox Series X / S and PC exclusive, Starfield is the next, epic single-player RPG created by Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios. Howard describes Starfield as “Skyrim in space”, although it will be “a bit more hardcore RPG than in the past”. Starfield will be Bethesda’s first game to use the new Creation Engine 2.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
2022 offers players the opportunity to return to Middle-earth, this time as the slimy Gollum. Unlike Monolith’s previous Lord of the Rings games, Gollum is not an open-world RPG, but rather a storytelling adventure with a focus on stealth and platforming mechanics.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl
The road to STALKER 2 was quite long. First announced in 2010, the game ran the risk of being canceled a year later, only to be effectively canceled in 2012. Developer GSC Game World resumed work on the sequel by reintroducing it eight years later, in 2020, as a “unique mix of shooter, immersive sim and survival horror”. The game will be available at launch on Xbox Game Pass and will be an X / S Series exclusive for three months.
Company of Heroes 3
Relic’s legendary World War II RTS will return in 2022 after a nine-year hiatus. Company of Heroes 3 will take us to the Mediterranean theater of war and will introduce new features such as the tactical pause and a fully dynamic map for the campaign. While looking to the future with gameplay innovations, Relic is also trying to pay homage to its past: the studio claims that this third installment will be more like the original Company of Heroes than its sequel.
Homeworld 3
It has taken almost 20 years, but the wait that separates us from Homeworld 3 will end in the last quarter of 2022, when Gearbox will launch the anticipated sequel to the sci-fi RTS saga: set generations after the events of Homeworld 2, the third. episode raises the stakes with even greater scale battles, an even larger number of units, and massive structures. The game will include a campaign, multiplayer and co-op mode “with roguelike elements”, according to the Blackbird team.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is the next game created by renowned strategy studio Firaxis Games. As a highly customizable character known as The Hunter, you will have to defeat Lilith with the support of Marvel heroes such as Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Wolverine. Midnight Suns stands out from the studio’s previous work because it incorporates combat with a card system into its more tactical gameplay, tying the skills of the heroes to the cards in their deck, similar to games like Slay the Spire.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Unveiled at E3 2021, A Plague Tale: Requiem is the sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence, once again created by Asobo Studio. The first game was considered one of the best narrative adventures of 2019, and Requiem tries to start from that success with the return of the brothers / protagonists Amicia and Hugo. It will arrive on Xbox Game Pass at launch.
Arc Raiders
Arc Raiders is a co-op shooter made by a brand new team: Embark Studios. It is a software house led by former Electronic Arts executive Patrick Söderlund, and made up of ex-DICE developers who have worked on Battlefield and Star Wars: Battlefront. Set in a beautiful sci-fi world, the free-to-play third-person shooter will include a three-player co-op mode and place a particular emphasis on team play.
ARK 2
ARK 2 is a video game with giant dinosaurs and … Vin Diesel. This description should be enough to push you to buy, but if you really want to find out more, just know that the sequel to Ark: Survival Evolved will be an action game with survival elements set in a hostile world that blends prehistoric settings and futuristic technologies. .
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Announced in 2017 and relaunched in 2021, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person action game set in an explorable world that will lead us to discover never-before-seen areas of Pandora. Like the movie, Frontiers of Pandora pits the Na’vi against humans and their mechs. The game is currently in development at Massive Entertainment, The Division’s studio controlled by Ubisoft.
Bayonetta 3
PlatinumGames finally showed the third installment of Bayonetta in September 2021, four years after the original announcement of the game. The long-awaited reveal has revealed the new moves and hairstyle of the Bayonetta witch, offering a first look at the new enemies and areas of the devastated Tokyo of this sequel. The release is scheduled for 2022 exclusively on Switch.
The Callisto Protocol
Fans of horror experiences shouldn’t miss The Callisto Protocol, a new sci-fi / horror game created by Dead Space author Glen Schofield. While The Callisto Protocol looks almost like Dead Space’s spiritual heir, it’s actually set in the same universe as a completely different game: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG. Regardless, Schofield and associates aim to “create the scariest game for next-generation platforms”.
God of War: Ragnarok
Sony’s biggest first-party release scheduled for 2022 is undoubtedly God of War: Ragnarok, a sequel to the action game created by Santa Monica Studio in 2018. Ragnarok continues the story of Kratos and his son Atreus by introducing new characters from mythology. Norse, like Thor and Odin.
Gotham Knights
In the new project from WB Games Montréal, Batman is dead and the duty to protect Gotham has fallen on Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl and Red Hood, the four playable characters of Gotham Knights. The third-person action game will offer both a single-player component and a two-player co-op mode, with a combat system that has been “entirely redesigned” from what was seen in the Batman: Arkham saga.
Hogwarts Legacy
2022 is the year when Harry Potter fans will finally be able to embark on their adventure in the wizarding world. Based on the videos shown so far, Hogwarts Legacy includes many of the activities you’d expect from a full-fledged universe-based RPG created by JK Rowling: from character creation to the Sorting Ceremony, from wizarding lessons to firsts. potions, obviously passing through Quidditch. The game is expected to debut in the second quarter of 2022, judging by the latest rumors.
Kerbal Space Program 2
The beloved space simulator Kerbal Space Program will return in 2022 with a sequel that will introduce new elements, spacecraft and buildings, as well as a number of improvements to the game experience, including a mobile launch tower and the ability to skip the bill. backwards. Developer Intercept Games claims to be working to “create a reliable foundation upon which gamers and modders can build new content for another decade or more.”
Layers of Fear 2022
A new horror game in the Layers of Fear series is scheduled for 2022. Developer Bloober Team has revealed the project with a teaser trailer, confirming that it is working on Unreal Engine 5. The previous installment of the series, Layers of Fear 2, is was released in 2019.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
Despite the releases of Elden Ring, Starfield and the upcoming God of War, the most anticipated and important game of 2022 is probably Breath of the Wild 2 (working title). Nintendo kept the Breath of the Wild sequel secret, while revealing some gameplay sequences at E3 2021. The original chapter tops the list of the best games for the Switch, and is considered one of the best games to date. ever.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
The unexpected collaboration between Nintendo and Ubisoft will continue in 2022 with Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the sequel to the Kingdom Battle chapter launched in 2017. This episode features less linear levels, a smoother combat system and nine playable characters, including Mario , Luigi, Peach and their Rabbid counterparts.
Nightingale
Nightingale is a shared world game from Inflexion Games, a new studio made up of former BioWare developers, including former general manager Aaryn Flynn. It is a project focused on survival and crafting, with a first-person combat system featuring guns, melee weapons and lots of magic. Nightingale is set in a fantasy-tinged Victorian setting, which Flynn says will be “as full of stories and full of life as anything we’ve worked on in the past”.
The Outlast Trials
The Outlast Trials is a co-op spin-off of the terrifying Red Barrel horror franchise in which you try to survive sadistic human experiments dating back to the Cold War era. While the first two chapters of the series were strictly single-player, Outlast Trials can be experienced alone or with the help of two other players. On the other hand, as stated by the developer, “it is always better to wear it in good company”.
Shadow Warrior 3
Shadow Warrior, the fast-paced shooter absent from the scene since 2016, is ready to return in 2022 with the third episode, Shadow Warrior 3. The next adventure in the series sees protagonist Lo Wang and his sidekick Orochi Zilla face a dangerous mission to ” win back an ancient dragon that they unwittingly freed from its eternal prison. “
Sonic Frontiers
The next main adventure of the blue hedgehog is scheduled for 2022: the game aims to “lay the groundwork” for future Sonic titles, according to Sonic Studio’s Takashi Iizuka.
Splatoon 3
Nintendo’s colorful shooter will return in 2022 with an experience that will include both a multiplayer compartment, in which to smear opponents with ink, and a single-player campaign entitled The Return of the Mammalians. The multiplayer sector will keep all the main mechanics that have made the franchise successful, introducing new weapons and customization options.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Set in the same universe as the Batman: Akrham series, the new Rocksteady Studios project is a cooperative action game set in Metropolis, which for the occasion will be proposed as a fully explorable scenario. In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, players will be able to control Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot and Captain Boomerang (each with their own unique abilities and customizable weapons) in an almost impossible feat: defeat Superman, The Flash, Wonder’s Justice League. Woman and Green Lantern, mentally controlled by the evil Brainiac.