10 – Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era
I’m really hoping that Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is a proper return to form for this much beloved classic series. While the available trailer doesn’t reveal much, the game’s certainly looking good, and those unit models look like they were lifted directly from a board game, so detailed!
9 – Hollywood Animal
Joe, from the Critical Moves Podcast, is extremely excited about Hollywood Animal, and he got me excited about it as well! One side of my brain is a bit sad that this isn’t going to be a game in the same vein as The Movies, the 2005 classic that lets you manage your own production studio and direct your movies! The other side is happy because this is basically a mobster management game set in Hollywood. Players will have to deal with Hollywood dramas: vendettas crying about the scripts and being an overall nuisance to everyone, production woes, drug abuse, actors refusing to do their jobs, and competition making your job even more difficult. Hollywood Animal doesn’t play by fair and square, so it lets you use less savory tactics to get things done: Do you want an actor to star in a movie but he’s retired? Well, kidnap him. A lot of competition? Bribe the cops to raid your competitors. Production delayed? Crank it up to 14-hour days, 7 days a week. Need to get the word out? Create a scandal. I love it. Oh, and you can also make your own scripts, by the way.
8 – Civilization VII
It is undeniable that each entry of the Civilization series is a momentous occasion, not only for strategy games but for gaming as a whole. Civilization VII is looking pretty impressive. The basics are all: you take your nation all across human history and into the near future, you explore and expand, fight and conquer, all with that familiar addictive feeling of “just one more turn”. The natural wonders, dynamic civilizations, the 3 age system, and navigable rivers are all new mechanics that promise to breathe some fresh air into the nearly 30-year-old formula. All looks really interesting, and even though I might not have enjoyed Civ VI a lot, I think I’ll have fun with Civ VII. I also love the less cartoony graphics of this new entry.
7 – Europa Universalis V
We know there’s very little about Europa Universalis V, but at least we know it’s happening, and it’s happening fast. The new entry in the series is going to be based on what Johan from the team called “Believable World”. This concept has 4 tenets, 2 of which have been unveiled: the first is that “Population” will be the basis of everything, as it will serve and shape the economy, politics, and warfare. The second is that Europa Universalis V is going for “Simulation and not board game”, to make the player feel like they are playing in a world, instead of a board game.
6 – The Stone of Madness
Remember the souls-like Blasphemous series? It’s undeniably one of the more peculiar-looking games out there, its glorious art style taking direct inspiration from the Christian sacred art of southern Spain, mixed with a lot of blood and body horror. Well, the team hung up their action-platformer boots and instead decided to have a go at stealth strategy with The Stone of Madness. Set in an 18th-century Spanish monastery/ insane asylum, you’ll be attempting to escape it using your team’s pool of skills while facing their fears. I played the demo for over 3 hours and I’m now far too invested to figure out the mysteries behind the monastery walls.
5 – Tempest Rising
I fail to recall a real-time-strategy game that has garnered as much attention and praise as Tempest Rising did when its demo first came out. Unapologetic Command and Conquer with a tad of Red Alert, it oozes with the classic RTS energy of the late 90s and early 2000s. The focus on single-player and asymmetrical factions sealed the deal for me. There’s an available demo for those wanting to give their nostalgia a whirl.
4 – Espiocracy
Probably one of the more unique games in this list, Espiocracy is a grand-strategy game where espionage takes center stage, as you’ll be playing not as a country, but as one of the 74 intelligence agencies from around the world. As the director of a three-letter agency during the Cold War you can expect to engage in all the shenanigans most countries did during the later half of the 20th century to further their interests: setting up spy networks, influencing other individuals and organizations, starting coups, and setting-up and wage proxy wars.
3 – Task Force Admiral
Task Force Admiral is an up-and-coming videogame from Drydock Dreams Games from under the wing of iconic wargames’ publisher, MicroProse Software. Read my massive series of interviews with Amiral Crapaud, developer extraordinaire of TFA and you’ll sure to come out of them not only impressed but a bit more excited about the possibility of jousting fighters and bombers across the Pacific. Read my in-depth interview with the game lead designer if you want to know more about this very special project.
2 – Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow is going to be one of two things: it’s going to dethrone Eugen Systems and the Wargame Series and dominate this weird sub-genre of modern real-time-strategy games that Wargame spawned way back when, and it’s finally going to plug the empty hole in my heart left by the fact that we never had a sequel to World in Conflict. The extended time I spent playing the first mission of the campaign convinced me that there’s a lot to enjoy for single-player fans, especially if played at a slower speed. Here’s hoping my predictions aren’t too far off, and that the game delivers on its very promising premises!
1 – Burden of Command
Burden of Command is a regular in these kinds of lists, and when we started to lose hope that the game might come out any time soon… well the team released an amazing demo that really impressed a lot of people, yours truly especially. Burden of Command is the offspring of classical hex wargames and an RPG system that will emulate the dilemmas of being in command of an American company in the Second World War. Its visible love for history and the story it’s trying to tell really cement it at the top 3 of this list as one of my most anticipated strategy games of 2025. Give its demo a try right now!
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