2025 is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years in gaming that the fantasy and sci-fi genres have seen in a while. Flagship AAA titles like Judas, Fable, Death Stranding 2, Marathon, and the recently-announced Elden Ring Nightreign promise a ton to sink our teeth into, while long-awaited indies like Citizen Sleeper 2, Slay the Spire 2, and Tales of the Shire add another spicy layer.
That’s why we’re excited to bring you our 10 most anticipated fantasy and sci-fi video games of 2025, to hopefully guide our gaming fans in the right direction and maybe inspire some of the non-gamers who may want to dip a toes into these warm waters.
There’s something for everyone here: narrative-heavy games inspired by tabletop RPGs; classic, first and third-person high fantasy; weird and wonderful games from some of the industry's most lauded auteurs; and even a very special life sim inspired by the coziest place in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
So sit back, warm up your thumbs and clicking fingers, and settle in. We’ve got the only video game list you’ll need this year!
10) Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
The original Citizen Sleeper saw players embody the husk of a sentient robot, trying to survive on a semi-dilapidated husk of a space station in a gritty, sci-fi world. While the sequel is bound to play with similar themes, it’s clear that this game is going to be more about finding hope in entropy. It will try to answer the question of why we get up and do things when we know it will all one day be dust.
Don’t think that it’s all doom and gloom, though. Citizen Sleeper’s art and poignant, personal storylines are what made its first entry so impactful, and this second one will lean even further into that success. The mechanics here are dice-based, as you play out days and find ways to fill up your energy bar, which gives you the ability to roll more dice and fulfill more prompts. It’s a tabletop RPG-inspired masterpiece of an indie game.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is set to release on January 31.
9) Avowed
Avowed is the newest high fantasy title from renowned developer Obsidian Entertainment. In it, you get to explore an open world as an outlander who can fight with melee weapons, a bow and arrow, and even magic spells. The gameplay footage on this one looks really promising for fans of the genre, and has even led folks to call Avowed “first person Skyrim.” Pretty high praise in spite of the fact that the comparison is possibly misleading, since Avowed’s gameplay is a lot more like a parkour-based game like Dying Light.
Either way, this is probably one of the most 1:1 recommendations for Winter is Coming readers. Want to embody a hero in a world that looks just like your favorite fantasy escapes? This is the one for you.
Avowed launches on February 18, 2025.
8) Wanderstop
Wanderstop is the story of a main character trapped within a cozy game. Imagine Stardew Valley, but instead of loving the idyllic life of planting, harvesting, and exploring, our protagonist Alta hates every minute of the monotonous work.
Alta used to be a warrior of some sort, and really struggles with the experience of having to work at an idyllic little tea shop day in and day out. It’s a subversion of a genre that has become extremely popular since Stardew came on the scene in 2016 and revitalized the farm sim style of game first explored by Harvest Moon.
Wanderstop’s fantastical setting, tea-shop vibe, and dark, story-driven conflict will have fantasy nerds on the edge of their seats. Come for the wacky tea machine, stay for the angsty warrior. Written by some of the folks who worked on The Stanley Parable, Wanderstop will likely prove to be anything but what it seems.
The Stanley Parable will hit the market on March 11, 2025.
7) Judas
Judas is the first game from Bioshock creator Ken Levine in over 10 years. It’s developed by his studio, Ghost Story Games, and in spite of the fact that Levine has tried to prove that Judas is so much more than just “Bioshock in space,” the game’s distinctive mixture of dystopian themes, cyberpunk undertones, and first-person narrative shooter vibes sure does make it hard not to think back to the Bioshock series that helped Levine make his name.
Still, even if the combat looks similar, it was dope in Bioshock and will be amazing now. That, combined with Judas’ unique premise — a human must be “reprinted” to contend with the existential crisis of needing to repopulate their species in the wake of a deadly virus on a ship overrun by robots — will be endlessly stimulating to sci-fi fans.
Judas is expected to launch sometime before March of this year, but a specific release date has not been set.
6) Fable
While not much is known about Playground Games’ reboot of this cult classic franchise, Fable is set to be an open world fantasy experience to remember. Having been rumored for years without any kind of substantial evidence, much of the gaming world thought that the new Fable game was no more than glorified vaporware. However, a series of recent official trailers has put that suspicion to rest.
It’s likely that Fable will play a lot like CD Projekt Red’s famed Witcher games, following a yet-unnamed female protagonist with a kickass sword in a gritty-yet-whimsical high fantasy world. It’s supposed to come out this year, although a specific release date has not yet been set, leaving the door open for the game to be postponed. We’ll just have to wait and see.
5) Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Hideo Kojima is the most famous video game auteur of all time. His Metal Gear series is what first opened many players and critics’ eyes to the potential of video games to tell weird, cinematic stories, and his Death Stranding series leans into this mission with the kind of abandon Kojima fans love. The first game saw players take on the role of a mail carrier in a post-apocolyptic landscape. In fact, a lot of the game is spent just walking around the environment. It was the kind of storytelling vehicle that fans love and detractors hate, and there’s not much in between.
Death Stranding 2 will be more of the same. It could be a cultural event worth participating in, if only because you’ll be engaging in one of the weirdest pieces of mainstream art ever made.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach will launch on PS5 this year, though a specific release date is currently unavailable.
4) Marathon
Bungie makes the best shooters around. Whether it’s Halo, Destiny, or Marathon, there’s nothing like picking up a weapon in one of these games and letting loose on the enemy. The studio has been hard at work since finishing up with Destiny 2’s last expansion rebooting their 1994 property Marathon, a sci-fi shooter where you battle aliens on a space station.
The modern edition is going to be a multiplayer extraction shooter, and if it lives up to Bungie’s reputation, even just a little, you won’t want to miss it. The studio is expected to release Marathon sometime in 2025.
3) Elden Ring Nightreign
Perhaps the most surprising announcement at the 2024 Game Awards, Elden Ring Nightreign is going to be a cooperative online rogue-like game, featuring runs with weapons and bosses from the famed Elden Ring franchise, whose base game and Shadow of the Erdtree expansion won heads and hearts around the world. Developed by all-star studio FromSoftware, Nightreign is as experimental as the studio gets, throwing players into a novel format that hopefully is able to maintain the brutal yet rewarding combat loop that makes all FromSoft games so special. However the game ends up playing, it will be a dark fantasy experience like no other.
A network test is scheduled for as soon as February 2025, and the game is set to launch sometime later in the year.
2) Slay the Spire 2
The first Slay the Spire game quickly became the most famous deckbuilding video game of all time when it hit early access in the fall of 2017. The game’s focus on strategic choice combined with its card synergies, distinct characters (each with their own special abilities and weaknesses), and absolutely smashing core loop won the hearts of over a million players and has stood the test of time. Thus, MegaCrit’s second entry into the series has been getting hype for years. And it’s finally almost here.
While we don’t have full details as to what changes will be included in Slay the Spire 2, it’s worth expecting the same joy of the base game with new characters, strategies, enemies, and synergies to explore. The game is wrapped in a compelling, lore-light narrative about fantasy characters attempting to make it to the top of a perilous tower with only their own wits, wiles, and powers to rely on.
Slay the Spire 2 will be coming to early access on PC at some point this year.
1) Tales of the Shire
Finally, we come to our number one pic, the first video game entirely centered around living the idyllic life of a Hobbit in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Shire. The Lord of the Rings is all about a perilous journey, starting at the Shire and delving into the darkest depths of Middle-earth has to offer. But there’s no Frodo and Sam here. No Ring. No existential threat.
Tales of the Shire is about keeping your little Hobbit hut clean. It’s about gardening and cooking and getting drunk with friends. It’s about living the life that your favorite characters in Tolkien’s epic series set out to defend. How could it not be our favorite?
After some initial delays, Tales of the Shire’s planned release date is March 25, 2025. You won’t want to miss it.
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