Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
During the summer of 2010, GSC Game World announced the sequel to the action role-playing game Stalker. 13 years later (!) we are now supposed to finally get to play it and many of us here at the Gamereactor editorial office are very excited to crawl around the radiation-damaged Chernobyl, look for supplies, take down other Stalkers and fit for the mutated monsters that roam the dark forests. From what we’ve seen so far, at least the graphics and atmosphere look like they can beat most anything on the market at the moment, and we naturally hope that the playability will maintain the same quality.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines II
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
It is former Doom/Quake creator and one-time key figure at Id Software Tim Willits who acts as creative director and lead producer for the upcoming sequel to Space Marine. We will once again take on the role of Captain Titus and, just like in its predecessor, this is about brutal, massive battles against space geeks, seen from a classic third-person perspective and rendered with the help of Unreal Engine 5.
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Atomic Heart
Release: February 21 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
Ever since we first saw the Bioshock-inspired Atomic Heart, we’ve been looking forward to it terribly. Graphically, it looks to be a real highlight and the dystopian Soviet Union looks to be an insanely musty environment to experience. But above all, it will be really exciting to experience an action game that feels like Bioshock with really scary enemies and beating the crap out of them with musty superpowers. May the story be as interesting as the game as a whole looks in advance to be.
Wanted: Dead
Release: February 14 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
With Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki leaving Team Ninja many years ago, several others also dropped out. In February, however, they are back with Wanted: Dead, a third-person action game where we assume the role of Hong Kong cop Lt. Hannah Stone. The fact that the developers previously made Ninja Gaiden is noticeable in the fluid game system and it is necessary to constantly move and attack the large number of enemies from unexpected angles. Here, however, firearms are more important than katanas in what looks to be a rambunctious adventure, filled to the brim with mini-games and East Asian atmosphere that can hopefully be a return ticket back into the fine room for Itagaki (whose colorful PR talk we honestly missed here on editorial board).
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Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
Release: May 26 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
The team behind Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are back with another licensed DC game drenched in rock-hard slapstick, and this time it’s the Suicide Squad itself that we’ll be controlling, chasing a deranged Superman whose intentions have gone from good to downright murderous. Attitude-fresh design, cartoon character interpretations faithful to the originals and co-operative third-person action with the same DNA as the Arkham series are used.
Dead Island 2
Release: April 28, 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
After being in limbo for years and experiencing delay after delay, it’s almost time for us to bash skulls into zombies again. It’s been a little more than ten years since we went on a lovely holiday but where we ended up in anything but a relaxing environment. Dead Island may not have been the phenomenal game we had hoped for, but the sequel looks to be considerably more interesting. More colourful, brutally stylish, fun and wacky. It definitely looks like it was worth the time in limbo and all the delays.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Release: 2023 / Platform: Playstation 5
Insomniac finally managed to deliver a strong Marvel competitor to Rocksteady’s Batman series. When Marvel’s Spider-Man launched, it proved to be one of the absolute best superhero games we’ve ever played, and definitely the best game featuring Spider-Man. Ever. Insomniac continued to deliver with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and we’re very much looking forward to playing as both Peter and Miles in the sequel and putting an end to Venom’s evil plans. So far, we haven’t seen anything of the game at all other than a trailer that only gave us a small taste, so we’ll have to wait a little longer before we get to see the game in motion. Now we hope that the mundane crimes are not as repetitive as in the previous titles and that the battles are refined a bit to make them even smoother.
The Division: Heartland
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
No, Heartland is not a DLC pack for The Division 2 and it’s not The Division 3 either, instead it’s a lavish stick track developed by the very Red Storm Entertainment who founded Rainbow Six and developed the first two titles in that series. Heartland was announced three years ago but has been in development since 2018 and is rumored to be rolling out this fall. The focus of Heartland will be on the Storm Operations game mode where 45 players will be pitted against each other and against computer-controlled enemies in the city of Columbiana in Ohio.
Aliens: Dark Descent
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
It was certainly not yesterday that we got to know Xenomorphs in game form, but soon it will finally be time again. We still haven’t seen much of Aliens: Dark Descent and therefore know very little about it, but since it’s the team behind Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, it’s impossible not to build high expectations. Unlike Alien: Isolation, this is not about hiding from the terrifying space monsters in first person, but here it is all about shooting holes in them in a strategic mode with a top-down perspective. If that doesn’t sound like a wonderfully promising setup, we don’t know what does.
Hyenas
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
Creative Assembly is the name of the studio behind the best-selling, long-time cult-declared and unanimously acclaimed Total War series as well as Alien Isolation. Now they have shifted their focus almost completely, and during the year they will thus thunder out their own competitor to everything called Valorant, Apex Legends and Ovwewatch. Hyenas is a colorful, fast-paced, design-whacky free-to-play shooter where humanity has started gladiator games on Mars after colonizing the planet. It appears that five teams of three players each will square off in each match and it looks to be very fast paced and drenched in attitude.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
Behind the levers of the development of the fourth game in the Armored Core series, we find none other than the same guys who put together Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, which initially led most people to believe that Fires of Rubicon would be a “souls-like” action game , with all that entails. But it won’t be like that because From has promised to be faithful to the game series, with all that that means. We don’t know much more than that right now.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
March 17 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
Just as in the case of the esteemed predecessor, it is the former design boss of the God of War series, Stig Asmussen, who acts as a producer for the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which will be released in a couple of months. We’ll once again take control of Jedi warrior Cal Kestis, this time traveling to the planet Coruscant to take down a particularly evil commander within the Empire.
The Finals
Release: 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, PC
When The Finals aired last fall, we sat and gaped in front of our screens. The sweat started running down our bodies and then we sat there in a small pool of sweat. Because The Finals looks insanely delicious. Both in terms of visuals and gameplay. All-Swedish Embark Studios seems to have created a mindlessly chaotic action game with explosions and razing buildings all around you while you have to take on other players and duck for their lead. We patiently long to see more of the spectacle and sincerely hope it won’t be too long.
Robocop: Rogue City
Release: June 2023 / Platform: Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, PC
If someone just mentions Robocop, we ask how much money they want for it. Because Robocop is sacred. Thats how it is. The game studio Teyon certainly doesn’t have any directly remarkable titles on its CV from before, but if we go by the trailer that was shown this summer, it looks like they really succeeded in capturing the aesthetics of the first film. From the design to the violent battles look very promising and we can hardly wait to get our hands on Robocop: Rogue City. The fact that Peter Weller also returns and lends his voice to the game hardly makes the whole thing worse.
Redfall
Release: May 2, 2023 / Platform: Xbox, PC
It’s the team behind 2017’s Prey behind the Xbox title Redfall, which will be released on May 2 after being delayed last fall. Here, four players from four different character classes will fight against computer-controlled vampires to prevent the fictional town of Redfall from being invaded by bloodthirsty vampires. In terms of design, it looks like a mix between Fortnite and Scooby-Doo and the action bits look fast and fun according to what we’ve seen so far.
