10 Underrated Game Releases of 2025 You Should Play

Not every great game makes a big splash, and some slip through the cracks. In 2025, many incredible titles deserved more recognition than they received. Here are ten underrated game releases of 2025 that deserve your time, attention, and a place in your library.

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

Eriksholm is probably the most underrated game on this list. According to SteamDB, the peak player count was only 491, which feels like a crime given how great the game is. You step into the shoes of Hanna, searching for her missing brother in a stunning Nordic city inspired by early 1900s Scandinavia. Everything in this game clicks together effortlessly. The isometric stealth gameplay feels tight and thoughtful, almost chess-like, but never overwhelming.

The game combines rich world-building reminiscent of Dishonored and Thief with intelligent tactical movement that keeps every encounter intense. The visuals are stunning, the performance is smooth, and the voice acting is truly excellent. Add a beautiful score and a serious yet grounded story, and you have a game that feels carefully crafted from beginning to end. This is easily one of the most underrated masterpieces of 2025 and definitely worth your time.

Grimshire

If you’re looking for a cozy farming sim with a dark twist, Grimshire is ideal for you. You arrive in a quiet mountain village after everything you knew falls apart, ready to farm, forage, and restore an old farmhouse. Then the plague starts creeping closer, and suddenly every harvest, decision, and relationship matters. This is a farming sim with real stakes, where keeping the root cellar stocked can mean the difference between hope and despair.

Before long, you become deeply connected to the local community. The writing is powerful, the music is beautiful and haunting, and the characters feel painfully real. Moments of warmth and belonging can be followed by sudden heartbreak, and these contrasts hit hard. You feel responsible for everyone around you, including the animals who become like family. Grimshire is cozy, eerie, emotional, and unpredictable. It challenges you to keep going when things become overwhelming, and that’s exactly why it stands out as one of the most unforgettable and underrated games of 2025.

💡 Tip: Discover more cozy farming sims on our blog about games like Stardew Valley!

Hell is Us

The action-adventure Hell is Us is the kind of game that trusts you to be smart and patient. You’re dropped into an isolated country torn apart by civil war and a strange supernatural disaster, armed with only a sword, a drone, and your instincts. There are no maps, quest markers, or glowing paths to follow. The world-building is excellent, with deep history, politics, and lore that reveal themselves naturally as you explore and pay attention.

The atmosphere is heavy, the music haunting, and the voice acting conveys the tension of a land on the brink. Combat is raw and deliberate, encouraging you to adapt rather than mash buttons. It feels like a refined take on Souls-like storytelling. Mysterious but understandable, hidden but fair. Hell is Us doesn’t try to please everyone, but if you let it draw you in, it becomes one of the most memorable and underrated experiences of the year.

💡 Tip: Take a look at our Best Games of 2025 blog!

Winter Burrow

Winter Burrow is pure comfort wrapped in snow, but it’s far from simple. You return as a tiny mouse to your childhood burrow, only to find it broken, cold, and without the Aunt who was meant to protect it. From there, the game gently guides you into a cozy survival loop of gathering berries and nuts, baking pies, knitting sweaters, and slowly rebuilding a place that feels like home. The winter is harsh, the wilderness dangerous, and getting lost in the snow feels genuinely tense, yet the world remains filled with kindness.

 You help woodland neighbors, grow mushrooms, learn their stories, and find comfort in small routines by the fireplace. Combat exists, but only when it makes sense for a small mouse trying to survive. The art, music, and writing create a storybook atmosphere that feels deeply personal. Winter Burrow is one of those rare games that makes you slow down, care deeply, and appreciate the quiet moments. It’s an easy pick for one of 2025’s most underrated gems.

💡 Tip: Visit our blog on Winter-themed Games for more snowy adventures!

Whiskerwood

The strategy colony sim Whiskerwood looks adorable at first, then quietly consumes your entire day. You’re building thriving mouse cities under the not-so-gentle rule of cat overlords, and that contrast is exactly what makes the game shine. Behind the cute art style is a surprisingly deep city builder with complex production chains, smart automation, and just enough pressure to keep your brain fully engaged.

Optimizing everything feels truly satisfying. You carve into mountains, expand across land and sea, and gradually turn chaos into efficiency. It scratches the same itch as games like Timberborn, but with more complex planning and a darker edge beneath the charm. The developers are clearly listening, continually improving quality of life and expanding the systems in meaningful ways. Even in Early Access, the foundation is solid and highly addictive. Whiskerwood is cozy, clever, and dangerous in that ”just one more cycle” kind of way.

Ritual of Raven

Ritual of Raven takes the cozy farming sim formula and twists it in a way that feels truly fresh. You’re not simply watering crops all day. Instead, you enchant magical constructs to handle the work, transforming your herb garden into a clever web of automation and witchy problem-solving. Setting up these systems is deeply satisfying, especially when everything finally clicks into place and runs smoothly on its own.

The best parts are its charm and story. You fall through a broken portal into a world where magical traditions collide, meet a cast of wonderfully odd characters, and apprentice under a local witch while searching for what was lost when a ritual went wrong. The art style is beautiful, the illustrations are full of personality, and the writing makes every NPC feel unique. With powerful rituals, a Book of Shadows to fill, and nearly endless decoration options, this is a game you can easily lose yourself in.

💡Tip: Head over to our blog on Witchy Games to find games with similar vibes!

Keep Driving

The atmospheric management RPG Keep Driving is a game about slowing down and following the road wherever it takes you. You’re young, it’s the early 2000s, and you’ve just bought your first car. From there, a long summer unfolds in front of you as you chase a festival across the country, choosing your own routes and handling whatever the road throws your way. How you get there, or if you even make it, is entirely up to you.

The pixel art world feels alive, the soundtrack is full of nostalgia, and every hitchhiker you pick up brings their own little story along for the ride. Challenges unfold through a smart turn-based system where skills, upgrades, and whatever junk is in your glovebox can save the day. With multiple endings and short playthroughs, replaying feels natural, not forced. This is one of those games that remind you of road trips you barely noticed at the time but still remember years later. Quiet, heartfelt, and unforgettable, Keep Driving is one of 2025’s biggest surprises.

Discounty

Discounty is one of those cozy games that surprises you with how sharp it actually is. You take over the only discount supermarket in the small harbor town of Blomkest, organizing shelves, managing stock, working the checkout, and striking trade deals to grow your aunt’s not-so-innocent business empire. On the surface, it’s about selling frozen fries and cheap groceries. Underneath, it’s very much about community, power, and the impact of unchecked growth.

The art style is charming, the writing is witty, and the town feels alive with small dramas and shifting relationships. You get to decide how far you want to push profit and what that means for the people around you. It’s relaxed without being shallow, and thoughtful without being preachy. While the story is compact, it delivers strong themes, memorable twists, and a satisfying gameplay loop that never feels stressful. Discounty may be short, but it leaves a lasting impression.

Hell Clock

The roguelike ARPG Hell Clock hits hard, both mechanically and thematically. You descend into brutal dungeons as Pajeú, fighting against twisted remnants of the forces that destroyed Canudos, a real historical tragedy rarely explored in games. Every run is a race against time, pushing deeper for better loot while the world itself seems to warp around you. The result is fast, aggressive, and endlessly addictive.

The game confidently combines deep ARPG systems with cultural identity. You can feel the developers’ passion for the genre in its build crafting, skill trees, and continuous stream of meaningful upgrades. At the same time, the game tells a powerful story inspired by Brazilian history, giving significance to every descent. The art direction is striking, the enemies are nightmarish, and the progression loop is incredibly satisfying. Hell Clock is not just another dungeon grind; it delivers history, passion, and polish in one intense package, making it one of the most underrated action games of 2025.

Wanderstop

Wanderstop isn’t a game you rush through. It’s a game that gently encourages you to slow down and listen. You play as Alta, a fallen fighter running a small tea shop in a magical forest, serving travelers who come with their own stories and quiet struggles. You grow ingredients, brew tea through a wonderfully strange ritual, and talk. A lot. And somehow, that’s where the game resonates the most.

It actively resists optimization. Efficiency is not rewarded; patience is. Sometimes the best thing you can do is sit on a bench, drink a cup of tea, and let your thoughts wander. The writing is funny, warm, and devastating in equal measure, pulling you into caring deeply about characters you didn’t expect to love. With its beautiful presentation and thoughtful design, Wanderstop has something real to say about change, rest, and letting go. It is cozy, yes, but also deeply human.