The Best Games That I Played in 2025

For those of you who don't want to read through what I've written below, I've made a video where I read through the following post:

2025 is over. If I'm being honest, the year didn't go the way I wanted it to and generally speaking I'm no closer to being where I wanted to be by this point in my life, but I’m thankful that, in at least a few small ways, I've made some great strides. It's been a wash, really. What a year of bad luck and poor decisions has allowed me to do, however, is play a lot of great games. And I mean a lot of great games. And also a lot of Fortnite, but that's not what this is about.

As I've been doing for close to a decade now on various online platforms, I wanted to compile some top 10 lists detailing the absolute best of what I played, one covering ten games that, while new to me, were not released in 2025, and another covering just new releases. 

Like last year, I'll be starting with older games, as while they may not be as relevant now as the other games I'll mention, I find this list tends to be more competitive as I'm comparing the creme de la creme of prior years.

10. Assassin's Creed: Mirage

While I haven't disliked the later Assassin's Creed games, I definitely feel like the series got away from its roots when it became a larger RPG-style thing, so Assassin's Creed: Mirage feels like a game out of time. It's an attempt to make something reminiscent of the earliest games in the series and, perhaps unsurprisingly, I found that incredibly refreshing. It's been some time since an Assassin's Creed game felt like, well, Assassin's Creed. In this, you play as an Assassin recruit, go through some (abbreviated) training, and then are unleashed on a small urban location filled with buildings to climb and alleys to traverse.

It's not free from the baggage of the rest of the series, however. It's a fairly direct prequel to Valhalla and centers on a prominent character from that game, but it tells enough of a self-contained story to still work well enough on its own (even if some things may feel unexplained by the end). Mechanically, it still plays a bit like the recent open-ended RPGs but with systems that try to evoke the earlier titles, albeit with far more of an emphasis on stealth over combat.

All in all it's a return to form of sorts, and while I think its followup, Shadows, is also a good game, Mirage is a fairly condensed and focused thing that I think is actually fairly easy to recommend. So many of the other Assassin's Creed games in recent memory are timesinks designed to occupy your every waking moment but Mirage is fine with being a thirty-to-forty-hour thing you play and then put down, and I really appreciated that.

9. Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan!

Playing through Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! was an experience. I mentioned last year that I was starting the Yakuza series, and that's something I've been keeping at for most of the year, but I wanted to highlight this game first because it feels like something that's often overlooked. That's not unexpected, however, as it never came to the US and never even had an English translation. Most people just take what they hear about it secondhand as gospel and write it off, treating it as an oddity of the PS3 era without much of an impact.

I am not most people. I, for some reason, wanted to see all of the Yakuza games so I decided to use modern technology to help me see this game. You see, by propping a phone's camera in front of me and pointing it at my screen, I could, in what was effectively real-time, translate onscreen Japanese text into on-phone English text. I fully understand that machine translation is no replacement for a proper localization, and that by doing this I was almost certainly missing out on nuance, but, well, it worked, and I really love this game as a result.

This was the third Yakuza game released and, after having played a few of the later entries, this really does feel like a middle-ground between Yakuza 2 and 3. It was the series's first entry on the PS3 and it innovates with a bunch of new mechanics and locations. Combat was modified with the addition of new weapons, and the story was remarkably enjoyable. Even with the language difference, my takeaway from this game was that it is every bit a Yakuza game as the rest of the series.

8. Star Wars Outlaws

I feel like, in this day and age, it's very easy to be dismissive of Ubisoft's output. They've sort of developed a reputation for making same-y trend-chasing open-world games but, the thing is, I kind of like that formula and Star Wars Outlaws does it better than most of their other games I’ve played. At its core, this game is another action/stealth open-world with outposts to take on and there's even a GTA-style Wanted level, but something about the execution makes it stand head-and-shoulders above so many others.

Perhaps it's something as simple as the aesthetics being as strong as they are. Star Wars is something that everyone probably has an opinion on, and as someone who happens to quite like good Star Wars content this game was a joy to play through. Getting to navigate Tattooine freely and hearing those sound effects as stormtroopers bear down on your location, it all feels correct. Most of the storytelling is fairly hit-or-miss, but I found the central characters compelling enough to keep me engaged.

Adding to that, there are some genuinely interesting gameplay concepts in effect. While there's the aforementioned Wanted level, it's complicated by the fact that you have reputations with various factions and different missions or actions you take can influence how you're viewed by each organization. If you're hated by one you'll be barred from entering their zone, but if you're on good terms with them you'll usually be able to wander freely. Some missions will have you gaining reputation with one group while losing it with another, while others will give you the option to doublecross your employer for some quick profit at the cost of some reputation.

7. Pseudoregalia

Pseudoregalia is a fairly open-ended thing, not entirely dissimilar to a Metroidvania I suppose, that has you wandering around and picking up new abilities and upgrades to allow you to better traverse a fairly large map. At times it may seem a bit too open and I would be at a loss as to where to go next, but the core gameplay is strong enough that I didn’t mind wandering around aimlessly.

Maybe the most important thing to mention about this game is that it's got some of the best movement I've come across in a platformer, period. Some of the maneuvers you can do feel incredible when you pull them off. You’ll just have to take my word for it, but this game simply feels great to play. Chaining together backflips and walljumps brings to mind some of the fancier tech you could do in Super Mario Odyssey, and there are a handful of optional challenges placed around the world that force you to fully engage with these mechanics. If you like 3D platformers and haven't given this game a shot yet, I highly recommend it.

6. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

As I mentioned earlier, I love me some Star Wars and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is some very good Star Wars. It's a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, another game I played this year, but it's much more involved and richer than that game, to an almost surprising degree. As for what these games are like, they play a bit like Souls games in that there's a focus on one-on-one melee duels with a lock-on camera along with enemies that respawn when you rest at save points. The game also employs some loose Metroidvania elements by way of upgrades that allow you to more easily traverse the map, unlocking shortcuts and new paths along the way. There's also also a surprisingly compelling narrative to pull you along, guiding you through the world as it tells a linear story. This might seem like an odd combination, then, being a heavily linear Soulslike/Metroidvania, but every aspect of this game is polished to a fine sheen.

Much like Outlaws, this game also benefits greatly from the Star Wars license. In addition to just looking and sounding like a Star Wars thing, it occupies a fun place in the timeline between the prequels and original trilogy, with enemies from both eras appearing. Something about seeing droids alongside stormtroopers felt insanely cool to me, and they somehow managed to make a story about yet another Jedi who survived Order 66 make sense, with a reasonable enough justification for why these characters wouldn't have been present during the original films.

5. Death Stranding: Director's Cut

Death Stranding is a very unique game. It's old enough that I assume most of you probably know its general deal but, if for some reason you don't, it was Hideo Kojima's next thing after he got ousted from Konami and it plays unlike just about any other AAA game out there. It's a game where you play as a deliveryman tasked with, well, delivering cargo to and from remote locations in a post-apocalyptic America.

The early parts of the game in particular place a heavy emphasis on optimizing the weight distribution of your load so you don't lose your footing, making each journey through uneven terrain interesting. You need to pay attention to the ground beneath your feet so you don't slip, and in general it is very much a game that simulates the act of walking. Later sections of the game give you vehicles and there are roads to rebuild and ziplines to place that make much of this nitty-gritty movement seem trivial, but it's no less interesting. What starts as a game about micromanaging your traversal opens up into almost a strategic layer where you're trying to efficiently place waypoints to jump between distant locations as quickly as possible. You'll still need to think about how much you're carrying at a given time, but much of the minutiae of the early part of the game fades away after a time.

I've been focusing on the gameplay because that's where I think this game shines. There's a narrative that a lot of people adore, but personally it did nothing for me. I think the performances are solid enough, but Hideo Kojima is better at big picture ideas than at individual scenes or dialogue. There's a lot of tedious exposition, there are Proper Nouns thrown at you, all in all I felt like the content of the story wasn't particularly engrossing.

The game is at its best when you're on your own navigating the wilderness and a song from Low Roar cues up as you're cresting a hill. There's a vibe to this game that is incredible when it's done well, and there's really not much else like it that I've played.

4. Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy is, well, it's Katamari. If you somehow don't know what Katamari is, I'll try to describe it. It's a series where you maneuver a ball and, magnetically picking up similarly sized objects that you bump into, are tasked with growing the size of your ball. You might start by picking up pencils, then cups, then cats, then tables, then people, then trees, then a house. There's a very logical and satisfying escalation to every stage where you watch this Katamari grow in size as you frantically run around the stage trying to collect everything you can to help you grow. The aesthetics and music of the game are a treat, with a charmingly uplifting backing track motivating you as you pick up lovely low-poly people and objects.

There's a strict time limit to each level and, perhaps because I played the PS3 port of the PS2 original rather than the updated HD version, I found many of the stages to be surprisingly difficult. Despite what the music and visuals might imply, this is not a game you can play mindlessly, and often I found I'd be desperately searching for something, anything, to grow my Katamari up to the next tier to meet the requirements of the given stage. I even had to replay a few levels after failing them, which perhaps soured me somewhat on this even though I love so much of everything about this. That's truly the only reason it isn't higher on this list, if I'm being honest. Katamari is something everyone should give a try as its gameplay, while controlling a bit awkwardly, is intuitive and so so so charming.

3. DOOM + DOOM 2

DOOM + DOOM 2 is, well, the first two DOOM games. I had previously played DOOM (2016) and some of Eternal but I'd never tried either of these originals until this year, and I was surprised by just how well they held up. Obviously, in some way at least, I knew they wouldn't be bad, as I know there are people who still enjoy revisiting them and replaying them, but I was taken aback by how much I, a person without much nostalgia for this era of PC gaming, enjoyed them.

The first two DOOM games are a joy to play. There's a frenetic pace to them that still carries to this day, and levels are enjoyable to navigate, even if they can be a bit mazelike and confusing. I don't really know what else there is to say. DOOM is, well, it's DOOM. DOOM II is just more, arguably better, DOOM.

I've chosen to highlight this two-game collection, rather than either one individually, both because the games somewhat blend together for me after a few months' separation, but also because this collection is fantastic. It includes the expansions for the first DOOM, as well as behind-the-scenes photos and a host of settings to toy with. It was a fantastic way to experience these games for the first time.

2. Yakuza 2

Yakuza 2 rules. It's an evolution of what Yakuza 1 did mechanically, but it also tells a really strong story that isn’t simply trying to recapture what worked in the first game. Its story picks up shortly after where the first game left off and there are some truly entertaining twists and turns along the way. It also has an ending that needs to be seen to be believed.

Beyond even all of that though, it introduces some great new characters. Kaoru Sayama is a fun addition and she has some great back-and-forth with Kiryu, but the star of the show is the new villain, Ryuji Gohda. While other Yakuza games generally have decent antagonists, Gohda is the one who I think works the best. He's different from Kiryu but he has understandable motivations and has a compelling presence whenever he's onscreen. Despite the fact he’s not incredibly relevant in future games, there's a reason they eventually decided to bring him back when Dead Souls came around a few years later.

As I mentioned, this is pretty similar to the first game mechanically but that’s not a bad thing. It expands the scope by not just introducing a second city to explore, but by allowing you to still navigate the streets of Kamurocho. Kamurocho is as much a character as Kiryu or Date to me, and getting to see how it evolves between games has been a delight as I’ve worked my way through the series.

1. Kurohyou

On a very similar note is this next game, Kurohyou. This was yet another Yakuza spinoff that, like Kenzan!, also never saw a Western release or an English translation but, unlike that game, somewhat recently received a fan effort to patch in an English translation. It isn't perfect, and I'm aware that there may be some stuff that got lost in translation, but I had an incredible time working my way through this game. I opted to emulate this, largely because I'm not even sure how I would go about getting a patched PSP game onto actual hardware, but I tried to keep the visuals roughly on par with what I'd be seeing on an actual handheld.

Now, this is a Yakuza spinoff so while it may not involve Kiryu's plot, at least not directly, it's a story set in and around Kamurocho so I was delighted to return to a town I've grown to know intimately. Much like Yakuza 4, getting to see Kamurocho through the lens of someone who isn't Kiryu was fascinating, and it helps the setting feel even more alive than it already did. This game's protagonist is a teenage delinquent named Tatsuya and he's a wildly different character to Kiryu. He's quick to anger and somewhat petty, which makes his growth into someone more trusting and evenhanded genuinely affecting.

I've thought long and hard about this, but I honestly think this might be my favorite Yakuza game. I don’t know how much of that is due to the fact it’s a bit of a dark horse or whether I genuinely like it more than Yakuza 2, but after spending several months mulling it over I’d say this was my favorite (old) game I played in 2025.

Up next are games actually from 2025, though I sort of stretch that definition a bit when it comes to one of the entries, as you’ll soon find out.

10. Expelled!

Expelled! is a followup to 2021's Overboard! and, much like its predecessor, it's an incredibly compelling narrative game. This one puts you in the shoes of a girl at a boarding school who's been accused of pushing a fellow student out of a window and, in an almost HITMAN-like clockwork fashion, you have until the end of the school day to prove your innocence or, failing that, to find someone else to take the fall. While Overboard! was a game that cast you in an immediately sinister light, the protagonist of Expelled! comes across as more sympathetic, if only because she's a child in a world that feels stacked against her.

This is a game that'll take multiple attempts to complete, as each run gives you a chance to learn more about where to go and at what times, and putting together the perfect day feels immensely rewarding, if you can pull it off. I'm trying my best not to go into too much detail on any of the specifics because there are a lot of fun and novel things to experience in the course of playing this game, but if you have any interest in storytelling in games both this and Overboard! are worth checking out.

9. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Death Stranding 2 is, in some ways, a game I like more than the first. While the original's narrative didn't necessarily click for me, the characters and arc of this second game felt more up my alley. Additionally, the stylistic flair and flourishes that Kojima adds, while a bit much at times or too on the nose, hearken back to some of the goofier stuff from the Metal Gear games. There's actually a lot of Metal Gear DNA in this game, from specific narrative callbacks and allusions to mechanics that make parts of this game feel like yet another Metal Gear Solid V-2 (I haven't forgotten you, Metal Gear Survive).

While I have my issues with the first game, it's an incredibly distinct thing that carves out its own identity. Just by virtue of this being a sequel, and a largely iterative one at that, this game lacks some of the magic and breadth of the first. That's not to say it's a bad game, in many ways I actually prefer the narrative in this and think its gameplay improvements are all welcome additions, but the reason it isn't higher on my list is largely due to the fact it doesn't take as many risks or expand the world as much as I'd have maybe liked. It's an excellent followup and if you liked that first game you'll almost certainly enjoy this one, but if the original put you off this likely won't change your mind. It's more of the same, for better or worse, but I'm largely okay with that.

8. Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Bananza is a blast to play. It suffers from some of the same issues as most recent Nintendo games in that it's almost comically easy for most of its runtime, only really becoming challenging in the final act, but that almost seems irrelevant with how much fun it is to navigate the world. Ostensibly a followup to the Donkey Kong Country games, at least thematically, it carves out its own identity by being a physics showpiece for the Switch 2. It may not always run perfectly which, for a launch game, isn't ideal, but it chugs in the way that EDF chugs, where the poor performance lets you know you're doing something right.

 Each location you visit in this game feels unique and different to the last, and you can certainly feel the Super Mario Odyssey team's DNA when playing this. There's a food world, a water-filled one, an island, a harsher metal area, and as the game progresses it gradually becomes less-and-less a "destroy the entire map" sort of game and more a directed platformer. Both approaches are fun, and the times when you're let loose on a map that you can freely destroy are a blast, but I think this team is at their best when they're making more linear stuff and the end of this game is by-far the best part. This is a game that's absolutely worth sticking with to the end and, as a showpiece for the Switch 2, feels like something truly next-gen.

7. Cronos: The New Dawn

Cronos: The New Dawn wasn't initially on my radar. While I adored last year's Silent Hill 2 remake, I didn't have much hope for this game because I'd essentially heard nothing but negative things about the rest of Bloober Team's output. So when I watched a friend stream some of this shortly after it came out and realized that, wait, maybe it was good, I knew I needed to try it for myself. When I finally did, I fell in love with it.

In a lot of ways this game feels like a successor to the Dead Space series. It's almost shameless how it cribs mechanics and aesthetics from those, but given that that series is dormant for the time being it's nice that someone else has taken up the mantle. Cronos, like Dead Space and even Resident Evil 4 before it, is an action/survival-horror game about fighting not-zombies with an arsenal of weapons while managing your limited inventory. Unlike those games, however, this is far more of a survival horror. The inventory is very small, and the way the maps are laid out reminded me of the early Resident Evil games' mansion and police station. These are some intricate levels and by the time you're through with an area you'll have become intimately familiar with how to navigate it efficiently.

The game also, to my surprise, had a pretty compelling story. It's set in a post-apocalyptic Poland, over the course of the story, has you investigating how exactly things fell apart and how the people who lived there fared. Maybe I'm just an easy mark for the tropes on display in this game, but I thought it was fairly interesting and I was invested all the way through to the end.

6. R.E.P.O.

R.E.P.O. is the kind of game designed to be played with other people you know and are familiar with and, in that context, it is excellent. While I played a bit of Lethal Company back when that was big and I dabbled with this year's PEAK, R.E.P.O. is the only one of these games that I feel I fully vibed with.

Much like Lethal Company, you're tasked with navigating an abandoned location to recover loot while avoiding the monsters that lurk there. It's hard for me to fully understand why this game works for me while Lethal Company didn't, but I think it comes down to the aesthetic differences and the general pace of gameplay. Where Lethal Company feels like it leans more into the horror aspects of the design, R.E.P.O. comes across as a sillier, and more casual, affair.

There are physics to the objects you interact with, you can throw your "semi-bot" around, and there's almost a Garry's Mod-esque feeling to the way objects are carried. This is, despite the occasional scares and tension, a profoundly funny game.

Now, this is an early-access game, which in prior years would have made this ineligible for my list due to the arbitrary rules I put on myself but, well, those rules are arbitrary. I had a lot of fun with this game this year and my friend group has already moved on and decided to never play this again so it probably wouldn't make sense for me to include it next year (or whenever it actually releases). I know that's just a bit of boring housekeeping but I thought I'd justify this decision, as I think this game is great and deserves a spot on this list.

5. HYPERBEAT

HYPERBEAT is not the sort of game I'd typically play, but after a glowing recommendation from a friend I decided to give it a try and I'm very glad I did. This is a rhythm game where you pilot a polygonal figure down a long hallway and need to steer them into rings that correspond to the music being played. It's superficially a bit like a REZ or an Osu!, at least in my understanding, but it doesn't come across as a game that's trying to chase after a trend or nostalgia. It's a very distinct thing with its own identity and it made me genuinely emotional at times.

While I wouldn't necessarily say there's much of a "story" to this, there is a narrative throughline and there were coherent themes that got discussed during my time with it that made me stop and think about some things. Not to get all armchair-analytical, but for a game designed around mastery of a very specific skillset its decision to make you interrogate why you'd invest time in getting better at something and what sacrifices you'd be willing to make to get there really affected me.

The music is also fantastic, though perhaps that shouldn't come as a surprise. This is a rhythm game after all.

4. Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is an interesting game because it's, effectively, a sequel to two vastly different Pokémon games. Mechanically it's an evolution and a followup to 2022's Legends: Arceus, a game which translated Pokémon to an open-world and messed with key gameplay systems to keep things fresh. Narratively, however, it's actually a sequel of sorts to 2011's Pokémon X and Y.

Mechanically, this game again changes the Pokémon formula by completely eschewing a turn-based structure for a real-time one. It's not as radical a departure as that may initially sound, as it replaces it with a system wherein moves have cooldowns and you're limited in how quickly you can perform certain actions, but the shift to a new style of gameplay made this series feel fresh. The thing I loved about Arceus was that it was willing to try new things, and that same spirit of invention is present here. Unfortunately, the gameplay isn't perfect and combat feels somewhat simplistic as a result, but I have so much appreciation for the risk they took changing things that I almost don't mind that it doesn't fully work.

As I mentioned earlier, the story picks up after where X and Y left off, with characters and locations from that game making their appearance here. Indeed, while this game does explain the important details of X/Y's story, playing this shortly after having finished that game gave me a much deeper appreciation for the narrative being told here. And, somewhat surprisingly, the narrative in this Pokémon game is pretty good. The story being told is somewhat simple, but it's told well, importantly, and is filled with a very enjoyable cast of characters.

Unlike Legends: Arceus, this game abandons distinct open-worlds for a single shared space, in a move that I enjoyed but which other people may find limiting. The entire game takes place within a single city, with "Wild Areas" scattered about filled with wild Pokémon and the rest of the map being largely occupied by people and shops. On the subject of shops, this game, even more so than X and Y, places an emphasis on style and fashion that I delighted in and there are so many clothing stores to choose from that I would often find myself "putting up with" a few fights solely so I could use the reward money to afford a new jacket or some cool pants. I love games with deep customization and the options here are vast.

3 . Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one heck of a game. It's a turn-based RPG that, for whatever reason, took off in a way that a lot of other turn-based RPGs haven't. While I can't speak for anyone else, I think what drew me to this game was that it wasn't attached to an existing franchise and it had an interesting visual style. I'll admit those are somewhat superficial reasons and I don't have a great excuse for why I haven't delved deeper into JRPGs, but the simple truth is that this game captured my attention and I'm incredibly glad it did.

As I've mentioned, this is a turn-based RPG with a party you build up over time and various weapons and skills to unlock, but what makes it stand out compared to others I've played is its perk system, known in-game as "Pictos". These are essentially perks that you slot into each character, where each perk has an associated point value and you have an allotted budget to draw from for each character. While that may seem straightforward on its surface, the game allows for some truly wild synergies and upgrade-paths as a result. Progressing through this game and unlocking a new Pictos felt like when I'd pull a new card in Slay the Spire, where the potential for truly game-breaking builds is there if you're willing to work for it.

There's also a parry system that further complicates combat. While this isn't a wholly unique addition, I know Mario games have had timing-based inputs for a long time, its implementation here, perhaps just because of aesthetic similarities, is reminiscent of Souls games. Enemies will often have long windup animations and, frustratingly, feints, so combat generally alternates between tactical turn-based combat and intense, reaction-based parrying. Personally, I wish they'd have implemented some sort of accessibility options for adjusting the parry window as certain fights felt almost impossible for me due to how important parrying can be at times, but it is what it is, ultimately, and most of the encounters are able to be completed with the right Pictos equipped, along with a properly leveled party.

Lastly, the story in this game is very very good. That may not seem particularly noteworthy, heck, most successful RPGs are praised for their narratives, but, well, a good story is a good story. There are solid performances throughout and likeable characters, and certain moments are elevated by a very strong soundtrack. I have some qualms about certain developments, and even got into a heated argument with a friend about the ending, but I feel like almost nothing else this year has affected me so deeply as this game.

2. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Citizen Sleeper 2 and its predecessor are something of a cross between visual novels and tabletop RPGs. You'll be reading and looking at portraits of characters, occasionally making decisions, and will be spending the rest of your time choosing how to spend your (fairly limited) resources each day, slotting randomly-rolled dice into the various actions available to you. It might sound a bit complicated, but it's all fairly intuitive and in essence it isn't that dissimilar from a traditional RPG's skill checks, it's just presented differently.

The original Citizen Sleeper almost immediately cemented itself as one of my favorite games of all-time, and after playing through this sequel I think they've made a worthy followup. I'm going to be mentioning that first game a lot because, while the second game does have its own identity, it is very much a sequel to that game. That's perhaps the most interesting thing about this to me, that it truly is a sequel to the first game.

Where the first game focused on a single location, this expands the scope pretty significantly. I think there are pros to both approaches and I'm not quite sure which I prefer, but it's hard to deny how much larger this second game is. As for the narrative, if you've played the original this picks up in a fairly logical place, with a new setting and at least a few returning faces. I'll leave the specifics of what it chooses to call back to a mystery, but I went into this assuming it'd effectively be a fresh start for the series and was continually surprised by how much it felt like it was in conversation with the earlier game. 

I suppose I've been talking around things and haven't really explained why this makes it so close to the top of my list. As frustrating as this may sound, it simply comes down to the quality of the writing. Despite being a far-future sci-fi story about a synthetic person, there's a humanity to the characters present that's unlike basically anything else I've played. If you haven't gone through either game I highly recommend them both as there's not much else out there like them.

1. SILENT HILL f

SILENT HILL f is a new Silent Hill game from an unproven developer, and, based on prior entries in the series, I had my doubts about how well it would fare. Luckily, my fears were misplaced and this game is every bit as excellent as the other games in the series, and in my mind is even up there with the Team Silent games. This may be an aesthetic and narrative departure from earlier games because it doesn't feature a rusty Otherworld and isn't set in Silent Hill, but it feels every bit as coherent and compelling as those more traditional games.

Before I get into how it succeeds, I have some criticism. The combat is somewhere between serviceable and bad, and in the back half of the game there is an exceptional amount of combat. It's my understanding that there was a patch that somewhat alleviates this, but this is an action-horror game where the action isn't particularly great. That's not new for the series; none of these games barring last year's 2 remake play particularly well; but there's an emphasis placed on the combat that makes the latter parts of this game a bit of a slog, especially on higher difficulties. In Silent Hill fashion, many of the puzzles are also... not intuitive. I cheated and sought help online and you shouldn't feel any shame for doing that either.

What helps this is that its story was penned by Ryukishi07. If that name isn't familiar to you, he's responsible for the When They Cry series of visual novels, among which Umineko stands as being one of my favorite narratives not only in video games, but in anything, period. There's a depth to his stories that is on full display here, and this game even employs some of the repetition his stories often contain.

You see, this is a game that should not just be played once. I understand it's a lot to ask of someone to play a AAA game multiple times, but subsequent playthroughs reveal new facets of the story and each time I revisited a sequence I'd understand more of what was going on, and have a more complete idea of the story that I was being told. Ideally you'd play this game at least three times (I played it five, well, four and a half, times), but I suppose you could get away with just going through it twice and seeing the other endings on YouTube.

That might sound like a lot of caveats for something at the top of my list, but I'm only couching it this way because I think the end result is something special and it's worth jumping through a few hoops to get there.

 

So, those are my top 10s for 2025. There were a number of other games I played last year that I would’ve also loved to highlight, but I'll save that for a separate post in the coming days.