Two more indie darlings go head-to-head as we approach the end of the second round of voting — will your vote go to charming creature collector Ooblets or tabletop-inspired RPG adventure, Citizen Sleeper?
The TrueAchievements Game of the Year bracket returns for 2022, with 32 more challengers competing for your votes throughout December. Yes, we also expect to see Elden Ring do quite well here, but last year saw a few upsets on the way to the finals, so there are bound to be some more exciting clashes along the way! Following feedback from last year's bracket, we've made a few changes for the 2022 edition. While the top games were still picked using TA user ratings, we've opted for more traditional seeding this time around, at least for the first 28 of the 32 games in contention — the final four slots in the last two rounds were reserved for a few of December's releases so folks had a chance to play them before voting, with replacements eagerly waiting in the wings should any of the December releases turn out to not be deserving of a place on this list. Sure enough, some did change — both The Callisto Protocol and Need for Speed Unbound failed to hit the great user scores of some of the reserve games, meaning Infernax and MLB The Show 22 got to step in as the next highest seeds by TA user score.
In addition, we've made the decision to disqualify remakes and remasters from the running this year based on feedback on many of the rounds last year. We've also left out anything that launched into beta or early access (sorry, MultiVersus) and anything that arrived late on Xbox in 2022 having released in a previous year on other platforms, although games that hit full 1.0 release this year are considered to be 2022 releases so a few such games have found their way onto the shortlist. As a result, this year's bracket runs a varied spread of triple-A heavy hitters, indie darlings, some of the best games on Game Pass, and everything between, so be sure to root for your favourites! Scroll down to see the full bracket for the opening round and for the poll itself, and let us know in the comments why you've backed your chosen game. And don't worry, we're also running our more traditional Game of the Year event if you'd rather just get involved with some voting there — this format just happened to be a lot of fun last year, so we're glad to be running it again as an alternative, and it'll be interesting to compare results at the end of it all. May the best game win!
Ooblets
New friends are plentiful in Ooblets! Spend your days renovating your farm, raising weird little pals, participating in dance-offs, designing your house, and helping the mayor save Badgetown!
Ooblets
Collect, grow, and dance with your new best friends in Ooblets!
Citizen Sleeper
ROLEPLAYING IN THE RUINS OF INTERPLANETARY CAPITALISM
From the developer of In Other Waters, and featuring the stunning character art of Guillaume Singelin, Citizen Sleeper is a narrative RPG set on Erlin’s Eye, a ruined space station that is home to thousands of people trying to survive on the edges of an interstellar capitalist society.
You are a sleeper, a digitised human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. Thrust amongst the unfamiliar and colourful inhabitants of the Eye, you need to build friendships, earn your keep, and navigate the factions of this strange metropolis, if you hope to survive to see the next cycle.
LIFE ON ERLIN'S EYE
An abandoned station on the edge of a system in crisis. Now it is held together by anarchic alliances, ramshackle factions and a shared desire to be free from corporate control.
DO THE WORK. GET PAID. SURVIVE.
Each cycle you choose what to do with your time. Make or break alliances, uncover truths and escape your hunters. Survive and ultimately thrive, one cycle at a time.
TURN UP FOR FRIENDS
The Eye plays host to characters from all walks of life. Salvagers, engineers, hackers and more - each has a history. You choose who to help, and together shape your future.
ACCESS THEIR SECRETS
Hack the station’s cloud to access data, new areas and secrets. This is your power, and it can change your future. Corporate secrets, rogue AIs and troves of lost data await.
YOU WERE MADE TO DIE
Essen-Arp: to them you are just another asset in their almost infinite portfolio. Escape your decaying body's makers, and chart your own path in a richly imagined sci-fi world.
INSPIRED BY TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES
Citizen Sleeper uses dice, clocks and drives to create a player-led experience, where you choose your path in a rich and responsive world.
CITIZEN SLEEPER EPISODES
This free post-launch episodic content introduces new characters and locations in an expanded storyline. True to Citizen Sleeper’s TTRPG roots, these three episodes will offer an expansive campaign module that tells the longest and most complex story to be featured in the game to date.
In the first episode, FLUX, the first ships from a refugee flotilla arrive at Erlin’s Eye in response to pressures in the Helion system. Now, in REFUGE, a strange event sends ripples through the communities of the Eye. You will enter the flotilla to try to understand this new threat, and help the refugees stabilise their community.
The story of the flotilla, the FLUX event and your Sleeper will conclude in the third episode, arriving early 2023.
Citizen Sleeper
Roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. Live the life of an escaped worker, washed-up on a lawless station at the edge of an interstellar society. Inspired by the flexibility and freedom of TTRPGs, explore the station, choose your friends, escape your past and change your future.
Game of the Year 2022 voting round 23: Ooblets vs. Citizen SleeperWe've had 567 responses.