While the adventure game genre has been absolutely bonkers (in a good way) in 2025, i feel like the rest of the gaming industry is crumbling. Compared to previous years, 2025 has been very light. Even the highly anticipated games like Borderlands 4 have had pretty forgettable starts. 

I've played Atomfall, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, The Alters, Oblivion Remaster, AC Shadows, Indy the Great Circle,  Star Wars Outlaws, Alone in the Dark, Dune: Awakening  and a few that I forgot about or quit.

I view The Great Circle more of an adventure game with action elements so I'll omit that. I enjoyed Oblivion but got burnt out once the nostalgia wore off. KCD2 was a blast for a bit but I got derailed and never found the urge to finish. Same with the Alters. My favorite so far is Atomfall.
I thoroughly enjoyed the choose your own adventure style FPS. Heavy in story and it wasn't too difficult. Very short for an FPS so it allows the time to go back and try other paths. It felt like Fallout with more ending options.

What about you all?

Difficult Question.

Expedition 33 possibly

Indi was great I loved it and the DLC

A lot of love for Silksong, but I bounced off it quick quickly. Haven't played KCD2 . Outlaws was disappointing. AC Shadows was ok but haven't finished it.

Hmm I haven't played a lot of new games this year...

Clair Obscur : Expedition 33 for sure. Very good pacing, very good story, ost to die for. A massive surprise !
Lies of P too with it's dlc ! The best souls-like, which can go against FromSoft easily in my opinion.
Hadès II is a gem, 'cause Supergiant are just so good

Those are the three big I have in mind for the newer games, I'm replaying a lot of game or discover a lot of old games (adventures games especially).
Haven't played Silksong yet. I've never finish Hollow Knight either so...
Monster Hunter Wilds too but it's not finished so I'm not really counting it either.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, fo' sho'.

I haven't played Atomfall yet, though you've already suggested it to me. I'll get around to it!

I wouldn't say the industry is crumbling; I think the situation is that we get games with incredible production values and butter-smooth gameplay, but all the gameplay elements are something we've seen a thousand times before. Despite growing development/marketing costs and the lack of new ideas, that model still works.

I'm willing to admit that Revenge of the Savage Planet is not a highly original game, but it just might be my game of the year.

It seems we're seeing some resurgence of AA games (partially thanks to Unreal 5 maybe?) and also a rise in popularity of action-adventure games of all kinds: Forspoken-like, more linear narrative-driven ones, Zelda-like, combatless "goofing around in an open world", "Kiki's delivery service" and so on.

I'd be interested to see a comprehensive list of recent action-adventures, but at the same time I don't think AGH should spend its resources on reviewing blockbusters like The Great Circle. There are many other sites where I can read about TGC. And if you decide to cover TGC, it's not clear why you overlook dozens of action-adventure games which have a strong narrative, strong puzzle component and less combat than TGC.

Good post. I believe that the AAA industry is in shambles but mostly due to unsustainable growth from 05-2020. Now indies and AA's are each improving and public sentiment about AAA games (they brought that on themselves) is at an all time low and it's blown out the wheels of the hot rod. It's gross to see the gross overspending by the studios execs and the employees being made the fall guy.

Deltarune chapters 3+4 were very good.

I also enjoyed Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, but I'd never played the original, and reviews make it sound like its a wash between the original and remaster. But it did release this year and I did really like it, for how much that counts.

Also playing Silksong now. Never played the original either. Don't know if I'll finish this but I'm still having fun :-)

Herdling. I really love this game,

Didn't play many this year's releases, but I think Silksong gave me quite a bit of fun - ca. 40hrs on the clock, I'm on the last but one boss and I think I'm done for now, but loved the gameplay and atmosphere - all the more impressive when you look at the size of the team behind it.

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was my favorite game so far this year, probably. It felt short compared to the mainline titles that I've played, but we had a lot of fun with it and it was a relaxing and easy game to 100%. But yeah, I've heard nothing but great things about Clair Obscur and it is definitely on my list.