These are the games that have captured our hearts in 2025’s first half. Each one reminds us why we fell in love with gaming in the first place.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince is a game where knowledge, not items or abilities, drives progression. Players inherit an eccentric uncle’s mansion that resets daily, forcing you to piece together clues about finding the mysterious 46th room. It’s like being dropped into an escape room that rebuilds itself every morning, requiring spreadsheets and screenshots to track discoveries.
What captivates us is how the game trusts players to become genuine investigators. Every session adds fragments to a larger puzzle, creating that addictive “just one more run” feeling that keeps you theorizing long after you’ve stopped playing.
🎮 Playable on: PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S
Split Fiction
From Hazelight Studios (the team behind cooperative hit game It Takes Two), Split Fiction is designed exclusively for two players working together through parallel dimensions. It’s gaming’s equivalent of a buddy cop movie, where success depends entirely on communication and collaboration between players navigating interconnected worlds.
The magic lies in how it creates genuine human connection through shared problem-solving. Split Fiction transforms your living room into a portal between dimensions while strengthening the bonds between the people playing.
🎮 Playable on: PlayStation 5, Windows, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S
Despelote
Despelote is a short, first-person narrative game about growing up in Quito during Ecuador’s 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign. Very specific, but all the more impactful because of it. Players experience childhood through the eyes of eight-year-old Julián, kicking balls, eavesdropping on adult conversations, and living through a moment when an entire country held its breath.
The game captures something universal about being a kid while staying deeply rooted in a specific time and place. Its grainy, pastel visuals and brilliant audio design transport you to 2001 Ecuador so completely that you feel like you’ve lived someone else’s childhood memories. An excellent autobiographical memoir, in game-form.
🎮 Playable on: PlayStation 4/5, Windows, Nintendo Switch 1/2 and Xbox Series X/S
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
This French studio’s debut RPG creates a world where a deity called the Paintress inscribes descending numbers on a monolith, and anyone matching that age dissolves into smoke and flower petals. You lead the 33rd expedition attempting to break this deadly cycle.
The game fuses traditional turn-based strategy with real-time dodge and parry mechanics, turning combat into a chess match where timing matters as much as tactics. Its Belle Époque art direction and art nouveau styling create something that feels like an interactive museum exhibit come to life. Developed by a small team, this game exploded onto the scene and is by far the biggest surprise of this year.
🎮 Playable on: PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S
