There were a few big surprises in gaming in 2025 for me.  The biggest was probably the fact that it turns out I didn’t play anywhere near as many games this year as I thought I had. The second was the fact that a lot of games I was hotly anticipating ended up not hitting for me, while games that weren’t even on my radar blew me away.

For those who haven’t read one of my GOTY lists before, I’ll mention which system I played on in the heading. Onto the list!

#10 – Blue Prince (PS5 / PC)

Oh Blue Prince, how I wanted to love you more than I did. Everything about Blue Prince appealed to me on paper – a roguelite, exploratory puzzle game with a mechanic for building out a house that resembles one of my favourite board games ever, Betrayal. The most brilliant thing about the game is the clever layering of puzzles throughout. You’ll feel like a genius the first time you crack the particular interplay of rooms together, for example, only to realise hours later that there are several more puzzles associated with them that you didn’t even see the first time around.

Unfortunately for me, I ended up liking the idea of Blue Prince more than I did actually playing it.  The sheer breadth of content is spectacular, but also meant that enough of it didn’t click that frustration often set in.  The randomness of the roguelite experience also frequently put me in the situation of knowing what I had to do, but being unable to execute on it through no real fault of my own.  As such, once I saw credits the first time, I told myself I’d go back but never actually did.  Despite that, Blue Prince is a hell of an achievement, and the kind of game that I know would easily be GOTY for a lot of people out there.

#9 – Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 (PC)

There’s a certain poetry to the fact that VtM: Bloodlines, a notoriously flawed, broken game that nonetheless became a cult classic, has ended up with a sequel that is equally flawed and broken, but in fundamentally different ways that likely means it won’t be looked back upon quite so fondly.

Bloodlines 2 is compromised in a way that I have rarely seen in gaming.  The incredibly troubled development cycle for the game is detailed in many places, so I’ll leave that alone, but it is worth acknowledging that it is kind of a miracle this game came out at all. The fact that it is playable and not completely busted is a testament to the people who worked on it.

Bloodlines 2 tells a good Vampire: The Masquerade story, filled with interesting characters and a twisty plot told across multiple time periods that really leans into the strengths of the setting.  You feel like you are playing an elder Kindred, incredibly powerful but also out of touch with the modern world after a long sleep, possessed by the spirit of a younger, slightly batshit vampire. The mystery that unfolds is fairly predictable, but well told. The characters are broad archetypes (occasionally to the point of parody), but they are acted well and have decent dialogue and motivations.

The gameplay is fine, playing like a light version of the Dishonoured series with the ability to sprint around, climbing buildings and killing enemies with a range of powers. There’s not much challenge to it, but it functions okay.  Where the game falls down is the lack of variety in the gameplay – every mission feels the same, every fight leans on a few basic enemy types, and the boss encounters with powerful Kindred occur in interesting environments, but are plain and repetitive to play.  I could forgive that, however, if the open world itself was a fun, engaging place to be. Instead, the snowed in Seattle the game occurs in is utterly hollow, with no interesting side content outside of the most basic of fetch quests or item hunts. The rewards for these things are minimal, and it is possible to hit what is effectively the maximum power level for your character almost immediately, rendering the need to hunt for certain types of victim or do the side content and exercise in just ticking boxes for equivalent powers, or unlocking cosmetics.

The first Bloodlines was a game with ahead of its time, filled with interesting ideas and incredible nooks and crannies to explore, let down by some bad combat, bugs, and a back half that obviously fell victim to a developer who ran out of time and money. Bloodlines 2 is whole, telling a pretty good story and functioning well enough, but is bland and suffers from an open world gameplay wrapper that not only feels completely pointless, but is actively detrimental to the game itself.  If Bloodlines 2 had been a linear narrative game with Dishonoured style enclosed stages, it would have been much better off for it.

Oops, I’ve accidentally written a review. I guess that’s what happens when you’re passionate about VTM as a whole, and Bloodlines in particular. Hard to recommend this to anyone that doesn’t have similar passions, but if you do and persevere, there’s a good story in here worth experiencing.

#8 – Cataclismo (PC)

Another game where I loved the idea but didn’t quite love the execution, Cataclismo nonetheless absorbed a lot of my time earlier in the year, and continues to be a game that I think about and appreciate for its sheer ambition.

A real time strategy game focused almost entirely on defence, the closest analogue I can think of is to imagine the base building and resource management of Age of Empires, combined with the base defending of They Are Billions.   The game operates in a day and night cycle, where you spends the days building your base and its defences and gathering resources, and then at night the hordes come and try and knock it all down.

Where the game shines is in the base defending. You are given many options for building up your defences, using a lego-like base building function that allows for some incredible creativity – check out the integrated Steam Workshop support if you don’t believe me.  One of my favourite experiences in the game was building a little fortress on a cliff above one of the enemy spawn points, holding the battlements with a group of veteran archers while my artillery sat back on the walls of my settlement, firing unopposed into the enemy hordes that were trying to claw their way into the outer fort.  With lots of prefab options combined with the ability to get really granular, the building experience is a delight.

Unfortunately, I found the campaign to not quite live up to the creativity on offer from the building mode.  As with many such games, wanting to make something incredible usually ends up falling by the wayside compared to brute functionality, and this isn’t helped by mission design that seems to take pleasure in deploying “gotcha” style design, suddenly popping up a new front on a flank you hadn’t been defending, meaning that you’ve always got to keep some resources and units in reserve rather than investing in building a glorious defence on one side. Minor quibbles aside, however, Cataclismo is a great game, and one well worth investigating for anyone who loves a good turtle.

#7 – Shogun Showdown (Steam Deck / PC)

I won’t be writing a novel about this one.  Shogun Showdown is a great, fun, turn-based roguelite which involves controlling a character on a flat plane defending yourself against a variety of soldiers, spirits, and monsters on your way to defeat the titular Shogun.  You use a variety of tiles to undertake different actions, ranging for standard attacks to sliding swapping positions with enemies, striking a certain number of tiles ahead, placing curses on foes, and so on. Between the different character skills and the combinations of tiles and upgrades, every run feels different, and the steadily scaling difficulty is tuned perfectly. 

Shogun Showdown is a fantastic “just one more run” game, and one that I’ve gotten a lot of play out of on the Steam Deck on public transport, flights, etc. It’s easy to pick up and put down nature, combined with a nice aesthetic and fun gameplay means it is a game I go back to frequently.

#6 – Starcom: Unknown Space (Steam Deck)

This one technically came out in 2024, but I didn’t hear much about it until early 25, so I’m counting it.  Unknown Space is a top-down, space exploration-based action RPG where you build (and continuously rebuild) a spaceship, balancing speed, armour, weapons, etc. to create a personalized machine of diplomacy and/or death, depending on how you roll.

Unknown Space was such a pleasant surprise, one of those games where the loop was super engrossing – the combat was fun and varied, the mission structure likewise, and the feeling of exploring the depths of a new galaxy was a little Star Trek: Voyager (this is a good thing, in my eyes). Just a great game to sit on the couch with and one that I’m planning to do another run in soon.

#5 –Battlefield 6 (PC)

So it finally happened. A game finally came along and usurped PUBG as the multiplayer game I spend the majority of my time playing! This is momentous news, given I’ve spent well over 5,000 hours in Battlegrounds, but the ongoing decline into irrelevance Krafton is subjecting PUBG to, combined with a not-terrible sequel to one of my favourite game series has given me a new place to spend my online time.

…Unfortunately, BF6 has no shortage of flaws itself.  The Battle Royale mode, the thing that most drew me to it, is just Warzone with a different coat of paint, and really squanders the better parts of Battlefield’s gameplay compared to Call of Duty. The regular multiplayer is much more fun, but the maps are far too small, and the tuning of classes, weapons, and vehicles is all over the place and sometimes feels terrible.

At its worst, BF6 is a game that is more frustrating than many that I have played. But when it is good, hot damn is it a great time! Whether it’s holding a point with a handful of friends against overwhelming odds while explosives smash buildings to pieces around, smashing a tank through the side of a building to get the flank on a group of enemies, or popping out of a crevasse in an attack chopper and strafing snipers on a mountain, BF6 delivers incredible, cinematic moments like no other game I’ve played. 

Also, there’s a single player campaign. It sucked.

#4 – Cyber Knights: Flashpoint (PC / Steam Deck)

Cyberpunk XCOM? Yeah, I was always going to be into this one.  Made by the Trese Brothers, Cyber Knights is easily the most ambitious title the pair have ever made, utilising 3D graphics and surprisingly complex, interlocking systems to create a really in-depth tactical, turn-based combat RPG, filled with tropey fun storylines about infiltrating megacorps, backstabbing fixers, and psychotic gangsters needing to be put down.

In typical Trese fashion, the game has also seen constant development post-1.0 release, with a new patch releasing practically every week or two, brimming with additional content.  New character classes, biomes, mission types, gear, storylines, enemies, and more have been added, meaning that what already felt like a pretty complete experience has expanded massively, and continues to do so.

I’ve played several runs of the game, alternating classes and gameplay styles to create quite different experiences.  Cyber Knights encourages stealthy play, giving you the ability to sneak around utilising cover, hack security devices like cameras, pressure plates, laser grids, etc. (including temp disabling via skills and a robust, netrunning hacking layer), silently assassinate guards and disposing of their bodies, and trying to work around an enemy AI system that flags security breaches and responds in a variety of ways, making for a complex game of cat and mouse.  If the guns come out (or the swords or the claws or the lasers), then you have a variety of powerful weapons and skills at your disposal, but the escalating security levels will equally deploy tougher and tougher enemies to counter you.

In between the various missions, you’ll be upgrading your crew members, dealing with their physical and mental health, dealing with your contacts for new jobs, gear, and other opportunities, building out your base, printing equipment, and a bunch of other tasks as well.  It’s a surprisingly in-depth and interesting system, making you always feel like you’re riding the razor edge between having enough money, enough active, healthy troops, enough jobs, and too much heat on you from pissing off the powers that be. 

It may not be the prettiest game ever (although the graphics are perfectly functional and pretty impressive for a two person studio), but Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is a hell of a game sure to please anyone who enjoys XCOM-likes.

#3 – Hades II (Steam Deck)

In a year (and a GOTY list, for that matter) featuring a number of sequels, Hades II sets the standard, which is no surprise coming from the always-incredible Supergiant Games. The studio’s first sequel is also their biggest, most complex game as well, building upon the foundation set by the original Hades (one of my favourite games ever) in every possible way.

This new adventure stars Melinöe, the younger sister of the first game’s protagonist, in her quest to kill the Titan Chronos and rescue her family and end the siege of Olympus.  The story here is a more personal one, the characters (arguably) deeper and more likeable. There are multiple runs to do, more weapons to use, familiars to use, more Gods, more boons, more abilities, more music, more, more, more. In every meaningful way you can think of, Hades has been expanded and improved meticulously. It is an incredibly crafted game experience that got its hooks in me and didn’t let go until I had explored all the nooks and crannies it had to offer.  Even then, I still find myself regularly going back, enjoying the startling amount of content on offer even though I am well past “finishing” the game.

I’ve written a lot in some of the other entries on this list, and I think it speaks volumes that I don’t really feel compelled to do the same here.  Hades II is about as close to gaming perfection as I have seen, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

#2 – Dispatch (Steam Deck / PC)

This one came out of absolute nowhere for me. I was vaguely aware some ex-Telltale folks were working on a superhero game, but knew nothing beyond that.  Suddenly, close to release, I started becoming aware of details: it was specifically people with a Wolf Among Us pedigree? Interesting. Working with Critical Role? Very interesting. Jeffrey Wright? Oh hell yeah! That dude from Breaking Bad that called everyone bitch a bunch? Ehhh…okay I guess.

Kidding aside, the first thing that struck me about Dispatch was just how damn good the voice acting is, Aaron Paul included. The excellent performances are made possible due to some phenomenal writing that perfectly treads the line between funny and heartfelt without tipping over the edge into being either po-faced DC, nor quippy bullshittery Marvel.

Dispatch is a gorgeous game. The animation is TV quality, if not arguably superior (most of the last season of Invincible, I’m looking at you), the music selection is incredible, and the acting and overall presentation is of the highest possible quality. The gameplay is typical Telltale “X will remember that” conversations with an added layer of a simple management simulation, involving dispatching your roster of heroes to deal with various situations while dealing with inevitable setbacks and plot-related shenanigans. As with most Telltale-style games, it’s definitely story and presentation first, but in a similar way to the Expanse game released a couple of years ago, I was surprisingly impressed by how fun the game was to play outside of the story elements.

The story being told, and the characters it is about, is truly excellent as well, filled with a cast of likeable characters you will quickly come to care about.  Robert Robertson, Chase, Blonde Blazer, Invisgal, and the rest of the gang are just a delight, and I am excited by the news that the studio is looking to create a sequel.

Game of the Year 2025 – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PC)

Wow. Just wow. This game is winning awards and topping GOTY lists around the world for very good reason.

All games are art, but this game is art. It is stunningly beautiful visually and musically. It tells a gorgeous tale of loss and grief and love and found family. I love the characters and the world they inhabit; I laughed with them, cried with them, raged with them, and experienced awe at the strange world they inhabit with them as well. I was surprised by how engaging I found the gameplay, which almost flawlessly combines active gameplay with turn-based JRPG combat, like a jacked up, incredibly French version of Paper Mario.

I have never played anything quite like Clair Obscur. I’ve never played anything that makes me feel quite like the way Clair Obscur did. I know I’ll remember it for the rest of my life, and that it has entered the annals of my Top 10 games of all time…and it isn’t low down that list, either.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is deserving of every accolade it has received. It is a game everyone should play.

And now, to the bonus lists!

Games That May Have Made My Top 10 If I Had Actually Played Enough of Them:

#5 – The Necromancer’s Tale (PC)

Seems right up my alley, but just haven’t had the time to devote to it.

#4 – Ghost of Yotei (PS5)

Open world fatigue kept me from playing Yotei, but I suspect that it would probably tick a lot of boxes for me once I do get around to it.  No guarantees it would have made my top 10, but I suspect there’s a good chance.

#3 – Absolum (PC)

I hadn’t even really heard of this game until the very end of the year, but it looks like my jam.  I hope to get to it, ideally in co-op with a friend, soon.

#2 – Peak (PC)

Literally only just played this for the first time yesterday (at the time of writing), and already I can see that it is a pretty incredibly fun, funny, stupid co-op experience. I can’t wait to play more of it.

#1 – Hollow Knight: Silksong (Steam Deck)

When Silksong surprisingly came out in 2025, I made the decision to finally play Hollow Knight.  When I did, I realised how much of an idiot that I was for waiting so long to get to it given how much I love a Metroidvania, and proceeded to absolutely devour it in every spare moment I had.

Unfortunately, because I spent so much time playing Hollow Knight relatively late in the year, I never actually made it to Silksong. I’m planning play more of it soon, and from everything I hear about it, expect there’s a very good chance it would have been high on my list for 2025. Hell, maybe it’ll go onto my 2026 list regardless of when it came out!

Games I Thought Were Going to Make My Top 10 Until I Actually Played Them:

#4 – Doom: The Dark Ages (PC)

I love the original Doom games (see later in these lists) and I also loved Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, so the Dark Ages was pretty hotly anticipated.  In a reverse of my experience of the news cycle for Dispatch, however, every new thing I heard about the Dark Ages made me want it a bit less.  No Mick Gordon. Slower gameplay. Prequel. No iconic arsenal. Weird mech and dragon bits. More cutscenes.

Once I got the game, I still enjoyed it, but it paled in comparison to the games that came before it. Whatever the next Doom game looks like, I hope it pivots as far from this one as the Dark Ages pivoted from Eternal.

#3 – Date Everything! (PC)

Funny and charming, but I found the gameplay to be a bit of a drag. Just not my cup of tea, ultimately.

#2 – Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (Steam Deck)

I’m actually one of those seemingly rare people that played all the old Shinobi games back in the day and has a lot of fondness for them.  This new game is a worthy sequel and pretty fun. It feels great to play and is beautiful to look at. Ultimately, while I liked it, it didn’t hook me as much as I expected – I think the pseudo-metroidvania gameplay and focus on combat via arenas left me a bit cold in the end, enough so that I put it down to play Hollow Knight and haven’t felt particularly compelled to go back.

#1 – Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (PC)

I loved Final Fantasy Tactics back in the day, and I love the remake as well.  Ultimately, despite how great it is and how good some of the improvements are, it didn’t feel different enough to make me feel like it deserved a spot on the list.

Old Games I Played When I Could Have Been Playing 2025 Games Instead:

#5 – PUBG: Battlegrounds (PC)

I finally managed to unplug myself from this addiction towards the end of the year…but I still spent hundreds of hours with this beautiful, terrible game.

#4 – Baldur’s Gate 3 (PC / Steam Deck)

I did another run of BG3. I didn’t mean to, I was just planning to muck around for a bit with some mods, but here we are.

#3 – Ultimate Chicken Horse (PC / Steam Deck)

Friend game of choice when we could escape the clutches of PUBG. One of the most fun and funniest multiplayer games to ever exist.

#2 – Sonic Mania / Sonic Origins (Steam Deck)

I love the classic Sonic games and fell down a bit of a rabbit hole while travelling earlier in the year. No regrets.

#1 – DOOM + DOOMII (PC / Steam Deck / Calculator / Printer / A Literal Potato / Someone’s Pacemaker Probably)

I played a lot of classic Doom this year, mostly via mods. Nightdive’s fantastic Doom collection serves as an excellent modernisation, a historical artifact filled with little tidbits about these watershed games, and an easy way to download some custom WADs and smash through them with friends. Doom, as it turns out, is still really good. It is pure, distilled First Person Shooter essence, pulled and stretched into exciting new shapes by a community that has been dedicated to building upon id’s foundations for three decades. Doom stopped being just a game a long time ago – it is now a medium other artists paint with, and the results are often breathtaking.

That’s it for my 2025 list! Stay tuned for Shay’s GOTY list and our collective Deadpan Cooperative Game of the Year!