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From magical realms to new planets, there are new places to explore coming soon!
Modern gamers are very lucky. There are full worlds to explore at our fingertips. Massive fantasy worlds full of dragons and magic as well as space odysseys teaming with discoveries. There are a ton of exploration games already out there for you to enjoy, but for this list, we bring you 15 new games that could be yours to play in 2023.
One of the most mysterious games on this list, Pragmata has kept its gameplay details pretty much under wraps. It was first announced in 2020 with a cool cinematic trailer, but since then, there has only been a small apology video released to announce the delay. Regardless, this action-packed space adventure looks very promising. Pragmata takes place in a dystopian world on the moon in the near future. The game will center heavily on storytelling while also featuring futuristic tech. The station on the moon looks a lot like New York, except something terrible has happened. The main two characters are the only two people as far as we can see in the trailer. There’s a holographic cat, so it should be a good time.
Created by Chinese indie developer Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong is an action-RPG starring – well, it’s a mystery. Not a ton is known about the exact plot of the game, but we do know that it is based on the 16th Century Chinese novel, Journey to the West. Plus, a couple of gameplay trailers have revealed the kind of action we can look forward to. You play a humanoid monkey wielding a magical, black iron staff. Traveling across the land on a mission to learn and grow stronger, you will fight a variety of enemies, many of which are based on traditional Chinese folklore.
You will have some unique abilities too. In the gameplay trailer, we see our main character transform into a golden cicada and fly around. That’s one way to explore. Other cool things, like your staff expanding to trip an entire army or the ability to freeze your enemies, are all part of why this game looks pretty great.
Lightyear Frontier is one part farm simulator and one part alien world exploration game. As a little unnamed explorer, you will settle on an alien planet and get to work on making it a home. With the aid of a nifty mech suit, farming is fun and flashy. The crops are unique too, so it’s another nice twist on a farming simulation game. Plant, harvest, and protect your crops from the weather and the hungry critters that also occupy the world. The critters are also especially cute.
The exploring comes in when your farm is running smoothly. Go out of your slice of home and see what else the planet has to offer. Though there will be plenty of sightseeing, there is also a mysterious history to the planet. Discover ruins of an ancient civilization and try to figure out what happened to them. You can farm and explore alone or in a team of up to four people, so there is plenty to look forward to.
In Stray Blade, you play an unnamed “Adventurer,” who had finally found the legendary land of Acrea the Lost Valley. And then died. Brought back to life by your new companion, Boji, you find that you cannot leave Acrea. Your mission is to travel the war-torn valley and try to restore balance by collecting combat skills while Boji collects pieces of lore. If you die in battle, Boji can bring you back. The really cool part is that with everything you do, you create change. By winning or losing, when you revisit a place, the results of your previous actions will create a change to reconcile with. This means you get to explore a continuously evolving environment. And the environments are beautiful. From ancient city ruins to lush forests to freezing caves, there is a lot to see on your mission to get stronger and release yourself from this beautiful land. Keep an eye out for Stray Blade!
Maybe the place you really want to explore is New York City. But only if you can do it in style. Enjoy being Spider-Man in this open-world, action exclusive for the PS5. Playing as Peter Parker or Miles Morales, you can explore the big city on foot, or way more fun, by web. While you swing from building to building, you will also fight crime using your superhero powers and your environment. Just like the character we know and love, a key part of the story is the setting, so use your head when fighting the bad guys. Speaking of which, the villain alone should get Spider-Man fans excited! Get ready to take on Venom in 2023.
Your surroundings have never been more important than in Aftermath. This psychological horror survival game takes the everyday items and makes them crucial in a post-catastrophe urban environment. You play an astronaut named Charlie as she crash lands back on Earth. Except a terrible alien invasion has happened in her absence and her once familiar city is fragmented and seemingly deserted. As an invisible enemy hunts her, Charlie has a more important mission on her mind: find her daughter.
Like most survival games, health, stamina, sanity, and hunger/thirst all need to be maintained to keep going. Then while you look for Sammy, the daughter, you can also be highly observant of your surroundings. Explore this messed up but familiar city while also creating blueprints of useful equipment, gathering materials, and creating the tools you need to survive.
Starfield will take you on a journey beyond our Solar System as you play a customizable space explorer. Played in either first or third-person perspective, you get to be a member of Constellation, a space exploring organization. The Settled Systems, which a places for you to explore as far as 50 lightyears outside of our Solar System, hold many interesting things. You will encounter large alien creatures and determine if they are friend or foe. You can gather minerals and other resources along the way too.
The game switches to more of a first-person shooter style when you encounter pirates. The good news is that you can swap weapons mid-battle by using a game-pausing menu. There is plenty of fighting and observing to keep everyone happy. If you’re a fan of Star Wars, but want some fresh stories, then keep an eye out for Starfield next year.
In this sequel to ARK: Survival Evolved, explore a planet teeming with invasive prehistoric species while trying to survive. You play Vin Diesel’s character, Santiago, as he does everything in his power to protect his daughter, Meeka, from harm. Described as a survival sandbox game, the world is your oyster. Find parts for your weapons and customize them in one of a million different ways. You can then use your weapons to fight back against the other inhabitants of the world. New to ARK 2 is the ability to camouflage your appearance and your scent in order to avoid predators. Of course, it wouldn’t be an action game without melee attacks and even parkour. The setting is also very beautiful. Lush forests, numerous waterfalls, and towering rock features are yours to explore. Basically, there is going to be a ton to do in this game, and it will be pretty hard to get bored with it. And if you need a little more structure in your life, there are world events to participate in, or not, all the time.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is a combination of cool things. It’s a horror survival game that is played as a first-person shooter and features strong sci-fi tropes and themes. In this game, you will venture into a post-apocalyptic Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, an area highly affected by weird anomalies. The game is open-world, so you get to explore the area, searching for weapons, food, and other survival supplies. In the meantime, you will have a litany of foes to take down, including other humans who are shooting back at you. Far more terrifying are the anomalies: invisible “bubbles” suspended in the air that will explode you into a million tiny pieces if you run into one. Tossing objects ahead of you to check for them sounds like a great idea. Finally, if you venture down into the old labs, the monsters you will find there are toothy and terrifying!
Though it was originally set to be released in December 2021, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the home of GSC Game World developers, has delayed the launch date. However, it does appear that the developers are planning to release this game in 2023 despite the difficult situation.
For those of you looking for a space adventure with hard sci-fi elements, you are going to want to try The Invincible. Based on the novel by Polish futurologist, Stanisław Lem, this game takes you to the planet Regis III. You play an astrobiologist named Yasna when an exploratory mission turns into a desperate search for missing crewmates. Using atompunk tech, you will follow the science to solve the mystery. Along the way, your choices will determine future gameplay. For example, when interacting with robots or other humans, you can decide whether you are making a new enemy or a new ally.
Exploration is key in this game. Played from a first-person perspective, you make your way through the sandy terrain, tunnels, and surface labs. Because you’re searching for your crew on a totally new planet, there’s a lot of observing. What are the robots doing? What plant life do you see? But you’re not alone, so watch your back!
In a sequel to the popular Hollow Knight, you can explore a whole new world. Hollow Knight: Silksong is an action-adventure, Metroidvania game with beautifully detailed 2D environments and an original orchestral score. Play as the warrior princess, Hornet, after she has been captured and brought to another planet. As she moves toward her goal, she will pass misty moors, large, gilded cities, coral forests, and more. Along the way, she will craft weapons to engage a variety of new enemies. The acrobatic fight sequences will take her over and under the platform levels she is exploring. Outside of fighting, solving mysteries and performing quests are also a large part of the game. Fans of the first game won’t want to miss this!
The Fold: Ingression is a Lovecraftian horror and Viking love child that looks delightfully creepy. You play a novice Norwegian exterminator named Amund who is sent to a countryside church for work. The Eikherad stave church is old and beautiful, so you find yourself exploring the grounds. The waking nightmare begins as you stumble upon some of the Viking-age secrets the grounds hold, and while each day brings new things for you to explore, the entire place seems to be changing. While new places appear, parts you have already visited will change enough to make you doubt yourself. You also appear to be gaining an ancient power, but beware! Using it may be more than your sanity can handle.
This is the first game in a series that feature ancient worlds inspired by Norwegian lore and H. P. Lovecraft’s stories. When the ancient ones stare back at you, will you be able to stay afloat? Playing from the first-person perspective enhances the thriller horror tone of the game. So, if you’re a fan of Lovecraftian horror, be on the lookout for this one!
Yes, we have included a game on this list that currently does not have a name, but it’s one to look out for! The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been in the works since 2017 and was originally going to be released in 2022. Though not much about the plot is known yet with Nintendo being pretty secretive about it all, the trailer shows us all we really need to know to get excited. In this single-player, action-adventure game, you get to soar through the clouds to explore a breathtaking collection of floating islands and cities. In the trailer, we see golden fields and ancient temples, as well as some possible rocky adversaries. Also, amidst a creepy miasma of black and purple tendrils, a dark castle liberates itself from the ground. What waits for you in this new castle in the sky? Find out next year!
If you’ve ever dreamed of being whisked away from your normal life to a magical realm, then you should play Forspoken. Frey is just an ordinary New Yorker until one day she is pulled into the magical land of Athia. She wakes up with a sentient bracelet friend named Cuff and the ability to cast a huge variety of spells. The once thriving land is plagued by an event called the Break. All living things are corrupted by it when it touches them, but for some reason, Frey is immune.
In this third-person, open-world adventure game, you play Frey as she learns about the curse and how she may be able to help. Using Cuff as a guide, you can cast a huge array of dazzling spells as you fight dragons and other beasts. You won’t be forced to walk around either. Frey is able to utilize magic-enhanced parkour to fight as well as sprint through the world. She can even leap off of cliff and fly to safety below, so nothing holds you back.
Kerbal Space Program 2 is the much-anticipated sequel to the extraordinary space flight simulation game, Kerbal Space Program. For a variety of reasons, the release date has been postponed several times, but hopefully 2023 will be the golden year because this game looks epic. This sandbox game gives you interstellar free reign! While you build your own space program from the ground up, including your ship’s parts and fuel types. You can also build colonies in orbit or on planet surfaces with the goal being to create a self-sustaining environment to live in. Plus, now you can build ships to fly to other planets created especially for the game. There will be plenty of problem-solving challenges, but it is all yours to explore. Find what works and what doesn’t. Go as far as you want to.
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