Best Revisits 2022: Remasters and Ongoing

The gaming landscape is changing. The rise of the era of the live service game; the golden age of remasters that we have seen in the last several years; all inspired me to create this new list a few "Best of's" ago. I regularly play ongoing games, and sometimes one of the best gaming experiences in a year isn't always a completely new one. Last year I would say hands down the best experience I had was the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Also, several ongoing games like Fortnite and Apex Legends bring healthy community and friendships as well as gamer pop culture. In addition to our various Top lists, I created this hybrid list to celebrate games from previous years who occupied my time this year either in the form of on going service, a reboot, a remaster, or anything that might bring a older game back into the spotlight. In the past, I have excluded full remakes as they are ground up rebuilds that qualify them often for the main top 10 "new" list. However, sometimes the line between remaster and remake is blurry, and it's a judgement call which list to put it on. Below are 8 games, that managed to compete with the totally new in 2022.

RULES:

A game must have originally released in a year prior to 2022. It either made a return in some way or is an ongoing live service game. It is a previous year title bringing us back in 2022. Live Service games that launched this year do not qualify. Warzone 2 and Overwatch 2 are a unique oddities as they are strange pseudo-sequels. They qualify for the main top list and not this one. Lost Ark is massively popular MMO that didn't launch in North America where I live until 2022 so it does not qualify.

8. Realm Royale Reforged - 8/10 in 2022 - "LABOR OF LOVE" 2022

It is rare for dead game to come back to life years later. Realm Royale was a cartoon style Battle Royale game that came out in the heart of the rise of BR. Fortnite, Black Ops 4, and Apex Legends were all launching around similar year, and dominating the space. Fortnite was a worldwide phenomenon. A dozen other BR's were springing up seemingly every other week and the market became saturated. Realm Royale was made by more well know developer than most, but still not able to compete in the same weight class as the juggernauts. Still, it developed a healthy fan following, including me who really enjoyed it. It was different enough from Fortnite to provide entertainment value. I really liked the game. I enjoyed its class based gameplay and blend of medical and modern weapons. It was fun! However, the player base dwindled, and support for the game fizzled out. The game's battle pass and seasons needed and the game hadn't been updated in years. Years went by and the game was effectively dead with only a small dedicated player base.

Much to the surprise of the loyal few, and past fans like me, the developers tweeted a cryptic message that Realm Royale was coming back! Soon we got treated to a livestream that Realm Royale "Reforged" was happening. The game was getting support back and the developers had been hard at work on a labor of love to turn support back on. They made a lot of under the hood changes and the game ran much better than before. Not as much has been added as I would have liked. It still has no next gen patch or even fixed the Playstation account locking. It lacks a theater mode. In some ways they doubled down on the class locking which restricts weapons and powers. However, I am still so happy to have the game back, and the quality of life improvements are great. It great when a beloved game gets a second chance. I definitely recommend giving this one a try if you never played it, or if you want a chance to come back. I hope they get the support they need to add more skins and items and fun things to keep players engaged for years to come.

7. Narka: Bladepoint - 8/10 in 2022

Naraka Bladepoint is a fantasy melee focused BR that is just so different from other BR's out there that it feels weird to put it in that genre when it looks, players, and feels nothing like the others. It has a beautiful art style that is just incredible to watch. I absolutely love this game, and in 2022 it came to Xbox and also launched a pseudo-campaign. My only complain is I still haven't been able to actually play the campaign mode. It's very odd in how they implemented it. It launched "time gated" where you can only play it on the weekends. It's just categorically odd to lock a story focused mode behind a time gate and tell players "when" they're allowed to play. LTE's are not uncommon but they typically last for a brief period of time, not like "you can only play on Friday and Saturday". It's weird for sure, but to make it worse, it never even worked for me. I would make a note to come back repeatedly on the times it was supposed to be available, but it always said unavailable.

It's annoying and kept this from being higher on the list. However, the main game is still a fun online BR that brought me back multiple times. If you haven't tried this one, you definitely should.

6. Apex Legends - 7/10 in 2022

2022 has very mixed emotions for me with Apex Legends. On one, Apex Legends remains one of my favorite live services. It is has world class gameplay and fun factor. It has so many amazing characters that I love and play. Some of my favorite moments in recent memory are with this game. However, I have also wained on it. We sunset our Apex Infinite page in 2022 with the promise to still cover and focus some on Apex content on Game Infinite main. I just don't have the time and passion to dedicate to Apex as much as a dedicated Apex page needs. I'm a little disappointed in Apex this year. The new characters were just ok, and the maps were also just ok.

I'm tired of the jealousy I have with Fortnite. Fortnite gets the better events, skins, and map changes. Apex feels neglected by the developers. Fortnite gets these frequent fantastic pop culture relevant skins and the skins in Apex vary from ugly to boring. The new map in 2022 is forgettable. There were no new guns. They need a new fresh mode, map, gun, and character! I just WANT MORE. I'm willing to devote the time if the game felt like the developers still cared.

I'm not trying to be too down, as this is a "best list". The game is still great if just stale. This game could be in the number 1 spot if the developers put the same effort into it as Epic puts into Fortnite! EA has all these amazing worlds and characters in their IP vault and yet they use none of it. Even Tencent is putting more effort into Apex Legends Mobile! Mobile has gotten cooler skins and characters and updates. I love this game, but Respawn you're letting the romance die! Don't give up!

I only gave it a 7/10 in 2022, for its service performance and community support this year. However, it's fun factor and community feel I felt deserved it a higher spot on this list. I graded on a curve because I love the game too much.

5. Destiny 2: Witch Queen - 9/10 in 2022

See Respawn? This is what I am talking about! Destiny 2 is two years older than Apex Legends and they are STILL putting out better content. I want Apex to look more like Destiny and I don't care if that even means paid expansions or events. Destiny 2 manages to give us a new location every expansion and they all looks incredibly different. Witch Queens world looks vastly different than the last two expansions and the upcoming Lightfall. the atmosphere, color palette, and everything looks and feels NEW. They almost don't even look like the same game. Destiny 2 does a better job at delivering new maps once a year than pretty much any other live service out there. Plus they did it with a whole new weapon class that is super fun, and with full cross progression.

This is how you do live service. There is stuff for the daily player, and stuff for those who stop by once a year for the main story expansion. It continues to be fantastic. I can't wait for Lightfall.

4. Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe - 10/10 in 2022

Technically this isn't a "Revisit" for me, because I never played the original. However, this remaster of Stanley Parable is just fantastic. How come no one told me about this game? This game is just S tier quality. It has parody, social commentary, diverging paths. It is a weird portal-like without the portal gun. It is a commentary on choice in games. It is hard to even describe just how great this experience is! This is a must play if you haven't before. I can't speak to how much better or improved it is over the original...but this game is 10/10

3. The Last of Us Part 1 - 10/10 in 2022 - BEST REMASTER 2022

Every now and then, the entire gaming community needs to admit when we were collectively just wrong. When the rumors were circling of a original last of us "full remake" was incoming, every gamer was confused. This game didn't need a remaster right? It already looks fantastic. It already got a PS4 remaster. Surely they don't mean "remake" maybe just a minor PS5 patch right? When the rumors were confirmed during an official announcement, coupled with the fact that this was going to be a FULL 70$ title, the internet collectively laughed. They kept calling it a remake, but in reality this is in in someways a really really really really good remaster. It is a remaster unlike anything up to date that calling it a remake is technically fair. They changed very little and reused all the dialogue, but updated the models and environment textures. To be honest, I was super skeptical. I did not think the game needed as much work as they claimed to be doing and 70$ for the third generation this game is on felt just ridiculous. I fully believed it was just a lazy cash grab to build excitement for the HBO show.

I and every one else were wrong. It is honestly hard to convey the quality of the improvements with YouTube live stream announcements as YouTube compresses everything and makes next-gen games look uglier than they are in person. However, in person, or true side by side images/videos really show just how improved this game looks. They took a 10/10 GOTY type game, and brought it successfully to the current generation in a way that felt like a labor of love instead of a cash grab. Other remasters, remakes, and next-gen ports need to take this as an example. This is the type of remaster/remake that is worth charging full price for.

2. Fortnite - 10/10 in 2022 - BEST ONGOING GAME 2022

I am so impressed with Fortnite in 2022. Not only has it continued to be successful (even without mobile); it just continues to evolve and bring fresh new things. The map is ever evolving and feels fresh after all these years. Fortnite has unprecedented global events that are a "must be there". The game continues to bring in our favorite characters from across the nerdy-multiverse. We continue to get new marvel, Star Wars, DC, and countless other appearances. They also deliver a healthy amount of new weapons to always stay fresh. Even if you are not "into Fortnite" you have to admit they add new content, better and more often than any other live service. Fortnite is becoming bigger than a game and more like a platform for the best version of the "meta verse" that actually works.

Plus in 2022, Fortnite got it's Unreal Engine 5 update and it only looks more beautiful than It did before.

1. Star Trek Armada - 10/10 in 2022. - BEST REVIST 2022

With fantastic live services, resurrected games, and just S tier remasters it might be a little odd that a TWENTY YEAR OLD game managed to top this list. It's not even technically much of a remaster.

Star Trek Armada is a game that sucked so many hours out of me. This is a game I know like the back of my hand because I played it to death on my old family PC as a child. This game is so old that until recently you couldn't even play it on a modern PC easily. GOG resurrected this game for modern windows platforms and brought it to life again. This is a game that I haven't been able to play in 2/3's of my life so GOG gifting me this massive dose of my childhood again was one of the highlights of the year. I could play it all night without even notice. I had to force myself to go to bed on this one.

This game isn't just riding on my nostalgia. It is a fantastic space strategy sim. You get to play admiral and command fleets of ships in the Star Trek universe (Star Trek during the glory days of Star Trek too). This is before Discovery or any of the modern ...stuff.

It also is more than just a port, as this game has some kind of upscaling that works really well. A game this old normally would looks just god awful on my 4k modern monitor, but the upscaling works very well to not hurt your eyes. They could have just ported it, but the upscaled 4k resolution actually matches my nostalgia goggles for how I remember this game looked. I know this pick is very niche and random, but I am telling you this game is a master piece. Buy it. Play it. Pair the Klingon Science ship's ION storm with one of the long range torpedo ships and watch yourself conquer the galaxy with just two ships. You'll thank me later.

THANKS!

Thanks for reading our BEST REVISIST of 2022 Article and stopping by our Best of 2022 Event! Come back for more top lists and other end of year celebration content!

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