Ukie team’s Game of the year 2025

It’s been a standout year for games, with more great releases than anyone has time for!

You may have seen the Game Awards, but what’s been on our screens? Here are the Ukie team’s top picks.

 

Nick – As Long As You’re Here (Autoscopia Interactive)

Originally started as a student project, this beautiful little game is a heartbreaking journey into the experience of Alzheimer’s’ disease. The visual design is stunning, with subtle animation, environmental effects and a UI that blends into the gameplay. The audio design is immersive and the game draws you in – which makes the loss of context and certainty all the more powerful.

It’s not the first game to use gradual changes in the environment to give you a sense that the world around you (and your perception of it) are playing tricks on you, but it is one of the most effective I’ve seen. It is also a beautifully-told story, which deals not only with the protagonist’s experience, but also the impact on the people that love and care for her. The whole game really shows what can be achieved through immersive narrative, great design and thoughtful interaction. It has stayed with me ever since.

 

 

Sam – Pondlife (Runaway)

My undisputed game of the year is Pondlife by New Zealand developer Runaway. Historically, my game time revolves around playing stressful experiences like Supermarket Simulator (those shelves won’t stack themselves), Football Manager (why is my highly paid striker so inept) and Rainbow 6 (should I peak or will I get shot?). This year I’ve been trying out some cosier, calmer experiences and have really enjoyed the wonderful combination of water sounds, cute aesthetics, and pure joy of seeing my fish grow in this mobile game.

 

 

Yiren – Silent Hill F (Neobards)

My mother is the person I look up to the most. She battled all the patriarchal societal expectations from her husband, parents in law and many others to become a woman with her own career in early 2000s China. Silent Hill f’s protagonist Hinako reminds me of my mum – a girl who wants to be something more than the “wife and mother” character that society has bestowed upon her. It is a horror masterpiece beyond the astonishing visuals and suffocating atmosphere, but through the brutality of reflecting on the social issues towards women channelled from the thousands of years of practice of patriarchal social structure in East Asia. The game is also very culturally rich and accurate, with an appealing story that builds into the world of Silent Hill. To me, this is a primary example of a game being more than just a game.

 

 

Isabell – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall)

My game of the year is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with all its Woos and Wees. Set in a hauntingly beautiful world with hints of eerie undercurrents, its twisting plot drives you forward, despite punishing fights that reward rhythm as much as the ability to repeatedly tolerate humiliating defeats, even though you “definitely parried that”. The characters you meet are infuriating and lovable, and motivate you to triumphantly min-max, only to have them torn out of the next boss fight instantly after an OHKO. Clair Obscur made me cry within the first minutes, and whether it’s enjoyment or Stockholm syndrome, I wish I could experience it again for the first time.

 

 

Helen – Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Project RED)

A bit of  a cheat as I actually started this in Oct 2024, but finished in Jan 2025 however nothing has come close to the emotions I felt during Cyberpunk 2077 – especially Phantom Liberty DLC which has the best non-Bond Bond song I’ve ever heard. Night City truly is the main character of this game and I’m sure there’s stuff in there that no player has seen yet. Very excited for news about a future Chicago in Cyberpunk 2 coming out in a few years.

 

 

Bhavina – Indian Jones and the Great Circle (Machine Games)

From the opening moments, it threw me straight back into the feel of the classic films; that intro had me hooked instantly! It packs in everything I loved about the movies: satisfying puzzles, big set-piece action, and just the right dose of corny Indy charm. With no online mode, you can really dive into the story without distractions, making the whole experience wonderfully absorbing. It’s nostalgic, fun and exactly what I wanted from a modern, easy-going adventure game. And yes… snakes. So many snakes.

 

 

Colm – Blue Prince (Dogubomb)

2025 has been a special year. Clair Obscur, Silksong and Rematch have been personal highlights, alongside an original God of War trilogy revisit that elicited very mixed emotions. But my goty goes to Blue Prince, a wonderfully realised puzzle game of near-unfathomable depth, dripping with character, atmosphere, mystery and melancholy proving that there is yet more life in roguelikes. My girlfriend fell heavily for this game and it’s been a comforting backdrop to a new relationship. It’s a rare joy that a critical and commercial hit like Blue Prince is fully approachable to a new player.

 

 

Gareth – Thank Goodness You’re Here (Coal Supper )

I know I’m a bit late to the party as it swept the Ukie awards and Baftas last year, but my highlight of the year is Coal Supper’s northern powerhouse. A hilarious slapformer in the vein of League of Gentlemen, Wallace and Gromit and Monty Python, clever mechanics meet great animation and tremendous performances. Makes you proud to be British whilst also reminding you of the unseemly graffiti found in your hometown.

 

 

Kiera – Crusader Kings III (Paradox)

While on the surface a simple strategy game that has been described as ‘for men what sims 4 is to women’ this is a game of incredible depth. With approximately 102 achievement challenges available on the Xbox version, no two playthroughs are ever the same. By allowing the player to completely rewrite history, the rise of their house becomes their success and its fall the consequences of reaching too high.  It is a game about building solid foundations, learning to cooperate and how rising to the top is the easy part, the true challenge lies in staying there.

 

 

Zara – Deltarune Chapter 3 & 4 (Toby Fox)

Though there’s still half the game yet to come, this much-anticipated instalment to Undertale’s parallel story shatters expectations set by the first 2 chapters. Deltarune breaks the fourth wall to tell a nuanced and engaging narrative about morality, agency, and friendship. You, the player, have as significant a role in the unfolding story as the characters on your screen. The game rewards you for being invested through easter eggs and hidden clues about upcoming chapters that the community online frantically deciphers. It’s fun, emotional, hilarious, sometimes eerie, and yes I did beat the absurdly difficult Chapter 3 secret boss.

 

 

 

Tom – Battlefield 6 (Battlefield Studios)

People keep saying that triple A is dead, but Battlefield 6 proves how wrong that is. It shows just how far modern games have come and how developers are still pushing the standard higher every year. The scale, the detail and the moment to moment action all come together to create something genuinely impressive.