Forget Winter: Dive Into These 9 Sweltering Hot, Tropical Games

When you are above the equator, it is winter. For the Midwest and Northeastern US, plus Canada, it has been brutally cold lately – unrelenting with wind chill and potentially deadly when winter winds pick up.

Instead of chatting your teeth, why not escape the warmth of your home, wrap yourself in a blanket and dive into a video game?

If you’re a real masochist, you could play Frostpunk 2 or Skyrim. But we recommend going the opposite way and finding games about sweating heat, especially one that allows you to explore the landscape and take it with you.

Here are our gaming recommendations that will help you mentally escape the bitter cold.

Editor’s note: All games on this list are traditional “Web2” games with no crypto or blockchain integrations. But you can still like them!

Sea of ​​thieves

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S + One, PS4, PC

Sea of ​​Thieves is a great place to start if you want to keep the gameplay as sweaty as the weather.

Once an Xbox and Windows exclusive, this game is now on PlayStation 5 and Steam, with full crossplay support. Sea of ​​Thieves drops you into a fictional sea littered with islands to explore, bosses to fight, and other players to avoid or chase as you please.

The water is a standout feature in this game, with some of the most beautiful illuminated waves I can remember in any game ever, alongside islands full of palm trees, parrots and flowers.

Forza Horizon 5

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S + One, PC

It’s been a while since we’ve had a new Forza Horizon game; Forza Horizon 5 dropped back in 2021. But it’s the latest in the series, it still looks incredible, and it’s set in Mexico.

You can race through hot jungles or beautiful coastlines. Along with all the hypercars and racing machines, there are plenty of jeeps to jump in and pretend you’re out there in the sun.

Forza Horizon is a racing game, but it’s one that lets you approach it however you want – plus it’s one of the most colorful, visually enchanting games out there.

Assassin’s Creed series

Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, PC

If you want to go somewhere warmer, then Assassin’s Creed has plenty of answers for you—although you’ll probably want to skip Valhalla, the Viking-themed entry in the series.

But just before that is Odyssey, set in ancient Greece. There is also the Egypt-Set Assassin’s Creed Origins. And let’s not forget Black Flag, which puts you in Edward Kenway’s swashbuckling boots to do some high-sea piracy.

That last one is a bit long in the tooth, but all three entries are still a lot of fun.

Like a dragon: infinite wealth

Platforms: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One, PC

The latest Like a Dragon game takes us from the streets of Tokyo and Yokohama to Honolulu, HI.

Things don’t start off great for main character Ichiban Kasuga when he gets there; A taxi driver tries to shake him down, and another person drugs and strips him before letting him onto a public beach.

But soon Ichiban will be riding a Segway around the island, visiting the open-air shopping malls, delivering pizzas by bike and eventually ending up on an island of his own with the goal of turning it into a perfect tropical resort.

Even with the mugging and cheating, Ichiban still has a better time in Hawaii than most of us ever will.

Sea of ​​stars

Platforms: Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One, PC

Sea of ​​Stars is a love letter to the RPGs of the 1990s, especially games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario RPG.

Set in a fictional archipelago of islands, you’ll spend much of the game exploring beautiful 16-bit style pixel art jungles and islands. Better yet, you can team up with up to two friends to play the game together.

The Monkey Island series

Platforms: Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One, PC

The Monkey Island Series goes way back to 1990 and is one of the crown jewels of the adventure game genre that was so popular at the time.

The Secret of Monkey Island and its sequel, Lechuck’s Revenge, received remasters in the early 2010s that added voice acting from series regulars, plus a killer hint system that helps you solve the game’s often bizarre puzzles (a chicken with a pulley on it) at your own pace.

There’s also The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island, plus the latest entry, Return to Monkey Island – all of which will give you those warm tropical vibes. They’re ostensibly pirate games, but these pirates use insult with swordplay to settle their differences.

Tropico 6

Platforms: Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One, PC

If you want a bird’s eye view of your tropical paradise, then you might want to check out Tropico.

You are El Presidentte, the leader of a Caribbean island nation. You will build your nation, manage resources and try to maintain peace with your citizens while maintaining control over them.

Just Cause Series

Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, PC

Just about every game in the Just Cause series will serve here. These are open world games mainly from the 2010s about creating chaos on tropical islands.

As Rico Rodriguez, you have countless ways to blow things up – but the trademark of the series is the grapple, which lets you bind two things together, like a truck and a hissing can of pressurized fuel.

Light the fuel on fire and watch as it drags the truck into the air. Think of this as the other side of Tropico: instead of being a dictator, you try to overthrow a dictator with nothing but guns, explosions, and a sick parachute to help you along.

Cyberpunk 2077

Platforms: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One, PC

Cyberpunk isn’t exactly tropical per se, but the future metropolis of Night City is located on the West Coast, just a bit north of the eternally sweltering Los Angeles.

As you leave the city limits, you’ll find vast areas of bush, enough to take your mind off things.

The city itself is brightly lit by the overhead sun during the day, and when you take the time to walk around you can almost beat it up.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair