August is always an exciting time of the year, because we get to see all of the new hardware and gaming titles on offer at Gamescom. We’ve been keeping our eyes out for any new releases, and boy are there a mass of them. Here are all of the major titles that have been announced in Cologne, Germany, at Gamescom 2023.
Little Nightmares III
The Little Nightmares franchise (developed by Tarsier Studios) has you play small humanoid characters that have to traverse through a terrifying and darkened world filled with monstrous creatures and enemies that are looking to keep you from reaching your destination. The first game takes place on a huge ship, where you have to solve various puzzles and find your way to the masked lady at the start of the game.
The second title places you in an urban environment where you need to make your way to The Tower, and escape from the Tall Man. Needless to say, these games have been an absolute hit in the Horror/Thriller community and have achieved great success. The third game looks to push the boundaries even further with a fully-fledged Co-Op experience, where you make your way through a ruined world, solve daring puzzles, and escape a number of different enemies. As a fan of the previous two games, I’m personally very excited for when this title officially releases in 2024.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Phantom Liberty is CD Projekt Red‘s new DLC for their not-so hit title, Cyberpunk 2077. This new expansion brings an entirely new story into the fray, with a mass of new guns, skills, combat mechanics and more. This DLC does look pretty good, and I’m excited to see what the new story entails versus the base storyline.
CDPR has also announced a number of massive patches and overhauls to the core mechanics of the base game. I really hope that this makes the game more playable, as many consumers with low-end hardware are still facing big performance issues and bugs. But I imagine based on the amount of time that they’ve had to fix the game, this overhaul should be solid.
Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong was announced back in 2020, and consumers were absolutely blown away by the awesome graphics and gameplay mechanics of this title. Wukong is a Souls-Like title, with gameplay that looks similar to titles like Nioh, where you have to strategise your combat and utilise specific stances and weapons to harm enemies.
Users at Gamescom this year were able to play a demo for 45 minutes, allowing you to experience some of the core attributes and smooth gameplay of this title. This game is scheduled to release in the summer of 2024, and we’re all excited to see how it performs with the newest Unreal 5 engine.
Dustborn
During Opening Night Live, we saw a teaser trailer for Quantic Dream’s new title Dustborn. Quantic Dream are known for their narrative-driven story games, such as Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human. Although the first two games haven’t been received particularly well, Detroit: Become Human was a hit, and an extremely popular title.
Dustborn looks to be taking a slightly different approach to gameplay, with more of a focus on action, as opposed to just narrative with some quick-time-events (QTEs). This game places you in an alternate version of America, where you travel across the country, build up your crew, and follow a story about “hope, love, friendship, robots… and the power of words”. I’m excited to see this game, as Quantic Dream are clearly trying something out of their usual wheelhouse, which could be pretty promising for their future titles, like Star Wars Eclipse.
Killing Floor 3
One of final games that we saw at the Opening Night, was a brand new Killing Floor title. The Killing Floor franchise has been a popular mainstay for quite some time, allowing you to obliterate your enemies with a number of guns and melee weapons. Although this particular title didn’t offer any gameplay, we’re excited to see how bloody the new release is.
