Blue Prince

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs

Current goal: Reach the beginning of the end

Blue Prince is a genre-defying puzzle game (currently included with Game Pass and PS Plus) that mashes together elements of Inscryption, Gone Home, and adventure games with layers that are slowly pulled back to reveal satisfyingly unexpected epiphanies. You explore a mysterious mansion in first-person with the hook that you’re “drafting” which rooms appear in front of you every time you open a door. Progress is run-based and governed by resource management, including stamina, which is needed to keep opening new doors. That’s the roguelite part, and on its face, these elements don’t make Blue Prince anything extraordinary.

But the more you explore, linking fixtures and references from one part of the mansion to another, a deeper, more compelling experience begins to unfold. It’s the iceberg effect. I’m currently at the cusp of that second headspace and hoping to crack into it for good this weekend. Despite being the highest Metacritic-rated release of 2025 so far, there’s already been some lowkey debate around whether Blue Prince is overrated. Personally, the very fact that people are disagreeing about that is another notch in its favor. You can read a great interview with the creators over at Bloomberg. — Ethan Gach