The 20 Best Video Games of 2022 So Far

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – July 7, 2022

Which games impressed professional reviewers the most during the first half of the year? Above, we rank the best-reviewed videogames released between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022 by Metascore. Games must have at least 7 reviews from professional critics to be eligible for inclusion.

Note that ...

If a game was released on multiple platforms, we included only the version receiving the largest total number of reviews (usually, but not always, the PS5 or PS4 version).

Multi-game compilations and newly released ports of games released in prior years on other platforms are excluded, unless they are substantially different from the prior release(s) (for example, an HD remaster of a previous-gen game that also adds some new content). We have also excluded DLC.

8 of 21 photo by Patrick Traynor

84 #13 (tie): Patrick's Parabox

The Patrick in the title of this indie puzzler is Patrick Traynor, the one-man studio behind Parabox. You'll think your way through more than 350 sokoban (box-pushing) puzzles whose recursive-themed solutions require strategic placement of boxes within boxes within boxes (or, rather paradoxically, within themselves).

“Patrick's Parabox is brilliant, there's no other way to say it. It starts with a small idea and expands it again and again, mixing each new insight with the previous one to create larger and larger and more interesting puzzles. It offers lots of content, administered quickly to the player, with lots of optional levels, allowing the more experienced to test themselves and those who struggle a bit more to advance by completing only the easier sections.” —Multiplayer.It

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