Everywhere you look, industry pundits are compiling their ‘best of’ lists for 2025. Nimbly jumping on that bandwagon, the Alpha Games team voted for their best-loved title of the year.
Our Game of the Year! Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (36 votes)
So, we’re guessing this one comes as a surprise to absolutely no-one. Perfectly in sync with the rest of the gaming universe, the Alpha Games team also voted Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as its number one choice.
This title has swept the board at The Game Awards recently held in Los Angeles, grabbing the top spots for Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, and Best Score and Music, as well as featuring in the top 5 for a whole bunch of other categories.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut title from Sandfall Interactive, made a splash both in and out of the gaming world. The game won the top spot for mainstream publications like Rolling Stone and Time Magazine, while landing positions in the top 5 on many gaming publications’ lists.
Reviewers pointed to specific elements that earned the game its high placements, such as the turn-based combat system that incorporates real-time action inputs. Critics at entertainment and media website IGN noted that the system asks players to time blocks and strikes during enemy turns, which distinguished it from traditional JRPG mechanics.
Our own Tarek ElShennawy, Software Developer at Alpha CRC, gives us his verdict on the game:
“When the motion capture and the voice acting match the level of a high production movie (shout out to Charlie Cox and motion capture actor Maxence Cazorla) and it doesn’t come at the sacrifice of action-packed, turn-based combat and a beautiful painting-like world for you to explore – it’s hard not to have Clair Obscur as your top pick for the year.”
Hollow Knight: Silksong (11 votes)
Who’d have thought that we’d finally see the release of the much-awaited Hollow Knight: SIlksong in 2025? Yes, after years of wondering if it would ever come out, we’re now living in a post-Silksong world. And what a splash it made.
Team Cherry’s sequel to Hollow Knight fared well in many critics’ lists this year, with a number of industry commentators placing it in their top 5. While its difficulty proved a topic of heated discussion, as did some issues with its Chinese localization, the game is ultimately going down as a stone-cold classic.
Our own Ken Chang, Head of AI Development at Alpha, shared his experiences. Beware, spoilers may follow:
“I spent about 30 hours on the game, it still has more content that I haven’t explored, but I was able to finish the game and get an ending, I didn’t try to do everything but clearly the game can also cater to people who are perfectionists and they would find satisfaction in getting 100% in this game. The most memorable scene of the game was probably the revenge scene in the Slab area, when Hornet jumped down from above and executed the guy who kidnapped her.”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (9 votes)
An early surprise hit for 2025, the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II team really hit it out of the park with this one.
The narrative picks up almost immediately where its predecessor left off back in 2018. Henry, a blacksmith’s son turned warrior, is thrown into the middle of dynastic politicking and bloodshed played out by a diverse and complex cast, including real historical figures.
Fans of the game praised its immersion, sometimes refusing to indulge the classic power fantasy that many titles allow their players.
With the ability to approach objectives through combat, stealth, or dialogue, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has definitely earned its reputation as a classic among fans of the RPG genre.