Your holiday game backlog just got more interesting.
It’s the holiday season and if you’re one of the many gamers who will be taking a quick break this month, it's likely that you also have a long backlog of games you want to try or catch up on from the entire year. So, if you’re looking to reward yourself and hunker down for endless nights of gaming (at least until your break is over), we’ve got some recommendations on what could be worth your time.
Here are five games you should absolutely catch up on over the holidays season:
Clair Obscur: Expediition 33 (2025)
There’s a reason Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won so many awards, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025, and it’s not just hype.
The game takes you on a beautiful, emotional journey, drawing you in with mysteries and secrets that unfold slowly as you explore. This journey is brought to life through excellent voice acting, hand-painted art that perfectly fits the game's themes, clever musical arrangements, and countless other touches, making every moment feel truly rewarding.
Even though I haven’t been a fan of turn-based games lately, Expedition 33 pulled me back in, thanks to fresh mechanics like powerful counterattacks triggered after a successful parry. Its systems are intricate, reminiscent of classic JRPGs where you gradually collect and build characters, optimising their strengths and skills to suit your team. Along the way, you’ll find yourself deeply invested in the story and the characters, especially Gustave.
Before long, you find yourself thinking, “just thirty more minutes… maybe one more hour,” while playing, completely absorbed in what comes next.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S including Game Pass, and PC via Steam or Game Pass.
Satisfactory (2024)
The survival/crafting/base-building genres have a tendence to inadvertently pull you into hours of play, especially if you enjoy building things from scratch. One game that stands out from the rest is Satisfactory.
Even before leaving early access, Coffee Stain Studio’s Satisfactory was already a great time sink, and now that it’s fully launched, it’s even better with an actual end-game in sight.
In Satisfactory, you play as an engineer for FICSIT Inc., a massive intergalactic corporation tasked with extracting resources and building factories on alien planets. Your goal is to create increasingly complex automated factories, optimise production chains, and explore the planet for valuable resources. Think Minecraft meets Factorio, in a beautifully rendered world.
The planet’s landscapes are breathtaking, though not without danger, as monsters and poisonous plants lurk across the terrain. Beyond exploration, the game is packed with tools and intricate blueprints to construct wild bases and factory lines. You can even create a roller coaster-like machine to travel around the planet in a tube. Building every piece and connecting every factory line is… well, truly satisfactory.
Satisfactory is available on PC via Steam, and recently became available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, allowing crossplay progression.
Absolum (2025)
2025 has been a great year for indie games, and Absolum is definitely one you shouldn’t sleep on. Perhaps consider spending some time hacking through it over the holidays.
A near-perfect fusion of a Hades-style roguelite and a Streets of Rage-style beat ’em up, Absolum comes from Dotemu, Supamonks, and Guard Crush Games,, the team behind Streets of Rage 4. The game was nominated at The Game Awards 2025 for Best Independent Game.
Set in a high-fantasy world, you pick one of four unique characters and embark on a run, collecting resources as you go. When you die, you return to a hub to spend those resources on permanent upgrades, and chat with NPCs for story snippets. Each run adds new events and layers of world-building.
What sets it apart are its branching paths. Every run offers multiple forks through different biomes, each with unique enemies, NPCs, secrets, and quests. Combat is satisfying from the start; every hit lands with impact, and perfectly timed heavy strikes and defensive dashes let you chain combos with style.
Rituals act like Hades’ boons, letting you augment your kit with new abilities. They may not be as tightly synergised, but they keep each run varied and interesting. Absolum may not reinvent the roguelite, but as a beat ’em up evolution, it’s tight, refined, and utterly compelling.
Absolum is available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Nintendo Switch.
Zexion (2025)
With most eyes on the most-anticipated indie games like Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades II, and crowd-pleasers Peak and Megabonk, one hidden gem of a Metroidvania is Zexion from Gallant Leaf. For fans of classic Metroid exploration, this game hits all the right notes, blending atmospheric world-building with fast, precise combat.
Developed over 15 years by a single creator, Zexion combines a semi-open, interconnected world with intense twin-stick shooter mechanics. Players pick up upgrades for movement, health, missiles, and a variety of weapons, opening up new ways to tackle challenges and explore previously unreachable areas. Every run feels packed with discovery, from underwater depths to heavily fortified enemy bases, with surprises and faction conflicts around every corner.
Boss fights are challenging and often push into bullet-hell territory, but checkpoints and mid-fight respawns keep the action fair. The game also includes extensive accessibility options, from adjustable difficulty and damage to infinite ammo, custom game speed, and save states, letting players tailor the experience however they like.
If you enjoyed Silksong, Zexion could easily be your next obsession. With hidden secrets, varied biomes, and plenty of upgrade paths, it’s a rich and replayable adventure that deserves attention this holiday season.
Zexion is available on PC via Steam.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (2024)
If you’re looking for a game that flew under the radar despite its strengths, one of 2024’s most overlooked releases, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, is worth catching up on over the holidays.
Released in February 2024, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a narrative-driven action RPG from Don’t Nod that puts choice and consequence front and centre. Set in a bleak, supernatural take on 17th-century New Eden, the game follows ghost hunters Red mac Raith and Antea Duarte, whose partnership is upended when Antea is killed early on and bound to the world as a spirit.
Each haunting investigation is built around personal tragedies, rather than simple right-or-wrong outcomes. Players are asked to decide who should be saved, punished, or sacrificed, and those decisions rarely come without discomfort. The game is at its strongest when it forces you to sit with those outcomes instead of smoothing them over.
What makes it stick is how committed it is to that discomfort. The pacing is deliberate, the tone unflinching, and the focus stays firmly on consequence rather than spectacle. It’s the kind of game that asks you to slow down, think, and live with your choices which makes it a surprisingly good fit for a long holiday break.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
After spending time with games like these, it’s easy to remember why the holidays are such a good excuse to sink into a backlog: whether you’re chasing secrets, perfecting a combo, or finally finishing a story you left hanging.
So grab a controller, settle in, and let yourself get pulled in; these are the kinds of games that make hours disappear before you even notice.
