From Skate to 2XKO, why wait when you can already play the best early access games of 2025

These days you don't need a game to be finished to know it's one of the best you'll play this year. There's a good chance you'll have sunk more time into an early access game than one that's been shipped, and when these are releases that the devs are working closely to the community when it comes to considering how to improve and add more to it, it can usually only get better.

It's not necessarily an approach that can work for every game and developer, such as one where the narrative is paramount (but then again, tell that to Larian and its barnstorming success with Baldur's Gate 3), but given the agonizing long wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong, sometimes just being able to experience a partially complete game can work wonders for engaging fans, especially when more early access games have been launching at a level of polish that makes you do a double-take at that label. These are then the five early access games that are worth turning up for now, when you can be in the know and tell your friends 'I was there' when it all blew up.

5. R.E.P.O.

Developer: Semiwork
Platform(s): PC

Like Lethal Company but with muppet robots for avatars, this online co-op horror has been one of 2025's viral hits. With up to six players, you explore dark and dank environments in the hopes of finding and extracting valuable objects while avoiding the horrors lurking within. The charm comes from both the physics-y nature of handling objects as well as its use of proximity chat, which the bots articulate by flapping their mouths like Terrance and Phillip, which reaches a whole other level once the monsters start showing up. The somewhat high player count might be a barrier for those who struggling to schedule that many pals together for a session, though Semiwork is also planning on introducing public matchmaking (with a kick button to counter any trolls), but once you have a party going, it's guaranteed to have you laughing and screaming in equal measure.

4. White Knuckle

Developer: Dark Machine Games
Platform(s): PC

Climbing in games can either be zenlike or punishing, and this first-person roguelite speed-climbing game is very much in the latter camp. If there wasn't already enough tension of trying to escape an oppressive towering facility with dark ooze gradually rising after you, it's watching your hands get redder and redder as fatigue begins setting in with each grip. While an inventory of tools will be crucial in your survival, from a hammer to rope, that also brings with it a stressful juggle where hesitation and indecision can prove fatal. Given the recent wave of boomer shooters, it's also refreshing to see that retro aesthetic put into a game where it's not about the guns but your hands. With tons of variety and routes already across its three main areas, this is a thrilling roguelite that will keep you in its grip.

3. Skate

Developer: Full Circle
Platform(s): PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Even as an early access release, the wait for a new Skate since 2010's Skate 3 has been agonizingly long, coming five years after a new one was officially confirmed. For the nostalgic, this new online-only free-to-play Fortnitification of Skate is perhaps not exactly what everyone had been expecting, while performance issues haven't helped. Yet while San Vansterdam has had its share of memes, it still nails the actual feel of skateboarding that set the cult series apart from Tony Hawk with its unique Flick-it control system that now has a whole evolving open world of challenges for you take part in, controversially also being as much a parkour game as a skateboarding one. Haters may lament its lack of grit and punk attitude, though it's also fitting in the narrative of a city taken over by a corporation, but love it or hate it, it's still Skate.

Learn more in our Skate feature, which says it "might have finally found the perfect formula for a skateboarding game"

2. Grounded 2

Developer: Obsidian / Eidos Montreal
Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series X/S

Crossing Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with A Bug's Life, Obsidian's co-op survival game Grounded was a surprise success that naturally called for a bigger sequel, if that's the right way to put it. But that's just what Grounded 2 does as your shrunken teens' new adventure swaps the backyard for a public park, filled with all new everyday objects given a deliciously dangerous twist, literally so when a knocked-over ice cream cart makes for a freezing environment. To brave against the new perils, you can also build bases, or best of all, raise your own mountable insects called buggies! Of course, it's not without its fill of the other kind of bugs as a still-incomplete game, but you have to hand it to Obsidian (along with Eidos Montreal) for managing to bring this out alongside two full releases in 2025.

Learn more in our Grounded 2 review, which calls the game "terrific fun, even if this is currently a slightly safe sequel to a true original"

1. 2XKO

Developer: Riot Games
Platform(s): PC

The hardcore niche of fighting games is a tough nut to crack for any new IP, but if anyone's going to do it, it would certainly be the creators of one of the best MOBA games, League of Legends – which already has a staggering roster primed for adapting from MOBA champions into fighting machines. That Riot house style is still present though as this isn't just a 2v2 tag fighter but also one where you can actually play in co-op with another player, so newcomers don't have the pressure of having to learn two characters. But while this free-to-play fighter ditches the traditionally complex motion inputs that makes it very beginner-friendly, it's still crammed with mechanical depth for those looking to chain into ridiculous combo strings while switching between characters. It's perhaps only the relatively small roster of 11 fighters that will remind you of its early access status.

If you're looking for more of our rankings, be sure to check out the best games of 2025.