The 2025 Moosies Video Game Awards Part 2.
by mooseymcman
The second half of MooseyMcMan's 2025 GOTY blog series on the site.
5. Cooperative Game of the Year: Elden Ring Nightreign.
What an odd premise for a game. Take the core game play, systems, and concepts from the sprawling epic Elden Ring, and condense them all into a co-op rogue-like-lite...while also being constrained by “The Circle” from Fortnite. In other words, while the whole area is open at the beginning, periodically “The Circle” shrinks, and anyone left outside it takes continuous damage. Of course where it closes onto changes from run to run, and it can be real annoying when the place you planned to go next is suddenly cut off by magical blue fire.
At this point it really shouldn't be surprising that a studio of the caliber of From Software managed to take such an odd premise and make it compelling, but I'm still surprised at just how much fun it really is. Again, a lot of it comes from the foundation that is Elden Ring. Weapons and spells that were fun there, still are here. Enemies that were fun to fight still are, and ones that were kind of annoying (giants that throw explosive pots as “enemy artillery”)... Well, I think the point is clear.
I think one of the key differences that makes this work (but wouldn't work in original Elden Ring) is the characters. Elden Ring let you customize your own character, and shape how they play through their stats and gear across its enormous adventure. A run in Nightreign, however, takes less than an hour, so rather than let players fiddle around with stats, there's a selection of pre-made characters, both in terms of how they play, and also their personalities for the snippets of storytelling.
My favorite is Duchess. Wearing a fancy outfit with an ornate mask and a dashing short cape, she certainly looks cool. She's a fast and nimble character who specializes in daggers (with unique attacks), but also is pretty good at spellcasting. Being good at both close and medium range is really useful, especially given how powerful some of the sorceries are. No, she doesn't have the highest Dexterity or Intelligence stats in the game, so technically the rogue samurai Executor has higher damage per hit with Dex weapons, and the witch Recluse surpasses everyone else with sorcery, but neither of them is good at doing both.
But really, the things that set her apart for me are her dodge, and one of her special abilities. Because she's so light on her feet, not only is her dodge really fast, but she gets two in a row, which makes her frankly better than everyone else at avoiding enemy hits. Or at least, I like her dodge the best, there's no accounting for personal taste, after all. Then there's her Restage ability. With the help of her magic stopwatch, she can redo any damage done to nearby enemies over the last few seconds. Not just from her, from teammates as well! Technically the damage is reduced, so it's not just a free damage doubler, but given how quick it is to use (it doesn't interrupt her movement or attacks), and how fast it recharges (fast!), there's no reason not to use it frequently.
Unless you're good enough at coordinating with your team that you save it for after a really big hit, or series of hits. The only thing better than knocking a boss down and getting that special critical hit animation...is having Duchess Restage it and lay on the damage even thicker!
Unfortunately Duchess' “Ultimate Art” is...not my favorite, but the rest of her is so good that if her Ultimate was on par, she'd probably be too strong. With a twirl of her cape, she cloaks herself and her teammates in invisibility, which...isn't as useful as it sounds. I'm not saying it's never useful, but the enemy AI isn't exactly consistent with it.
However, with the new additions from the DLC, Duchess' Ult feels a bit more useful when playing with Undertaker. A nun with a slightly off kilter, lanky frame and some odd proportions, she specializes in hammers, and has quickly become my second favorite character in Nightreign. Relevant to my point is Undertaker's Ult. In it, she pulls out what the game refers to as an, “Uncanny Bone,” flying forward and ramming it into the target, dealing a lot of damage, and often more importantly, staggering them. Sometimes even knocking bosses out of animations for big attacks! In addition to her Ult charging up like everyone else, she gets a free use of it when a teammate uses their Ult. So, suddenly, Duchess' Ult now means that if that player coordinates with the Undertaker's player, that invisibility is followed up with a free Uncanny Bone!
Obviously that's not unique to Duchess, I was just using her as an example. And since the game lets all three players use the same character at the same time, three Undertakers all comboing off each other's Ults... While I'm pretty sure the combo Ults aren't quite as powerful as the regular one, you could do up to nine Ults in short succession with three Undertakers. Ridiculous!
I also want to give a quick mention to my third favorite character, Raider. A rugged old viking wearing a helmet covered in horns, he's a big guy. Even bigger is the monolithic slab his Ult summons out of the ground. It buffs all the players, and he has a special skill that lets him slam into enemies and stagger them. Yes, I know, I have a type that I like in this game, between him and Undertaker!
The structure and pace of the game were really the most off-putting things compared to original Elden Ring, though. I keep saying how big that game was, but for anyone who hasn't played it, no, bigger than whatever you're imagining. Big, and it generally moved at a pretty slow pace. Or, at least it was designed in a way that people like me who like to stop and smell the roses could play in a leisurely way.
In Nightreign, however, that Circle keeps you moving! Especially early on, while you're still learning the ropes, it moves at such a blistering pace that it feels like there's no downtime at all. Gotta get to that church to upgrade the healing flask, gotta get over to that enemy camp and hope we all get weapons with the right element the Nightlord is weak to. Gotta fight enough bosses along the way to make sure we level enough, gotta hit all the Evergaols since we're using the Evergaol buff perk, get good stat buffs, etc.
What strategy you go for changes, at least to some extent, based on where things are on the map. Some things, like the main castle are always there, even if the enemies in it change between a few variants. Others, like those churches, vary from run to run. That's not even taking into account the Shifting Earth events, where a huge portion of the map is replaced with a different biome. Giant frozen mountain, volcanic rift, ancient city, rotten forest, they all bring something different to the table. And it's the sort of thing where when one happens, it's heavily encouraged to take the time to explore them, and get whatever special bonus is in them.
And the DLC's “Shifting Earth...” is a whole new map! It's tough! As of this writing, my friends and I still haven't really mastered how best to navigate it, or the strategies for how and when to do things. Those, however, are the sorts of things that are learned through practice, and more attempts, so hopefully that's what happens!
Nightreign in many ways feels like a lower budget, “re-use what we can to make some more money back” sort of game, but in ways that I appreciate. A game like Elden Ring, yes you can go down the Jack of all Trades route and dabble in many things, but more so encourages picking a path to build down. Focus on a small subset of things, and be really good at those. Meaning there was a whole world of stuff I never really used in that game, like incantations (holy magic), or blunt weapons (hammers), for example. Now yes, my favorite Duchess is fairly similar to the character I played in Elden Ring, but characters like Undertaker or the bow wielding Ironeye reward trying out different playstyles, and using gear I otherwise might never have. Plus the short-ish length of each expedition means it's not that big a loss, and you can get back to the characters you like quickly if you don't vibe with one in particular.
Anyway, point being, I've had a lot of fun with Nightreign. My friends and I did take a break from it for a few months after we finished all the base game Nightlords, and didn't really feel like banging our heads against the hardest of the harder variants, but we're back now with the DLC! No idea how long we'll stick with it, but hopefully at least long enough to beat the new bosses.
Either way, Nightreign is definitely one of my favorite games of the year. So good it made me start to rethink my immediate dismissal of From Software's next multiplayer focused title, Dusk Bloods... At least until I remembered that one is less co-op, and more competitive...and also that I don't have the Switch Online subscription. So...still probably won't play that. Oh well!
Elden Ring: Nightreign also wins:
Funniest way of reviving teammates of the year (hitting them).
Jar friend of the year.
Duchess of the year.
Undertaker of the year.
Raider of the year.
Witch of the year.
Birdman of the year.
Bowman of the year.
Summoner of the year.
Ring of the year.
Pita bread of the year.
Most inputs mapped to holding Triangle and then hitting other buttons/triggers of the year.
Goat of the year.
4. Most Joyful Game of the Year: Donkey Kong Bananza.
Would it be monkey business if I said I was bananas for this game? Went ape over it? Or it is a gibbon that I'd like a new DK game? I might be exaggerating a little, and I wouldn't want to orangu-tangle with anyone who would call me out on my chimpan-lazy wordplay. I might act a little silly, but I'm no baboon. Okay, that one's a stretch, so I should probably cut it with the puns. But, gorill-all's well that ends well, right?
Everything's a barrel of laughs around here, huh? Okay, I'm done now, I promise. There's not really even many barrels in this game, after all.
Out of all the games on my top ten this year, somehow Bananza became the one that I found the hardest to write about. Not because the game is lacking in any way, I wouldn't have it in the top five if I didn't really like it. More that there's something about how it's just a fun, playful game that I keep struggling to capture in words. I keep falling back on, “oh, the levels are so big, you can find your own way to get the bananas, etc.”
At one point, while thinking way too deeply about this game, I began to question what the concept of “play” even is, of course without finding anything resembling an answer. Then, however, I had an epiphany.
I'm writing about Donkey Kong. For a game of the year list. I'm thinking about this too much.
What is it that I like so much about this game? It's fun! It's silly! It's PLAYFUL. I love gorillas, and I can't think of any other game starring a gorilla that's as joyful as this one. He's so strong he can punch through solid rock! Even Pauline, the spunky kid sidekick is a fun character to have around, and makes the game better for her presence.
I need to stop and emphasize that out of all the 2025 games I played, this is the only one that within minutes put a real smile on my face. What can I say, sometimes all it takes is to nail that basic feel of a game, and that's something that at their best, Nintendo games really get better than just about everyone else out there. But it's not just how it feels to run and hop around, they made the destruction feel better than it has in just about any other game I've played. And DK doesn't even have many tools for doing it, just his fists! Well, and chunks of rock and other materials he pulls off stuff. That stuff feels great too!
Yes, there's more to it than the simple enjoyment of punching through mountains. There's the nostalgia factor, including mini-levels that look like Donkey Kong Country, or that one snippet of the DK Rap. Then there's the cleverness of the levels. Designed in such a way that every player feels like surely they were the only one who could have solved something the way they did, or gotten some banana in some specific way. When in reality probably many people did it similarly.
All that stuff adds up, contributes to what makes this game so delightful. At the end of the day, while it's noble that many games these days strive to be so much more, they don't need to. I'm not going to say it's easy to “simply” make a fun game, but that makes it all the more impressive that Bananza is as good as it is.
Is it the best game ever made? Nah. Is it my favorite DK game? Maybe, I'd have to replay Tropical Freeze, and even then, they're so different I think it'd be hard to directly compare them. But is it one of the most playful, fun games I played in 2025?
Absolutely.
Sometimes that's all a game needs to be. Fun.
Donkey Kong Bananza also wins:
Sidekick of the year: Pauline.
Funny title wordplay of the year.
Levelution of the year.
Destruction of the year.
High fives of the year.
Going bananas of the year.
Mining of the year.
Most punch buttons of the year.
Super Saiyan of the year.
Journey to the center of the earth of the year.
Bi pride dyed fur of the year.
Kong cameos of the year.
Diddy Kong Racing of the year.
Mondo Cool of the year.
Nonbinary rocks of the year.
The power of song of the year.
Disco of the year.
BIGGEST BURGER.
Surprise final boss of the year.
3. Expedition of the year: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
So much has been said about this game, it feels hard to try to find anything to add at this point. A game that combines JRPG inspired turn based combat with precise parry and counterattack timing. A game with incredibly French sensibilities that contrasts against an amazing cast of Capital E English actors (I'm sure the French cast is good too). A game that mashes so many different genres of music together into what I genuinely think is one of the best soundtracks of anything I've ever heard, not just video games. A game with a beautiful art style that blends the realism of its characters with the surrealism of its environments. And of course a game with both a very silly sense of humor and a heart-wrenching story.
It is French, after all.
This is one of those cases though, where I need to make sure I focus on how I feel about this game. More so than any other game, this one just kept coming up across the year. Talk about different tactics and builds, discussions about the endings (and boy do the feelings on those endings vary A LOT amongst my friends!), sharing our love of the soundtrack (Monoco's Theme!), laughing at Charlie Cox's bewilderment over people's love for his role in the game when for him it was just one day's work, and so on.
Then, of course it swept at The Game Awards, winning I think every award it was nominated for. Including Game of the Year. Bringing out obnoxious people on all sides, both those who think it's the greatest thing ever, and the haters who, well you can guess how they feel. Where do I land on that spectrum? Well, I didn't just make it Number 3 on my list because of the title...though it was partly because of that 33!
Expedition 33 is fantastic, and absolutely one of my favorite games of the year. One that I certainly could make the argument for it being the best of the year, but at the end of the day, it didn't quite make it for me personally. For as moved as I was by its story, by its characters, and by how much I love that combat, sometimes these tough decisions have to be made. Nothing is more serious than a gaymer's top ten list, after all.
I do think it probably has the best overall performances in its voice cast, out of the games this year. Jennifer English has already won multiple awards for best performance as Maelle, and you can add the Moosies to that list! Just as prestigious! In all seriousness, the anguish that she brings to this poor girl is beyond what I could ever convey in the written word, and she deserves every accolade she's gotten, and more.
And the rest of the cast were great too! Ben Starr (Verso), Kirsty Rider (Lune), Shala Nyx (Sciel), Rich Keeble (Monoco), Maxence Cazorla (Esquie (in both English AND French!)), Andy Serkis (Renoir), and yes, even Charlie Cox (Gustave). Even if he doesn't think he was in it enough to deserve the praise, he definitely does. They're all great, as are the others across the game who didn't have as big of roles to play as these did.
More than anything else though, what stuck with me about this game is how much of it is about the act of creation. It's about artists getting lost in their works, and said works coming alive unto themselves. Which is also why it was more than a little frustrating to learn, at some point after I finished the game that some “placeholder” Slop generated assets had made their way into the finished game, as fliers on a wall. They've since been patched out, but still...kind of feels like whoever included them in the first place was missing the actual point of the game's story, huh? I also can't help but question the logic of generating placeholders that can slip through to the finished work when in my mind, the idea of a placeholder is it should be very obviously not the final product!
Part of me wants to penalize the game for including them at all, for making me waste my time thinking about this nonsense, but also...the other part of me feels like a hypocrite. Complaining about this stuff when I spent so much time playing and loving this game, and I didn't even realize they were in there. Even if after the fact I realized I had seen them, just rationalized in my head that surely a game like this, so focused on artists and their creations, surely a game with such a strong art direction wouldn't include Slop... Right?
Then I kept playing and promptly forgot.
But that's not what I want to remember about the game, even if I am making sure I do. However, I am choosing to believe the devs when they say this was the extent of it, and no other generative nonsense was used in the production of their work.
What I want to remember is the cast of characters I came to love (and loathe, where appropriate), that story that I still feel conflicted about how it ends, but in a way that I appreciate because no other game made me feel that way this year. I want to remember the incredible combat, that (on hard) is actually challenging enough that I really had to master the parry timing for so many enemies. Had to stop and reexamine how my party was equipped, and how to best tackle so many fights. And even had to figure out a way to cheese the last phase of one of the optional end game bosses (Simon), by doing such a comically large amount of damage in one hit that I just skipped it entirely.
I can't forget to mention that incredible soundtrack by Lorien Testard (composer), Alice Duport-Percier (co-composer), and of course all the talented musicians who performed it. Someone, somewhere out there, is grooving to Monoco's Theme right now.
So, that's where I land on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. At its best, it's a phenomenal experience that really deserves the praise its gotten. Not a perfect game, and one that I am looking forward to the Discourse around it finally ending. So it can become something I look back fondly on, instead of having to see people arguing about online.
Mais, c'est la vie.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also wins:
Performance of the year: Jennifer English as Maelle.
Soundtrack of the year.
Year of the French French game of the year.
Turn based battling of the year.
Late title card of the year.
Parrying of the year.
Strangest enemy designs of the year.
Old school style overworld of the year.
Aurora Borealis localized entirely in the video game of the year.
Most imaginative environments of the year.
Weird little paintbrush guys of the year.
Evil mimes of the year.
Year of the Feet Feet of the year.
Baguette as fashion of the year.
Incoherent French-like babbling of the year.
Large poofy friend/strangest mount of the year: Esquie.
Barefoot Mage of the Year: Lune.
Young Fencer of the Year: Maelle.
Gambit (X-Men) of the year: Sciel.
Sexiest voice of the year: Verso.
Annihilation, 2018 of the year.
2. Search-Action Game of the Year: Hollow Knight Silksong.
I almost don't believe it actually released myself, and I've played it! After so many years, the follow up to Hollow Knight is finally out. But, how do you follow up a game like Hollow Knight? A game that was not only one of the best of the side scrolling search-action genre, but also one of the best games inspired by Dark Souls out there? One of the few games that truly understood what makes that type of storytelling and world building work, while also forging an identity of its own. What do you do for a sequel to something like that?
And, having played it, I think the answer was...do something different. Not radically different, it's still the same genre, and has a lot of the same ideas and concepts. You can even equip something to give Hornet the same (or basically the same) attacks as the character from the first game (I'm not sure if they had an actual name or not?).
But there is something different about the vibe in Silksong, something hard for me to exactly put my finger on. In terms of the game play, it's faster paced, more action oriented. Hornet herself is much more of a warrior than the cute little Buggy from the first game, and everything is ratcheted up in kind. There are so many boss fights in Silksong, and so many of them are absolutely brutal. This is not a game for the faint of heart, but it is absolutely a game for me.
Which, to an extent, was also something I struggled with for a lot of this game. Not the game itself (aside from some of those bosses), I mean trying to figure out how I felt about it. I was having a fantastic time, absolutely loving it, but there's always that need to compare it to the previous thing. Every time there's a sequel, or a prequel, or a spin-off, you always need to figure out how it fits into an arbitrary ranking for whatever franchise, or franchise of franchises if it's something like the connected universes that dominate modern media.
The thing tripping me up was that everyone I know kept saying they thought Silksong was better than Hollow Knight, and yet...it just wasn't hitting the same way for me. Nothing in Silksong felt like the Deepnest. Nothing in Silksong hit in the same way that finding that pit with the discarded, broken, and in some cases still alive (if you want to use that word) previous attempts at creating what eventually became the main character. Nothing was quite like finding that other, supernatural plain of existence or whatever it was in that game.
Until I realized I was looking at it wrong, trying too hard to compare it when clearly the people working on the game didn't think about it that way. They'd already done the Deepnest, done all this other stuff, so what was the point in doing it again, in a sequel? Instead, Silksong found its own avenues to delve deeper into the lore of this world. Spend more time on the Weavers, an ancient super advanced civilization with incredible abilities to match their technology, and the last of whom may or may not be the protagonist of the game...
Of course it'd probably be disingenuous if I didn't mention that when I write about Hollow Knight now, it's with my imperfect memory, and with years of nostalgia to make it seem even greater than it was in reality. Who knows, ask me in four or five years and perhaps Silksong will be in a similar place in my mind.
So, let's remove the first game, and just look at Silksong. This game is, judged entirely on its own merits, absolutely incredible. The art, the feel of moving, jumping, dashing, fighting, the layout of the world, all the hidden secrets, every little nook and cranny feeling bespoke, it's all amazing. It's the sort of game that feels so good in every little aspect that I can't ever get mad at it. Any time I mess up, whether it's platforming or fighting, I know it's my fault. And trust me, I mess up a lot.
This game is hard. No, hard. And I'm glad! In recent years, specifically in bigger budget games, I find that I have to play most on hard to actually engage with the mechanics, and get challenged to improve my own skills. And this isn't any sort of statement about my skills, because I feel like I've only gotten worse at competitive or versus games as I've gotten older. It's easy to say they make games easy to broaden their appeal, but so many smaller games have gone the opposite route. How many tough as nails rogue-like-lites are there? How many games like Silksong are there in that space?
Well, not many like it in terms of quality, but I'm fascinated by this split. Anyway, that's a discussion for another day.
One thing I really love about Silksong, out of many things, is the collection of characters. On top of liking that Hornet is herself a character who speaks, and converses with others, there's a lot of great bugs she meets along the way. Shakra, the cartographer warrior, whose songs echo across tunnels and lead you her way (important, because she sells you maps!). Valiant Knight Garmond, and his trusty steed Zaza, both brave fighters happy to help in a time of need. Silly little Sherma, whose song always brought a smile to my face. And many more, I can't list them all, so I'll just stick with those few, my favorites out of all of them.
I know I'm trying not to compare the two games, but if there was anything Silksong does better in my mind, it's the characters. Silksong made me really care about them, in ways I didn't fully understand until a particularly heartbreaking end to one of their story lines. Of course I'm not going to say who, or what, but it hit me so hard that I had to take a break from the game for a day before returning. I'm still sad just thinking about it...
I could go on and on about this game, but I should cut it short. Likely already said more than I should have. Much like its predecessor, Silksong is one best experienced for yourself. Both are absolutely amazing, incredible games, both some of the best of the best of the best in the genre. It took a lot of years of joking about when it would eventually release, but I'm glad Silksong more than lived up to all the hype. It is the sort of game that in many other years would have been an easy Game of the Year for me, but sadly it was up against, well, you'll see soon enough. If you haven't already figured it out.
Hollow Knight: Silksong also wins:
Castletroid of the year.
Bugs of the year.
Fluffiest collectibles of the year: Flea friends (who bark like dogs).
Gibberish of the year.
Singing bug friend of the year: Sherma.
Cartographer Warrior of the year: Shakra.
Valiant Knight and Trusty Steed of the year: Garmond and Zaza.
Bell summoned fast travel friend of the year.
Character you duel multiple times of the year: Lace.
Most bells.
Needle music of the year.
In universe thing you need to spend money on used to convey something about the world of the year.
Steam punk of the year.
Pneumatic fast travel of the year.
Grappling hook of the year.
Cloak of the year.
Stage performer boss of the year: Trobbio.
Bellhome of the year.
Super advanced ancient civilization of the year.
Super Jump of the year.
Flea Festival of the year.
2025 Moosies Olde Game of the Year: Silent Hill 2 (2024).
In my restless dreams, I see that game...Silent Hill 2.
This remake certainly had a tumultuous time before release! The original on PS2 is considered an all time classic, not just for survival horror games, but games in general, so the remake being made by the infamous Bloober Team did not exactly garner excitement. They are a studio that focuses on horror games, and while they've certainly sold well, I can't say many of them were held in particularly high regard. If anything, Bloober had become infamous for its storytelling, which ranged from mediocre to so bad I genuinely never want to play some of them (specifically The Medium).
Then people played the remake, and the game speaks for itself. I've never played the original, only watched a playthrough online, so I'm not one to really judge how accurate or faithful it is, or isn't. I only feel confident in saying how this version, this interpretation of Silent Hill 2 made me feel.
And I would say... This is the most effective horror game I've ever played. It left me haunted by both the game design and the narrative. This is a sad, depressing story about a broken man who did something truly, truly awful. It's a game about wandering through a lonely, foggy town, unsure what, if anything is real. Where people's traumas manifest as twisted and uncanny things, and the already dreamlike town of Silent Hill transforms into a true nightmare whenever things get really bad.
Translating a beloved game into the modern era, and retelling an even more beloved story to be both palatable for fans of the original (which it sounds like it is), and newcomers like me, that's about as tall an order as they come. Yet somehow, against all odds, Bloober pulled it off. I'm sure getting some of the original creators to oversee the remake helped a lot. Having Akira Yamaoka return to do the music is about as authentic as it gets! The same with Masahiro Ito to ensure the creatures were true to their original counterparts. I don't need to tell Silent Hill fans about how important the creature designs are to the series, and how they play into what it's doing, and saying.
I also, being a sicko, played this game on hard. Both puzzle difficulty (which can't be changed after starting the game!) and combat. I definitely recommend playing with the puzzles set to hard, the game has a lot of great head scratchers, but nothing that ever felt impossible to solve. At least along the main path, I'm sure there's secrets I missed. And for the combat, I did actually turn it back down to normal for a bit, but I put it back up to hard after I got a good handle on the game. It's hard! Especially since this isn't a game with any sort of real upgrades. You get a few weapons across the game, but this isn't Resident Evil. James doesn't get health upgrades, or body armor. He's just a guy. He can't parry or pull off a suplex like Leon S. Kennedy.
Is it better or worse than the original? Again, I'm not the person to ask about that. I will say, between playing this remake on my own, and watching a video series of two people talking over the original, I had a better time playing the remake on my own. I'm sure some of that is the modern sensibilities appeal more to me, because I like modern survival horror more than the older games. But I'd imagine not having people talking over it to distract was the bigger thing.
Either way, for those who aren't faint of heart, and like playing games on the edge of their seat, Silent Hill 2 is a must play.
Old Games Honorable Mentions:
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos: What if Ace Team (the makers of Xenoclash) made a Souls-like? And gave it a God of War (2018)-esque story, combined with a dice game before major fights? It's the sort of weird I wish I saw more of!
Crow Country: Speaking of survival horror, this game is the right mix of calling back to old survival horror, and cute art design, of all things. Good for a smaller (but not quite bite sized) spooky treat.
RoboCop: Rogue City: Yes, this game really is much better than it has any right to be! The combat is the right sort of over the top fun, and I appreciate the Yakuza style walk around do side quests portions of the game. And they don't overdo the Verhoeven-ish humor/satire, which is a relief. A little bit goes a long way.
Earth Defense Force 6: Somehow even more ridiculous and sillier than EDF 5. A great time as a co-op romp with friends. I hope you fight ghosts in EDF 7.
1. The 2025 Moosies Video Game of the Year: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
A decade ago, Kojima Productions released the 2015 Moosies Game of the Year: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. A game that at the time, I said would have been my favorite ever, if only the story hadn't been such a mess. Four years later, the new and independent Kojima Productions released Death Stranding, which like MGSV, I loved the game part of, but found the story to be lacking, even if it was for different reasons.
And now, six years after that, Death Stranding 2. A game that manages to expand upon what made the first so compelling, those lonely spaces between and the nebulous “Strand Type Game mechanics,” while making the combat and stealth fun, and the story not just engaging, but genuinely great. It's the ideal sequel, in every way I can think of.
I have, for as long as I can remember, been fascinated by the spaces between in video games. Those empty places with nothing to do, that exist either to connect the places that actually matter, or just to flesh out the world as a whole. So many video games are afraid to be quiet, to give the players space to breathe, and simply exist. Instead they poke and prod you along a path, or pester you into going to the next objective if you dawdle for too long. So I like when, as I've said it countless times before, I can stop and smell the roses.
Shadow of the Colossus, the Mako missions in Mass Effect, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, there's plenty of games out there that have these empty spaces, games that I deeply love for a variety of reasons. But none of them feel like the empty spaces are the point in the way the Death Stranding games do. Maybe Shadow of the Colossus, but that one always had a “somewhat unfinished” vibe to it that left me wondering how much of that empty world was an artistic choice, or the result of limited time and resources.
But in the world of Death Stranding, where society is ripped apart by an apocalypse that left the dead stranded in the land of the living, survivors isolated, forced into bunkers, or tightly secured cities if they're lucky, these spaces are so core to what makes it work. The goal is making connections, but they wouldn't need Sam to do all the heavy lifting if it weren't for those dang empty spaces! That feeling of isolation so key to these games just wouldn't be the same without these empty spaces.
That, and seeing the world around you change based on what you, and other players do is Death Stranding. I may be on this journey all on my own, but I don't feel all that alone when I come across another player's bridge right when I need to cross a river, a Timefall shelter to catch my breath during a storm, or find a discarded vehicle I can take for the last leg of my delivery. Or when we pool our re