Update Patch - August 2023 | Gamescom Special
August has come and gone, and this month’s Update Patch has a slightly different feel. That’s because we had a Gamescom to attend! Gamescom 2023 was attended by gamers, developers, press and many more, including startmenu folk and for the first time, me. Sadly, one of those days was cut off by illness but I did get my hands on some games. With all that said, we thought it would be best to recap Gamescom’s news, along with a few short previews of the games I got to check out!
Opening Night Live Feels Dead
The event began with Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live show. The 2-hour show was light on big new announcements as Keighley himself had hinted before the showcase, and long on vacuous introductions.
Oh to be a goat being carried through a medieval fantasy by a brave warrior….
One of the best surprises was the announcement of the horror puzzler sequel Little Nightmares III, alongside confirmation of a developer change. The Dark Pictures and Until Dawn developer, Supermassive has taken the reins and showed more of the familiar puzzles, stealthing and oversized monsters that were crucial to the success of the first two games. Plenty of other announced titles had substantial updates, including an all-encompassing gameplay trailer for Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert, a look at the live-action sections of Alan Wake 2, an extended look at the changes coming to Cyberpunk 2077 in its upcoming DLC Phantom Liberty, and many more other updates.
Keighley was keen to boast after the success of the event, citing it was the most watched ONL event in the history of Gamescom. This is despite the early interruption to the show by someone who got on stage and demanded to know the status of GTA VI. The individual was removed from the stage in short order.
Sonic Superstars
Editor’s note: Oh, this is the good Sonic… right.
The first of my previews comes from the perspective of someone overjoyed that Sonic Frontiers was such a strong entry in the franchise. That previous game took inspiration from other sources but pulled them together with the best elements of Sonic’s 3D gameplay and a killer soundtrack. However, one year later, Sonic Team is back with something a little more familiar.
Not to say the familiarity of Sonic Superstars isn’t welcome. A completely new entry in the 2D series sees new ideas brought to the table with inspiration from other classics. This includes a 4-player co-op and in the demo available at Gamescom, new abilities to navigate stages including turning characters into squids that could swim up waterfalls.
The early levels had a delightful freshness compared to other 2D entries thanks to these new abilities. This came alongside the return of classic minigames, and even some fun tunnels and curving surfaces that result in additional layers giving the illusion of 3D that add a literal and metaphorical depth to each of the stages.
Hyenas
Living embodiments of Gatekeep, Gaslight, Girlboss.
One of the biggest curiosities at the show was Hyenas, the next game from strategy masters Creative Assembly. The studio has experimented with other genres previously to great success, most impressively with Alien: Isolation. When it comes to this new multiplayer FPS, it certainly has some interesting ingredients but questions remain.
The demo saw us get into a multiplayer match, where players took control of various hero characters with unique abilities in five teams of three. Teams are tasked with raiding space stations, and getting treasure, all the while combating other teams and AI enemies called MURFs, all culminating with one team being able to extract and get out with the treasure. It’s a tried and tested multiplayer format but the gameplay excels both in crisp gunplay and thanks to its other twist, the Zero-G gameplay. Floating through Zero-G is handled well on both mouse-and-keyboard and controller, with the camera keeping the presentation clear whilst giving the verticality and additional complexity that comes with Zero-G.
Despite all this, it's hard not to escape the feeling that Hyenas may be stranded in space as just another shooter in an already crowded field. There’s nothing unremarkable about its design or style, it looks nice and there’s plenty to gawk at in its space station setting. For all this though, its familiar multiplayer format and a cast of characters that could be in any other shooter does give a sense of something that will struggle to maintain a long-term audience. I sincerely hope I’m wrong on this, and that Creative Assembly has another winning experiment.
Jusant
Damn, potentially falling to your death concept is pretty scary.
This was my game of the show and one that shows Dontnod is much more than the originators of the Life is Strange franchise. Jusant sees you playing as a young traveller climbing a rocky tower for an unknown reason. The central gameplay loop sees you climbing the tower, navigating terrain through platforming, and carefully calibrating climbing mechanics, with each trigger corresponding to gripping with each of the traveller’s hands.
The opening 30 minutes of the game showed plenty of promise. The climbing and controls felt precise and tense, making every moment of climbing a careful set of calculations as you try to determine the possible routes around you. That tension is elevated with beautiful visuals and sound design, winds buffet around you, the deep crevices sneak into you and the vertigo-inducing height of it all combine into a game that is unmistakably Dontnod. The visual identity with some slight flatness to its textures and the in-world diaries and items creating intriguing stories in the world are testament to this.
The only real questions that remain are how the game sustains that feeling over multiple hours, and how the game’s complexity can increase. The early mechanics do give you further climbing tools allowing you to create breaks on large surfaces. How the game elaborates further remains the mystery but the early signs are that Jusant is a winner.
Towerborne
This is not what I expected next from the Banner Saga devs.
Finally, another surprise in the Xbox booth was Towerborne, a game present at the summer Xbox Games Showcase. This action-adventure from Stoic (The Banner Saga) sees players taking on various worlds in a fantasy setting in co-op with differing classes. The demo provided an early co-op look at the opening murky woodland levels with a bipedal mushroom boss at the end.
Stoic has crafted a fantasy adventure with a classic feel, fun co-op, and various beat ‘em up style combos on the face buttons, and a good pace to the combat that almost evokes Xbox Live Arcade classics like Castle Crashers. Whilst it doesn’t have the signature humour of The Behemoth, Stoic has a clear understanding of weighty combat here, axes and maces having heft to them as you swing at enemies. All tied together with nice dodging mechanics and this could be a pleasant adventure that seems like it will fit excellently on Xbox Game Pass.
Patch Notes:
Microsoft introduced a new eight-strike system for poor behaviour, with eight strikes leading to a one-year ban from Xbox’s online features.
Tough times for BioWare as the company announced layoffs of about 50 employees. General Manager Gary McKay described the news as being part of the “long-term vision that will preserve the health of the studio”. The cuts also include senior writing staff Mary Kirby, writer on the first three Dragon Age games, and Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 lead writer Lukas Kristjanson.
The month also saw two prominent studio shutdowns. Firstly, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew studio Mimimi Games will be shutting down over the next few months following the release of the games two weeks before.
Following the collapse of the Embracer Group’s $2bn deal, the company announced the immediate closure of Volition Games, the 30-year-old company behind the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises. The closure was confirmed in a statement on LinkedIn.
Finally, the ongoing strikes in Film & TV are likely to spread to the gaming industry following trade union SAG-AFTRA’s unanimous decision to allow members to vote on a proposed strike that would expand the union’s collective action to gaming. The union represents numerous performers including stunt performers, actors, and others and the strikes will affect major AAA companies such as EA, Activision Blizzard, Disney, Insomniac Games, and more.
