7 February games you should get excited about
Video games are already off to a great start in 2017 -- especially after the runaway success of Resident Evil 7 -- and February is looking even better.
It's easy to leapfrog this month, what with Nintendo delivering The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and a little thing called Switch) and BioWare launching Mass Effect: Andromeda in March. But you'd be missing out.
Read on for a rundown of February highlights.
Fire Emblem Heroes (Feb. 2)
Nintendo's second mobile game -- first for Android devices -- turns the tactical, grid-based strategy of Fire Emblem into a free-to-play game. Heroes seems to resemble the series you know, save for the fact that embarking on a mission costs stamina, which recharges over time or when you purchase it.
Available for Android and iOS.
Nioh (Feb. 7)
Dark Souls, but you're a samurai (who kind of looks like The Witcher's Geralt of Rivia). Team Ninja's Nioh is a little more nuanced than that, but if you're looking for a quick-and-easy description, that's it. Punishing combat powered by loads of nifty weapons and directed at an assortment of fearsome creatures. (Also, samurai dude really does look like Geralt).
Available for PlayStation 4.
For Honor (Feb. 14)
For Honor is a game that defies categorization. It has the look and feel of modern 3D brawlers like the Warriors games, but the marching armies are primarily set dressing. The real focus is on duels, with an easy-to-learn/tough-to-master rock-paper-scissors approach to combat. It's a fighting game that you're meant to feel, rather than think about.
Available for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Sniper Elite 4 (Feb. 14)
Sniper Elite 4 doesn't just let you punch Nazis; you can also use your powerful scoped rifle to shoot them in the head. Rebellion's World War II-set stealth/action game deposits you in a series of huge sandbox-style levels, giving you a set of open-ended objectives and all the tools you need to accomplish them. The upcoming game embraces the successes of Sniper Elite 3, and it looks like it'll be a better game for it.
Available for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Halo Wars 2 (Feb. 21)
Real-time strategy games aren't supposed to work well on consoles. So Total War developer Creative Assembly said "screw that!" (probably not a direct quote) and made one anyway. It's set in the Halo universe, but instead of operating as a one-space-marine-army you command the entire army, space marines and all. Between the canon Halo story and the inventive Blitz multiplayer mode -- which combines card-collecting with RTS -- there's a lot to like about this one.
Available for Windows and Xbox One.
Horizon: Zero Dawn (Feb. 28)
This is an open world RPG in which you hunt robot dinosaurs. Do you really need to know more than that? You play as a badass she-warrior named Aloy. The setting is a distant future version of Earth where nature has reasserted its control over civilization and humanity is back to living that tribal life. Only now, steel "dinosaurs" walk the land. There's a story somewhere in here, but we tend to get tripped up around that whole "hunting robo-dinos" thing.
Available for PlayStation 4.
Torment: Tides of Numenara (Feb. 28)
The release timing for Torment: Tides of Numenara -- which falls on the same day as Horizon and not long before Zelda and Mass Effect -- is a little rough. But the game has momentum as a big Kickstarter success and street cred as the spiritual successor to the beloved 1999 RPG, Planescape: Torment. This is one of those games we're really excited about playing... eventually. But it's still a big one to watch for February.
Available for Linux, Mac, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
