The Games I'm Most Excited to Play in 2025!
Rhianne Ward
Okay, so last year I made a Most Anticipated list of all the games I was excited about in 2024. Predictably, that list was awash with games that did not release or I didn't like, which is pretty funny. So in the interest of playing the clown once again, I will be listing off all the games I'm excited for in 2025! This time though, I will be limiting it to games that are actually slated for release in 2025, so my hit rate will hopefully be higher. Right? Right???
Before that though, I want to quickly run through last year's list, just for fun. Let's see how wrong I ended up being!
Well we can start by looking at the thumbnail I made. Featuring on it, we've got Citizen Sleeper 2, which did not release in 2024, Earthblade, which just the other day was unfortunately cancelled by the studio, and Hades 2, which did come out but only in early access. Good start! At least Final Fantasy VII Rebirth released, though that also ended up being my biggest disappointment of the year, so I don't think I'll be getting my oracle license any time soon.
Going down the list itself, the trend is mostly the same. Out of the 14 games I covered, 7 of them never even came out in 2024 (8 if you count Hades 2, either because I was being too optimistic about a surprise release, or they simply got delayed. A lot of these games have ended up on this year's most anticipated list, so see if you can catch them!
Of the remaining games, only two of them made my top 10 - Dragon's Dogma 2 and Neva - which I guess speaks to the strength of the indie scene this year. My game of the year, 1000xResist, was one I hadn't even heard about by last January. Video games are cool like that.
Let's just power through the rest. I did not like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, mainly due to its world design, or to be more specific, how boring it is. I dropped it around two thirds of the way in once I realised I would have to suffer through another wretched checklist of vile Chadley’s shite. When it's not that, Rebirth is good! I just don't have the tolerance for it.
I really enjoyed my time with Persona 3 Reload! I think it's the game I spent the most time playing in 2024, for reasons that will be obvious if you know what a Persona game is. You might have noticed that it didn't make my Game Of The Year lists, and that's just because it felt weird to put it there. I love Persona 3 an awful lot, so by default, I love Reload, but it's ultimately just a thing I like, repackaged in a prettier, less friction-y format. It's good! I enjoyed my time with it, but to call it a Game Of The Year feels a little weird to me.
Rise of the Ronin is also a pretty good game that I enjoyed my time with, but I only got around halfway through before putting it on hiatus in favour of Dragon's Dogma 2. It's really fun, and I actually don't have anything damning to say about it. I just never felt especially compelled to return to it. I probably will though, because my flatmate keeps telling me it's brilliant.
Finally, Unicorn Overlord, a game I pre-ordered, had ready to go on release day, and subsequently did not play until waaaaaaay later in the year. Even when I did finally try it, I only dedicated a few hours before moving on to other things. It's not that I don't like it - it's a gorgeous and genuinely very fun experience - but I found myself struggling to latch on to anything the story was doing. I'm actually quite fond of the medieval fantasy setting it presents, and when I had to fight a guard who once fought for my character's queen mother, now turned to evil, I was getting Fire Emblem: Three Houses flashbacks. Then the game pulls an evil ring out of its ass and it turns out the guy has been possessed, and from that point onwards I was checked out. I plan to come back to it at some point when I've got time, but I was a little let down overall.
So overall, not a very successful list. But! I am nothing if not blindly optimistic, so I'm giving this a second go around! I'm gonna rank it this time because it's kinda fun to do that, and we'll see how it looks this time next year. And no, Hollow Knight: Silksong will not be appearing on here; I was going to include it as an ongoing bit, but then I was going through my posts from years ago and saw that it made an appearance on my 2020 most anticipated list, which is both tragic and incredibly funny. I'm not jinxing myself this time.
Alright I'll stop yapping. Here's the games I'm most looking forward to in 2025, and what I think are worth keeping an eye on if you're also looking to feed the hype machine in your soul.
15. Big Walk
From the developers of the delightful Untitled Goose Game comes the kind of multiplayer experience I can get behind. In Big Walk, you play as a blocky little guy navigating a photorealistic Australian(?) outback with your friends, working through various puzzles and challenges along the way. As far as I can tell, the vibes here are lovely; just a very chill time to have with friends, where the focus is cooperation and making silly memories. It looks like a treat, and I'm excited to try it out.
Big Walk wanders into our lives sometime in 2025 (hopefully!) on PC.
14. Elden Ring: Nightreign
Listen, any excuse to play more Elden Ring is fine by me, and Nightreign looks to be a very unique spin on it. It's another multiplayer game (two in a row, I'm as shocked as you!) which takes the core combat and traversal mechanics of Elden Ring and turns it into a fast-paced, co-op experience. I doubt it's going to capture the particular sense of loneliness and quiet magnitude that Elden Ring evokes, I am expecting it to be quite fun, and knowing From Software, it'll seek to surprise at least a little.
Elden Ring: Nightreign is slated for a 2025 release, with a network test planned for some time in February which you better believe I'm awaiting the email for. It's coming to PS5, PS4, XBOX Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.
13. Dispatch
It feels like an era long since passed, but I used to be such a Telltale Games head when I was a teenager. I was absolutely obsessed with everything they released, from The Walking Dead to The Wolf Among Us, and even Tales From The Borderlands despite not even liking Borderlands! The Wolf Among Us 2 is expected to release this year as well, but I'm much more interested in Dispatch from Adhoc Studios, a team comprised of many who worked on those golden era games. It's a superhero-management-em-up, with the usual dialogue wheel and choices-matter design. Plus, based on the trailer, it looks to be genuinely funny and sweet. I'm excited to give it a go!
Dispatch will be dispatched at some point in 2025, on PC.
12. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Truthfully, there's a part of me that's a little sceptical of Clair Obscur. It looks to be gorgeous and thrilling adventure set in a compelling apocalyptic universe. By all accounts, a banger in the making. However, we've had games like this before - very pretty gems - that turn out to be quite shallow, or just underwhelming in general. Last year, that game was Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn for me; stunning to behold with very flashy combat, but also frustrating to actually play. That being said, I get a good vibe from Clair Obscur, and any game attempting to emulate the turn-based combat stylings of the Persona series has probably got the right ideas. I hope it's good!
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is predicted to release in Summer 2025, though this upcoming Xbox Developer Direct might be where they confirm the release date, so I'll edit this if that happens. Or I won't, because sometimes I forget things!
**Edit: I remembered! Clair Obscur is releasing on April 24th, for XBOX Series X/S, PS5 and PC, and will be available via Game Pass on release day. Exciting! Also, I should say that the Developer Direct info showing off the more whimsical, light-hearted elements has made me more interested in it. Nice to see this game isn't too self-serious!
11. Nivalis
We have our first re-appearance! Nivalis, the upcoming game from Ion Lands, developer of 2020’s excellent cyberpunk taxi service game Cloudpunk, was initially slates for a 2024 release, but needed to be delayed, so here we are! Based on the dev's previous work, I'm naturally excited for this one, and I'm just stoked to spend more time in this oppressive capitalist hell of a city. I think my tastes might be weird? Anyway, Nivalis still looks neat, and I'm still looking forward to it.
Nivalis hits the rainswept streets in 2025, for PC.
10. Monster Hunter Wilds
My first experience with the Monster Hunter series was on the release of Monster Hunter Rise, a game which I very successfully…did not get into! I gave it a good shame, but at a certain point I had to concede that I was just not gelling with the gameplay loop it was asking of me. Despite this, I tried Monster Hunter World earlier last year and I fell in love. I appreciate the slower pace and the larger areas; it felt like I was ingratiating myself in the wildlife more than in Rise, which is a lot more compelling to me. Wilds looks to be a continuation of that design ethos, setting itself in much larger open areas with camps in between. I hope this is the time that I finally get completely addicted to a Monster Hunter game.
Monster Hunter Wilds slices onto the scene February 28th for PS5, XBOX Series X/S and PC, but there's a beta available between February 6th-9th and the 13th-16th if you want to try it out early.
9. Demonschool
I'm not usually one to go for strategy games, but Demonschool looks to be something a bit more unique. Its reveal trailer has a bizarre live-action segment with puppet gore, so you know the vibes are just strange enough to be cool. Gameplay looks to be similar to Into the Breach (I haven't played that, but I know what it looks like lol), but in between those encounters lies a social link system where you develop your relationships with the cast. A little Persona influence never hurt anyone! Demonschool just looks like one of those sleeper hits that's worth keeping an eye on this year, so I'm following my gut.
Demonschool is expecting a Q1 2025 release (between January and March), though with its many delays in the past, don't be surprised if it gets pushed back a little. It's coming, freshly exorcised, to PC.
8. Unbeatable
Sometimes, it's nice to see a game that just rocks, all the way down. Unbeatable very quickly makes its vibe known in its trailer by showing the protagonist getting into a brawl with the police, then dropping its title card with the tagline, “A game where music is illegal and you do crimes”. Hell yeah. It helps that this one has some of the creatives from developer Strange Scaffold, who made El Paso, Elsewhere which is decidedly one of the best games I've ever played, so the bar is high. I'm really looking forward to this one, so I hope it lives up to the hype!
Unbeatable is set to release sometime in 2025, for PS5, XBOX Series X/S and PC.
7. Avowed
Everyone loves an RPG. “I don't love RPGs”, you, a made up person I invented for this bit, might say, “I love action adventure games like Horizon or God of War”. You fool, you buffoon, those games are RPGs too! At least a little. We love to make characters and build them out how we see fit. Obsidian are extremely good at this, so of course I'm excited to try Avowed! I've never finished a Pillars game, the series in whose world this game takes place, but I hear very good things, and from what I have played, I liked it! I'm just excited to use a wand as a combat option; not enough games let you do that and I hope Avowed is a smash hit so we can all admit that wands are cool. Not in Harry Potter though. Ew.
Avowed is coming soon! February 18th, on XBOX Series X/S and PC, and available day one on Game Pass.
6. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
In the past couple years, I've become something of a Dontnod enthusiast. Like everyone, I played Life Is Strange when it came out and enjoyed it a lot, and they've been putting out sleeper hits ever since. 2018’s Vampyr was a clever and ambitious action RPG, Jusant scratched my rock climbing (and beautiful soundtrack enjoying) itch in 2023, and last year's Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was one of the most underrated releases of 2024. They've really only gone from strength to strength, and with Lost Records looking to be a return to their Life Is Strange-style roots, I'm eager to see what they cook up.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape One hits play on February 18th (same day as Avowed, fuck!), and its B-Side Tape Two on March 18th. We're bringing back episodic release structures with this one, baby!
5. Reanimal
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I am an enormous fan of the Little Nightmares games. They follow a similar style guide as other loves of mine like Inside and the Far games. Atmospheric puzzle platformers, light on puzzles or platforming, more concerned with presenting a compelling world and letting the player explore it in a controlled, tightly paced manner. I love that shit, and Reanimal, a new game by Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studio, is looking to be more of that delicious goodness. It looks gross, moody, intense, and bewildering; just how I like ‘em.
Reanimal enters our collective nightmares sometime in 2025, on PS5, XBOX Series X/S, and PC.
4. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
If I had to pick one particular triple-AAA game to look forward to, it would definitely be this one. I loved Death Stranding so much, both times I played it. It's just such a treat to get a game willing to take a risk on untested mechanics that might turn out shit and boring and have it pay off, especially in this current game industry climate of safety and homogenisation. It's so self-indulgent and singular, and I would say that there will never be a game like it, but that would be lying, because there's a sequel coming out this year! I'm so stoked for more Kojima madness, if for no other reason than being hyped to carry boxes across an empty space again. That's the good stuff.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach will be delivered to PS5 sometime in 2025, but given that Kojima Productions have recently gained ownership over the Death Stranding distribution rights, a PC and XBOX release seems inevitable, though maybe not this year.
3. Wanderstop
I'm not much of a cosy games person. I'm not sure if I'm just incapable of relaxing, or if my low attention span ass can't handle playing a video game without clear objectives for more than an hour, but hey, it is what it is. That being said, I am very excited for Wanderstop, and that's mainly down to the creator's pedigree.
Davey Wreden, lead writer on Wanderstop, is also the man behind The Beginner's Guide and The Stanley Parable, both excellent games with a creative distinct voice carrying them. Getting to hear that voice again through a new, quite different looking project is really exciting. There's a featurette where Wreden talks about his creative process trying to figure out what kind of game Wanderstop was going to be, and it is fascinating to hear that story. It gives me hope that, if nothing else, this will be a game with something to say, and that's at least something.
Wanderstop will be served on March 11th on PS5 and PC.
2. Cairn
Remember when I mentioned my rock climbing itch earlier? The truth is that I'm actually quite into rock climbing. I used to do it a lot as a kid, and while I haven't tried it in a while, it's definitely something I would like to get back into at some point. Lucky for me, however, I have video games to experience rock climbing vicariously through! As I said before, I was a big fan of Jusant by Dontnod, but I will admit, that game is more of a ‘better than the sum of its parts’ case. The actual rock climbing, while fun and engaging, wasn't especially complicated or challenging. I wish the mechanics were a bit more involved, and allowed for more personal expression.
Cairn is the answer to my call. It's a rock climbing game in the most direct sense. There's definitely some interesting, futuristic story stuff going on in there, but the focus is in the climbing, and it is intense. Gone are the usual marked claimable areas. Instead, you can grab onto anything, with the main character’s hands and feet reacting organically to how they are placed on the rock face. You move limbs individually, a la QWOP, in order to position yourself with precision. Based on my experience with the demo, it can be very unforgiving if you play carelessly, but the feeling of satisfaction in scaling its sheer cliffs is incredible. I cannot wait to scale the full release.
You can get a handhold on Cairn when it releases sometime in 2025, but if you can't wait that long, you can try out the free demo on its Steam page. It's coming to PC.
1. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
I fucking adore Citizen Sleeper. I saw it pop up on my XBOX Game Pass library while perusing one day and, despite having heard nothing about it, liked the look of it and decided to give it a shot. Little did I know, clicking that launch button would fuse me to my chair for 8 hours straight, and subject me to one of the most profound gaming experiences of my life. I revisited the game over the past week, and if anything, my love for this game has only strengthened, especially with the stellar DLC stories I have only now experienced. Citizen Sleeper was my 2022 Game Of The Year, without contest. It is just incredible.
So, naturally, any promise of more Citizen Sleeper is going to be at the top of my priority list. The setting change is appreciated, placing you in the mind of a new Sleeper, this time the head of a spaceship crew. Now, you aren't simply worrying about your own survival, but also that of your friends. The potential for organic storytelling moments is palpable, and I cannot wait to see how it manifests. I just want to experience more of this fascinating universe, and hear what insights it has to give on life, love, and cool spaceships. I won't delude myself into thinking it will have the same impact as its predecessor, which hit me in a very specific time and place to affect me as it did. However, no matter what, I'm confident that it will be a memorable time, and a highlight for video games in 2025.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector rolls into the world on January 31st, for PS5, XBOX Series X/S and Game Pass, Switch, and PC.
And there we go! Of course, here's my obligatory reminder that this isn't my prediction for what I think will be the best games of 2025, but simply the ones I'm looking forward to the most. As with every year, there are games releasing in 2025 that haven't even been announced yet. Like I said earlier, my game of the year in 2024 was 1000xResist, a game I didn't know about until days after it launched! It's impossible to judge in January what will leave the biggest impact by December (though, if we're being honest, it'll probably be GTA VI). It's fun to look forward to things, though, so I hope I got to show you some cool stuff here today! Here's to another year of amazing games!!