Over the decades' television shows, movies, and even video games have made their attempts at predicting what the future could look like. Often it's in the far future and depicts humans dealing with futuristic technology, like in Mass Effect or The Outer Worlds. Science fiction is often the genre in which these types of settings take place.
Funny enough, sometimes these far futures weren't actually that many years away and there are a handful of older games set in 2022. It's neat to look back at these experiences and see what parts of modern life it got right, and which parts there were wildly optimistic or pessimistic about in relation to the current state of the year 2022.
6 Year Zero
Year Zero is an alternate reality game or ARG that was released in 2007 by developer 42 Entertainment. This is the same studio that produced the Halo 2 ARG known as I Love Bees. This game, Year Zero, was meant to go hand-in-hand with the Nine Inch Nails album that was also released in 2007.
Though it takes place in the year 2022, that year is referred to as year zero as the United States had effectively been reborn following a collection of terrorist attacks. It's an interesting concept, and in some ways, many places around the world are seeing their own rebirths in 2022 following the global COVID pandemic which saw the day-to-day life of millions change and remain changed for two years.
5 Skyhammer
Far too often when stories come to light of old 90s games that were canceled, rarely do players get to play those games. With Skyhammer, it managed to beat the odds in this way. This dystopian futuristic shooter was originally meant to release in 1995 but developer Rebellion Developments canceled those plans.
Thankfully the game was finally released in 2000 for the Atari Jaguar, now considered to be a 'homebrew' release and not listed on the console's official list of game releases found on Wikipedia. Skyhammer received stellar reviews as the 2022 set shooter delivered a dark atmosphere with fun and engaging gameplay. The game's future was based on the idea of giant corporations controlling the world, and wars were engaged between these factions.
4 Cyberball
Cyberball very much carries Tron energy in that it's something created in the 80s that's meant to capture the feeling of what people at that time believed to be futuristic technology. Arcade lovers and owners of the SEGA Genesis have a soft spot in their hearts for this 1988 release that felt like Tecmo Bowl meets Blade Runner.
The game may take place in 2022, but sadly the sport of modern American football is still rooted in its ways. It may be 100 or more years until the beloved sport looks anything close to what Cyberball was portraying in the late 80s.
3 Earth Defense Force 5
Five years may not seem like a lot of time, but in reality, that's a half decade, and much can change in that time frame. Earth Defense Force 5 was launched in 2017, developed by Sandlot, and published by D3 Publisher.
The neat thing about this entry in the beloved Earth Defense Force series is that it breaks away from the known continuity and exists in a branch of its own. In this reality, the private military corporation that goes by the name Earth Defense Force doesn't see its first defensive action until the year 2022. As a third-person shooter, it holds its own as a fun experience where players get to tackle larger-than-life threats in an experience closer to the arcade than simulation.
2 Perfect Dark (Game Boy Color)
Xbox owners and fans of the Perfect Dark series are eagerly awaiting the teased reboot of sorts from Xbox Game Studios and developer The Initiative. The series itself, though, has seen a handful of games on various platforms. One of the forgotten entries is Perfect Dark for the Game Boy Color which was released in the year 2000.
Despite having the same name as the entry for the Nintendo 64, plot-wise it was actually a prequel. The game was equal parts stealth and action, receiving mixed critical reception. It is set in 2022 and largely focuses on the main character, Joanna Dark, investigating a UFO crash site, something skeptics and believers of the paranormal consider a totally plausible scenario in the real year of 2022.
1 Dead Rising 4
Compared to many of the other games on this list, the zombie-killing action-adventure title Dead Rising 4 feels relatively new. The reality is that it was released more than five years ago, as it originally launched on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 in December 2016. Dead Rising 4 featured Frank West once again, but unlike previous entries in the series, players weren't pressured and confined by a timer in the game.
It's unclear when or if Capcom will ever return to the Dead Rising series, but the fourth mainline entry is currently the most modern plot-wise since it begins in late 2021, with the bulk of the narrative taking place in 2022. Outside of the world being infested by zombies, it's not too far off considering it isn't a science fiction game, but rather one taking place in the post-apocalypse, where oftentimes humans revert backward in terms of technology and survival.