Right on schedule, January’s video game desert starts to show signs of life once February comes around. Maybe it’s the aroma of undefined love that permeates this most romantic of months, but for some reason the games industry reawakens every February with a bounty of new games to fall for. However your taste in games runs, this February has you covered, with the invigorated nostalgia of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (Feb. 5, for PS5, XBX/S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC), the Soulslike hostility of Nioh 3 (Feb. 6, for PS5 and PC), the absurdist comic book action of Suda51’s Romeo Is a Dead Man (Feb. 11, for PS5, XBX/S, and PC), and the cartoon party sports of Mario Tennis Fever (Feb. 12, for Switch 2). The biggest game of the month, though—and the biggest game of the year to this point—is Resident Evil: Requiem, which is why it’s on our preview shortlist. It’s the perfect game for February; after all, what could be more romantic than Resident Evil’s love affair with Leon S. Kennedy’s Chris Gainesian hair? Here’s The A.V. Club’s guide to what to play next month.
Hermit and Pig (February 5, PC)
Heavy Lunch’s turn-based RPG finally shines a spotlight on two heroic archetypes with a shameful lack of video game representation: society-rejecting hermits and truffle-hunting pigs. (Fun fact: using pigs to hunt for truffles is illegal in Italy because they’re less efficient and more destructive than dogs.) And it does it in the cutest way possible. Of course, cuteness carries a lot of weight, but it will only take a game so far. Hermit and Pig doesn’t just look adorable, though; with its whimsy and atypical-for-an-RPG non-fantasy setting, it’s clearly enamored with Nintendo’s Mother series, something that will almost always make ears perk up.
Relooted (February 10; PC and XBX/S)
A buzzy hit at last year’s Summer Game Fest, Relooted targets centuries of colonial looting of Africa by basically turning the recent Hitman games on their side. Instead of planning and executing an assassination in a 3D space, players map out a heist on a 2D map, trying to nab various African artifacts held in Western institutions and then escaping without being caught. These tricky puzzle boxes require careful deliberation followed by precise platforming, and since all the artifacts are real items still owned by real museums and colleges, it’s also educational. Good work.
Aerial_Knight’s Dropshot (February 17; PC, PS5 and XBX/S)
Dropshot tosses first-person shooter convention right out of a plane, tasking players with nailing targets and pulling off crack shots with finger guns while trapped in the merciless grip of gravity. Expect fast action while hurtling towards the cold, unforgiving ground, all wrapped up inside a stylish cartoon aesthetic. Presumably it’ll feel and play like a tube shooter, and if that turns out to be true—and if the actual game captures a fraction of the kinetic thrill of that trailer above—there’s a good chance Dropshot will be a delight.
Love Eternal (February 19; PC, PS5, XBX/S, Switch, and PS4)
In Love Eternal the designer known as brlka appears to mine the nostalgia and familiarity of retro gaming in service of horror. Its blocky, ‘80s-style graphics and child characters indicate it’s heading in one direction, and then almost everything else about it pulls it in another, finding tension in signifiers of comfort. That could make it the gaming equivalent of those movies that think a child creepily singing a nursery rhyme is the scariest thing ever, or it could lead to some genuinely effective terror. The VVVVVV-style gravity-flipping platforming looks tight and snappy, so it could be mechanically satisfying no matter what direction the story takes.
Resident Evil Requiem (February 27; PC, PS5, XBX/S, and Switch 2)
Speaking of terror, Capcom’s genre-defining survival horror juggernaut returns with its ninth core game, and it’s bringing something new and something old along with it. The new: FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, one of the lead characters, who’s on a case in the ruins of Raccoon City and, naturally, runs into some shit. The old: Leon S. Kennedy, the floppy-haired star of Resident Evil 2 and 4, who is deeply experienced at dealing with that exact kind of shit. Expect some notable gameplay differences between the two, with Kennedy’s missions resembling the action-oriented direction of Resident Evil 4, and Ashcroft’s leaning into the pure survival of Resident Evil 7 and Village. Early word is highly positive—which, sure, tends to be the case with video game previews—so this month of romance could be wrapping up with some legit fright. We’ll find out in four weeks.