Steam 4X Festival Is Now Live! 4X Games To Wishlist In 2025!
In the previous list, we covered the best 4X games of all time, as well as the ones you can and should play in 2025, all in celebration of the Steam 4X Fest 2025. Now, we are going over the most highly anticipated titles for grand-strategy and 4X genres, and which games are shaping up to be so great that you need to keep them on your wishlist! I’ll be going over 10 games, explaining what they are and highlighting their key gameplay features. Let me know if you would like to add any other game in here, and I’ll come back to edit the article! I would love to hear what you think!
10 – Fall of an Empire
I love how 4X went from being those massive, multi-millennia, historical operas to start focusing a lot more on specific times and locations in History. For those looking for a different kind of challenge, Fall of an Empire is a unique “inverse 4X” game that inverts the traditional grand strategy loop. Instead of building an empire, you start as the ruler of a vast but crumbling one, and your goal is to delay its inevitable collapse for as long as possible. The Roman aesthetic isn’t just for show, you know? Set for a Q1 2026 release, this indie title is shaping up to become a very interesting offer and a tense experience, and in all honesty, it’s trying something new, which, in my book, is always a good release to celebrate. And I can imagine how the whole “one more turn” can become very addictive with its almost “rogue-lite” nature of trying to stay alive for as long as possible.
9 – Imperial Ambitions
We don’t get enough games tackling the Age of Sail and Age of Expansion anymore these days. What was once a thriving theme is now a forgotten relic of a bygone era. Fortunately, we have Imperial Ambitions, a turn-based 4X game for players who have been waiting for a true successor to classics like Imperialism and Colonization. Set for a 2025 release, this game thrusts you into the Age of Discovery with a focus on deep economic simulation, political intrigue, and a unique agent system. You’ll manage a complex, class-based society and use merchants and spies to expand your influence, making it a compelling choice for fans of historical grand strategy who want a game with a strong emphasis on diplomacy and economic warfare. Just on its topic alone, Imperial Ambitions is a game that interests me greatly, so hopefully we’ll be able to set sail and start colonizing!
8 – Fragile Existence
Published by the renowned Hooded Horse, Fragile Existence is a sci-fi survival strategy game that offers a fresh twist on the space genre by including all of the 4X elements, real-time strategy, and even survival elements. To be released in 2025, the game challenges players to command humanity’s last fleet as a mobile civilization on the run after Earth’s destruction and find a new home, while pushing back the horrifying cosmic threats. The game’s standout feature is its seamless transition from a fleet-level orbital view to a planetary surface for resource gathering and ground combat, which is something very few games have attempted to do, and by the looks of the video above, Fragile Existence already has that part nailed down.
7 – Folk Emerging
This one I came across very recently, and it immediately intrigued me with its premise. Again, more 4X titles are ditching the whole globalist view of history in favor of a more focused, zoomed-in take on a given historical setting. Folk Emerging is a turn-based 4X game that challenges you to lead a nomadic community in the Stone Age. Instead of city-building, this 2025 focus on tribe management, simulated characters, cultures, and ecosystems. The game’s combat system also offers a fresh approach, as combat no longer takes place on a hex-based grid but in the format of an autobattler. If you think about it, Folk Emerging is a “Pre-Civilization” 4X! Ok, no more bad jokes!
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