5 video games that made a comeback in 2022

So far, 2022 has been a great year in terms of video games. There have been some phenomenal releases so far this year, like Horizon Forbidden West, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Sifu, Dying Light 2, and Elden Ring, to name a few.

With even more games set for release later this year, 2022 is shaping up to be the best time for gaming in a long, long while.

Along with new and upcoming titles, there were also some games that made a comeback. These were either thoroughly despised due to their technical drawbacks at the time of launch, or were forgotten with age.

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5 forgotten video games that made a serious comeback in 2022

1) Cyberpunk 2077

It's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 was quite possibly one of the worst AAA video game launches in history, even surpassing the disasters that were Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem.

The game was fundamentally broken and undercooked when it was released on December 10, 2020. There were reports of bugs, glitches, unstable performance, and crashes everywhere. Coming from the developers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it was really hard for players to comprehend the broken state of Cyberpunk 2077.

The game was somewhat playable on high-end PCs and "next-gen" consoles, i.e., PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, but it was not a smooth gameplay experience; performance was unstable with frequent framerate drops and texture pop-ins. The brunt of it, however, was faced by Xbox One and PlayStation 4 systems, the game's target consoles.

The game was borderline unplayable on those machines, and Sony even pulled the title off their digital storefront, issuing refunds to players who got the game via the PlayStation Store. Underneath all these technical hurdles, it is a really good action-adventure with a gripping story and a gorgeous open world to explore.

Naturally, the developers were really unhappy with how the game's launch was received, and instead of outright abandoning the project, they stuck with it. They issued patches and hotfixes every other month to try and fix most, if not all, of the issues that players were having with the video game.

It is only with the most recent update to Cyberpunk 2077 in 2022, called version 1.5 update, that Cyberpunk 2077 resembles the game that was initially promised to players by CD Projekt Red. Patch version 1.5 came with a bevy of major and minor fixes to the game, with some added quality-of-life changes and graphical optimizations for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, such as ray tracing.

The new patch added a multitude of new features like substantially improved AI for both civilians as well as enemy NPCs, who now react properly according to the player’s actions. The player customization system of the video game has also been improved, as they can now personalize their appearance anytime in their apartment.

The patch also addressed the stability of the game on consoles, and it now crashes very rarely, if at all. There are also a few new outfits as well as vehicles added to the game for players. The quality-of-life improvements made to the video game include an improved and streamlined map, better and varied skills, and improved handling models for vehicles.

Players were really impressed with CD Projekt Red and how they stuck to their promise of fixing the game, bringing it closer to the original vision. Cyberpunk 2077, as it stands now, is a truly remarkable open-world action game, with a gorgeous setting and a well-written story to keep players engaged for hours.

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2) Destiny 2

Developer Bungie's iconic looter-shooter Destiny was a real talking point at the time of its release. It was the beginning of a new subgenre of shooter video games that gave players hours upon hours of fun and engaging content to delve into.

The Destiny franchise is also one of the first game series built around the "live-service" gaming framework. This allows developers to evolve their games' worlds, narratives, and gameplay with post-launch additions.

With the release of the sequel, Destiny 2, Bungie expected a similar reaction from players. But by the time the title was released, the market was already saturated with live-service video games, and players were not looking forward to jumping into yet another $60 live-service title.

In 2019, after Bungie separated from Activision and acquired the publishing rights to the franchise, Destiny 2 was made free to play, and was made available to PC players via Steam. Though the free-to-play model of Destiny 2 helped surge its player count drastically, their interest in the game was shortlived.

In 2022, however, Destiny 2 made a serious comeback with its newest expansion, The Witch Queen. It was one of the biggest additions to the video game in years, with an incredible story campaign, a lot of new loot (armor and weapons), and a number of quality-of-life changes that made playing the video game even more fun and rewarding.

The rewards are reworked to give players an incentive to engage in the expansion's side quests for better loot. The Witch Queen campaign is also streamlined to include the least amount of filler quests. The best part of the expansion are the various new enemy types and bosses that are really fun to fight.

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3) WWE 2K22

Publisher 2K's WWE game series has not seen a really good title since WWE 2K16, with most annual entries in the series since being basically the same video game with a slightly different name and updated roster.

As a result, players grew wary of 2K recycling the same game every year and charging $60 or more for it, only to promote abundant microtranscations in these full-priced video games.

Although 2K's WWE video games are the iterations released annually, their gameplay is undeniably fun and polished, which was the only reason players flocked towards them in the first place.

That was the case, at least until WWE 2K20 came out. The game single-handedly destroyed the series for long-time players.

WWE 2K20 was the reason why 2K gave the series an extra development year, skipping 2021. WWE 2K20 was fundamentally broken at launch, with character models glitching out, textures of the arena failing to load, animations breaking during gameplay as well as cutscenes; the game had it all.

Developer Visual Concepts greatly benefitted from an extra year of development, as this year's WWE 2K22 is not only an improvement over the last game in the series, but quite possibly the most innovative and fresh-feeling title in the series in half a decade.

WWE 2K22 fixed a lot of the previous game's flaws. For example, the underwhelming MyRise mode of WWE 2K20 was drastically improved to make it a fun and enjoyable campaign for the video game. The game also just feels smooth and super-polished, with better animations, and a lighting engine that makes every match a spectacle to behold.

The game essentially takes every aspect of what makes a good wrestling game, puts it in the WWE video game framework and polishes it to perfection. WWE 2K22 is one of the best examples of what developers can achieve if given adequate time and reasonable deadlines for their video game projects.

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4) Fallout 76

The launch period of Fallout 76 was, by all means, not a good time for Bethesda Softworks. The role-playing video game was indeed ambitious, perhaps a bit too much for a Fallout game.

The developers promised a shared Fallout universe in Fallout 76, where players would fill the role of NPCs, giving and taking quests from one another to live out the most authentic post-apocalyptic fantasy.

But the Fallout games were always known for the many unique and interesting characters that players meet along their journey. How does anyone replace the most vital aspect of the Fallout video games while trying to deliver something that feels like Fallout? The short answer is, one doesn't.

The reception of Fallout 76 was not what the developers intended it to be; players quickly figured that the lack of proper questlines and NPCs in the game was a vital mistake. More importantly, at launch, the video game was a completely broken mess. There were widespread reports of bugs, glitches, and crashes across all platforms.

It was clear that Fallout 76 was a rushed product, one that would've benefitted a lot from additional development time and proper project management. Thankfully, the developers stuck with the game and promised to fix the plethora of issues and add many improvements that the community had asked for.

And so they did; Fallout 76 is a completely different video game in 2022 from what it was at release. Bethesda Softworks has released a proper roadmap for 2022 in terms of new and additional content that will make its way to the title.

Apart from fixing the myriad issues and bugs that were in the vanilla Fallout 76, the developers added new modes, regions, and also promised to add even more locations in the game to explore and discover new adventures in. There are even fully-realized NPCs in the video game now, with proper questlines for players to partake in.

From extraterrestrial visitors to going outside the borders of Appalchia and exploring new lands, Fallout 76 is filled with all sorts of new adventures in 2022.

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5) Battlefield V

Battlefield used to be one of the most beloved multiplayer first-person-shooter video game franchises. The series prides itself on delivering a grounded FPS experience in large-scale multiplayer battles, with the highlight being the sandbox maps dotted with destructable objects and buildings.

Developer DICE were masters of creating authentic warfare scenarios. They were primarily known to create modern military settings, but with 2016's Battlefield 1, DICE surprised players with a very well-done World War 1 setting that perfectly encapsulated the feeling of the battles of The Great War.

Naturally, players were expecting DICE to take the Battlefield franchise to World War 2 with their next game, and so they did. Their next game, Battlefield V, was set during the second World War. But instead of sticking to an authentic World War 2 setting as in their previous video game, they chose to follow in the footsteps of other modern FPS titles.

Although Battlefield V featured a World War 2 setting, its weapons, characters and even maps barely felt authentic to the era. Suffice to say, fans were not pleased with the game as they expected a truly authentic second World War Battlefield experience. It also didn't help that the game was lacking severely in technical polish at launch, with server issues and game instability on consoles and PCs.

In the months following the release of Battlefield V, DICE went to work on multiple features requested by the community to fix the issues with the game. They tried to deliver a proper Battlefield experience set amidst the second World War, and for the most part they succeeded, but the damage was already done and players had moved to either other FPS titles or DICE's previous Battlefield games.

With the most recent Battlefield entry, Battlefield 2042, suffering a disastrous video game launch, players were quick to abandon it in favor of the old ones. In 2022, more players are playing Battlefield V than the new Battlefield 2042, according to the player count on Steam.

Battlefield V in 2022 has made an unprecedented comeback among fans of the series. It received a number of patches that were initially targeted to fix the performance and stability of the game across all the platforms.

Since then, there have been a bevy of new additions to the video game, like new multiplayer maps, weapons, and even various game modes for players to sink hours upon hours into the game. With all the improvements, new features, and game modes that were added post launch, Battlefield V is at its best stage right now.