It’s been another strange, difficult, and yet somehow also brilliant year for video games in 2025. Triple-A releases have been sparse again, compared to the boom times of old, with a great big GTA 6-shaped hole left in the final few months of the year. And yet once again, every gap left by the established order has been filled twice over with something brilliantly new.
If there’s a lingering truth to video games, it’s that they will persist through just about anything. It might feel like the world is shifting around us, but people continue to want to play great games, and people continue to want to make them. And so despite everything, here we are, with another year of sensational, joyous video games across genres, sizes, platforms, studios and locations.
Here are Eurogamer’s picks for the 50 best games of 2025 – narrowing it down to just that was as difficult as ever. Enjoy! And if you feel like reminding us how wrong we are (fair, as ever), don’t forget we’ve got the readers’ top 50 results now live, too. Congratulations on making it through another year, a huge thank you, as ever, for reading here on Eurogamer, and we wish you all well into 2026 and beyond.
50. Avowed
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S
Fantasy role-playing games always seem as though they’re under a great deal of pressure to be grown up or edgy, to smear black murky face-paint over themselves and eschew bright colours in favour of darkness. Avowed, refreshingly, was not this. It was overloaded with colour and bursting with a sense of escape and adventure – values that sometimes seem lost in our grungey gaming world. And playfulness; there’s a gaminess to Avowed’s nature that seemed almost childlike – a desire to get out in the world and play in it. Like the sea breeze that rushes around the island you explore on, Avowed was a breath of fresh air. – Bertie
Read more in our Avowed review.
49. Lego Voyagers
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PS4, PC, Switch, Switch 2
Co-op games with a deep story are all the rage now, don’t you know. While Split Fiction is a flashier and more crowdpleasing entry in this spin-off genre of games you can play with a friend/child/colleague/family member who doesn’t need to be able to 360 no scope, Lego Voyagers is perhaps the more refined game. It’s brief, it doesn’t feature any hammy dialogue, its puzzles are light, and there are no mind-bending visual tricks, but it’s so very touching. I’m sure the game’s ending, built up to exquisitely over the last quarter or so of the adventure, won’t hit the same for everyone – I played with my son, who took it completely differently to how I did – but for those old enough to have lived, who know the complex journeys our lives take us on, it’s for me the biggest slam dunk finale of any game I’ve played this year. – Tom O
Read more in our Lego Voyagers review.
48. Metal Gear Solid: Delta
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Metal Gear Solid: Delta was a remake done right in 2025, a truly heartfelt recreation of an all-time classic that added just enough new features and gameplay iterations to keep things fresh, while not treading on the toes of the original masterpiece. A museum restoration in video game form, save for some unfortunate performance woes that sadly hindered its overall appeal. Bringing back original voice actors for some select new lines, and packing in all bonus content in one lovely package. Metal Gear Solid: Delta is, I hope, the start of a series of similar restorations of Konami’s best series.
Read more in our Metal Gear Solid: Delta review.
47. Two Point Museum
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5
Let’s just say I was apprehensive about Two Point Museum. Developer Two Point Studios’ debut title, Two Point Hospital, was lovely stuff, a wonderful (if very intentionally familiar) riff on Bullfrog Games’ fondly remembered 1997 classic Theme Hospital. Its follow-up, Two Point Campus, captured the same winning sense of whimsy, but deviated so little from the formula that, only two games in, things were starting to feel tired. I was beginning to worry Two Point Studios might be a one trick pony, but I was wrong. This year’s Two Point Museum is an absolute banger, and easily one of the finest management sims I’ve played in ages. It’s certainly of a piece with its predecessors, but far more ambitious and inventive too.
It’s got all the usual management stuff as you battle to ensure the smooth running of your slowly expanding museum, but it’s constantly chucking in new ideas. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, finally accustomed to the comfortable rhythms of, say, setting up an elaborate security perimeter or sending staff out on expeditions, it suddenly turns into an aquarium sim, or a weird ghost hotel sim, or something entirely different again. It’s great, full of the usual wit and whimsy, but strategically rich and wonderfully satisfying too. And, its customisation tools are surprisingly extensive, so if you’re a beautification fiend like me, you’ll be in your element here too – Matt
Read more in our Two Point Museum review.
46. Horses
Platforms: PC
It’s a shame the controversy surrounding Horses’ release ended up overshadowing the game itself, because writer and director Andrea Lucco Borlera’s first-person narrative horror – developed in conjunction with Saturnalia studio Santa Ragione – is a bold, fascinating debut. It’s also, unfortunately for me, not a particularly easy thing to describe. This is a game where surreal, slapstick comedy collides with arthouse experimentalism (think live-action interstitials, picture-in-picture, smash cuts, and split-screen) to create a destabilising ambience that serves its tale of oppression, hypocrisy, and revolution well.
All this unfolds across two weeks on a farm where humans are kept, masked and naked, in filthy captivity. It’s a grim sight that, for a long time, goes completely unacknowledged, creating a yawning void of unease you’re simply forced to live with as you spend your days performing simple tasks – gardening, woodchopping, and so on – to satisfy the farmer’s demands. It’s not long, however, before outside forces make their presence known and Horses rides full-tilt, gleefully and with purpose, into the grotesque. You’ll gasp, you’ll laugh, you’ll squirm; but its shocks are comparatively tame (it’s certainly nowhere near as explicit as, say, the porn games you’ll find on Steam or the Terrifier movies Epic Games is happy promoting to children in Fortnite, wink) and it’s all in service of an experience with something genuine, meaningful, and urgent to say. That’s a pretty good deal for ยฃ3.99 – Matt
Read more in our Horses review.
45. Tiny Bookshop
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2
The premise of neoludic games’ Tiny Bookshop is simple. You’re tasked with running your own bustling bookshop from a small wooden carriage attached to the back of your car, allowing you to visit various locations in this sleepy seaside town to sell your books and get to know the townsfolk while doing so. You’ll even get to provide your own book recommendations – and possibly write your own book! – along the way.
Tiny Bookshop combines two of my favourite things: video games and books. It was a delightful surprise to stumble upon such a combination, and it ultimately saw me start reading more again; the book recommendations I gave to townsfolk bled into real life (yes, the books featured in-game are real books), and saw me seek out more book recommendations from both my real-life friends, and based upon what my favourite in-game characters were reading.
Despite being a single-player game, there’s a real sense of community to be found within – and as a result of – Tiny Bookshop. Your second-hand bookstore quickly becomes the talk of the town, and it soon becomes your job to help townsfolk with their personal issues, beyond providing them book recommendations. It goes to show just how literature – and most media, really – connects us; it gets us talking to and later, confiding in one another, and Tiny Bookshop really emphasises that fact, all while being a cosy management sim about selling books. – Kelsey
Read more about how Tiny Bookshop makes us want to run away to the seaside.
44. The Outer Worlds 2
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC
Fallout: New Vegas turned fifteen years old just a few months ago, and the legend of that game’s role-playing prowess has only grown in that time. It’s difficult to beat, though it’s fair to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is the closest that New Vegas developer Obsidian – or indeed perhaps anyone – has come to channelling the energy that made that game special.
The Outer Worlds 2 is in some ways a gentle iteration on its predecessor, but in other ways it offers a counter. The two games are in conversation, in a sense. There’s a conscious choice to lean into more hardcore role-playing, headlined by the decision to rip away respec while still committing to a game design where you will constantly come across doors you can’t open, dialogue you can’t broach, and so on. That’s okay though – it is part of the intentional design. You’re meant to be making choices. You’re meant to be building a character, playing a role. Fantasies can be embraced in this; there is as much joy to playing an idiot or a lucky klutz as there is a super-genius.
Add in snappier-feeling combat, amusing and engaging writing, and a good amount of heart and you end up with a game that perhaps isn’t earth-shattering or breathtaking as some bigger-budget peers are – but it’s still brilliant, and home to a thoughtful streak of role-playing design that is rarer than it should be. – Alex
Read more in our The Outer Worlds 2 review.
43. Expelled!
Platforms: PC, Switch, iOS, Mac
There obviously is no magic bullet for developing any sort of game, but I reckon that with 2021’s Overboard!, Inkle did rather crack the code for how to make a dead satisfying, dead simple visual novel. Expelled! Is a light sequel to that title, porting its problem-solving action from a ship to a strict 1920s boarding school that hides numerous secrets. Yes, it’s a murder mystery narrative, but it’s one that delightfully thrives on lying, cheating, stealing – and generally being the sort of bad person this school purports to definitely not raise. A time loop mechanic means the story gradually unfurls over ‘runs’, with new twists warping the narrative as events repeat. It’s glorious. – Alex
Read more in our Expelled! Review.
42. Pokรฉmon Legends: Z-A
Platforms: Switch 2
Pokรฉmon Legends: Z-A has done more for my love of the series than any other Pokรฉmon game in the last 10 years. In my eyes, the formula had ground to a halt: the aging Pokรฉmon outlook had begun resting on its laurels, I thougt: Game Freak was struggling with making battle mechanics that seemed sophisticated on the Game Boy work in the era of online play and HD grpahics, and the creature design had begun to get a bit trite. So why not change it all up: take all the ideas we know and love from the series and wrangle them into something more action-oriented. Take the designs and stick with a more considered art style. Make the game smaller, but more dense. The reduction of scope annoyed some people, sure, and your little city might have some ropey graphics gluing it all together, but the heartbeat of Lumiose City and the attention it lavishes on the Pokรฉmon that populate it shows off how lived-in this world can feel when Game Freak has the time (and inclination) to spend hours looking at the minutiae, rather than the bigger picutre. If this is a taste of the future of Pokรฉmon, then I think the series is in good hands, after all. – Dom
Read more in our Pokรฉmon Legends: Z-A review
41. No, I’m Not a Human
Platforms: PC
The gameplay loop for Trioskaz’s No, I’m not a Human is one we’ve seen before: it’s the end of the world and you’re presented with a distinct cast of uncanny characters seeking safety in your home, and therefore must decide who to trust and who to turn away. It’s a lot like Papers Please in that sense, but No, I’m not a Human is much darker in style and tone, testing your psyche and provoking anxiety throughout.
Laden with hallucinogenic visuals and thoughtful dialogue, No, I’m not a Human captivated me immediately, so much so that even after I’d reached my first three endings – which were the most dire of conclusions, of course – I had to keep going. And continuing the story from where I’d last left off was no slog either, as every new start is an opportunity to learn more about the strangers knocking on your door and change their fates.
Be careful who you let inside your humble abode, though. One wrong move in No, I’m not a Human, and yourself – or your new-found friends, if you could call them that – can quickly meet unfortunate ends at the hands of the Visitors: mysterious, human-like creatures who’ll stop at nothing to gain your trust. Good luck out there. – Kelsey
Read more about why No, I’m not a Human’s brilliance is especially timely today.
40. Kirby Air Riders
Platforms: Switch 2
Sometimes less is more. Other times, you want the kitchen sink. Kirby Air Riders is that rare thing that somehow inexplicably offers you both of those things. The result is magical.
Air Riders offers ‘less’ in terms of its raw mechanics – a racing game with automatic acceleration, and near one-button play where a single input allows you to brake and drift. This is the sort of game that even the most game-illiterate person can enjoy, but scratch beneath the surface and there is incredible depth and strategy – and an absolute shed load of content, which of course is where the ‘more’ comes in. The ensuing madness is surely an acquired taste, but if it lands well for you, you’re in for a very good time.
I suppose what I am describing is just inherently a Masahiro Sakurai game – for this is indeed from he, the Smash Bros. originator. Air Riders takes the formula that made Smash special and applies it to a racing game, which in turn utterly sings. The fact that it’s a sequel to a game that in my opinion was one of his weakest makes it all the more impressive. – Alex
Read more in our Kirby Air Riders review.
39. Ghost Town
Platforms: PC VR, PSVR 2, Meta Quest
2025 was the year I started to fall a little bit in love with VR again after some time away, and that, in no small part, was thanks to Ghost Town. If you’ve played developer Fireproof Games’ acclaimed The Room series, there’s a fair bit of that – and the studio’s beloved puzzle boxes – here, as protagonist and ghost hunter Edith Penrose navigates a brilliantly evocative London of 1983 in search of her missing younger brother. As a VR puzzler it’s great, combining interactivity and physicality in a way that pulls you deeper into its world – but really it’s the latter, a beautifully convincing creation, that proves the real draw here.
Ghost Town trades The Room’s occult Victoriana for propulsive urban fantasy adventure, wrapping its puzzles in an ambitious, engrossing tale of magic and the mundane told with real cinematic flair. It’s wonderfully written, authentically voiced, and gleefully unpredictable, ricocheting from the grimy streets of London to the craggy seclusion of the North Sea, from the earthly realm to planes beyond, and always with an eye for an imaginative set-piece. This is the point it’s tempting to tumble straight into spoiler territory and ramble on about all the brilliant bits that’ve stayed with me. But instead I’ll just say that if you have the means, do check it out. It’s bloody great – Matt
Read more on why Ghost Town is one of Matt’s favourite games of the year.
38. Atomfall
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Xbox One, PS4
Atomfall is one of a handful of games released in 2025 that really gave me a terrible first impression, before going on to be a delightful change from the norm. It’s essentially an open-world survival adventure, set during an alternate history England in the 1960s, with a splendid mix of absolute dire circumstances and British sense of humour. While the opening was a little too hardcore and relied rather too much on stealth for my liking, dropping the difficulty down a little meant I could wander the beautiful landscapes and discover the stories being told by an enjoyable cast of characters. Atomfall encourages you to figure things out rather than straight up telling you what to do, and this results in a game that you feel at home in by the time the credits roll onto the screen. – Tom O
Read more in our Atomfall review.
37. Old Skies
Platforms: PC, Switch
If you’re a point-and-click fan, you’ll likely already be familiar with developer Wadjet Eye Games’ remarkable body of work. But if not, an introduction! The studio’s been releasing wonderfully sophisticated, beautifully written adventures for nearly two decades now. 2018’s Avowed, for instance, is a stunning achievement; an extraordinarily ambitious RPG-inspired spin on the genre, delivering a malleable urban fantasy adventure in which whole chapters can shift depending on who you chose to be and the characters you bring along. By comparison, this year’s Old Skies is a little more restrained, but it’s still an enormously rewarding experience as it gamely leaps across genres and time.
It’s the far-flung future and reality is in constant flux thanks to the commodification and corporatisation of time travel. Enter ChronoZen agent Fia Quinn, whose day job involves accompanying tourists as they galavant into the past. It’s a brilliant set-up, and Wadjet Eye approaches it in an anthology like fashion, each time jaunt tackling a new genre – romance, mystery, farce, intrigue, subterfuge, and even a spot of murder – as Old Skies bounds back and forth in time. As you go, the usual point-and-click rhythms are given a deductive spin that leans convincingly and enjoyably into detective work. And it explores the temporal possibilities of its premise too, building puzzles around paradoxes and other clever things. It’s brilliant stuff, gradually trading bleak existentialism for something deeply human: an unexpectedly moving tale of love, loss, and legacy – Matt
Read more in our Old Skies review.
36. Citizen Sleeper 2
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2
I’ve been thinking a lot this year about the effect time has on our feelings for a game. Reactions are strong but it’s the place a game nestles in our memory that defines how we remember it – or not, as the case may be. To me, Citizen Sleeper 2 has become about connection and friendship, and that warming glow we feel when we see trust reciprocated. That perilous moment when we make ourselves vulnerable and feel as though we could fall but are caught. Citizen Sleeper 2 is these moments – many of these moments, firing like synapses across its universe. This is the best kind of space adventure where a rag-tag crew becomes a found family. It’s enough to warm the depths of the void itself. – Bertie
Read more in our Citizen Sleeper 2 review.
35. Ghost of Yōtei
Platforms: PS5
Do you like revenge stories? Do you like thunder and mud and blood and rage? Do you like to mostly know exactly what is going to happen, but still relish seeing it unfurl, slowly and with joyful, savage excess, before your eyes? You will quite like Ghost of Yōtei, I suspect. There are no surprises here, but the vision is clear as day, the performances some of the finest from a triple-A cast this year. Atsu claws and snarls her way through Yōtei, actor Erika Ishii hunting down wrongdoers with Clint Eastward inevitability. Combat has been expanded, with new weapons adding a kind of four-point, rock-paper-scissors-kusarigama system of counters and weaknesses. You can now create slightly more focused builds with your armour. You can still grapple-hook ledges and sneak through long grass, in that breezy RPG-lite way. And you can still enact gloriously savage pain, through one of the finer swordfighting systems out there. And cor, is Sucker Punch’s version of historical Japan still a looker. – Chris T
Read more in our Ghost of Yōtei review.
34. Blades of Fire
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC
I’m not sure if Blades of Fire will appear in that many Game of the Year lists, but my love of this game hasn’t diminished since I reviewed it back in May. If anything, I’ve thought about it more since playing other games that simply haven’t held my attention to the degree this did. Once I was over an initially very rocky opening, I was locked in and didn’t look back. Mercury Steam’s soulslike action game has multiple problems aside from that less than stellar intro, but for delivering a thrilling sense of adventure and a much-needed original spin on combat, it ranks right at the top of my personal favourites from 2025. – Tom O
Read more in our Blades of Fire review.
33. Lushfoil Photography Sim
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Take a moment out at the end of another hectic year to enjoy this: a photography game that feels like a holiday, an exploration, and an escape. It’s astonishingly simple stuff. Grab your beautifully simulated SLR and head across a variety of beautifully realised environments hunting for photo opportunities. Pick your angles and your moments, and don’t think too much about scoring or finding the one perfect snap in a scene. Instead, just let your mind and your eye wander. From Italian lakes to Japanese forest temples, solo designer Matt Newell’s game is a visual delight. Secrets abound, but the greatest of these is that the sheer act of giving you a camera frees you from so much of the other busywork that games often chuck your way. – Christian D
Read more in our Lushfoil Photography Sim review.
32. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
By Azura, by Azura, by Azura – it’s the grand champion of western RPGs! The Oblivion remaster arrived this year almost by total surprise, that shock factor spoiled somewhat by some hefty leaking in the run-up. But still, what a treat to go back to this one again. Oblivion may have shed some of the complexity and outlandishness of Morrowind, but in doing so it also shed the intimidation factor. This is really the genesis of all modern – especially western – open world RPGs today, and frankly it’s still a lesson in how that structure should be done. It’s a little systemic, it’s relentlessly full, but it also, crucially, hides its fullness from you until you go out there to find it. The remaster took a bit of the joy out by removing the excessive bloom and truly hideous NPC faces, but the once-painful levelling system has been smartly reworked. It’s about as close a remaster can get to a remake, and yet one evidently handled by developer Virtuous with genuine care for the original. – Chris T
Read more on why The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion still matters.
31. Peak
Platforms: PC
Peak is the co-op climbing game that falls into the category of what many may call ‘friendslop’. Friendslop, depending on who you ask, is typically seen as a derogatory term used to describe low-budget co-op games with even lower price tags attached, for you and your friends to play for a week and then never again. While I’m not the biggest fan of the term, I understand why it came about, having not played the likes of Lethal Company or R.E.P.O since the weeks they launched.
But Peak is what many might describe as the ‘peak of friendslop’, ridiculous as it sounds, and it ultimately saw the term ‘friendslop’ being used in a much more endearing manner. It’s a testament to just how great Peak is; it has a staying power that many other games of its ilk have yet to master.
For just a few quid, you and your friends take on the role of scouts. Your collective goal is to work together to ascend a mountain and escape this desolate island after your plane has crashed here. The premise is that simple, but Peak has such charm to it that it’s hard to put down. Developer, AggroCrab, nailed replayability – which is what many ‘friendslop’ titles ultimately lack after the novelty wears off – with regular updates that added exciting items, biomes that change weekly, and a beloved mascot, Bing Bong, that fans quickly became enamoured by. On top of that, witnessing your friends scream in panic as they fall from a mountain to their death simply doesn’t get old. – Kelsey
Read more about Christian’s growing obsession with Peak.
30. Sword of the Sea
Platforms: PS5, PC
What a year it’s been for movement in games. Sword of the Sea is a specific kind of indie game – you could argue it is, in a way, a game from a few years ago. It’s mournful and wordless and has you noodle your way around a beautiful, post-extinction world. But the joy of it is less in the atmosphere, which is still utterly lovely, if less surprising than it once was; it’s just in the sheer playing of it. This time you’re doing your noodling on a sword that is also a surfboard, snowboard, skateboard, whichever suits and which is never less than breathlessly cool. Motion in Sword of the Sea is supreme. You whistle and glide and do little jumps off rolling sand-waves just because, hey, that’s surely what they’re there for. You scream down mountainsides and bounce on jellyfish. Sometimes all I want from a game is the sheer sensation of playing it. Just something that feels perfect in the hands. Sword of the Sea could not feel better. – Chris T
Read more in our Sword of the Sea review.
29. Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC
Another Assassin’s Creed? That was my first thought when Shadows released earlier this year, but what an addition to the series it was. I never gelled with this series since the first few games, but Shadows pulled me back into why it was enjoyable in the first place – stealthy assassinations, twisted plots, and a story bigger than it first appears. The split between Yasuke’s tank-like combat and Naoe’s ninja skills felt slick. The difference between both characters was clear from the beginning, but their story worked almost seamlessly.
Let’s not forget the environment either, a highly detailed and thought-out portrayal of feudal Japan gives plenty to explore, as well as opportunities to pull off high-stakes assassinations. Need a breather? There are Sumi-e Ink dawings, Rangu poetry and much more to find.
Not only does Shadows create the ideal footing for newcomers to the series, allowing them to find their preferred style though either Yasuke or Naoe, it also holds a few surprises and delights for veteran fans too. – Marie
Read more in our Assassin’s Creed Shadows review.
28. Abiotic Factor
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
The realm of multiplayer survival and crafting is pretty busy these days, but there’s still room for a game as characterful as this. The science fiction storyline and underground research centre setting puts it somewhere between Half-Life and Stranger Things, while the chunky retro visuals make it an overwhelming nostalgic kind of delight. In principle it’s another game about hanging out online with your pals and hitting stuff – no problem with that, of course; it’s a noble genre. But in reality Abiotic Factor’s a little more stylish and self aware than you might be expecting. And, crucially, it’s utterly in love with the excesses of this particular blend of genres. It’s properly wonderful stuff. – Christian D
27. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
Platforms: PC
The 2D brawler experts at Lizardcube needed something memorable to work on after that perfect update of Streets of Rage. Luckily, Shinobi has provided the ideal project for their talents. Here is a game about being swift and air-current light as you dash around beautifully drawn environments on a mission of revenge. The controls are precise, the violence has that balance of impact and restraint that the subject material calls for, and the sense that a video game classic is getting the most respectful of updates is endlessly apparent. Combos and specials provide a little texture to the headlong pelt of the campaign, while never giving you too much to think about, and that move where you dance over a baddy rather than lamping them is just the absolute best. – Christian D
Read more on the ninja precision of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.
26. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2
There was a lot of debate this year about whether or not we should let Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles recieve nominations for Game of the Year accolades: it’s a remake of a 1997 game, after all, and doesn’t even include all the War of the Lions content that many people insist forms the best version of the title. They’re wrong. You’re all wrong. This core game, remade and rethought in HD with better UI and some of the stranger kinks ironed out, is a beauty. The story is probably one of the best in the whole Final Fantasy canon, and the tactics-based gameplay simplifies a complicated genre down to its most essential parts, oiling the gears and making it quick, satisfying, and compelling. Remaking this game without really touching any of the fundamentals goes to prove how something like this can remain as perfect, as-is, even nearly 30 years later. Of course FFT deserves a place in the best of the year list… because, simply put, it’s already one of the best of all time. – Dom
Read more in our Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review.
25. Rematch
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC
For a couple of months in the middle of the year I was borderline obsessed with Rematch. It was all I played, warts and all. The game, online 3, 4, or 5-aside football arcade football in which you controlled just one of the players, felt janky and buggy around launch, but it had the magic juice. While it was easy to come across as a clumsy dope while learning the ropes, with the basics learned Rematch became very hard to put down. Jumpers for goalposts and all those memories came flooding back, and as someone who misses the days I played with friends, Sloclap’s thrilling recreation scratched that itch. – Tom O
Read more on why Rematch is great.
24. Battlefield 6
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Battlefield was well and truly back in 2025, making an enormous splash in the FPS space with an explosive return to form. Many of the faults of past entries left by the wayside, that first month or so truly stole the limelight from competitors in the genre, breaking records handily. It, to me, is the perfect example of a well-rounded package. All components of the game are made well enough that you can point to pretty much any aspect of the experience – maybe that campaign aside – and come away happy. The fluid class system, the crashing audio design that pulls your ears and drops them right into the action. One can only hope Battlefield can stay in top form moving forward. – Connor
Read more in our Battlefield 6 review.
23. Mario Kart World
Platforms: Switch 2
Now there’s some distance between Mario Kart World and its release, which really was a game and an entirely new console, and with months of multiplayer under my belt that simply wasn’t possible to amass for the review, my thoughts are pretty much exactly what I thought in June. This is a game that feels and looks brilliant, and has delivered some of the most unbelievable online multiplayer moments I’ve ever experienced, but also made some odd choices with regard to its make up as an open-world racer. As a result I have played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe more than I have World since its release, as I simply prefer the classic Grand Prix set up it offers. The open world in the Switch 2 game also never quite wowed me, even though it’s a delight to explore and full of wonderful details. A great game, then, but one that hasn’t yet emerged from the shadow of its peerless predecessor. – Tom O
Read more in our Mario Kart World review.
22. Elden Ring: Nightreign
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One
It’s hard for me to believe that Elden Ring’s multiplayer spin-off, Nightreign, came out this year because I feel like I have been playing it for years. That feeling is no doubt helped along by all the familiar foes – from both Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series – that you find yourself up against in this three-player romp.
While Nightreign’s buffoonery may be lost on FromSoftware’s solo veterans, it’s been a blast of epic proportions to play with friends and strangers alike, in what is a rare opportunity to work as a team to take down bosses without the use of mods. The shared moments of success are a real treat, and something you don’t often otherwise experience in FromSoftware’s dark fantasy endeavours.
That being said, it’s also a real pleasure to see the developer experimenting with its games, and Nightreign ultimately makes me look even more forward to whatever FromSoftware has up its sleeve for in future. – Kelsey
Read more in our Elden Ring: Nightreign review.
21. Keeper
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S
Psychonauts developer Double Fine is 25 this year. That’s two and a half decades of wonderful games and bold creative swings, and Keeper suggests the studio’s well is far from dry. This is the tale of a lighthouse turned sentient, teetering across a landscape both strangely familiar and inarguably alien. And by jove has Double Fine worked some magic here, creating an adventure of real wonder and beauty, boldly rendered with explosions of iridescent colour and intricate painterly swirls. It’s an impeccable union of art, animation, and sound that frequently left me in awe.
Slightly complicating this effusive praise is the fact Keeper takes a little while to find its footing, struggling to hit a comfortable rhythm early on – both in terms of puzzling and pace – that not everyone will be willing to overlook. But then it hits its stride and something magical happens. Keeper becomes a game of glorious reinvention, and I barrelled through the whole thing in a single spellbound sitting. It’s not often I’m overcome with emotion in games, but that bit with the fish? That did it. – Matt
Read more in our Keeper review.
20. Promise Mascot Agency
Platforms: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S
All hail the rattly white van, perhaps the most wonderful companion in a whole 12 months of video games. And the anthropomorphic thumb riding in the back isn’t half bad either. Promise Mascot Agency is perhaps the greatest pure delight of 2025, a game about restoring a derelict town that is also a game about escaping your past and remaking yourself, that is also a game about running a talent agency, that is also a game about that brilliant freakin’ van. This is an open-worlder that reminds you that open world games are really pretty special when their scattered tasks are offered up with character, wit and a sense of playfulness. Growing your stable of mascots is a pleasure, fixing up abandoned shrines is oddly wholesome, and, again, the van you get to ride around in? Marry me. – Christian D
19. The Sรฉance of Blake Manor
Platforms: PC
Not to repeat myself, but it’s the turnips that got me first. I kind of already knew that jack-o’-lanterns were originally carved from turnips – it was one of those random bits of trivia I’d picked up somewhere along the way – but developer Spooky Doorway’s brilliant The Sรฉance of Blake Manor turns that fact into a feature. This is a supernatural detective mystery steeped in Irish history, lending its tale – of dangerous psychic meddlings in a remote, rain-lashed corner of Connemara, circa 1879 – a wonderful air of authenticity. But more than that, it’s just enormously clever; an elaborate hunt to solve the disappearance of a young woman named Evelyn Deane in the three days before calamity strikes, which can only be achieved through proper detective work.
Its huge cast is in constant motion, moving around the titular hotel with the passing of every hour, and it’s up to you to gain any advantage you can – through clue hunting, canny interrogation, library research, social engineering, or simple subterfuge – to eliminate suspects and solve the crime. Spooky Doorway’s manor, which you’ll explore in first-person, is like a vast clockwork machine; an ever-shifting world of colourful characters, surprising stories, unexpected motives, and ancient horrors that creates a mystery as richly atmospheric as it is gripping – Matt
Read more in our piece on The Sรฉance of Blake Manor’s detective thrills.
18. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Platforms: PS5
With the first game’s exposition out the way, Kojima was free with Death Stranding 2 to focus on telling a story. It’s still got beach dimensions, demonic oil whales, baby powers, and enough acronyms and trite names to fill a dictionary, but there’s heartfelt human drama here too about the power of connection in a desolate world. What’s more, with some of the first game’s gameplay edges smoothed out, this sequel is a far more approachable experience, while still offering blockbuster moments and phenomenal visuals, not mention a finale that is pure camp. Of all this year’s triple-A games, Death Stranding 2 is the weirdest and most divisive, and that deserves to be celebrated. Nobody does weird like Kojima. – Ed
Read more in our Death Stranding 2 review.
17. Lumines Arise
Platforms: PS5, PC
The great remix of Tetris gets a Tetris Effect remix of its own. Lumines was already a kind of Tetris 2.0, reimagining tempo and rhythm in the way Tetris Effect did for it so spectacularly a few years ago. You must sort falling blocks, albeit combinations of blocks, always in a 2×2 square, so that they match up in your big pile of terror below. But now there’s Burst – the Effect part, kind of – that adds an active mechanical twist. A meter builds until you can activate it, and suddenly you’re thinking optimisation – how can I get the most out of this? – and relief – how can I use this to clear that horrible stack as quickly as possible?! Like so many games of this kind, where a single limited mechanic looms over your play, it becomes both oppressive and revolutionary, an added pressure and a boon. Throw in the Effect-style soundscapes and shifting, diffusing, trancelike visuals and, yeah. Cor indeed. – Chris T
Read more in our Lumines Arise review.
16. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
There has perhaps not been a better historical RPG release in recent memory than Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. It is a well of regional knowledge from the Czech Republic, then called Bohemia, in which buckets of geographical, political, and religious insight can be drawn. All contained within a properly immersive, often tough-as-nails, experience. Perhaps the boldest and brightest element of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is the story of revenge at its heart, packed with lovable and horrible characters alike. Sometimes, those qualities overlap brilliantly. Well worth playing if you’ve got a hundred-or-so hours to spare. – Connor
Read more in our Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review.
15. Arc Raiders
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Arc Raiders proved to be a real underdog hit this year, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a bubbling cauldron of enticing design with a layer of thick skin of quality floating almost entirely across the entire package (save for one aspect you can probably guess). For me the audio work in this extraction shooter is superb, be it the subtle movement of birds triggered by player proximity, or the thundering of bullets leaving a Bettina. The stakes are high, the matches are tense, and the community has an interesting pacifistic quirk to it that’s been a joy to monitor. – Connor
Read more in our Arc Raiders review.
14. Ball x Pit
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X/S
Ball x Pit is this glorious blend of Arkanoid-inspired block breaking mechanics and a city builder that’s just delightful even short bursts or lengthy sessions crouched behind the computer. Through eye-pleasing pixel art that creates this retro, dark fantastical presentation setting it apart, as well as a thumping electronic soundtrack, Ball x Pitt stands out among its peers. When you collect a powerful combo of passive items and balls, and the level is absolutely chock full of projectiles bouncing off enemies in their dozens, the game transforms into a firework show that lit up the tail end of 2025 for me. It’s a game you absolutely must play. – Connor
Read more in our Ball x Pit review.
13. Sektori
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Phwooooooaarrrrr. Sektori is a beastly game. Everybody says “Geometry Wars” and yeah, I get that. But this one’s also so much more, a twin-stick bolt of neon fury beamed in from the future. I see Resogun. I see Nex Machina. I see Returnal, in a strange way, which becomes just a little less strange when you realise this is from Kimmo Lahtinen, a Housemarque alum. And I see Robotron, if only because Christian Donlan has trained me to first think “Robotron” and then walk backwards from there – and even if Geometry Wars is, in a way, a different branch on that tree.
Sektori’s sensory overload is its obvious strength, as with any brilliant shooter like it – fall through the spiralling tunnel of overwhelm and out the other side you’ll find pure focus, The Zone, flow. But the less obvious magic is the way this game shifts as you play it, reshaping itself between each run, snaking out between your fingers whenever you think you’ve finally managed a half-firm grasp. So many connections bursts forth into your mind as you play this game and somehow at the same time, it feels like nothing else. – Chris T
Read more in our Sektori coverage
12. Skin Deep
Platforms: PC
Skin Deep’s pitch, Die Hard in space, is pretty good even before you discover that this is the latest treat from Blendo Games. But with Brendon Chung and his collaborators in charge, the whole thing becomes properly magical. The journey from cinematic games like Thirty Flights of Loving to this, a genuine immersive sim, has been fascinating for fans of the studio to watch, but it’s also just a delight to see how a quirky creator has allowed his singular imagination to flow into new designs and new shapes with such confidence and joy. Protect a series of deep-space hulks from invading bandits whose heads are prone to pop off at the worst moments. Rescue cats. Defend at least one library. Eject enemies out through airlocks. Pull splinters of glass from your feet. Be warned going in: this game absolutely rules. – Christian D
Read more in our Skin deep review
11. Hades 2
Platforms: Switch, PC
It’s hard to improve on perfection. The first Hades game was one of the most mechanically well-rounded and complete games when it released out of early access back in 2020. How the hell could Supergiant improve on it with the sequel? And yet improve they did. Following another round of early access success, Hades 2 branches off in ways I never considered from the first game, adding more depth, more boons, more weapons, more routes, more songs, more sexiness. It may not have the freshness of the first game, but the way it plays with – and builds on – your expectations more than makes up for it. – Ed
Read more in our Hades 2 review.
10. Donkey Kong Bananza
Platforms: Switch 2
This year, the big DK came back to kick some tail in the most groundbreaking way (literally). Donkey Kong Bananza arrived on Switch 2 with an energising thump, allowing us to smash through layer upon layer of rocky (?) earth to get to the planet core, all with a rather catchy backing track or two to see us there. If you don’t periodically get ‘Zeeeebraaa, Zeeeebraaa’ stuck in your head still, then I am sorry we are just not meant to be friends. Along with sidekick Pauline, Donkey Kong Bananza managed to combine a surprisingly heartfelt story and bright Nintendo colours with one particularly big and welcome surprise (no spoilers here). The end package was as satisfying as it was joyful, which more than earns Donkey Kong Bananza a spot as one of the best games of 2025. – Victoria
Read more in our Donkey Kong Bananza review.
9. Skate Story
Platforms: PC, PS5
Skate Story arrived late in the year – maybe a little too late to make the awards-season splash it arguably deserves, and yet it sits pretty high here because even in that brief time it has hit like a thunderbolt. Break free of your hellish confines, defeat demonic authority, eat the moon – and do it all by skating. Hell yeah. Skate Story is one of the most extraordinarily stylish games of this year, but it’s a bit more than that. It’s a singular game, the type of thing that can only come from a miniscule team – in this case, essentially its solo developer, Sam Eng – where the vision is intimate and personal. The flow is sublime, even if the camera can get a little claustrophobically close compared to more mechanically-minded skating games. The tricks are rad. The vibes are radder. In the first hour I blasted through a giant statue head called the Philosopher who kept shouting INTRIGUING when I performed extremely mediocre stunts. Beyond that lies a story of fragility and resilience, the comedic and the profound, and a resistance to be tamed. It can’t get much more 2025. – Chris T
Read more in our Skate Story review.
8. Silent Hill f
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5
It’s not often a nearly 25-year-old series – particularly one that only just managed to wrestle itself back from the brink after a long hiatus and years of uninspired sequels – dares to be this bold. But here we are with Silent Hill f; a game that asks itself the question, what even is Silent Hill? The answer, it turns out, isn’t the titular town, but rather a philosophy? A state of mind? A vibe? I’m honestly not sure, but Silent Hill f certainly knows. In switching out modern day North America for 1960s Japan, there’s so little familiar here (beyond, of course, the ever-present fog) it left me feeling adrift for the first few hours. But then, just like that, it clicked – for me, in a shocking moment of cruelty where, all at once, entire new depths of character were revealed – and suddenly it couldn’t be anything other than Silent Hill.
It might mostly be a game about whacking monsters in claustrophobic spaces (and, for what it’s worth, I enjoyed its convincingly unwieldy combat quite a bit), but there’s a devastating emotional authenticity to Silent Hill f – a chilling slide into helplessness – that’s considerably more horrifying than anything its creatures can muster. And as reality convincingly collapses around you – disappearing into a contradictory confusion of memories you can only hope to untangle with repeated playthroughs – you’ve no choice but to follow. Is it better than last year’s stellar Silent Hill 2 remake? For me, it’s close – but regardless, long may this incredible revival continue – Matt
Read more in our Silent Hill f review.
7. Hollow Knight: Silksong
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS4, Xbox One
What started out as a DLC for Hollow Knight quickly became Hollow Knight: Silksong, a standalone game, as Team Cherry spent seven years getting carried away crafting the world of Pharloom. The end result is an incredibly challenging Metroidvania filled with bugs (the literal kind!) that builds on its predecessor and shows the utmost passion and creativity from its tiny development team.
With Silksong I grew enamoured with each new region I came across, determined to hunt down every secret and battle every boss (and there are a lot of bosses). A game hasn’t quite captured me like this since Elden Ring, and I believe a lot of that is down to just how thrilling exploration is. You don’t know if the next room holds a shiny new Tool to use, or a boss with rhythms to learn, or a perilous platforming section. With some luck, you might even encounter a new lovable NPC that you’d put your life on the line for (thinking of Sherma right now).
Ultimately, Silksong isn’t just a game full of whimsy, incredible artwork, and expertly crafted boss fights, but a real testament to the imagination – and the skills used to apply that – of Team Cherry too. I can’t wait to see what the Silksong DLC, Sea of Sorrow, entails, but here’s hoping it doesn’t take another seven years to arrive! – Kelsey
Read more in our Hollow Knight: Silksong review.
6. Split Fiction
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Switch 2
While I 100 percent believe Hazelight’s Split Fiction precursor, It Takes Two, to be the better of the studio’s recent co-op hits, I still came away from Split Fiction with a big grin on my usually grinless face. What makes this fantasy/sci-fi adventure such a hit is its incredible co-op mechanics that reach glorious heights at the end, delivering the kind of video game spectacle that you want to tell everyone about. Some of the writing is a little on the nose, the main characters’ stories (if I’m being harsh here) lifted from daytime TV drama, but there’s some magic in the gameplay when Spit Fiction is firing on all cylinders – enough to make me overlook weakness elsewhere and bask in the sheer creativity of it all. -Tom O
Read more in our Split Fiction review.
5. Dispatch
Platforms: PS5, PC, coming to Switch 2
I thought I was kind of over the whole superhero thing. I have been bored of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years now, and the games I play generally don’t tend to feature capes and super powers. Well, at least they didn’t, until Dispatch arrived in October.
Described by developer AdHoc as a “superhero workplace comedy”, Dispatch places you in the role of Robert Robertson, a regular guy who thanks to a mech suit is able to help others in a superhero-y sort of way. However, when the suit gets damaged, Robert becomes a dispatcher for other superheroes, and the result is an emotionally engaging episodic comic book of a game, with characters you will genuinely find yourself caring deeply for. When I finished, I honestly felt like I was saying goodbye to some dear friends. I had brawled with them, I had laughed with them, I had cried with them, and I had danced with them. I had also failed with them, but one thing Dispatch has really emphasised is that that is ok. We are allowed to be flawed. And actually, there is something really endearing about those flaws.
There is now talk of a second season of Dispatch, and by golly, I really, really hope we get one. – Victoria
4. Despelote
Platforms: PS5, PC
Oh, Despelote. One of the greatest intro sequences I’ve ever played, and one of the most fascinating endings to go with it. Despelote – not really a proper word, as I understand it – is a kind of portmanteau that roughly translates to “this is a mess”, or a hot mess, or something like it. A pseudo-authobiography, which sounds fancy, it’s really a retelling of a specific slice of it creator Juliรกn Cordero’s childhood as Ecuador, his home country, secured a historic qualification for the 2002 World Cup.
In it, you’ll boot a football – usually nicked from some older kids, or made makeshift from whatever vaguely bootable object you can find – around the streets and parks and playgrounds of the sepia city of Quito. But after a short while there’s a turn, and one it would be desperately wrong of me to reveal to you. I can say why it’s so special though. Despelote is a game about football, sport, the uniting power of them first, and that’s glorious enough on its own. But then it becomes a game about what it means to remember, or for a specific moment to be memorable. And one about childhood, coming of age. And then one about the act of creation, of documenting and retelling. So many things, in just a few hours. And so many ways in which it bends the rules, breaks from form, surprises just as you think it’s settling into shape. If what you value most is games that push this medium forward, that shift in your hands, that arrive to you undigested and in need of breaking down in the mind over time, this is arguably the finest release of this year, and probably of many others. To play it is a dream. A beautiful mess, like life itself. – Chris T
Read more in our Despelote review.
3. Baby Steps
Platforms: PS5, PC
I laugh at the memory of Baby Steps because it raises what I think is an amusing question: do you need to like a game to love it? Look at the beloved Souls series: do players always like those games, or are there moments when they wish they’d, to put it simply, get in the bin? There were moments when I wished Baby Steps would get in the bin, but I never hated it. Rather, I admired it. I admired the unbending creative vision. You will fall, you will feel frustrated, but if you can pick yourself up and try again, perhaps you will also feel something else. Profundity in a onesie – I don’t think anyone expected that.
And actually, it’s not as mean as it seems. Underneath the nihilistic exterior and the donkey people waggling their willies around is a game that cares. A game with depth and meaning. An adventure of purpose. There’s nothing else like it. – Bertie
Read more in our Baby Steps review.
2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC
“Turn-based games are back!” said the people who just didn’t know where to look for them. It’s resulted in plenty of tired comparisons with Final Fantasy and discourse around the future of the genre. But still, Expedition 33’s combat is truly where the game shines the most and it’s certainly boosted the genre’s popularity. It’s part turn-based, part rhythm game, demanding exact timing for its parries and dodges on top of considered strategy. Between the varying combat styles of its cast of characters, its weapon scaling, its levels of ability and buff customisation, Expedition 33 has such depth to its combat it’s enough of a foundation for the entire game. It’s been rightly praised for its surreal visuals, its emotive performances, and the French synth-classical fantasy of its score. But above all, Expedition 33 is for RPG nerds – like its very director – who love to spend hours min-maxing to one-shot a boss. For me, no other game has quite offered that same satisfaction all year. – Ed
One of my favourite games of all time is Final Fantasy 8; there’s something about the world, the ever-encroaching sense of doom as you approach the fourth disc, the conspiratorial way the story unfolds, the hidden phantom of a timeless big bad that’s shaping the history of the world to her whim, and the sort-of innocent camaraderie of your team of traumatised orphans that just resonates with me. No surpirse, then, that Expedition 33 has found a home in my heart. You can tell director Guillaume Broche took his cues from the PS1 FF games, with 8 in particular having very visible thumbprints on this European fantasy world. I honestly thought games like this were a product of the past – yes, we still get gorgeous turn-based RPGs these days (just look at Metaphor Refantazio and the Shin Megami Tensei series), but Clair Obscur managed to pair phenomenal battle gimmicks on top of a world that remains intriguing and hostile until its very last breath, all whilst balancing some delicate and considered character work alongside it. I was floored by how the game managed to keep changing up how battles worked, right up into the final act. I was captivated by the world and still found secrets tucked away, even on a second playthrough. I was smitten with Esquie, just like everyone else. This is a game that remains on everyone’s lips for a reason, and I can’t believe it’s a product of 2025. Dom
Read more in our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review.
1. Blue Prince
Platforms – PC via Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Sometimes, a game comes along that completely blows your expectations out of the water, and for me this year that was Blue Prince, the puzzle adventure from Dogubomb. Blue Prince pops players into the shoes of Simon P. Jones, who must locate a hidden 46th room within the mansion known as Mt. Holly Estate in order to secure his inheritance. That may all sound like a simple enough task, but what Dogubomb has done here is lace what may at first seem like a straightforward puzzle with a mystery-infused sub layer. Blue Princes teases its secrets out slowly, but the end result is absolutely worth it. Even months later, I still often find myself thinking about it. What an experience. What a game. – Victoria
To me, Blue Prince carries the essence of invention. In my mind I see it on the table of a workshop – perhaps the workshop from the game? – being shaped and fussed over for many nights, many years. The heart purposefully obscured by intricate workings and puzzles and misdirections, with layers that shed treats like a parcel passed at a party. Small and seemingly simple, but dense, weighted by the years of thought projected onto and into it.
To be surprised by an idea in 2025 is to be delighted by it, I think. I have not played a game that uses this idea before. But what makes Blue Prince special is the way the idea has been nurtured and worked and accompanied: coloured with atmosphere, deepened with story, propelled by intrigue. These are the sorts of things a protective creator insists on. As such, this game obsessed my partner and me for months because we had to see what was in Room 46. Blue Prince became a shared, social pursuit, a collective memory. And the more we explored, and the more the game’s mysteries unravelled, the stronger its grip became.
I believe games like Blue Prince are only achievable from a place of singular determination. They come from one person’s obsession – one inventor’s mission – to create something the world has not seen before. In Blue Prince, Tonda Ros has done exactly that. – Bertie
If Clair Oscur was the beating heart of video gaming in 2025, with its deeply human apocalypse, Blue Prince was the brains. There’s a chilly detachment to developer Dogubomb’s fiercely cerebral first-person puzzler – one reflected in the drab mountain skies of its setting, the cold interiors of its mansion, and the stark lines of its art – that can be a little off-putting. It doesn’t help either that, beyond its first wisp of a challenge – to find that elusive Room 46 – it initially seems doggedly, impenetrably withholding.
And to be honest, I hated Blue Prince at first; my early hours spent lost and confused across countless repetitions, as I blindly played cards from my drafting deck and carved a directionless path through the endless locked doors of its wilfully confounding mansion. But then, just as I was about to give up and move on, something – a certain recurring something – caught my eye. And with nothing else to lose, I grabbed a notepad, made a few exploratory scrawls, and everything changed. Suddenly I was locked into its wavelength, and just like that it seemed mysteries and secrets began bursting forth from all directions.
Blue Prince’s mansion is a remarkable construct; a vastly intricate, enormously rewarding enigma seeded almost imperceptibly across its many peculiar spaces. And the brilliance of it all bears out across the endless notes and photos I took as my journey continued: of books and conspicuous bits of architecture, of maps, music sheets, and mysterious symbols, even – in moments of desperation – random bits of vaguely suspicious furniture. And flicking back through it all now, everything laid out before me, it’s easy to appreciate Blue Prince’s magnificent structure, and marvel at the intricate web of threads hidden within.
It is, I think, easy to mistake Blue Prince’s chilly ambience for a chilly attitude, but when I think back on my time spent exploring its mysterious chambers, the overriding memory I have is an unexpectedly warm, fuzzy one. For all its quirks and contrivances, I can’t remember a single moment when it felt superior, or hostile, in the way some particularly clever puzzlers do. Rather, Blue Prince feels like a puzzle that wants to be solved, like a mutually respectful battle of wits – Dogubomb perched over my shoulder, quietly encouraging me along – and one that, in the end, both of us somehow won. – Matt
Read more in our Blue Prince review.
