However it might feel as a year goes on, when it comes time to take stock of the best games of the year, there are always so many games. It was no different in 2025, with brilliant RPGs, new spins on classic franchises, ingenious platformers, and so much more, so there was a lot for us to consider in picking the 10 best games of 2025.
GameSpot’s staff comes together annually to vote on the year’s best and then discuss the outcome of those results to compile a list of our favorites. Everything from the past 12 months is eligible, including late December releases from the prior year (but not Indiana Jones and the Great Circle; that made 2024’s list) and live-service games, which are judged on the merits of their additions and updates during the year.
Below, you’ll see the outcome of those discussions, which resulted in a list of what we feel are the 10 standout games of the year. In the days ahead, we’ll reveal our Game of the Year (chosen from this set of 10), as well as our picks for the best PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, and mobile games of 2025. And stay tuned for much more as we take a look back at 2025 in gaming.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PS4, Xbox One.
The follow-up to 2017’s Hollow Knight has often felt like an urban legend, locked in secrecy for years before it was practically shadowdropped into the hands of the longing masses. Disrupting the gaming release schedule, as developers began delaying their games in the wake of its late-breaking release announcement, is a testament to the impact of Team Cherry’s magnus opus.
A touchstone for the 2D metroidvania genre, Silksong has expanded the conventions set by the original Hollow Knight, offering players a wide variety of fighting styles and tools to use on their familiar adventures in an unfamiliar world. You’d best become acquainted with these options if you want to survive, ranging from poisonous robotic helper bugs that swarm enemies while you focus on evading their complicated attacks, to tacks you can lay across the battlefield like Kevin McCallister preparing for a home invasion. The character-build options give the Silksong depth and diversity that was sorely lacking in the original, offering more than one way to skin a boss you’ve lost hours of your life to battling. Never has there been more ways to become unstuck in perilous fights against big-bodied bugs beyond your belief, but you will need every advantage along the way.
Belief, as it turns out, is at the center of Silksong. Hornet is captured by a band of zealots who seemingly look to bring her to the doorstep of their deity, housed within the gates of an opulent basilica, the Citadel. Her journey takes her along the path pilgrims use to make their own perilous treks, losing their minds if not their battles, to pound on the gates of the Citadel seeking spiritual acceptance from a god they cannot appease. The story is a striking cautionary commentary on cult-like behaviors and the worship of deities who would not spit on you if you were on fire, and the beats far exceed the expectations created by the groundwork originally laid in the first game.
The thrill of victory against a boss that has shackled your progress for the past three hours is a sensation that’s hard to replicate. Hollow Knight: Silksong hardly invented that formula, but it can be argued that it has perfected it. The game will leave you emotionally exhausted, but not beyond repair or, apparently, reprieve, as the victories you didn’t think you were capable of earning are followed immediately by fights that eclipse the difficulty of everything you’ve faced thus far.
Exploring the vast expanses of Pharloom’s varied environments, ranging from the Citadel’s storied cathedrals to the poisonous, blight-ridden waters of Bilewater, remain a strength of the series. Silksong’s real bread and butter, though, is how it brings out the best in you, allows you to relish in your accomplishments, and quickly reminds you that pride is a sin most grave, punishable by death… over and over again. — David McCutcheon
Elden Ring Nightreign
Available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One
When the news broke that From Software was releasing a roguelike version of Elden Ring set in an alternate timeline, it was met with understandable skepticism. Elden Ring is an epic RPG meant to be enjoyed over many hours, adorned with grueling battles set among a stunning landscape with countless opportunities for exploration and discovery. Nightreign, on the other hand, sees teams of three players flee from a shroud of purple flames and rain, the Night’s Tide, as it closes in on the Lands Between, before forcing players into a boss fight to mark the end of each night. The Night’s Tide warps time and memory, and alters the terrain itself making it unsurvivable, reducing the play area.
New horrors, phantoms, and ancient powers lurk in the ever-changing world, while regions subtly transform and encourage players to revisit areas at different times to uncover new secrets, enemies, and lore. As a result, Nightreign undoubtedly dispels that former skepticism, becoming an enriching, enjoyable, and ever-changing experience that serves as a meaningful installment in the franchise.
The selection of eight playable character classes–or 10 if you’ve purchased the Forsaken Hollows DLC–grants variation, meaning that from one run to another, your approach could differ wildly. The Revenant, acting as a Summoner able to wield ranged magic powers, is hugely satisfying to play for those preferring a more hands-off approach. On the other end of the spectrum, players who revel in close-up melee combat will find joy in smashing enemy skulls as the Raider, who can also tank huge amounts of incoming damage thanks to his bulky stature. Every one of the Nightfarers has stunning visual design while being mechanically satisfying to play. Oh, and there’s no fall damage.
With the inclusion of the Relics system–powerful items rewarded upon surviving each night–From Software has created combat that is expressive, highly customizable, and hugely satisfying. Whether you’re facing the Duke’s Dear Freja–a haunting two-headed spider with a tough armored shell–or the familiar Fell Omen, strategy in combat is key to your success, and the satisfaction of defeating one of these bosses at the end of a night is only furthered by the rewards that allow for deeper build customization.
Supported by regular content drops that, in true From Software style, expand each character’s story and add set pieces and objectives that are not immediately obvious, Nightreign has near-endless replayability in the constant hunt for the “perfect” playthrough. Not an expansion, nor a sequel, but a standalone experience set in the Elden Ring universe, Nightreign honors the legacy of the original Elden Ring while elevating it to new heights. FromSoftware remains unrivaled in its ability to craft a stunning, atmospheric action-RPG, drenched with narrative and lore. — Cheri Faulkner
Keeper
Available on PC, Xbox Series X/S
Video games manage narrative structure pretty well. Through the years, the medium has adopted a blend of techniques, from cutscenes to environmental storytelling, to the point that games can tell very sophisticated and detailed stories. What it does not attempt as often is abstraction–a narrative structure that isn’t always entirely clear or straightforward, or perhaps lacks any cohesive A-to-B-to-C narrative at all.
Developer Double Fine has a long history of exploring game stories, especially as it was founded by Tim Schafer, known for adventure games like Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango. Double Fine’s modern games are often like animated cartoons brought to life, such as the excellent platformer Psychonauts 2. But its latest, the wordless and combat-free adventure game Keeper, is very different.
Keeper has a narrative structure, but it’s a loose one. In the wreckage of a broken world, you are a sentient lighthouse. You help to save and then befriend a bird being chased by a swarm of what appear to be black insects. You, the lighthouse, suddenly grow legs, and feel strangely compelled to walk toward a distant mountaintop, while the bird becomes your companion and helper. You roam, solving simple puzzles and finding pieces of whatever civilization preceded you. There is friendship, and these are characters, but that is as far as the clear and recognizable narrative elements go.
As Keeper reinvents itself, and then reinvents itself again, it also slowly sheds the boundaries of representational storytelling that we take for granted. By the end of its brief but memorable journey, the meaning Keeper holds is as much about what you bring to it as what Double Fine intended. It is less reminiscent of a three-act plot structure than of examining a painting in an art gallery, marveling at the skill and raw emotion used in its creation, even if you can’t quite articulate what it means. This is no doubt in part because Keeper is such a visual feast. The entire experience is carefully choreographed to deliver a distinct vision, it often resembles an oil painting, and nearly every frame could hang in a gallery. But it is watching this painting move and transform in your hands that really unlocks a magic that only video games can provide.
Lots of games in my lifetime have evoked strong emotional reactions, but those reactions have almost always come in response to a sad story, or from relating to the struggles of characters. It is common to be moved by human stories. Keeper overwhelmed me with the act of creation, and I marveled at what skilled and confident artists are capable of bringing to life. — Steve Watts
Absolum
Available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5
Beat-’em-ups have been around for a very long time and have had countless variations and permutations throughout the years. Reflecting on this, it seems unthinkable that it took this long to get one that combines roguelike progression with a rock-solid beat-’em-up. After all, the beat-’em-up is a genre known for sending its players back to the title screen over and over, so it makes sense that roguelike elements would feel right at home when mashed together with it. Combining those elements is exactly what Dotemu and Guard Crush Games, the team behind the excellent Streets of Rage 4, set out to do with Absolum. And they may have ended up creating one of the greatest beat-’em-ups in the genre in the process.
You play as any one of four rebel wizards who are able to wield forbidden magic as they fight back against the Sun King Azra, who has taken over Talamh. All four of these characters have different move sets and attributes that contribute to their unique playstyles. These styles can be built upon with skills, magic, and items you find during a run and can lead to some really wild builds. There are tons of combinations to try out, from using nothing but throwing daggers that also build up an electrical charge, to creating three copies of yourself every time you do your special move, effectively giving you four supers at once. The builds you can make, paired up with all the different paths and events you can encounter, make almost every run feel different from the one before.
Absolum is also a beautiful game with a bangin’ soundtrack. Whether you choose to venture into the forest with bright red leaves falling all around you, or you decide to run up the coastline with arching rock formations and skeletons of massive dragons in the background, you will always have something breathtaking to look at while handing out beatdowns. Whatever direction you take, you are sure to be humming along with all of the music accompanying you on your journey, too, especially thanks to the standout guest composers who created tracks for big boss fights–Mick Gordon’s Underking fight theme or Yuka Kitamura’s Morta Mima are perfect fits for the fights they accompany. These tracks draw on some of the best work of these artists, while still being something new that fits into Absolum well.
Absolum is a punchy, impactful beat-’em-up with an interesting roguelike twist and tons of inventive build combinations, and that will always find new things to keep you on your toes. Go grab a friend to play in co-op and I promise you are in for a great time! — Ben Janca
GameSpot and Fanatical share the same parent company.
Blue Prince
Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
To explain what’s so great about Blue Prince would ruin it for you, because what’s so great about Blue Prince is the constant, unbound feeling of discovery and epiphany.
Take, for instance, this one time when I walked through the Drawing Room, a space I’d passed through on countless runs, when I suddenly stopped. The room is covered in line drawings of people walking, with arrows drawn between their feet. And this time, for whatever reason, lightning struck me as I realized that these images of many different people and animals in motion were actually–
Wait. I can’t tell you about that one.
Okay, how about the time I popped into the garage, a space that, early in the game, is mostly only useful for getting to an area of the Mt. Holly grounds that was previously unreachable. I figured I’d uncovered everything useful there, but I decided to give it one last look.
All this time, I’d been trying to crack the password for Mt. Holly’s computer system in the Security Room. I’d just been turning it over in the back of my mind, waiting for something to grab my attention. And as I circled around the car, something did, and realization crept over me as–
Actually, nevermind.
I can try to explain what Blue Prince is: a first-person puzzle game that mixes roguelike elements with your classic Myst-like “wander through a place solving puzzles” experience. The roguelike stuff comes from the fact that each time you step into the house in which Blue Prince is set, you reconstruct its layout from scratch. When you open a door, you get to choose what room is waiting for you from a randomized lot of three. Your goal is to arrange the rooms to plot a course to the other end of the house and to open the mysterious Room 46. Fail, and you’ll start over, rebuilding the house again.
Blue Prince is also a spiral, a rabbit warren, a labyrinth, a twisting narrative uncovered mystery by mystery and step by step. It’s an engrossing and, frankly, ludicrously intricate puzzle box that unfolds and unfolds and unfolds to be larger and deeper and more complex than is easy to imagine. Mastering the placement of rooms to chart your path is only its most surface-level manifestation. Each hides its own secrets, waiting for you to put the pieces together or to stumble over them, and while you might be stymied by the randomness as you head in, trying to solve one puzzle, you’re just as likely to discover the keys to two more along the way. And waiting among all those puzzles is a fascinating story you piece together as you follow in the footsteps of people who have passed on, leaving only a trail, and their regrets, behind.
Blue Prince is exceptional in its puzzle construction and its combination of genres, while also deep and affecting in its storytelling and arresting in its complexity and brilliance.
Blue Prince is a masterpiece, and you should discover it for yourself. —Phil Hornshaw
Dispatch
Available on PS5, PC
Dispatch is such a refreshing take on “adult superhero” stories, which so often go straight to bloody gore, lots of swearing, sex, extremely depressing tonal lows, and a bunch of dark or somber colors to sell how mature they are. While Dispatch isn’t a complete departure from that formula–the rebellious character Invisigal maintains a healthy swearing quota throughout the game–it stands apart from its contemporaries by being a remarkably hopeful take on what it means to strive for heroism, while also contending with the crushing responsibilities of adulthood and redemption.
That’s not the only reason it’s one of our favorite games of 2025. But given how powerless or aimless adulthood can be, especially in the face of today’s tough job market, it’s delightfully refreshing to play through a piece of fiction in which we get to succeed at going into an office, befriending our coworkers, shattering the expectations of the higher-ups, and getting the leeway to take risks without fear of getting kicked to the curb. And that’s what you do in Dispatch, Adhoc Studios’ episodic adventure game in which you play through a workplace comedy as Robert Robertson III, a former mechsuit-wearing hero whose crime-fighting days are behind him after his suit is damaged beyond repair.
Going through a normal day as Robert–who finds renewed purpose as a dispatcher, someone who provides overwatch and support for a team of superheroes–is a series of small, simple pleasures. The act of doing well at a job in a workplace is fulfilling, complementing the engaging minigame of dispatching heroes around the city with small sensations of success. These brief interludes in the workplace between the major story beats are mechanically simple, but fulfilling–like a true job, they’re a little bit about managing resources to account for unforeseen factors as best you can, and a lot about understanding the people you work with.
And that understanding, in turn, feeds back into making dialogue choices through Dispatch’s eight episodes. The writing in Dispatch is some of the best we’ve seen this year. Scenes seem to effortlessly jump from witty banter to romantic yearning, tension-building gut-punches to somber reflection. Each episode is a tight story that demands your attention and rewards you for your choices with punchy, entertaining dialogue reminiscent of what I once enjoyed most about my favorite Saturday morning superhero cartoons back in the early 2000s.
Plus, there are a bunch of hot people with superpowers in this story, and Dispatch lets you unashamedly flirt with two of them. A truly perfect experience would have let us smooch ’em all, obviously, but of the two options that we did get? Their romantic arcs are fun, flirty, and deeply rewarding to watch play out (in drastically different ways too!), and a great incentive to play through Dispatch’s fantastic story at least twice. — Jordan Ramée
The Séance of Blake Manor
Available on PC
An open question begging to be answered. Shifty characters with unknown motivations. A dangling thread that unravels a web of sordid secrets. Truly, there’s nothing quite like solving a mystery.
The Séance of Blake Manor is a wonderful detective game set in 19th-century Ireland that weaves an impressive amount of intrigue with supernatural elements, Irish folklore, and mythology. As private investigator Declan Ward (who is not without his own haunted past), you are summoned to Blake Manor after an unsigned note calls for help in the search for a missing woman. Arriving at the isolated manor on October 29, Ward is surprised to find the place packed with guests all eagerly awaiting All Hallow’s Eve: the night when the veil between the land of the living and the land of the dead is at its weakest. A mix of skeptics, mystics, religious figures, and the staff who are just trying to keep the manor running makes for a motley crew of séance attendees, but everyone is too eager to try and speak with the dead to help search for a missing guest.
Ward must leave no stone unturned, sifting through bedrooms (without being caught!), cross-referencing clues in the library, and of course, interrogating everyone to figure out what exactly happened to Evelyn Deane. With the looming deadline of the séance bearing down on you, balanced with the pressure of every action taking one minute of in-game time, you must carefully choose how to approach your investigation. Do you spend an hour attending a lecture, hoping to catch the speaker at the end, or do you use that hour to rifle through a bedroom that you know will be unoccupied? Do you take the time to explore Blake Manor’s dusty halls, or instead trust your gut to follow a promising lead? The time mechanic lends an urgency to the investigation that pulls you through just as much as the intrigue does.
But one gameplay mechanic is free of the time crunch: the library. The Séance of Blake Manor is a proudly Irish game, steeped in its history and folklore. For those who are interested in learning more, a nice touch is that reading about these topics in the manor’s library doesn’t move time ahead, making for a rewarding and teachable experience.
The guests and staff of Blake Manor are just as interesting as you’d hope. Each has a deep backstory and potential motive, and it’s fun to drill down into each of them to chip away at their armor to find out just why they’d want to attend a séance in the first place, and what possible reason they’d have to harm Miss Deane. Blake Manor itself is just as much a character as the people residing within it, with a sordid past and enticingly locked spaces that you’ll be itching to get into.
The Séance of Blake Manor’s pacing, design, art, and narrative coalesce into an elegant detective experience that will leave you punching the air as its secrets begin to unravel. It’s a triumph of the game that no character or their story is boring or unsatisfying, and that every lead is as intriguing as the next to follow. Truly, there’s nothing quite like solving a mystery. — Lucy James
Silent Hill f
Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Silent Hill f is the game to redefine the Silent Hill franchise–period. For some Silent Hill fans, that’s one big hard red capsule they’ll have to swallow. For me, it’s the life-saving defibrillator shock the series has needed since the original development team, Team Silent, disbanded after its last installment, Silent Hill 4: The Room. Yes, the Silent Hill 2 remake was great, and if anything, proved Silent Hill’s staying power in modern gaming, while honoring one of the most important stories told in the medium. But it’s Silent Hill f that proves that the series still has something to say. And, damn, it is howling loud and clear.
Since Team Silent’s split, the Silent Hill series seemed to have lost itself in its own enigmatic fog, dancing back and forth between its convoluted lore and trying to explore the darkest corners of the human psyche. Its own identity was trapped in the American nightmare town it had created.
Silent Hill f is a reinvention that proves the series isn’t bound by its setting or its lore (while equally not losing sight of either of those things). Instead, like Silent Hill 4 and Silent Hill 2, f uses Silent Hill as a state of mind more than an actual place: a vessel in which the series can explore dark topics, disturbing scenarios, and difficult themes. Silent Hill f takes all of those things to the furthest I’ve experienced in a video game.
Silent HIll f is unabashed in what it has to say about generational trauma; it’s unafraid in its depiction of gender roles in 1960s Japan; and somehow, it never felt like it was telling me what to feel or think about any of it. Instead, it presented it all rather matter-of-factly, albeit with lots of grotesque horror, whether it be some of the series’ most disgusting monsters yet, like the pregnant bellied woman physically attached to the back of a man dragging her around, or the scenes of self-harm and body horror to emphasize literal self-transformation. The game may lack subtlety in comparison to others in the series, but by no means does it spell out all its themes and ideas for you. Silent Hill f makes multiple playthroughs absolutely vital to unraveling the real terror that protagonist Hinako Shimizu is undergoing, with each playthrough providing new context. And it’s all elevated by a gut-wrenching performance from Konatsu Kato.
It’s a lot to digest, to say nothing of a mid-game twist that had me head-in-hands saying, “I can’t believe they’re doing this,” followed by another endgame twist so good I wouldn’t possibly dare spoil it.
Silent Hill f is about a lot of things, but for me it’s about taking back control from expectations thrust upon you. Sometimes, in order to take that control, you have to reinvent the very idea of who and what you are. And like the series itself, a series with an expectation of what it’s supposed to be–a foggy town, a brooding psychological horror, and a world that decays into a rusty and dilapidated hellscape–Silent Hill f defies those expectations to become something whole and new, even if it means alienating some of its closest supporters. But hey, that’s what growth is all about. — Kurt Indovina
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
For years, historically turn-based series–namely Final Fantasy–have been making the pivot to fast-action combat in what is seemingly an attempt to “keep up” with modern titles. As such, the team at Sandfall Interactive saw an opportunity to not only pay homage to the beloved JRPGs they grew up with, but help grow and reinvigorate the stagnating genre. Enter Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, an utterly remarkable turn-based RPG that sees that promise through.
Set in a surreal, dystopian version of Europe, Expedition 33 follows a group of adventurers who set out to put an end to The Paintress, a larger-than-life being who is methodically killing off all of mankind during an annual event known as the Gommage. What ensues is a journey equal parts tragic and beautiful, in which no party member is ever truly safe and the world is far from what it seems.
As its name suggests, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game of contrasts. Alongside its immersive, cinematic presentation is a turn-based, menu-heavy combat system that some perceive as intrusive and dated. Tucked within that is a parry system that initially seems at odds with the slow and strategic combat for which turn-based games are known.
Its world map might be fairly sizable, yet it shies away from Western RPG standards and retains a focus on linearity; and while this can sometimes lead to RPGs providing a slower-paced experience rife with exposition, Expedition 33 finds a way to avoid that, too.
Though much of its music is perfectly suited to its Belle Époque setting–ethereal, operatic, and rich–Expedition 33 is punctuated by high-energy jazz and explosive, synthetic sounds. Ruins based on real-world locations lie next to abstract spectacles, and its highly grounded and mature tone often gives way to whimsy and laugh-out-loud humor.
Despite being a celebration of art and the catharsis it brings, Expedition 33 is also deeply concerned with how that art can can lead to isolation, obsession, and escapism; and despite being a game about humanity, hope, legacy, and collective action, all of these ideas are nestled against much darker topics, such as grief, despair, mortality, individualism, and entropy.
All of this duality–all of this careful juxtaposition–works triumphantly and is what defines Expedition 33. Each part serves as a way to highlight and celebrate the other, seemingly disparate side, creating a work of art that is not just somehow harmonic, but is truly elevated, making it not only one of 2025’s greatest games, but one of the best RPGs, period. — Jessica Cogswell
Hades II
Available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2
Despite Hades achieving seemingly instant and massive success upon its release back in 2019, developer Supergiant Games spent well over a year debating if it was interested in revisiting the game’s charming reconstruction of Greek mythology for a sequel. After all, protagonist Zagreus’s story felt more or less complete by the game’s conclusion, and, at the time, Supergiant Games had exclusively created fantastic one-and-done titles. A sequel felt fairly unlikely, even if there was a palpable craving for more of Hades’ roguelike action, swoon-worthy characters, rock-opera-esque score, and tender narrative. Fortunately for us, however, that craving was ultimately shared by the game’s developers, too.
Yet to call Hades II simply more of what we loved doesn’t quite do it justice. If Hades showed us what a stylish, narrative-driven roguelike could be, Hades II delivered that concept in a more fully realized form. Although it doesn’t look drastically different from its predecessor, Hades II makes several notable gameplay changes, such as placing greater emphasis on offense and strategy. This is reflected in new player character Melinoe’s weapons, magical abilities, the arcana card system, and even the new assortment of boons, all of which interact in more interesting ways than ever before and transform the Hades series from a fast-paced dodge-athon into something more concentrated and intentional.
In addition to this greater combat depth is greater depth in general, as Hades II features a more sprawling narrative, more companions–each with intriguing personalities and seemingly endless dialogue–and a greater sense of choice and consequence. Stakes are also further escalated in Hades II, as antagonist Chronos feels like a truly ruthless and omnipotent enemy whose reach extends not just throughout the Underworld, but all the way to Mt. Olympus as well. As such, Melinoe’s adventure feels grander (and more perilous) than her older brother’s. All this, accompanied by phenomenal music, top-notch acting, gorgeous biomes, and an emphasis on Greek mythology’s more occult side, makes Hades II a must-play game, and one of 2025’s greatest titles. — Jessica Cogswell
