This was supposed to be the year of Grand Theft Auto 6. The long-awaited follow-up to GTA 5 was supposed to be released in fall 2025, about two years after the first GTA 6 trailer was revealed. But Rockstar Games delayed the game twice this year — first to May 26, 2026, then to November 19, 2026. In hindsight, however, it was good that GTA 6 was delayed to next year, because it allowed the spotlight to fall on the many, many great games of 2025.
Yes, 2025 was one of the best years in terms of quality of games released in recent memory. One look at The Game Awards 2025's Game of the Year nominees tells you the story. Some excellent games—Hazelight Studios' co-op adventure Split Fiction, Konami's survival horror title Silent Hill f, and Sucker Punch's action-adventure game Ghost of Yotei—didn't make the cut.
But, between Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, 2025 presented an exceptionally strong field of Game of the Year contenders. Here, however, we'll run down the best games we played in 2025. From surprise indie gems to expansive, ambitious RPGs, 2025 offered a broad range of memorable gaming experiences. This is a list of those games.
It's also worth noting that there will be a few absentees on this list. There were several acclaimed games this year that we didn't get a chance to play (or finish) — Expedition 33, Silent Hill f, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, Donkey Kong Bananza, and many more. Our list features our favourite games from the year that we did play. Here's the Gadgets 360 guide to the best games of 2025 across platforms (in alphabetical order):
Blue Prince was perhaps the most innovative and surprising games of 2025. Made by a solo developer, the indie puzzle title launched on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X on April 10, also sliding into PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass. If you were a member of those subscription services, you could play it for free — which seems too good to be true for a game as good as Blue Prince.
It is a puzzle adventure title that borrows from roguelike games but implements the genre's mechanic of multiple playthroughs in refreshing ways. In Blue Prince, players inherit a maze of a mansion from their deceased great uncle. The Mt. Holly Estate is a wonder — it has 45 rooms, all of which change and transform every day. The sprawling estate also hides a secret 46th room, which players must find within the span of a single day to uncover the mansion's secrets and cement their inheritance.
On paper, that might seem like a simple task. But every night, the mansion rearranges itself, changing its architecture and layout to present a different set of rooms for the player the next day. Exploring the mansion becomes an adventure, a walk through a maze that keeps shifting on a daily basis. Every day, you reset your progress and begin again in search of the 46th room. Each time you reach a door, you get a choice to draft a particular room among three randomly selected floor plans. And each room comes with its own layout, trinkets, puzzles, and properties.
And thus, Blue Prince becomes a Rubik's cube of a puzzle game, where you attempt to find an order in the constantly shifting chaos to reach the 46th room. It is encouraged that you sit with a pen and paper to take notes as you go on repeated runs through the mansion, slowly unspooling its architectural intestines. Blue Prince reminds you of the addictive, engaging qualities of gaming, where you cannot quit before one final run through the estate. Maybe, you'll open the door to a room you've never seen before.
From exploring mansions, to exploring continents, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the perfect sequel. It improves the gameplay of Death Stranding, expands its story and characters, sharpens its ideas, and deepens its themes. The first Death Stranding was divisive, but only because many expected an action-adventure mind-bender from Hideo Kojima, the legendary game director behind the Metal Gear Solid series. So, when they got a delivery game that doubled as a walking simulator, they were left frustrated.
But it's best to put expectations aside from a Hideo Kojima game and experience it for what it is. DS 1 would have benefited from that approach. And DS 2 certainly did. At its core, Death Stranding 2 is still a game about hauling cargo. But it's also about so much more. Kojima questions the very nature of connections in a fractured world.
Death Stranding 2 puts you on the vast continent of Australia and asks you to traverse across its diverse landscapes — deserts, forests, mountains, and plains — to connect scattered settlements in a nightmarish post-apocalypse. But within the nightmare, the game presents dreamlike stories. Kojima excels at creating captivating worlds, and DS 2 is no different. But here, he also manages to find genuine emotion, a heartfelt narrative thread that becomes the backbone of the game. And when you combine its evocative story with world-class visuals and a stirring soundtrack, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach becomes an experience like no other.
If this was a list about the best TV shows we've watched in 2025, Dispatch would probably still make the cut. This little interactive superhero workplace comedy is at once one of the best games of the year and one of the best TV shows of the year. Dispatch plays out like a season of an animated superhero show, where the player gets to choose the direction of the story. You get to decide the choices of the protagonist; you pick which characters to befriend and which to discard; and consequently, you tailor the ending of the story.
Aside from its branching, player-driven narrative, Dispatch shines in the presentation department. The game's gorgeous animation could put many actual animated shows to shame. Not only is it vibrant and colourful, but also has a life-like kinetic quality that breathes soul into its many characters, who are all performed and realised brilliantly.
It's also no surprise that Dispatch succeeds where many narrative-focussed adventure games falter. The game has been developed by AdHoc Studio, which was co-founded by former Telltale Games staffers. Telltale pioneered story-driven adventure games that prioritised player choice without sacrificing narrative impact.
While the focus is less on gameplay, Dispatch also manages to weave in a fun and engaging strategy mechanic where you play the role of a superhero dispatcher. It's a simple gameplay loop where you assign heroes to crimes and incidents based on their abilities. All of it— the story, the characters, the visuals, and the gameplay—come together to create a rare experience over eight episodes. Season 2 must be greenlit soon.
Doom is the big daddy of shooters. The series wrote the blueprint for FPS games over three decades ago and continues to set standards for the genre in 2025. Doom: The Dark Ages, the third entry in id Software's new trilogy of Doom games, sets a high bar, too. While there'd be many to point out that both Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal surpass The Dark Ages in gameplay ideas, but there would be few who would fault the newest entry in the series for a lack of innovation.
With the new Doom trilogy, id Software has changed the playbook for every release. Doom (2016) prioritised visceral gunplay that urged players to be aggressive. Doom Eternal brought a more tactical edge to its combat and focussed on faster movement. Doom: The Dark Ages, on the other hand, slowed things down. It is more grounded and weighty, essentially turning the Doom Slayer into a tank.
You still get an arsenal of demon killing weapons, but there's also a focus on crunchier close-range combat with the introduction of melee weapons and a versatile shield saw. And then, there's also a homage to bullet hell games. Battle arenas in Doom: The Dark Ages are a kaleidoscope of colour-coded bullets that you must dodge and parry to gain advantage over the horde of demons surrounding you.
But even when you're outnumbered, outgunned, and outpaced, you never feel outmatched. Doom: The Dark Ages preserves the power fantasy of being an unkillable killer, a cosmic avenger who slays demons for breakfast. And that makes the game one of the most fun, frenetic, and satisfying gaming experiences of the year.
There are few experiences in gaming as immersive and engaging as a deep RPG, where all the moving parts, systems, and mechanics are in the service of a cohesive vision. Where every small detail and every big bet feels like an instrument in an orchestra. No game this year did that better than Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. To be honest, few games have in a long time. KCD 2 is a rare miracle of a game that leaves no stone unturned in its relentless, obsessive attention to detail and commitment to its ideas.
The RPG immerses players into the life of a knight in the Middle Ages through a vast spectrum of big and small experiences. Whether you're taking part in an expansive castle siege or idly sharpening your sword at sunrise, KCD 2 creates an authentic sense of location that you will struggle to find in any other game.
Beyond its many granular details, the game's larger tapestry tells a compelling underdog story of Henry of Skalitz. A direct sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the game continues his journey fom a squire to a knight, from a nobody to somebody, in grand and ambitious ways. KCD 2 also doubles as a buddy comedy, a retelling of the adventures of Henry and his friend, Sir Hans Capon, through the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is also one of the most mechanically robust games of 2025. Medieval melee and ranged combat is realised with admirable, often frustrating authenticity, but so are ancillary gameplay features like brewing potions and working the forge. You can pour over a hundred hours in the game and still be surprised by its quests and storylines. This year has seen some stellar games, but KCD 2 stands out as a true, one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
Earlier this year, when my friend and I rolled credits on Split Fiction, Hazelight Studios' newest co-op adventure, both our jaws were on the floor. The studio has developed a reputation for making genre-blending split screen co-op adventure games. It Takes Two, which won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021, was seemingly the apex of what Hazelight could accomplish with co-op play.
Split Fiction makes It Takes Two look like a prototype. The game tells the story of Zoe and Mio, two writers who get stuck in the worlds of their creation, splitting levels across fantasy and sci-fi. Meant to be played by two players, Split Fiction takes you through one crazy level after another and culminates in a manner never seen in a split screen game. While there's a serviceable story built around the two likeable protagonists, the magic of Split Fiction lies in its audacious level design.
You're dodging laser beams and fighting giant mechanical contraptions in 2D space in one sci-fi stage before exploring an ancient kingdom while riding on dragons in the next. Just like It Takes Two, Split Fiction constantly reinvents itself, introducing new mechanics and abilities in each level. But here, Hazelight pushes the limits of imagination and the boundaries of game design when crafting the next new experience.
Josef Fares and Hazelight's commitment to games as a shared experience remains a rare approach in a medium chasing multiplayer trends. Split Fiction is proof that games are more fun when played with your friends. It also features an instant classic of an ending that challenges the nature of the split screen itself. In a mind-bending final flourish, the game delivers an all-time knockout last level, as if it were raising its arms and asking, “Are you not entertained?” Yes, we are!