The 14 most underappreciated games of the last year that you shouldn't have ignored

Either I’m getting old, or the world is just moving too fast. Even outside of the maelstrom that is current events, videogames are flying past faster than anyone can process them—there’s just not enough time in the day. In any given week, a dozen good or even great games might be released. Chances are a lot of the last year’s best slipped under your radar.

Rather than send you scurrying back through a year of reviews and news, here’s a hand-picked assortment of 14 great games from last year that deserve another round in the limelight for an encore, or at least a place on your wishlist for when the next sale rolls around:

Skin Deep

Released: April 30, 2025
Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (738)
PC Gamer coverage: 88% review (Morgan Park)
Peak player count: 490
$20 on Steam

It's Metal Gear Solid in space. It's Die Hard, but you rescue cats (cats who, subsequently, email you). It's Dishonored with comedy weapons: deodorant, soap suds, sneeze-inducing pepper. I will continue namedropping until you buy Skin Deep, one of our favorites of 2025.

As "Deep-Freeze Insurance Commando" Nina Pasadena, you methodically eliminate space pirates in a systems-driven environment, manipulating airlocks, soap dispensers, and security cams to clear a path through 16 different spaceships. Like the best immersive sims, it's about creative problem solving rather than gunning your way through (there's a spit button, which can be used to activate triggers from across a room). The movement is buttery, and the deliberate choice to develop the game in the Doom 3 engine gives Skin Deep a unique retro sheen that pervades every corner.

Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop

Released: December 5th, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (771)
PC Gamer coverage: "A delightfully tactile spaceship repair sim" (Mollie Taylor)
Peak player count: 953
$20 on Steam

If 2022’s FixFox was like getting a part-time summer job at a repair shop (in space), then Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a game about still doing that job for barely-improved wages after twenty years as the world collapses around you. It’s also very funny, intensely clever and layered with roguelike-like chaos that elevates its central mechanic (fixing strange space machinery under pressure while consulting the operator’s manual) to intense heights. The combination of time pressure and the surprising number of permutations each machine can have keeps things fresh. It’s very clever and there's very little like it.

As for why it hadn’t caught on with a broader audience? It’s a bit of an oddball game and hard to really get a feel for without trying it yourself. Launching in the middle of a swarm of early December hits probably didn’t do it many favors. Plus, a stressful, all-too-real work sim that requires players to read and memorize hardware manuals isn’t the easiest pitch. But for those willing to hurl themselves into its abrasive, often-cruel universe there is so much fun to be had here if you’re willing to work for it.

Loco Motive

Released: November 21st, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (659)
PC Gamer coverage: Prototype Impressions (Andy Kelly)
Peak player count: 336
$18 on Steam

Starting life as a game-jam project made in just two weeks, then expanded over the course of several years, Loco Motive is one of the best classic point-and-click adventures around, and we’ve had a good few to pick from in the past few months alone. It’s a comedic murder mystery set aboard a crowded train full of eccentrics and oddballs, with a twisting story that hops between three playable protagonists. Loco Motive really feels like something Lucasarts would have made back in the '90s, but with higher-quality voice acting, some slightly ruder jokes and less obtuse puzzles.

As for why the game hasn’t sold more? Simply put, the genre’s a tough nut to crack. Point-and-click adventures haven’t been in vogue since the '90s. While there have been a couple breakout hits (like the fantastic There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension), those ones tend to stand outside of the classic formula. Even the recent (and excellent) Sam & Max remasters are hardly flying off the (virtual) shelves. Still, I think Loco Motive might be a good starting point for genre newcomers before they go wading into the deep, dark waters of Sierra and Lucasarts’ backlog.

Straftat

Released: October 24th, 2024
Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (7523)
PC Gamer coverage: Best FPS 2024 Award
Peak player count: 960
Free on Steam

So many developers carry a torch for the classic arena FPS. The Unreal Tournaments and Quake 3’s of our world still hold nostalgic appeal, but few attempts to revive the genre have been successful. Oddball, mostly-free 1v1 deathmatch arena Straftat seems to have nailed something elusive though. Despite its cold concrete environments and sickly greenish humanoids being an unusual aesthetic, it has a spark to it. Something about its quickfire rounds, huge number of small maps, chaotic arsenal and knockabout casual nature got its teeth into our crew enough to earn our coveted (and highly contested) Best FPS of 2024 award.

Unlike a lot of games here, Straftat seems to be an ascendant star, with player counts rising as it adds more maps and weapons to both its free and premium versions, now with over 220 maps at the time of writing and no end in sight. Sure, there aren’t thousands of players online at any given time (yet), but for a 1v1 game, that’s not much of an issue. I hope to see this grimy, brutalist internet fight club grow for years to come. If you’ve not tried it yet, why not? It’s literally free.

Penny’s Big Breakaway

Released: February 21st, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (800)
PC Gamer coverage: 80% review (Dominic Tarason)
Peak player count: 228
$15 on Steam, currently on sale

You’d think that a new high-speed 3D platformer from the crew of fangame developers and independent speedsters that gave us Sonic Mania would be an easy hit. It seemed like it was going to be, given the reaction to its announcement trailer. Come the final release, it still seemed a sure thing. Despite a few bugs at launch (largely patched up since), it was a great ride, as you can see in my review above. Great art, great music, great ideas and probably the highest penguins-per-capita level design since Antarctica.

So why didn’t it catch on? Well, it’s an odd beast of a game, not quite playing like any other 3D platformer, adding a dash of Tony Hawk’s trick-chaining on top of maintaining momentum. Plus, it’s a game that only reveals its true depths on replay, with its level design only really clicking once you’ve truly mastered its technical movement. Lastly, it tragically seems that Penny’s adventure is going to be a one-off. Due to the game underperforming, the studio has effectively disbanded, laying off a significant chunk of the already-small team after failing to secure funding for a second title.

Solium Infernum

Released: February 22, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (1,362)
PC Gamer coverage: "I harnessed the power of deceit to conquer hell" (Jody Macgregor)
Peak player count: 1,108
$40 on Steam

Originally released in 2009 and receiving a glossy remake last year, Solium Infernum is still one of the most interesting and distinct grand strategy games of the past few years. It feels deeply inspired by the work of author and artist Wayne Barlowe, famous for his art and novels depicting a surreal, fractured hell fought over endlessly by ambitious demon warlords. While the game’s creature designs aren’t quite as feverishly imaginative as Barlowe’s, it still makes for a compelling hex-based game of positioning, politicking and inevitable backstabbing.

As for what held it back from being a prime-time hit, it’s probably the inherent multiplayer focus of a diplomacy-heavy game. While there’s a good chunk of solo content here, the original version put a heavy focus on playing with real humans (in asynchronous play-by-email style to keep things moving at a decent clip). Making deals with real friends and then stabbing them in the back is so much more satisfying than against NPCs, and for that, you need a group all willing to put money down on a full-priced game. Still, even without being a hit, the game is still growing, with a recent anniversary update bringing a bunch of new content despite the studio itself officially being "in hibernation." A hellish passion project.

MechWarrior 5: Clans

Released: October 17th, 2024
Steam reviews: Mostly Positive (4303)
PC Gamer coverage: 82% review (Jonathan Bolding)
Peak player count: 5,548
$30 on Steam

MechWarrior 5: Clans is a game I’ve dreamt of since childhood. The universe of BattleTech rendered in the shiniest modern graphics, paired with a high-drama space opera story full of bickering pilots and political weaselry, channeling the spirit of the Wing Commander series. It’s a game I’ve been savouring in bite-sized sessions since it launched, and have had a great time with, but it clearly wasn’t the huge hit that the studio were hoping for, leading to another round of tragic layoffs.

It feels like Piranha Games have been trying to kick Charlie Brown’s football. Mechwarrior Online not a breakout hit? The audience say it’s because they want singleplayer. Mechwarrior 5 Mercs’ strongest detractors say they wanted a story-driven mech game, not a sandbox, so the natural next step was Clans. Perhaps the Battletech license is just cursed, considering the fate of Harebrained Schemes. But, despite the downsizing, there’s more Clans coming in the form of a story expansion with power armor and deep space combat, so it’s not all doom and gloom. Hopefully it’s enough to give the game a second wind.

Xenotilt

Released: November 12th, 2024
Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (594)
PC Gamer coverage: 92% review (Kerry Brunskill)
Peak player count: 81
$20 on Steam

The best arcade games can take a minute-long loop and make it last an eternity, and Xenotilt (sequel to 2019’s excellent Demon’s Tilt) is a masterclass at this. Inspired by Naxat’s classic ‘adventure’ pinball games like Devil’s Crush, Xenotilt is a pure score-attack game wrapped in gorgeous sci-fi pixel art and backed by a banger of an FM synth soundtrack. The whole game is set on a single table split into three main ‘floors’, as you squish aliens and bash robots, slowly making each run last longer than the last and learning the tricks to multiplying your score.

If it’s so great, why isn’t Xenotilt better known? Well, in an era where pinball is dominated by monstrous multi-table simulators like Pinball FX and Zaccaria Pinball, a single table is a hard sell. Especially one without Marvel or Williams branding, and nary a ray-traced chrome ball in sight. But oh, what a table it is. It might be a leaner package, but Xenotilt hits different. It should say something that many of the Steam user reviews are from players that have clocked 15+ hours on the game. This is gourmet pinball.

Anton Blast

Released: December 3rd, 2024
Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (2919)
PC Gamer coverage: Launch news (Dominic Tarason)
Peak player count: 1,104
$20 on Steam

Antonblast was one of the best 2D platformers you could play last year, although it feels like it fell out of a portal from 2002, looking, feeling and sounding like an anarchic Game Boy Advance game based on a raucous late '90s/early 2000s cartoon that never existed. Developed largely in parallel with 2023’s hit Pizza Tower, and taking similar inspirations from the Wario Land series (plus a bit of Crash Bandicoot), it’s chaotic fun, as you smash your way into and then back out of levels in search of angry lad Anton’s booze collection, which has been stolen by an egregiously caked-up Satan.

As for why Pizza Tower was a runaway hit with over 60,000 user reviews, while Antonblast is a more modest success? Perhaps just timing—it came later and Pizza Tower had filled that Wario-shaped hole in PC gamers' lives. Also the intentionally low-fi, noisy GBA-styled graphics made for a less screenshot and stream-friendly game. Still, despite not hitting the big leagues it was still a hit in its niche, breaking even within a month of launch. I’m eager to see what Summitsphere brews up next.

The Thaumaturge

Released: March 4th, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (2866)
PC Gamer coverage: 82% review (Maddi Chilton)
Peak player count: 2,733
$35 on Steam

Every good historical drama could use a little bit of magic—something I’ve always broadly believed, and found reaffirmed by The Thaumaturge. Early 1900s Poland is an interesting enough period and place to explore in an RPG, full of unpleasant political and social tensions, but it only gets more interesting when the protagonist is a haggard gentleman mage with a checkered past and a Pokémon-like collection of demons to do his bidding. And it looks gorgeous to boot, and while on the shorter side by RPG standards (maybe 15-20 hours), there’s not much padding on its bones. This is a lean, offbeat take on the genre.

As for why it flew under the radar, developers Fool’s Theory are a bit of an unknown quantity, and the game’s promise of complex, messy historical politics might have sounded a bit esoteric for some. The game’s combat, while interesting, can feel a bit limited compared to other turn-based RPGs, as you’ve only got one character plus one active summon at a time. But still, the blend of real-world history and vivid, dark fantasy works well. Plus, you might learn a bit along the way.

Still Wakes the Deep

Released: June 18th, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (5639)
PC Gamer coverage: 86% review (Elie Gould)
Peak player count: 729
$35 on Steam

Bafta winner Still Wakes The Deep only took me an evening to play through, but I’ve been thinking about it for nearly a year. Probably my favourite of The Chinese Room’s games, it’s a first-person horror adventure set aboard a cheaply-run Scottish mining rig in the '80s that has fallen foul of something lurking deep beneath the waves. While there’s a little bit of stealth and some running and jumping, it feels like playing the lead role in a great horror/disaster movie. And as with the very best of creature-feature horror, the monster (an all-consuming, assimilating mass of sub-aquatic biomatter) is simultaneously very real, physically menacing, and also more than a little bit allegorical, giving you plenty of uncomfortable thoughts to turn over in your head long after the credits roll.

While I would have loved to see Still Wakes The Deep become a breakout hit, it seems to have done respectably well, plus the Steam user review count only tells half the story. The game debuted on Microsoft’s Game Pass, where I binged its perfectly-paced four hours of story in a single sitting. That kind of length is a hard sell for a mid-priced game as the cost of living creeps ever higher, but I can see this one bringing in a fresh wave of new fans every sales season.

Dungeons of Hinterberg

Released: July 18th, 2024
Steam reviews: Very Positive (1597)
PC Gamer coverage: 84% review (Maddi Chilton)
Peak player count: 486
$23 on Steam

Dungeons Of Hinterberg takes the nostalgic feel of classic Zelda-style adventuring and refines it into something strange and new, with a fresh understanding of the importance of escapism. What if you could just head to a picturesque tourist town to battle goblins, hoard loot and throw around magic spells for a week? It’s a strange concept but one the game really digs deep into, as you hang out with other adventuring vacationers (and locals) between your delves into its surprisingly varied, puzzle-heavy dungeons.

As with a few other games in this roundup, Dungeons of Hinterberg was also released on Game Pass, which probably took the edge off its Steam sales figures. But even then, it feels like it has flown under the radar. The game has seen some major updates and improvements since Maddi’s review above, including a comprehensive NG+ mode (complete with tougher combat and some fresh spells to use on the buffed-up monsters), lots of quality-of-life improvements, and most recently a free story expansion with a new playable character. If you missed it the first time round, there’s no time like the present.

Drova: Forsaken Kin

Released: October 15th, 2024
Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (6618)
PC Gamer coverage: "My favourite hidden gem of 2024" (Shaun Prescott)
Peak player count: 2,717
$25 on Steam

I’ll admit to being fashionably late to the party on Drova, but I don’t regret waiting. Now officially complete after a round of massive content updates, I’m happy to call Drova the rightful heir to Gothic’s crown. It’s a highly reactive, challenging action RPG inspired by celtic myth, with you playing as a hapless villager lost in the mythical realm of the gods. You’re not the only person to fall into this magical, hostile place, and nobody is doing particularly well. In fact, without a lot of practice and preparation, most people can and will kick your arse, take your lunch-money and laugh. Still, the combat is faster and more responsive than even the much-delayed Gothic 1 remake, making it more accessible than its inspirations, if not any easier.

I don’t think Drova really had the potential to be a breakout success—even with more accessible overhead-view combat, Gothic-style RPGs are a hard sell—but its very respectable user review count and positive reception highlights that there is a niche here, hungry for more technical, involved action-RPGs. But I can easily see this being a cult hit that people discover and fall in love with for years to come, especially with the changes made post-release.

1000xRESIST

Released: May 9th, 2024
Steam reviews: Overwhelmingly Positive (3471)
PC Gamer coverage: "The best sci-fi story I've experienced in years" (Jess Kinghorn)
Peak player count: 278
$20 on Steam

There is very little that can be said about 1000xRESIST that far smarter people haven’t already said. This is one of those once-a-generation critical darlings, recently nominated for a Hugo award. A complex, layered sci-fi story about a dysfunctional clone society at the end of time that’s also a deep musing on Asian diaspora family dynamics. It is high-concept sci-fi about strange creatures from beyond and what humanity might look like after millennia of cultural and linguistic drift, but also about the anxieties and personality flaws of teenagers living under the pressures of their family and society’s expectations.

As for why more people haven’t played it, I’d guess part of it is because everything I said above sounds incredibly pretentious. It’s hard not to sound that way talking about it. The game’s stylish but obviously low-budget visuals probably don’t sell it too well either. Plus, its nature as a mostly-linear narrative experience means that the experience of watching a Let’s Play or stream isn’t vastly different from playing it yourself. But there is a difference, and your choices, however small, always feel important. If you’ve avoided spoilers so far, grab it, dive in and ride it out. There’s nothing quite like it.