Video GOATS 2025.
I also like Video Games.
Back in early 2021, I wrote an article on my old WordPress account entitled ‘Video Goats 2020’. This covered the notable video game titles I’d played over the course of the year, with some thoughts on each. From the spectacular DOOM Eternal and Half-Life: Alyx, to the disappointing demo of Back 4 Blood, 2020 was quite the year for video games since everyone was stuck inside without much else to do. If you so wish, you can read that article here.
It’s been almost five years since then, and as I sit here sinking even more hours into Cyberpunk 2077, and reminiscing about who else managed to win something at The Game Awards that wasn’t Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (which I haven’t played), I felt it was time to revive this article on my barren substack, and drop something into my subscribers’ inbox that isn’t Doctor Who related.
So if you’re here for my thoughts on the 2025 Christmas Special, you’re fresh out of luck (oh and yeah, there wasn’t one anyway, roll on 2026- I guess?).
So here we go, in no particular order, here are a few of the best games I played in 2025.
Atomfall
I’ll level with you, as much as it feels right up my alley, I’ve never played any of the Sniper Elite games. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve played any Rebellion games either- unless you count the 2007 PSP port of The Simpsons Games, which they co-developed. Anywho, Atomfall very much caught my eye back when it was revealed in 2024, and much like many other commentators in the gaming space, I very much saw this as ‘Britain’s answer to Bioshock.’ An intriguing setting, a new subgenre for Rebellion to venture into, and something that looked like it could be that next all-consuming world to get lost in for a few lengthy sessions.
That Atomfall was. The game world was smaller than other games of its kind, but was still highly detailed, and oh so engrossing. Split into several large levels rather than one cohesive open world, as someone who’s not all that fond of open world games (at least ones that feel open world for the sake of open world), the more compact, curated experience very much tickled my fancy. The combat clicked well with me too. While not explicitly a survival horror title, those influences can be felt in the smatterings of ammo and worn weaponry you have at your disposal whilst up against some pretty horrific creatures amidst a post-apocalyptic setting.
Most importantly for me, however, landing a single bullet between the eyes of anything even remotely human ended with them hitting the deck, which is a huge win in my book. I’m sick of survival horror games giving you no ammunition to play with, but still throw bullet sponge enemies at you. Atomfall still has heavier enemies, but the lowly scavengers and weirdos about? Mouse 1 on head, and they’re down. Lovely.
It’s not all positives though, while the setting and mysterious narrative are fantastic up to a point, giving you several possible endings, I felt the end of the game itself falls flat on its arse simply because it- ends. I followed the ‘phone box’ ending, which felt like the ‘main’ ending to pick since the iconic red phone boxes are all over the marketing, but the final payoff just wasn’t really there for me. A Fallout-style voice over atop images from the game, and it was over.
Still, it was really good fun to play. My run took just over 13 hours, and while I didn’t mainline the story, I didn’t quite 100% it either. In my opinion, it balanced the necessity with the opportunity really well, not expecting 4,527 hours to complete everything for the sake of keeping bums on seats. If the genre or atmosphere of Atomfall at all entices you, definitely give it a try.
R.E.P.O
I hate the term ‘friendslop.’ Imagine brandishing inventive indie games with such a bleak brush. 2025 saw several multiplayer-focused indie games release, many of which became immensely popular on YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok because of how entertaining they were to watch, and even moreso for folk to actually pick up and play themselves. One such title is R.E.P.O. My first exposure to it was indeed thanks to Instagram reels (I don’t use TikTok because I’m a dinosaur), and because of the low barrier to entry seeing as the title is less than a tenner, a few friends and I picked it up and had a blast.
For those uninitiated, R.E.P.O sees players take the form of ‘semibots’, tasked with reposessing items from various randomly generated spooky locales, whilst avoiding death by potentially horrific (and hilarious) creatures. Throw in potentially janky physics and proximity-based voice chat (and text-to-speech which is always funny), and you’re in for one hell of a time.
While I got a big kick out of R.E.P.O once we started playing it, even with the randomly generated nature and new content coming to the title as it absolutely exploded in popularity, I only really find it entertaining for one or two levels before wanting to move onto something else.
It’s not bad by any means- hell, it’s sitting at Overwhelming Positive (97%) on Steam, and quite rightly so- it’s just not the kind of title that quite captured my sustained attention as much as a few other games on this list. It’s a phenomenal time with friends. The low price and not too drastic system requirements makes this an easy win for people who actually have friends.
Also, a huge shoutout to the folks who produce the update video content on the semiwork YouTube channel. The production quality is so ridiculously good for almost no reason. I have so much respect for it.
Peak
Speaking of ‘friendslop’, here’s one where you climb a mountain. There’s not really much else to it. You and your friends crash-land on an island, at the foot of a randomly generated, multi-level mountain, which you now have to climb- for some reason. With innovatively straight-forward climbing controls, potentially tense weight, hunger, and injury mechanics, along with the hilarity of hearing your friends’ screams echo as they fall into the abyss, Peak is a title you can lose quite a lot of time to relatively easily.
Unlike R.E.P.O, however, Peak is fantastic when tackling the mountain solo too. There are benefits to playing with friends (and it’s arguably more enjoyable), but it’s still just as good to kick back and climb without having to worry about whether your mate actually did pick up bing bong or not.
But similarly to R.E.P.O, I get bored of Peak relatively quickly. I’ll probably do one run when jumping on with friends, then want to move onto something else. It’s more a warm up game, an appetiser, a quick round of 6 nimmt! before jumping into something much heavier- an analogy for the board gamers out there.
Saying that, it’s still innovative, enjoyable, and not ‘friendsloppy’ at all. There’s a great time to be had climbing an ever-changing mountain.
DOOM: The Dark Ages
DOOM Eternal was my joint game of the year alongside Half-Life: Alyx back in 2020, so DOOM: The Dark Ages was undoubtedly going to get my undivided attention upon its release in 2025.
However, my attention was not undivided.
The threequel in the reboot trilogy of the iconic FPS franchise, following DOOM (2016) and the aforementioned DOOM Eternal, The Dark Ages brought yet another approach to the already-flavoursome DOOM formula, grounding the Slayer and making him feel more like a battle-hardened tank rather than a ballet dancer with a rocket launcher as he did in Eternal.
I have huge respect for id and their team, and also to Bethesda Softworks for enabling them to innovate with each new title. One of the best things about the reboot DOOM trilogy is that each of the games feel different in some way. This does lead to potentially polarising opinions on how the titles fare against each other, but it undoubtedly keeps things fresh.
As said, I was all over Eternal’s release back in 2020, splurging on a £200 Collector’s Edition complete with a full size Doom Slayer helmet and other knick knacks, and playing the ever-loving shit out of the game. The Dark Ages conversely didn’t have me by the proverbial balls by any means. Sure, I was excited to see another DOOM game release, but the new direction didn’t quite click with me.
It wasn’t Eternal 2, which by all accounts is a good thing. But after eventually finishing the campaign after an incredibly fractured playthrough (I had to push myself to reopen the game and continue playing), DOOM: The Dark Ages simply failed the vibe check with me. Eternal is pure, everso moreish adrenaline pumped directly into my urethra, whereas playing through The Dark Ages felt more like a formality because I’m a DOOM fan.
I doubt we’ll ever know whether this title was absolutely a passion project from id, or simply a requirement since the first two games were so successful. I can’t fault its design or execution, and at no point would I call out a fan for saying they think it’s better than Eternal. The beauty of the reboot DOOM trilogy is there’s something for everyone, even if not every game clicks with them.
Eternal didn’t click for many, and The Dark Ages sadly didn’t click for me. Also, nothing against the composers for The Dark Ages, but you can really feel Mick Gordon’s absence in the soundtrack.
Deadzone Rogue
It’s not often that I’d pay much attention to a random game I’d never heard of get advertised to me on Reddit, yet Deadzone Rogue piqued my interest. A free demo with multiplayer enabled being available at the time was a nice touch, and let’s just say my friends and I got hooked.
Roguelikes and Roguelites are all the rage nowadays (I mean, there are five on this list alone), and as the name might suggest, Deadzone Rogue follows that formula in an first-person shooter fashion. Picking up new weapons, armor, and perks as you fight through chamber after chamber of weird robots and aliens as a- spoiler- brain in a jar, Deadzone is straight-forward, not all that innovative, but still absolutely fantastic to play.
My friends and I put this title in the same basket as 2019’s Remnant: From the Ashes: incredible gameplay, shite story. You don’t need to know a thing about the evil AI in charge of this dead space ship (if that’s even what the big bad is, I genuinely don’t know), nor do you need to read nor listen to any of the world-building text/audio logs which might appear on your run. All you need to know is how to move, dodge, shoot, and progress.
I’m 40+ hours in, and I’m still having a wail of a time either solo or with friends. The gameplay, in my opinion, is pretty impeccable. FPS games need to feel crispy and responsive, and Deadzone very much delivers on that. While we definitely have our personal favourite builds to aim for as we rifle through randomly-generated loot and perk options, being up against a barrage of robot things armed without the Iron Squires because the fucking fabricator isn’t giving me them as an option on this run goddamnit- it’s still great to play regardless of what you’re wielding, and absolutely worth a look if you like FPS games and/or roguelike/lites.
Battlefield 6
I was always a Call of Duty kid growing up. My friends were very much people who would be jumping between CoD and the likes of Bad Company 2 back in the 360 days, while I was still chumming it up with the hordes in the original Black Ops’ zombies mode. While I dabbled in both Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V on PC over the last several years, Battlefield 6 is the first title in the franchise I’d actually given any serious attention to, and it’s been pretty amazing.
I’m just so tired of Call of Duty. Not so much playing it, I haven’t played a CoD game since 2020’s Black Ops Cold War, moreso its existence and the approach Activision have been taking to the franchise, completely butchering the opportunity laid in front of them after the phenomenal 2019 Modern Warfare reboot.
Anyway, this is supposed to be about Battlefield 6. I played the multiplayer beta with friends, and didn’t hate it which, when it comes to modern military multiplayer shooters, is good enough for me!
I picked up the game upon release back in October, and while I’ve only sunk 12-ish hours into the title overall (including playing through a schlocky, but still fun campaign), it’s scratched a very tiny itch that I’ve had since the aforementioned 2019 Modern Warfare reboot. It plays brilliantly, it looks amazing (even with zero ray tracing even available, hats off to BF Studios for that one), and it’s just been a hell of a lot of fun.
I don’t really have much more to say about it, I’m not a Battlefield veteran by any means, but it still feels like an ever-so satisfying £60 purchase middle finger to the Call of Duty franchise I left behind five years ago. It’s been quite refreshing seeing others follow suit in ignoring Black Ops 7 and picking up Battlefield 6, as it really does feel like a title that’s naturally tugging on the nostalgia strings of the Xbox 360 era of military shooters.
Clover Pit
Here we go then, another roguelite. It feels like the runaway success of Balatro last year led to a frenzy of rougelike-ing other things that don’t initially feel rouge-compatible, yet here we are. Clover Pit takes that approach with a slot machine intertwined with a Saw trap.
Stuck in a small room with nothing but said slot machine, an ATM, a telephone, and a toilet (complete with interactive pissing mechanics), you need to meet ever-increasing deadlines by manipulating the symbols within the machine itself, and giving yourself little perks and potential crutches through charms.
‘It’s a roguelite, but it’s a slot machine’ is all you really need to know, and it’s really good. It looks like there’s a lot of depth to the game’s lore, which with a setting like it has is to be expected. However, I’m yet to progress far enough to actually piece more of it together. So far, I’ve only found some disembodied corpse pieces, which is fun.
It’s a perfect game for the Steam Deck, which is where I’ve got the majority of my playtime, and while I’ve not been back to it in a little while, it very much will suck you in if you catch the bug.
Let’s go gambling!
BALL x PIT
It’s a roguelite- kind of. This is BALL x PIT (I pronounce the ‘x’ unlike some), and it’s essentially Breakout/Arkanoid with boss fights, and it’s awesome. A first glance at gameplay reminds me of those disgusting misleading mobile game ads, but that’s actually what the gameplay is. Your chosen character shoots balls up a slowly expanding corridor populated with enemies ‘riding’ blocks, beat the boss if you can, rinse and repeat.
There is a little city building/resource management thing in between levels, which is at least a bit more understandable than that of Loop Hero’s village between-run mechanics, but it’s still just kinda there. The true meat and potatoes of BALL x PIT is when you enter the pit and play with your- balls.
Yeah, I’m a child. I still giggle when the game says ‘balls’ on the screen- which is like 99.9% of the text in this game. Different balls can fuse together to share abilities and reopen slots, some might have proper evolutions, characters have different abilities you can put to use when you enter the pit, and seeing a cacophany of enemies all bite the dust as the myriad of balls bounce between them never gets old.
BALL x PIT is a fun, yet deceptively difficult game, and absolutely perfect on the Deck.
Megabonk
It’s Vampire Survivors but in 3D. That’s all you need to say to anyone who’s played Vampire Survivors and they’ll probably be game to give this a go. Megabonk pretty much is just that, but it’s still very much its own beast.
Traversing a 3D space whilst auto-firing various weapons against thousands of enemies is just so moreish, and surprisingly a lot more difficult. It took a while to get going, as you only have two weapon and two tome slots available come the start of the game (unlike the 6 weapon and item slots available to you in Vampire Survivors), but once I got through the first hour or so of working out what builds I like best, Megabonk opened up, and I found myself completely enthralled by its basic visuals and cringe-y text popups.
Just writing about it and digging out the trailer to link above makes me want to grab my Deck and attempt another run. Damnit, vedinad has got me by the bonks.
It’s an obvious direction for the hugely successful 2D gameplay loop of Vampire Survivors to take, but it strangely doesn’t feel all too derivative when you’re 6+ hours deep. Megabonk has the ability to stand up as a ‘Bullet Heaven’ title in its own right, and while I very much waited for the Steam Winter Sale to finally pick it up and give it a go, you should definitely jump at the chance immediately.
Shape of Dreams
Four roguelites down, one to go. Shape of Dreams is the most recent title on this list in terms of my acquisition of the game, and I have been obsessed with it since then. It’s basically Diablo meets Hades (the latter I still haven’t played, don’t hate me) and it’s absolutely exceptional to play.
Yet another title that I picked up to play with friends (that is still fantastic solo), we blinked to find an entire Saturday had disappeared since we were all together venturing deeper through the rapids, finding new weapons (or ‘memories’ for some reason) to pit against ever more infuriating bosses.
I love the artstyle and visuals, the weapon selection, the varied characters and depth in the entirely customisable skill tree- just a title that always feels rewarding to play, even if you’re getting dogshit weapons from the random drops and are praying to find a merchant somewhere on your route.
It’s a really fun time for a damn good price. Grab a controller if you’re not hot on the MOBA approach to keyboard and mouse controls (which I’m not), and be ready the nuke the resolution and settings down if you want to play it on the Deck- which is possible, it’s just not too pretty. Get ready for one of the biggest surprise games I picked up in 2025.
Your free time will not thank you.
Honourable Mention: Planet Coaster 2
Okay, full disclosure, I work for Frontier Developments, and the last two years have been almost solidly working on Planet Coaster 2. Sure, you might see this as me doing the whole ‘Obama giving himself a medal’ meme, but this is moreso a shoutout to everyone else working on the game.
Planet Coaster 2’s 2024 launch was pretty rocky, and in the cutthroat nature of the games industry we’ve come to know over the last few years definitely concerned many, myself included, that PlanCo 2 would be quickly sunset. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. 2025 saw the game get a new lease of life without the immediate necessity of bringing more revenue in as it goes. It was given the time to get back on track, and the development team did a phenomenal job of bringing back the original base game themes from the first Planet Coaster, improving elements which players had their grievances with from the launch of the title, and adding in all new things for free.
This then culminated in the Summer Trailer for Planet Coaster 2, symbolising a fresh start for the game. We’d done our work on improving the experience, now is the time to jump back in and get ready for what’s coming next; that being the Sorcery and Toybox packs.
It’s been one hell of a redemption arc for the game, and getting to be a part of it is still a dream come true. I’ve been in the job for over three years now, and it still doesn’t really get old. The team behind Planet Coaster 2 should be very proud of themselves for giving the game the love it deserves- and as a fan of the games myself (regardless of the fact I’m on the payroll), it means a huge amount to me to see this play out in a positive manner.
As for what 2026 holds, you’ll just have to wait and see.
So there we have it, some notable video game titles I played throughout 2025. It’s a bit of a departure from the Doctor Who content you’re used to from me, but this is about video games- this is what I do.
Let me know if you want to see more ramblings like this about games in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.