5 Games You May Have Missed In 2025 That You Can Play In 2026

These days, there are far more games launching on a regular basis than any single person can hope to keep track of. Even with our site focusing mostly on online free-to-play games, it’s easy to overlook something. Very often, attention is drawn to the “biggest thing”, drama, or those developers who have the manpower to put their game right in front of us with email or social media.

Earlier today, as I was poking through Steam, I stumbled across a game that I’d missed previously and wondered what else I’d overlooked this past year. For the most part, the games on this list are smaller games. Some are little indie projects. Others were more ambitious. And at least one is by a well-known developer, but was also overlooked.

I’m not going to rate the quality of these games. I haven’t played them yet. But they are free, which means it costs you nothing to give them a try the next time you’re looking for something to do.

Sword of Justice

This game came out about a month before Where Winds Meet, and that’s probably a big reason it was overlooked. There was already an open-world Wuxia-style game getting all the attention by that point. Sword of Justice is an open-world MMO with PvP and co-op play that also features an NPC companion system for those who’d rather solo their dungeons. Watching the trailer, it felt a bit like I was looking at something on par with Final Fantasy XIV, graphically speaking – which isn’t bad. It just doesn’t feel quite as shiny as some other games.

As far as the player impression goes, the Steam ratings are mixed, with about 63% of reviews over the last month being positive. It should be noted that there are fewer than 2,000 reviews. That’s not too surprising, as the all-time peak for consecutive players was 6,400, and the current player base seems to have somewhere between 500 and 1,500 players online.

Blood Strike

NetEase came out with quite a few games last year, and while some of them got our attention, others seemed to fly under the radar. One of these is the PvP shooter Blood Strike. This game features a few combat modes, including battle royale.

The game is definitely smaller than a lot of its counterparts, with its highest consecutive player peak being a little over 6,000 about eight months ago. More recently, it seems to hover somewhere around 4,000 consecutive players. Those players seem pretty happy with the game, though, as the Steam reviews are mostly positive, with the last month’s worth of reviews being very positive.

Drift Legends 2

Drift Legends 2 is another game with a smaller player base. But going by the reviews on Steam, folks seem to be having a good time with it. There are some comments about paywalls and the like, but the overall view seems to be that the game isn’t bad – particularly because it’s free. That said, if you’re looking for realistic driving, this game apparently isn’t that. It has online co-op and PvP in addition to the single-player content. Based on the game’s current player base, you might end up doing the single-player content more than anything else.

Darkest Days

Whether or not you’re in the market for another zombie shooter RPG, this wouldn’t be a proper game listing without one. So, we have Darkest Days from NHN. I’m not sure how much action you’ll get in this particular game, as the player base seems to hover between 500 and 800. And, well, the reviews are split.

That said, it looks like pretty much what you’d expect out of a post-apocalyptic zombie survival shooter. Dead cities, unpleasant environments, hordes of the undead wandering around, and plenty of vehicles and arms to take them out with. It could end up being a fun time, or you could hate yourself for spending the hard drive space on it. Either way, there’s only one way to find out.

Grapples Galore

While it isn’t the most graphically stunning game, the multiplayer arena shooter Grapples Galore seems to be pretty popular with its player base. Unfortunately, like the other games, it doesn’t have a massive amount of players. But it seems like one of those things that could be a good time for a while – or at least a few laughs. After all, the primary selling point is that you can shoot at your friends while grappling around the map in really crazy ways. The maps seem to consist of floating islands. So players will probably have to work to get good at the game.

The monetization in the game is cosmetics. So if you enjoy it enough, you can throw the devs a few bucks that way. There are five packs in total, and the whole set will run you less than $20.