the best games i played in 2025
2025, huh? Let's get into it.
#1 - Vintage Story
Last year, if you recall, I put forth my pasta theory of metroidvanias: that is, the lock-and-key structure of the genre is its carb, but it’s not the sauce. Similarly, the carb/structure of survivalcraft games is the tech tree, but their sauce is the minutiae of moment to moment tasks. And Vintage Story really knows how to cook a sauce. Take making an axe. In most games - your Minecrafts and Terrarias - the crafting is completely abstracted. You drag ingredients from one menu to another and out pops an axe. In Vintage Story, you have to get two pieces of flint, place one on the ground, and use the other to carve an axe head voxel by voxel, with one misplaced click ruining the whole thing and forcing you to start over. And this is the very bottom of the tech tree; as you ascend, each task requires a unique, involved ritual more elaborate and high risk than the one before. To make coal, for instance, you need to dig a big pit, fill it completely with wood, light it on fire, cover it within 30 seconds, and then wait a day. Getting to the next rung of the tree feels both monumental and precarious; you could spend a week making a pickaxe, only to lose it the next day dying to wolves.
All this to say Vintage Story lets its sauce simmer, and the flavor is rich for it. Like any meal, it’s best shared with friends; the pleasant tedium and peaks and valleys of safety and danger make a great frame for conversation, and with so many pressing tasks (winter is just around the corner, do you have enough food? warm clothing?) you’ll find yourself falling naturally into commune formation; one friend hunting, one foraging, a third watching over a pot at home, cooking meals to share on everyone’s return. In a saturated market that often misses the point, Vintage Story really gets what these games are about.
It’s also massive (in scope, ambition, literal size - basically every axis). I haven’t even touched on its beautiful art direction (eating Minecraft’s lunch tbh), or the bizarre, obtuse, horror-tinged mysteries its world hides. There’s literally too much to talk about, so I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader; grab three friends, split the four pack, and start exploring.
#2 - Silent Hill 3
What a game. Silent Hill 2 clocked in at #4 on my list in 2022, but it took me a while to circle around to the next installment, and wow, they cooked on this one. The biggest shift from its predecessors is its pacing; 1 & 2 plunge you into hell quickly, but 3 revels in the slowburn, ordinary environments slowly getting worse and worse. It’s more claustrophobic as well, and the effect is unnerving in a way the previous ones weren’t; the fear feels internal, more of a genuine descent into madness than a confrontation with external horrors. There’s an amazing bit near the beginning with sunlight and upbeat music; you’re even allowed to walk outside, briefly, before you’re forced back inside, and it feels revelatory; the ordinary world is glimpsed before slowly falling from reach. It’s a subtle and sophisticated iteration of the series, possibly my favorite to date.
#3 - Chulip
The hardest I’ve laughed at a game since The Mystery Hospital. Sweet on the surface, but has a mean streak that made me howl. The premise is you’re trying to kiss the girl of your dreams, but you need to build up experience by kissing everyone else in town first. The game even dedicates a button exclusively for kissing! Incredible stuff. But the real charm of the game is in the script and its execution; the combined snark and sincerity of the writing is complemented by an endless slew of little visual gags that make the whole thing a total delight.
To be fair, I didn’t play this one that much, and I suspect the Shenmue Jr. shtick gets aggravating quickly. But I’m totally content to evaluate a game on the joy a couple hours with it can bring, and as far as 2025 goes, Chulip remains uncontested on that front.
#4 - Mizzurna Falls
No two words give me more pleasure to write next to each other than "ambitious" and “flawed”, and Mizzurna Falls champions both adjectives hard. Twin Peaks (down to the shot) by way of as much of a real-time open-world as the PS1 can muster. Mizzurna Falls is heavy on the vibes even as the gameplay immediately deteriorates into rushing around town Crazy Taxi-style trying and failing to hit every event trigger. NO idea how you would ever beat this without a guide.
#5 - Barbuta (from UFO 50)
Just a good-ass game! I didn’t delve into the super-secret stuff lurking under the surface in this one, but even without that Barbuta so clearly understands what feels magic about games: mysteries, surprises, the “aha!” moments of connecting two seemingly unrelated things, a world that feels bigger than it really is.
#6 - Street Fighter 6
No genre has more emotions and personal hangups rolled into it than fighting games for me, so while Street Fighter 6 isn’t my favorite by any means, it’s meaningful for being the first one I've been able to enjoy casually. I didn’t grind out any BnBs, I didn’t watch a bunch of match footage, I didn’t hit up strong players for long sets, and most importantly, I didn’t get sucked into Twitter discourse. I just hopped in ranked and hit buttons and had a lot of fun doing so.
#7 - Cabernet
I’ll admit, I found this game a little cheesy… but what’s so wrong with that! Cabernet is pretty outside my ordinary wheelhouse; it’s a “choices matter”-style narrative RPG that’s mostly going around and talking to people, with some light stats and abilities as a gamey trellis to hang the dialogue onto. It’s pretty fun! I don’t watch TV, but I think this scratched the same itch TV does for a lot of people; an episodic story I could look forward to relaxing to on my nights off.
#8 - Environmental Station Alpha
A solid metroidvania! Fun movement, lots of secrets, tight scope. Really enjoyed this one.
#9 - Final Fantasy IV Namingway Edition
I’m generally not a JRPG guy, but once a year or so I dip my toes back in and y’know what? Final Fantasy is pretty all right.
#10 - Rimworld
That's all for this year! Tomorrow - the runner ups!