Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Games I Finished in 2025

It seems the consensus by a landslide for the 2025 game of the year is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Not for me, though; I don't care for the JRPG combat and exploration style. I don't quite know what I would nominate as the game of the year myself. Atomfall and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers were fun and I actually played them. Of the ones I didn't, AI Limit is the highest on my wishlist. It's an anime-looking soulslike but it's not by a Japanese studio, so it gets a pass.

The PC release of the 2024 title Stellar Blade, I have even higher on the list. Because it released on Steam this year, it was eligible for the Steam Awards. It didn't get enough nominations to make it to the finals, however, even though I think the game sold really well, being on Steam's Gold tier by revenue this year.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon was a promising smaller budget 2025 surprise. I actually won the game from a giveaway but it went to the end of my backlog and thus I didn't get to play it this year. That was probably for the best, too, as the game needed -- and maybe still does -- a lot of patching. It even got an expansion recently so the game will probably continue straggling on the backlog even after it turn comes.

Games I was looking forward to a year ago, and which I didn't get to play yet, include The Outer Worlds 2. It seemed like an improvement from the first game but, like Avowed, didn't seem to make much of an impression on people. DOOM: The Dark Ages and Hell is Us appeared entertaining enough. Steel Seed was received well by the few who bought it on Steam. Assassin's Creed Shadows I didn't follow too closely. Its Attack on Titan crossover addition was absolutely gnarly, though. At least it was in the game only temporarily.

Hades II got released as the first ever sequel title by Supergiant Games. It maybe didn't make as much of an impression for being a second title but it does look like an even better Hades. And finally, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 ended up as pretty much what you expect when you put a studio known for walking simulators to make an (action) RPG -- not very good.

Achievements of the year

+20 perfect games and +2% from last year
My rarest achievement showcase on Steam got new faces with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III and Outward squeezing in; Torment: Tides of Numenera still sitting there with its two ≤0.4% achievements.

I managed to 100% three games I thought I might never get to due to dead multiplayer: Aliens vs Predator (2010), Tomb Raider (2013), and Doom (2016). The first two required special community effort but Doom just randomly had enough players. I also 100%'d The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut. The game has no DRM on Steam so I could just have the game open on my laptop too with another character to carry through the game for its co-op achievements. And then there was of course Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and its permadeath challenges.

The games beaten this year

Great -- top tier fun; worthy of replays

None

Fine -- interesting or exciting enough for one thorough playthrough

Atomfall [post] Played on: Game Pass
Post-apocalyptic first person survival action shooter in alternate 1950's Lake District, England. Tickles my immersive sim enjoyer brain. Skill system rather unexciting and gameplay a bit too crusty. Probably have to revisit this one in the future, though, because it got two story expansions.

Ghostrunner 2 [post] Epic
First person action platformer. The sequel to the premier cyberpunk blade runner. Like its predecessor, fun even if sweaty.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands [post] Steam
First person looter shooter. Borderlands with a fantasy twist. Plays much like Borderlands 3 but with less of an endgame. Writing better but wouldn't call it good.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers [post] Game Pass
Third person fantasy soulslike action roleplaying game. A very competent debut from Leenzee. Try not to stick to only one weapon type through the whole game.

Mediocre -- generally entertaining but has something that hampers the overall experience; average

Assassin's Creed Mirage [post] Connect (via Game Pass)
Third person stealth action-adventure game. Basim's prequel story to AC Valhalla. A homage to the first Assassin's Creed and works well in that regard. Otherwise not that exciting.

Avowed [post] Game Pass
First/third person fantasy ARPG in the Pillars of Eternity universe. Typical lukewarm Obsidian title. Plays fine but just isn't great.

Drakensang [post] GOG
Top-down party-based fantasy RPG utilizing The Dark Eye tabletop IP. Combat requires too much manual control.

Drakensang: The River of Time [post] Steam
Top-down party-based fantasy RPG. A prequel to the one above. More condensed but largely the same experience.

En Garde! [post] Steam
Third person swashbuckler action game. Turned out to be a bit too comedic yet kind of sweaty gameplay-wise when being a completionist. Redeemed by the fun arena mode.

Hogwarts Legacy [post] Game Pass
Third person ARPG in the Wizarding World. A pretty standard open world adventure. Isn't particularly focused on the school experience, although the castle itself is realized on a large scale.

Sands of Aura [post] Epic
Top-down soulslike ARPG. Challenging game with a restricted camera and difficult runbacks. Cool ability and item design.

Scars Above [post] Steam
Third person scifi action-adventure shooter. Uninspired yet functional adventure.

Steelrising [post] Steam
Third person soulslike ARPG in an alternate French Revolution. Something makes moment-to-moment gameplay feel jerky.

The Entropy Centre [post] Steam
First person puzzle platfomer on the Moon. Reasonably entertaining entry for the genre. Involves rewinding objects back in time.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition [post] Epic
FPS RPG. Pretty much the same as the original edition with level cap removed. The DLCs continue the base game experience.

Thymesia [post] Steam
Third person soulslike ARPG. Low production values but reasonably good time.

Bad  -- games I would have been better off without playing; not a good time

Batora: Lost Haven [post] Steam
Top-down isekai hack and slash game. Horrible writing and gameplay mechanics undercooked.

Dolmen [post] Steam
Third person scifi soulslike ARPG. Uninspired and scuffed all around.

Eternal Strands [post] Game Pass
Third person action-adventure game. Downing the first couple of Ark bosses were of the greatest gaming moments of the year. Otherwise the game was a repetitive chore.

Everreach: Project Eden [post] Steam
Third person scifi shooter. The very definition of 'we have Mass Effect at home'.

Industria [post] Epic
First person shooter. A simple-ass tech demo. This belongs to the never-featured fifth tier of games to never bother with.

Lichdom: Battlemage [post] GOG
First person spell looter shooter. Awkward loot/spell system. Has Troy Baker and Jennifer Hale as the main characters' voices.

Lust from Beyond [post] Steam
First person survival horror game. Not particularly horrifying nor arousing. Most of its intrigue comes from the many story points the series now has.

Necromunda: Hired Gun [post] Steam
First person Wh40k-spinoff looter shooter. Terrible level design and murky visuals. Gameplay is fast and fun to a degree.

Outward [post] Steam
Third person fantasy ARPG. Requires quite a bit of modding to make it less punishing and a time-waster. I hope the second game will be smoother but the devs seem to insist on their vision.

Routine [post] Game Pass
First person survival horror game on the Moon. Simple and straightforward. Quite photorealistic visuals.

Strayed Lights [post] Steam
Third person action-adventure game. Pretty but simple.

The Wheel of Time [post] GOG
First person spell shooter from an age long past. Cool IP but otherwise not a great experience in the current year.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III [post] Steam
Real-time strategy game. The worst entry in the series. I wish I had never touched it during a free weekend.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood [post] Steam
Third person stealth action game. This one was too much for Cyanide to handle, me thinks. A banal experience.

Upcoming games with a more or less vague 2026 release date (listed on Steam) include:


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