Having taken a little breather over the last few days, it’s time to start hurtling through out Most Wanted lists for 2023 once more. There’s five more games that we’ve set out on the bench, featuring video game crimes, two visions of humanity’s dark space-faring future, and two fantasy adventures for fans of in-depth RPGs and Soulslike action RPGs respectively.
30. Destiny 2: Lightfall
PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, PC | 28th February 2023
Bungie’s sci-fi fantasy epic will take its next major narrative turn in February with the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall. Calus is back to threaten the last bastion of mankind with his new Shadow Legion, but… what’s that? There’s more humans out there?
That’s right, the big centrepiece location for Lightfall is Neomuna on Neptune. This isn’t just any old city, but rather home to another completely separate race of humans who’ve been chilling out there while everything else in the solar system goes completely to pot – thanks for the help, eh? Its inhabitants are called Cloud Striders, while their city has a vibrant, neon-filled Cyberpunk aesthetic.
With the Cloud Striders comes a new variation of Darkness that you can use called Strand – a connection to the psychic universe that is like a “third eye” opening, according to Bungie, which gives Guardians whips and a grappling hook that they can use to augment their movement.
29. Crime Boss: Rockay City
PC | 28th March 2023
Crime Boss: Rockay City came seemingly out of nowhere, with an announcement trailer during The Game Awards that dripped GTA: Vice City and GTA 6 vibes. While Rockay City is a neon-infused Miami-like setting from the trailer, the actual gameplay that has been revealed looks much closer to the co-op heist shooter series Payday – it’s been too long since we’ve had a great new game in this vein.
Still, it’s an attention-grabbing game that’s now popped onto quite a few watch lists, we’re sure, in part because of the all-star cast of actors, from Michael Madsen and Kim Basinger to Danny Glover, Vanilla Ice and Chuck Norris. Though it was a bit odd having a Deep Fake-like uncanny valley of seeing them all lip syncing to Connected by Stereo MC’s.
28. Baldur’s Gate 3
PC | August 2023
Larian Studios have been building up to the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 for a long time. Having established their mastery of deep Western RPGs through Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel, they stuck to their established method of work by taking Baldur’s Gate 3 through Early Access. That started in late 2020, with nine big updates since then that have gradually improved and expanded the game, but now they’re gearing up for a hopeful August 2023 release.
There’s no word on a console release (though it will no longer launch on Stadia), but Larian tend to release on PC first and then return with a definitive edition release for consoles down the line.
27. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, PC | 3rd March 2023
Team Ninja fans might have been holding out hope for the announcement of Nioh 3, but Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the next best thing, combining the Soulslike action RPG template of Nioh to the same historical setting that publisher Koei Tecmo so regularly explores with its Dynasty Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdom series.
So we’re jumping from Japanese mythology to Chinese, with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty taking similar creative liberties with the time period it visits. You’ll play as a nameless militia soldier this time, fighting to survive through a dark fantasy version of the Later Han Dynasty, employing swordplay based on Chinese martial arts and tapping into an innate power within them.
26. Warhammer 40000: Space Marine 2
PS5, XSX|S, PC | 2023
The 2011 Space Marine game was a pretty decent crack at a third person shooter set in the Warhammer 40K universe, but I don’t think anyone really expected to see a direct sequel. That’s what Saber Interactive decided to do, though.
Space Marine 2 sees Captain Titus (Clive Standen) now fighting to stave off a Tyranid invasion – the chitinous hordes will certainly make the most of Saber’s experience with World War Z’s zombified throngs – with the above trailer showing off plenty of gunplay, melee and grand set pieces.
That’s all for this set of five, but what if you missed the first twenty games in our list? Well, we’ve got handy links for you right here:
