The Best Video Games of 2025 So Far: Unexpected Hits & Must-Plays

This year was already looking huge for gamers, with sequels and revivals everyone was waiting for. But when the massive Grand Theft Auto VI game got pushed back to 2026, it didn’t leave a gap – it created space for other amazing games to surprise us! The first half of 2025 has delivered hit after hit, showing off creative new ideas, stunning worlds, and unexpected twists on familiar genres. We’re diving into the best video games of 2025 released so far that are genuinely worth your time.

The delay of one highly anticipated title didn’t slow things down. Instead, publishers had room to launch exciting projects, from long-awaited sequels in beloved series to completely new experiences that nobody saw coming. It turns out, 2025 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting gaming years in recent memory, filled with diverse adventures worth exploring.

Citizen Sleeper 2

Available on Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and macOS (Released Jan. 31)

If you love moody sci-fi stories like Blade Runner, Citizen Sleeper 2 might be right up your alley. Like the first game, you play as an android trying to survive in a futuristic cyberpunk world. It’s less about action and more about connecting with people – you pick up odd jobs and gather a unique crew through text-based conversations and decisions.

The game feels like playing a digital tabletop RPG. Every choice you make, and even some actions, involve rolling dice, and the results can change the story. This time, your crew members also have their own dice, making the relationships and outcomes even more complex. It’s a quiet, personal journey focused on daily life in a big sci-fi universe, offering a thoughtful contrast to massive epic games.

Character portrait from Citizen Sleeper 2, a narrative cyberpunk RPG

Avowed

Available on Xbox Series X|S and PC (Released Feb. 18)

Obsidian Entertainment is known for making deep, choice-driven roleplaying games (RPGs) set in rich worlds, often taking established series and adding their own complex twists. With Avowed, they’ve built upon their own original fantasy world from the Pillars of Eternity series.

While those older games were played from an overhead view, Avowed puts you directly into the action with a first-person perspective, much like games such as The Elder Scrolls. Don’t think of it as just another Skyrim clone, though. It’s a vast fantasy RPG with excellent combat where your dialogue choices and actions genuinely shape the story. The game’s world, the Living Lands, isn’t just huge – it’s designed to feel dense and alive, focusing on meaningful places to explore rather than just empty space. It also offers a third-person view if that’s more your style.

First-person view gameplay screenshot from the fantasy RPG Avowed showing combat

Monster Hunter Wilds

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released Feb. 28)

Capcom’s Monster Hunter series has grown from a niche favorite into a global phenomenon. Monster Hunter Wilds is the biggest adventure yet, giving you a massive, open world packed with different environments and all sorts of creatures to hunt.

Taking down these giant monsters can be challenging! You have 14 weapon types to master, plus environmental hazards to watch out for. It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you’re not careful, especially with new creature behavior where herds will protect each other. But you don’t have to go it alone; you can team up with up to three friends for cooperative multiplayer. If you play solo, you’ll have CPU-controlled allies to help out. Wilds has a learning curve, but once you get into the rhythm of tracking, fighting, and crafting, it becomes incredibly rewarding and easy to lose track of time. Want to learn more about the history of Monster Hunter? Check out our guide to the franchise here.

Player character fighting a large creature in Monster Hunter Wilds fantasy action RPG

Split Fiction

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released March 6)

Remember It Takes Two, the surprisingly heartfelt co-op game about a couple working through their problems? Hazelight Studios, the creators of that Game of the Year winner, are back with another co-op adventure called Split Fiction. And yes, it’s another one of the best gaming experiences you can share with a friend or partner.

This game follows two writers, Zoe (fantasy) and Mio (sci-fi), who get pulled into a computer world based on their own stories. You and your co-op partner work together, solving puzzles and navigating levels that constantly switch between fantasy and sci-fi themes. The story is charming and funny, building a strong bond between the characters and, by extension, the players. The final level is particularly ambitious, a wild mix of visuals and gameplay that makes the journey worthwhile.

Screenshot from Split Fiction showing two characters in a split-screen co-op puzzle

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and macOS (Released March 20)

It took nearly two decades, but the Assassin’s Creed series finally brought its parkour and stealth action to feudal Japan. Assassin’s Creed Shadows was polished for an extra year, and it seems the wait paid off.

Set in 1579 Japan, this is the first Assassin’s Creed where you play as two main characters: Naoe, a swift shinobi seeking revenge, and Yasuke, a powerful African samurai based on a real historical figure, looking for redemption. Unlike more recent games in the series that leaned heavily into RPG elements, Shadows brings back the focus on stealth gameplay that fans loved in earlier titles. However, playing as the samurai Yasuke lets you take a more direct, combat-heavy approach if sneaking isn’t your preference. With a story that minimizes some of the series’ complex sci-fi backstory, Shadows feels like a great mix of classic Assassin’s Creed ideas while also being a perfect starting point for newcomers.

Two main characters, a shinobi and a samurai, standing in a Japanese setting in Assassin's Creed Shadows

South of Midnight

Available on Xbox Series X|S and PC (Released April 8)

Xbox Game Studios has had a strong start to the year, and South of Midnight stands out as proof of their commitment to fresh, creative ideas. Developed by Compulsion Games, this is a Gothic fantasy adventure with a unique Southern twist.

You play as Hazel, exploring a folklore-inspired vision of the American Deep South after a major hurricane. The game has a stunning visual style that looks like a stop-motion animated film come to life. It’s a third-person action game filled with magical abilities and memorable characters. Hazel’s story is particularly noteworthy, exploring narrative and cultural themes inspired by Black communities in the South – a perspective rarely seen in major games.

Character Hazel interacting with a creature in the stylized world of South of Midnight

Blue Prince

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released April 10)

How about a puzzle game where the levels change every time you play? Blue Prince is a unique first-person puzzler that cleverly blends strategy with chance. You play as Simon P. Jones, who inherits a mansion with a strange condition: he must find a secret 46th room hidden among the 45 he knows about, within a time limit.

Each day you enter the manor, the layout is blank. You open doors and choose which room appears next from a set of options. Some rooms give clues or tools, others are dead ends. You have to learn what each room does and piece together a plan over several days to find the missing room. But finding it isn’t the end – the mystery continues to unfold. Blue Prince is an inventive puzzle game that rewards careful observation and strategic thinking in its cozy, mysterious setting.

Screenshot of a stylized room in the puzzle game Blue Prince with blueprint-like elements

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Tape 1 – Feb. 18, Tape 2 – April 15)

From the creators of Life is Strange comes Lost Records, an episodic adventure that captures a specific kind of Nineties nostalgia, perfect for fans of shows like Yellowjackets. This game tells a story across two timelines, following four teenage girls who become inseparable one summer in 1995, only to mysteriously go their separate ways until they reunite 27 years later.

You play as Swann, an aspiring filmmaker who records her summer using a camcorder. Using the camcorder and making dialogue choices helps you shape the girls’ journey. There’s a central mystery about what happened in the woods that summer that tore their friendship apart. Lost Records feels like a true spiritual successor to the original Life is Strange, hitting those same emotional beats and delivering a winding, character-driven narrative.

Four teenage girls together in a nostalgic 1990s setting from Lost Records Bloom & Rage

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

Available on Nintendo Switch and PC (Released April 24)

If you like games with tons of replayability, The Hundred Line might be for you – it boasts up to 100 possible endings! This game follows a diverse group of ordinary people living in an extraordinary Tokyo, constantly hiding underground from an unknown threat. It’s a mix of mystery, strategy, and visual novel, with enough story to fill a whole anime series.

You have 100 in-game days to prepare to save the world from an alien invasion. Each day, you learn about the characters, train to get new abilities, and sometimes fight off creatures attacking your base. It blends text-based conversations with challenging turn-based combat and even card-based exploration mini-games. It’s a wild mix of ideas that shouldn’t necessarily work together, but it’s consistently engaging and full of surprises.

Multiple anime-style characters from The Hundred Line Last Defense Academy visual novel game

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released April 24)

While Street Fighter often grabs the spotlight, fighting game fans who remember the arcade era know Fatal Fury deserves serious respect. After 26 years, a brand new entry is here! City of the Wolves resurrects the classic SNK fighting series.

It feels somewhat familiar to other popular 2D fighters, but City of the Wolves has its own unique style. The combat system is technical but also easy to pick up, letting even newer players pull off cool, flashy moves, while still having a high skill ceiling for experts. Classic characters like Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui look better than ever thanks to the game’s gorgeous, comic book-inspired art style. Every match is a visual treat. After being away for so long, Fatal Fury is definitely back and ready to fight for its place among the best.

Two characters fighting in a vibrant cityscape arena in the fighting game Fatal Fury City of the Wolves

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released April 24)

This French RPG came out of nowhere and is a serious contender for Game of the Year. Despite being from a smaller indie studio, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 feels like a top-tier Japanese RPG, standing alongside giants like Final Fantasy and Persona. It boasts incredible gameplay and a dark, thought-provoking fantasy world.

The story is set in a world where a powerful being called the Paintress kills everyone above a certain age each year, constantly lowering humanity’s lifespan. After each mass culling, an expedition is sent to stop her, but all 32 previous attempts have failed. You control a party of flawed characters on what they know is likely a suicide mission to save existence itself. Even in a year with many deep stories, Expedition 33 stands out as one of the most emotionally impactful, proving classic turn-based RPG combat can still feel fresh and compelling.

Party of adventurers standing on a cliff edge in the fantasy world of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 RPG

Despelote

Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released May 1)

Many games this year offer smaller, personal stories, but Despelote feels uniquely intimate. This narrative game puts you in the shoes of a child version of the game’s co-creator, Julián Cordero, growing up in Quito, Ecuador, as the nation tries to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It’s less a traditional game and more like stepping into someone else’s memories, a two-hour “fever dream” of childhood moments.

You relive key experiences from a child’s perspective – sitting at the dinner table ignoring parents, racing home before the streetlights come on after playing soccer. The visuals are striking: the environments are scanned from real-life photos of Quito, but every person and animal looks like a hand-drawn sketch. The game might seem aimless, but that’s the point – it captures the feeling of recalling foggy memories where the emotions are clear even if the details are hazy.

Hand-drawn style characters playing soccer in a realistic scanned environment in Despelote

Doom: The Dark Ages

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released May 15)

After the relentless speed and intense action of Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, the newest game in the series, Doom: The Dark Ages, takes a slightly different path. It’s still packed with demon-slaying action and huge guns, but the pace is a bit slower, adding a focus on blocking, parrying, and strategically using your weapons and abilities.

This game is a prequel, showing a pseudo-origin story for the iconic Doom Slayer. He’s still a massive, silent force, but now he wields medieval-inspired versions of classic Doom weapons, like a machine gun that shoots skulls, along with a sharp chainsaw shield. It’s a noticeable change from the last two games, but obliterating hordes of hell with a shield that’s also a chainsaw is still incredibly satisfying.

The Doom Slayer character holding a shield and weapon in Doom The Dark Ages

Elden Ring Nightreign

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released May 30)

It might sound odd to take a deep, challenging game like Elden Ring and give it a fast-paced, multiplayer spin-off, but Nightreign somehow makes it work! This is a three-player cooperative game that captures the essence of Elden Ring – exploring dangerous areas, fighting tough bosses, and trying desperately to survive – but kicks up the speed significantly.

Instead of slowly exploring a vast open world, you and two friends are dropped onto an island with a specific goal: find materials to defeat the area’s main boss. It can feel counter-intuitive at first if you’re used to the main game’s pace, but once you understand the loop of searching, fighting, and planning together, it becomes an incredibly engaging and intense experience. It’s a pulse-pounding new way to experience the “soulslike” formula. Check out our thoughts on the main game’s expansion in our Shadow of the Erdtree review.

Three player characters fighting a large boss creature in Elden Ring Nightreign multiplayer spin-off

Deltarune (Chapters 3 & 4)

Available on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PS4, PS5, PC, and macOS (Released June 5)

Including Deltarune on a “best of the year” list might feel like cheating since it’s being released in chapters over several years. Chapters 1 and 2 came out earlier, but with the release of Chapters 3 and 4 this year, the game is now available as a mostly complete experience for the first time.

Created by Toby Fox, the mind behind the beloved Undertale, Deltarune is a bizarre RPG that acts as a side story in the same universe. It’s a top-down RPG where the pixelated world often feels dreamlike, shifting unexpectedly between exploration, combat, and dialogue. You can even talk your way out of some fights! Trying to explain its wild plot or genre-bending gameplay is tough – the best way to experience Deltarune is simply to jump in without knowing too much.

Pixel art screenshot showing characters Kris, Susie, and Ralsei in the game Deltarune

Mario Kart World

Available on Nintendo Switch 2 (Released June 5)

Every generation has its favorite Mario Kart, but Nintendo went big for the Switch 2 launch with Mario Kart World. This is the largest game in the series yet, and the “World” part is key – it features a fully explorable open environment packed with secrets and challenges you can find just driving around. Regular races and a new battle royale-style mode called Knockout Tour use these interconnected areas, with tracks flowing seamlessly from one to the next.

The biggest change is the increase to 24 racers (up from the usual 12), making every race significantly crazier and more chaotic. The tracks are wider to handle the extra karts and feature more branching paths and shortcuts. With so much happening at once, you constantly see small pockets of chaotic action all around you. It’s not just a great Mario Kart game; with all its new features and scale, Mario Kart World might just be the best the series has ever been. Learn more about how Nintendo designed the chaos in our interview here.

Gameplay screenshot of multiple racers navigating a colorful track in Mario Kart World

Dune: Awakening

Available on PC (Released June 10)

Fans of Frank Herbert’s Dune have waited a long time for a video game that captures the scale of the novels, and now, amidst the renewed hype for the series, Dune: Awakening has arrived. This is a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) survival game where you forge your own story on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis.

Set in an alternate timeline where Paul Atreides wasn’t born, the story finds House Atreides and House Harkonnen locked in civil war. You create your own character with their own origin, and the game is very much driven by your choices, letting you play in the Dune sandbox without being tied down by the book’s exact story. It’s all about surviving the elements, building your legend, and navigating the politics of Arrakis.

A character standing on a sand dune overlooking a settlement in the MMO survival game Dune Awakening

FBC Firebreak

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released June 17)

When Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind mind-bending games like Control and Alan Wake, announced they were making a multiplayer game, many fans were curious (and maybe a little skeptical). What would that even look like?

Well, it looks a lot like Ghostbusters, but instead of funny characters, you play as anonymous government agents doing cleanup duty in a perpetually messed-up, monster-filled building. FBC: Firebreak is a three-player cooperative shooter that takes the strange, eerie world of Control‘s Federal Bureau of Control and turns it into a more lighthearted game about a difficult job. You play as “Firebreakers,” a task force sent to clear out interdimensional beings and repair the damage they cause within the bizarre Oldest House headquarters. While it doesn’t add much to the overall story of Remedy’s connected game universe, it’s a fun co-op shooter that offers a less stressful take on survival games like Left 4 Dead. It’s great for jumping online with friends, shooting some monsters, and making some progress without huge pressure. It’s just the job.

Three characters fighting supernatural entities in a government building in the co-op shooter FBC Firebreak

Rematch

Available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Released June 19)

Rocket League is a massive online hit with its car-based soccer. So, describing Rematch as Rocket League without the cars might sound too simple – isn’t that just… soccer? Sort of!

Rematch is indeed a soccer game, but instead of typical sports simulation or an overhead view, developers Sloclap have created a more immersive take. You control athletes from a third-person perspective, more like an action game. Matches are 3v3, 4v4, or 5v5, and they ditch things like fouls or even boundaries. It’s more of an arcade-style, physical experience where you can use the walls to bounce the ball and slide tackles are encouraged! While it’s a bit simpler than some other online “live-service” games, its easy-to-learn mechanics hide technical depth on the pitch, making Rematch a blast once the game starts.

Gameplay screenshot showing two players competing in an arcade soccer match in Rematch

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Available on PS5 (Released June 26)

A new game from Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear Solid, is always a big deal, but Death Stranding 2 feels even more significant. Using cutting-edge motion capture, it often looks like a virtual movie with a cast of famous actors. But it’s also a wonderfully weird mix of gameplay styles and moods that only an artist like Kojima could pull off.

Set in a future where humanity is fragmented, the game takes place months after protagonist Sam Porter Bridges connected isolated communities across the U.S. Now, his mission expands to other regions like Mexico and Australia. Like the first game, much of Death Stranding 2 involves traveling vast distances, carefully planning how to pack and carry your cargo to deliver vital resources. There’s improved combat, but also hours of unique, often strange cutscenes that delve into deep emotional and philosophical themes. It’s experimental for a big-budget game, but its ambition pays off, offering a unique experience that truly blends gaming and cinematic storytelling. Get an inside look at the game’s music with our interview with Woodkid here.

Character Sam Porter Bridges looking towards a futuristic structure in Death Stranding 2 On the Beach

From deep RPGs and intense action to cozy puzzles and emotional journeys, the first half of 2025 has truly offered something for everyone. While the gaming landscape might have shifted slightly, the creativity and quality on display prove this is a year packed with must-play experiences. Which of these games are you most excited about? Dive in and discover your next favorite adventure!