Somehow it’s only been 2025 for six months. It feels like six decades. There’s a game on this list that I played for a little bit back in February, and when our associate editor Elijah Gonzalez suggested it should be on here I was sure he was making a mistake. Surely it came out three, five, eight years ago; surely this game from barely four months ago was old and haggard and almost forgotten, and not something that still usually goes for its full original price. That’s how long this year has felt, how stressful it’s been, how just overwhelmingly bleak everything is. The times aren’t good.
Sometimes games are, though. Games can’t fix the world, but they can at least help us enjoy it a little bit more, as our circumstances allow. And since Endless Mode is, primarily, a site about games, we have a responsibility to point our readers towards the good ones—the games that, by dint of good writing or compelling action or some other ineluctable mark of quality, have distinguished themselves as the year’s best. Yes, this might be a new site, but we’re doing one of the oldest things known to humanity, especially in the online era: we’re ranking stuff.
Here are Endless Mode‘s picks for the best games of 2025 so far, as chosen by myself and associate editor Elijah Gonzalez. Feel free to agree, disagree, or argue on behalf of your favorite in the comments.—Garrett Martin, Editor-in-Chief
10. Monster Hunter Wilds
Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox System X|S, PC
Monster Hunter Wilds has been understandably criticized for a range of problems: horrible optimization that makes it run poorly on every platform, an overemphasis on lackluster story sequences, a somewhat middling endgame, many of its battles becoming trivially easy when fought in a group, etc. The thing is, while all these criticisms have irked me to some extent during my dozens of hours with the game, that all recedes into the background when bracing for an incoming Gore Magala strike, as I ready my trusty weeb sword for a counter, dodge into the incoming attack, and hack and slash the monster’s weakpoints before preparing for its next blow. This central flow of battling massive creatures while using complicated weapons with movesets developed over the last 20 years is simply something you aren’t going to find outside of this series. Monster Hunter Wilds is far from perfect, but its hunts remain exhilarating.—Elijah Gonzalez
Developer: Adglobe and Live Wire Publisher: Binary Haze Interactive Platforms: PC
Every time I feel I’ve played enough Metroid-inspired games to last a lifetime, a new one comes along that manages to break through this fatigue, and I’m once again back to mapping out underground cave systems and spelunking for hidden upgrades. The latest example is Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist, a follow-up to 2021’s Ender Lillies: Quietus of the Knights, which combines a melancholic world in ruin with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure-esque battles that have you puppeteering a scrappy band of robot ghosts (called Homonculi). It’s as cool as it sounds! You map a Homonculus onto one of three face buttons, each acting independently as you unleash uppercuts, counters, and torrents of bullets. The flexibility here allows for some incredibly powerful setups, and you’ll be tempted to engage with this depth because many of these foes are quite tough. And while battles are frequent, you’ll spend just as much time, if not more, exploring a dark fantasy backdrop that stands out from its many Dark Souls-adjacent peers thanks to its evocative art design and score. Ender Magnolia isn’t doing anything you haven’t seen before, but does it all well enough that you probably won’t care.—Elijah Gonzalez
8. Skin Deep
Developer: Blendo Games Publisher: Annapurna Interactive Platforms: PC
Blendo’s Skin Deep knows that if you’re going to go absurd, it’s best to go all the way with it. Yes, it’s a shooter, yes, it’s an immersive sim, but more importantly Skin Deep is a comedy, and fortunately one that hits big on the two things a comedy really needs to be successful: a strong, clear voice, and full, unflinching commitment to it. Even the jokes that seem played out before you ever hit start—I’m specifically talking about how every spaceship crew member you rescue throughout the game is a cat—work surprisingly well, with the game hitting those jokes from unexpected angles and making them feel like real, lived-in aspects of this world and not just tossed off for a gag. And the puzzle box nature of the game’s missions fit that absurd tone. Skin Deep is charming, quizzical, and confident, with a sense of humor that regularly surprises without feeling forced.—Garrett Martin
7. Avowed
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
It’d be easy to sum up Obsidian’s Avowed as “Elder Scrolls with personality.” It wouldn’t be the first time Obsidian had taken Bethesda’s concepts and set them in a more interesting world with better writing and far more personality; there’s a reason people still swear by Fallout: New Vegas today, 15 years after its release. Unlike that game, Avowed has no official connection to Bethesda’s RPGs, but its lore-laden, choice-accentuating, open-world structure is clearly in conversation with games like Oblivion and Skyrim—and its half of that conversation sings, whereas the other half comes off like a technical manual. That writing alone wouldn’t be enough to get a slot on this list, but combining that with combat as wide-ranging and deeply enjoyable as Avowed’s more than does the trick. It’s one of Obsidian’s best.—Garrett Martin
Developer: Compulsion Games Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
There is a long, rich tradition of people who know little about the South trying to borrow the dolor and decay of Southern gothic for their art work and getting almost all the details wrong. (Seriously, Hollywood: if you’re going to set movies in Georgia instead of just filming them here, you need to know that nobody says “the” in front of the name of a highway down here.) Compulsion Games might be based in Montreal, but their team includes at least a couple of Southern expats, and that first-hand knowledge really shines through in South of Midnight. Steeped in Southern and African-American folklore, this game about a mystical journey in the wake of a hurricane doesn’t pander or ignore the prejudice and pain that made the South what it is. The sins of the past are ever-present in South of Midnight, just like we haven’t fully reckoned with our sins here in the South. Not every creative choice lands, and the combat feels like a repetitive, unnecessary concession to mainstream gaming audiences, but South of Midnight isn’t really like any other game out there, which is to be celebrated.—Garrett Martin
5. Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Developer: Ubisoft Quebec Publisher: Ubisoft Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
The best Assassin’s Creed game since 2014’s Black Flag is the first of the current era to really justify its obscenely long, maximalist approach. Valhalla came close, but ultimately the nigh-endless list of business to take care of crushed my interest in it after dozens (and dozens) of hours. Not so with Shadows, which stays afloat on writing that remains sharp ‘til the end. The dual-protagonist tactic definitely helps, as Naoe (a ninja who plays like a traditional assassin) and Yasuke (a samurai that just rolls over everything like a tank) have two distinctly different play styles and storylines that wonderfully complement each other. Naoe is an insider to Japan’s culture who, as a woman, will always be an outsider to its mechanisms of power during the game’s 16th century setting; Yasuke, a former slave brought to Japan from Africa, might be accepted and held in high esteem as a warrior within that power structure, but will always remain the ultimate outsider to every other aspect of Japanese society. The two come together during separate, personal quests for vengeance, and switching freely between the two makes the game’s enormous runtime manageable. If you caught Shogun fever last year like so many other TV viewers, Shadows—which is set in the same general time period as the show, although using real-life figures in its historical fiction instead of thinly veiled fictional stand-ins—might be the prescription you need.—Garrett Martin
4. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Developer: Jump Over the Age Publisher: Fellow Traveller Platforms: PC, Mac, Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector had a tough act to follow, coming after one of the most thoughtfully written games in recent memory. However, despite that high bar to clear, this sequel proved just as affecting as its predecessor, conveying a world of interstellar expansion gone wrong where artificially created people, known as Sleepers, are subject to lives of corporate servitude. It’s a brutal backdrop to be sure, but one that’s portrayed with care thanks to Gareth Damian Martin’s empathetic prose, which gives this cast of characters depth and interiority. As the Sleeper grapples with debilitating health conditions and a pursuer on their tail, you run jobs throughout the sector with your buddy Serafin, free to explore these delapidated satellites and other abandoned company installations that have been repurposed for daily life. In a significant improvement from the previous game, the gigs you complete to stay alive are far more demanding, requiring you to use special abilities and maximize your dice rolls via tense, TTRPG-inspired decision-making. It’s a sequel that goes bigger without losing the core intimacy that made the previous game so moving, resulting in another stellar work of sci-fi.—Elijah Gonzalez
3. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Developer: Kojima Productions Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment Platforms: PlayStation 5
Death Stranding 2 is a game of contrasts; on one end is the mundane gameplay loop, where Sam Porter Bridges lives up to his name by delivering packages across a disconnected Australia, crossing mountains or partaking in long, uneventful trucking hauls. On the other end is a sprawling, multitudinous, and kooky narrative that fully goes for it, unleashing Kojima and his collaborators’ trademark oddities, as extended cutscenes depict convoluted spiritual happenings and at least one dance number. But at the same time, the inverse dichotomy is sort of true, too, because this time around, there are grandiose action sequences where you go guns blazing, contrasted against far more personal story beats involving deep-seated grief. Then these elements all collide with the force of a little kid mashing their toy monster trucks together, as we witness supernatural mechs, guitar death battles, and Sam wearing a VTuber’s hat that makes him end every sentence with “peko.” There are simply a lot of “things” here, both mechanically and in terms of its convoluted plot, and it’s a small act of magic that it all comes together in a (mostly) cohesive vision about the small acts of kindness that keep people going.—Elijah Gonzalez
2. Despelote
Developers: Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena Publisher: Panic Platforms: PC, Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena’s Despelote might be a first. I can’t think of any other video games that are about sports as an idea—as something that can unite or define a community, that can rile up passion in a way other entertainment can’t, that can feel powerful and primordial and personal in a way that’s distinct from movies or music or TV. This short, impressionistic game isn’t about making an interactive version of football (what we would call soccer) for players to enjoy, although there is a version of that in the style of a game from the early ‘90s; it’s about how sports bleed into everyday life, and can become tied together with your memories of a time, a place, and people. Like your favorite team’s season, Despelote might end suddenly and a little messily, but what is life if not messy and unpredictable? Cordero and Valbuena have concocted something special here, a realistic look at everyday life during political turmoil amid the backdrop of Ecuador’s unlikely World Cup run, and I recommend it to anybody who likes games or sports.—Garrett Martin
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Developer: Sandfall Interactive Publisher: Kepler Interactive Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
It says a lot about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s strengths that, despite having significant problems with its ending, it’s still my favorite game of the year. There’s plenty to praise: turn-based combat that combines Super Mario RPG’s action command system with Sekiro’s musical parries, the ingenious Pictos mechanic that enables clever strategies and builds, its genuinely incredible soundtrack that completely sells this colorful Belle Époque setting, an old-school RPG overworld that avoids modern open world bloat, its early twists, how it opens up in its endgame, and the lovable balloon man Esquie. But perhaps what’s most impressive is how it often feels like more than the sum of its parts, tapping into a decades-old sense of adventure channeled by many of the best turn-based RPGs in the genre’s history, as you and your loveable little guys journey across the continent. Sure, the ultimate destination may leave something to be desired, but you’ll have a hard time finding many better journeys to get there.—Elijah Gonzalez
Garrett Martin is Endless Mode‘s editor-in-chief. You can find him on Blue Sky.
Elijah Gonzalez is an associate editor for Endless Mode. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves movies, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.
