Top 5 of 2025
As seems to be the case a lot over the last few years, I only have about 5 games from this year that I actually rated 5/5, so this makes it pretty easy to do a top 5 article. The only other one that got full marks that isn't on here is Necesse.
They're all games from the later part of this year, but I've also spent most of the year playing a combination of Factorio: Space Age, Enshrouded, and Satisfactory.
Hades II
Hades II is very similar to the first game, but just more and better in every way. If you loved Hades, you've come to the right place for more. The gameplay is similarly varied but with more skills and plenty of synergy between them.The voice acting and artwork is still top tier, and the controls are excellent. Also works perfectly on the Steam Deck - although I prefer to play on PC just because the screen is bigger.
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Dispatch
Dispatch, in my opinion, is more like an interactive cartoon than much of a game - but it's an excellent cartoon. It takes place across 8 episodes (all available now), and each episode of just under an hour is a combination of interactive cartoon and hero dispatching gameplay where you send heroes to emergency calls. It's produced by Critical Role with many of them voice acting, and the animation and story is top notch. So good in fact, that it makes up for the mediocre gameplay which I'm not really a fan of.
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Hollow Knight: Silksong
I have definitely not played enough of this to review it properly, but I need it get it out there for it to be included in my games of the year list for 2025 and I know enough that it's definitely in there. After years and YEARS of waiting, Silksong is finally out and naturally, sold over 6 million copies in 2 months. It's beautiful, responsive, tough as nails, and pretty much everything I expected it to be.
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Abiotic Factor
I describe Abiotic Factor as "Half Life 1, survival mode". Visually it looks incredibly similar, there are references to it all over the place, and it's set in a similar kind of location (a secret underground bunker full of alien artifacts). It's functionally a survival crafting base building game where you go and scavenge materials, create workstations, fill your meters and survive - in an office full of escaped scary things. It had a very successful active early access period, and has a good looking roadmap for post-launch too. Looking forward to playing more of it.
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PowerWash Simulator 2
PWS2 is pretty much exactly the same as the first game, which is fine. It runs great, there's a whole bunch of new maps, and it's just as relaxing as it was before. Put on a movie (or a work Zoom meeting) and wash away. It's a shame they didn't really find any ways to innovate, but I can't really think of what would have been better either.
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