The most anticipated games of 2025

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft returns to the idea of ​​two playable characters, which it abandoned since Syndicate. The first is the black samurai Yasuke, dressed in durable armor and with powerful attacks, destroying enemies left and right. The second hero, or rather the heroine, is the girl Naoe, trained in the art of shinobi and able to move quietly and unnoticed without raising the alarm.

Most likely, those who miss the classic “assassins” will prefer to play as Naoe, especially since Shadows promises to significantly improve the stealth component. Thanks to the global illumination system, the game will have dynamic shadows in which you can hide – no more crawling into bushes or diving into a haystack. You will even be able to break lanterns, and enemies who have torches in their hands will become priority targets. In full-fledged stealth games, all this has long been implemented, but in “assassins” such mechanics have not existed before. The hidden blade, by the way, now immediately kills any target, even if it has thick armor. But you can simply knock out enemies if you play the role of a pacifist.

The combat system, which is more relevant to Yasuke, will also change. Fighting stances will appear, parries will be made easier, and the enemies’ armor will fall apart as the fight progresses. And for each individual type of weapon there is its own leveling tree – here are a katana, a spear, shurikens, a kusarigama (a sickle to which a weight is attached to a chain), and so on. Otherwise, this is a more or less classic modern “assassin”, only now the seasons will begin to change in the plot, which will affect the behavior of the enemies. For example, in winter they would prefer to stand by the fire rather than comb the surrounding bushes.

⇡#Avowed

The Western gaming press played early versions of Avowed several times last year, and each time their impressions were increasingly positive. This is another large-scale RPG from Obsidian Entertainment – this time players will return to the fantasy world of Eora, familiar to fans of Pillars of Eternity. They have to find out what kind of plague came to the lands of the Aedir Empire and how to get rid of it.

Journalists agree with the developers’ statements that Avowed combines all the strongest sides of Obsidian’s projects – even Pentiment and Grounded, which are not related to the RPG genre. There is a rich universe here, the details of which you learn on the fly (during dialogues, you can click on obscure words and names to open a glossary). There are cute characters with interesting stories associated with them. Here you can create your own unique character by choosing details of his past that your interlocutors will mention in dialogue. Everything indicates that this will be a large-scale role-playing game that you will want to return to more than once.

Even the combat system, which looked clunky in the first few videos, has been greatly improved. Not everyone was completely delighted with it, but there is no desire to miss battles – it’s fun to use magic, bows, and firearms, which are also present here. You can even swing two melee weapons at once. This freedom of choice is also relevant for the world: side quests, the search for secrets and locations filled with obviously stronger enemies, which are worth returning to later. Avowed will be released in February – it seems that this year is off to a good start for Microsoft.

Borderlands 4

The release of the Borderlands movie confirmed that this is still an important franchise for 2K Games, so the announcement of Borderlands 4 came as no surprise. We will once again take on the role of one of the four Vault Hunters, and then (solo or in co-op) go to the new planet Kairos. There is a dictator there who is called the Guardian of Time, so we will be at the head of a kind of resistance force that will put an end to his rule.

Based on the trailer, it may seem that the fourth part is not significantly different from the third – it’s still the same Borderlands, only graphically it looks more realistic than previous games in the series. But this is not entirely true – if earlier in “boards” we moved between different planets, here there is only one. This is the largest map in the history of the series, and, according to the creators, no matter what you see on the horizon, you can, according to all the precepts of Todd Howard, get to this object – and even without loading screens.

Another innovation will be a grappling hook, which will make exploring a larger area more fun. This “feature” is compared to climbing in Borderlands 3 – the ability to grab ledges there has improved the gameplay so much that you no longer want to go through the first and second parts of the series without it. So after Borderlands 4, they say, there will be no desire to play the third one. You shouldn’t blindly believe the words of Randy Pitchford, but fans are unlikely to be disappointed – especially since the amount of outhouse humor, which was annoying in the last game, is promised to be reduced in the “four”.

⇡#Civilization VII

The last part of Civilization was released more than seven years ago, and this year fans will finally get to see Civilization VII. The essence will not change – this is still a simulator of creating and managing an empire, building cities and establishing relationships with neighboring civilizations. But there will, of course, be significant innovations.

For example, for the first time in the history of the series, players will be able to choose leaders separately from civilizations. That is, they are not tied to factions, and it will be possible to receive different bonuses depending on the selected combinations, and as leaders level up, various characteristics will improve – for example, the growth rate of city populations.

The structure of the story campaign will also change – it is now divided into three eras: antiquity, the era of exploration and the modern era. Upon reaching a new era, you will need to decide on the choice of a new civilization (much like in Humankind) and transfer hereditary traits from the past there. Everything else, including technologies, resources and buildings unique to each era, will have to be studied anew. The creators promise to achieve a good balance between all civilizations for each era, so that you will want to enjoy playing the game again and not regret the decisions you make.

Death Stranding 2

According to Hideo Kojima, he wrote the script for Death Stranding 2 before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the coronavirus had such a great impact on all of humanity that the game designer decided to rewrite history from scratch.

Norman Reedus, Troy Baker and Lea Seydoux will return to their roles in the sequel. But Kojima wouldn’t be Kojima if he didn’t add a few more big names to the cast. Therefore, Elle Fanning from Babylon and Super 8, Shiori Kutsuna from Deadpool and the Invasion series, and even George Miller, one of the creators of Mad Max, will appear in the sequel.

While Kojima is always happy to talk about the actors, many details of the gameplay still remain secret. Judging by the trailers, the essence will remain the same, but the territories that the hero Reedus will have to explore will become much more dangerous due to landslides, floods and more formidable opponents than in the first part. The plot will also not become clearer – in one of the videos the villain used a weapon in the form of an electric guitar, so the sequel will probably surpass the first part in the number of crazy ideas and strange scenes. Or maybe it wasn’t a villain at all? We’ll find out at the release, and then we’ll certainly have a long discussion about what we saw with each other.

Doom: The Dark Ages

The Doom reboot and its sequel are considered some of the best single-player shooters of our time, but the developers are not going to leave even on such a high note. Doom: The Dark Ages will be released this year, which will take us to… medieval fantasy. In such an unusual setting for Doom, you will have to defend kingdoms from armies of demons. It sounds strange, but interesting.

The choice of era is explained by the plot – The Dark Ages will be a prequel to the last two Dooms and will tell the backstory of the Doom Slayer in the days when he was “the superweapon of gods and kings.” In addition to the classic shotgun, he will pick up a shield, which in the trailer seems very multifunctional – you can block attacks with it, throw it, and even spin spikes on it, like on a chainsaw. There will also be quite a few exotic guns in the arsenal – one of them grinds skulls on the fly and shoots them with fragments.

Not only the surroundings will change, but also the controls – the developers say it is closer to classic Doom than to the new ones: if in the restart the character moved like a cheetah, then in The Dark Ages he can be compared to a tank. As in old Doom, you will need to actively dodge enemy projectiles and often run sideways for accurate aiming. And also… they will remove the jump! In general, if in the last Doom you didn’t like the verticality of some locations and the hyperactivity of the Doom Slayer, then here a real return to the roots is planned.

Elden Ring Nightreign

It seems FromSoftware is not going to part with the Elden Ring universe so easily. In addition to the original game and expansion, in the foreseeable future we will also receive a cooperative offshoot – Elden Ring Nightreign. More precisely, it can be completed alone, but the creators assure that it is best to play with three people.

The scene will be Zamogil, the first location in Elden Ring, but it will look different – thanks to procedural generation, the placement of enemies and buildings will be different each time. The players’ task is to level up their characters as best as possible over three days, each of which lasts 15 minutes. It is best to explore during the day, because by night the map narrows and poisonous rain begins to fall outside the safe circle. Yes, comparisons to Fortnite are inevitable.

At the end of each day, in a small area where there is no rain, you need to fight a boss – the longer your foray lasts, the stronger and more dangerous the enemy will be. Among the opponents there will be both familiar enemies and completely new ones, and they will also differ depending on the race. To see all the available content, you will have to replay Nightreign many times – including trying out all eight main characters, who differ in skills and attack speed. All of them can bounce off walls and do not take damage when falling from a height – speedrunners will surely love it.

Grand Theft Auto VI

This part of the article could have been left blank – everyone already knows what GTA VI is, and in the first days the game will have sales that no publisher has ever dreamed of in their wildest dreams. And Rockstar is reluctant to share details – if its servers had not been hacked in 2023, we might not have seen the only trailer to date.

The leak, by the way, was not a fake – we will indeed return to Vice City, and the main characters will be Lucia and Jason, a kind of Bonnie and Clyde, who commit robberies and other crimes together and also run away from the police together after that. Nothing more was said about the plot – it is only known that Rockstar management “asked” the game’s writers to be less sarcastic towards minorities, who in past GTAs often became objects of ridicule.

There’s also not much to say about the gameplay, except to make assumptions based on a single video. Looks like there will be drag racing there. And one of the vehicles will be an airboat. Animals like alligators sneaking into stores and flamingos flying near ponds will appear in the city. In any case, all the cards will not be revealed in advance, and there is no doubt that there will be a lot of entertainment in a game called Grand Theft Auto. Yes, and the online mode is inevitable – there is no talk about it yet, but fans of the current GTA Online should prepare for a possible “move.”

InZOI

The gaming industry has clearly been missing a big, ambitious, ambitious competitor to The Sims, and inZOI could be just that. This is a life simulator in an open world, in which your zoy (as the characters are called) will freely move on foot or by car. You can raise the camera, like in The Sims, and give orders to the little man, or you can turn on third-person view.

They promise a lot of possibilities – even going to work will not be an off-screen event, like in The Sims: your Zoe will literally change into suitable clothes, and you will have to perform the corresponding tasks (like washing the floors). And at home you will be able to furnish your rooms not only with ready-made objects, but also with what you photograph in real life – a virtual 3D printer, after a couple of minutes of processing, will transfer the objects into the world of inZOI.

There will also be interaction with other inhabitants of the world – it’s not just that one of the indicators of zoya (in addition to hunger, mood and the desire to go to the toilet) is recognition. A karma system will be introduced into the game – if you, for example, pick up garbage on the street, you will increase it. And if you engage in pranks, it’s unlikely that everyone will appreciate it. Here it will even be possible to set trends – if a character is popular enough in the city and is photographed in an unusual outfit, those who see the photo on social networks will follow him and start wearing it too. The Sims already looks faded against the background of all this, but let’s see how well these and many other ideas are implemented.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

The sequel Kingdom Come: Deliverance will again tell the story of Henry of Skalitz, who will try to take revenge on the King of Hungary for the death of his parents. The sequel will be larger than its predecessor – the map will double in size, as will the duration of the story videos. And now over two hundred people are involved in the development.

It is known that a reputation system will appear in the game, and the inhabitants of medieval Bohemia will react differently to all the actions and actions of Henry, which will affect the ability to complete certain quests. Also, the decisions made by the player will affect the development of the plot and even the fate of the main character.

If in the first part the main emphasis was on close combat, then the sequel will feature crossbows and even early firearms. And in general, the combat system will become more brutal and realistic. The authors claim that Kingdom Come Deliverance II is a kind of dream game in which they realized all the ideas that they could not bring to life in the first part due to lack of experience and budget. But be mentally prepared for a lot of bugs – just in case.

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

In Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the developers of Like a Dragon decided to have a blast. If previously the storylines in their games were serious dramas, and the devil was happening outside, then here the story will be comedic. The main character will be Goro Majima, one of the best characters in the series, who ended up on a Hawaiian island, lost his memory and assembled his own pirate crew. With her, of course, he will go in search of treasures.

In the latest “Yakuza”, the combat system became turn-based, but here fights will again take place in real time, just like in the good old days. Majima has two fighting styles – the standard one, which he has been trained in since time immemorial, and the pirate style – with cutlasses and single-barreled pistols. Plus, Majima is very agile, so he can jump, and this opens up new combinations of attacks and techniques in battle.

Of course, a game about pirates could not do without a ship, and Majima has his own ship – you select the crew yourself, and also make improvements. And when you leave the pier and go on a free voyage, you will more than once have to face enemy ships, which you can either shoot from cannons or board. If you missed the atmosphere of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and Skull & Bones did not impress, then a replacement for both games came from nowhere.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

The first Life is Strange is still considered by many to be the best part of the series – the next candidate to repeat the success from DON’T NOD will be Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The project will tell about school friends who had a great time in the summer of 1995, but then for some reason completely stopped communicating.

The plot will throw us either in 95 or 27 years into the future, when the girls decided to reunite and remember everything that happened. More precisely, they “were forced” to remember everything, as the developers say, calling those events fatal. In dialogues and beyond, we, as in Life is Strange, will make decisions that will affect the story, both in the first time period and in the second. And it is important not only what you say in dialogues, but also where you look and how often you interrupt your interlocutors – the latter option was added to make dialogues more lively.

There are not many other details, but what immediately catches your eye is how much the heroine, named Swann, resembles Max from Life Is Strange. She is also shy, also does not immediately make contact with everyone, and also strives to capture every unusual moment of her life – however, she uses a video camera for this, not a camera. In the recent Life is Strange: Double Exposure, an attempt to play on nostalgia failed, but the developers there were different – we hope that DON’T NOD will do better. The game, by the way, will be divided into two parts, which will be released with an interval of one month.

⇡#Mafia: The Old Country

After the unsuccessful Mafia III, the publishing house 2K Games decided not to close the series, but to give the Hangar 13 team a chance. The developers did not indulge in experiments again, but began a prequel to the entire series, which will send players to Sicily in the 1900s. Or rather, to the fictional city of San Celeste from the second “Mafia”.

The main character will be Enzo Favara, who made his way from a miner to a member of the Torrisi mafia family. This is where the known details of the story end for now, but the developers have repeatedly promised a deep plot reminiscent of classic mafia films. Therefore, structurally the game will be similar to the first two parts of the series, and not the third, which was criticized for the need to often be distracted from the main story by traveling around the open world. A significant change can be considered that in The Old Country there will be no large cities with traffic and police. Basically, the action will take place in rural areas, and there you don’t always need a car – it’s more convenient to get somewhere on a horse. But chases with shootouts, of course, will not disappear anywhere. In interviews, the creators often talk about the authenticity of the game – they traveled to Sicily more than once, met local game developers there, and met with a blacksmith who taught them Sicilian knife fights. In addition, the game will have voice acting in Sicilian.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Judging by the beta version, in Monster Hunter Wilds the developers have combined the best elements of past games in the series – a large open world with a minimum number of downloads from World and the ability to quickly move around it, like in Rise. The rod beetles, unfortunately, will not return, but they will allow you to ride monsters around the new location, and now you can even shoot from a bow gun while sitting in the saddle. And you won’t have to choose a weapon for a long time – you can put a spare one in your horse’s inventory.

In fights with monsters, one of the main innovations will be the focus mode. This is not time dilation, as you might think, but the ability to see the sight on the screen during an attack and highlight weak points or wounds of opponents. If in this mode you manage to perfectly hit the highlighted part of the monster’s body, you will not only inflict huge damage on it, but also stun it for a while. And it will be a little easier to collect the materials needed to create armor and weapons from monsters. New types of weapons will not be brought in this time, but some old ones will be reworked and new techniques will be added.

They promise to make the world itself more alive than in previous games in the series – monster fights with each other, for example, will be less scripted, since Wilds creates a full-fledged ecosystem: depending on the region where a particular creature lives, it will have different classes throughout the day, and changes in weather can affect his behavior. One of the main complaints about World and Rise is related to the small number of large monsters – Wilds will fix this, and also add alpha versions of monsters that will be visually different from regular ones. The cooperative mode, by the way, supports cross-play this time.

⇡#Slay the Spire II

The famous card roguelike Slay the Spire returns with a full-fledged sequel – but, as usual, first in early access. Players will find themselves in a new, improved Spire, which they will have to conquer with the help of new cards and relics, different in each race.

Slay the Spire II will see the return of some familiar characters and the introduction of some completely new ones. The list of available modes will also expand, but as of today nothing is known about them. In general, the developers said little about the project, except to explain the reason for its existence – they say they were inspired by the popular love for the first part and support throughout its existence. This is why the sequel will be released in early access first – the community loves the game as much as its authors, and together they will be able to create the best version of Slay the Spire II.

If the original relied on Unity, then the second part is created based on Godot. This is due to the fact that it was the developers of Slay the Spire who wrote a devastating post in which they criticized the leadership of Unity for introducing rules that were unpleasant for indie studios. Then it was reported that for every downloaded (even not purchased) copy of a game made on Unity, developers would need to pay interest to the creators of the engine. A year later, the rules were changed, but the sediment, as they say, remained.

Split Fiction

The Hazelight studio of the charismatic Youssef Fares continues to create games that can only be played with someone in pairs. Split Fiction was no exception – it will tell about two writers who work in different genres: science fiction and fantasy. One fine day, the girls were hooked up to an idea-stealing machine, and the writers found themselves in stories they had invented.

As in It Takes Two, players will have to constantly work together, help each other in solving puzzles and passing challenges, and so on. The heroines will travel both in a fairy-tale world and in a science-fiction one: either to tame a dragon or fight cyberninjas; either swinging laser swords or throwing fireballs at the trolls.

In addition to the main plot, which they promise to make very fun and exciting, Split Fiction will have a lot of optional content – both tasks and fun challenges, for the sake of which you will want to study the worlds more carefully. The gameplay will constantly change and throw up more and more unexpected surprises, and visually the game looks much more modern than the previous Hazelight project. It seems that Fares with his project again wants to compete for the title of best game of the year – and we are not against it.

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The year promises to be interesting – there are plenty of interesting projects for action fans, fans of role-playing games will not be forgotten, and beloved series like Monster Hunter will return. And even a new game from Fares will be released! Tell us in the comments – what exactly do you expect from this year?

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