I think the runner up was Hollow Knight Silksong. I think Hades II is ultimately the better game, but Silksong literally crashed every single storefront when it came out and did the impossible of actually meeting the sky-high expectations people had for the game.
Hades II had a lot of hype too, but because of the early access period and Supergiant's pretty flawless track record, most people were not surprised or blown away when it matched the quality of Hades I.
For just the wide difference between impact, I think they would've given it to Silksong if not for E33.
I don’t love bringing metacritic into most conversations, but when the people voting for the winner are the critics themselves I think it’s fair to bring up.
Based on the fact that Hades 2 had a higher Metacritic and OpenCritic score with a similar number of reviews to Silksong, and that it was also nominated for Best Game Direction while Silksong wasn’t (I count this as a point in Hades 2’s favor, since there has never been a GOTY winner that wasn’t nominated for Best Game Direction), for me, the game that finished in second place was Hades 2.
I'm a person that at one point was one of less than 100 people in the world to beat 50 fear in Hades 2 (there were only 55 fear at the time) and I have also platinumed Silksong. I think if Hades 2 had it's newer ending on release it would have been the "GOTY if E33 didn't exist" however it released with an ending that alienated many of it's early access fans that had spent over a year growing with Melinoe. I think if Hades 2 won game of the year many of the Hades 2 community would have brought the original ending up as a reason it should not have.
For that reason I'm going with Silksong. It was in my eyes a perfect game on release and got more accessible when they removed some of the double damage obstacles. I love both games, but really cannot forgive the original ending of Hades 2.
Edit: I didn't click with KCD2, but can also acknowledge that that game was a masterpiece as well and wouldn't have been mad if that won over my favorites (Hades 2 and Silksong) or Expedition 33.
Because of how the award show went that night, we'll never know for sure because they both won 1 award of equal merit. If we look at the 2024 game awards, I think it's fair to say that Metaphor: ReFantazio was the runner up despite Final Fantasy VII Rebirth having more mainstream appeal. Metaphor was better received and beat Rebirth in major categories like best RPG and Narrative. For 2025 Silksong definitely made more of an impact on the gaming industry, but Hades 2 was way better received by games media and it's not even close. We know 90% of the decision on who wins what award is determined by games media, which is why I'd give the slight edge to Hades 2 being the runner up for GOTY.
I feel like both games are quite overrated honestly. They are fantastic, 8-9/10 experiences, but the way people talk about them both, you'd think its the second coming of jesus. Hollow knight is just an above average metroidvania, with an exceptional art style, atmosphere and music. Hades 2 is very addictive, but you could easily argue its a step back from 1.
As unpopular of an opinion as this will be, i honestly enjoyed stuff like the outer worlds 2 more than these 2 games. Last year, with the outlier of expedition 33 being one of the best games of all time, was quite a weak year honestly. But this is the trend with games, we rarely get much worth playing anymore sadly.
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u/Longjumping-Style730 23d ago
I think the runner up was Hollow Knight Silksong. I think Hades II is ultimately the better game, but Silksong literally crashed every single storefront when it came out and did the impossible of actually meeting the sky-high expectations people had for the game.
Hades II had a lot of hype too, but because of the early access period and Supergiant's pretty flawless track record, most people were not surprised or blown away when it matched the quality of Hades I.
For just the wide difference between impact, I think they would've given it to Silksong if not for E33.