As artificial intelligence has seeped more into daily life, it’s been met with a mix of acceptance and repulsion. The technology has been used to modify photos and improve productivity, but it has also threatened jobs and created havoc with the truth.
When it comes to video games, players abhor AI. It’s associated with slop and the deluge of nice-looking but cheaply made games. That has created a hunger for authenticity. Players want games made by human artists with code that’s crafted with flesh and blood, and that’s reflected in the best games of the year.
It’s been the year of indies, games made by small teams compared to the multi-studio efforts behind “Call of Duty” or “Assassin’s Creed.” These indie games are passion projects, and the care put into their development shows in the quality of the games.
Here are the top 10 games of 2025.
1. “Clair Obscure: Expedition 33”: Sandfall Interactive is a studio formed by an ex-Ubisoft employee who wanted to create a project inspired by Japanese role-playing games. That led to an impressive and epic tale about Gustave, Lune and the rest of Expedition 33, working together to stop the Paintress from eliminating a generation of people in the city of Lumiere.
The campaign begins with a big shock that pulls players into its distinct Belle Epoque world. The RPG is backed with solid mechanics that introduce QuickTime-type elements into the turn-based combat that reward skill as well as strategy. Combine that with unforgettable characters and heartbreaking moments, and it’s the best adventure of 2025.
2. “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach”: Director Hideo Kojima takes players to Australia this time around as protagonist Sam Porter Bridges once again has to reconnect a continent to the Chiral Network. The original was a brilliant but messy project, but the sequel refines those ideas and brings them into focus.
Kojima improves the balance of combat, stealth and exploration while telling a more intriguing story as Sam deals with tragedy and finds redemption in his mission. Of course, no Kojima title would be complete with a little bit of craziness, but even the more far-out aspects of the game make more sense and are a thrilling part of the journey.
3. “Hades 2”: I slept on the 2020 original, but after recently playing the roguelike game, I tore through the sequel, which carries over the core ideas of the original. The follow-up is brilliant because it adapts the gameplay to a new character, Melinoë, the princess of the underworld. She’s raised in the Crossroads and becomes hellbent on defeating Chronos, the Titan of Time, who overthrew her father, Hades, and imprisoned the rest of her family.
As Melinoë, players have different weapons and movement options, including a slower dash and a sprint. She also travels to different locales from the original, delving into the underworld and also fighting to the surface. The latter path is more difficult than the former. The joy of this roguelike is crafting a strategy and learning the systems before ultimately dying and dying again. Players learn from the failure, improve their skills and advance in an addictive gameplay loop.
4 “Hollow Knight: Silksong”: Team Cherry came out of nowhere to create a massive indie hit with the original “Hollow Knight,” a game that pushed the Metroidvania genre in extreme ways. It’s a game known for its difficulty, as players take on the role of the title character, who ventures into the insect kingdom of Hallownest.
The follow-up, “Silksong,” lets players control Hornet, a character who appeared in the first game, as she finds herself in a new world called Pharloom. Just like “Hollow Knight,” the sequel amps up the difficulty as players have to learn Hornet’s new abilities and master her weapon, the needle. They also have to adjust to her abilities that rely on tools and agility. “Silk Song” also features a much bigger map and longer adventure.
5. “Monster Hunter Wilds”: Capcom’s latest entry to the long-running series takes plenty of risks by bringing the campaign to a more open world and introducing a Focus Mode that lets players target creatures’ body parts and their wounds. The changes were all excellent moves that the franchise needed to grow, but the game also ran into issues for titles built to last months or even years after launch.
“Wilds” needed more meaningful content to keep fans happy and sustain momentum. That’s something that could have been improved on. It was a game so good that players wanted more.
6. “Ghost of Yotei”: This year saw two open-world samurai epics. Ubisoft launched “Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” a sprawling adventure that hits familiar notes, while Sucker Punch Productions released a more artful adventure in “Ghost of Yotei.” The latter was the superior title because of its tighter focus.
“Ghost of Yotei” is a revenge tale that follows Atsu, whose family is murdered by a rogue samurai named Lord Saito. Her thirst to kill him and his lieutenants leads her on an adventure through Japan’s northernmost island. Sucker Punch gives players more weapons, gear and ways to customize their version of Atsu as she travels around Ezo’s regions and picks off the names on her list.
7. Arc Raiders”: Embark Studios struck gold with its second major project, an extraction shooter that puts players in the role of a raider who travels to the surface to scavenge resources in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by robots. The online game not only pits players against computer-controlled drones and mechs, they also have to fight each other.
Like other extraction shooters, players venture across the surface and grab items used to upgrade their gear. Finding the scraps and blueprints is easy, but holding onto them is another matter as players have to escape the surface to keep them. That creates tension and moments of emergent gameplay, where players craft their own stories in a savage world.
8. “Donkey Kong Bananza”: Although “Mario Kart World” launched with the Nintendo Switch 2, it wasn’t the best game for the system that came out during the summer. This adventure starring the Japanese company’s famed ape showed off the power of the new system while also introducing new elements to Donkey Kong’s 3-D adventure.
The ability to dig around in the environment created inspired world design as the ape and his sidekick Pauline journey to the center of the world. Each underground biome is a joy to explore while also providing challenges that let the world-changing gameplay element shine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7IEg0_qNXs
9. “Doom: The Dark Ages”: In the 2016 “Doom” reboot, texts offered hints of the Doom Slayer’s past, and in this prequel, players explore that history through an ingenious campaign. The gameplay diverges from the high-flying acrobatics of its predecessors and instead focuses on a ground game that’s reminiscent of a tank.
Much of that has to do with a shield that can repel attacks, interact with the environment and brutalize adversaries. Although the gameplay feels more grounded and horizontal, id Software creates epic moments when the Doom Slayer will be flying through the air aboard a Wintherin or bashing building-sized demons in an Atlan mech. All of it adds up to one of the most intense and visceral experiences of the year.
10. “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound”: Before the late Tomonobu Itagaki revamped the ninja-focused series, it was an epic 2-D side scroller that impressed players at arcades and pushed the NES to its limits. This retro-style game continues the vision of those chapters but puts players in control of two protagonists – Kenji Mozu and Kumori.
The two are rivals in the beginning but learn to work together as they battle demons who have taken over the Black Spider Clan and attack the Hayabusa Ninja Clan. While players mainly control Kenji, The Game Kitchen weaves in design elements that incorporate Kumori’s abilities. It creates a diversity of gameplay that keeps the game fresh as the team crafts inventive scenarios that show there’s still life in these action side-scrollers.
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