Best Games of 2025

This year is coming to a close. There were quite a few good games that came out this year. The game awards recently happened, and they told us what they thought were the best games that came out this year. But what were the best games that I played this year. First, we’ll go over my criteria for picking games, and then we’ll go through my top five games that came out.

Criteria

So, what is it that makes me like a game? What draws me in and gets me hooked? What makes me want to continue playing it? That question is a bit tricky as it does depend on the type of game. Regardless of the game, it needs to be fun. I need to enjoy my time playing it. The game can’t have a lot of frustrating mechanics in it. If it’s a single player game, it needs to have interesting characters in it. If I don’t vibe with a character within the first hour or two, I’m not gonna like the game as much. The story also needs to draw me in. That doesn’t mean that it needs to go full throttle from the beginning, but it does need something that keeps me interested in playing. For a multiplayer game, it can be different depending on the game. It could still have those qualities, but it doesn’t necessarily need them. The game needs to not have connection issues. This can be everything from trying to get into your friends game to the latency while playing it. It has to make good use of having those other players with you or at least make it fun to interact with them in the game.

Before we get to the list, there are some great games that came out this year that I haven’t had a chance to play myself, so I won’t have them in my list. That doesn’t mean they aren’t great, but I can’t in good faith put a game in here I’ve never touched. A game can still show up if I am still currently playing it, though. Also, I’m not going to talk about spoilers for any story games here while giving my reasons, so no need to fear there. Without further ado, let’s get to my list of the top five games. These aren’t necessarily in a specific order, but they are my top five. At the end, I’ll tell you which one came out on top for me this year, so make sure to read until the end.

Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

You might say it’s a cop out or cliché to start with the game that won Game of the Year this year at the Game Awards, but I’ve been having a blast with this game. From the start, the characters and the story drew me in. The way they interact with each other makes you feel like you are watching real people go through what they do. The antagonists have legitimate reasons for doing what they do, and they don’t hold any punches. From the beginning of the game, the story tugs at your heartstrings and keeps you enthralled to find out if the protagonists will be able to overcome what they are faced with. The mechanics in the game are fun, and are very in depth. You have multiple ways to buff your characters with items including weapons and passive abilities. Each character also has their own skill tree that allows you to play them how you want to. The combat feels fluid and fun.

Peak

Next up we have a very simplistic but also fun co-op game. Peak is literally just a game about climbing a mountain, but it still finds a way to make that experience fun. Having you and your friends help each other out (hopefully) while you go through the procedurally generated areas to get to the top of the mountain is fun. There are a ton of items and obstacles that can make it more challenging or easier depending on your luck with the spawns of them. Also, watching your friends get too cocky and do dumb things that get them killed or doing those things yourself is hilarious. All the different biomes feel unique from one another and all come with their own obstacles and items as well as their own strategy to get through them.

Clover Pit

Following that co-op game, we have yet another indie game on my list. Clover pit at it’s core is just a game where you play a slot machine and try to win money. You have to pay back “debt” and that amount just keeps getting ever higher as you continue to hit the deadline. However, there are a ton of items in this game that can make a combo with others to allow you to win the at the slot machine easier or give you more money when you do win. There are also items that you can get to have a permanent modifier for your current run. There’s also a phone that you can get buffs for your current run after winning enough to meet your deadline. The game also does have a hidden story to it if you can win at the machine well enough to get there.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

This game technically didn’t come out this year if you count it’s release on PlayStation, but I don’t own a PlayStation, so I waited patiently for it to come out on PC at the beginning of this year before getting a chance to play it. This game doesn’t really need much said about it as it is part of a trilogy series remake of a game that came out 28 years ago. However, as Square Enix did with the first part of this trilogy, they added so much more content to it, that it almost feels like a re-imagining of the original or even a different story altogether with the same characters (a good one too, unlike some of the other attempts at using these characters in a different story). The combat feels great to play. All the additions are great, whether that be new side quests or new story beats in the same areas from the original.

REPO

Repo is yet another great indie game that came out this year. It’s another co-op game, though unlike Peak, this is a horror themed one that has you collecting items to meet a deadline and get money like Lethal Company. This game can get intense with the enemies (though sometimes you don’t even have to worry about them, as your friends will take care of getting you killed) coming after you while you go through dark areas looking for treasure that you can bring to an area to give those to the company that you work for and get some extra money as well to spend on items. It can be funny to watch your friends get themselves or others killed by luring enemies toward them or by falling in a pit of acid because they weren’t paying attention. Also, I felt kinda obligated to put at least one horror game on this list as I love horror games. There were some other good ones, but this is the one that resonated with me the most and that I enjoyed the most. The others that I played either had something I didn’t like about them or just didn’t hit the same for me personally.

Conclusion

So these were my favorite games that I had a chance to play when they came out earlier this year. All of them drew me in from the start, and some were highly anticipated games for me. Now the big question is: what is my best game of this past year? In my opinion, the best game of this year was – drum roll please – Clair Obscure: Expedition 33. All of these games were amazing, but this one had me the most invested this year. This almost feels wrong to say considering how much I loved the original Final Fantasy VII, but it did just edge that out to be my favorite game this year.

I can’t recommend any of the game on this list enough to people. If you haven’t had a chance to play any of them, please consider giving them a shot at some point in the always loaded game release schedule. Let me pass the question off to you, what were your favorite games this year? Do you think any of the games I mentioned here don’t deserve to be on this list? Do you think a different game was the best one that came out this year? I’d love to hear what games you had a blast playing this year, even if they didn’t come out this year.