The A.V. Club's most anticipated games of 2025

As we look past the bleak and fallow month of January to the wide, green, and only occasionally literally on-fire rolling pastures of the year to come, we here at The A.V. Club find ourselves presented with a simple question: What the hell are we going to be playing in 2025? Sure, there’s a healthy fraction of people who will probably still just be rolling with Balatro by the time December rolls around again. But for those of us who’ve just accepted we’re never getting those Gold Stakes beaten, what comes next?

In the spirit of answering that question, please accept this, our list of the 14 most anticipated titles of the year we’re currently barreling toward. Rather than attempt to be a comprehensive preview—yes, there are new Assassin’s Creed and Borderlands games out this year, and we’re sure they’ll both competently scratch the itch those games are designed to hit with corporate and laser-focused precision—we’ve tried to highlight those upcoming games that have us feeling genuine excitement for the year to come. Starting with…

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (January 31)

The sequel to the 2022 indie hit—which paired an evocative sci-fi dystopia with a focus on dice rolls that captured the intensity of great indie tabletop design—comes after several well-received DLCs, and with a new focus on exploration. Rather than simply struggling to survive on a decrepit space station, Starward Vector will let players explore the cosmos—albeit, still in a desperate existential effort to pay the rent on their own bodies. There are a lot of games tackling the themes the Citizen Sleeper games traffic in, but few of them do so with such fascinating mechanical rigor: When you’re desperately deciding where to spend that one really good die roll (or where to bury a couple of crap ones where they’ll do the least damage) you can really feel the razor’s edge your character lives on. We’re excited to see that vibe go further afield with the sequel.

Rift Of The Necrodancer (February 5)

It’s somehow been nine years since Brace Yourself Games released the first versions of its mega-addictive rhythm-based dungeon crawler Crypt Of The Necrodancer—and five since the franchise got its last big expansion, in the form of Zelda-based spin-off game Cadence Of Hyrule. Rift Of The Necrodancer looks to be a far more traditional rhythm game than the original title, with gameplay that looks modeled on a weird mix of Punch-Out and Guitar Hero. (We also caught a few glimpses of something that looks a hell of a lot like Rhythm Heaven in some of the game’s trailers, which is always exciting.) But we trust BYG to make something genuinely fun, accompanied by a propulsive soundtrack that makes playing the music feel dangerous and fun. This one’s got a demo out, too, so if you’re interested, feel free to go check it out.

Civilization VII (February 11)

Since they all have the same basic canon to pull from—i.e., all of recorded human history—each new Civilization game has to find different ways to distinguish itself. Civ VII has a few interesting ideas in that regard, most notably the decision to allow you to mix and match leaders with different civilizations. (At last, you can have Gandhi’s—initially apocryphal—nuke obsession attached to a country other than India!) It also sounds like Firaxis has looked to streamline the game’s various eras, while also making the transition between historical epochs feel impactful by making you make big decisions as your civ advances to more modern times. Also: Gwendoline Christie voices the narrator.

Avowed (February 18)

We’ll be honest: We tend to enjoy studio Obsidian’s games in inverse proportion to how closely they’re trying to mimic the trends of modern gaming. (The studio’s best two games of the last 10 years, Tyranny and Pentiment, worked because they focused on writing far more than flashy spectacle like sci-fi satire The Outer Worlds.) Still, we can’t deny that the company’s latest 3D first-person offering Avowed looks kind of cool: It’ll be neat to get a new perspective on the world of Eora (from the studio’s earlier Pillars Of Eternity games), and its take on first-person fantasy combat looks well-developed and intriguing.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (February 18, March 18)

Nobody in mainstream gaming is doing emotionally intelligent storytelling quite like Don’t Nod, the studio behind consequence-heavy games like Life Is Strange and Vampyre. As with much of the studio’s output, the upcoming Lost Records looks to blend heavy teenage emotions with a genuine touch of the supernatural, as a crew of former friends come back together to investigate a vow they once made to never speak to each other again. (The obvious allusions to Stephen King’s It are, presumably, intentional.) Lost Records is employing an unconventional release schedule: “Tape 1” of the game will be out on February 18, with its second part, “Tape 2,” arriving a month later; it’ll be interesting to see what Don’t Nod can do with this bifurcated structure.

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii (February 20)

Leaving aside its mildly embarrassing name—a messy effort to get both its franchise’s old official English name and its new one into one title—we’re genuinely excited for Pirate Yakuza‘s goofball premise. As much fun as turn-based RPGs Like A Dragon and Infinite Wealth were, we have a genuine preference for LaD/Yakuza games that function as actual action games, and the idea of playing through a pirate adventure as series “Cut loose and have violent fun” mascot Goro Majima is very appealing. The big question with Pirate Yakuza is how well it’ll handle ship-to-ship combat: This is a series that’s never played around with vehicles in any meaningful way, so it remains to be seen whether firing broadsides or sending out boarding parties will be as fun as it was in other well-received pirate games like Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag or Sea Of Thieves.

Monster Hunter: Wilds (February 28)

Another series that improves mostly through iteration—and the occasional gentle rejection of its past status quo—the new Monster Hunter game looks to be more focused on its action bona fides, giving players more timing-based ways to negate attacks from its big, beautiful monsters. But we expect the core of the games’ appeal (i.e., hunt the amazing beasties, learn to appreciate their unique characteristics through half-hour boss fights, and then learn to appreciate their unique characteristics again by turning them into pants) to be firmly intact. Every new Monster Hunter game tweaks things, but Capcom knows exactly why players show up for these titles: Big, beautiful fights, and the steady sensation of mastery of environments, weapons, and the monsters themselves.

Split Fiction (March 6)

Co-op-focused studio Hazelight might have a gimmick—games all about the interplay between two player characters who each have an individual viewpoint, as with 2021’s It Takes Two—but the studio is also perpetually interested in finding new things to do with cooperative action. Split Fiction looks to take those divided joys even further, as two authors find themselves trapped in smooshed-together versions of their own work—one a sci-fi story, the other fantasy. We imagine the lessons the pair learn will be fairly rote, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t expecting Split Fiction to be a blast; Hazelight has a knack for finding ways to change up gameplay every few minutes to keep the two-player doldrums from slipping in.

Doom: The Dark Ages (TBA)

We’ll express a modicum of worry that the third entry in id Software’s hyper-energetic resurrection of the storied Doom franchise might follow too closely in the footsteps of 2020’s Doom Eternal, which sometimes implemented unwanted gameplay roadblocks between players and the welcome sensation of ripping and tearing their way through the hordes of hell. But there are few things more euphoric than the opening minutes of one of these new Doom games, as players re-acquaint themselves with the sheer speed with which the Slayer throws themselves into the fray. The Dark Ages looks to add in new mechanics, including dragon-riding, but honestly, as long as they maintain the core tempo that made the 2016 title such a fresh reinvention, we’ll be happy.

Deltarune Chapter 3 & 4 (TBA)

The roll-out of Toby Fox’s follow-up to his massive indie RPG hit Undertale has been a slow, gradual process, with earlier chapters arriving in 2018 and 2021. Those entries showed that Fox and his team still have a firm grasp on what made Undertale great: A mix of humor, horror, and innovative gameplay that sees players dodging bullets while trying to talk (or smack) a little sense into fantastical opponents. Deltarune‘s next two chapters are set to release together sometime in 2025, and we couldn’t be more excited to see how the game’s story—either version, as the second chapter had a very notable and horrifying split in its mysterious narrative—continues to play out.

Elden Ring: Nightreign (TBA)

The most surprising announcement from last December’s Game Awards remains one of the biggest question marks of 2025, as Dark Souls creators From Software attempt to make a game that will appease the commercial forces of the gaming market without sacrificing all the mystery and strangeness that made Elden Ring so special. An online multiplayer roguelike that sees players run around a truncated version of Elden Ring‘s world, collecting loot and powers to make it easier to defeat an escalating series of bosses, Nightreign sounds like it’ll be a blast to play, at least for a bit. (The fact that you’re building up pre-generated characters, rather than making your own to customize, does give us pause.) But we genuinely don’t know if Nightreign will have the staying power of its base game, which has us continue to dip back into its vast world years (and hundreds of player hours) after its initial release. Still: One way or another, it’ll be interesting to find out.

Monaco 2 (TBA)

2013 co-op stealth game Monaco remains a favorite of ours: A brightly colored, mechanically innovative take on heist films that threads that most tricky of stealth game needles: Feeling fun both before and after you get caught. Now, Pocketwatch Games is finally rolling out a sequel, with trailers showing off a very different art style from the delightfully blocky original, but the same basic hook: Multiple characters with useful but narrow abilities, all of which have to work in tandem to execute a proper job. (The Socialite, for instance, distracts and charms the guards—allowing The Surgeon to sneak up and behind them and jam a needle in their necks.) The visual designs from the trailer don’t look as clean as the original game, but we remain hopeful that Pocketwatch has maintained the sense of planning, followed by wild chaos, that made the first game so compelling.

Old Skies (TBA)

Few studios have done more to keep the spirit of old-school adventure games alive than Wadjet Eye, which kicked off with The Shivah and paranormal Blackwell games in the 2000s before branching out into helping other similarly minded creators publish their own modern takes on the genre. Studio founder Dave Gilbert hasn’t rested on his publisher laurels, though: 2018 offering Unavowed showed a studio sticking to its roots, while also incorporating welcome aspects of modern game design—notably, a party companion system that allowed stories to branch in spots depending on which of several well-drawn teammates you brought along on missions. We’re excited to see what Gilbert can do with his latest, time travel adventure Old Skies. The premise is wonderfully hook-y: You play as Fia, a time traveler who bounces around the timestream, altering events while immune to changes herself. It’s the sort of wide-faring premise that could devolve into chaos in the wrong hands, but Gilbert and Wadjet have proven themselves time and time again, leaving us excited to see all the changes Old Skies has in store for us.

Grand Theft Auto VI (TBA)

The biggest game of 2025—if it actually ends up coming out in 2025, always a question mark with this studio—will almost certainly end up being Rockstar’s latest, the first new Grand Theft Auto game in 12 years. GTA VI has an absolutely ridiculous amount of expectations riding on it, but we can’t help but still be intrigued, most especially because the game’s setting, Florida stand-in Leonida, will return us to Vice City, the setting of the most visually distinct of the PlayStation 2-era GTA games. We’re expecting GTA VI to be messy, occasionally irritating, and with writing that paradoxically aspires to be both an epic crime saga and a South Park-esque satire of American culture. But we also expect it to be huge, engrossing, and very easy to lose ourselves in; it remains to be seen which side will feel more prominent when the game finally rolls out sometime this year.