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The 15 Best Video Games of 2026... So Far

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - July 12th 2026, 13:00 GMT+2

15. Saros (2026)

*Saros* throws players onto Carcosa, a hostile alien world where every firefight feels like the planet itself has filed a personal complaint. The appeal is not just the bullet-hell chaos, but the way failure becomes part of the rhythm, pushing you to return sharper, meaner, and slightly more suspicious of glowing objects. It has that satisfying “one more run” cruelty, where punishment and progress keep shaking hands behind your back. | © Housemarque

Windorse — 14. Windrose (2026)

*Windrose* makes piracy feel less like a costume party and more like a dangerous job with terrible weather, questionable maps, and friends yelling over co-op voice chat. Sailing, crafting, base-building, and naval combat all feed into that classic survival-game trap where you promise to log off after one more island and then accidentally lose an evening. It is rough in places, but the roughness fits a game about chasing fortune across waters that clearly want you dead. | © Kraken Express

13. Forza Horizon 6 (2026)

Japan is the dream setting racing fans have been yelling about for years, and *Forza Horizon 6* knows exactly how much pressure comes with that fantasy. Neon city streets, mountain roads, changing seasons, and ridiculous car culture all give the series a fresh playground without breaking its comfort-food appeal. It still understands the simple joy of driving very fast through a beautiful place while pretending the next race is not just an excuse to buy another car. | © Playground Games

12. 007 First Light (2026)

*007 First Light* works because it does not treat James Bond like a fully polished statue from scene one. This is a younger, less controlled version of the spy, still learning how to turn charm, violence, gadgets, and improvisation into something resembling professionalism. The best missions let stealth, action, and social manipulation blur together, giving the game room to feel like Bond without simply playing dress-up with the movies. | © IO Interactive

Cairn 2026 — 11. Cairn (2026)

*Cairn* turns mountain climbing into a full-body argument with nature, where every grip, ledge, and bad route choice feels uncomfortably personal. Instead of treating the climb like background scenery, the game makes the ascent the entire emotional engine, forcing patience in a medium that usually rewards sprinting directly into danger. It is quiet, tense, and surprisingly brutal, because gravity does not need a health bar to be the villain. | © The Game Bakers

10. Forbidden Solitaire (2026)

*Forbidden Solitaire* takes one of the most familiar card games in existence and drags it through a cursed old computer until it starts blinking at you from the dark. The horror works because the solitaire itself is not an afterthought; the cards still matter, the choices still bite, and the weird atmosphere creeps in around the edges instead of drowning the mechanics. It feels like finding a haunted CD-ROM in a drawer and foolishly deciding, yes, this is tonight’s plan. | © Grey Alien Games

9. Mewgenics (2026)

*Mewgenics* sounds like a joke someone should have stopped halfway through the pitch, which is exactly why it becomes so dangerous once the systems click. Breeding strange cats, building tactical teams, managing traits, and watching tiny disasters multiply gives the game a nasty little strategic heartbeat beneath all the gross-out comedy. It is funny, ugly, and weirdly thoughtful about inheritance, sacrifice, and the terrible responsibility of creating the most cursed pet family imaginable. | © Edmund McMillen

8. Pragmata (2026)

*Pragmata* finally steps out of delay limbo with a sci-fi setup that feels sleek on the surface and surprisingly old-school underneath. The partnership between Hugh and Diana gives the action a clever rhythm, mixing shooting with hacking puzzles that make combat feel more involved than simply unloading bullets into shiny robots. Its lunar setting is cold and strange, but the game’s best quality is focus: it knows what it is, and it does not try to become everything else. | © Capcom

7. Slay the Spire 2 (2026)

*Slay the Spire 2* had the thankless job of following a game that basically taught half the indie scene how to shuffle cards with menace. The sequel keeps the delicious tension of building a deck that might become genius or garbage depending on one greedy decision. New characters, enemies, relics, and co-op give the formula fresh teeth, but the real magic is still that tiny voice whispering, “You can survive one more fight,” right before disaster. | © Mega Crit

6. Crimson Desert (2026)

*Crimson Desert* is big, loud, and allergic to moderation, which is exactly the kind of energy a fantasy action RPG needs when it wants to feel truly massive. Pywel is packed with brutal fights, sweeping landscapes, political chaos, and the kind of heroic nonsense that makes every battle look like someone kicked open the door to a legend. It can be messy, sure, but its best moments have the reckless confidence of a game swinging for the castle wall instead of the fence. | © Pearl Abyss

Cropped ZERO PARADES — 5. Zero Parades: For Dead Spies (2026)

*Zero Parades: For Dead Spies* swaps heroic espionage fantasy for something far more bruised, paranoid, and morally slippery. Its world of intelligence work is not about clean gadgets and victory music; it is about bad compromises, political rot, and conversations where every pause feels like evidence. The writing is dense without being sterile, funny without softening the knife, and the result is an RPG that makes reading people feel as dangerous as pulling a trigger. | © ZA/UM

4. Subnautica 2 (2026)

*Subnautica 2* proves the ocean does not become less terrifying just because you can bring friends along for the dive. The alien sea is still gorgeous enough to lure you forward and deep enough to punish every brave, stupid decision that follows. Co-op changes the rhythm, expanded survival systems add scale, and the new planet gives exploration a fresh sense of danger, but the series’ central truth remains intact: eventually, something enormous will make a noise beneath you. | © Unknown Worlds

3. Vampire Crawlers (2026)

*Vampire Crawlers* turns the escalating chaos of *Vampire Survivors* into a first-person dungeon crawler, and somehow the idea makes perfect sense once the monsters start flooding the room. The deckbuilding adds just enough planning to keep the madness from becoming automatic, while the familiar weapons and upgrades take on a new personality when they are happening right in your face. It is silly, fast, and sneakily tactical, the kind of game that turns panic into a build strategy. | © poncle

Cropped Mina the Hollower — 2. Mina the Hollower (2026)

*Mina the Hollower* wears its retro influence proudly, but it never feels like a nostalgia museum with a jump button. The gothic world has bite, the pixel art is packed with personality, and Mina’s burrowing, whipping, and gadget-based combat give every room a sharp little snap. It has that old handheld adventure flavor without the dust, mixing secrets, bosses, and danger into something that feels lovingly familiar but never lazy. | © Yacht Club Games

1. Resident Evil Requiem (2026)

*Resident Evil Requiem* keeps the series’ strongest recent instinct alive: change the angle, change the nightmare, but never lose the dread. Grace Ashcroft gives the story a fresh emotional entry point, while the return to familiar horror territory brings back that nasty mix of bad science, tight corridors, and the constant fear that your ammo count is lying to you. It is polished, cruel, and wonderfully uncomfortable, exactly the kind of survival horror that makes a quiet hallway feel like a threat. | © Capcom

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The 2026 gaming calendar is only halfway done, and it has already made backlogs look like unpaid labor. Between massive sequels, strange little indies, horror surprises, and games that quietly ate whole weekends without asking permission, the year has been unusually stacked. These are the best video games of 2026 so far: the ones that actually lived up to the hype, dodged it completely, or showed up out of nowhere and started acting like Game of the Year contenders.

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The 2026 gaming calendar is only halfway done, and it has already made backlogs look like unpaid labor. Between massive sequels, strange little indies, horror surprises, and games that quietly ate whole weekends without asking permission, the year has been unusually stacked. These are the best video games of 2026 so far: the ones that actually lived up to the hype, dodged it completely, or showed up out of nowhere and started acting like Game of the Year contenders.