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The best games of 2022 keep on coming, and this list highlights the ones you really can’t afford to miss. This month it was all about graphic bullet wounds and Deadites.
After a 2021 beset by pandemic delayed games and console shortages, it feels like 2022 is a chance for PS5 and Xbox Series X to give us exclusive titles that make the most of their power. Nintendo Switch and PC platforms aren’t slouching either, ready to compete with Microsoft and Sony at every step.
We use our own review scores to separate out the best games for every month of the year so far, and we update the list every month so you’ll always know what you need to play next. Want to see what might make it onto the list next? Check all the new games of 2022 (and beyond) to get excited about.
May Game of the Month – Sniper Elite 5
Platform(s): PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, Nintendo Switch
GamesRadar+ review score: 4.5 Stars
Sniper Elite 5 may not reinvent the wheel, but it is absolutely the best of its kind – both as a choice-driven stealth-meets-high-action tactical shooter, and as an evolution of the third-person combat series now pushing two decades old. Its latest installment offers its biggest sandboxes yet, each of which can be approached and manipulated in a multitude of ways, each lined with more cover spots and traversable scenery than ever before. Facing off against hordes of AI Nazi baddies is never not fun – especially when puncturing their organs via the series’ signature slow-motion kill-cams, this one more intense and grizzlier than ever – but the introduction of a new ‘Axis Invasion’ mode spices things up further still, with players now able to drop into other folk’s campaigns uninvited. Learning the patrol patterns of NPCs is one thing, but handling unpredictable, trigger-happy players is another as chaos quickly unfolds around you. Sniper Elite 5 is brilliant and brutal. Joe Donnelly
May Game of the Month (Runner-up) – Evil Dead: The Game
Platform(s): PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, Nintendo Switch
GamesRadar+ review score: 4 Stars
If you love 80s horror icons and want to find your feet in the world of asymmetrical mayhem and maiming, then Evil Dead: The Game is here for you. Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer experience that is a bit like Dead by Daylight. Four Survivors have to face off with one Demon, with the survivors working together to fight Deadite. Sure, it’s a formula that’s familiar but, it’s also the culmination of the genre’s best ideas and finally gives survivors some agency. Rachel Weber
April Game of the Month – Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Platform(s): PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC
GamesRadar+ review score: 4 Stars
Turning all nine films from A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker into a fantastic plastic adventure, this is a return to glory for developer Traveller’s Tales. There are action sequences we know and love, and there are also the towns, forests, and swamps around them, all bustling with life and absolutely packed with Star Wars lore, puzzles, and challenges. The sight gags that are the Lego games’ trademark are here too, and the slightly camp subject matter provided by Star Wars is the perfect foil for them. All in all, an impressively expansive and authentic recreation of everything you love about Star Wars. Rachel Weber
April Game of the Month (Runner-up) – Nintendo Switch Sports
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
GamesRadar+ review score: 4 Stars
Get prepared to sweat over your Switch again, with tennis, bowling, sword fighting, badminton, volleyball, and soccer. Nintendo promises that’s just the beginning too, with more features coming later like leg strap support for the one-on-one and four-on-four football matches later this summer, and then in the fall, the seventh sport – golf – will be added to the game. Overall, the new online mode stops Nintendo Switch Sports from being just a visual upgrade and makes it an experience well worth the investment. Rachel Weber
March Game of the Month – Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
GamesRadar+ review score: 4.5 Stars
It’s a high score for Kirby and the Forgotten Land, in no small part thanks to the addition of Mouthful Mode. This new ability means Kirby can stretch themselves over things like a car or a vending machine. It might sound like a concept for a German horror movie, but it’s wicked fun. With the new mechanic and a delightful 3D world to explore, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a ray of sunshine. Rachel Weber
March Game of the Month (Runner-up) – Weird West
Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One and PC
GamesRadar+ review score: 4 Stars
Weird West might be an RPG with a Western theme, but forget everything you think you know about being a gunslinger. This is an alternative history where monstrous pig men roam the world, ghosts haunt old towns and witches practice arcane rituals in underground temples. The action is as unusual as the story, with a world where you can kill anyone you want – even significant story characters – approach quests in any way that works for you, and learn a lot of lessons about what happens when you accidentally throw some dynamite next to an oil barrel. It’s a smart and wonderfully strange game that shows its Arkane roots and will keep you ensnared until its wild end. Rachel Weber
February Game of the Month – Elden Ring
Platform(s): PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC
GamesRadar+ review score: 5 Stars
It turns out Elden Ring was worth the wait. The FromSoftware adventure scores full marks by bringing the DNA of games like Dark Souls to a bigger, more expansive world with poisonous swamps and intimidating mountain fortresses. Your new equine sidekick, Torrent, gives you the freedom to explore and avoid fights you’d really rather not handle, which makes this FromSoftware game a little more accessible to players, if not empirically easier. The monsters and bosses of this world are just as psychologically scarring in both their design and difficulty as ever, and Souls fans wouldn’t have it any other way. Rachel Weber
February Game of the Month (Runner-up) – Horizon Forbidden West
Platform(s): PS4 and PS5
GamesRadar+ review score: 4.5 Stars
Horizon Forbidden West is the massive sequel to the 2017 PlayStation exclusive and sees an older, wiser Aloy exploring new territory. You get to play and plunder a new map filled with side quests, new mechanical monsters to kill and tame, and armed with new skills like the diving mask. It’s a brilliant evolution of the mechanics that made the original such a compelling new series for PlayStation, and the neon lights of a ruined Vegas and the shores of San Francisco really show off the capabilities of the PS5. Rachel Weber
January Game of the Month – Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
GamesRadar+ review score: 4.5 Stars
Pokemon Legends: Arceus makes the monsters the star, moving the focus from beating other trainers in gyms to the ‘gotta catch ’em all’ part of the tried-and-tested Pokemon formula. As you explore the setting of Hisui, you’ll follow a story and NPCs will pop up with their own requests, rather than just wanting to bash in the faces of your Pokemon team for clout. The game isn’t always as visually impressive as it could be, but with a richer narrative and lots to explore Pokemon Legends: Arceus really is otherwise the ultimate Pokemon fan experience.
January Game of the Month (Runner-up) – Rainbow Six Extraction
Platform(s): PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X
GamesRadar+ review score: 3.5 Stars
Rainbow Six Extraction is a horror take on the Rainbow Six Siege brand of PvE tactical shooter, sending you around the US to take on the Archaeans, parasitic alien beings who haven’t come to Earth to sightsee. While it’s lacking in some narrative depth and still feels a bit like a rushed version of Siege’s Outbreak mode of 2018, there are moments of real horror and co-op craziness to enjoy. Rainbow Six Extraction has the potential to be something great, as long as Ubisoft delivers on its plan to keep adding to this new release.
