PlayStation was the home of the blockbusters in 2022, with a range of highly-anticipated games launching on the platform – including some rare platform exclusives. Both God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West stunned with their gorgeous set-pieces and fantasy action, while third-party titles like Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Elden Ring, and Stray made an equally grand impact. Following a relatively quiet year for big games in 2021, the video game audience was treated in 2022, with the best PlayStation games being truly phenomenal.
While limiting our favourite PlayStation games of 2022 to just our top ten cuts off a whole range of enjoyable, memorable, and visually impressive journeys, it still leaves us with a large amount of truly brilliant games to talk about.
Here are our top 10 favourite PlayStation games of 2022.
- Stray
- Marvel’s Midnight Suns
- Cult of the Lamb
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Elden Ring
- Gotham Knights
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
- Wayward Strand
- Goat Simulator 3
- God of War Ragnarok
- Honourable Mentions
Stray
- See Stray on Amazon.
You’re a little cat in a big, post-apocalyptic world. What more could you want from a game? Robots inhabit the cyberpunk land you travel through in Stray, but despite their mechanical makeup, manage to provide scores of heartfelt moments throughout the game. Find sheet music for a musician and curl up next to them while they serenade you, or find materials for a grandma-like robot to knit you a garment. All the while, learn more about the circumstances that led to the world around you becoming this way, and do what you can to reunite with your other cat friends (and maybe have a cry in the first ten minutes when you get separated from them).
Read: Stray Review – So Exquisitely, Believably Cat-like
The mechanics make Stray all the more cat-like, and your exploration of the world is made through calculated jumps, high-rise catwalks (no pun intended) and tight squeezes to get to your destination. The art direction and mix of overgrown urban ruins, mixed with dingy, neon-lit cityscapes makes the game as beautiful to play as it is fun.
Despite the game being about an adorable cat trying to find their way back home, and plenty of opportunity to cause cat-induced mayhem (think scratching up carpet and knocking things over), Stray manages to induce some heart-stopping thriller moments too. For cat lovers and solo story game fans alike, Stray is a dystopian hit, all viewed from the perspective of a cute orange tabby. – Emily Spindler-Carruthers
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Marvel’s Midnight Suns was the biggest surprise of the year; a game that went underrated, and almost flew under the radar. Maybe it was because of Marvel fatigue, or a lack of interest in the ‘supernatural’ side of this beloved world, but regardless of being the underdog, Marvel’s Midnight Suns managed to eclipse all expectations. This hybrid team-building and strategy combat game has charm in spades. It’s a little bit weird at times – particularly when you’re lounging with your ultra-powered teammates in your swimmers – but its quirks are charming in every way.
Read: Marvel’s Midnight Suns review – Friendship triumphs over evil
Even if you’re not a fan of Marvel, the game’s sweeping narrative, brilliant character arcs, and impressive, turn-based combat was quick to win us over. The talent at Firaxis shines through in every facet of this game, making it a fascinating and worthy contender as one of the best PlayStation games of the year. – Leah J. Williams
Cult of the Lamb
Cult of the Lamb combines everything great about games into a bloody, eldritch package. With elements of life and management simulators, as well as roguelike dungeon crawlers, there’s plenty to love here – including the titular Lamb, which guides the action as a scion of terrible beasts. While you can get stuck with an awful cult in the early stages, as animals eat their own poop and get sick, the further you travel down dark forest paths, the better your flock will become.
Read: Cult of the Lamb review – The flower of the flock
Eventually, they’ll stop eating their own poop and transform into the faithful herd you deserve, helping you farm religious points that aid your quest to defeat the old gods, and reclaim a piece of your long-dead soul. All of this, and plenty more, hides behind a whimsical and cute facade well-designed by Melbourne’s Massive Monster. As a hybrid cultist simulator, it’s an absolute triumph. It gets its hooks in early, and has you praying at its altar for grim and delightful hours. – Leah J. Williams
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is astonishing from its opening moments, which re-introduce players to Aloy and her merry band of post-apocalyptic survivors. It’s not just the impressive foliage you wander through, or the way Aloy’s skin seems to sweat realistically – every part of this game absolutely sings. From wild quests across desert landscapes, to walks through dense green jungle, there’s a sense of beauty in every lovingly-placed pixel, and in every well-crafted narrative tale.
Read: Horizon Forbidden West review – a breathtaking journey
Quests are heart-felt and sweeping. Characters feel real. The heartbreak, triumph, and anguish that accompanies each story beat is always harshly felt, as the game absorbs you into its tale of struggle at the end of the world. While its apex is fairly surreal, it never loses its clear sense of identity. Aloy, played by Ashly Burch, is also a loveable, complex protagonist – and she remains the beating heart of this adventure, throughout every wild twist. – Leah J. Williams
Elden Ring
- See Elden Ring on Amazon.
Nobody can deny the incredible impact Elden Ring has had on the year, even if March 2022 feels like it was actually several years ago. Devoted FromSoftware fans may argue otherwise, but the studio that created the Souls-like genre with Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls has seemingly perfected its approach with Elden Ring, and has been rewarded with a staggeringly huge uptake by a devout community of players, many of whom have never played a game like this before, and are now changed by it.
Maybe it’s a much-advertised George R.R. Martin connection that got Elden Ring its newfound attention, with the Game of Thrones director adding some attractive flavour to the lore of the world. But it’s most certainly Elden Ring’s approach to its worldbuilding, the freedom-focussed, self-driven game structure, and challenging combat that kept people on-board, and talking about the game all year.
Read: Elden Ring review – stay a while, stay forever
The setting of The Lands Between is an absolutely vast and terrifying place, with new dangers everywhere you go. There are so many times where you see something that strikes fear into you – a towering behemoth, a horrifying beast, or another seemingly impossible challenge, and you’ll think ‘how on earth am I going to conquer this’?
But the advantage of an unrestricted open-world, one that Elden Ring cleverly uses to the fullest, is in your ability to follow your desire and curiosity, go at your own pace, and slowly find that confidence within you. Go somewhere with enemies that seem more manageable, level up your character, find new tools to help you, and build your own innate proficiency. Then, go back and overcome what was once a tough ask. Slowly but surely, across several dozen hours, you’ll feel yourself forging an intimate relationship with the land and its inhabitants, gradually finding yourself able to finally take a firm hold of every challenge within it. This world becomes yours.
The satisfaction that comes from eventually finding it in yourself to overcome such incredible odds has always been a key part of FromSoftware games. But what Elden Ring has done is make those odds feel so much greater, while giving you the capacity to do more to help yourself, at your own pace – which makes those eventual victories much sweeter. When you look back on how far you’ve come in Elden Ring, the feeling is sublime. – Edmond Tran
Gotham Knights
Gotham Knights is a gorgeous interpretation of Batman’s iconic world, and a solid successor to the Arkham series. It’s not just in the game’s aesthetics where it succeeds, it also manages to balance hearty, diverse combat (which changes based on your character picks) with warm overworld banter, as each of the game’s four protagonists (Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, Batgirl) bond over their thankless tasks. Each night in this journey, you’ll venture out to fight crime, investigate clues, and face off against the game’s major villains – including Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface.
Read: Gotham Knights Review – The Bat is dead, long live the Batfamily
Each of these fights has its own unique gimmick, with the first Mr. Freeze encounter being a particular highlight. As icy blasts plague a cloistered stage, you’ll need to spend time countering and avoiding hits, while doling out damage of your own. Quick wits and fast feet are often needed to out-think your rivals, who then push you down winding and dark rabbit holes filled with villainous surprises (The Court of Owls) and plenty of deep Batman lore. It’s a worthy romp into DC canon, and one of the best PlayStation games of 2022. – Leah J. Williams
Tina Tina’s Wonderlands
Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep changed the Borderlands franchise in a major way, opening up its connection to the world of fantasy and inadvertently creating demand for multi-genre spin-offs that tell alternative Borderlands tales. After several years, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands arrived – and what a tremendous sight it was. In this wild and colourful fantasy adventure, fan-favourite character Tiny Tina returns to her roots, guiding a new batch of players through a Dungeons & Dragons-like romp. In odd narrative beats, players are sent through wild beanstalk forests, dragon-infested mountains, strange rocky paths, goblin tunnels, and more wild worlds – all with their own wacky, Borderlands-inspired twist.
Read: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands review – A tremendous tall tale
The whole journey is accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, sharp dialogue, and genuinely hilarious performances from voice actors Ashly Burch, Andy Samberg, and Wanda Sykes. They all do a phenomenal job of bringing the tale to life, and punctuate each story mission with enjoyable banter that reshapes the world of the game. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is vast, over the top, and filled with personality, making it one of the most memorable and enjoyable games of 2022. – Leah J. Williams
Wayward Strand
Wayward Strand transports you to an aged care ward in a floating hospital, set in a 70s coastal Australian town. You play Casey, a young girl brimming with curiosity as she spends three days helping her mum out by keeping the residents company.
On the surface, Wayward Strand is a game where you get to know the residents and pepper them with a million questions about their lives. But dig a bit deeper, and listen a little harder as you wander the halls of the airship, and the game provides a wealth of commentary on past (and current) treatment and care of the elderly, as well as facing difficult topics like mortality.
Read: Wayward Strand review – The clock keeps ticking
Residents talk about their rich lives, both before they ended up on the ship, as well as their time in aged care. Some patients are nonverbal, however through patience and earnest interest in them, you can learn about their rich interior worlds and past adventures. As the clock ticks on each day, you must decide who to talk to and how to spend your time. There’s plenty of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moments, and Wayward Strand warrants multiple playthroughs to experience everything it has to offer, from heartfelt and gut-wrenching moments, through to absurd and silly anecdotes from the vibrant cast of characters you encounter.
I cried, laughed, and sat quietly, taking it all in, all in the space of one playthrough of this game. For a rich story, and gorgeous art style to boot, this Australian-made gem is well worth playing. – Emily Spindler-Carruthers
Goat Simulator 3
Goat Simulator 3 is the ultimate power trip – a sandbox adventure where you play as a terrible goat, ally yourself with other terrible goats, and cause havoc wherever you go. Climb a mountain and interrupt folks experience zen relaxation time. Ram a man trying to fix a leaking tower, for no reason. Run along the beach, frolic in a field, and set off rockets from your hyper-powered vest. The world is your oyster in Goat Simulator 3, and you’re very welcome to ruin it however you like.
Read: Goat Simulator 3 is the ultimate power trip
As you travel the world of Goat Simulator 3, following a loose plot that emulates Skyrim, you’ll encounter an array of quests and environmental puzzles. Some are simple: do a flip, head-butt a building. Others require a great deal of thought, care, and hunting through a sandbox world: collect 40 boxes and store them in a garage, unleash dynamite on a rude fisherman, water some tomatoes. Whatever you choose to pursue will result in great and terrible consequences – but not for you, of course. You’re just a wonderful, terrible goat living its best life in this brilliant open world experience. – Leah J. Williams
God of War Ragnarok
It’s very easy to dismiss blockbuster games for treading old ground. Sony Santa Monica’s God of War reboot, despite certainly making its own unique mark on the world, has been played and dissected by so many people now that in some circles, it’s been boiled down to its tropes – the overprotective dad, the repentant warrior, the streamlined combat mechanics, the side-shuffling through tight spaces. But God of War Ragnarok seems so keenly aware of all of this, and by golly, it just decides to go all in regardless. It’s a game so sure of itself, so confident of its direction, that it doubles down on the things it knows make God of War games really great.
Read: God of War Ragnarok review – A captivating epic filled with heart
The utter commitment to its cinematic style is one thing. The game is so utterly refined in its method of storytelling and dedication to ‘the bit’ – a single, continuous camera shot that gives its mode of storytelling a flair that somehow still feels unmatched in games. But it does it so well, and even plays with it somewhat, at times subverting your expectations, other times, surpassing them. The approachable combat system is a key element – a series of moves and abilities that are easy to execute, and allow for a comfortable level of complexity if you want it. But most importantly, the combat focuses on making sure each hit has heft, and feels so good to perform.
Beyond this, the real highlight of God of War Ragnarok is the game’s devotion to doubling down on its highly personal, character-driven narrative, which pulls out all stops in activating your emotions in the heightened ways that only a blockbuster can. That’s not to say it’s manipulative – Ragnarok does a lot of work to really make you care about its characters, and revels in hours of quiet, seemingly insignificant moments that help forge an even stronger attachment to the story
Sure, it’s a beautiful game about an angry man that hits things really good. But it’s also a deeply felt drama about love, loss, and family that has the capacity to make you shed tears, no matter how tough you think you are. – Edmond Tran
Honourable Mentions
As always, there are plenty of honourable mentions to go around for all the games that didn’t quite make our top ten list for the best PlayStation games of the year. First up, we have Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, a brilliant re-interpretation of the Star Wars saga with wacky slapstick antics, hilariously reduced violence, and plenty of fun to go around. This game has a real reverence for the Star Wars source material, and flips it on its head in hilarious ways.
Next up, we have Two Point Campus – a game that’s brilliant on both PC and console. For anyone who loves management and organisation, this game is quick to enthral you in its absurd world, and introduce you to its cast of loveable weirdos, strange classes, and even stranger campuses.
Ghostwire: Tokyo was also a solid and intriguing experience, with a unique take on supernatural gothic chaos, Japanese yokai monsters, and the end of the world.
Finally, we’ll also love to shout out OlliOlli World, one of the most relaxing skateboarding games around. With a weird subplot about skate gods and metaphysical beings, it can get extremely odd at times, and that’s what makes this adventure so charming. Try, try, try again and eventually you’ll succeed at pulling off all the high-flying flips and tricks of this delightful romp. – Leah J. Williams
How does GamesHub pick its Game of the Year categories?
GamesHub’s Game of the Year picks are selected collectively by tenured staff. Each member puts together a ranked personal list of their favourite games released in 2022, and titles are given a score according to their rank, with 10 being the highest, and 1 being the lowest. The scores are collated, and the games are resorted in rank by their collective score, with staff members then deliberating over individual placements and adjusting where necessary, before locking in the final list.
For more on the best games of 2022, explore the rest of our game of the year coverage:
- Cult of the Lamb wins GamesHub’s Game of the Year 2022
- The Best Games of 2022
- The Best Nintendo games of 2022
- The Best Xbox games of 2022
- The Best PC games of 2022
- The Best mobile games of 2022
- The 5 best indie games of 2022 you definitely didn’t play
- Edmond Tran’s Top 10 Games of 2022
- Leah Williams’ Top 10 Games of 2022
- Meredith Hall on 2022 with God of War, Card Shark, and RMIT Games
- Award-winning developers Fuzzy Ghost on their favourite games of 2022
- Umurangi Generation developer on the impactful moments of 2022
- Tempopo developer Sanatana Mishra’s favourite games of 2022
- Kelsey Gamble’s Top 4 Games of 2022
- David Wildgoose on his Game of the Year for 2022: Elden Ring
GamesHub has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content. GamesHub may earn a small percentage of commission for products purchased via affiliate links.
