August 2025 Solo Games Review: Ratings, Awards, and More
Look back at the highlights from the most memorable solo games and the lessons to carry forward in this review of August 2025.
After a somewhat quiet month, I’m still here to continue with another monthly review of my solo games! It’s nice to look back to see what happened throughout the month, even if I didn’t play as consistently as usual. Take a look at the ratings and the very random monthly awards… There may very well be some repeat winners in this group from August 2025!
A Look at the Ratings
As a reminder, my ratings often shift over time, but this is a snapshot of what happened during the month. Always nice to spend some time with the solo games I love to play!
70% is around the baseline for a game I like, 80% represents an excellent game, and 90% or higher is often a favorite.
My rating system is inherently objective and flawed, meaning that it’s designed to make sense to me.
It roughly translates into a general scale of 1 to 10, but I don’t recommend using my numbers as anything other than a single data point. I’m just here rating games for myself!
- Vantage 97%
- Millennium Blades 95%
- Paupers’ Ladder 90%
- Lockup: A Roll Player Tale 82%
- Scythe 82%
- FlipToons 68%
- AEGIS: Combining Robot Strategy Game 56%
The Award Goes To…
Handing out awards during a quieter month is a lot more challenging when there aren’t a lot of games to choose from.
However, I still enjoyed laughing through my categories! All of these games deserved the honors in some ways, and it was neat to see a few repeat awards from last month.
As always, this sort of monthly review is more for a bit of fun and a way for me to keep track of what I’m up to!
It will be interesting to see how September plays out with the plans I have. Playing fewer games more often actually worked out nicely… Look at most of those high ratings!
Full Listing of August 2025 Award Winners
If you would rather read a quick listing without clicking or looking through photos, here are the winners:
- Action-Packed Scene: Millennium Blades
- Back for More: Paupers’ Ladder
- Calico Critters Twin: FlipToons
- Freshly Hatched Box: Vantage
- From the Ashes: Lockup: A Roll Player Tale
- Inspired by Nature: Paupers’ Ladder
- It’s a Trap!: Millennium Blades
- Next Gallery Exhibit: Scythe
- Roses are Red: Lockup: A Roll Player Tale
- Surprise Party Time: Lockup: A Roll Player Tale
- The Gold Cheesecake: Vantage
- The Jeweled Crown: Lockup: A Roll Player Tale
- Uh-Oh, Hot Dog!: Millennium Blades
- Winner of All: Vantage
Descriptions of the awards are in the photos above, but the bottom line is that they’re mostly random for some laughs!
Monthly Highlights
This month saw fewer overall games, although part of that was due to diving deep into more content for Scythe. Very cool to go through a campaign, although I tired of it early.
Shorter games were somewhat uncommon, with FlipToons being the only one to fit the bill. Although my rating seems low, I still enjoyed it and expect to play some more!
Lockup: A Roll Player Tale was a big surprise, especially with its neat mechanics and a chance to play the expansion.
Finally, it was wonderful to return to some old favorites like Millennium Blades and Paupers’ Ladder after a few years!
Lessons of the Month
If there’s one major takeaway, it’s that there’s no problem taking some breaks from playing solo games. I was away for about a week, and this hobby is very ease to put on pause!
Going back to some older favorites brought out some more fun, too, and sometimes, it’s nice to sit back and not feel the need to learn a new game every few days. That’s a lot.
Honing in on the types of games I enjoy is helping me avoid ones that might not work out, although I still branch out.
Even the quiet months offer up plenty of fun! I’m looking forward to playing regularly throughout September, though.
Continue the Conversation
What gaming moments stood out to you in August 2025? Did you have any special solo games or favorites visit your table? I’m enjoying these monthly reviews! Nice to be able to look back at what I played, which should help me figure out what might fit better with my future plans. Looking forward to whatever is coming my way next. Lots of solo games to try out!
Regarding solo play for August, I have three highlights.
I received several Oniverse games as gifts early in the month, so I jumped right in with two of them for August.
First played was Nautilion. It comes with the base game and six different submarines (you only play with one). There are also five “expansions” (I would just call them “modules” since they all come with the base game). The game is quick and addictive. I did not plan on doing, but i ended up playing the base game and all expansions with each of the six submarines until I won with every possible setup. I played two practice games to get my legs, then the record keeping began. There are 36 possible setups and it took me 51 plays to accomplish all of them (70.5% win rate). The submarines are categorized in three levels of difficulty. For the A and B class I was 18-3 (85.7%); for the C class I was 18-22 (45%).
The next level challenge (for some future dates) one may play the 5 expansions in any set of combinations. This allows for 26 other possible setups ups. If I do this, I would just choose the most difficult C class submarine (I was 6-12 against it) and try it against all the setups.
Second, I played the base game Urbion in the Oniverse system. I played the base game 20 times. My record is 4-16 (20%). This game is also very simple and quick, but obviously much more difficult to win. Additionally, it has 7 expansions that can be played in any combination: this allows for 127 possible additional setups!
Finally, I did a solo play of the Pandemic-system The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. I lost the game, but am looking forward to more solo play on this one. I also played a 2-player and 3-player cooperative session. The win-loss record is 1-2 so far. But they were all very close/tight plays. If you like Pandemic and Pandemic-system games, you would probably like this one. If you don’t, this one is not going to convert you. It is definitely the most complex of all the Pandemic family of games.
Sounds like an awesome August of solo games! Nice job on tracking your win rate, too. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to it in a lot of my games, but it’s always interesting to see what that looks like when you play upwards of 20 or 30 times.
That’s a lot of modules and possible setups, but I do love games that offer lots of variety. But not too much… I’ve seen a few where the possible combinations are upwards of 1,000. I just need a reasonable number to be happy. Ha ha!
Good luck with your plays in September, and thanks for sharing your highlights!