Danial Norjidi
Video games took centre stage at the annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Games Awards 2022, with a total of 18 accolades presented across a range of categories on Thursday.
“This year we celebrate BAFTA’s 75th anniversary and its 18th year of honouring games as well,” said host Elle Osili-Wood.
“Games as an art form continue to surprise and innovate in the ways that they engage us all, from how they play to how they look. Games are unlike any other medium. They don’t just tell us a story, they ask that we play a part. In films and television, the characters change. In games, the player does too.”
She described the event as “our chance to share our passion for this ground breaking industry and our appreciation for the incredible worlds it creates”. Emerging as the biggest winner of the event was PlayStation exclusive Returnal, a third-person rogue-like shooter developed by Housemarque which won a total of four awards – Best Game, Audio Achievement and Music as well as Performer in a Leading Role for Jane Perry who played Selene Vassos in the game.
Returnal sees players take on the role of Selene, an explorer who crash-lands on a shape-shifting alien planet where she has to fight to survive. However, each time she is defeated, she is forced to restart her journey.
Receiving the award for Best Game, CEO and Co-founder of Housemarque Ilari Kuittinen said,
“It’s been such an honour to be nominated for so many awards and winning this one is truly amazing.”
“Over the years we’ve done so many different games, best known for maybe shoot-em-up games like Super Stardust or Resogun.
“We’ve done also platform games, even point and click adventure – we’ve done so many things. We started to do something else five years ago when we took on the Returnal challenge.”
Sharing some remarks from Returnal game director Harry Krueger, Kuittinen said, “We poured a lot of love into Returnal and it’s incredibly humbling for our hard work to be recognised in such a profound way.
“When making Returnal we all found ourselves in uncharted territory. We had never made a game of this calibre and ambition before. In many ways we took a leap of faith and had to build our wings while falling.
“But everyone from the team that’s made such an incredible effort and the end result far surpasses even our wildest expectations of what Returnal could be.”
Fellow PlayStation exclusive Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was also among the award recipients, garnering two BAFTAs for Animation and Technical Achievement. Developed by Insomniac Games, Rift Apart is the latest entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, which sees intergalactic adventurers Ratchet and Clank go dimension-hopping as they take on an evil emperor from another reality. The game also introduces Rivet, a brand new playable character to the series.
Another title to take home two awards was It Takes Two, which won in the Multiplayer and Original Property categories. Developed by Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts, It Takes Two is described as “a genre-bending platform adventure created purely for co-op”.
It added, “Play as the clashing couple Cody and May, two humans turned into dolls by a magic spell. Trapped in a fantastical world, they’re reluctantly challenged with saving their fractured relationship by the suave love guru Dr Hakim. A huge variety of gleefully disruptive gameplay challenges stand between them and their return to normal.”
Also winning two awards was Unpacking. Developed by Witch Beam and published by Humble Bundle, Unpacking is described as “a zen puzzle game about unpacking a life” and won the BAFTA for Narrative as well as EE Game of the year, the only award voted for by the public.
The award for Artistic Achievement went to The Artful Escape by Beethoven & Dinosaur and Annapurna Interactive. This platform game is about a guitar prodigy who sets out on a psychedelic journey to inspire his stage persona and confront the legacy of a dead folk legend.
Racing game Forza Horizon 5 by Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios won the award for British Game, while hand drawn adventure title TOEM by Something We Made won in the Debut Game category.
Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky, a sci-fi survival game in which players explore a galaxy filled with unique planets and lifeforms, won the award for Evolving Game, while rogue-like deck-building title Inscryption by Daniel Mullins Games and Devolver Digital won the Game Design award.
The award for the Family category went to Chicory: A Colorful Tale, a painting adventure game developed by Greg Lobanov, Alexis Dean-Jones, Lena Raine, Madeline Berger, A Shell in the Pit and published by Finji.
Before Your Eyes, a first-person narrative adventure by GoodbyeWorld Games and Skybound Games that tells the story of a soul’s journey into the afterlife, won the award for Game Beyond Entertainment, while Kimberly Brooks earned the BAFTA for Performer in a Supporting Role for her performance as Hollis Forsythe in Psychonauts 2.
