by zor
Ranking every 2025 game I played in 2025
I'll put them into 3 groups.
1 - Titles I did not like, which are only on the list because they came out in 2025
2- Titles that I thought were okay, but wouldn't make a top ten list (if i have more than 10 games that I like, and played, this year)
3 - Titles that I enjoyed a lot, which would make a top ten list
Showing 1-10 of 26 items
NSW2, 7/17/2025, 3/3: An exploration adventure game, with puzzles (most of which are tied to exploring). In this game you play as Donkey Kong, with Pauline assisting you, by giving you the ability to transform into different forms. Like, a bigger ape that is much more powerful, or a snake that can do a charge jump and slow down time, or an elephant that can suck up terrain. There are 5 forms in total, and they are all useful in different situations. The core loop of the game is exploring an open area, climbing walls (there are some walls that cannot be climbed), destorying terrain (to get through areas, dig a hole down, create a way up, or in fights to get rid of enemies), fighting enemies, solving simple puzzles, all in the quest to find bananas (this game's version of stars). Levels consist of 1 to several layers in a theme setting, and when you are done, you progress to the next layer, which has a different theme. These themes do matter, as they change how things in the area behave. For example, you can go from a level that is a jungle that has a lot of thorns everywhere (which hurt if you touch them) and poison water, to a level where it is snowing and it is hard to see, more walls are ice and thereby cannot be climb on, and the water is cold, so it slowly drains your health as you are in it. The poison and ice water are a bit similar, but not the exact same. And the game does that a lot, of having similar concepts, but they behave differently enough, in different settings that they don't feel the same. Am rambling on now... so, i'll just continue on... Graphically the game looks good, the characters, DK and Pauline visually look good, and have a style. So does the environments and characters... mostly. The stone people are okay, but they are just crystals, and rather simple looking. I like their design, but there isn't much to them. Audio wise the game is good too. Good music (each form has it own song that Pauline sings), and the story is kind of VO. The apes and enemies don't speak english, they just make sounds. But Pauline does speak, a lot, in most cut scenes, and all of that is voice overed. And the character of Pauline is good. Unlike a lot of games, Pauline doesn't become an annoying side character. She doesn't solve puzzles for you (in the sense that some games has their side character (or main) make comments about every puzzle you enter into), and isn't constantly nagging the player. Instead, she comes off as a little sibling who wants to explore, and makes optional comments, if you want to hear them. As mention above, the gameplay is great, the destruction of terrain works well, the camera works well too. And the game has an exploration feel that reminds me of the Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. Where you can go nearly anywhere, and the environment and materials interact in a semi-logical manner. Also, I greatly enjoy finding and collecting all the bananas, and fossils (kind of a coin system, there are x amount of them on a layer, and you use them to buy clothing and visuals). There are a lot of them, hidden all over the level. In my play through, first time through, I 80% it or so, collecting most of what each level had. And now that am done with the story, I am going back through the levels, collecting everything I missed. And yeah, some of them are very well hidden, so am using a guide now and then to find them. Though, this does bring up one of my negatives with the game. The game is suppose to have an ability, a ground slap thingy, that sends out an echo wave to detect collectable objects. And it does, sometimes. I have found that it works like 75% of the time. And the other 25% it doesn't show the objects. I have, numerous times, used the ability, it returns that there nothing nearby, I climb a pillar, and I find a fossil there, which the echo slap didn't show me. I don't know why this is, hopefully they fix it. The other negative I have with the game is that there were two boss battles, mid way, that were frustrating, and bad. In one case, the destruction terrain stuff was a major problem in one of these boss battles, since i kept falling into lower terrain than the boss, resulting in the fight lasting about 8 minutes longer than it should have. It wasn't a difficult fight by any means, just pure annoying. But those issues aside, the game itself is really good. And does a lot of things right. Completed: The main story, got about 99%, all the bananas, and fossils. Did not collect every music track. Didn't want to sour myself on the game, by having my last experience with it being grinding for an item that I don't care for, just so that i can get a different screen shot ending thingy.
XSX, 5/8/2025, 3/3: A first person metroidvania, the sequel to journey to the savage planet, that is a comedy (over acting, evil corpo, aliens creatures that have butts for faces, type of comedy) with a focus on exploration, collection, and upgrades. I had a really good time with the game. I enjoy metroidvanias, and this one is a great one of those. Core combat is basic, but it has enough system in place that it gets slightly complex, but never overwhelming. The level designs are great for exploration. The upgrades are design to be a bit game breaking, and that is fun. The pacing is good, i believe i got nearly 100% after about 20-30 hours. The story is okay, it is goofy, in a good way, and that is fun. But it lacks any emotional or drama, so it can be ignore, and that isn't a good thing. Visually the game looks slightly cool, the style is great, but the effects and technically side are just average. The audio does it job, but little more. And the gameplay is great, and the upgrades make the game easier as you play, which a lot of games mess up. Sure some enemies get stronger the further you go into the game, but the upgrades keep pace, and usually go beyond, so if you keep up on them, you'll feel powerful/useful in new areas too. Plus, there no level scaling, so old areas become a cake walk. Also, as you scan more things, you unlock better scanning upgrades, to the point where it just shows you, on the map, where all the upgrades are for an area. It feels like the game wants you to get the stuff, but it doesn't want you to feel like it is a never ending chore. Overall, if you like first person metroidvania, or something close to that, than I think you'll like this game
XSX, 3/3: An action, rpg, similar to a 'Skyrim' type of game. Where you create your character (human, or elf) and can points into skill trees (fighter, ranger, wizard) however you want (mix between them). The game itself can be played first person (default) or third person. It has the normal rpg mechanics of equipment, attribute points, basic crafting and upgrade of equipment, and questing. Where the game does more than other games is in its presentation, and story/design. To start off, the game looks good. From the environments to the characters. The effects for spells are nice, and the U.I. works well, though, one negative to call out is that the game could use more hotkey ability slots. The game is fully voiced, so even side characters have VO. And the VO is good, i do believe one of the companions is voiced by the same person who did Garus in Mass Effect. On the story front, the game has some Obsidian (the studio that made it, and made other games like Fallout New Vegas) charm. Most of the dialogue is good, characters feel realistic (usually), but most importantly, there are actual choices to be made in the game. And it isn't the simple, good/evil choices a lot of games do. The player character is an envoy for an empire. And through out your adventures, you can take actions to help your empire gain influence in this new land, work against the empire, get the power for yourself, a mix of power for empire and the people here, or burn it all down. And these choices are mostly obvious, so you don't have to worry too much about accidently missing an ending, by not having a snow ball fight (am still kind of pissed that was a factor in the Witcher 3's ending). That isn't to imply that I didn't do some googling in order to min/max the ending, but that was for a faction/ending, and only 1 of them, since I wasn't sure if the game would screw me over if i chose to do something, slightly evil (it doesn't). And I did this, cause the game does have a problem with its companions and their opinions. There are 4 of them, 2 of them are neutral about the empire, and the other 2 are negative. So I kind of was worrying the game devs were also going to shoehorn in an anti-empire message into the ending choices. But they didn't, so that is good. But it does feel like the game cut some content (2 more companions, whom would have been pro-empire). Anywho, my point was that I greatly enjoyed having choices in the game, and these choices didn't fall into the simple good/evil choices that a lot of games use. Overall, I liked this game. And I figured if you are into action-rpgs, that are similar to "skyrim', than you like this game too. Or if you like other Obsidian games. Completed: The game, took about 48 hours. Did most of the side quests. Fully upgrade my gear, max level, etc... Got the ending where that was a in between of full empire or full living lands. And I was mostly happy with my ending outcomes, though, I didn't like the lack of romance or personal character ending info... there was some (for the character), but I wanted more.
XSX, 2025, 3/3: The third, and probably final, Doom game in the new Doom trilogy (assuming). This one is a prequel, taking place in the past... not sure when, but the past. Where acient humans rule space, and are fighting off an Hell invasion. The story overall it decent, cheesy, fun, action-movie-ish, and I enjoy it. But it isn't the best thing about the game. That would be the level design and gameplay. And this time, those are good. Well, they were good in the 2016 one too, but were a bit bad in Eternal due to its overuse of cooldowns and running around. This time, the gameplay is a bit more, stand and fight. The player gets a shield, and a big part of combat is blocking, and parring attacks. Normally that would be a horrible thing for me, since my timing is horrible, but this game has a custom difficulty settings, allowing the player to adjust the parry window, plus a dozen other stats (enemy damage, player damage, etc...) which makes playing it a breeze (if you want it to be) and that is great. Anywho, to sum up my ranting. Doom: The Dark Ages is a great game. Visually it looks great, the audio is good (though the sound track isn't as good as Eternal, there no standout track like, the only thing they fear is you), the story is more complete and very fun to go through, in an popcorn action movie way, the gameplay is great, the changes to make it more stand and fight work, in a large part to the custom difficutly sliders that can adjust most factors of the game, the level design is overall good, though the bonus missions and collectables are a bit too much at times, and overall, it a fun experience. One of the few negatives I have is that parts of the story feel out of place, like there are missing cutscenes or levels. More than once, a level will end with the player in one place, story wise, and then the next level, you'll just be in Hell... cause... reasons.... Also, as mention above, the amount of collectables is a bit much. If a person like single player FPS (oh, forgot to mention, they didn't do any kind of Mulitplayer mode in this one, unlike last time, so it just a single player foucs experience), than they'll most likely like this game.
PC-Steam, 9/11/2025, 2/3: A loot shooter, the latest in the borderland series (like the 6 or 7 one, i believe). And this one is decent. It isn't great, but it is good, and fun in a group. The biggest differences this time around is that it takes place, mostly, in an open world. There are some sub-zones, for big missions and such, but a majority of the game is in an open world setting. That world is... well, just okay. The style of most of the areas is kind of dull. And the geometry design has issues, when you try to get around, not on the critical path. Combat is fun, usually, but suffers from the usually issues from all rpg shooter looters (or any looter game with rpg stats), of having enemies being bullet sponges. Plus, and I know this is odd, since this is a big selling point of the borderland games. But I find that it just has too many guns, and by that, i mean, there are too many trash guns and items. Am at the point (am still leveing up, so this isn't a max level thing) where i just auto trash anything that is below a purple quality. I don't even look at their stats. And I completely ignore any gray items (don't even pick them up to sell them). So yeah... there just too many pointless items, and it slows down the game, and makes it worse. The story in this one is alright, nothing too noteworthy. There a planet, it is kind of a prison planet since there a overlord there that won't let people leave. You go there... i forget why, probably looking for vaults to raid. Get stuck. Have to help out the local resistance. Do that, and eventually beat the overlord (time keeper) and yeah... there is a hint that there some kind of universe ending threat coming, but they don't go into detail on that. Feels a bit, DLC-bait. Beside that, most of the side quests are fine, though they often take way too long to do. And that is true for most of the quests (story and side), they just take a long time to do. Some of one off mechanics, which are nice. But 85% of the time, you are just going to an area, killing all the enemies in that area, then moving onto a new area, and repeating the process over and over and over for like 30-60 minutes for a quest. The big draw, and the main reason i am playing this game, and would conditional recommend it, is the multiplayer. The game is fun to play with friends. It is easy (well, usually) to join a friends game, game progress is shared, and it is an easier/funner time. The characters feel different enough so playing with someone else (who is another character) does make the game feel a little different. With all that said, there are still a few bugs in the system, the UI sometimes stops working, guns don't work, and disconnection happen now and then. And all of that does drag the game down a bit. But rejoining usually fixes it, and that is a quick proces, so it isn't too much of a hassle. Completed: The story, the vaults, and some side quest and collectiables. Level 39 out of 50, going to try to get to 50, assuming my friends keep playing the game (which they seem to be doing).
XSX, 2025, 2/3: An action turn based RPG, where you press buttons during attacks or defense to do more damage or take less damage. Made by a French Developer, this story takes place in a fantasy Paris setting, Lumeria (or something like that), which is an island, in a distrioted reality, and in this reality, there is the Paintress, whom paints a number, counting down, each year. And everyone of that age, gets taken, in a Thaos like snap thingy, but instead of dust, it is flower petals. Anywho, so the people in Lumeria, send out expeditions each year to try to stop her. They know that they probably won't do it, so they have the mentally that they are helping build the path for the next expedition. The expedition this year, 33 (so they started at 100, and it has been 67 years) are a group of 33 year olds, and one 16 year old (the little sister (adopted) to the main character). Their expedition meets disaster right away and they nearly all get wiped out. They go on an adventure, to get to the paintress, through a fantasy world that has little in common to earth, but no one seems to notice or care. Eventually, the big bad kills the main character, the team is sad, they meet another person out in the bizzare world who is from expedition 100, they travel with him for a while, learn that there are some friendly magically creatues in this world too. Eventually get the magically stuff needed to fight the paintress, defeat her, find out that she wasn't the bad guy, and in fact she was trying to save people, but her powers were weaking, so the numbers were her warning, in fact this whole reality isn't real, it is a painting, and the paintress, and her family in the real world have the power to create worlds from paintings. In that world, she had 3 kids, but one of them died, and the last world he made was this world, so the mother decided to live in this world, to feel close to her dead son, but the father wants her out, and to face her grief, so he has been waging war on her in this painted world, the youngest daughter gets involve, and stuck in the painted world, she is one of your characters. Anywho, after defeating the paintress, your group re-groups and then takes on the father, and the game ends with a choice. Either you side with the daughter, and let her live in this painted world so she can feel close to her lost brother, and also live without the scars she got in the real world, or you can side with the painted image of the brother, who wants to end his existiance, in order to force the painter family to live in reality and face their grief. But doing so, will kill off every character you meet (well, other than the painter family), and by that point, the player is close to them, or should be, since they do a lot of talking and such. Overall the story was good, the french vibes interesting, but the combat and gameplay were rough. It was a good first game by a studio, but it wasn't a great game, well, not as great as the reviews have it at. The timing for defense actions were too hard to do, well, for me. The main cast had great story elements, but everything else was vauge and shallow. Equipment upgrade and acquing was annoying, same with character abilities, since they were tied to items, and while you had the items, you had the power, but the game is design for you to switch out those ability items, so that you can learn new ones. And it is a hassle to change out an ability item, and then go back and equip the power (assuming you master it and unlock it). It is a minor thingy, but the game is full of small misteps like that. Overall, i would recommend this game to some people, but not all. Even with what it does well, it is a niche game for RPG fans who want some action rpg stuff, in a different setting, that is a linear experience.
PC, 9/4/2025, 2/3: A metroidvania with rogue like respawn mechanics, one that focuses on melee combat, platforming, and being difficult, to a soul-ish level of annoyance and lack of info. This game is a sequel (though it started out as DLC) that took about 7-8 years to make, from a small team. I don't want to call them indie, since their last game, hollow knight, was a big success, and they have a lot of money. And an indie studio is one that is more garage band-ish, than a band that has bought it own music studio. Going to start off with the negatives, since those are more fresh in my mind. Visual, the game has the same art style as the last game, and I found that kind of dull. Techinally the art looks sharp, and the characters are well drawn and animted, but, it kind of the same as the last game, which came out 8 years ago... so... yeah, not impressed by it. Audio wise, the game misses the mark by a bit. The lack of voice overs is a negative, and the music was forgettable. The quest design and overall traversal of the game was a bit annoying at times, by how much it felt like a chore. I get they want the game to be difficult, but wasting time trying to find out where to do a quest, and running back and forth across the same maps, over and over, isn't fun. Also, a lot of the upgrades or items you can unlock, just aren't that fun or useful. And the metroidvania sense of power progression feels off, due to the game wanting things to always be difficult. Lastly, the story of the game felt pretenous, a mix of it being hidden via hidden collectables, bizzare story elements that don't make sense, and really bad dialogue, made it all bad. After I beat the game, I went and watched some youtube videos in order to figure out if there was more to the game that i was missing. And there was, but it wasn't good. On the other hand, the game's combat design, and controls are very well done. Bosses feel like they had a lot of work done for them, and so do most enemies. That isn't to say that there aren't poorly design moments. There are a ton of combat rooms, and those aren't fun or interesting. The game has a lot of hidden features and interactions which are cool and interesting. You'll meet characters, or not, since a lot of it feels optionals (and I believe it is, but i couldn't really tell, and that is a sign of good design, i think). Have interactions, if you run into them enough, sometimes you unlock an extra encounter with them. Sometimes characters you meet die off later in the game, sometimes due to you actions. And yeah, the core gameplay just feel very well put together. With that all being said, it feels like a big draw for this game, and why so many people are hook on it, is its difficult... and well, am not that type of gamer. I don't feel my self worth increase by beating a 'hard' game. So a lot of the game's choices, in regard to difficulty, didn't land with me. In fact, I cheated through most of the game, in order to beat it. And without the difficult hook, i found a lot of things I thougjht the game did poorly (see above). In the end, I am of the opinion that the game has great gameplay, but is a medicore game overall. If this had been some random game, (like a true Indie title (one that had little to no hype/press)), I would have given up on it... or just cheated a lot more, to rush to the ending. But it wasn't, so I put the time and some effort into completing it, so that I would see what it was all about. Completed: The game (got the true ending), and about 83% in about 18 hours.
PC-Xbox, 10/15/2025, 2/3: A mix of break out (the old game where you bounce a ball against pieces of a wall, in order to break the wall. In this one, those pieces are enemy units that are marching down the screen, and if they get to the bottom, the player takes damage. Also some pieces have attacks or abilities, and there are boss enemies too), rogue lite elements (doing runs, different characters with different powers, different kind of balls with abilities (lighting damage to an area, or vampire to heal the player character as they do damage), also gaining exp for the chracter you use, finding blue prints for buildings, and discovering combos for items (some items can be fused together to make a new item)), and resource management/powerful system in a base building costume (you gather resources during a run, then use those resources to build buildings that give power ups, unlock characters, or generate more resources (when harvested during this phase). However, the base isn't really a focus, and you can only build, one time (at the start) after doing a run (later, you get a building that allows you to pay gold to do more build/harvest actions)). Graphically the game looks basic, and lacks a charming style. It isn't a bad look, just a bit, generic funko pop-ish. The audio isn't noteable, and I played most of the game with it off (so that i could listen to podcasts). The gameplay starts off as simple and fun. But eventually does feel a bit stale, and lacks a certain hook to make it feel good (never gets to the vampire survivor level of, this is straight forward, yet somehow complex and entertaining). The story isn't much, there a bit at the start explaining why you are here, and then, at the very end, there a cut scene showing that you win... i assume... there no dialogue or text. Completed: The game, took less than 15 hours, but that's cause I was cheating (to get all the resources, and for the later levels to power up my characters). I had fun with the game, but that's mainly cause i cheated, if i had to play this normally, I would have stop, after a couple of hours, like i did with cult of the lamb. Still, i can see other people enjoying this game for hours, but not keeping with it to the end. Overall, an okay game, that i think is getting oddly high scores (its like 87 on open critic, when it should be around 75, imo)
NSW, 2025, 2/3: A kart racer, that has a lot of content, which is good, but it best played with others. The single player part of it is fine, but nothing special. Playing with friends is great, but am not usually a mulitplayer person, since most of my friends, don't want to play the same games as me, at the times i want to play them. Visual the game looks great, it has great audio too. The choices of characters, and karts are decent, and the level design, with all their short cuts and themes are amazing. The lack of a single player, well, beyond being able to just play it single player, and a free roam mode, which is alright, is what drags it down for me. I"ll have fun with this game for a couple of weeks, but then probably never play it again. Outside of the random times it comes up during a hang out. If you like kart racers and mulitplayer, this is the game for you, if not, then it is will be fun for a little bit, but doesn't have long term content for single player
PC, 2/3: A 4x, tbs game where you manage an empire over the course of human history. There trade (which is decent), diplomacy (which is lacking), war (which works but is dull), research (just timers based on resources), and town building (the core and kind of fun). The changes this time for a Civ game is that the game is broken into 3 ages, and at the end of an age, you have to pick a new civilization to be, for the next one. All (except for your capital) cities downgrade back to towns (oh, settlers build towns now, and you have to pay them into becoming cities. Towns can't build, but gather resources and grow, cities can build structures.) trade routes vanish, lots of things are reset, and there a brief period of plagues that effect your settlements. Those are the big changes, but am sure there a bunch of small ones too. Anywho, the basic concepts of the game mechanics are interesting, but the designs are bad. For example, in the first age, i max out science, did all the science in game quests, but when it came for the second age, the choices i had for my new civilization, none of them had a science focus. Oh, also, most of them were also still locked too, which is just dumb (to lock civ options). In the end, there a lot wrong with the game, but it has a strong foundation, so it is something they could fix and balance. I had fun playing it, but am going to hold off on playing any more, until the expansions come out, and they redesign most of their stuff. Completed: One full game, won via science.