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Rogue-like games offer unlimited replayability. In this list, we have talked about the top five best rogue-like games in 2025 that you should play.
Rogue is a dungeon-crawling ASCII game that first appeared in 1980. From Rogue, a whole new genre emerged, which we today know and love as Rogue-like. Without this decades-old game, concepts such as procedural generation or permadeath would be unknown to us.
Rogue-like is typically a game that features procedural generation of levels and resetting after dying. And the more you die, the stronger you become in distinct ways. For most rogue-like games, the main objective is to defeat a final boss without failing in between. In this list, we rank the five best rogue-like games in 2025 from the last to the first.
(This list reflects the writer’s personal preferences)
5) Vampire Survivors
Vampire Survivors is an indie roguelike developed and published by poncle. In this game, all you have to do is move your character while it auto-shoots at enemies. What makes this so addicting is that Vampire Survivors have nailed down the true meaning of a roguelike and heavily focused on improving that aspect.
You gain exp by killing enemies, which helps you level up. Leveling up grants you new weapons, skills, and upgrades that can synergize perfectly with each other. Your objective is to survive for thirty minutes, after which a nigh-unkillable boss spawns to stop your playthrough.
Completing certain criteria unlocks new survivors, weapons, modes, and secrets. There are even a few DLCs, such as Ode to Castlevania or Operation Guns, that keep on adding even more content on top of the base game. Any fan of the rogue-like genre should give this game a try once in their life.
4) Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 embraces the rogue-like genre by blending in the mechanics of its predecessor with a fully fledged 3D world. You land on a planet and must survive by defeating monsters in a fast-paced, shooter-style combat. Gain money as you defeat monsters with which you unlock chests containing power-ups of varying rarities.
You will have a certain amount of time on a level before spawning a boss, which transports you to another area upon defeat. The game also has a linear difficulty curve as time passes by. In other words, the longer you survive, the harder the enemies become. You can also buy the Survivors of the Void DLC pack, which adds in even more items, stages, and enemies. Additionally, it also includes alternate endings and new game modes.
3) The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
The Binding of Isaac is a timeless classic in the rogue-like genre developed by Edmund McMillen and Nicalis. This title creates a unique blend of dark humor and surreal storytelling in a bullet-hell rogue-like.
Isaac is a kid trapped in the basement and has to escape by defeating his deranged mother. The game has procedurally generated levels with tens of thousands of room layouts among them. Isaac can also gain a vast array of items, which provide him with numerous power-ups, synergies, and transformations.
The game offers high amounts of replayability due to its numerous DLCs, such as Afterbirth and Repentance. Likewise, these add various new game modes and many more characters to play from, which ensures no two playthroughs are the same.
2) Hades
Hades is one of the most acclaimed games developed by Supergiant Games. In this rogue-like hack-and-slash, you play as Zagreus, the prince of the underworld and son of Hades. Zagreus is trying to escape his father’s domain to escape to the surface.
Various Greek gods will lend aid to Zagreus in the form of boons that power up your abilities. If you die anytime during your escape, you will again be resurrected at the House of Hades, only for your father to mock your attempt to escape. Additionally, every attempt makes you stronger as you defeat bosses and get closer to the surface.
There is also a social aspect to this game where you can gift various Greek deities in Hades’ household in return for useful items and in-game lore. After all, permanent buffs can only help you so much, as mastering the game mechanics is a very important aspect of completing this game. This is truly one of the best rogue-like games out there in 2025.
1) Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a rogue-like developed by Motion Twin that combines fast-paced combat with a Metroidvania-style progression. This is undoubtedly one of the most famous rouge-likes since its launch back in 2018.
You control a prisoner known as “Beheaded” in an ever-changing castle from which you want to get out. During your attempts to escape, you can gain Cells by defeating enemies. Spend Cells during playthrough at the Collector to fill out blueprints for new weapons, skills, and permanent upgrades. Enemies occasionally drop these blueprints, and you can further research them to unlock more weapons.
The aspect in which this rogue-like shines the brightest is its DLCs. Dead Cells has more vast DLCs, which add new areas, bosses, weapons, and even new game modes. Furthermore, each DLC maintains the essence of the base game while offering players something uniquely different. The game has ramping difficulty levels that exponentially increase the complexity of the game in numerous ways. Dead Cells is truly one of the best rogue-like games in 2025 that you will get addicted to while playing.
Finally, here’s another list of games for you to play from.
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