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2025 is shaking off its winter slouch with a slate of exciting games. We’re looking at everything from big-name RPGs and strategy games to life sims great and small. Even this early in the year, it’s possible to catch a whiff of GOTY potential on some February game releases. From the newest entries in the Civilization and Yakuza franchises to indie firsts, it’s looking like a month back with quality. It’s also an opportunity for some famous franchises to redeem themselves (and for others to break the ice in a big way). Here are 10 games you should be hyped for when they release in February 2025.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
The original Kingdom Come challenged even the most hardcore RPG enthusiast to meet its unique demands. Who has time to fear swords and arrows when we haven’t even conquered literacy? By teaching Henry the way of the book as well as the way of the blade, Deliverance offered a medieval sim experience as immersive as it was punishing. If anything, the sequel seems even more ambitious. We’ll see when Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 brings a new era of literacy and havoc on Feb. 4, 2025.
Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator
It feels like there’s a simulator game for every activity you could ever want to simulate (and maybe some you’d rather skip). Still, there’s always room for a promising newcomer in the genre. Don’t expect the cozy vibes of TCG Card Shop Simulator when you boot up Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator, however. Ambulance Life puts control (and an oxygen mask) in your hands, letting you cruise around a city saving lives. The emergency sirens are blaring for a Feb. 6 release.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII
Get ready to say “just one more turn” 1,000 times until you pass out at your keyboard. Few games embody “just a little longer” like Sid Meier’s Civilization 7. Civ is consistently one of the best and deepest strategy games around. It also (mostly) manages to be welcoming to newcomers, so now more people than ever can test their ADHD by stressing about troop movements and wheat production queues. You can plot to your heart’s delight when Civilization 7 releases on Feb. 11, 2025.
Dawnfolk
The world lays itself out in tiles, your city unfurling one tent city at a time. Dawnfolk is a charming pixel graphic strategy game that aims at fun and fluid progress. No slogging through 20 hours of pre-industrial labor before you finally get to the good stuff. If you’re looking for a cute but deep strategy game that doesn’t cost you every waking hour to progress, this might be the one. Dawnfolk flexes its pixel prowess against the other February game releases on Feb. 13.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center
Psychics? Cursed relics? Shady rental properties? Urban Myth Dissolution Center has a bit of everything when it comes to supernatural weirdness. As intriguing as the lore of this visual novel adventure is, however, the graphics command just as much attention. The crunchy pixel look and eerie tone somehow combine to give noir anime vibes (with maybe a splash of Junji Ito). The results? UMDC might rank among the month’s most stylish games when it releases on Feb. 12.
Date Everything!
At last, a game that lets me date my Overwhelming Sense of Existential Dread. No, seriously. Maybe you can’t literally date everything in Date Everything!, but it’s not far off. With 100 fully-voiced characters to woo, you can unleash your inner Shakespeare and charm everything around you.
Magical glasses have transformed everyday objects into potential lovers (and enemies). Shelley Shelf? Timothy Timepiece Clock? Explore a sandbox dating sim like no other when Date Everything! gets all Cupidy on Feb. 14.
Avowed
Obsidian is the team behind Grounded, The Outer Worlds, and Fallout: New Vegas. To say hopes are high for Avowed would be an understatement. As one of the most anticipated of the February game releases, there’s a lot of pressure on this single-player fantasy RPG. If any team can hope to create an adventure as creative, funny, and daring as players dream of, however, it’s probably this one. Avowed will take players back to the world of Eora (introduced in the Pillars of Eternity franchise) when it releases on Feb. 18.
ERA ONE
Dream of tinkering with propulsion systems and cargo holds until you build the perfect spaceship? How about staking your life on the performance of that ship as a real-time strategy war erupts? The RTS genre hasn’t seen the glory days of StarCraft in a while, but sometimes a game like ERA ONE breaks through the ranks. There’s a daunting blend of RTS and base building, but if you’re into customization and tactical depth, it’s not one to miss. You can lose yourself in a pile of schematics when ERA ONE releases on Feb. 20.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
The Yakuza franchise was sprawling even before Infinite Wealth sent the gang to Hawaii. Its most recent installment aims to expand the world of Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu even further. Instead of following those heroic goofballs, however, we’re following Goro Majima.
Why? He got stranded on a Pacific island, lost his memory, and turned pirate. Honestly, I’ll take any excuse to hunt for buried treasure and kick the snot out of some burly Buccaneers. You can assemble your crew when Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii sets sail on Feb. 20, 2025.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds isn’t just the game with the yummy food and adorable cats, but we wouldn’t blame you for feeling that way. It’s a monster-hunting adventure about gearing up and then tracking down and slaying fearsome beasts. With Monster Hunter: World, Capcom created a cozy yet challenging adventure worth sinking hundreds of hours into. Many hunters are now sharpening their Switch Axes in the hope that Wilds will deliver just as much when it releases on Feb. 28.
