Everything that tickled my pickle at Summer Games Fest
Big *and* small titles announced this week, and what my hopes for them are
Not-E3 as it’s colloquially called, was a bit of a strange collection of livestreams. Attempting to evoke the feeling of a big blowout industry event in a post covid world, it’s understandable that the Summer Games Fest brought with it a sense of melancholy, of a lost world and a vibe we can never go back to. The camaraderie gone, the consolidation of corporate interests more naked and cynical. Where was the wonderland of yesterday? What happened to the thrill and excitement of the big announcements? The roar of the crowd, the buzz of hype, the sheer energy of everyone coming together and celebrating the joy of games?
Yeah, I don’t really care about any of that, let’s talk about some of the games that were announced this week:
Dungeons of Hinterberg
There’s an Adventure Time quality to the trailer for this big cartoony adventure game. Was half expecting to hear John DiMaggio’s voice during the trailer. A really fascinating setting, it's really stretching the definition of magical realism. Goblins and Ski lifts and non-euclidean geometry and yes even that big Alpine horn that i’ve always wanted to play but never really had the chance to because i’m not a tory. It’s a little bit Zelda, a little bit Persona, but from this trailer alone it’s clear that it’s got this overall cohesive vision for what it wants to be. Packed to the gills with style, I’m a sucker for a crisp cell shaded look, and a game where you scoot about fighting wicked creatures and opening chests. Very excited to find out more about this game closer to release next year.
Avowed
‘We have Skyrim at home!’
Obsidian are a hugely hit or miss studio for me personally. I’m not as in love with New Vegas as others were and I don’t have that history with older Infinity Engine games to enjoy things like Pillars of Eternity, but I’m secretly a bugger for Alpha Protocol and I thought Pentiment was one of the best games of last year. Obviously as one of the larger studios of note I understand that these projects have different teams working on them and I’m still willing to keep this one on my radar since it looks like it’s going harder on a lot of the cool stuff that Skyrim was doing way back in 2011. Seems very magic & melee focused, although at one point in the trailer you can see dual flintlocks being fired at this universes’ version of a supermutant and I definitely saw a defiant kick or two tucked neatly in there for all those Dark Messiah freaks out there.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
There's a conflict at the heart of this admittedly very slick looking rpg from the makers of the Persona series. That world and the implications of it's core idea are very exciting to me, as is it's outrageous maximalist user interface and the general aesthetics of the game. However it's creative lead, Katsura Hashino, who worked on a number of MegaTen games for Atlus over the years, has a long and storied history of bigotry, in particular anti-LGBT views, that have seeped their way into his work in aggressive ways. I have played and enjoyed a number of games that he has worked on and it's horrible to get slapped in the face with one of these bits of commentary in something you were otherwise excited about. Considering the concurrent themes of the MegaTen games it's a baffling creative decision to pursue such outdated views on sexuality and gender, and moreso that Atlus let this man continue to put such things in their games. It's a bummer. You can transform into a demon, you can attack and dethrone divine entities, but God forbid you exist outside of the nuclear familial template.
Jusant
Climbing is one of those pastimes that feels absolutely ripe for power fantasy. As a fat man with severe vertigo and no upper body strength I know I'm not going to be scrambling up a mountainside any time soonn so any opportunity I have to scamper to impossible heights in games, I leap at. Jusant’s trailer activated all the primate neurons in my brain, but it was getting my hands on the demo that really sealed the deal that this was going to be one of those games for me. From first impressions, the perfect centre of a venn diagram that features Breath of the Wild, Assassin’s Creed and Grow Home, each leg of the journey is considered and primed for player choice. It felt impressively focused and pure as a gaming experience, and I’m genuinely surprised that it’s a DontNod game, considering their area of expertise is usually writing, not gameplay. Very excited to get my hands on the full version of this later on this year.
Alan Wake 2
Control is a fascinating game in that it's world is vast and alien but your only real means of interacting with it were rather boring. Remedy are absolute buggers for this, wrapping brilliantly weird and twisted narratives around dull shooting mechanics, but Alan Wake, to me at least, was a bit of an outlier in that it's shooting had a wild desperation to it, fitting well into the vibes of this scruffy, schlocky horror fable. It was a really cool game that, growing up as a Stephen King kid, resonated with me a lot. I'm interested to see what Remedy has done with it's sequel. Whether the dual character set up provides any tangible variation in gameplay or not, from what we've seen already it looks like they're doubling down on the weird factor and that's rad. More excitedly what i’ve seen from written previews is that there is a huge detective game element to this, so you’re not just blinding dark entities with your flashlight the whole time.
Sandland
Akira Toriyama's one shot manga brought to life in this ludolic space. Being honest I didn't know what this was when the announcement was made but I did read the manga immediately after and it's a really good, fun romp that's very political. A haunted general and some wicked little scamps facing off against a fascist monarchy that’s been monopolising water. No doubt in part an inspiration for Fury Road, it’s a tight and zippy narrative that’s only 14 chapters long, really worth a read if you want a condensed version of Toriyama’s style. I'm cautiously optimistic with this one as I'm not very familiar with the developer/didn't play One Piece Odyssey, but the opportunity to fart about a desert in that gorgeously designed tank is enough to keep me on board for now.
Starfield
I’m a bugger for a big Bethesda RPG, so my endorsement of Starfield should not in any way be an indicator of quality. I know they’ve dropped the ball in recent generations, especially on the writing front, and there are elements of this game that have me a little worried. One of Fallout 4’s strongest suits was its world, which felt bespoke and intricate in a way that I just do not believe can be true of proc-gen. However, this will definitely be a play it and see situation, it’s entirely possible that they’ll nail the landing on this one. Certainly the fantasy of building your own spaceship and venturing out into the galaxy has legs, otherwise we wouldn’t have seen so much success with the likes of Elite Dangerous and ephemeral pyramid scheme Star Citizen, and Bethesda’s big comprehensive presentation this week shows they understand what people actually like about their games (hoarding sandwiches, expressing themselves through character creation and development) I just hope the writing is up to snuff because without that then what’s the point of any of it?
33 immortals
I’m not really sure how I feel about this new game from the makers of the excellent Spiritfarer. The idea of drop-in 33 person dungeon crawling doesn’t really appeal a whole lot to me, but this studio has a knack for really selling its ideas with some beautifully done animation and arresting visual ideas. The fact that it’s specifically 33-player is interesting, obviously a tripartite design will be a big part of it, but 33 is a lot of people for a game like this. No doubt there will be a very specific thing that either hooks me or doesn’t here, and there’s a strong Supergiant vibe too. Curious, if not completely on board yet.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Citizen Sleeper was one of my favourite games of last year, a deeply compelling sci Fi RPG that had you pitted against the clock attempting to survive on the lamb aboard a dying space station in a terrible corporate future. Choices offered to you were harsh and often unfair, your ability to act in this world at the whim and mercy of the roll of a dice and an ever decaying body and mind. It's a cruel experience, but in that cruelty you found a beautiful camaraderie with your fellow downtrodden. Your goals fluid, your options severely limited and a huge mushroom economy awaiting you.
I'm currently playing the free expansion episodes in the wake of the news that a sequel is on its way, and my god could I devour a million of these. Lead creator Gareth Damien Martin is interested in pursuing an expanded world of ideas beyond games, but Starward Vector being something that is in the works and will exist very soon is more than enough to get me excited. just give me all of it, I'm absolutely enthralled with this world and the characters within it.
What’s been your highlight of this week’s announcements? Were you really unnerved by the giant Richard Ayoade in the Fable trailer? How do you feel about live service games? Let me know in the comments!