The 10 best adventure games of 2025

The adventure game is not dead, nor does it sleep. Far from it. While previous years have seen plenty of remarkable adventure games, like The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow and Return of the Obra Dinn, 2025 was an exceptional year for the genre. The past twelve months have been absolutely packed with them, tackling a broad range of subjects in a multitude of styles — and each with its own vision of what an adventure game can be. And just for clarity, when we say “adventure game,” we’re talking about exploration, mystery solving, and narrative-driven games with no combat, not “action-adventure.” Think Rise of the Golden Idol instead of Tomb Raider. Here are 10 of the year’s best.