Game of the Year
Earlier this week, the official nominations for The Game Awards 2025 were unveiled. The biggest category is always Game of the Year, with six games up for the coveted award. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has to be the frontrunner at this point since the RPG has 12 nominations in total. That makes it the most-nominated game ever at The Game Awards.
But the competition is stiff. In fact, it’s not the highest-scored game from the list at GameSpot. Hades 2 holds that distinction as the only nominated title with a 10/10 review score. There’s another indie sequel that’s critically acclaimed, too–Hollow Knight: Silksong. Both wouldn’t be surprising to see get the nod next month at The Game Awards.
Meanwhile, the other three games seem more like dark-horse candidates to nab Game of the Year. It feels as if every year there’s one Nintendo game nominated, with Donkey Kong Bananza taking that honor currently. Then there’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, with the latter holding the distinction as the lowest-scoring game of the nominees at GameSpot.
Below, we’ve compiled passages from GameSpot’s reviews for each title, with a link to the full text. The games are also organized from highest-scoring to lowest, starting with Hades 2. However, keep in mind that The Game Awards is voted on by a wide assortment of publications and people.
Hades 2
“Hades 2 is one of the best roguelite experiences ever, with clever improvements to its established formula that accentuate its strongest attributes. More importantly, it achieves this without requiring you to be the most well-versed player on what came before, but not at the expense of offering a new challenge to those that have spent hours digging away at the first game’s most brutal endeavors. It’s deeper and more complex than the original in every way, from its greatly expanded combat system to its larger, more complex web of character interactions that powers its more ambitious narrative.” – Alessandro Barbosa [Full review]
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
“This is a supremely confident game that reinterprets familiar mechanics with an imaginative eye. Its combat is a consistent delight, delivering thrills with thoughtful strategy and reactive action in equal measure, complementing a heartfelt story of shared grief and camaraderie.” – Richard Wakeling [Full review]
Hollow Knight: Silksong
“There’s so much to love about Hollow Knight: Silksong, especially if you were a fan of the first game. This sequel better focuses the narrative with guided exploration and eases the frustrations with the first game’s platforming by making the protagonist far more acrobatic.” – Jordan Ramée [Full review]
Donkey Kong Bananza
“At first glance, it bears the strongest resemblance to Super Mario Odyssey, from which it gets most of its fundamental mechanics, structure, and game-feel. Then it augments that with physics-based terrain deformation and experimental flexibility reminiscent of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Finally, it merges both of those into what serves as a soft reboot of Donkey Kong, borrowing bits and pieces from all over the Kong-iverse to make something that is both recognizable and fresh. The result is an excellent platforming adventure that moves with its own propulsive force, constantly beckoning you to dig a little deeper.” – Steve Watts [Full review]
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
“This is a game that sings when you’re swept up in an entertaining series of events ignited by the consequences of your actions; where the game’s quest design and emphasis on player choice wonderfully intertwine with its systems-driven sandbox to create a wholly immersive experience. While its 2018 predecessor was often disrupted by technical issues–which were further exacerbated by a frustrating save system–and clunky combat, Kingdom Come 2 refines and improves upon it in every respect.” – Richard Wakeling [Full review]
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
“Hitting the end credits came with the painful realization that Death Stranding 2 can’t rekindle the novelty of its world and characters as effectively the second time around. Ironically, it feels like a more ordinary experience, which makes sense as a sequel that isn’t looking to be as disruptive with new ideas as it was the last time.” – Diego Nicolás Argüello [Full review]
