30 Hidden Gems From 2025 To Grab Before The Steam Winter Sale Ends
2025 was an overwhelming year. Let's savor those positives in unlikely places.
With each passing year, the PC gaming scene grows increasingly fragmented. More games are released, and on average they're better, too. There's just not enough time to cover them all, and 2025 was packed with gems you probably haven't heard of. For those willing to go just a little off the beaten path, the current Steam Winter Sale looks like a never-ending bounty of undersold treasures. So here's a carefully curated selection of 15 of my favorites to consider during the last couple days of sales season.
Since the year was so densely packed, I'm annoying the editors by slipping in a thematically related (but less beholden to the rules) alternative to each pick, for 30 games total. As ever, shout out your favourites, or comment if I helped you find something that made your heart sing. Let's go!
Price: $21 / £17.50 (30% off) | Developer: Siris Pendrake
A stunning testament to what a (mostly) solo developer can do with a modern engine and some stock asset packs. Still in early access, but already a very polished, lengthy and non-linear STALKER-inspired shooter with a funky setting. Mankind is effectively extinct. Lizard-people (which you're one of) have inherited the ruins of our civilization, and ancient fae magics leak in through the cracks of reality, as if rogue super-science wasn't enough.
Project Silverfish feels like a pared-down, greased-up version of STALKER. Faster, twitchier, impressively polished (at the expense of some detail), able to run great on even lower-spec machines and requiring less fiddling around between sorties. Expect to be thrown into messy multi-faction battles right off the bat with loads of loot, getting you into deeper expeditions early.
Alternatively: ADACA (50% off) - The previous game from the same developer, and effectively two games in one: A Half-Life 2/Halo-inspired story campaign and a STALKER-lite sandbox. Both surprisingly slick (and officially finished as of 2024), but Silverfish's open world & systems are on another level.
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Price: $14 / £11.72 (30% off) | Developer: Figburn & Melon
Hands up if you've still got a special place in your heart for Flash-era gaming, specifically Newgrounds. Contract Rush DX is a game forged in those familiar fires. It's a little bit Mega Man, a little bit Contra and more than a dash of Alien Hominid, all
Source: PC Gamer
