In years past, I've often thought of myself as on a diverging path when it came to what the best games of the year are. Not that I thought the crowd had bad taste or anything; it's just that I always preferred whatever weird little indie I had discovered to any of the big releases everyone else was obsessed with. In 2025, however, the wisdom of crowds certainly asserted itself. While there were certainly still a couple of buried gems, I tended to enjoy what everyone else was playing, too. This year also had a lot of remakes, sequels, and spiritual successors, which makes it tough to categorize what constitutes a "new" game. Luckily, it's my list, so I can handle the taxonomy however I want. Yay!
To that end, I've done splits in a couple of different ways before. I've done the favorite-released-this-year paired with favorite-played-this-year, and left-brained favorite paired with right-brained favorite. I can actually do both simultaneously this year. When it comes to right-brained favorite game released this year, it's got to be the runaway hit that took everyone by surprise.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 shares a lot of gameplay DNA with JRPGs, but its French style, along with its impeccably-voiced characters, gave it a really fresh take. Fun and gorgeous, with an Act I reveal that left my jaw on the ground, it far and away deserved all the accolades it's won.
As awesome as Clair Obscur was, however, it was nowhere near the most fun I had this year. That honor goes to a left-brained game that I've already played. Two years ago, I mentioned The Roottrees Are Dead, a free-to-play browser game that I became obsessed with. It gained enough popularity for the creator to update it for release on Steam, with professional art instead of AI, actual voice-over, and tweaks to some of the story clues to make it more intuitive. Since I had such a great time with the original, I happily handed over my money to play the new version, and was delighted to discover that they've actually added content; the most welcome surprise of the year was diving into that sequel mystery.
Both of these games had stiff competition. Ghost of Yotei was a terrific sequel to Ghost of Tsushima that gave Clair Obscur a run for its money, and Unheard - Voices of Crime was neck-and-neck with The Roottrees Are Dead as my favorite mystery game. Any and all of these games would get a strong recommend from me. I also had a good time with some new tabletop games -- Earthborne Rangers and Here to Slay in particular -- but as for video games, let's get to the loosely-ranked list!
The Roottrees Are Dead (updated)
Unheard - Voices of Crime
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Ghost of Yotei
Blue Prince
Botany Manor
Dispatch
The Lamplighters League
The Case of the Golden Idol
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Age of Wonders 4
Date Everything!
Robocop: Rogue City
Indika
Vampire Therapist
The Outer Worlds 2
Type Help
Open Roads
Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game
Tactical Breach Wizards
Wanderstop
Avowed
Medium
Viewfinder
As Dusk Falls
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
Welcome to Goodland
0 comments:
Post a Comment