Over the last year, I played 28 full games, of which I finished 24. As with previous years, most of my gameplay has come from the lingering backlog of years past, with only a handful of games having been released in 2025.
It's been an interesting year of play for me. In many cases, the easy joy of play gave way to more complex experiences. Some left me emotionally wrought. Others featured gameplay that slipped into the frustrating, but nevertheless held me captive with their narrative.
Fortunately, some lighter fair was also included in the mix. There were games that delighted me with their puzzle design, offered unique narratives, or just granted me the simple joy of a fun experience — something I definitely needed by the end of this year.
Game of the Year: The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog) is a game that lingers. Years after the events of the first game, Ellie experiences a tragic and traumatizing event that sends her spiraling into a quest for revenge. Experimenting with timelines and perspectives, the game attempts to question who gets to claim revenge and delves into the consequences of the never-ending cycle of violence that comes with that revenge.
The Last of Us Part II is dark, brutal, and horrifying. It's also complicated, messy, and beautiful. I love the stunning post-apocalyptic landscapes, in which the past is overgrown by nature. I love the characters and their messy relationships. I love the shifting perspectives and how that changes how I feel about a place or moment, I love the slick stealth and combat, which is immensely satisfying, so much so that the gameplay experience feels contrary to the anti-violence message.
At certain points toward the end of the game, I had an emotional conflict the likes of which I never experienced before. As the characters plunged forward, I found myself not wanting to hit the buttons, not wanting to participate in the actions they were taking, despite wanting to know how the story ended. At one point, I found myself weeping, begging the character to just stop, please stop, while I clicked the buttons to move her through this final harrowing battle. It was an intense and memorable and left me feeling wrecked and exhausted.
By no means is The Last of Us Part II a perfect game, but it is a game that has stuck with me. I find myself thinking about the story and gameplay at random times, considering the way it both succeeds and fails — but mostly just thinking about the way it made me feel so many feelings.
Baldur's Gate 3
I have a complicated relationship with Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) — but there's no denying that this was a defining game for me this year, considering the fact that I've played it for over 150 hours.
Opening on a Nautiloid ship, the player character is implanted with a parasite meant to turn them into a Mind Flayer. However, the ship crash lands and the player character is mysteriously immune. With the option to gather together a slew of companions (or not), the player must go on a quest to remove the parasite, discover the plans of the mind-flayer army and save the world.
There's no denying that Baldur's Gate 3 is an amazing game, with fantastic characters and dialog, complex turn-based combat, and tons of player agency (providing a multitude of ways to progress). At times I adored this game (particularly in Acts 1 and 2), but at other times I hated it. Specifically, I have and continue to struggle with Act 3 due to it's massive size and difficulty. I deleted the game once already in a fit of frustration, only to reinstall it a couple of weeks later in attempt to mainline toward the ending. I still don't know if I'm going to complete the game or delete it again. But here we are.
Mouthwashing
Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ) is a psychological horror game about the five-person crew of a long-haul transport ship. After their ship collides with an asteroid, they are left stranded. As time passes, their relationships and mental states begin to fracture into a nightmare.
Using simple, walking sim style gameplay, Mouthwashing is a kind of narrative puzzle. Scenes from two point of views — Curly, the captain, and Jimmy, his second in command — are presented out of chronological order, with the past and present (along with dream sequences) jumbled together in order to emulate the tension of the broken psychological state of the characters. The game is tightly designed, with a fascinatingly brutal story.
Immortality
No other game I've played is quite like Immortality (developed by Sam Barlow and Half Mermaid Productions). The game presents itself as a multi-media retrospective on Marissa Marcel, an up-and-coming actor, who starred in three films — none of which ever aired. The player makes a selection from a number of possible clips from Marcel's movies, behind the scenes footage, and TV interviews to discover who this actress is and the secrets behind her disappearance from the screen. By fast-forwarding, rewinding, and zooming in on people or objects in the scenes, the player is able to discover more clips (and uncover hidden secrets). In the end, the story comes together piece-by-piece to reveal a fascinating perspectives on how artists strive for a kind of immortality through their craft.
Cocoon
Cocoon (Geometric Interactive) is a puzzle platformer with some of the most satisfying and interesting puzzle mechanics I've ever seen. As a strange bug-like humanoid creature, the player is released from a cocoon and tasked with exploring and finding their way through alien worlds. The worlds are strangely biomechanical, making them feel unsettling and cohesive all at once, and the puzzles are fascinating and intuitive. In almost every instance, I could figure things out by bumbling around a bit, with the solutions being so satisfying I found myself getting emotional just through the sheer act of playing the game.
The Outer Worlds 2
The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian Entertainment) is an action RPG set in the same universe as the first game, but in a separate solar system. The player is a an Earth Directorate agent, who is betrayed on a mission by fellow agent, leaving them trapped and frozen in an escape pod for ten years before being rescued by their only surviving team member. Awakened to a changed society, now beset by warring factions, the player must find and take revenge on their former ally — while also saving everyone in the system.
I had a delightful time with The Outer Worlds 2, especially since the sequel improves on many aspects of the first game. The combat is fun, with a great selection of weapons and armor to enhance the experience in unique ways. The negative traits made me laugh and presented interesting ways of approaching the game, the factions provided interesting perspectives, the companions and NPCs are quirky and interesting, and the story kept me motivated in reaching the end. Fun times were had all around.
Birth
Birth is a lovely point-and-click puzzle game created by Madison Karrh. Facing loneliness in the city, the main character decides to collect bones and organs to craft a companion to provide comfort. The player is then presented with the task of finding the bones and organs required to construct this companion. Moving through different spaces — stranger’s rooms, a market, a library, etc. — the player completes puzzles to find, uncover, and unlock the pieces. The game art is quaintly creepy, and the puzzles are wonderfully crafted with intuitive solutions. Birth was a short and lovely experience.
Blue Prince
I almost didn't include Blue Prince (Dogubomb) on this list, because as much as I loved the game at the start, I eventually lost interest in it, and now call it the best game I ever played that ultimately wasn't for me. And Blue Prince truly is a fantastic game. Of that, there's no doubt.
Blue Prince is a beautiful puzzle adventure game with a blend of strategy and rogue-like elements. Playing as Simon, the heir to a mysterious uncle with an even more mysterious house, the player must find their way to the hidden Room 46. The catch is that everyday the house resets, and the player must build out the manor room by room from a random selection of three blueprints. Each room presents a set number of doors, items, puzzles, narrative clues, and/or attributes that allow the player to progress deeper into the home. It's wonderfully designed with lovely art and fantastic environmental storytelling.
For the first 20 hours, I was absolutely delighted with the game — but as I struggled to reach Room 46, thanks to the reset each day, I found myself loosing interest. I "completed" the game by rolling the credits, but left the hours and hours of further puzzles to those who enjoyed the challenge of unravelling them.
Schim
Schim (developed by Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman) is delightful little puzzle platformer, in which the player is a tiny creature that lives in a young boy's shadow. As this creature, we jump from shadow to shadow to progress through the levels, watching the young boy grow into a man and face a number of challenges throughout his life. The movement is fun (and occasionally challenging), and one of the best parts is interacting with random objects — such as rattling a fence, causing a street light to buzz, or spitting garbage out of a garbage can. Although the game does drag a bit toward the end, the ending brings everything together in a wonderful way.
Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered
At this point, I've played Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games) a half a dozen times. It's a comfort game for me and one I will continue to return to again and again. Aloy's story of trying to figure out her place in the world only to unravel a deeper mystery surrounding the past never fails to move me. This year, I especially resonated with the stories of the past, which reveal people just trying to cling to a future hope in a truly impossible situation.
This year, I upgraded to the Remastered edition, which just adds a lovely polish to an already gorgeous game, with its stunning biomes and vistas. As much as I loved re-experiencing the story, I really resonated with the combat this time around. For the first time in my gaming life, I felt like I "got good" and was able to figure out strategies for even the toughest machines. It was all so satisfying, and I'm already looking forward to my next replay on an even harder difficulty.
Browser Games
Messenger by Vicente Lucendo and Michael Sungaila is a lovely browser game about exploring a tiny round world and delivering messages. You’re essentially dropped into this tiny city and giving the task of delivering messages to different inhabitants, giving you small insights into their worlds. It’s beautifully animated with sweet music, and a character creator lets you swap out your clothing style. As you wander, you also see other players running about delivering messages — all of us just doing our thing together.
Wayfinder is a lovely little game created by Matt DesLauriers to evoke respect for the beauty of nature. The player takes the form of a red-robed figure wandering through pastel landscapes in different seasons, with the sounds of wind, soft rustling leaves, and chirping birds providing an relaxing soundscape. Exploring allows the player to discover tokens that unlock words that come together to unfold small haiku-like poetry. It’s a short, but soul-soothing experience — and since the visuals and poetry are procedurally assembled, the game is able to create a unique experience for each player.
“For Gregg” by Leon Barillaro is a text adventure about a manager who is about to be replaced with an AI system. As the player reviews the employee files, the bot becomes confused by the fact of employee Gregg’s death and frustratingly attempts grief counseling. The game is a powerful portrayal of how AI fails to understand humanity in the slightest.
Another game I open up on my phone regularly is “hexplant,” a free browser game created by willow, in which the player grows the plant as far as they can from the water to try to find the final (purple) hexagon. The game is randomly generated and super simple to play — and I find myself just as (if not more) interested in making pretty patterns with the tendrils of plant over actually completing the puzzle.
Games I'm Looking Forward To
Of course, there are still tons of great games to look forward to, and I recently played two demos for games I'm excited about:
Psychotic Bathtub, currently being developed by Natasha Sebben and her team, is a dark visual novel that explores mental health. The main character sits in their bathtub, and the player interacts with various inanimate objects to initiate conversations with them, dredging up the character's memories or emotional state. I love the illustrated art style, the sound design, and overall tone. When released in 2026, the final game is expected to provide additional interactions and endings.
Am I Nima? is a psychological horror game in development by Ho! Games. You play as Nima, who wakes with no memory and is trapped by her mother in the basement. Through dialog options and by making mental connections (by combining words to open new memory options), the player has to figure out what's happening and prevent Nima's mother from doing something terrible. The game is quite creepy and I'm looking forward to exploring it further (though no release date has been announced yet).
I'm also interested picking up a number of games expected to be released in 2026, including Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom), Marvel's Wolverine (Insomniac Games), Reanimal (Tarsier Studios), and I Hate This Place (Rock Square Thunder).
Not to mention the oodles of well-loved games from 2025 that I never got around to playing, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), South of Midnight (Compulsion Games), Dispatch (AdHoc Studio), Lost Records: Bloom and Rage (Don't Nod Montréal), Silent Hill f (NeoBards Entertainment), Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Jump Over the Age), Despelote (Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena), Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry), Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions), Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions), Hades II (Supergiant Games), The Séance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway), and Keeper (Double Fine) — just to name a few.
What games did you love playing in 2025? And what are you excited to play in the new year?
