The BAFTA Game Awards agree: Vampire Survivors is 2022's best game

The BAFTA Games Awards were held last night - an annual show where a jury of developers throw weighty man-head statues at the crowd, celebrating the best games of any given year. The 2023 BAFTAs celebrated the best of 2022 with a mixed bag of games, awarding big blockbusters alongside popular indies, but the jury agrees with RPS on one front: Vampire Survivors is the best game of 2022. Good BAFTAs.

Here’s the full list of winners:

• Best Game: Vampire Survivors
• British Game: Rollerdrome
• Debut Game: Tunic
• Family: Kirby And The Forgotten Land
• Multiplayer: Elden Ring
• Evolving Game: Final Fantasy 14 Online
• Animation: God Of War: Ragnarok
• Artistic Achievement: Tunic
• Audio Achievement: God Of War: Ragnarok
• Game Beyond Entertainment: Endling - Extinction Is Forever
• Game Design: Vampire Survivors
• Music: God Of War: Ragnarok
• Narrative: Immortality
• Original Property: Elden Ring
• Lead Performer: Christopher Judge (Papa Kratos in GOWR)
• Supporting Performer: Laya Deleon Hayes (Angrboda in GOWR)
• Technical Achievement: Horizon: Forbidden West
• EE Game Of The Year: God Of War: Ragnarok

Vampire Survivors is indeed very good. Most readers have probably been transfixed by its bullet-vomiting mayhem already, and if not, what are you waiting for? Other RPS favourites made the cut, too. Tunic’s two awards were very well deserved, although I think its music was even more gorgeous than its art style. Seriously, Tunic hides an entire language in its UI sounds and musical notes - Tuneic. It was also good to see the stylish skating shooter Rollerdrome and fan favourite MMO Final Fantasy 14 win some gold.

Talking about the Steam Awards, Graham guessed that publicly voted award shows favoured games with big marketing budgets. There might be some truth to that since the fan-voted EE GOTY award went to Dad Of War 2, while the jury-selected award went to Vampire Survivors. Although, God Of War raged toward a slew of other wins, so, maybe expensive marketing affects everyone.

Regardless, the BAFTAs were marginally more interesting than some other award shows, but the RPS Treehouse still collectively frowned at Pentiment’s lack of wins. Like, the dry sound of pens scratching against paper? Audio achievement, hellooo.

You can check out the full list of winners and nominees on the BAFTA’s website.