5 Most Anticipated Indie Games of 2022
This year is looking to be a pretty big year for big studio games and I wrote an article about the 5 most anticipated games of 2022. In this article I look at my top 5 anticipated indie games of 2022. This is because although I love playing big games like Horizon and God of War, I also love the different types of experiences you get in indie games that you do not necessarily get in triple A games. I probably play twice as many indie games as I do triple A or double A games because as a father of two very young kids I find that short, concise indie experiences are much easier to play when you have less time to play. So with that in mind here are the top 5 indies that I am most excited to play in 2022.
Sifu - Release Date - 8th February 2022
I watched a Tiktok recently where they compared the gameplay of Sifu to the martial arts movie ‘The Protector’ and I realised why this game resonates to me as much as it does. I really like watching martial arts movies and this game does really have that feel of fighting in a martial arts movie. If you watch this 10 minutes of gameplay you then you will see exactly what I mean. What this gameplay shows is exactly how the game will work and from what I can tell is that you fight a lot of enemies and every time you defeat one you gain a little health back, you can use weapons that you pick up around the area and you can stun enemies by weakening them by a certain amount or by sometimes throwing something at them. While stunned you can then complete finishers. You also gain points / XP as you defeat enemies which you can then upgrade your skills at certain places in the game or when you die. Also the more you die, the faster you will age until you get too old to try again. The mechanics in this game are really interesting and this makes me want to play it even more.
Replaced - Release Date - 2022
This is 2.5D action platformer set in a 1980’s dystopia. It has a very cyberpunk vibe to it and as it is based in the 80’s, I am hoping there will be lots of 80’s references included as I love 80’s action movies. The game was reveal with a trailer at E3 and is set to be released in 2022. From the trailer it looks action packed and super fun with what I can only describe as 2D ‘John Wick’ style of gun play and fighting. These was another teaser trailer shown at Gamescon 2021 and it revealed a song that will be in the game which you can listen to now, so I hope this means that there will be a bunch of decent 80’s sounding songs in the game.
Stray - Release Date - Early 2022
I did not ever think in my life that anyone would be want to play a game as a cat but for some reason after watching the reveal trailer in June 2020 and there are a lot of people who are really interested in playing this game (myself included). In the trailer you see a cat roaming around a neon lit city which is filled with robots inhabitants. There was also a gameplay trailer in which you see a cat who has been separated from his family and has to survive a unfriendly environment. The end goal is to escape the city and be reunited with family and as you go through the world you will have to solve puzzles, escape and fight enemies and make friends with some of the robot inhabitants along the way. I really like the look and feel of this game and can’t wait to play it when it releases in early 2022 on PC (Steam), PS4 and PS5.
Little Devil Inside - Release Date - 2022
Little Devil Inside blew me away when I saw the showcase trailer in June 2020. This game started as a Kickstarter campaign back in 2015. In this game you play as Billy who seems to be a monster hunter where you travel around searching for monsters and defeating them. You travel through many different environments from woods to deserts to mountains. The game is an action adventure RPG so alongside the action you also have to gather resources and find places to camp and cook. There also seems to be a funny element included but it’s little hard to tell from the trailers. From what I can see in the trailers and gameplay this game has a very breath of the wild feel to it however this game is set in a semi-open world instead of a fully open world like breath of the wild was.
ANNO: Mutationem - Release Date - Early 2022
Another cyberpunk style’d game and I do love a game with a cyberpunk aesthetic however this game has a more anime feel to it. ANNO: Mutationem is described as an action-adventure game with RPG elements set in a cyberpunk world, featuring a unique mix of pixelated 2D & 3D graphic style with a rich, dark and bizarre plot. There was a video of 30 minutes gameplay shown back in June and it showed off with the mix of 2D and 3D graphics and I really like the feel of how this game looks.
There seems to be a theme with the games here, mostly action adventures or cyberpunk style’d games. I do really want to play all of these games however the two games I am most excited to play is Sifu and Little Devil Inside. These are my top 5 anticipated games of 2022 however I am sure there are lots of Indie games I have missed so let me know what games you would have added to your list in the comments below or on Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok. Also if you like this article or want to see more on upcoming games then follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok to see more and also to know when new articles are published.
