Games can take players to any number of sci-fi, fantasy, or horror settings, but some of the best and greatest goals are realism and simulation. A significant number of long-awaited AAA games coming in 2025 choose something between imaginary worlds and reality: historical fiction games will be very vital in the coming year.
In games like Shadows of Assassin’s Creedplayers will be able to experience the fantasy of time traveling to feudal Japan and experience their own story as the samurai Yasuke and the shinobi Naoe from the real world. Players from Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 they will write their own stories, thinking every day about the Roman Empire of their dreams as Augustus, freedom fighter and Union Army hero Harriet Tubman, or as a dozen other military and thought leaders, shaping civilization to their own liking.
A surprising number of 2025 games will feature original fictional stories set in historical context. Here are some of the highlights.
Shadows of Assassin’s Creed
Shadows of Assassin’s Creed The action takes place in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the final phase of the Sengoku period. The action takes place during the civil war and at the height of the power of daimyo Oda Nobunaga, and players will take on the dual roles of samurai Yasuke – based on a person from the real world – and kunoichi Naoe.
Just like the TV series Shogun, Shadows of Assassin’s Creed will showcase the influence of Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries who helped bring technologies such as cannons and long guns to the island nation. It can also show key historical events, such as Nobunaga’s attack on ikki in Iga Province, where Naoe is from. These events will be woven into Assassin’s Creed’s ongoing conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order, adding a layer of fiction to real historical events.
Shadows of Assassin’s Creed will be released on February 14 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X. The game will also be available for Mac and iPad.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 7
Civilization 7 will allow players to mix and match leaders and civilizations – or civilizations – in ways that distort history. Benjamin Franklin and Confucius can meet and potentially go to war as players rewrite history by combining the cultural traditions, architecture, and technology of diverse civilizations that have evolved over the ages. Unlike previous Civilization games, players will have a wider choice of leaders, which will now include philosophers, scientists, politicians and religious figures, not just heads of state.
Although many Civilization 7writing historical fiction will be written by players themselves as they transform their settlements into enormous civilizations, the Firaxis strategy game may offer the most diverse and compelling version of turning history into (fan) fiction.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 will be released on February 11. For the first time in the series, it will appear simultaneously on PC and consoles – PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
The action takes place in 15th century medieval Europe, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will allow players to explore the open world of Bohemian Paradise and the city of Kuttenburg as the blacksmith Henry of Skalitz.
Henry will embark on a “journey to avenge his murdered parents, transforming him from aspiring warrior to rebel” in Warhorse Studios’ sequel novel Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The fictional story of the game will take place during the Hussite Wars, and Henry will face the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg and his allies.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will be released on February 4 for PS5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
A Sucker Punch production Ghost of Tsushima was set in the real history and setting of Tsushima Island. The game is set during the first Mongol invasion of Japan and stars Jin Sakai, a fictional samurai.
Yōtei’s spirit The action will take place over 300 years after the events of the original game and will once again employ the real Japanese world in its story. But Sucker Punch didn’t say much about what Yōtei’s spirit the hero Atsu will do in the sequel. Here’s what the studio said regarding the historical fiction PlayStation 5 game.
“Our story takes place in the lands surrounding Mount Yōtei, a towering peak in the heart of Ezo, the area of Japan now known as Hokkaido,” senior communications manager Andrew Goldfarb wrote in the article Blog about PlayStation. “In 1603, the area was beyond Japanese rule and was full of vast grasslands, snowy tundras, and unexpected dangers. It’s a very different place than the organized samurai clans that lived in Tsushima, and it’s the setting for an original story that we can’t wait to see.”
Yōtei’s spirit will be released sometime in 2025.
Marvel 1943: Rise of the Hydra
Features an original story set during World War II, Marvel 1943: Rise of the Hydra Two superheroes of that era will appear: Captain America and Black Panther. Fighting alongside Howling Commandos member Gabriel Jones and Wakandan Spy Network leader Nanali, the two World War II heroes will battle the forces of Hydra – Marvel’s Nazi proxies – in occupied Paris.
Marvel 1943: Rise of the Hydra will be the first game from Skydance New Media, headed by Amy Hennig, former imaginative director of the Uncharted series, and Electronic Arts veteran Julian Beak. The studio announced its 2021 Marvel project as a “narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game featuring a completely original story and featuring the Marvel Universe.” Expect period-appropriate warfare enhanced by the magical technology of Wakanda and inventor Howard Stark.
Players will get their hands on them Marvel 1943: Rise of the Hydra sometime in 2025.
