Game of the Year: Best PS5, PS4 Open World Game of 2022

Elden ring for the win.word up son

Elden Ring wins purely for completely overhauling open world expectations. Horizon comes across like a relic of a previous generation in comparison, which is a shame as it’s clearly executed well, it just feels a bit tired after over a decade of open-world checklists.

@kyleforrester87 Gotham Knights isn't a bad game at all, but it doesn't really excel at anything. It's a slightly above average game, once you get down to it.

Elden Ring is definitely number one for me. I have to say though I am playing through Forbidden West right now. Despite an Ubisoft type open world with markers, quests, etc and a huge glut of things to explore (too much really), I just cannot put it down despite it being a grind. The graphics and music are great. I really like the game play and fighting. I even think it is better than the first one. It is a really good game that has me hooked. I do want to finish it soon as I have The Witcher 3 waiting in the wings.

Elden Ring felt amazing to explore. Never have I seen such a world that felt so well thought out with exploration in mind. No HUD, no bright shining doors, no arrow saying "Go Here".

The map felt detailed and useful yet didn't spoil what's out there. I was constantly seeing things that caught my attention naturally even though I know that's just how it was designed. It's hard to put into words but I'll just say it's easily one of the best designed open worlds I've ever seen.

I voted Horizon overall as it has the edge in graphical detail, environmental interaction and performance/ overall stability - these factors being quite important in the open-world genre. The world itself was all so convincingly alive. The NPC characters, animals and vegetation were brought to life by vastly improved animation and model + texture detail over the first Horizon. Towns encouraged exploration of every nook and cranny with their inviting layouts of winding paths and very distinct tribal artwork and decoration. Loved it all 💕 of course there's still much to be improved in the next entry in the series.

Elden Ring was utterly incredible with its overall world and art design but Horizon far exceeded it considering the sheer amount of detail and life. Not to say Elden Ring doesn't beat Horizon in many other areas - its ability to inspire exploration in its vast environmental design is a beauty in itself - but Horizon still takes the platinum for me.

I'd definitely like to give Ghostwire: Tokyo a special mention/ 3rd place as it was a beautiful rendition of the Tokyo streets and managed to really absorb me in it's world. It was well-trodden in terms of gameplay but it was incredibly satisfying to navigate and travel around the city to complete those 'checklist' objectives. I really enjoyed the combat too. It just felt tasty and I couldn't help but come back for more. I'd recommend it to anyone who found the Far Cry 6 formula satisfying, but were left wanting when it came to art direction and the environment. Although I personally enjoyed FC6 in these areas, I have to say that Ghostwrite greatly succeeds in both and to a far greater degree than Far Cry ever does.

HFW for the sheer beauty and variety. I don't think that not having map markers is some type of revolutionary decision that won't be matched for years.

Elden Ring was the first truly great open world game since BotW imo

It's kinda funny and sad at the same time that other open world games are getting marked down for having markers on the map 😆. Like oh so I'm the bad guy for hand holding and giving you all the help. As much as I like Elden Ring's blank slate figure out everything yourself style, I don't think others should be marked down for simply giving you help.

Horizon is my vote too. I sadly couldn't play Elden Ring yet, but anyway Horizon world is astonishing beautiful, interesting, varied, detailed, full of personality. I kept playing and feeling absorbed by the feel of the land. Like I read someone saying before, "a world worth saving". Now, to The Burning Shores!!

For me it's Horizon Forbidden West. Elden Ring I tried several times but simply isn't my thing. Horizon has such a beautiful world, lots of stuff to do and I loved the structure and story. Ghostwire Tokyo is a close 2nd. I learned so much about Japanese folklore from that game. The exploration of Shibuya felt very relaxing and the combat felt good. The whole theme of letting go was woven into it nicely as well.

Gotham knights was okish. Didn't have a chance to play Dying light yet and Saints Row I won't touch until a deep sale.

Ghostwire Tokyo by a mile. That game had atmosphere in spades. One of my favourite games of 2022.

I wanted to like Dying Light 2 but it was so bad. It’s like they binned everything great about the first game, when they should have built on it. How not to do a sequel.

Edit: Horizon had huge expectations, which it didn’t meet and I haven’t played Elden Ring (not my kind of game).

Horizon's world is pretty very pretty but it doesn't have the depth and wonder of Elden Ring's world, even now players are still finding new things in ER's world while Horizon's world is just a Ubi world with no reason to explore beyond the markers on the map so yeah Horizon's world is very pretty but very shallow.

@kyleforrester87 gotham knights is a decent game. Sure its not better than the others (i never played origins so i cant comment on that game) but it is worth it especially now its dirt cheap.

@bozz Its far from just not having map markers and considering your avatar pic you should understand why a world like BotW's Hyrule is far above Horizon's Ubi style checklist world.

Saints Row was good too, I don’t care what anyone says. That game was pure fun.

Horizon Forbidden West by miles.

@WallyWest Okay, so adjust your HUD visibility and voila, you just replicated Elden Ring. Tons of open world games have secrets that aren't explicitly spelled out for you, I don't understand why we're to act as if ER is alone in this. People are still finding stuff in Red Dead 2 years later so forgive me if I'm not all that overly impressed with ER's secrets being found some months later after release. I think folks can praise the game without necessarily going over the top is all.

Didn't play Elden Ring but of the other open world games, can't believe I'm going to say it, but the one I had the most fun exploring was in Gotham Knights, so that gets my vote.

I haven't played Eden Ring yet but from what I've seen I would put over Horizon II which I did play, HFW is a beautiful looking game but Guerilla took absolutely zero chances with anything.

Is like they looked at a bullet point list of the standard things in an open world rpg and implement them one by one without trying to add anything else that deviates from the standard formula, still a fun game though!

Ghostwire Tokyo is easily a better choice than Gotham Knights. It was an excellent game with an interesting world. The fact that you said “it okay wasn’t that bad” said a lot about it being a stretch lol.

@WallyWest that’s your opinion and that’s cool but I loved exploring the open world and finding new sites to see and machines to discover and fight,weapons and armor to find and hidden sidequests to discover plus random interactions with npc’s that were fully voiced and beautifully mocapped for like two mins conversations which was crazy to me.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika yeah horizon with that 88 metacritic score,top ten best selling game for the year in both the us and uk,goty nominee and second most nominations at the game awards plus being in plenty of sites top ten lists sure is mediocre smh.

@WallyWest I love people who either dont play ubi games or didn’t play HFW because HFW world is nowhere near a checklist like a ubi open world.

Elden Ring was a blast, but the pop-in and poor framerate killed the immersion for me pretty frequently. I’m a huge FromSoftware fan, but it’s definitely time for a new game engine. Wish they’d been able to polish it a bit more, then it would truly be one of the all-time greats.

PS - Ghostwire: Tokyo is a fantastic game 👍🏼

@somnambulance imagine comparing New Vegas technical state with HFW lol

@Juanalf yes they used things popular in open world games just like Elden did. We going to ignore the tons of bandit camps in elden just because they weren’t marked or the tons upon tons of filler dungeons with the exact same layout with the exact same boss except oh there’s two now at the end that made chalice dungeons from Bloodborne look like masterpieces or the numerous erd trees with the same boss at almost every one. I love how people act like Elden wasn’t filled with tons of filler like any other open world game

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika the gameplay craps on far cry’s gameplay from a great height and I like the far cry games and it probably has the best combat in an open world game with only elden ring challenging it. It’s way more than the first they fixed almost everything that needed fixing. Better sidequests and some of the best in an open world game in the last few years check, a world that is actually worth exploring check,a skill tree that actually matters and lets you build a build somewhat check,deeper combat check,a better present day story and characters whose names you can actually remember check,better cutscene direction and animations check,more lively towns that actually feel like real places check and better dungeons check. The only things it maybe doesn’t do better is the story from the past but that’s subjective and the melee and climbing not being improved enough other than that it’s what a sequel should be.

The other games were good but Ghostwire Tokyo came out of nowhere and blew me away. Gets my vote.

@bozz Yeah and like Elden Ring the worlds of R* aren't Ubi style checklist worlds. A reason ER world is so good is because like with BotW you're dumbed into the open world and told to make your own way without any real hints or guides or help, your avatar is BotW Link you should know what i mean by how ER does things with its world.

@dark_knightmare2 I was still playing Far Cry 6 when i started Horizon and its amazing how close in design they are. That's not even a real negative as i like Ubi games and i really like Horizon but its open world like Ubi's are nothing special, its very pretty, has great sights and is perfect for photo mode but like Ubi's worlds there's no real depth to it and is very safe.

For the record, I like Ubi/Horizon style open worlds as well. Heck my most played game this year was AC Valhalla. However there no doubt it's a tried and true formula which while that's not a bad thing, it keeps them from really standing out from each other.

Elden Ring tried and succeeded in making an open world that guides the player where they need to go using only the world design. That's a rare feat that is not easily achieved so that's why I think it gets so much praise.

@WallyWest I don't know why you're coming back to my avatar, it's just an avatar. I liked the art style.

Being given a blank slate isn't inherently a genre-topping trait. Being given pointers or a minimal isn't inherently a negative mark against a game either. And the checklist dig is kind of overblown too imo, having steps to complete on a mission is a perfectly valid game mechanic, many of the greatest games ever can say the same.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika the sidequests are nowhere near boring and it’s one of the few open worlds out there that keeps filler and fluff to a minimum. You want filler and fluff play xenoblade 3 now that game has tons of that. Also MGS 5 is a totally different game going for totally different things so their combat systems aren’t even comparable plus MGS 5 open world was so bad

@WallyWest I can’t agree there’s plenty of depth especially when it comes to the combat and machines compared to far cry which I also like a lot. You help build two settlements in horizon through optional sidequests and almost every activity has a story to it with characters,cutscenes etc instead of just being there like in a far cry game. Compare the way both do enemy outpost in far cry they are just there but in horizon there’s a story involved with a payoff at the end of doing them and they are kept to a minimum hell Elden rings enemy outpost are more similar to far cry than horizons. Take the scrapper quest line in horizon that in any other game would just be get parts and that’s it but horizon goes out of its way to contextualize it with characters,cutscenes,dialogue and rewards with a payoff at the end of doing them and it all makes sense for the world.

@bozz Your avatar is BotW Link that heavily implies you're a fan of BotW a game with an open world very much designed like Elden Ring's to the point From clearly took notes from it so because of that i guessed you would know what i'm saying.

Also for the record i don't have an issue with checklist open worlds but it is becoming too common in open world games. I mean just look at this years open world games, Elden Ring aside and surprisingly Pokemon S&V this years open world offerings just offered that typical Ubi style checklist of do this and do that and collect this. Elden Ring does more then just remove icons and checklists it makes you want to explore and wants you to be curious and that curiosity is more often then not rewarded, i remember when i discovered the underground area just by chance 30 hours in and being blown away and i was lead there by me seeing a random lift and wondering where it would take me.

@dark_knightmare2 Yeah Horizon has decent side quests but it doesn't change all the enemy outposts, all the copy and pasted Cauldrons (much better in the first game), the endless collectibles, 80% of the weapons and gear being useless with endless armour sets i will never wear, a bog standard upgrade tree and the Tallneck towers to reveal the map something Ubi even dropped years back. Yeah the enemies the machines ones that is are great in design and have good AI but even on higher difficulties they aren't that deep, those spear explosives can clear 90% of the machines with ease making most of the other gear void. Again these things aren't really faults, i really enjoyed the game and i'm really excited for the expansion but as open worlds go its bog standard stuff that just so happens to be stunning as hell with it.

@dark_knightmare2 Funny you boast about Horizon's side quests changing the world and then make a straight up false claim about XB3, you do realise the side quests make massive changes to story, characters and world right? Yeah it has some cookie cutter checklist side stuff but that's one side of side content mainly there for easy EXP however there's another side of side content that is far deeper and game effecting then anything Horizon does. Have you played XB3 or are you basing it on its two previous entries?

Liam really put Saints Row on the list for the best open world💀

@WallyWest the sidequests are more than decent they’re the best since Witcher 3 which goes to show how hard it is for open world games to have good sidequest when it took all these year just for another open world game to have them. There were like six cauldrons across the whole map which is huge and it’s comical to say they were copy pasted and better in one when in HFW they were actually unique and each had different puzzles to solve to complete them like that makes me think you didn’t do them or play the game. There’s not endless collectibles there’s only 49 in the game lol unless you’re talking audio logs too which are only there for more world building and lore for people who want them,the weapons and armor aren’t 80 percent useless that’s like saying most of the armor sets and weapons are useless in any other open world game, the skill tree is in no way bog standard especially compared to the first horizon where it def was but in this one you can build into builds somewhat and let’s not compare the like six tallnecks which were puzzles to solve and fun with climbing straight up a tower in a Ubisoft game.

Elden ring without a doubt fpr me! it still surprises me how popular Horizon is (the entry with more votes) I tried to like it, and played like 30 hours of the original, but I can’t stand Alloy incessant talking, and the story didn’t hook me up in the slightest, combat was fun tough. But taking into account that is PS most important franchise, I guess its just me getting old…. I miss the days when playstation gave us gems like Patapon….

@VivianXD2464 It's only there to make up the numbers; there were actually very few open world games released this year. And anyway, this was put together by the editorial team as a whole.

@LiamCroft This year was a very weird year for gaming. There were comparatively very less game releases this year but ER, TLOU and GT7 really made up for it.
Yea i got that

Horizon for me. I’m a such a sucker for outlandish fiction like man vs machines. It’s the game I’ve wanted since I was a kid. It’s also the best graphics I’ve ever seen 🤷‍♂️

@Mikey856 Horizon is the best game I’ve played in a very long time.. like you said.. the entire story of human vs machines is very intriguing and very well done.. there is a lot of content in the game and I was (still am) a bit overwhelmed when I started it.. 40 hours in so far and I just got Poseidon.. I feel I still have another 40+ to go.. I’m ***** dying to fly on a SunWing

@dark_knightmare2 Dude the side quests are no where near the level of TW3, they aren't even the best this year with God of War Ragnarok, XB3 and Elden Ring all having better side quests. I would also day Cyberpunk and Red Dead 2 also beat Horizon pretty hard in the side quest area as well.

@WolfyTn that creased me man 😂😂. The Poseidon mission is one of the best mission/quests in video game history I think. But yeah so much content. If you really like the lore of horizon check out the YouTube channel randomsidequest

@bozz I agree, I think Ghost of Tsushima did a great job of minimizing map markers and hud elements and encouraging exploration the old fashioned way, by having an interesting world.

I think it's less of a "open world secret to be cracked" and more of trend that Elden Ring finally popularized.

@nessisonett elden ring does nothing new but throw you into an open world knowing nothing but that doesn't change the fact that it's not innovative. it's open world dark souls 4 but they tell you nothing.