Gamescom 2015 has proved itself to be almost as revelatory and exciting as the more popular and publicised E3, which took place earlier this year. Although many of the games showcased at Gamescom, held in Germany, were more detailed looks at games promised from E3, there were still a few surprises for viewers of the Xbox and Electronic Arts press briefings.
In this article, I will be focussing on the select games which caught my attention in particular, rather than mentioning every single announcement revealed at Gamescom 2015. I will also be setting aside the details on new console perhipherals, as well as their new cross-play, streaming and DVR functionalities, instead giving the spotlight to just the games. Now with that little disclaimer out of the way, let us take a look at my personal highlights of Gamescom 2015.
The biggest reveal to have come from the show is something that I have written about happening on this site for some time now. A game which was hinted at being in development almost two years ago by Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, when he said (via Twitter) that the company is looking to bring back the real-time strategy genre to console with an established IP. I am of course talking about Halo Wars 2.
This reveal is top of my list not just because it has been teased for some time now but because it means that Xbox hasn’t given up on the RTS genre on a console. The original Halo Wars is arguably the most successful marriage of that genre with a console, aided by its excellent, intuitive implementation of the Xbox 360 controller, over the more traditional mouse and keyboard on PC.
The original Halo Wars on Xbox 360 gave a new perspective on the Halo mythology.
Not only did the original Halo Wars show the industry that RTS doesn’t need to be restricted to PC gaming, but it also added a new layer to the Halo mythology, set twenty years before the events of the original Halo and telling us the story of how the Covenant invaded the human colony on the planet Harvest.
The game also boasted amazing cutscenes, beautifully created by Blur Studio, who would later help to recreate all the cutscenes from Halo 2 in the anniverary edition, as part of The Master Chief Collection.
Halo Wars 2 is being developed by Creative Assembly, the studio responsible for the popular Total War RTS franchise, as well as the excellently polished Alien: Isolation. The game is said to be headed to Xbox One and PC in fall 2016. Have a look at the announcement trailer below.
The second biggest reveal, also made during the Xbox press briefing, is a game that was announced formally at E3 2014, Crackdown 3. Viewers of the press briefing were given the first few glimpses of gameplay and solid details on the ambitious open world shooter.
The game is boasting a fully destructable environment, only made possible through Microsoft’s experimentation with cloud computing technology; making the Xbox One console twenty times more powerful that it currently is. Saying that the console will become that much more powerful is a bold statement but if it is true, then it will make the Xbox One the most powerful home console on the market, until Sony catches up and utlisises the same technology that Microsoft is experimenting with.
Video games are fast becoming the stuff of Michael Bay’s dreams.
Not only is the prospect of a fully destructible environment with robust physics something that I have always wanted in a video game, since getting mere teases of it in the later installments of the Battlefield and Red Faction franchises but it is also this game’s implications for the Xbox hardware that makes the Crackdown 3 reveal particularily significant.
If Xbox pulls this off, it could mean that the Xbox One’s life cycle will be significantly longer than any previous console, as unlocking the power of cloud computing could render the technicial limitations inside the device itself no longer an obstacle for developers and the consumer. It would also be a big step towards the totally disc-less video games industry, since all the computing power could be done outside of the console itself, making it simply a device to channel the gameplay being processed via an internet connection.
To get a better look and understanding of Crackdown 3 and Microsoft’s ambition, take a look at the gameplay reveal below.
Micorosoft also revealed some slightly less revelatory games, during its press briefing. After what seems like years of teasing and secrecy, we were finally given a cohesive and comperhensive look at Quantum Break and how it will combine a third-person shooter with a live-action TV show.
The recent closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, a division dedicated to original Xbox TV production, has seeminly had little impact on Quantum Break. It isn’t clear if the TV counter-part was originally meant to serve as a seperate entity, to be viewed outside of the video game but we now know that the show will be fed to the player as cutscenes, peppered between chapters in the game itself.
While Quantum Break, as a game, looks interesting from a gameplay standpoint, this recent reveal makes the title seem a little less ambitious than it was originally promised. And for this reason, it is worth a mention in this article, as it is an example of how underwhelming some of Xbox’s earlier promises can turn out to be in excecution; or at least its change in strategy, two years after the release of Xbox One.
Scalebound was teased over a year ago with a cinematic trailer, the gameplay debut at this year’s Gamescom acts as another example of how over-blown and overly teased games have become. Beside having a dragon to fight along side you, Scalebound does little to impress and warrent its premature hype. And its annoyingly scripted and voice acted protagonist is only more evidence of what promises to be an underwhelming and over marketed romp. This one gets mention because it is further evidence of the more cynical side of this year’s Gamescom.
ARK: Survival Evolved coming to Xbox One is proof of how Microsoft is embracing the indie devs and bringing them into the spotlight. Other showcased indies include PC city building favourite, Cities: Skylines and Thimbleweed Park, from Monkey Island creator, Ron Gilbert. ARK coming to Xbox One is of the more welcomed announcements at this year’s conference.
Moving away from the Xbox press briefing, we come to the games which featured heavily in Electronic Art’s own conference. First on the list is a game which, with every detail reveal only builds my skepticism, EA’s reboot of Need For Speed.
The second game to boast blending live-action cutscenes after Quantum Break, Need For Speed is ever shaping up to be a game which is a reboot for the series, only in its presentation and very little in its gameplay. Filling its live-action character roster with a bunch of petrol-headed, nitros-fueled criminals, there is little here for me to warm to as the series takes a spin away from the slightly more ambiguous alignment, towards the more sinister.
Yeah, having this guy talk to you after every race won’t get old at all.
Need For Speed has always worked best when you didn’t really occupy a speciffic character and gameplay was at the forefront, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit gets the balance right in this respect and stands as my most favourite in the series to date.
EA seems to be doing a great job at distancing the series from fun gameplay in favour of an edgier sheen and earning itself its own interpretation of streed cred, potentially alienating the community of gamers who loved the franchise in the first place. Need For Speed gets a mention for its obnoxious use of its own brand as a seal of quality, when everything we have seen at Gamescom proves to be evidence to the contrary. Oh, and it appears that the entire game is set at night, because… darker tone reboot.
Night time is definitely the best setting to appreciate the detail in this car… oh wait.
In the interest of balance, it is worth taking a look at the more favourable titles that were showcased during EA’s press briefing. First up, we have the highly anticipated, long teased prequel Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. The first-person free-running game features what appears to be an open world and a focus on traversal, momentum and hand-t0-hand combat over the less popular firearm segments from the original game.
EA gave viewers a lenghty gameplay demonstration, showing us that that can actually deliver on promises given over two years ago. The design of the game subtly suggests routes for the player to take, rather than making them overtly obvious, as is the case with many open world games. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst was a pleasant surprise, not because of its presence at the conference but because of how promising it looks. Have a gander for yourself, below.
Similarly delightful, was the presentation of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warefare 2. The original game is one that I have sank many happy hours into, so the gameplay reveal of its sequel definitely caught my attention. Flipping the script, having the plants be the invaders, rather than the zombies is a nice way to breathe fresh air into the franchise, but the innovations do not stop there.
The biggest problem with the original Garden Warefare was the fact that it was online multiplayer only, requiring an internet connection and online service subscription just in order to play. This time, EA has taken the community feedback and created a single player mode for the sequel, as well as allowing players to enjoy the game with couch co-op gameplay; something that this game in particular would benefit from.
As well as the addition of new playable characrers, a hub world and new game modes, EA has also been gracious enough to let the franchise use elements from its other famous franchises. Grass Effect is the new mash-up of Plants vs Zombies with the Mass Effect universe, giving players the chance to control Mass Effect themed mechs. Although it is only a minor cosmetic addition, it paves the way for further such franchise blends; giving the Garden Warefare series scope for growth.
Both Plants and Zombies now have their own playable heroes.
Despite my previously published gripes with the game, Star Wars: Battlefront also managed to curry a little excitement from myself at Gamescom. I still have no doubt that the game will be cut into tiny paid DLC shreads and pillaged of content to starve the consumer into paying additional funds beyond the initial £50/$70 price tag for the base game. Despite this, it is good to see that EA has some vision for how diverse its gameplay can become after launch, with the announcement of its Fighter Squadren mode.
While this mode is a clear reaction to the outcry of negative feedback from the community, at the reveal that the new game will not feature space battles (probably to be saved for paid DLC or to warrent the existance of a sequel), it is a welcome addition none the less.
The Star Wars: Battlefront series should always be bigger than simply being a land-based shooter and the addition of the mode is a sign of how the game will gradually evolve into a more complete experience, though be it comprised almost entirely of additional content, released after initial launch.
Did I mention that you can play as the Millennium Falcon? Well you can!
Gamescom 2015 was another mixed bag of surprises, pleasant and underwhelming, but on the whole the announcements have been positive. Gamescom is fast becomming every bit as relevant and exctiting as E3 and this year’s reveals is evidence of this. It would have been nice to have seen more first-party/ exclusive titles coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s platforms but what we got was still highly satisfying.