Danny Weber
09:12 04-11-2025
© A. Krivonosov
Discover November 2025 video game releases: AAA blockbusters and standout indies. Highlights include Europa Universalis V, Anno 117, Black Ops 7 and Tarkov 1.0.
Autumn 2025 is winding down, but the games scene refuses to ease up. November brings a spread of launches for every taste—from headline-grabbing AAA blockbusters to distinctive indie experiments. The Pepelats News team has picked the month’s standouts worth keeping on your radar. Clear some storage and set aside an evening or two—there’s plenty to dive into.
Genre: grand strategy
Developer: Paradox Interactive
Release date: November 4, 2025
Platform: PC.
The legendary Paradox series returns with a sweeping canvas: guide a chosen state across five centuries—from 1337 to the industrial era of the 19th century. You can pick any country in the world, from European kingdoms to Asian empires, and steer it toward prosperity while threading the needle between wars, epidemics, and revolutions. Europa Universalis V deepens the strategic toolset: diplomacy, economics, warfare, and societal management have been reworked, with a more nuanced estates system and flexible policy-making. Balancing the interests of peasants, nobles, clergy, and burghers now has a direct impact on stability. Paradox Tinto is also refreshing the interface and adding onboarding for newcomers. It’s an immense historical sandbox where bold what-ifs feel natural—colonize the Americas as China or revive the might of the Golden Horde. Strategy diehards look set for a long-awaited sink-in spanning hundreds of hours.
Genre: city-building strategy
Developer: Ubisoft Mainz
Release date: November 13, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S.
For the first time, Anno heads to antiquity—into the high tide of the Roman Empire. You step into a provincial governor’s sandals to build your own Rome: raise cities with forums and aqueducts, tune an economy, provision legions, and meet citizens’ needs. Anno 117: Pax Romana doesn’t just reskin the series; it rethinks the formula with new mechanics for managing economy, culture, and power in the ancient world. A first for Anno: you choose a starting region—a peaceful province in Italy or a Celtic tribal kingdom in Albion. That choice shapes your approach: spread Roman civilization or reinforce Celtic heritage. The real challenge is balance—prosper too much and a self-reliant province might draw the emperor’s ire. Logistics, climate, and cultural differences all matter. Visually, it’s a feast: bustling ancient cities, legions on the march, and seas of wheat swaying on the horizon. Ambitious without losing its roots, Anno 117 looks welcoming to veterans and newcomers alike.
Genre: first-person shooter
Developer: Treyarch
Release date: November 14, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S (as well as PS4 and Xbox One).
The annual blockbuster continues the Black Ops line and moves the action to 2035—a near future defined by high tech, terrorism, and an arms race. Expect a full-blown cinematic campaign centered on David Mason’s squad, a co-op Zombies mode, and a traditionally robust multiplayer suite with fresh maps and modes. The quick turnaround—just a year after Black Ops 6—had fans wary about quality, yet the familiar pillars are in place: set-piece operations and finely tuned online firefights. With competition fierce (Battlefield 6 made waves in October), CoD is fighting to keep its crown. Black Ops 7’s fate will hinge on multiplayer, but history suggests that, despite audience fatigue and gripes about flashy skins, the series still delivers. Cross-play, brisk shootouts, and nonstop action—very much Call of Duty doing what it does best.
Genre: tactical action (extraction shooter)
Developer: Battlestate Games
Release date: November 15, 2025
Platform: PC.
The famously unforgiving Escape from Tarkov finally leaves its years-long beta for a full release. After countless tests and wipes, the game is rolling out on Steam to a broader audience. Tarkov is revered for uncompromising realism—steady nerves and sound tactics are mandatory. Raids send you into risky runs across the fictional city of Narvinsk to scavenge valuable loot and extract with it intact. You’ll contend with other players and ruthless AI alike. A standout is the extraordinarily deep weapon-mod system—an enthusiast’s dream—paired with the oppressive mood of a post-Soviet city at war. Version 1.0 introduces a story thread that makes getting out even more challenging and engaging, plus new maps, weapons, and trials for veterans. After launch, the studio plans console versions and add-ons. As the defining forebear of extraction shooters, Tarkov now offers everyone a shot at the definitive version.
Genre: adventure
Developer: Microids Studio Paris (Virtuallyz Gaming)
Release date: November 6, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S.
Benoît Sokal’s Syberia—a cult adventure from the early 2000s—returns renewed. Syberia — Remastered revisits the start of Kate Walker’s journey and makes a classic comfortable for today’s audience. Visuals have been thoroughly updated—character models, lighting, and animations—while preserving the original’s distinctive mood and art direction. The interface is more intuitive, controls are adapted for gamepads, and a few tough puzzles are made clearer for newcomers. The story stays intact: a young New York lawyer, Kate Walker, travels to an Alpine backwater to finalize the purchase of an automaton factory—and ends up on a wondrous trek to the edge of the world in search of the brilliant inventor Hans Voralberg. Expect enigmatic European towns, the harsh expanses of Siberia, mechanical marvels, and the quiet melancholy of a bygone era. The remaster includes full Russian voiceover and subtitles—ideal for longtime fans and first-timers discovering one of the genre’s most atmospheric adventures.
Genre: isometric narrative RPG
Developer: Emotion Spark Studio (publisher — Owlcat Games)
Release date: November 11, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch.
Rue Valley blends Groundhog Day vibes with the introspection of Disco Elysium. The protagonist—a young man in depression—checks into a remote motel and finds himself trapped in a 47-minute time loop that always ends in a nuclear blast. There’s no combat here; the focus is on dialogue, moral choices, and investigating the cause of the anomaly. To break the loop, he must change within—find a reason to live and face himself in the minutes each cycle allows. You freely shape his personality—beliefs, fears, worldview—and every decision, even inaction, affects how others see him and how the world responds. The studio promises a deep psychological drama about the impossibility of outrunning oneself, even with endless retries. It’s designed for roughly 20 hours and aims to explore tough themes around emotions and trauma—catnip for those who prefer mature, story-first games without action.
Genre: action/RPG, roguelike
Developer: Digital Sun (publisher — 11 bit studios)
Release date: November 19, 2025 (early access)
Platform: PC.
The hit shopkeeper-hero tale returns. Seven years on, Digital Sun invites us back to a world of commerce and crawling. You again play Will—running a cozy shop by day and raiding perilous dungeons by night. The sequel keeps the original’s charm and layers on new systems: four weapon types, nearly 100 perks, expanded shop customization (furnish it your way), and an endless trials mode for the brave. The structure remains familiar—procedurally generated biomes full of monsters and valuables to secure and sell. Will now has fresh abilities and combat tactics, while the shop economy cuts deeper—you’ll juggle prices and demand to thrive. Launching in early access, it’s set to grow steadily; even at the start, it already looks like a satisfying loop for anyone who loves the “dungeon + store” combo.
Genre: rhythm action, visual novel
Developer: D-CELL GAMES
Release date: November 6, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S.
UNBEATABLE is a rhythm adventure in bold anime style that has been on fans’ radar since its Kickstarter. It drops you into an anti-utopia where music is illegal, casting you as Beat—a gifted rock vocalist leading an underground band. Together they stage secret gigs, defying the system while dodging the music police. The experience is split in two: a 6–8 hour story campaign presented as a brisk, choice-driven visual novel, and climactic moments expressed as punchy rhythm battles where you hit just two inputs—up and down—to the beat of incoming notes. It’s simple to grasp yet progressively demanding to master. Beyond the story, Arcade mode offers dozens of tracks, online leaderboards, difficulty modifiers, and profile progression. The soundtrack is all original—and it shows, with dense, high-energy arrangements. Hand-drawn visuals—taking cues from cult anime "FLCL"—and unabashed love for music give the project a distinctive spark.
November 2025 serves up variety in spades. Some will reshape history in grand strategies or save the day in blockbusters; others will chase evocative stories in independent projects. Pick a lane or sample everything—and let these new releases deliver the kind of moments that stick.
Age rating: 18+.