On the cusp of the top ten, we have a selection of games that mix the known quantities – where we’ve had hands ons, are seeing sequels, and have firm release dates – and the less known projects, where the air of intrigue goes someway to ramping up our anticipation for what they might bring.
You know what you’re getting with the next game from Hazelight and Josef Fares, for example, and Split Fiction is coming out soon, but when the last we saw of Marvel 1943 was a cinematics heavy story trailer last summer, can we really trust that the game will hit in 2025? Well, that’s half the fun of these lists, isn’t it?
15 – Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
PS5, XSX|S, PC – 4th February 2025
It’s been a good seven years since the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and fans of this historical RPG have been waiting a long, long time for Henry and Sir Hans’ journey to continue. There’s less than a month to wait, you’ll be glad to hear, with our duo journeying through medieval Bohemia in the early 1400s to deliver a message at the start of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
Things…. don’t quite go to plan, and they’re swept up in the problems of kings and wars that are increasingly affecting the region. This grand sequel will feature two main areas, with the Bohemian paradise of the opening juxtaposed with the city of Kuttenberg and all of the political intrigue that that can bring. Don’t worry if you don’t remember or haven’t played the original, as Warhorse promise this will be a good starting point, even if it’s a direct narrative continuation.
We got to go hands on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 last summer, experiencing the game’s opening and a snippet of the action once Henry reached the big city.
14 – Mafia: The Old Country
PS5, XSX|S, PC – Summer 2025
The Mafia series is going back to where it all began, with Mafia: The Old Country tracing its narrative steps back to the early 1900s and before the crime families of Sicily saw their influence spread through the emigration of Italians to the United States.
You’ll be cast as Enzo Favara, having to prove their worth to the Cosa Nostra, fighting to survive through the brutal underworld of organised crime. Enzo’s already survived labor in the sulphur mines, and now has a chance (in a twisted way) to find a better life for himself by working for Don Torrisi’s crime family, doing whatever it takes to gain and retain favour along the way.
The game looks fantastic from the snippets of action that we’ve seen, and this is absolutely one to keep an eye on in 2025.
13 – The Outer Worlds 2
PS5, XSX|S, PC – 2025
The Outer Worlds 2 has chucked Xbox exclusivity out the airlock, about as ceremoniously as you could yeet yourself into the nearest star in the original. The sequel promises to do all the usual sequelly things with more action, more weapons, more possibilities, and more better graphics.
The Outer Worlds 2 will very much follow in the tone and style of the original, but promises to go bigger and broader on pretty much every level. There’s the new colony to explore in Arcadia, which is the home of skip drive technology, and which you explore as a new Earth Directorate agent trying to figure out if it’s responsible for all the big and scary rifts that are threatening the whole galaxy.
12 – Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra
Platforms TBC – 2025
With a story penned by Amy Hennig (best known for her time at Naughty Dog with the PS3 Uncharted trilogy), and an intriguing time period, a lot of people are looking forward to Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. That said, it’s been quite a while since we last heard something about this title. Heck, we don’t even have a formal confirmation of platforms yet!
With switching perspectives between Captain America, Black Panther, Nanali, and Gabriel Jones as they look to thwart Hydra’s plans at the heights of WW2, you can expect the gameplay and tone to switch as you jump between characters. We’ll hopefully see the game in action soon, if it’s still coming out later this year.
11 – Split Fiction
PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, PC – 6th March 2025
Coming from the makers of the excellent Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, A Way Out and It Takes Two – and with an only lightly sweary introduction from Josef Fares at The Game Awards – Split Fiction has shot right to the top of our must-watch list as another splitscreen co-op experience that you’ll want to hunker down with a partner or friend to play.
Split Fiction sees Mio and Zoe – named after Fares two daughters – as two aspiring writers who are seemingly conned into feeding their stories into an evil AI machine. While AI stealing human beings content is worryingly close to reality, the game sees Mio and Zoe pulled into the machine, and their two stories, one fantasy and one sci-fi mixed and merged, with the duo jumping between the two from level to level. Each level will introduce new mechanics, blending fantasy and sci-fi tropes together in some intriguing ways. We can’t wait!
Next stop: The Top Ten… well, the first five from the top ten. See you tomorrow!
