Another year comes and goes in the gaming industry, and like always, lots of new video games were released throughout the year. Today, we’re set to focus on shooters and what they’ve brought to the table as we tell you our top five picks for the best shooter game of 2022.
Metal: Hellsinger (PC, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Metal: Hellsinger takes players on a first-person rhythm-based shooter game through various realms of Hell. With gameplay that rewards you for staying on beat and is surprisingly difficult even on lower difficulty settings, Metal Hellsinger and its weapon variety is a unique beast in its own right. In our review of the game, I wound up saying:
“Metal: Hellsinger offers a great variety of metal songs that will make your journey through Hell a very pleasant one. Combined with the relentless enemies and dynamic gameplay, this game is sure to give you hours of entertainment so long as you know how to stay on the beat.”
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction (PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, XSS/XSX)
Released in mid-January 2022, this tactical shooter game was a bit of a companion to the immensely popular Rainbow Six Siege; instead of it being more PVP-focused, Extraction takes a PvE angle on things, bringing a unique spin to the cover and positioning-based shooter that Siege is. To quote our review, we said the following:
“Ubisoft Montreal’s attempt at a cooperative alien survival shooter takes the operators and abilities that players love from Rainbow Six Siege and brings them into a familiar style of shooter that longtime fans of Left 4 Dead or GTFO can appreciate with a squad of friends.”
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (PC, PS4, XB1, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Given that this year’s been filled with heavy hitters like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, to name a couple, it’s pretty easy to forget that the Borderlands series had a new game. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes the ideas set by the much-loved Borderlands 2 DLC Assault on Dragon Keep and expands it into an entire game, complete with the usual Borderlands gameplay loop. We had the following to say about it in our review:
“Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands offers some new aspects of the series, with more of the classic, almost unbeatable gunplay and wild combat encounters. It is a vibrant, slightly disjointed world ripe for exploration and trouble. Although it misses a few marks, it’s a spinoff series fans will enjoy and high fantasy fans will inevitably laugh or roll their eyes at.”
Evil West (PC, PS4, XB1, PS5, XSS/XSX)
Evil West is another action shooter game that came out and was a bit overshadowed thanks to releasing close to the aforementioned God of War Ragnarok. Flying Wild Hog’s latest release blends melee combat and third-person shooters into a uniquely compelling and engaging experience unlike others shown this year. To break down our thoughts on Evil West, we said:
“With a flow of combat that rivals that of the Doom Slayer, Evil West hits its mark when taking on vampires, werewolves, and everything in between, despite finding the rest of the experience a bit lacking.”
Splatoon 3 (Nintendo Switch)
It’s a fantastic multiplayer game. That should be plenty for its inclusion here.
On a more serious note, the game is pretty great in every regard; engaging multiplayer, making Salmon Run a permanent mode (it wasn’t always available to play in the last game), new Specials and maps, new weapons, and continuous updates throughout the next couple of years (which also includes balance changes, weapons, and maps). You can read our review here, and below is an excerpt:
“Splatoon 3 may be the series’ best entry yet, featuring some nice gameplay tweaks and new weaponry, an expanded and polished story mode, and more launch content than its predecessors. That said, it’s very much an evolutionary sequel, every bit as iterative as many of the shooter franchises it’s meant to be an alternative to. After a five-year absence, that may not be enough for some. Splatoon 3 is still fun and funky, but Nintendo’s squid shooter series can’t get by on freshness alone forever.”
Honorable Mentions
While those were our picks for this year, 2022 also saw many other noteworthy releases. Here’s a handful more that are well worth highlighting:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)
- Overwatch 2
- Warhammer 40K: Darktide
- Neon White
- High On Life
That said, here’s to hoping 2023 will be a great step forward for shooter games. In a few days, we’ll post our most anticipated list – until then, stay tuned.
