Games

What if world-building was the gameplay?

Why

• Your favourite part of games is learning about their world
• If 'intriguing' is a more attractive description than 'fun'
• You want something chill & different

Why Not

• Definitely slower paced
• If you care about literally anything other than learning about the world, there's not much here for you

Impressions

I briefly wanted to be a marine biologist when I was a kid, mostly because I thought dolphins were cool (they are) and I liked the idea of being away from my family for months at a time...

Beauty is only skin deep

Why

• Stunning 2.5D with plenty of care put into (most) environments
• Combat is pretty fun, if not particularly challenging
• Packed with personality/pop culture references

Why Not

• Story is laughably incoherent, plays out like bad fanfic
• Lots of dialogue, lots of it awkward (in English)

Impressions

"Frustration". If I had to choose one word to describe ANNO: Mutationem, that'd be the one. ANNO gracefully delivers a stunningly rendered cyberpunk world packed with cool character designs and fluid combat, then falls flat on its face the second it opens its mouth.

...

Drunk yes, Batman no

Why

• A great hook that I'd love to see as a full game
• Strong characterisation over a short runtime
• Thematic artstyle
• Style system incentivizes finding more creative/optimal solutions

Why Not

• Can be very, very short
• Not much to do if you just get to the end as fast as possible

Impressions

Man what a strange experience. This game has two characters and can take as little as 20 minutes to complete, but it does a lot with that time. Both Hank and The Unraveler pack a lot of personality into...

Beautiful but flawed

Why

• Stunningly detailed pixel art
• Hints of background lore are tantalizing
• Bosses make you think rather than git gud

Why Not

• The gameplay just isn't fun
• Never really felt challenged, I was just progressing
• Some unnecessary friction

Impressions

There's plenty of evidence Owlboy took even longer than Silksong to make. The absurdly detailed pixel art, clever enemy interactions with the environment and intruiging world building show the incredible care the devs obviously put into it over 9 years. Unfortunately the tiresome gameplay, unnecessary friction and inconsistent plot are likely also...

Unfinished, but doesn't need to be

Why

• Unique art direction looks amazing
• Bosses especially have cool designs, and some have interesting mechanics
• Cool lil' easter eggs to find in each level

Why Not

• Enemy placement is a bit Dark-Souls-2-like at times

Impressions

I took one look at the screenshots and knew I was playing this one, the sketched aesthetic of the bosses really appeals to me. The rest of the game's art didn't disappoint either; the small cast of enemies each have interesting designs and the background art matches the overall aesthetic while providing...

A Major swanSong

Why

• Feels like an alternate version of the main game
• Major Song is a badass in her own, completely different way
• Arguably more complex & difficult than the base game

Why Not

• Lacks the strong story which made the main game so special
• Set in a factory, so no stunningly detailed backgrounds to admire

Impressions

I was fortunate enough to play Sanabi after the DLC released, so I got to go straight from getting my ass kicked by Major Song to kicking ass as her. It's pretty shocking how differently...

Cyberpunk revenge Spiderman

Why

• Stunningly detailed pixel art
• Unique movement mechanics feel amazing
• Excellent pacing between gameplay and story
• The story actually rivals the gameplay for best part

Why Not

• There's definitely an initial adjustment period to the movement
• This is a cyberpunk setting, it's pretty dark

Impressions

I came into this expecting a fun action platformer, and for the first ~6 hours that's exactly what I got, with a bonus serving of amazingly detailed pixel art. The core mechanic of grappling feels amazing once you get used to it, thought that took me...

Let the dice fall where they may

Why

• Well written characters with cool designs
• An interesting story with consistent themes
• Peaks and valleys of pressure make progress feel earned
• Role-playing elements are pretty strong

Why Not

• Themes are arguably a little too consistent if you zoom out a bit
• Success snowballs, you can be kinda OP by the start of the DLC
• Some DLC dialogue doesn't seem to change based on your choices

Impressions

Citizen Sleeper starts off as a pressure cooker. You wake up on a space station called 'The Eye' as a...

Feel the power of a petty bureaucrat

Why

• Makes inspecting paperwork somewhat interesting
• Plenty of fun little interactions to discover
• Tells some interesting stories (Jorji!)

Why Not

• Pretty hard to not lose quickly on Steam Deck/a trackpad without Easy Mode
• Difficult to play for long stretches

Impressions

Papers please is definitely an interesting game; if not a fun one. But I suspect that's by design. Every part of the game from the music to the washed out color palette, tedious document checking and arbitrary rules handed down from on high conspires to make you...

I've never had so much fun clicking sentences

Why

• Innovative (at least to me) detective gameplay
• Genuinely interesting mystery, delivered (almost) entirely through transcripts
• Surprisingly intuitive, no tutorial and it's not needed

Why Not

• You'll spend a lot of time staring at transcripts
• Only one mystery, I could definitely play a whole game of this

Impressions

I won't spoil the mystery, but essentially you're a traumatized old detective trying to pull together the details of her only unsolved case from the shattered pieces of her memory. There's a bit of dialogue at the start...

John Wick in watercolor

Why

• Every frame is a beautiful painting
• An emotional story supported by a stellar soundtrack
• A lot more 'gameplay' than Gris
• Movement and combat feel satisfying

Why Not

• You somehow hate the art style?

Impressions

This is the second game from Nomada Studio, the team behind Gris, another absolutely beautiful game telling an emotional story in watercolor. I really cannot overemphasize how beautiful this game is, the screenshots are impressive but still don't do justice to how it feels to play. If you were picky you could call Gris a...

Why

Why Not

Impressions

The best games I played in 2025, many of which were not released this year.

Honourable Mentions

Slay the Spire, which I put more hours into than Silksong (!?) this year, despite already having hundreds of hours in the Switch version.

Shady Part of Me for baiting me into playing a puzzle game with French voice acting and a cool art style.

Florence for getting me into short indie games with gameplay designed to elicit a specific feeling.

The List

10. Paradise Killer

For the PS1 era vaporwave vibes and charmingly sinister setting.

9. Inscryption

For breaking...

Somehow lives up to its tagline

Why

• Hades was a GOTY contender and this is a noticeable improvement
• Lovable cast of new characters plus some returning favourites
• Melinoe feels very different to Zagreus while keeping the same gameplay concept
• Amazing art, story and soundtrack
• Supergiant is great at making a roguelike that feels like it isn't
• Spectacularly well-handled difficulty curve

Why not

• The sheer amount of great content could be overwhelming in the early midgame

Impressions

Similar to Silksong, this is a godlike sequel. If you liked or were interested in the first...

Team Cherry does it again

Why

• The level of polish explains it taking 7 years
• Crests provide genuinely different playstyles and are all viable
• Every boss was at least memorable, and at least 5 are truly amazing
• Just moving around feels so good once you get a few abilities
• Hornet having a personality & dialogue adds a lot of character
• The sheer amount of content is ridiculous, it took me as long to finish as base Elden Ring
• Somehow, very very little of that content could be considered filler

Why Not

• People saying it's hard...

Florence but sadder

Why

• Nice artsyle/sound design
• Gameplay/story combine to really make you wonder what's going on
• Exactly as long as it needs to be

Why Not

• You don't like these kinds of narrative-heavy games

Impressions

and Roger is another game in the style of Florence, which got me into the genre, though it's definitely a lot darker. I won't spoil too much about the story, but where Florence mostly combined its beautiful art and music to elicit emotional responses, and Roger adds gameplay to the mix in a much bigger way. The...

Too wholesome for me

Why

• Pixel art conveys the differences in worlds well
• Nice music
• Background mystery seems like it would be interesting

Why Not

• 'Puzzles' are basic/tedious
• Story hasn't done much to pull me in after ~4 hours
• Moral of the story seems... obvious?

Impressions

Rakuen definitely has some strong points, but I think it's just not for me. You play as a (probably terminally ill) kid in a hospital, whose family conveniently happens to own a magical book granting access to a parallel world with a wish granting deity (the Morizora). Less...

Choose-your-own-adventure Suicide Squad

Why

• Fantastic characters
• Nice animation & music
• Gameplay is actually pretty fun
• Story has some twists but a hopeful tone

Why Not

• You're a child/going to play in front of one
• If you only care about gameplay it's might not be for you

Impressions

Robert (Aaron Paul) is just a dude. Albeit a dude who's a renowned hero with a giant flying mech suit. Until his pursuit of revenge lands him without the suit or its macguffin power source, but with responsibility of dispatching his team of "reformed" villains to resolve...

Girlfailure makes friends

Why

• Focused, intriguing plot
• Small cast of characters you'll get very familiar with
• Visuals and music add a lot to the atmosphere
• Lots of personality jammed into the limited character illustrations

Why Not

• Essentially 'just' a book with pictures and music
• No choices if that's something you need in a Visual Novel

Impressions

Our POV character is Asya, a Russian high school girl with many friends who like to play pranks on her and a very strong grip on reality. One day a girl (sometimes) in her class is nice to...

I could hardly bear the despair

Why

• Wacky cast of characters you might actually end up attached to
• Ensures you have enough knowledge to solve mysteries while letting you make the connections
• Interesting minigames to make points during the class trials

Why Not

• Dialogue is often painful/repetitive
• Some of the mysteries are ridiculously convoluted/probably don't stand up to scrutiny
• Sometimes leans too hard on shock value/anime tropes

Impressions

Danganronpa has a lot of problems. The dialogue is generally so poorly written I skim-read 80% after the first chapter, it leans on shock value/edginess a...

2spooky4me

Why

• Seemed to have some creative mechanics
• Cool vibes, I definitely felt scared

Why Not

• Difficult (for me) to overlook the "checklist of stuff" gameplay
• You don't like horror

Impressions

Saw this on special for ~300yen and thought I'd give it a try to see if I'd like spooky horror games. Unfortunately it seems I don't; I definitely felt the tension and appreciated some cool ideas but overall it just wasn't an enjoyable experience.

Starting with the positives, there are some cool visuals here and it definitely nailed the spooky vibe for me....

We're all just flowers in a garden of her making

Why

• Book-quality story which wouldn't work in a book
• Every single character makes you feel something
• Respects your intelligence by giving you the opportunity to piece things together
• Always changes things up just in time to prevent getting stale

Why Not

• You absolutely need action in your games

Impressions

If you like story-driven games, or just good stories at all, stop reading and go play this. What a crazy journey, setting and incredible cast of lovable/hateable characters.

You're Watcher, one of many clones of...

Doesn't just jump the shark; plays hopscotch with it

Why

• Absurdly over the top, but can still get you invested in characters
• You never know what you're gonna get when you start a side quest
• Entertaining JRPG combat with depth and real-time elements
• Ichiban is strong candidate for my number one protagonist

Why Not

• Gets a bit grindier toward the end after mostly avoiding it well
• Some late game bosses are absolute tanks even if you're levelled appropriately

Impressions

Trying to predict where Like a Dragon will go next is an exercise in futility....

The most beautiful thing to make me want to throw my Steam Deck across the room

Why

• Distinctive art-style
• Nice music
• Some interesting puzzles/really beautiful areas

Why Not

• Platforming can be painful at times

Impressions

A beautiful little puzzle game aiming for a cozy, relaxing experience that lets itself down a bit with rage-inducing platforming.

You're a little girl minding her own business when a scary looking bug dude called the Oscuro comes along and steals the light that seems to make everything in this universe function. Since you and the bug are the...

Starting a new game taken literally

Why

• Just do it
• So much creativity
• More than it seems
• Even if it was only what it seems, would still be a good game

Why Not

• The idea of battling with card-shaped objects is abhorrent to you

Impressions

Yeah just go play this one. If it looks even slightly interesting to you from the store page, or honestly even if it doesn't, don't spoil yourself by reading reviews. Trust me bro and go buy it.

If you're not willing to blindly spend ~$20 on the word of...

High concept scribbles

Why

• Genuinely unique art style that somehow works
• Combat is pretty engaging/complex
• If you enjoy having absolutely no idea what's going on

Why Not

• You don't like the art-style
• You hate having to do multiple (short) playthroughs for all the content

Impressions

I bought this a while ago after being drawn in by the raw, sketchy art-style then forgot about it for a while. I had some reservations about how good the actual gameply would be since enemies being collections of abstract art doesn't really lend itself to visual clarity, but...

Everything sounds cooler en français

Why

• Creative and sometimes challenging puzzles
• Distinctive art-style and beautiful soundtrack
• Creepy vibes and story
• Easy to pick up & put down for quick sessions

Why Not

• Essentially a puzzle game, so if you dislike those it might not be for you

Impressions

It's crazy to me that this only has ~650 reviews at the time of writing, it's an absolute gem. The art style and music really drew me into the vague story, which is slowly revealed by conversations between a little girl, her shadow and a mysterious...

What if INSIDE was a noir movie?

Why

• Very atmospheric & cinematic
• <2 hours to finish

Why Not

• You're playing on Steam Deck & don't like slideshows
• <2 hours to finish
• Missing the tension/sense of danger from INSIDE

Impressions

This is my first INSIDE-like after enjoying that game and its predecessor LIMBO quite a lot earlier this year. You're a helpless little raven girl in a big scary noir-style world which hates birds, only able to walk, jump and climb ladders.

While INSIDE puts the pressure on right out of the gate by having...

Mobile games are... good?

Why

• Absolutely mindbending
• Beautifully crafted levels
• An chill soundtrack with a lot of attention given to sound effects

Why Not

• You only like games with action or conflict

Impressions

The Monument Valley series is 3 chill, beautifully designed puzzle games about (sometimes) lone wanderer traversing the ruins of an ancient civilization who played fast & loose with geometry. I played the original on one of my first smartphones and loved it, so when I saw the first two 90% off on Steam I jumped at the chance to relive my...

Interesting ideas don't stop it becoming a victim of 'Not Slay the Spire' syndrome

Why

• You want a bit of story in your roguelite, but not too much
• You like the idea of being able to fight or negotiate, and have different decks for each
• Or cards levelling up with use

Why Not

• For a game focused more on story the characters are pretty one-note
• I feel like sticking to a single deck might've allowed for more intersting/creative archetypes

Impressions

I got this for negative money in a bundle with Shogun Showdown so...

Killing god(s) with the power of teenage angst

Why

• Everything about it is slick, stylish and choreographed
• You will get deeply attached to at least a few of the characters, probably most
• It never feels stale over a 100+ hour runtime
• Has a low complexity floor, but Excel spreadsheets worth of ceiling
• Finishing it made me genuinely sad to say goodbye to a bunch of pixels

Why Not

• You despise anime, JRPGs or long stretches of dialogue

Impressions

There are so many great things about P5R, but its flair is likely the one that'll...

A genuinely unique 'card' battler

Why

• Deep gameplay and plenty of replayability
• Makes some big changes to the card battler format that pay off
• Cool pixel art and varied scenarios

Why Not

• You want a game with a clearly defined/visible endpoint
• You're heavily motivated by story

Impressions

This is a great game which clearly lives up to its overwhelmingly positive reviews, but after ~3 hours I'm dropping it.

It's not the game; it's me. The gameplay is great; moving from the typical many cards/few upgrades to few cards/many upgrades (and cooldowns on cards rather...

Maybe not a good sequel, but a great game.

Why

• You want a different but familiar take on Dark Souls
• You enjoy being thrown into ridiculous situations and fighting your way through
• You like power-stancing to the same unhealthy degree as one of my coworkers

Why Not

• The only reason you liked Dark Souls was the interconnectedness of the world

Impressions

This one didn't pull me in to the same degree as the original; I took two long breaks to play other games (Ender Lillies/Magnolia, then Persona 5) and I think that's the biggest...

Since I'm doing something unusual by playing a game on release, I decided to compound the bizarreness and use a journal-like format for this review.

I've grouped my thoughts by area, in the order I encountered them, which might not necessarily be the order you encounter them in. If you need to get pastan area you haven't seen without spoilers to see one you have, clicking the table of contents on the right should jump you to the area you want without revealing anything above it. It might reveal stuff below it depending on screen-size/paragraph-length though, so probably don't do...

An unexceptional story, exceptionally told.

Why

• Beautiful art, animation & music
• An emotional story with a message
• Plenty of delightful little details to discover

Why Not

• You need games to have plenty of action/player agency

Review

Florence is a visual novel where rather than selecting dialog options you interact with the world as the titular character, much more effectively putting you in her shoes.

These interactions take the form of simple mini-games, designed more to align you with Florence's state of mind at that point than to provide any sort of challenge. I don't...

What if Jesus where a blue haired teenage girl?

Why

• Cozy game which doesn't ask too much of you but provides some nice worldbuilding and story
• Fun core gameplay loop
• Your journal has a cool art style and offers background on the world, incentivising collectible hunting
• Overall art direction is a good fit

Why Not

• A little janky at times
• Combat feels like an absolute chore, apart from one specific enemy type

Impressions

First impressions were great, it's clearly not meant to be challenging but the movement feels fluid, voice acting and art are...

The Assassins Creed 2 of video game sequels.

Why

• All the stuff that made Ender Lilies amazing, with the rough edges sanded off
• New setting and new (slightly) less depressing vibes
• Stronger connections to all your summons as characters
• Satisfyingly links the two games in the same universe

Why Not

• Can feel a little too similar to its predecessor, at least when played back to back

Impressions

A fantastic sequel which takes the medieval fantasy foundation of the original and brings it into the steampunk-ish future. The basic gameplay and premise are the same,...

Breaking out of time loops with the power of friendship.

Why

• Distinct and interesting gameplay for each crewmate
• Having three for each run + meaningfully different ships opens up a lot of possibilities
• Funny/charming story & characters

Why Not

• You don't like card games, roguelites or quirky animal-like characters.

Impressions

As someone whose time to play games is more limited these days, my favourite thing about Cobalt Core was that it had a story with a clear and satsfying endpoint; which left me feeling I'd experienced all the game had to offer. That's not...

Smol girl with big スタンド.

Why

• You like metroidvanias, beautiful art and great sound design
• You like having varied styles of combat, without any real penalty for switching it up
• You're annoyed by never knowing if you found every secret, but don't want your hand held
• You're looking for a focused 15-25 hour experience that leaves you wanting more

Why not

• You don't like metroidvanias

Impressions

For some reason I went into this one with kinda low expectations, and man was I wrong. The first hour or so pulled me in with the visuals,...

Charming cultists conspire, cockily causing calamities.

Why

• You like cool collectibles, world building and the feeling of an answer slowly revealing itself
• Stylish cult in a pocket dimension trying to revive dead gods vibes
• Strong characters, both lovable & hateable

Why not

• You only like games which require a lot of action, or mechanical skill
• You want a mystery which requires strong deductive skills to solve

Impressions

If you like collectible hunting, you'll love this game. Right after being given unrestricted access to the world I inadvertently jumped over a railing instead of heading...

Doom's modern return is the best kind of power fantasy.

Why

• Very, very fun
• Weapon/enemy variety is great and perfectly staggered
• Frantic pace, all mechanics encourage you to constantly move
• Looks & runs great on Steam Deck

Why not

• Bosses can be a weak point
• You're squeamish
• You strongly dislike violence

Impressions

This is very different to the games I usually play. Some of my favourites are Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, Slay the Spire and obviously souls-likes. All fairly slow paced, deliberate games with excellent story telling and characters. Doom does...

A story-driven roguelike deckbuilder based on Arthurian legends.

Why

• Interesting lore, fully voiced
• Wide variety of playstyles and mechanics

Why not

• A little easy?
• Mechanics aren't explained well after first class
• Exacerbated by janky feeling UI

Impressions

This is a neat little game, and if I played it before Hades/Slay the Spire/with more free time I probably would've finished it. As someone with a full time job and hundreds of hours in two of the best roguelikes made though, nothing about this one stuck out enough to keep me playing.

I unlocked 4 or...

Implementation Notes

• 'who should buy' matrix at start

Impressions

• Very frantic at the start, absolutely no idea what you should be doing if not prepared
• Can see a lot of people taking their time and ending up way underlevelled/not knowing why
• Very interested to see solo difficulty
  • lack of other people means less pressure to play 'optimally'
  • not ruining some else's run if you just explore/try stuff
• Upgrades are not exciting, at least at start
  • Have heard character-specific ones from story are better tho
  • they are, more interesting/stronger
• wall jumping can...

Will do less damage than other characters, but does it more consistently and can set up the whole team for more damage. His passive helps everyone find rarer items, he can quickly/safely apply status effects and the mark from his character skill gives big staggers/bursts of damage.

Also, he's one of the characters whose final rememberance mission is killing the final boss. Just an FYI as it isn't mentioned in the Journal anywhere.

Build

• has high arcane so bows with status are good
  • same for the relic that gives your starting weapon poison/boosted attack on poison
...

A murder by crows

Why

• Charming/stylish artstyle
• Characters brimming with personality
• An interesting mix of souls/Zelda level design
• Surprisingly satisfying souls-like slaying

Why Not

• You're looking for something really difficult

Impressions

In the world of Death's Door, Grim Reaper is a job like any other (as long as you're a crow). The soul harvesting business is slow these days though; at least until a mysterious older crow steals the surprisingly powerful soul you just claimed.

Needing it to meet your quarterly KPIs, you end up on a quest across three biomes to defeat the...