10 Best Video Games Of 2022 (So Far)

4. Sifu

Martial arts studio Sloclap first showed their hand with 2017's masterful Absolver, a kung fu-themed open-world action game about mastering a variety of moves by using them on other players, while defending properly against all incoming attacks.

For Sifu, they focused and refined that approach into a clenched fist of a game.

Framed around taking revenge on a group of people who killed your father, Sifu instead carefully explores what it means to master a martial art across one lifetime. Using a neat time mechanic to age your character every time you die, brutal difficulty translates into getting the upper hand on enemies one perfected technique at a time.

Like how Sekiro forced you to refine your muscle memory until you were reflexively blocking and dodging without really thinking about it, so to does Sifu turn you into a multi-faceted beast of raw combat.

By game's end you'll be a weapon-spinning, bone-breaking, enemy-throwing badass... something the game then uses to play its final trick.