Ashley’s Top 5 Games of 2025
It’s that time of year again: the only time I’m consistently able to get off my ass and write for this blog. I played some really excellent video games in 2025 and I’m excited to share my opinions with you all. Besides the actual top 5, there are many honourable mentions including unreleased games whose demos I enjoyed. Jump Ship was a fun co-op space looting game that I’m aching to try with my friends when it comes out; Whisper Mountain Outbreak was another co-op demo that my pals and I got hooked on; and Monster Hunter: Wilds might be my favourite franchise entry to date. I didn’t get around to playing Elden Ring: Nightreign this year for lack of folks to play with, so if any chill lesbians out there want to play on PC, shoot me a message.
On the competitive multiplayer side of things, I put a truly wretched number of hours into Battlefield 6 not long after its release. For the record, this is the best Battlefield out there and easily my favourite arcade shooter on the market: it has just the right amount of tactical realism and mechanical depth to keep me engaged while still being a light experience that I can sink into for an afternoon. BF6’s weapon balance is very impressive, with each gun gently nudging players into its ideal playstyle while still allowing for some flexibility with its point-buy modification system. The maps are also, in my opinion, the pinnacle of Battlefield level design, offering multiple avenues of approach towards every point of interest and allowing for tactical demolition (using the new sledgehammer) or traversal (using the amazing new tactical ladder). Gone are the awful BF1942-style driving range-type maps and Redacted-style meat grinder-type maps of yesterday, meaning that infantry players no longer need to traverse giant open areas or sit around a single corner for an entire match (at least until DICE inevitably remake Operation: Metro and Golmud Railway, that is).
I also continued to play Escape From Tarkov this year, particularly in its PvE mode, and I found myself completely sucked in. PvP Tarkov is great, but the skill gap between veterans and new players is so wide that the game’s RPG elements take a back seat in favour of survival: moreover, my poor vision and borked neurology mean that the challenge of fighting human players is more frustrating than fun. PvE allows my disabled ass to actually visit the most dangerous points of interest and live to tell the tale. In exchange for a reduction in difficulty and a more predictable gameplay loop, I got to progress quests, fight bosses, learn new maps, engage with the game’s Wild West power fantasy, and even onboard one of my friends who wanted to play Tarkov but was too intimidated. Since 1.0 released, I’ve reset my profile and have challenged myself in a few major ways to make the PvE experience a little weightier (for instance, I am no longer using the game’s insurance service, so my deaths feel more meaningful) and have been having a blast. Tarkov may be a pile of jank hammered together in a cave in Russia, but it’s still fun as hell.
While these shooters definitely sucked up a lot of my playtime this year, I’ve decided to reserve the spots on my list for games which take risks and push the medium forward, so naturally most of this year’s entries are indie games. I don’t know what to tell y’all, but indie studios are popping off in the 2020s to the point that I’m wondering how much longer AAA titles will survive. The quality of craft and attention to detail present in these titles is astounding, and I’m thrilled to present my favourites below.
5: Civilization VII
The latest Civ game was rightly lambasted upon its release for, well, not being a finished game, but I would argue that Civ VII is a very well-designed strategy experience that, even without all its features, slightly edges out Civ VI and only barely misses the mark set by Civ V. While many people seem to despise the new era-reset system which forces players to choose a new civilization for each third of a campaign, I love how it reflects the ebb and flow of historical forces. Moreover, Civ VII’s gameplay is extremely tight, offering numerous decision points which help the player control the shape of their empire in enticingly granular ways. I look forward to the many DLCs which will surely be offered, and hope that Firaxis adds a fourth era soon so I can play with my beloved giant death robot.
4: Shape of Dreams
One evening, my best friend and I were looking for something to play and Shape of Dreams caught my eye. We decided to buy it and were promptly sucked into its MOBA-roguelite-style grind, theorycrafting new builds and learning to play its vastly different eight characters. What the game lacks in samey level design, it makes up for in the depth and variability of character builds, especially in multiplayer at higher difficulties where synergistic building becomes necessary. Come for the tight MOBA-style controls, stay for the thoughtfully-rendered roguelike elements.
3: Skin Deep
Skin Deep, starring Internet darling SungWon Cho as a cat mobster, is a delightful feline-oriented stealth puzzle shooter whose immersive gameplay hearkens back to System Shock and Deus Ex. You play as Nina Pasadena, an indentured mercenary who sneaks onto hijacked vessels, conks out pirates, and saves the ships’ crew (who are all cats, by the way). Each level allows numerous strategies, rewarding creativity and exploration and good old-fashioned sneaking around. You can flush pirates’ heads down the toilet, shoot hoops with a space basketball, break windows (why do spaceships have breakable windows?), and incapacitate enemies by throwing various objects. Skin Deep takes the inherent goofiness of immersive sims and runs with it, and I couldn’t be happier to tag along for the ride.
2. Of the Devil
I’ve never played Phoenix Wright, but I’m told that those games don’t address deep questions about the nature of humanity, nor do they contain toxic yuri between two lawyers with massive knockers, but I know for a fact that Of the Devil does. This lawyering game offers a compelling serialized narrative alongside a dystopian cyberpunk setting and a heaping portion of lesbian subtext for a tightly-woven reading and thinking experience. I’ve mostly sworn off reading fiction since I started my doctorate, but Of the Devil has engrossed me like few stories have, and I’m raring to play Chapter 2 once it releases early next year.
1. 1000xRESIST
I don’t play a lot of narrative adventure games: shooting and slashing and other forms of violence are much more my style. However, I do know a bit about dramaturgy and storytelling from my experience composing opera, which gives me license to tell you all that 1000xRESIST might be one of the best-written narratives I’ve ever experienced, period. It’s on the same level as, like, Macbeth and To Kill a Mockingbird. The game is a masterpiece on basically every level from characters to plot to dialogue to art and environment design to music. My white ass has had a bleeding heart for stories from Canada’s Asian diaspora since I read Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan, and 1000xRESIST wraps those up in a delectable thematic burrito alongside ideas of resistance against oppression and generational trauma. The game’s characters are multifaceted and dynamic; even its side characters were gradually developed through event after traumatic event. Dev studio Sunset Visitor has created a cast of lovable failwomen who each express emotional damage in very different ways. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say that I love how the characters hurt each other – often deeply – but ultimately stick together to win the day. Simply put, 1000xRESIST is utterly brilliant. I’d give it 11 out of 10 if I could, but I think I’ll give it a 12 out of 10 because all that Watcher x Fixer toxic yuri fanfiction is worth at least two extra points.
Shit’s Fucked, But At Least I’m Entertained
I’m not going to enumerate all of the awful things going on in the world right now, because I’m sure all of you remember most of them. All told, it wasn’t a great year for humanity, and it feels to me like many of our species’ worst traits - greed, opportunism, hatred - are becoming more and more prominent. In this climate, I find myself looking to art as a means of communicating and remembering the other stuff: the extraordinary kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, depth of feeling, and wisdom of which our species is capable. It might be a rough ride, but we can step up and do what’s needed to make our world better for everyone.
Stay safe and stay kind, y’all.