As 2022 comes to a close, it's time for the GameSpot team to share what we most enjoyed playing and watching over the past year. As per usual, that includes what five Xbox console exclusives ended up being our collective favorites. Below, we list the five we picked and also detail why each one ended up making the cut.
Before getting down in the comments, we know that Xbox doesn't typically have full-on exclusives like PlayStation, Switch, PC, and mobile devices. That's why this is a list of the best Xbox console exclusives--all of these games are available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. That's just the way Xbox does things. We have made an additional exception for the final game listed here, given it's available on more than just Xbox and PC.
Like our Best Of lists for PlayStation, Switch, PC, and mobile, this list is unranked. The games are simply listed in alphabetical order.
As Dusk Falls
As Dusk Falls is one of 2022's most well-written games, expertly balancing a half-dozen characters in a plotline that spans several years. It grounds its tale in a relatable story about people, each striving to do the best they can. And though there's refreshing escapism to stories that feature a straightforward battle between good and evil, there's tremendous value in the nuanced depiction of As Dusk Falls' characters. The characters who you'd describe as "good" are as inherently fallible as anyone else, and the "evil" characters do occasionally make understandable decisions. It makes for a stressful experience, to be sure, where it oftentimes feels like there are no right answers, but it will sink its claws into you all the same.
Additionally, the structure of As Dusk Falls breaks from the established mold of similarly designed choice-driven adventure games--the Telltale formula if you will--with a Jackbox-style multiplayer system where decisions are made by a group and can even be played on a phone using a companion app. This makes As Dusk Falls a lot more fun in a group setting than many of its peers. Couple that with As Dusk Falls' incredible accessibility settings and you've got a great game that your whole friend group can excitedly scream about together.
In GameSpot's As Dusk Falls review, Mark Delany gave the game a 9/10, writing, "[As Dusk Falls] ends up telling a story that brilliantly grapples with a lot of under-explored, or even unexplored, themes in video games. Like a lot of my favorite games, it left me with a lot to think about, such as the roles we choose or reject, the hardships we inescapably inherit from family, and how trauma casts a dauntingly long shadow, but how forgiveness, should we choose to show it, may just let the light in."
Grounded
Grounded has been out for over two years, but it left early access and officially launched in 2022, making it eligible for our end-of-the-year Best Of lists. Those years in early access have done a lot of good for Obsidian Entertainment's survival-crafting game, which launched in 1.0 with few bugs and steers clear of many of the pitfalls that plague this genre, like an overreliance on convoluted systems and frustrating learning curves.
The game also benefits from a charming, albeit familiar, premise. You and your friends have been shrunk down to the size of insects and now must build a shelter for yourselves in the wilderness of your family's backyard, doing your best to fend off aggressive predators like spiders, bees, and fire ants. The game doesn't substantially shift the needle on what games with this narrative setup or gameplay loop can accomplish, but Grounded accomplishes what it sets out to do without much in the way of downsides. That's an accomplishment in it itself.
In GameSpot's Grounded review, Mark Delaney gave the game an 8/10, writing, "Grounded isn't the biggest game of its kind, and most of its moment-to-moment gameplay moments have been seen before in other games. Still, the fantastical setup makes for an immediately intriguing setup, and to further stylize it as a uniquely child-like adventure, polish it beyond most of its peers, and set it in a world full of familiar sights to see in startling new ways makes Grounded no small feat."
Immortality
Immortality is an artistically impressive game, meaning it has detractors and supporters in equal measure. As a team, the GameSpot staff is quite divided on it. Many of us see its elusive narrative as a plus, creating a convoluted web of interweaving plotlines and mysteries that are rewarding to unravel. However, just as many of us point to this same inapproachable and obtuse way of storytelling as a negative, as it can easily backfire and result in an experience that starts strong but quickly devolves into an unfathomable mess of clicking on random objects for a mere crumb of progression.
There's a lot of artistic value in a game with such a wide degree of interpretations. Immortality pushed the GameSpot team to go back and forth in how we talk about a game in a way very few titles did this year, encouraging us to really puzzle through why we liked it or didn't. Plus, regardless of where each of us fell on our feelings toward the game, all of us could agree that Immortality's Manon Gage is one of the standout performances of the year, and on that alone this game deserves a shoutout in this list.
In GameSpot's Immortality review, Mark Delaney gave the game an 8/10, writing, "There are moments in this game about which I can't go into detail, but they are the main reason I've given this game the high score you see below. The first time I came upon an example of a particular game mechanic, I jumped out of my seat with excitement, alerting my wife that what I thought Immortality was going to be had dramatically changed in an instant. Even once I learned how Immortality works, it continued to surprise me with what it would show me, what it would tell me, and best of all, what it would refuse to tell me, leaving me to dwell on it long after I finally discovered Marissa's fate."
Pentiment
Pentiment has undoubtedly got a great sense of style. Developer Obsidian Entertainment's historical adventure game features perhaps 2022's most well-realized art direction, emulating both the artistic style and penmanship of early 16th-century Germany to inform Pentiment's visuals and text. In doing so, it paints a picture of the past not often achieved in video games, which serves Pentiment's story and its thematic exploration of history.
Like Immortality, Pentiment is another game that the GameSpot team finds artistic value in--we're also largely split on it, too. For a few of us, the series of murder mysteries and the conspiracy that connects them feels lacking, taking away from the far more enjoyable aspects of the game, like roleplaying. Others really enjoy the interwoven mystery at the heart of Pentiment's story, as well as the sense of progression it adds to the overall narrative. Regardless of where we stand, we all agree that Pentiment holds tremendous value in the gaming space--more AAA studios should allow segments of their teams to work on small passion projects like this, as it further diversifies the kinds of games that get promoted and played.
In GameSpot's Pentiment review, I wrote, "As is, Pentiment strives to exist somewhere between a history book and historical fiction, not quite committing to a detailed look at history or fulfilling a narrative arc. This is a detriment to the game's conclusion, dampening my memories of the game save for the stories of individual characters. I retain a soft spot for the wise Illuminata and her conversations with Andreas about literature and religion, and I have a parental fondness for a young peasant girl who I watched grow from a gurgling toddler to a young woman. Witnessing their lives play out is a narrative delight, only enhanced by the creative use of Pentiment's different fonts to better convey a person's societal station or education."
Vampire Survivors
This is the one really wonky game on this list as Vampire Survivors launched solely on PC and the best way to play the game is on a handheld, meaning Steam Deck or the recently released mobile ports for iOS and Android. And since the game is available on mobile, Vampire Survivors is not an Xbox console exclusive like the other four games listed here. But we made this list prior to the reveal of the mobile ports and we have to cut off our deliberation process at some point, so here we are. I don't think anyone is mad we're highlighting Vampire Survivors, anyway.
And regardless, Vampire Survivors plays fairly well on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and since it's included in Xbox Game Pass, we feel it sufficiently makes the cut for being included on an Xbox exclusives list. This bullet-hell survival game has quickly become a smash hit this year, with several of my coworkers becoming quite hooked on it and losing hours at a time to it. Frankly, I'm worried--Tamoor has mentioned this game to me more times this year than Elden Ring, GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2022. That can't be healthy.
Vampire Survivors' success lies in its simplicity, which belies how remarkable it is. All you're trying to do is survive an escalating horde of vampiric monsters for 30 minutes. The challenge lies in the ever-increasing difficulty of the situation, encouraging you to kill enemies as quickly as possible in order to collect the gems they drop to level up and unlock new weapons and powerful buffs. Given how bite-sized the goal of surviving for 30 minutes is, it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to squeeze a few rounds in while on break or taking a poo, only to then think to yourself, "I can probably play one more time."
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