Out Of Words preview: the best thing I played at Summer Game Fest 2025

Out of Words is the best thing I played at Summer Game Fest 2025, and I’m already 99% sure it’ll be Game Of The Year when it launches in 2026.

We’ve seen some truly special two-player co-op games over the last few years, such as It Takes Two and Split Fiction, but I feel like Out Of Words goes one step beyond other games in the genre.

My demo at Summer Game Fest took me through several parts of its story and I was completely blown away by what I was being shown.

Out Of Words features beautiful, hand-crafted claymation models, with each blade of grass being touched by human hands during development. A lot of love and care has been poured into its world, and it shows.

The game is both a coming of age and love story, with its two protagonists falling into an unknown world where they lose the ability to speak.

It’s a reflection of their hidden feelings for each other, and because they’re young they don’t quite know how to get the words out, something I’m sure we can all relate to in one way or another.

As far as gameplay goes it functions like a puzzle-platformer, with both players navigating through bizarre levels and acquiring special abilities they’ll need to learn and master to get to the end of the stage. For example my demo gave us the power to change gravity, where one player would fall to the floor like normal whereas the other would fall upwards towards the ceiling. The gravitational pull could be switched between players, and careful timing was required to overcome obstacles and avoid pitfalls.

Teamwork makes the dream work but the tools you’re given have been carefully selected to ensure you’re always having fun, and never bored by problem-solving.

I was in awe looking at the master-crafted backgrounds and characters, all wonderfully animated to create a truly unique gameplay experience.

The story also felt like a moving one, and I’m excited to play the whole thing with a friend, which can be done with only one copy of the game via a Friend Pass system. It’ll also support crossplay too, so you don’t need to have the same consoles.

Out Of Words comes out next year and it’s a fitting title, as I was honestly quite speechless while playing and I can’t wait to see what else it has in store.