The first month of 2024 is nearly over and it’s about time I start going over all the games I’m looking forward to the most in February. In this list, I’ll tell you the games that managed to catch my eye during the months leading up to their release month. The following entries are organized according to their release date.
Most of the entries here have some hype surrounding them while others are talked highly about in the niche circles they are known for. But regardless of their standing, I think all these games deserve your attention before and after release date.
1. Granblue Fantasy: Relink
Release date: February 01, 2024
We start this list with the first game that’s coming out on the first day of the month. Granblue Fantasy: Relink is the much-anticipated game from the Granblue Fantasy franchise. The game series has been very successful in Japan for many years with the West slowly getting to know it in recent years.
In Granblue Fantasy: Relink, players take control of a person known only as the “Captain”. You and your crew of misfits set out on a quest for adventure and discovery while doing side quests for anyone willing to pay you for your crew’s services. It’s pretty much standard fair for most JRPGs but what sets Relink apart from the rest is the ability to call in support from 3 other players to take on quests for some high-risk, high-reward action.
2. Persona 3 Reload
Release date: February 02, 2024
Persona 3 Reload is a reimagining of a beloved classic that opened the series to a vastly wider audience, myself included. I have heard of the Persona games back in the days of PSP but I never actually played a Persona game until Persona 3. The series has grown in leaps and bounds since then.
From what I’ve been able to gather, Reload is going to stick closely to the source material, despite it being classified as a reimagining of the orginal Persona 3. So expect there to be some changes here and there to give side characters more time under the spotlight but not so much that the game’s main story becomes unrecognizable. Either way, the new content should be more in line with more recent games meaning that it can be challenging to complete, yet will not devolve into a grind fest.
3. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Release date: February 02, 2024
Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League is a stark departure from the Arkham games we’ve grown to love over the years. Rocksteady’s taking a huge risk with not only the live service model but with the insistence on player customization. If it works out, this could be a contender for multiplayer game of the year. But the blocks have to fall in all the right places for it to work out. It’s a good thing then that Rocksteady has been drip-feeding us content in the form of dev blog updates. Their latest dev blog alone has re-sparked interest in the game for many of us who are sitting on the fence.
4. Helldivers II
Release date: February 08, 2024
Helldivers was an arcadey top-down shooter that took the Starship Trooper aesthetic and added more guns than foot soldiers. Helldivers II, on the other hand, is an over-the-shoulder shooter much like Division 2 with a greater emphasis on teamwork and cooperation. There is something here that’s worth getting excited over. I don’t know if it’s the actualization of Starship Trooper combat against giant bugs or the fact that you really need to fight as a team to make it out alive. If the game’s anything like the trailers, we might have a sleeper hit on our hands.
5. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Release date: February 13, 2024
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is about love and loss in a world where hope is a rare commodity. Players take on the dual roles of Antea and Red, Banishers who have sworn an oath to keep the living and dead separate from one another. One mistake during a mission claimed the life of Antea and now the lovers must find a way to undo her current state.
What I’m looking forward to about the game is the different approaches you can take when dealing with spirits and people. You can choose to know the whole story before passing judgment or simply take the life energy that Antea needs to stay bound to this realm. In the end, your choice should matter a lot and I hope it doesn’t boil down to a couple of text boxes near the end of the game.
6. Skull and Bones
Release date: February 16, 2024
At this point, Skull and Bones has been in development hell for so long that might have caught up with Duke Nukem Forever after a couple of more delays. But the game has gotten a release date of February 16. Better than nothing, right? If the game does fulfill that power fantasy first made possible in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag then we’re all good. If it doesn’t, it was off not getting released at all. Initial impressions from internal tests seem to be positive. Take that for what you may. I’ll keep an eye out over the horizon when the game releases before I render judgment.
7. The Thaumaturge
Release date: February 20, 2024
The Thaumaturge is described as a story-driven RPG with morally ambiguous choices. Think Disco Elysium but it takes place in early 20th-century Warsaw with a small pinch of Persona’s demons the game calls Salutors. These beings can only be perceived by thaumaturges. These demons can be tamed to follow orders. The price of making such a pact is unknown but I can only assume that it’s a heavy price.
You have the power to shape the story as you see fit. The line between good and evil is very thin from where the Thaumaturge is standing. It won’t take much to go either way. Madness is also an option if you’re looking for the truth.
8. Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance
Release date: February 21, 2024
Terminator Dark Fate – Defiance is an intense real-time strategy game where you don’t train units using resources you gather. Instead, you are in a race against time to save dwindling pockets of resistance before they are overwhelmed by the machines. Think carefully about every single move as each commitment is sure to cost you in terms of bullets and manpower. But hey, you can take the opportunity to tell a better story than any of the Terminator reboot movies. Though it’s not exactly a high bar to clear if you ask me.
9. Nightingale
Release date: February 22, 2024
Nightingale has been a game that’s been on my radar for quite some time. When it was first announced, I was intrigued with the whole Victorian Steampunk aesthetic. But when the giants and strange sphynx-like creatures started to appear, I was hooked.
For those interested, there is more to the game than just endless survival. Our objective is to get back to our world by making as many jumps as possible through different worlds. Think Sliders from the 90s but with base building and dapper clothing. The game doesn’t end with you finding your way home, however. It seems like getting back marks the halfway point of the journey. I can’t wait to see what that means for the game.
10. Pacific Drive
Release date: February 22, 2024
Despite what many were led to believe, Pacific Drive is not a conventional survival horror game where your car is the only refuge from the weirdness outside. Instead, it’s its own kind of survival game where you slip through different dimensions, collect resources, and hopefully have enough left in the tank to get someplace safe where you can perform field maintenance on a car that’s one screw away from dissolving into a pile of rust. We are going to love this car as if our lives depended on it. (Which it does.)
If that idea doesn’t appeal to you then, hopefully, the story is what keeps you coming back for more. I do love a good mystery and I suspect there’s something here that will make the journey worth it, even if I have to get my hands dirty with some extradimensional mud.
11. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake
Release date: February 28, 2024
The original Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was released more than 10 years ago. That game was best remembered for its gripping story and couch co-op sequences. The remake hopes to recapture many of those moments and build upon what was originally established. I do not doubt that co-op will still be at the center of the game. But there have been lots of great co-op games released within the last 10 years. The Brothers Remake will need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to impress people beyond the nostalgia.
12. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Release date: February 29, 2024
This entry needs no introduction. The second chapter of the Final Fantasy 7 retelling is probably February’s most anticipated game. The story picks up directly after the events of the first game with our protagonists finally escaping Midgar and living a new life on the run from Shinra’s thugs. New challenges and new friends await the crew in the wide open world. Most likely a grumpy guy in a coffin too.
After all the changes to the first game, I don’t know how much of the original’s story they can bend before it fractures into something completely new. But it might best to treat it like its own story now. We are so far removed from the days we thought this FFVII was going to be the game we grew up with but with some changes.
13. Welcome to Paradize
Release date: February 29, 2024
The idea of mind-controlling zombies and having them do your bidding is not something new in games. In fact, it’s been used a bit lately in several smaller projects in the last couple of years. In Welcome to Paradize, your best hope in surviving the apocalypse is to strap a control unit on a zombie’s head and tell them to do the jobs that would normally get people killed.
Push back the zombie hordes and build bases in key areas to allow you to explore deeper into the world while most of your army keeps the base clean of any zombies. What’s the worst that can happen?
14. Winter Survival
Release date: February 29, 2024
Winter Survival is a brutal game where the elements and wild animals are the least of your concerns. Stranded deep in the mountains, you’ll need a strong will to make it through this ordeal of life and death. Though I’m not sure you’ll be able to walk away from a bear encounter like in The Revenant. Just assume that’s what it takes to survive in this game.
If you haven’t already, you can check the prologue chapter to get a better understanding of what the full game is going to be like.