Showing 1-10 of 10 items
An expertly-crafted mystery and puzzle game with a run-based system that made each new "day" more exciting than the last. I played through this one with my wife: me driving and her taking notes, with both of us solving puzzles together. We spent so much time searching for the elusive Room 46, only to discover than finally uncovering it was only the beginning of our journey. Aside from being my game of the year on its own merits, Blue Prince was an island of solace in a generally awful 2025, with the game offering a fantastical escape when everything in the real world seemed to be falling apart.
The first Hades was my 2020 game of the year. The sequel was a slower burn to get to "holy shit this game is incredible" levels, but once it did, it eclipsed the original for me. I generally feel like I've outgrown twitchy action games; somehow though, the control and movement in Hades is so smooth and pleasurable to play that it never feels stressful or hectic. Hundreds of hours into the game, I still find myself loading it up and trying to beat my previous clear times with different weapon aspects. It's still Hades, just more and better.
An all-time great mystery game that easily hangs with genre-defining detective/deduction titles like Return of the Obra Dinn and Golden Idol. Reconstruct a family tree from vintage-style web searches while taking a copious number of notes. I'd already played and loved the original itch.io version, but this year's Steam release patches up the few rough spots, includes all-new hand-crafted artwork, and adds an entire second campaign to investigate, which may be even better than the original. If you haven't played it and love a good mystery, I can't recommend Roottrees enough.
I love a good management game, but I haven't been so enthralled with one since the early beta of Against the Storm. The other Two Point games were decent but didn't draw me in the way Museum does. Every new museum feels different, with unique mechanics that integrate smoothly with what you've previously learned. And the "Zooseum" DLC pushes it over the top, with an well-designed new system for wildlife exhibits and tons of new things to discover. I've already put in over 100 hours, and I never want to stop playing.
This one came out of nowhere, and there's not much to say about it that hasn't already been said. A beautiful setting and story, fleshed-out characters, an all-timer of a soundtrack, and top-notch voice acting set the background for some of the best modern JRPG-style gameplay ever made. The only reason this didn't rank higher for me is that I didn't love the real-time parry/dodge/attack QTE system, which I understand improved the experience for some people, but felt out-of-place for me. The capacity for getting one-shotted made me bump the difficulty down to Easy, which then made the game... too easy.
It's hands-down the best example of a survivors-like game ever made. The individual upgrade choices have more of an impact than in most games of this genre, and running around actually requires a bit of skill. You generally won't get stupid-overpowered with screen-clearing insta-kill powers, so you have to run, tunnel, and choose your paths carefully. Rock and stone, kids.
Um, placeholder since Blippo+ doesn't seem to be in the GB database?? I'll fix it later. Apparently I'm more into interactive(?) fiction than I thought? I'll admit that this game is mostly going to hit with a very limited demographic -- young GenX'ers and elder Millennials -- but for those who grew up with the early-90's cable TV aesthetic, this is like heroin. To be clear, there is literally no gameplay here. But... Five hours of alien television shows? Yes, please. Even the shows that weren't my favorites never outlived their welcome by virtue of only being a minute long. I'd love another one of these.
Fuck, do I love me some mystery games. Rise takes everything great about the original Golden Idol game and refines it. I don't think the particular mysteries are any better or worse than the first game (opinions vary), but it does reach the same level, and that makes any Game of the Year list for me.
This game delivers in a way that the Telltale games never did for me. The production values are top-notch, the voice acting is stellar (give Jeffrey Wright all the awards), and the story is great, with just enough twists. While the "your choices matter" style is nothing new, there are a few important branching storylines that significantly change the outcome. And I haven't even mentioned the gameplay: the actual dispatching minigame is fun, challenging, and doesn't serve as a roadblock for the story.
A Golden Idol-like investigation game with a spooky setting and engaging story. While I enjoyed the experience enough for it to squeak into my top-10 list, the game had a few rough edges that prevented it from being an all-time classic in the genre. I look forward to the next thing this developer does.
