It’s hard to look past the massive AAA games coming this month, those sort of open-world single-player epics that often become the discourse for a while. February 2022 has three of them -- Horizon Forbidden West, Dying Light 2 Stay Human and Elden Ring. All games that many of us have been waiting years to check out. Not that it’s a competition to see which of these highly anticipated titles warrants your attention or anything, it’s more a case of “is it even possible to play all these in a single month”.

The answer is probably no, though that won’t stop us from trying. Elsewhere, Feb 22 is stacked with indie goodness and other notable high-profile releases, so much so that the above sentiment is something you could apply to pretty much everything coming soon. The good news is that if you’re a fan of strategy, role-playing, adventuring, shooting, third-person action, arcade gaming, or even old-school fighting, there’s something in February to look forward to.

Here’s the breakdown of what’s coming.

Life is Strange Remastered Collection

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch
Release Date: February 1

The Life is Strange Remastered Collection includes the original Life is Strange and the prequel follow-up Life is Strange: Before the Storm in remastered form. Which means improved visuals and a number of gameplay updates for the narrative-driven sci-fi adventures. Like Telltale’s Walking Dead games, these episodic narrative tales are classics in their own right.

The Waylanders

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Platform: PC
Release Date: February 2

After an extended Early Access period The Waylanders is finally getting that Version 1.0 release. Inspired by classic BioWare role-players, this ambitious indie is all about deep RPG action and a focus on story and character. With its setting based on Celtic history and myth, fans of Dragon Age will want to check this one out.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 4

The OG Dying Light came a little out of left-field, especially when stacked against the studio’s early Zefforts in Dead Island. Its mature design and game-changing parkour system, however, immediately elevated it in the zombie annals as a series to watch out for. And now, more than six years on, its sequel is set to unleash us again unto the world of zombies in a post-apocalyptic setting, only now it’s 15 years later in terms of narrative and the world has descended into a new ‘Dark Ages’. How it fares in the new open-world videogaming renaissance is yet to be experienced, but all signs point to something worth biting into. Or at least, being bitten by.

OlliOlli World

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch
Release Date: February 8

OlliOlli World’s strength lies indirectly in its simple makeup -- this is a dev-described “skateboarding action-platformer” which, on its own pitched merits, is certainly a unique way to ‘sell’ a game and its gameplay. However, that description is wholly true: OlliOlli World takes the basic idea of a 2D side-scrolling platformer tied to timed jumps and momentum-based gameplay and contextualises all of it with skateboarding (and a surprisingly deep trick and combo-slash-score system). And all of that is amplified by one of the most remarkable makeovers for a series in gaming history, with OlliOlli World’s visuals presenting a stunning and vibrant cartoon world you’ll want to explore every aspect of.

Sifu

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5
Release Date: February 8

A martial arts beat-em up from the studio behind Absolver, Sifu’s hook is a very cool one. In that whenever your health-bar reaches zero the hero takes time to recover. This means starting a level at a young age could mean finishing it a decade later - as you keep coming back older and wiser. Tying skill and ability to the main character’s age. Pair that with a deep martial-arts based combat system and Sifu is shaping up to be quite unlike anything we’ve seen.

Crossfire X

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Platform: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 10

Crossfire X is the single-player story-driven campaign component for the popular Counter-Strike-like multiplayer game. And by popular we mean Crossfire is one of the most played games out there. What’s cool though is that this Xbox exclusive campaign is developed by Remedy. Yep that Remedy, the one of Control, Quantum Break, Alan Wake and Max Payne fame.

Lost Ark

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Platform: PC
Release Date: February 11

Lost Ark is a mix of Diablo-style action-RPG goodness with MMO things like raids and massive multiplayer stuff. It’s been out for a while in other markets, but is finally set to make its Western debut this month. With impressive visuals and the promise of many, many, hours of content, no doubt many will be jumping into this free-to-play title in the coming weeks.

Not Tonight 2

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Platform: PC
Release Date: February 11

Described as “an American document-checking road trip” Not Tonight 2 is a dark comedy about making tough decisions in a broken version of the US. Well, a more broken version. Visually, the environments and characters all look great -– evoking a dystopia by the way of classic pixel-art, but we’re definitely here for the extra cliff to jump a challenged United States off of.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch
Release Date: February 15

The Dynasty Warriors series is one that has settled in a groove of late, in that the screen-filling action sequences are all about racking up combos in the thousands as digital characters go flying everywhere. Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires does mix things up a bit, which is nice considering there’s a “9” in the title, with the addition of some empire simulation. And politics. Yeah, in a Dynasty Warriors game.

The King of Fighters XV

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 17

The original King of Fighters, or KOF, hit the arcade scene back in 1994 -- running on Neo-Geo hardware that blew people away with its 32-bit graphics. Plus, it was a fun alternative to the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. SNK has been churning out new entries for decades, though it has been six years since the last KOF. The King of Fighters XV ditches the sprites for a full-3D presentation and will launch with a whopping 39 combatants.

Total Warhammer III

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Platform: PC
Release Date: February 17

Total Warhammer III is the closing chapter to the planned trilogy of Total War offshoots. Offshoots that have proved to be pretty special in the way they injected a dose of high-fantasy into a traditionally history-focused series. And as the closing chapter developers Creative Assembly are going all out and digging deep into the lesser known and strange corners of the Warhammer franchise.

Horizon Forbidden West

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Platform: PS4, PS5
Release Date: February 18

Horizon Forbidden West, the highly anticipated sequel to the PlayStation 4 classic is finally here. Coming to PS4 and PS5, it’s the latter that has blown people away in early looks and trailers. Building on the open-world action-adventure foundation of the original, this has “bigger and better sequel” written all over it. New traversal, expanded exploration, improved RPG progression, a renewed focus on story and the same awesome setting chock-full of robot-dinosaurs.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 22

The Witch Queen is Destiny 2’s latest expansion and is set to “conclude the Light and Darkness saga” whilst setting things up for the future. Bungie’s penchant for engaging shooting and sci-wi world building is legendary, and as a proper expansion players can expect new environments, weapons and even major overhauls to existing in-game systems.

Martha is Dead

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 24

One of the more difficult challenges with horror games is crafting a psychologically-charged experience. That is one that foregoes the simpler jump scare in favour of making the unknown the big-bad; where mind-bending concepts fraught with conceptual challenge become the loop through which you push yourself, and where it’s not all about scarcity of ammo or finding the one key. Martha is Dead takes this idea on head first and from some time with the game already, we can say its ambitious chops are certainly aiming to work within the psychological horror world to the highest degree.

Elden Ring

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Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 25

A true spiritual entry into FromSoftware’s Souls chronology, this latest affair from series superstar, Hidetaka Miyazaki, and the man with the golden HBO pen, George R. R. Martin, is as much a visual feast as it is potentially the most content-filled Souls-like going around. Yet as explored in our own extensive hands-on Elden Ring also presents itself, in many ways, as antithesis to its spiritual brethren. At least in the early goings on. Whatever the final outcome, this is shaping up as one of the richest-looking titles of 2022, and then some.

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