We’re now well into 2025, and I hope yours is going well so far, somehow. If it is, check out these great games to spice it up even more. If it isn’t, check out these great games that will distract you. And with fantasy adventures, turn-based strategy games and even a handful of military shooters in the mix, there’s something for everyone dropping this year.
The first few games on this list are already out, and then we’re all taking a journey through the year ahead together. Remember that any upcoming release dates, especially in the gaming world, are subject to change.
1. ‘Pirates Never Die’
- Released: Jan. 23
- Platforms: PC
Hunt treasure, fight crews and make it past the giant spiders? “Pirates Never Die” lets you navigate an island filled with dark mysteries and monsters like an 800-pound (I'm guessing) giant spider.
2. ‘Little Lighthouse of Horror’
- Released: Jan. 28
- Platforms: PC
For all the psychological horror fans out there, this 2D game sees you play as a lighthouse keeper with fraying sanity as they assume their post, a posting where multiple prior keepers have disappeared. Manage resources, learn the story and replay multiple times to experience the branching storylines and endings.
3. ‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’
- Released: Feb. 4
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Play as an aspirant to knighthood in 1400s Bohemia, complete with tactical swordplay, consequences for your decisions, and lots of gritty fights and situations. Like its predecessor, the game prides itself on being realistic, so don't expect any magic or fantasy creatures. But its writing is sometimes funny and often epic, as though Peter Jackson took a Coen Brothers screenwriting class.
4. ‘Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator’
- Released: Feb. 6
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
The title gives the game away: It's a paramedic simulator. The creators, Aesir Interactive, previously made a police simulator to generally positive reviews. Get in the ambulance, go to a call, examine the patient and provide interventions all the way to the hospital. It looks interesting and, if done properly, might even be worth using as a spot of training for combat lifesavers and medics. One potential downside of it as a game, though: The police simulator was critiqued as having repetitive gameplay. And it's really hard to see how that won't be true of a meat wagon simulator.
5. ‘Sid Meier's Civilization VII’
- Release date: Feb. 11
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
It's a new "Civilization" game, so the true fans are already more than read up and are already planning to play it as soon as possible. The game covers the entire history of human civilization, with players picking leaders and civilizations to control. In a first for the series, leaders and civilizations are separated, so Napoleon can lead America and Harriet Tubman can be a Roman empress.
6. ‘Avowed’
- Release date: Feb. 18
- Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
This fantasy game from the "Pillars of Eternity" series is beautiful but shows a world struggling with plague. The game features multiple "biomes" -- large themed areas for players to explore. Players can take on the role of one of three classes, using magic, blades and even rudimentary guns to kill their foes.
7. ‘Monster Hunter Wilds’
- Release date: Feb. 28
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Another sequel, "Monster Hunter Wilds" lets you explore the world and hunt truly massive monsters, mostly with fantasy or real hunting weapons. The game gets a little better with each iteration, and the new version allows for better multiplayer gaming, improved "turf wars" where hunters can lure one species into fighting another, and mounts so players can explore the huge biomes more quickly and easily. Expect a lot of variety in environments and monsters.
8. ‘Assassin's Creed Shadows’
- Release date: March 20
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, macOS, iPadOS
Play in feudal Japan as either a ninja or as historical figure Yasuke, the first Black samurai. Either way, the game opens in the closing days of the unification of Japan, and you -- through either stealth or open combat -- have to navigate the chaos and take out their targets. So far, it isn't clear how the main story of the “Assassin Creed” series, the war between assassins and Templars, plays out in feudal Japan, except that the ninja character, Naoe, wears the hidden blade of assassins.
9. ‘Grit and Valor - 1949’
- Release date: March 26
- Platforms: PC and (in summer 2025) PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch
Fight Hitler … but in towering mechs run on diesel fuel. Basically, World War II ran long and the technical innovations got weird. The Axis powers suddenly got mechs deployed onto the field and pushed back the Allies. The continent belongs to the Reich. Now you and a few other Allied mech pilots have to make a run against Berlin, cutting through German defenses. The turn-based strategy game features different damage and defense types, keeping combat fresh without being overwhelming.
10. ‘The First Berserker: Khazan’
- Release date: March 27
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
This “Souls”-like game released a demo on Jan. 16 that quickly got players hyped. (Demo progress will transfer over to the main game, as well.) Play as Khazan -- a legendary warrior betrayed and crippled by his empire and then remade by a demon who tried to possess him -- in the world of “Dungeon Fighter Online.” The damage to Khazan pushes him constantly toward frenzy, even as he attempts to clear his name. Expect lots of blood.
11. ‘Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror’
- Release date: March 28
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
First-person horror is not for everyone, so feel free to skip as necessary, or stick around, and play as a traumatized woman going through exposure therapy with a suspect therapist. Dr. Stern guides Eliza de Moor, a former singer, through her repressed memories, and each layer sees her get closer to a dark secret.
12. ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’
- Release date: April 24
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Like older “Final Fantasy” games, “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” -- often listed as just “Expedition 33” -- is a turn-based, role-playing game (RPG). This original game tells of the 33rd expedition by warriors to kill the "Paintress," a sort of god who suddenly appeared in their world and wipes out all older humans once per year, with the age limit reducing by one year each year.
Despite the very dark premise, trailers and development (or dev) videos so far include a lot of humor, like when a creature that assists the expedition cheers ripping off a monster's foot so he can eat it and transform into the monster himself. There seems to be a deep, deep character customization system as well. Also, the game is aggressively French, with many characters having the accent and many of the story's elements coming from French stories.
13. ‘Dune: Awakening’
- Release date: Early 2025
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
It's rare that we see a blockbuster massively multiplayer online (MMO) survival game, but that's exactly what "Dune: Awakening" is promising. It fits the “Dune” story well, though, as a huge portion of the book is all about how Paul Atreides learned to survive with the help of the Fremen. In "Dune: Awakening," you play as a prisoner exiled to Arrakis. You can survive as a number of Dune classes, such as Mentat, Bene Gesserit, Trooper or more.
14. ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’
- Release date: May 15
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
If you don't know the broad story of "Doom," stop lying or start Googling. But Bethesda has a new twist on the classic “Doom” games. Many younger players entered the “Doom” series in the 2016 game, which explicitly states that the Doom Slayer main character was already quite experienced in fighting hell when the game started.
"Doom: The Dark Ages" tells the story of the slayer before the 2016 game, with the slayer having to kill his way through a demonic incursion in, you guessed it, the Dark Ages. Players will get a lot more melee weapons in this ahistorical setting, but they'll also have shotguns shooting bone fragments and similar weapons as well. Another new weapon is hyped in art and trailers -- a sawblade shield that can be thrown through the hordes.
15. ‘Bonaparte - A Mechanized Revolution’
- Release date: Mid-2025
- Platform: PC
An alternate history of the French Revolution where you play as a Bonaparte in 1789 France. While Napoleon was noted for minor technological advancements and stunning strategy, Bonaparte players will likely be noted for their 50-foot-tall robots. The player takes command of small armies and giant robots in turn-based combat. A demo is available now on Steam, and the full game is expected by June.
16. ‘Glory to the Heroes’
- Release date: Mid-2025 (but pre-alpha Steam keys are available through spacedev Patreon)
- Platforms: PC
This Ukrainian-made, first-person shooter is set in the current Russo-Ukraine War, complete with realistic settings, equipment and even tactics. While it's slated for release near the end of the year, Patreon supporters can get early access to alpha testing now.
17. ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’
- Release date: Fall 2025
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Yup, Rockstar Games is finally bringing a new “Grand Theft Auto” story to market for those of us who play “GTA” for the story, not for the online harassment. The new game features a “Bonnie and Clyde”-inspired story taking place across a fictional Florida. And developers have already teed up that typical “GTA” humor, with Florida Man clips featured heavily in publicly available footage.
18. ‘Ghost of Yotei’
- Release date: Sometime in 2025
- Platforms: PlayStation 5
Yes, two feudal Japan games are expected to launch this year. “Ghost of Yotei,” set in 1603 about 300 years after “Ghost of Tsushima,” introduces a female warrior, known as Onna-musha, named Atsu. She pursues revenge at the foot of the real Mount Yotei in Japan. Interestingly, feudal Japan spanned more than 400 years, but the two major games coming this year from that period are set about 20 years apart.
19. ‘Light No Fire’
- Release date: Sometime 2025
- Platforms: PC
From the makers of “No Man’s Sky,” this game has a procedurally generated, persistent world. But where “No Man’s Sky” focused on a massive universe, “Light No Fire” applies the same mechanics to a single planet with many biomes, which include dragons the player can ride. It looks fun, and you can survive with friends, engineering your own little compounds or societies in a fantasy frontier.
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