My Favorite Games I Played This Year - 2025 Edition
It’s the last day of the year and, as I’m a games blogger, I figured I would do what literally everyone else does, a games list about my 10 favorite games I’ve played this year. Here are the 3 rules (last year’s list had more, one rule didn’t return because it was only relevant for the first year and another rule was removed because of refinement).
Rule 1: This is not a numbered list, and it is not limited to games released this year.
Rule 2: These games are all new to me (or games I only played for a couple hours or so prior to the full experience I played this year).
Rule 3: These have to be whole games, I’m not gonna include any DLC even if I enjoyed it.
Now that I’ve established the rules, here’s my list.
Avowed
Cat
I adored Avowed so damn much. It eliminated a lot of the fluff that isn’t necessary for open world-ish fantasy games, made the best first person fantasy combat I have ever experienced, and had a fantastic Pillars of Eternity story attached. I loved wandering around the Living Lands with its amazing hub design and the tremendous density of things to find. Obsidian had managed to cram so much into the game that it felt like there was something going on around every single corner. It is genuinely my favorite game of this genre and it likely will be until Avowed 2 comes out years from now. Truly amazing.
Nine Sols
Cat
This year was when I finally got into Metroidvanias and when I learned of, and then played, Nine Sols I fell in love. Not only was the game filled with fantastic metroidvania mechanics, wonderful bosses, amazing world design, and intriguing philosophical underpinnings, but it also had the best Metroidvania main character I’ve ever seen. Yi has so much personality that elevates Nine Sols from being great to being something special. Add in the accessibility difficulty settings so that anyone can play the game at the friction level they’re comfortable at and you’ve got a game that had to be one of my favorites of the year.
Lies of P
Cat
The only Souls-like I have ever been able to fully enjoy all because of the genius move to introduce difficulty settings with the recent DLC. Lies of P had this air about it that still makes me think about it even months later. I think about the atmosphere of Krat and how uneasy I felt wandering the streets, about the depressing story behind the puppets and how they might be more human than they’re given credit for, about the fantastic combat that (despite having issues) was tons of fun. I had so few issues with it and I’m so glad I found out about the difficulty settings because Lies of P was an unforgettable experience and I adored it.
Sword of the Sea
Cat
The best parts of Sword of the Sea were the beautiful environments and the kickass hover-boarding. It felt great to surf around on the waves of sand and then water. To go fly around with fish and other water inhabitants of varying sizes all with the aesthetic of a Journey type game. Learning about what brought the world to the state it was in, seeing the final moments of the story, feeling the emotional swell of the world as it continued to heal, it was all amazing and I loved every second of its very short playtime. Plus, I could ride on a giant turtle and manta ray, how could I not love it here!
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Cat
In film school, I constantly fell asleep (and I wasn’t alone in this) during the French films we were shown in class. They might have had interesting concepts and ideas and some great filmmaking, but they were just so...boring. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took all of that interesting stuff from my film class that were the only good parts of the movies and put it into a game that had so much personality and interesting themes that I couldn’t put it down. The only issues I had with it were that I was frustrated with how hard some of the optional bosses were. But besides that, the game made me not just enjoy the filmmaking ideas of French cinema, it made me desperately want to see more. It made me think that those moments of learning about French cinema in film school wasn’t a waste and, in actuality, helped me appreciate the game even more. It’s an amazing experience and one that I will look back on fondly for years to come.
Psychonauts 2
Cat
Psychonauts 2 took what was a great concept in the original game and made it into an actually fun game to play! It introduced more types of trauma for Raz and co to deal with, delved into the history of the world and of Raz’s family, and did it all in a story that kept me guessing and made me enjoy every second. Not only was it what Psychonauts 1 was striving to be, but failed, it is what all sequels are supposed to be. A categorical and massive improvement over the first in every possible way. I will not soon forget learning about Raz and I hope to see more from him in the future.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Cat
Not many games can make me replay 20 hours after I haphazardly wiped a save without making sure it was uploaded to my Steam Cloud Saves. But The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy did that and made me keep pushing so I could get what I believe was one of the most satisfying endings for this kind of game I have ever experienced. One of, as in this very game also happens to have other just as satisfying endings that are also completely different. All of which you are able to experience, if you are persistent enough, and have to unlock certain endings as well. I don’t want to spoil what I’m talking about but The Hundred Line took what made Danganronpa great, turned it up to 11 and then on its head. It’s just amazing and felt perfect for me because I love games that take wild turns and have bizarre characters with truly story changing decisions. This is such a special game made by some really passionate and weird devs (who did a live stream announcing the disbandment of the studio only for them to reform at the end of the stream) and I adored it so much.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage
Cat
The idea of playing an adorable kitty who likes to chill out with a sentient and cursing hoverboard that happens to have a bunch of blades on it is such a fantastic concept for a main character. Gori: Cuddly Carnage took that and ran with it making it into a great game filled with interesting and gory combat, fun story moments, and hilarious writing that had me laughing my ass off a whole lot of my time playing. I can’t wait to see more from Gori. Or at least I hope to see more from him because, at the end of the day, my biggest issue with the game was all about it being so short. I NEED MORE GORI!
No Man’s Sky
I’ve been playing No Man’s Sky with my friends a lot recently, we’ve been looking for a relaxing game that was fun to play with multiple players and this was perfect. I was skeptical at first, but now in the past two months I’ve poured in more than 100 hours and there’s still so much for me to do. From doing multiple Expeditions to building out my freighter base, to building an actual base, to doing the story, to building a Corvette, there’s so much to do and this is ignoring some of the other things in the game that my friends have been focusing on more. The game is so great because it’s so weird, it’s so varied, and just because it’s fun to fuck around with your friends while flying in space. The best multiplayer experience I’ve had this year is No Man’s Sky (despite much of the multiplayer aspects being sub par), and I can’t express enough how I am glad I gave it another shot after not playing it for more than 6 years.
Indika
Cat
The best part about Indika to me was how much it hit home. How much it mirrored my own, and many others, experience with organized religion. The experience was philosophical, it was deep, and it provoked real issues with religion in general. It’s a fascinating piece of philosophical religious theory as a game and despite some of its issues (fuck the slow walking), I adored my short short time with it. It helped me process my religious trauma and gave me a lot to talk about with friends of mine who have similar issues. I was introduced to it from a Steph Sterling video and I’m so glad I took the plunge and played it. If you relate to any of what I’ve said about it then I’d highly recommend playing it.
Bonus: Peak
Peak is a hard game. Not only does it often feel impossible for you to be able to climb up that cliff, it also feels like the days randomly generated biome layout is designed to fuck with the player. It also has lead to some of the most frustrating but fun moments I had this year. Playing it with my partner and our friend was truly something special and it took me a long time to really get it. I still have issues with the game of course, particularly when you slow down near the end of your stamina, but there’s nothing this year that replicated that feeling during the most recent Roots biome update where my partner died, I ran over to try and revive them, only for me to think they had been automatically revived by something. Except, they hadn’t. In fact they were an ever pursuing Zombie thats whole goal was to fuck up our run. And it did. Quite badly. But that experience was incredibly memorable and because of that it is a Bonus choice that I had to mention. Not as amazing an experience as the other games, but still one filled with great fun as long as you play with friends. Seriously, don’t play solo. It will not be as fun. Play with as many friends as you can (it has a limit of 4 player), the more playing will make it much, much easier.
The Conclusion
Well, that’s the year, and my first full 365 day calendar year of writing on here. Tomorrow starts a whole new experience and I just can’t wait to see it. What games will come out, will Half Life X (or 3 or whatever it ends up being called) come out alongside the Steam Machine, Controller, and Frame? Will there be any surprises like Clair Obscur? Will there be any more old games that I play and absolutely hate or just hate how old and outdated they are like Resident Evil was this year? Will I have so many games that I have issues with that I will finally make a “The Worst Games I Played This Year”? Will the entire industry come crashing down as the AI bubble bursts and layoffs sweep all large companies? And most importantly, can I finish my game and put it out for the world, and all my peers on here, to see and heavily criticize?
I guess all of those will have to wait because no one can possible know the answers to them. All we can do is wait and see. But hey, let’s do that together. Happy New Year and I hope you have a great 2026!
Meow,
Cat
