Marcy's Ten Games of 2025 You Should Play

With the end of 2025 drawing near, the conversation turns to games of the year and where they should rank on whatever arbitrary scale one might construct on which is the best game out of hundreds of new titles. Certainly there are numerous games that easily make their way to the top of such a list, but this list is less focused on the "best" games of the year, and rather ten games from 2025 that you should try and play before the year ends, or keep tabs on as you start looking for new experiences in 2026. Some of these may be well known titles, while others maybe went under the radar or were on platforms that you didn't have access to at the time.

This list is not in any specific order; #1 and #10 are considered equally valuable to play and worthy of being on the list, so don't read into this as an indication of what I think is the best game of the year is, but rather ten outstanding titles that are very much worth the time and investment of giving a try, an increasingly hard sell as game prices skyrocket and spending money perhaps tightens up for many. Perhaps this list will influence your holiday shopping list, wishlists, or more! No matter the case, let's get on with it and talk about the ten new games from 2025 that you should play if you haven't. Also, for the sake of understanding that people have varying tastes and desires, these games come with notes about why you may not like them, so don't feel like a recommendation here you don't like or don't find interesting is somehow a "you" problem.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

This game is probably no surprise being on this list, and the reason it is first is to get that out of the way; Clair Obscur is very likely going to be the vaulted "Game of the Year" choice for 2025, but that comes with exceptionally good reasons, chief amongst those being that the game is absolutely exceptional on numerous levels. Clair Obscur is a turn-based RPG, so it is worth noting that if that genre does not bring you joy, Clair Obscur may not be able to do a lot to change that. However, there is an exceptionally fun combat system here that includes parrying in turn-based combat, and as someone who spent much of my developmental gaming phase playing RPGs like Lunar: Silver Star Story and Final Fantasy 6 (3), Clair Obscur felt particularly interesting in the way it added to a formula that it very obviously had high reverence for.

The story is quite strong, with well developed and realized characters, and they all make some form of sense in relation to how "real" people might act or behave; for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'll simply say that Clair Obscur builds an interesting world influenced by French Baroque art and concepts and French culture into something highly intriguing. The characters are also fantastic, with Maelle being a standout for me (Gustave is fine if you like Men With Wet Cat Energy). If you want to enjoy a turn-based RPG with challenge, exploration, and a great return on your time-investment, Clair Obscur is probably one of the strongest games released this year, and in quite a while. As I mentioned, if you don't like turn-based RPGs, do be prepared to either learn to tolerate them, or just recognize that this may be a great game that isn't for you.

Blue Prince

Another possibly "Game of the Year Contender", I think Blue Prince maybe has a far weaker claim, but only because Blue Prince is made by, and for, Mystheads, and if you don't know what Myst is or was, the reason why Blue Prince seemed to take people by hold earlier this year probably made little sense. Blue Prince is ostensibly a roguelike game, and by that, it means that every time you enter the "manor" of Blue Prince, you encounter a randomized version of the room layouts and aspire to reach a specific point within it (avoiding spoilers again here) or at least uncover new secrets and potential ways that you could do so on your next attempt. Finally reaching your goal results in future runs going even further and offering more rewards, and one of the nice things about Blue Prince is the way it commits to a mystery to uncover that entices you to continue playing after your initial "win".

I joke a bit about Mystheads, but Blue Prince is somewhat an evolution of point and click exploration puzzle games that then mix in the currently popular "roguelike" genre. It works more often than it does not, and I found Blue Prince to be probably the most successful and most interesting roguelike game of 2025 for me save one other game we'll talk about in a bit. As with Clair Obscur, I will state that if you don't like puzzle games, you are probably not going to like Blue Prince, but if you would like to give a puzzle game a try, it is perhaps one of the best iterations of a puzzle game.

Silent Hill f

I don't know if you know this, but Silent Hill f is a game that I deeply loved and might be my personal game of the year. I loved everything about it, so much so that I wrote a cool 3000+ words about it over here on Goonhammer if you didn't see it. But if you are looking for the condensed version of why, Silent Hill f is a thrilling return to form for survival horror games that uses a new setting--rural 60s Japan--to try new things and combine solid gameplay, puzzles, and narrative for a gripping horror experience that demands you continue to play it through one of the better uses of multiple endings in recent memory.

The recent update also added a few tweaks to difficulty, so if the idea of the game from initial experiences was that it was too hard or too combat oriented to be fun for you, the game has made itself far more accessible and allows just about anyone to experience the story being told in Ebisugaoka. If you don't like survival horror, in that your character is not exactly a walking armory, Silent Hill f has a nice in-between there in the sense that you have fairly good combat options (and even parrying and a perfect dodge!) to give you the upper hand, or at least make things feel a little less uneven for you in combat. However, Silent Hill f does still hew close to survival horror gameplay, which involves over the shoulder action, oppressive environments, and puzzles, so if that mixture doesn't sound fun, I will offer that the narrative of Silent Hill f is fantastic enough to make working your way through the game rewarding.

Nubby's Number Factory

2025 is perhaps the year where "Roguelike" games have met something akin to a boiling point, as almost every game either uses the phrase (incorrectly) or is somehow working to build "roguelike" elements into their game. Most of the time this boils down to games that involve new seeds on every run, and often have permadeath / a single "life" per run. Balatro certainly popularized the idea of "roguelike" mechanics outside of dungeon-crawling action games, but it also introduced a tide of games that tried to continue that formula. In a lot of cases, these games can be fun for a few hours, but often don't feel rewarding to sink days, weeks, or months into, and that being their main draw, makes them hard to recommend.

Unless, of course, that game is Nubby's Number Factory. Another game I reviewed back in May, Nubby's Number Factory was a very early contender for my Game of the Year and in some categories I would still say it should be there. It is consistently engaging and charming, leaning into the very weird late-90s early-00s computer aesthetic and goofy, amateur-looking UI and effects, and has since received numerous updates and changes to the game that have surprised me in how much has been added since release to keep me coming back, when to be honest I often found myself doing so for a while just for fun. Nubby manages to manage the "Roguelike" mechanic with "Play this for a little while and then do something else" that I greatly appreciate, giving it a sort of arcade or retro game feel in which you can play, stop, and play again some other day without ever getting tired of it. Of all the games on here, it's one I feel can almost be universally recommended, because it is just a simple game about bouncing a little guy named Nubby around.

Mostly.

Peak

A game that even developer Aggro Crab called "friendslop," Peak blew onto the scene in late 2025 to provide the type of game that content creators and gamers alike love: 4 player co-op games that often provide a lot of chaotic interactions and occasionally good gameplay. Peak is an interesting game, because much like last year's Lethal Company and REPO, the game itself can be a little rough; it runs a bit badly, was made as a gamejam project, and has historically crashed from light breezes, but Peak manages to stand out a little bit from the other two games and other "friendslop" games because the game is actually just very simple and very fun: you climb a mountain, which has fairly fun mechanics and feels good when you are climbing and finding your way up.

Peak also is fun to play solo, at least a few times, to challenge the game for badges which unlock cosmetics (because who doesn't like stupid hats), which gives it a bit more life than other multiplayer games that have generally been miserable at anything but the required 4 players. I don't know if I can recommend Peak to someone who will only play alone, but if you have even one other friend who wants to climb a mountain with you, Peak is a game from 2025 that is absolutely worth picking up, and I have found it an incredibly relaxing way to spend time with people and just chat while climbing the mountain together.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion

Depending on your age or proximity to gamers of certain ages, you may have fond memories of multiplayer games like The Simspons or X-Men arcade games in which you would take your characters through scrolling action stages to beat the hell out of just about anything and everything that came your way. That particular genre has had some rough ups and down, and while some recent games have really managed to capture the magic of this genre, Marvel Cosmic Invasion really surprised me in how much of an absolute blast it is.

I'll even give the game some due: it solves a problem some other games have had in this category, which is that they tend to prioritize the nostalgia of "couch co-op", which is great, yes, but also not always feasible; I'd love to play a game with my friend in the living room, but I'm also 43, and so are they, and so it can be a lot easier to play the game from our respective homes when we have downtime, and the online in Marvel makes that great and smooth. If you're looking for a beat em-up game with style and love the Marvel universe, grab a copy of the game and another for your friend and go to town.

Elden Ring: Nightreign

Speaking of games to play with your friends, Elden Ring: Nightreign really surprised me and many others when it introduced what is essentially "multiplayer Elden Ring but without a storyline or atmosphere." The initial reception to the game was certainly a little mixed, and I'll be honest, I was amongst those who thought the game may not have the juice, but I am happily eating crow because Nightreign is an absolute blast to play with others, and even kind of okay to play alone (not really, don't.). The magic to Nightreign is that the games are fast, or at least as fast as they can be, and feel rewarding and fun to play. The Elden Ring gameplay is oddly tight and responsive and possibly even better than it was in the original game, where sometimes multiplayer felt very clunky and awkward.

I would say that Nightreign comes with the heavy caveat of the fact that you do absolutely want another person to play it with at least, or find a community of people that you can play with; while playing with randoms is fine and sometimes serviceable, Nightreign really shines when you are playing with and communicating with your friends, sharing in the moment and reacting to what is going on. The difficulty is also fairly easy, all things considered, which is great because you don't have to be a hardcore (read: insufferable) Souls nerd to play the game and won't scare people off it it by telling them how "hard" it is.

Abiotic Factor

Initially I was a little reluctant to include this game, because it isn't exactly in my wheelhouse, but I've spent quite a few hours with Abiotic Factor with friends and found the game exceptionally enjoyable once you get the flow of the game under your belt. A survival game, Abiotic Factor has both progression and a survival loop that feed into one another that begins making more sense the more you play it; if you enjoy playing Minecraft for the survival element, or games like The Forest or Valheim, Abiotic Factor is a bit more like those games if you didn't have to worry so much about outdoor architecture.

The story is fairly simple and entertaining, but the biggest benefit it provided me specifically was a sense of progression and progress that often tended to drift away from me in other survival games, where there are goals, but sometimes they don't seem that pressing or important; in Abiotic Factor, you want to keep progressing both to find out what is going on, but also to continue unlocking new things and new experiences for your character. I do know that you can play it alone, but I'd really suggest finding people to play Abiotic Factor with, as it is an absolutely much more fun game to play with others, and helps make the survival and crafting aspects far more enjoyable.

Anno 117: Pax Romana

We recently published a review of this game, and Marchettus dubbed it "A game for sickos", so I'm going to let him give you the rundown and for why you should consider it and whether you are the right type of sicko for the game:

"Imagine a game that focuses on the parts of running an empire that Codex Astartes ignores and you have a pretty good idea of what the Anno experience is like. Despite having nearly every single kind of game licensed by Games Workshop, a Roman-themed city builder with a heavy focus on logistics is the closest thing to a game that would be approved by Roboute Guilliman. Anno isn’t a game that I’ll play for six to eight hours at a time, but I know I’ll be return to it over the next few years in 45 minute increments."

City Builder/Civ/4X Games were some of my first gaming experiences, and I have to agree that Marchettus really gets it right with his summary of why Anno 117 rocks so hard and is one of the best of these types of games we've gotten in a long time. Some of the irony of games evolving is that some of the magic of city builders like Civilization II were lost over time with improvements, but boy does Anno 117 recapture and expand on a lot of that magic and enjoyment.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

And finally, coming in at the end of the list in order to bury my bias just a little bit, my absolute favorite game of 2025 and recent memory is TooKyo's The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. If you are surprised by this game being on this list, you probably don't know me very well, which is fair. Anno 117 may be for sickos, but Hundred Line is for a different brand of sickos, and I am one of them. This game is so impossible to sell because talking about it too much ruins the experience, but that also makes it incredibly difficult to sell people on it when they don't really know what they're getting. Hundred Line is one of the latest games from Kazutaka Kodaka (Dangan Ronpa) and Kotaro Uchickoshi (Zero Escape, AI: The Somnium Files), which is a blend of the mystery visual novel genre that both are known for, a board game, and a turn based strategy RPG. The game features 100 endings, and doesn't really cheap out on any of them being goofy one off jokes. You are going to play this game for a very long time, and you are going to (probably) enjoy it, if this type of game is your thing, which is to say that it is a narrative heavy game with numerous mysteries, deep oddball characters, and numerous story moments that will have you going "what the **** just happened?!" that will make you want to talk about them with someone, which often prompts having to get them to also play the game too.

I'm so normal about this cast. You'll also never guess who my favorite is, because you'll get it wrong at least 2 times.

The issue with Hundred Line is that it is a very deep dive into the works of two minds who have far more accessible titles. Dangan Ronpa is way easier to get into than this, and Uchikoshi's games are far more approachable, but by god is Hundred Line Academy just an amazing realization of a frankly oddball concept that nails it more often than it does not. The game is divisive, and certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I urge you to consider giving the game a shot. I have poured hundreds of hours into the game across two platforms, and it is the game that I consider my Game of the Year for 2025 just for the sheer attempt at execution and enjoyment I've received from it, while knowing that not everyone will enjoy it, but if you give it an earnest chance and stick it out, you'll start to appreciate just how special and wild the game can be. I think Hundred Line sticks with me so much because when the game is amazing, it is truly the pinnacle of what I want out of a game, and when it is bad, it is so bad that I get frustrated thinking about how it could be better, but I have not stopped thinking about the game since I first played it back in February, and it is the game I continue trying to sell people on.

Play it.

Honorable Mentions

I did have a few other games that I wanted to suggest, but I find that their mileage varies incredibly by a few factors. One of those is whether or not you own a Switch 2, because if you don't, these games just are not going to be available. Specifically, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are absolute blasts, and Kirby Air Riders has so far been great, giving the Switch 2 a pretty solid first year of first party exclusives. I don't know if they are worth buying a Switch 2 for exclusively, but I suppose as someone who did buy one at launch, I use it the most of any platform that is not my PC, and I would suggest a Switch over a PS5 or Xbox hands down. Of course, I know times are rough, so I also get that 700 dollars to play Mario Kart or Donkey Kong can sound pretty unappealing.

You may notice a lack of Hades 2 and Hollow Knight Silksong on this list, and that's not on accident: I actually don't find either game year defining, and I think that if you were already planning on playing them, you probably did. In both cases, you probably also want to play the original game they were born from first anyway if you haven't, and in Hades case, the first game is superior in a few ways, although the devs did try to address Hades 2's clunky narrative (Sadly, not in time for me to not hate the game). Silksong suffers from "never going to live up to the hype of the delays" but it is a good game, provided you liked Hollow Knight and wanted more of that. In that same vein, No Sleep for Kaname Date: From the AI Somnium Files (Written by Uchikoshi, above) is one of my personal favorites, but if you haven't played the AI Somnium Files games, there's nothing here for you (Consider them!).

A late contender for a game I fell in love with off of the recommendation of someone close to me is the RPG Look Outside, a survival horror RPG that had gone under my radar and I checked out just recently from how much she was gushing about the game. It rules, and her taste is impeccable, but I played it last week and find it a little hard to give it a spot over other games on this list, but did want to give it some attention for how much I enjoyed it, and recommend trying it if it seems like your type of game. Of The Devil is another game I'll put here, as the game released just last week; a visual novel that rules very hard, I also played this about 3 days before this article was published, and also wanted to shout it out, but not above some less niche games on my list.

Finally, Dispatch is my last honorable mention, and it almost made it to the list except that Dispatch is possibly more divisive than other games here (Yes, even including The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy). Where Hundred Line is trying a lot of things and excelling at some and failing others in ways that are interesting, Dispatch is essentially the evolution of TellTale games (The Walking Dead, etc.), and if you don't like those types of narrative "choose a reply and see what happens" games, Dispatch won't change that. If you don't like superheroes or "more edgy" superheroes, Dispatch is not for you, and frankly if you don't like a character who talks about jerking off every time she appears on screen, well, you see where this is going. I think Dispatch was fun and I enjoyed it, I liked the characters, and I see it as a great promise of more to come (especially if they continue this universe), but the game can be a touch juvenile and also isn't setting the Choices Matter Narrative game genre much.

And that about does it for 2025! There were certainly a lot of great games to give a try, and although the gaming landscape seems to be constantly changing and not always positively, there are certainly a ton of unique and interesting experiences to be had; if you missed any of these, consider giving them a try!

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Tags: video games | video game