May 2025 Game Releases – 15 Great-Looking Titles We Can’t Wait to Play

The big summer gaming showcases may be just around the corner, but the first two quarters of 2025 have already made the year one for the books regarding game releases. Notably, we've already seen many of the year's most anticipated titles release between February and April, and the calendar of May 2025 game releases contains what are arguably the last two most anticipated titles for the first half of the year: DOOM: The Dark Ages and then, two weeks later, Elden Ring: Nightreign. Joining these major marquee titles are a slew of indies, remasters, collections, and debut games from new studios that round out the month's new releases to make May just as jam-packed a month as the four that preceded it.

That the US pre-orders for the Switch 2 start this week only serves to underscore the fact that the back half of 2025 stands to be even busier than the first. Following what's been a tumultuous news cycle in which reciprocal tariffs enacted by the US have thrown global markets into disarray and disrupted product launches, things seem to be slightly normalizing in terms of how game publishers and hardware manufacturers are strategizing the rest of 2025. Still, there's every possibility that some of these disruptions, compounded by uncertainty surrounding the economy, may lead to titles originally slated to release in 2025 getting pushed back (including a potential delay for Grand Theft Auto VI). But the sheer number of excellent games released during the first 6 months of the year gives players plenty to dive into as a holdover.

• Release Date — May 1, 2025
• Developer — DeadToast Entertainment
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Genre — Platformer, Shooter
• Platforms — PC

Kicking things off for the month on May 1 are a pair of indie games that have been high up on my Steam Wishlist for quite some time. The first of these is Shotgun Cop Man, which, after an incredible showing during the February Steam Next Fest, immediately became one of my most anticipated games for the year thanks to its near-perfect blend of shooting and precision platforming. Shotgun Cop Man comes from DeadToast Entertainment, who happen to be the same team behind the excellent My Friend Pedro, and its intoxicating blend of genres and offbeat sense of humor makes perfect sense given that pedigree. Shotgun Cop Man is what you might get if you combined Celeste or Super Meat Boy with a Suda 51 game, and I can't wait to get my hands on the full experience.

• Release Date — May 1, 2025
• Developer — Nullpointer Games
• Publisher — Nullpointer Games, Outersloth
• Genre — Card Game, Board Game, Horror
• Platforms — PC

The other major indie release to arrive on the first day of the month is the much-hyped The Horror at Highbrook. Highbrook taps into two popular genres, tabletop board games and card-battlers, while also telling a story steeped in mystery and Lovecraftian horror. It's bolstered by an eye-catching art style and some really smart writing that continually dangles the carrot in front of the player to get them always wanting to learn more, and the demo currently available on Steam left me feeling much the same. While I'm not sure that the complex array of systems and mechanics that factor into Horror at Highbrook's gameplay will be the most beginner-friendly and accessible, what's on offer in the demo is enough to convince me that the game's story will be a must for fans of Lovecraftian fiction and a good mystery.

• Release Date — May 7, 2025
• Developer — Troglobytes Games
• Publisher — Digital Vortex Entertainment
• Genre — Survival, Crafting, Base-Building
• Platforms — PC (Early Access)

Just a few days after fans of all things Lovecraft can dive into the mystery of the Ackeron family in The Horror at Highbrook, Troglobytes Games will release its eldritch horror-steeped survival game, RailGods of Hysterra, into Early Access. This is another one that has a free demo available on Steam for players to check out, and after doing so, I was fully on board with the unique take RailGods is offering up on the traditional survival and crafting sandbox experience. As someone who typically finds themselves a little intimidated by survival games, RailGods' premise — building and maintaining a wasteland-crossing train whose main power source is some sort of eldritch deity that must be fed — was enough to get me to cross the barrier, and its gameplay fully hooked me thanks to its more accessible on-ramp of complexity and more approachable crafting mechanics.

• Release Date — May 8, 2025
• Developer — MoonHood
• Publisher — Fast Travel Games
• Genre — Adventure, Horror
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5

Not long after creating and developing the beloved dice-rolling action-adventure game Lost in Random, key members of the team at Thunderful would leave to form MoonHood. MoonHood's debut game, The Midnight Walk, is now set to release in just a few weeks on May 8, and it's shaping up to be one of the year's more memorable indie titles thanks to its unmistakably Tim Burton-inspired visuals and heavy emphasis on an eerie atmosphere. The relationship between light and dark plays a crucial role in the game's story and moment-to-moment action, where the player's main goal is to use fire to push away the dark and the monsters who dwell there and light a path to safety. The creepy claymation visuals and cute-yet-unsettling art direction have us on board for The Midnight Walk, now we just need to see if its gameplay can back up its presentation.

• Release Date — May 8, 2025
• Developer — Raccoon Logic Studios
• Publisher — Raccoon Logic Studios
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Platformer
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

2021's Journey to the Savage Planet was a much-loved left-field title when it released, blending elements of both survival games and Metroidvanias into a colorful and offbeat sci-fi first-person shooter. Journey's sequel, Revenge of the Savage Planet, is now set to arrive on May 8, and it brings with it a whole slew of changes over its predecessor. Revenge of the Savage Planet's most obvious departure from its predecessor is its change in perspective, abandoning the first game's first-person viewpoint for a new third-person perspective. That shift actually works wonders to highlight the game's bright and colorful visuals and pulpy art direction, and the new greater emphasis on co-op play could position Revenge of the Savage Planet as one of 2025's essential games to play with a friend.

• Release Date — May 13, 2025
• Developer — Fallen Tree Games
• Publisher — Kwalee
• Genre — Action, Open-World, Shooter, Simulation
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Well, someone finally did it. They made the game that Grand Theft Auto was originally supposed to be, putting players in the shoes of law enforcement as they track down criminals and solve crimes from a top-down, third-person perspective. Of course, The Precinct goes well beyond what that original version of Grand Theft Auto would have been, thanks to the benefit of modern technology, and it also seems to have a greater emphasis on story than it might have initially appeared. As the son of a detective who was murdered, you take up the family business as a new recruit within the police force, working your way up the ladder and keeping the city safe, all while looking for leads on your father's murderer.

The demo for The Precinct (which has actually been available for quite a while owing to the game's many delays) showcases a game whose driving and shooting mechanics are pretty solid. It seems like The Precinct might be a nice spiritual successor of sorts to both the first two Grand Theft Auto games and another, more cult-classic title in Rockstar Games' catalog: LA Noire.

• Release Date — May 14, 2025
• Developer — id Software
• Publisher — Bethesda Softworks
• Genre — First-Person Shooter
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Arguably the biggest game release of May 2025 (or 2025, in general) is DOOM: The Dark Ages. The third game in the recent reboot of the Doom franchise that began with 2016's DOOM, The Dark Ages is a drastically different kind of Doom game based on preview coverage. In particular, DOOM: The Dark Ages strips back a lot of the mechanics of Doom Eternal to bring its combat back to basics, all while introducing a new shield and parry move that are essential to survival. We also will finally get some more answers regarding the Slayer and his past, positioning The Dark Ages as one of the more important games in the overarching Doom timeline. Both DOOM and Doom Eternal are modern classics in the FPS genre, and DOOM: The Dark Ages stands to be yet another triumphant return to the series that popularized first-person shooters to begin with.

• Release Date — May 16, 2025
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Fighting
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Between Capcom's Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, the first Capcom Fighting Collection, and last year's Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, there aren't many fighting games left in the legendary publisher's back catalog to compile and bring to modern hardware. That said, many of the biggest holdouts that are still remaining are arriving on May 16 courtesy of Capcom Fighting Collection 2. This most recent compilation in Capcom's Fighting Collection series brings together several games that haven't been ported to console since the Dreamcast, including the beloved arena fighter Power Stone and its sequel. If the other Fighting Collection titles are any indication, expect Capcom Fighting Collection 2 to be a loving tribute to some of the company's best fighting games, complete with a digital museum containing artwork and other curiosities.

• Release Date — May 19, 2025
• Developer — Nanoo
• Publisher — Nanoo
• Genre — Bullet-Heaven, Horde Survivor, Roguelike, ARPG
• Platforms — PC

I'm a sucker for a good bullet heaven/survivor-like game, so it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite demos from the February 2025 Steam Next Fest showcase was Nanoo's Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos. Unlike a lot of other survivor-like games, Tower of Babel gives the player a fair amount of agency over their progression thanks to its robust gear system. To think of Tower of Babel as "Vampire Survivors meets Diablo" is not that far off, as loot collection and gear upgrading are a central component to the game's meta progression loop, and the satisfying power curve inherent in the gameplay sets it up as being yet another incredibly addicitive action roguelike on par with those titles that inspired it. We may be flush with bullet heaven games, but Tower of Babel seems like one worth keeping an eye on.

• Release Date — May 21, 2025
• Developer — Shiny Shoe
• Publisher — Big Fan Games
• Genre — Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Card-Battler
• Platforms — PC

Speaking of roguelikes, May 21 will see the launch of one of the subgenre's most anticipated games: Monster Train 2. The first Monster Train is one of the few deckbuilding roguelikes to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Slay the Spire. Accordingly, the sequel's demo was a major hit during the February Steam Next Fest. It was one of nearly 60 games that I tried during the showcase, and it's one of the few demos that's still available that I return to regularly. If the strength of just the demo is enough to warrant repeat playthroughs, I shudder to think of how much addictive potential there will be in the full release of Monster Train 2, but I've also consigned myself to picking it up on day 1 as one of 2025's most essential roguelikes.

• Release Date — May 22, 2025
• Developer — Strange Scaffold
• Publisher — Strange Scaffold
• Genre — Turn-Based Tactics
• Platforms — PC

Strange Scaffold continues to be one of the most interesting indie developers working today. After gaining plenty of notoriety for 2023's Max Payne-like El Paso, Elsewhere, the studio made waves last year for not one, but two excellent indie titles that were completely different from one another or from Strange Scaffold's other games: Clickolding and I Am Your Beast. Given the studio's output over the last two years, the last thing most of us would have expected is for them to tackle a licensed game. But they are, and it's for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, no less.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is both an excellent TMNT game and a great turn-based tactics game that takes plenty of influence from board games. The most important aspect of gameplay is momentum, which players can use to game each part of a level like a self-contained mini-puzzle with tactical battling. Playing Tactical Takedown's demo for roughly 5 minutes was all it took for me to realize it was a must-buy.

• Release Date — May 22, 2025
• Developer — Studio Far Out Games
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Driving
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Physics-based games can be a lot of fun in the right circumstances (just look at Human Fall Flat). But it's been a while since we've gotten a good car-based physics game, which, thankfully, Deliver At All Costs is looking to remedy. Taking inspiration from some of the more off-the-wall driving games of the 5th and 6th generations, Deliver At All Costs is a game about a down-on-his-luck rocket scientist who takes up a mundane job as a delivery driver after responding to a mysterious wanted ad with the same title as the game. What ensues is pure mayhem.

The demo for Deliver At All Costs that's available on Steam only features one mission, but it's more than enough to illustrate the game's premise and appeal. As you drive around town carrying often dubious cargo (think fireworks, compressed air, gas canisters, and the like), the smallest bumps and wiggles will shift your payload in disastrous ways, resulting in each delivery leaving chaos in its wake. It's a pretty one-note premise that needs to be backed up by some satisfyingly arcadey gameplay, and on that front, Deliver At All Costs absolutely, erm, delivers.

• Release Date — May 23, 2025
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Action, Survival Horror
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

The Onimusha series remains one of the better experiments from Capcom during the company's 6th-gen heyday. Part samurai character action game and part survival horror title, the first Onimusha is basically "feudal Japan Resident Evil", but the series would quickly evolve beyond that initial template. The first sequel in the series, Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, turns back the clock on the series' overarching plot while also introducing some new gameplay mechanics, and it remains many players' favorite game in the short-lived (but soon to be revived) series. The remaster of the first Onimusha was a welcome surprise for players like myself who loved it on the PS2, and that we're getting a remaster of the sequel is a major boon and the perfect game to tide us over until 2026's Onimusha: Way of the Sword.

• Release Date — May 29, 2025
• Developer — FromSoftware
• Publisher — FromSoftware, Bandai Namco
• Genre — Action RPG, Roguelike, Soulslike
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

There's a strong case to be made that the most surprising reveal of The Game Awards 2024 was FromSoftware's peeling back of the curtain on Elden Ring: Nightreign. Not a sequel to Elden Ring, Nightreign is something else entirely and a major departure for FromSoftware. This PvE multiplayer game is essentially a blend between Elden Ring, a roguelike, and a battle royale, pitting 3 players against increasingly dangerous threats in sections of The Lands Between that get smaller and smaller the longer players survive. Throw in the use of predetermined classes and bosses from across the FromSoftware catalog (including some returning favorites from the Dark Souls trilogy), and you have a title that abandons many FromSoftware staples in favor of experimentation. If any game is to dethrone Monster Hunter Wilds as the year's best co-op game, Nightreign is it.

• Release Date — May 30, 2025
• Developer — Utilizero Games
• Publisher — PlayStation Publishing LLC
• Genre — Action, Action RPG, Soulslike
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5

Releasing on the second-to-last day of the month and closing out the May 2025 game release calendar is Lost Soul Aside. Initially revealed as part of the Sony State of Play showcase earlier this year, Lost Soul Aside is a curious blend of character action game and Soulslike that has more than a few similarities to last year's Stellar Blade. Notably, both titles are published by Sony and developed by newer studios, with Lost Soul Aside serving as one of several new titles coming from Sony's "China Hero Project" highlighting developers from the region. While we don't know enough yet about Lost Soul Aside's gameplay to determine how it will set itself apart from contemporaries in the growing Soulslike genre, the game's enemy designs and impressive environments suggest that, at the very least, the game will be a visual powerhouse.