Entertainium’s Most Anticipated Games of 2023

Our Entertainium editorial staff, Andy, Callum, Eduardo, Felicity, and Gareth, rundown the games they’re most looking forward to this year. The games are listed in alphabetical order.

Advance Wars: Re-Boot Camp 
Eduardo: The remake of the first two Advance Wars has been sitting in Nintendo’s digital lockers for months now following the postponement of its release date due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hopefully peace will eventually find its way to the region and with it, the return of one of my most beloved strategy franchises ever.

Aliens: Dark Descent
Andy: In another return for a classic ‘80s sci-fi action property, there is Aliens: Dark Descent. Games based on the Alien series have been a mixed bag, to say the least, but Tindalos Interactive are definitely taking a different approach. Revealed only in a cinematic trailer so far, the game is apparently a “squad-based action game” with a tactical emphasis. With another squad of unlucky marines and a new horde of xenomorphs on board, we will be able to party like it’s 1986 at some point this year.

Amnesia: The Bunker 
Eduardo: While I wasn’t exactly in love with what was done with that Amnesia Rebirth game released last year, the very little that was shown of The Bunker looked to be very promising, especially so due to its WWI setting, as well as having the player handle weapons, a first for the series. Will we save a bullet for ourselves as we lose our sanity playing this? We’ll see, I suppose.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, From Software’s first return to Armored Core since 2013.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
Eduardo: I’ve always been curious about the series but have yet to play a single one of its games. Now having had a lot of experience playing From Software games since then, Armored Core VI is looking to be my entry point to the wonderful world of mecha that it’s looking to be. That was one hell of a trailer that they put out during last year’s The Game Awards!

Atomic Heart (February 21st)
Gareth: Atomic Heart has been in development for a number of years and for a while, information was scarce about whether the game was still actually being worked on. However a trailer at the end of last year finally put a release date on it, and soon, being late February. Atomic Heart looks like BioShock mixed with elements of Singularity and the Metro games, and its Soviet aesthetic merged with robots and BioShock-like gameplay is extremely appealing to me. I am slightly worried the trailer’s we’ve seen won’t be representative of the game itself, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Baldur’s Gate 3
Eduardo: I have faith that the folks over at Larian will do Baldur’s Gate justice, especially considering that their Divinity games sit high among my favorite RPGs ever. This one’s been on early access for just about forever at this point, but I haven’t had a chance to play it, nor do I want to spoil anything for when I get to enjoy the full version once it’s eventually out this year.

Felicity: We’re cautiously optimistic about this one. Apparently they’re “fairly confident” about a full release in August and while we’ve played through the opening section a number of times, we’re curious about bug fixes and the playability of the full game in general.

Company of Heroes 3: A new Second World War RTS set in Italy and North Africa.

Colossal Cave (January 19th)
Eduardo: Ken and Roberta Williams’ first game in what feels like forever is finally coming out in a few weeks and I’m really curious about how it turned out. From the name alone, it probably has some relation with the 1976 all-time classic adventure game, Colossal Cave Adventure, I assume? Given their involvement, this will definitely be worth checking out for sure.

Company of Heroes 3 (February 23rd)
Andy: Originally, the third game in Relic’s beloved series was due to appear last year, but for two reasons the delay actually seems apt. Firstly, because 2023 marks ten years since Company of Heroes 2 took the action to the Eastern Front; and secondly, because 2023 looks like it could be the year when real-time strategy games finally make a comeback. In this third game, built with version 5 of Relic’s Essence engine, players can tackle two campaigns focused on the North African and Italian theatres of World War II.

Dead Space Remake (January 27th)  
Eduardo: The original Dead Space ranks among the best horror games from the previous generation and even though part of its original development crew worked on its spiritual successor, The Callisto Protocol, I’m betting a lot on this remake capturing what made the first Dead Space (and to a lesser degree, its sequel) so good, something that Callisto missed the mark on, for as much as it tried to.

Diablo IV (June 6th)
Felicity: With Blizzard Entertainment killing off any warm fuzzy feelings it may have garnered from the general public over the last 20 years, Diablo IV is set to release this summer. Early trailers showcase about 768 shades of red (rumor has it they had Pantone create several new shades of red, just for this game). But if nothing else, it promises more of the top down ARPG action that the series is known for.

Final Fantasy XVI: Another instalment in the totemic RPG series.

Final Fantasy XVI (June 22nd)
Eduardo: Just knowing that Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida is the one handling this game is enough to put it in my book among the most anticipated releases of 2023. FFXIV is such an incredible achievement, and although I have mixed feelings towards the last single-player Final Fantasy game, I’m betting it all on XVI being as amazing as it looks in early footage.

Felicity: It’s hard to not have Final Fantasy XIV as one of the most anticipated games of the year. While early previews seem to show a more modern industrial setting for the game, which we aren’t always a fan of, it also seems as if large battles, massive summons and world altering narratives will also play a part.

Fire Emblem: Engage (January 20th)
Felicity: Early previews have showcased the smooth turn based combat, rich anime fight scenes and plethora of characters from the series’ long history. Sign us up!

The Great War: Western Front
Andy: As it turns out, it is anything but quiet on the Western front in 2023. This upcoming game from Petroglyph is distinctive, though, in that it focuses on World War I. Relatively few games have focused on that conflict, and with good reason – Blitzkrieg is a much easier sell in games than the static attrition of the trenches. If anyone can make it work, it may be Petroglyph, who have a fairly strong RTS track record and worked on the very welcome remasters of the first two Command & Conquer games that came out in 2020.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore (April 4th)
Eduardo: The original GrimGrimoire is one of those RPGs that popped seemingly out of nowhere and it ended up among my favorite PS2 games in my collection. It’s a beautiful game that is still visually impressive to this day, not to mention a whole lot of fun. Knowing absolutely nothing of the new game, I’m cautiously optimistic about how it’ll turn out.

Hades II: Back to the underworld.

Hades II
Callum: Supergiant Games is making a sequel. First time they’ve decided to make one in the entire time the studio has existed. It’s notable because they’ve built up a reputation of always doing something new with each game. Hades II marks the first time they’re directly iterating on their work.

Given their track record, I’m certain Hades II will be fantastic, but I’m especially curious to see what this game will have in store. Supergiant doesn’t seem like the kind of studio to just make a sequel just because it’s the easy or most sensible decision. Hades II is supposed to be going through early access like its predecessor, so it’ll take a while to get the full picture, but it should be fun to watch it come together.

Eduardo: Something tells me this one won’t be coming out this year. I imagine Supergiant Games will follow their early access model that worked so well for the first game and put out chunks of the sequel every so often. Hades is hands down my favorite action roguelike ever, so more of it is definitely something I can look forward to playing eventually.

Hollow Knight: Silksong
Callum: Okay, so – look: I’m not actually expecting this to come out this year. But I’d be lying if there wasn’t some small part of me hoping it will and is doing this only to possibly, maybe, if I’m really lucky manifest that reality. (Seriously, though — take your time, devs. I can wait.)

Hollow Knight is easily one of the best metroidvania games ever. Navigating its world was one of the most exciting and memorable experiences I’ve had. It’s a game that understands how meaningful the process of learning and understanding a space is. All Silksong really needs to be is just more Hollow Knight and it’ll be great, I’m sure, but the specific ways it seems to be movement and combat differ with the change in character make it look like it’ll be different in some fun ways. Very excited to finally see it for myself whenever it’s done.

Kerbal Space Program 2 (February 24th)
Felicity: We’ll be the first to admit that we haven’t played as much Kerbal Space Program as we’d like. The sequel promises even more of what made the original so endearing, as well as the fact that apparently a lot of effort has gone into making the whole on boarding process a lot more intuitive and less overwhelming to new players.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure (March 14th) and The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (July 7th) 
Eduardo: Having spent quite a bit of time playing and really enjoying The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero in 2022 (and still going in 2023), Trails of Azure has got an obvious shoe-in in my list for most anticipated games of the year. If it’s anything like its predecessor, I’ll surely be spending some quality time with the Special Support Section. Same goes for the brand new game in the series, Trails into Reverie, which will also be coming out this year. Talk about keeping me busy, NIS!

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Can Nintendo top Breath of the Wild?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (May 12th) 
Eduardo: It’s a new Zelda game, what can I say? Breath of the Wild managed to be one of the best games on two distinct Nintendo platforms, so I would be lying if I said I had zero expectations for its sequel. It’s been teased for so long, and having had the chance to check out some of the footage dropped by Nintendo months ago, I feel like I’m once again going to get swept off my feet by Link and co.

Men of War 2
Andy: Another entry in the hoped-for RTS revival, Men of War 2 is arguably the first proper sequel to the 2009 original – as opposed to the confusing pile of spinoffs over the years. The new entry is said to lean heavily into historical realism, and has campaigns on both the Western and Eastern fronts of World War II. Time will tell how it will fare in a surprisingly crowded year for the genre, especially given the presence of an obvious heavyweight rival in Company of Heroes 3, which will beat it to release by months.

Octopath Traveler 2 (February 24th)
Boasting eight brand new characters, each with their own journey and coming from all different walks of life, from a warrior to a dancer to a hunter to an apothecary, and a large world called Solistia to explore, Octopath Traveler 2 seems to feature even more of what made the original so engrossing.

Resident Evil 4 Remake (March 24th)
Eduardo: Same with Dead Space, Resident Evil 4 sits among my favorite games ever, and seeing just how well Capcom nailed the Resident Evil 2 remake, I have very high hopes sitting with this one. From the early footage released so far, it’s looking fantastic. My only real gripe with the original is how padded it feels at times, hopefully the remake will address this issue and keep the tension going as we once again drop by Spain to rescue the president’s daughter…

Skate Story: A skateboarding game filled with style.

RoboCop: Rogue City (TBC June)
Andy: Two decades after a disastrous effort back in 2003, RoboCop is coming back to videogames. This time, development is in the hands of Polish studio Teyon, who reportedly did a decent job with a similar property when they made 2019’s Terminator Resistance. They will surely have to handle RoboCop’s slow movement, and inject the appropriate satire and ultraviolence, in order to make this work. Happily, Peter Weller is returning in a voice role, ensuring some continuity with the original film from 1987.

Skate Story
Callum: First time I saw Skate Story was because someone retweeted a tweet containing a very brief video from the game’s account. I was immediately taken by it. Every time I’ve seen it afterward, it’s always been a “oh right – Skate Story!” kind of moment because of how long it is between sightings. First when Natalie Clayton covered it in a piece she wrote about skateboarding games for PC Gamer, and then again last year with the trailer that came out during the Not-E3 period over the summer. And every time, it’s just — damn. Absolutely stunning.

The Settlers: New Allies (February 17th)
Andy: Originally developed by Blue Byte, The Settlers is a venerable German city-building and strategy series that began way back in 1993. For the series’ 30th anniversary, Ubisoft have tasked their Düsseldorf-based subsidiary to reboot the concept. The colourful, cute visuals for which the series is known have been preserved, but time will tell how well the new team have handled the economy-focused gameplay. Interestingly, New Allies won’t just stake a claim to the PC – console versions are underway, too.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl: The Zone is calling for new Stalkers.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Eduardo: It’s been forever since the last game in the franchise, and it seems like we’re going to have to wait a little while longer before we get to step into Chernobyl once again in one of game’s most atmospheric worlds. This one’s a special case since it’s been entirely developed in Ukraine, and obviously, due to recent events, there’s no telling when it’ll be coming out. Then again, what’s most important is that folks can once again go back to living their lives in peace, and once that finally happens, we’ll get to play an entirely new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that’s sure to be worth the wait.

Gareth: Although the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted a fully justified delay to STALKER 2, GSC Game World managed to relocate development to Prague and have put forward a tentative new release date of later this year, likely in the autumn. All of the pre-release material for STALKER 2 has looked excellently moody, taking many elements from the original game and making it bigger, as well as a lot more graphically detailed. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl remains one of the scariest games I’ve ever played and I’m confident that if STALKER 2 has even half of the atmosphere of its predecessor, it will be a memorably worthwhile experience.

Starfield (Q2 2023)
Gareth: Despite a delay from last year I still remain cautiously interested in Starfield. This will be the first big game Bethesda have released since they’ve been owned by Microsoft, and I am hopeful that as a result of having Phil Spencer watching over Todd Howard’s shoulder, this game might be less of a broken mess than Fallout 76 was at release. That said however, I am not expecting a game with the depth of their older open-world RPGs like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and earlier. This is very likely to be a Fallout 4-esque game with a focus on looting and shooting, but this time across multiple planets and in space. However, if time and effort has gone into building an interesting world (the first brand new universe Bethesda have created in decades), the lack of gameplay depth will probably be overlooked.

Eduardo: What can I say? Fallout in space. Count me in.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (March 17th)
Eduardo: Okay, I admit it – I haven’t finished Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order quite yet, but I know I’m gonna have to by the time Survivor comes around in a couple of months. Star Wars games are a guilty pleasure of mine and it helps that these ones also happen to feature a captivating story. I want to see where the new game will lead us to for sure…

Street Fighter 6: A stylistic reboot for the Street Fighter franchise.

Street Fighter 6 (June 2nd)
Eduardo: I played a few matches of this at BGS a few months ago, and boy, it felt fantastic. Street Fighter 6 is looking to be a fine return to form for the series and I’m going to be there day one getting my butt handed to me. I’m going for broke!

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (May 26th)
Gareth: As an intellectual property, Suicide Squad holds no interest for me whatsoever. However, this is the next game from Rocksteady Studios, the developers of Batman: Arkham Asylum, City and Knight. The game takes place in the same universe as those predecessor titles, set some time after the end of Arkham Knight. Given how much I enjoyed all of the Arkham games I’m fascinated to see what Suicide Squad is like, given you won’t be playing as Batman this time, especially given the rather mixed reception to Gotham Knights in 2022. Time has been quite kind to Arkham Knight despite its disastrous initial PC launch, so we’ll see if Suicide Squad garners a more positive initial release.

Supplice (March 30th)
Andy: Retro-style shooters are frankly a dime-a-dozen these days, and developers will find it more and more difficult to stand out from the crowd. Despite its odd title (French for “torture”), Supplice has a strong chance. It uses the Doom engine, and is made by Mekworx – a new team made up of Doom community veterans who know exactly what they are doing. The demo was excellent, and with any luck the developers will extend that quality to feature length

System Shock remake: Will it actually come out?

System Shock remake (“March” 2023)
Gareth: The System Shock remake has been in development with Nightdive Studios since 2016, seven years ago. I kickstarted it back then, and they were originally aiming for a 2017 release date. Since then it has continually been kicked into the long grass, development having to be completely restarted several years back, the release date delayed repeatedly. While video and screenshots of the game as well as a demo exist, the state of the final product is still very much in question. Whether or not the game actually comes out in March this year is not a bet I want to gamble on. I do believe something will be released eventually given we have seen plenty of evidence that “something” exists, but at this point, my expectations for how good this game will be are sadly quite low.

Teslagrad 2
Eduardo: You’ve probably never heard of the original Teslagrad because it came out at a point in time where cartoony 2D platforming puzzle games were all the buzz. It was easily one of the best ones in my book, though, and knowing that there’s going to be a sequel for it warms my heart.

Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line (February 16th)
Felicity: The Theatrhythm games have shown off some of the best music that Square Enix and Final Bar Line seems like it’ll continue this trend, with a promised 386 songs combined in the deluxe edition+DLC from all the Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Mana, Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default, and even newer stuff like Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song.

Tales of Symphonia: Remastered (February 17th)
Felicity: Remaster of the Gamecube classic that has apparently angered many fans worldwide with the recent 30fps announcement, as the original version on GameCube ran at 60fps. Still worth playing for the engaging story, engrossing world and interesting characters.

Valiant Hearts: Coming Home
Eduardo: Ubisoft was on a tear when the very first Valiant Hearts came out. It, alongside both Rayman Origins and Legends, were just plain amazing. They play nothing alike, mind you, but used the same technology, with Valiant Hearts forgoing complicated gameplay in order to serve a slice of heart-tearing drama set in WWI. If the sequel’s half as good, it’s still set to be a tear jerker for sure.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun: It’s surprising a retro shooter done in this universe hasn’t been tried before.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun
Andy: Are there too many Warhammer games now? Games Workshop have become startlingly loose with their licensing in recent years, which has led to a tidal wave of projects – with decidedly mixed results. While the showcase release in 2023 may be Space Marine 2, another one to watch is Boltgun. It fuses the 40K setting with retro shooter stylings, which has the potential to be a potent mix. The open question is how well the little-known Bristol-based team at Auroch Digital can handle this – they haven’t made an FPS before.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 
Eduardo: The first Space Marine had no business being as fun as it was, but goddammit, what a fantastic Gears of War knock-off. After being teased for a loooong time, we’re finally getting a sequel. Hopefully it’ll be worth the wait. 

The Wolf Among Us 2
Eduardo: Oh man, the first run at The Wolf Among Us was some of the best work TellTale Games put out during their golden days years ago, so I’m positively excited to see what the new iteration of the studio is cooking up for the second season. That’s even more the case now that I’m reading my way through the Fables comics, which are excellent on their own.

The Wolf Among Us 2: Neo-noir meets werewolves.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (March 9th)
Eduardo: I was already a sucker for Team Ninja games before they tried their hard at the Soulslike genre, and after both Nioh 1 and 2, I definitely have got an eye on Wo Long. Its demo late last year made a great case for this one as it looks to be trying something a little different this time around, while retaining the unforgiving difficulty of both Nioh games. The new setting’s also a winner in my book!

Whatever 3D Realms manages to release this year
Andy: Everything about 3D Realms is confusing. For one thing, they aren’t the old 3D Realms – the name was bought out by a Danish holding company in 2014. More confusingly, they keep announcing new games while rarely seeming to release any. While we still wait for the expansion to 2019’s Ion Fury, they have announced a fully-3D sequel, Phantom Fury. This year, we could see final releases for early access games Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and Graven, long-delayed remasters of ‘90s shooters SiN and Kingpin, retro-style RTS Tempest Rising, or nothing at all. Who can say?

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