GotY 2025 - Biggest Surprise

We all want to play great video games. This hobby of ours is not a cheap one, and it also asks a lot out of us in terms of how we spend our time. So it's oftentimes easy to stick to tried and true titles that you know you will like, or have played before. That makes these surprise games that much more exciting when we discover a gem we had hopes for, but weren't entirely sure what to expect. 

Welcome to the CGR Team's day one 2025 Game of the Year reflections, starting with our biggest and most pleasant surprises. 

Nick: Epic NPC Man Nice Day for Fishing

I love the source material for this game, as I’ve been a fan of Viva La Dirt League for years now. I think their skits are often hilarious and as I pointed out in my review, this video game did a fantastic job capturing that mirthful magic with expert callbacks to the web episodes. What I did not expect, was a reasonably solid RPG baked into all of that fan service. I mean, on the surface it’s a game about fishing. It’s not an incredibly deep RPG, but this title surprised me with systems that were more interesting and progression that was more carefully thought out than I had been expecting. The end result was a game that I found a joy to play.

 

PY: Warriors Abyss

I love, and I mean LOVE a good musou. That should be no surprise to long time readers. If one is coming out, I’m generally trying to wrestle it away from Nick.

But Warriors Abyss had me question if a roguelike approach was really a good idea for the chaotic hacking, slashing and power attack moves that we’ve all come to love since the days of the PS2.

Yes, yes it was. Top down isometric view, keeping everything that makes a musou a musou, this shift in direction had me coming back every day after work just to TRY to make it further. With no permanent leveling in place, your unlocks for extra attack power, defense and new characters would have had me nailbiting if only my fingers weren’t so busy hitting almost every button on the controller!! 

Susan: Drill Core

Drill Core was not on my list of anticipated games this year, and somehow I played more of it than I was expecting. It's a 2D game that allows you to defend the generator while still collecting precious minerals in the mines below. To do all that, you get resources to buy different turret types that will defend your generator. You also buy different buildings like the lab and the barracks which help you upgrade your workers and weapons as well as hiring more people to get the job done. To push the drill further down, you must make a quota and then decide whether or not you can handle going deeper into the core. 

What was interesting about the game was that you could get all sorts of upgrades and paths that help fit your playstyle and I loved how much you could actually do to be successful during each level. But part of what made the game surprising was how long I could play in a single mission without it feeling boring. You have to worry about enemies underground as well as above ground. At various points, you get to face a boss creature that gets more terrifying each time you find them. Hopefully, you're prepared for that sort of thing.

Anyways, I was genuinely surprised that this is the sort of game that I enjoyed because I kept thinking to myself 'just one more level lower'. It was around 4 or 5am one night that I said to myself that I needed to stop playing and go to bed. I could have kept going but by that point I was just sleepy and putting it off. Drill Core surprised me, I played a bunch of it, and I almost lost sleep. If that's not an endorsement for this game, I don't know what is!

Valerie: Reus 2

This game, Reus 2, that I reviewed was a surprise for me. I hadn't played a God game before, so there were new parameters for me to get used to. The building part of the game was definitely familiar because I've played all sorts from Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom to Space Engineers and more. 

Well, having more than one 'god' with each being a different elemental was fun for sure. It certainly made for a fun time trying to figure out what goes with what. There were a lot of clues, hints and tips on each popup screen describing what it was, what it can do, and what to mix it with. Definitely a game I will come back to time and again.

Richard: Lumo 2

More of a surprise because I didn’t even know a sequel to Lumo was being developed, but here we are! An upgrade in puzzles, and character height, Lumo 2 was not only a title I somehow managed to completely miss news of, but also the gameplay was adjusted in ways I wasn’t expecting. Lot’s of fun though, if you want a rough puzzle platformer that’s old-school hard, definitely Lumo 2 is a good pick.

~~~