The year is just getting started but its shortest month is already packed with great new games to look forward to.
Harry Potter fans are finally receiving those Hogwarts acceptance letters in one of the biggest and most immersive games set in the Wizarding World to date, and the Monster Hunter series is getting a promising competitor.
Other beloved titles, including Company of Heroes and Octopath Traveler, are getting their sequels, while a new indie co-op game is coming just in time for Valentine’s Day.
To keep this list’s length within reason, we’ve excluded the dozens of games that will release with Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 headset for the PS5, which launches on Feb. 22, 2023.
Without further ado, let’s have a look at the biggest games releasing in February 2023.
Deliver Us Mars
Deliver Us Mars is an upcoming atmospheric space game and a sequel to Deliver Us The Moon from 2018. The new sci-fi adventure is set 10 years after the events in the first game and follows the story of Kathy Johanson, an astronaut on a mission to the Red Planet with humanity’s survival at stake.
Your character is tasked with finding and recovering the ARKs, massive spaceships built by the lunar colony from the first game and stolen by the mysterious Outward. Securing the powerful ships is key to saving Earth, ravaged by the devastating effects of climate change.
Deliver Us Mars combines exploration and platforming with puzzle-solving, all in Mars’s weaker gravity. The game promises a polished visual experience with its fair share of suspenseful and emotional moments and the trailers we’ve seen so far look reassuring.
Deliver Us Mars is coming Feb. 2 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Hogwarts Legacy
After a delay last summer and the recent news that last-gen consoles will have to wait even more, Hogwarts Legacy is finally coming to current-gen platforms and the PC. Despite the ongoing controversy around Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, Hogwarts Legacy is shaping up as one of the most anticipated games this year.
The game is set 100 years before the events in the first Harry Potter book and lets you experience the life of a Hogwarts student first-hand. You’ll be mastering spells, crafting potions, making friends and enemies, and fighting dark wizards to save the wizarding world as we know it.
Hogwarts Legacy is bringing a vast open world that will let fans of the series explore familiar and new locations at the grounds of the world’s most famous school of witchcraft and wizardry. And yes, you’re allowed to go to Hogsmeade.
Pre-orders of the game’s digital Deluxe Edition include 72-hour early access, so some players will get their Hogwarts acceptance letters as early as Feb. 7.
Hogwarts Legacy releases Feb. 10 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Blanc
Blanc is a black-and-white indie game that brings a beautifully handcrafted two-player co-op adventure. You play as a wolf cub and a fawn who have lost their way after a snowstorm, and now need to follow the footprints their families left behind in the snow.
Much like in It Takes Two, you are required to lean on each other to progress through the game and each of your characters has unique abilities that complement each other.
Blanc’s simple gameplay and gorgeous hand-drawn world offer a heartwarming emotional journey that looks like the perfect plan for this Valentine’s Day.
Blanc releases Feb. 14 for Nintendo Switch and PC.
Wanted: Dead
Wanted: Dead is a challenging action game from the makers of the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series, and a self-proclaimed love letter to PS2-era experimental titles.
The game puts hack ‘n slash melee elements in a third-person shooter action-adventure as you play as a katana-wielding elite police officer in a cyberpunk Hong Kong.
Wanted: Dead gives you a wide range of deadly moves, brutal finishers, and guns, as well as advanced cyberpunk weaponry, but be warned, just like those old-school games it emulates, its combat will be no walk in the park.
Wanted: Dead arrives Feb. 14 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Wild Hearts
Wild Hearts is EA’s answer to the Monster Hunter series, and it comes from the studio that brought us the Dynasty Warriors games.
The game is set in feudal Japan and promises a twist on the hunting genre by adding ancient tech that helps you fight the Kemono beasts, which are infused with special powers emanating from nature itself.
You’ll be able to take on monsters solo and with friends. The game will feature full cross-play, so your beast-hunting partners can be on any platform.
Wild Hearts is coming on Feb. 17 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Atomic Heart
Atomic Heart is a single-player FPS game set in a 1950s alternate-history Soviet Union, which in this game is a utopian high-tech society with robotic servants controlled by AI until the superpowerful robots turn against their creators.
You play as Major Nechaev, aka Agent P-3, a Soviet special duty officer who is investigating an incident at a USSR research facility in a game that borrows elements from Half-Life and BioShock.
Atomic Heart will feature unforgiving combat against giant machines and mutants, offering a plethora of skills and advanced upgradable weapons and equipment as you unravel a global conspiracy.
Atomic Heart releases Feb. 21 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Seris X|S, Xbox One and PC.
Like a Dragon: Ishin!
Ishin! is a remake of a spin-off within the Yakuza crime game series, now rebranded in the West as Like a Dragon. The original Ishin! from 2014 was released only in Japan, for the PS3 and as a PS4 launch title.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! is based on a true story and follows the adventures of samurai Sakamoto Ryōma during the late Edo period, who must find his father’s killer and clear his name from a framed murder. As you restore your honor, you will also bring an end to the samurai era and forever change the future of Japan.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! releases Feb. 21 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Seris X|S Xbox One, and PC.
Company of Heroes 3
Fans of the action strategy series have been waiting a full decade for this third game, and it’s finally coming this month. Company of Heroes 3 promises to be bigger and better than its predecessors, with improved combat and deeper strategic choices.
The new game will feature two single-player campaigns, one set during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943, and another one in which you play as the infamous Deutsche Afrika Corps during the North African operation in 1942.
Company of Heroes 3 comes with many new features and gameplay improvements and a plethora of factions and units as well as army customization mechanics.
You can learn more about the game’s multiplayer and two campaigns from our Company of Heroes 3 preview.
Company of Heroes 3 launches on Feb. 23 for PC via Steam, with a Console Edition coming later in 2023.
Sons of the Forest
Sons of the Forest is a survival horror sim in which you’re sent to rescue a missing billionaire on a remote island. Of course, the island turns out to be infested with cannibals and mutants.
The game is a sequel to The Forest from the same developers, and builds on the original game’s mechanics to bring a more immersive experience. Much like in the previous game, you can survive, gather resources, craft weapons, and build structures, solo or in co-op mode with friends, as you face a variety of enemies.
Sons of the Forest is coming Feb. 23 for PC.
Kerbal Space Program 2
A sequel to one of the best space games of recent times, Kerbal Space Program 2 is set to bring a ton of improvements while keeping the core of what made its predecessor great. In both games, you build a space program, construct powerful rockets and spaceships, and navigate space in a realistic physics simulation.
After several delays Kerbal Space Program 2 is launching as an Early Access game via Steam this month, adding new parts, improved visuals, a new user interface and map view, plus all features from the original game.
A key improvement that will be available at launch are the revamped tutorials and onboarding systems, which will make the game more accessible to new players.
The developers have planned additional features like orbital and planetary colonies, interstellar travel, a multiplayer mode, improved exploration, and resource gathering, which should be coming in future updates.
Kerbal Space Program 2 arrives on Feb. 24 for PC in Early Access via Steam.
Octopath Traveler 2
This follow-up to Square Enix’s highly successful HD-2D RPG from 2018 comes with a new setting, new characters and the same structure of following eight separate stories that intertwine throughout the game.
Octopath Traveler 2 brings new combat mechanics, such as Latent Powers, which are similar to limit breaks in Final Fantasy, while retaining the Break and Boost system that made the original’s turn-based battles so exciting.
The game will now have a constant day/night cycle, which will affect travel, combat, and even path actions. Another welcome improvement is that the new characters’ paths will intertwine much more than in the previous game, making for more interactions between the protagonists and a more coherent story.
Octopath Traveler 2 releases on Feb. 24 for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC.
Scars Above
Scars Above is a challenging sci-fi third-person action-adventure shooter with strong soulslike elements. You play as Dr. Kate Ward, an astronaut and scientist who wakes up alone in a mysterious and hostile alien world she’s sent to investigate.
You have a combination of ranged weapons, devices, consumables, and melee attacks at your disposal, and you need to carefully manage your stamina as you jump and dodge while looking for weak points to defeat your enemies.
Scars Above launches on Feb. 28 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Written by Stoyan Ovcharov on behalf of GLHF.
