A fun and insightful look at the biggest games of 2025, where two creators guess Metacritic scores and share their hot takes. The friendly competition reveals a diverse landscape of hits, misses, and surprise successes.
The 2025 gaming year presents a diverse and competitive landscape, where highly anticipated sequels from established franchises compete alongside ambitious new intellectual properties. There is a clear distinction between titles that achieve critical acclaim, those that are met with mixed reception, and a few notable commercial failures. The criteria for success are varied, encompassing everything from narrative depth and emotional resonance to innovative gameplay mechanics and technical polish.
At the pinnacle of critical reception are games like Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, both celebrated for their ambitious scope and human-centric storytelling. These titles demonstrate a commitment to deep, rewarding experiences. In contrast, games like MindsEye represent the other end of the spectrum, becoming notable for their significant technical and design flaws. Other titles, such as Avowed and Assassin's Creed Shadows, generate more divided opinions, offering solid mechanics but failing to innovate or deliver compelling narratives, often feeling formulaic or underdeveloped in their open-world designs.
Established series like Doom, Monster Hunter, and Civilization continue to evolve, though not always to universal praise. Doom: The Dark Ages offers another excellent, yet distinct, combat model, while Monster Hunter Wilds streamlines its formula, which proves divisive among the hardcore fanbase. Cooperative experiences also remain prominent, with Split Fiction building upon the success of games like It Takes Two, even if its writing is considered a step back. Sequels such as Death Stranding 2 showcase immense technical prowess but raise questions about creative iteration, feeling less groundbreaking than their predecessors. This highlights a central tension between delivering familiar comforts and pushing creative boundaries.
