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2025 has been an incredibly nice 12 months for video games, however as we at PC Gamer started work on our GOTY record, we realized that lots of us hadn’t loved the identical nice video games. My tastes as a PC gamer have a tendency towards the crusty and obscure, and I all the time need to rejoice the video games whose variety of Steam evaluations are solely within the triple (and even double) digits.
To that finish, listed here are 25 nice video games on Steam I’ve beloved (or need to take a look at) from this 12 months and suppose deserve extra consideration, organized so as from most cost-effective to costliest: The costliest sport on this record is $40, half of what they’re making an attempt to cost for a triple-A launch as of late, whereas greater than half of the entries are below $20.
Free to $6
There are some other horror games on this list that I enjoyed as much or more than The Children of Clay, but nothing scared me quite as much as the 15 minutes it took me to reach the end of this free point-and-click adventure. The uncanny claymation of the central cursed idol, coupled with supremely eerie music and sound design, just freaked me the hell out. It’s basically a “guy who dies in the prologue of a horror movie” sim.
*Free expansion to a $25 game
This is cheating a bit on my part, but Echo Point Nova’s Under the Clouds Update added a free expansion pack to the Titanfall-esque, open world hoverboard shooter from 2024. It basically doubled the amount of game, and the game in question lets you careen around at 90 MPH grinding on rails and headshotting guys in slow motion. Echo Point Nova already felt like a steal at $25, and it’s great solo or in up to four-player co-op.
A short first-person dungeon crawler that’s better than it has any right to be. It’s chunky and sluggish, but deliberately so, with graphics that remind me most of Old School Runescape. You play as an anthropomorphic, insectoid knight in a world of bugs, delving to the bottom of a sprawling labyrinth. The slow dance of combat is fun in its own way, and the vibes are immaculate.
$10 to $15
*$10 second half to a $10 game
Cultic’s conclusion (for now) had a slightly odd release: It’s a shooter campaign 10+ hours long following up the 6-8 hour first chapter, sharing chapter 1’s $10 price tag, but sold as a DLC on Steam. If you’re new to this excellent shooter, the whole thing together will set you back $20, but a tenner for chapter one is a nice, low commitment way of easing in. Cultic’s crunchy, dithered look stole my heart before I even played it, while this autumnal FPS has some of the sickest old school firearms and satisfying headshots around.
*$10 expansion to a 23 year-old, $20 base game
A freak pull after my own heart, DoIwD is a semi-official continuation (sold with Wizards of the Coast’s blessing) of the story from a 23-year-old BioWare game it feels like only me and 12 other weirdos ever played. DoIwD has a strong design pedigree, having been made by author, RPG dev, and old hand Neverwinter Nights modder Luke “Alazander” Scull, who is also working on the upcoming Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand.
A short-but-sweet (~three hours) horror game with a singular control scheme, gamepad preferred: Move with left stick, move your hand with right stick to manipulate the environment, and adjust your view with the shoulder buttons (bumpers for left/right, triggers for up/down). It works way better than it should, introducing a panicked delay between your desires and the protagonist’s actions in tense moments. The medieval, alchemical vibe is also killer, and you can read more in my full review.
Listen, if a game is all crunchy and dithered to hell, I’m at least going to give it the time of day. Eclipsium’s trippy, ’90s 3D render-looking dreamscapes also have my full attention, as do the comparisons I’m hearing to last year’s surprise horror heater, Mouthwashing. Eclipsium is sitting in my cart as I write this, just waiting for me to pull the trigger.
The other 2025 turn-based RPG with a Paper Mario timing mechanic and a real mouthful of a name, Crazy Hyper Dungeon Chronicles has gotten significantly less buzz than its French cousin, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. CHDC has pixel art with a deliberate, charming look that really stole my heart, like it’s a lost Game Boy Advance or DS cult favorite. Its aesthetics, sense of humor, and surprisingly bangin’ soundtrack undergird some fun dungeon delving that’s earned CHDC a place on my Steam Deck.
A claymation shmup originally hailing from New Zealand in the distant year of 2002, Platypus was about 20 years ahead of the trend of claymation being super arch and in vogue among the indie gaming scene—come to think of it, Platypus was about 10 years too early to there being an indie scene as we know it now. This is all being rectified by the Reclayed remaster for modern systems.
$18 to $20
This is a top game of the year for PC Gamer’s resident wizard of whimsy, Chris Livingston, so I’ll lean on some of his words from his glowing review:
“Keep Driving is a turn-based road trip RPG that perfectly captures the freedom and possibilities of being young and having a beat-up old car, just enough money to fill it with gas and snacks, and only the vaguest of destinations in mind. Just like in real life, road trips in Keep Driving feel like a carefree summertime journey where you blast some tunes, eat junk food, and watch your troubles shrink in the rearview mirror—until that check engine light starts blinking, your tank is almost empty, and you realize there’s something a bit odd about that hitchhiker you picked up.”
Boy I sure am a sucker for stop-motion animation, huh? Mashina is a follow-up to last year’s druidic adventure, Judero, but the only things it keeps are developer Talha and Jack Co.’s sense of whimsy, plus co-creator Jack King-Spooner’s singular animation style. It’s practically Wall-E: The Game. You play as a happy little robot digging deep underground below a world of pollution and garbage, trying to reconstruct a settlement of robots on the surface.
Labyrinth of the Demon King is one of my personal favorite games of 2025: A first-person horror game that blends elements of King’s Field, Silent Hill, and Condemned into a brilliant whole. Its sense of Japanese history also feels extremely unique, and is further brought to life by composer Remu Daifuku’s standout soundtrack that sampled a real Japanese temple bell and the sounds of their old house creaking.
Mohrta feels like a cross between Demon’s Souls, a long forgotten PS2 action game, and a boomer shooter. It borrows the hub-and-spokes world design of Demon’s Souls and has a brilliant aesthetic that’s halfway between Fullmetal Alchemist and The Fifth Element. Perhaps weirdest of all: The entire thing was made on the Doom Engine.
Bloodthief plays like a lo-fi Ghostrunner, just trade cyberpunk for fantasy and super slick graphics for something a little more ’90s. What’s really impressed me so far is how wild and out there the level secrets can be: Sometimes it’s felt like I’ve fully clipped out of the map, while I’ve only scratched the surface of what this first person platformer can offer.
Éalú was stop-motion animated in the most classical, painstaking meaning of the term: Every frame of gameplay was captured on a physical set in the lead developer’s garden shed. The end result is a quirky point-and-click adventure with a vibe that’s half-Myst, half-Wallace and Gromit.
Heretic/Hexen fans had another reason to be happy this year: The fantasy FPS Wizordum finally left early access. While Wizordum sometimes also replicates classic Raven’s level design sensibility of “where the hell am I supposed to go now?” The game’s bright fantasy looks and inventive levels always won me back.
$25 to $40
I find it hard to get out of bed for sidescrolling beat-em-ups these days, but Absolum has my attention. It boasts some stellar voice and musical talent, including Samantha Béart of Baldur’s Gate 3 fame and Doom composer Mick Gordon, while PCG strategic director Evan Lahti praised its Hades-like structure and surprisingly deep combat in his review.
There are so many sidescrolling platformers on Steam, but my late millennial heart yearns for the 3D collectathons of my youth: Mario, Spyro and, dare I say it, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Just kidding, if you feel strong emotions about Ty the Tasmanian Tiger in any way, please email me and also seek counseling. Anyway, The Knightling fits the 3D collectathon bill to a T, even boasting its own mascot gimmick like Mario Odyssey’s hat or Spyro’s glide: A massive shield you can use as a skateboard, wind sail, combat tool, and more.
System Shock 2 isn’t exactly an obscure game, but it feels like I reviewed the remaster ages ago, while one of Nightdive’s finest works yet actually only just came out over the summer. I don’t think I have to “sell” the PC classic underneath, but Nightdive’s remaster sets itself apart with stellar gamepad and Steam Deck support, as well as a masterclass in “how you remember it” updated graphics. This is the way you should play System Shock 2.
I feel like I’m going crazy: There was a new Double Fine game this year, it’s apparently excellent, and it’s barely gotten any buzz. “Keeper is a brilliant example of how a smaller, focused vision can still dazzle, no ray tracing or roguelike elements or battle pass required,” PC Gamer contributor Tyler Colp wrote in his review. “Double Fine games are always gems, but Keeper is one of the brightest yet.”
I’ve sounded like a broken record about stop-motion animation already, but here’s yet another game with a hover/skateboarding element, baby. Sword of the Sea is like Journey or Sable injected with a little bit of Tony Hawk attitude. Instead of skating through concrete jungles to the tune of pop punk, Sword of the Sea has you hoverboarding in breathtaking ruins and impossible fantasy landscapes. It’s a visual feast not to be missed, just keep well aware of one of senior guides writer Sean Martin’s biggest gripes from his review: A $30 price tag stings more on a game with a four-hour runtime.
PPR is the most expensive game on this list, but it’s well worth it: A combination of Deus Ex/Stalker-style immersive RPG with mech combat, letting you hop in and out of your “V-Stalker” at will. PPR boasts the anarchic, abrasive, and surreal presentation you’d expect from Cruelty Squad creator Consumer Softproducts, while a dizzying depth of interlocking RPG systems invites experimentation, buildcrafting, and audacious stratagems. One of my favorite moments: Getting stymied by a brutal enemy gauntlet in an indoor area before realizing I could just take the grenade launcher off my mech and walk through the building overencumbered and at a snail’s pace, blasting every enemy from around the corner before they could even see me. I’ve found PPR worth the money in early access already, but this is also an investment in the full game to come.
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