I have to say, the Xbox Partner Preview defied my expectations. Showcases like these are typically dense with AAA promises destined to either disappoint or underwhelm. The show Xbox staged last night was almost the opposite. Packed full of smaller, weirder titles happy to play genre mashups, my general feeling is: ‘Yes. Good.’
Unknown 9: Awakening looks like big swing at Assassin’s Creed with Control powers on a bit of a budget. Even if many of the mechanics are familiar, the south-east Asian setting gives it a lot of character. The play here is definitely of the ‘two great tastes that taste great together’ variety, which means it runs the risk of feeling derivative, but there’s a spark here too. I am basing this on nothing more than the vibes alone, but it feels like it’s got the juice.
Sleight of Hand is an interesting pitch, and another case of genre mash up. I will always show up for hard boiled noir, and I will always show up for a stealth game. Combine the two, and baby, you’ve got a stew goin‘. What Sleight of Hand actually is is a third-person stealth game about infiltrating your former witch coven with a cursed set of cards, which is a great set up. This was, of course, just a tonal teaser, all CG and no gameplay. I look forward to getting a closer look at this when the team is ready to formally pull the sheet off.
The Alters was maybe my favourite genre mashup of the night. A sci-fi blend of The Martian, Returnal and Fallout Shelter, it’s a game about an astronaut stranded on a strange world alone. He has control of a large facility he can use to build a home, call for help and wait for rescue, but he doesn’t have the skills to operate it all by himself. Using a new substance found on-world, he begins to pluck alternate versions of himself out of the branching timelines of his life. Each Alter is the product of a life path not taken. Some became scientists, botanists, writers, criminals. How will you take these skillsets and put them to work? The game of the showcase for me.
Creatures of Ava looks like Monster Hunter for people who want to adopt every animal as a pet, and for that alone, it gets the big tick of approval.
The Sinking City 2 — I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to ever see this game get a sequel. The original was an odd duck, a mis-shapen thing that really tried to do something interesting with Lovecraftian storytelling. Developer Frogwares has been through the wringer over licensing and ownership issues over the last few years, but seeing this pop up was restorative. A big win for people who make and love smaller, weird games.
Monster Jam Showdown isn’t the kind of racing game that gets a look-in at showcases like this, partly because it feels so incredibly niche. Monster truck racing? American problem, don’t want to know. But it’s a small, weird game, and I’m happy to see it included here.
The First Berzerker: Khazan looks like Anime Dark Souls, and that alone will be enough to sell it for some. Here’s why this one is weird: a big part of the Souls games’ appeal is that they’re stood on From’s unique approach to art and character design. Here, we have a game that says make the environments look Souls-y, but the characters? This one’s for the weebs. We’ll see how it pays off for ’em.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is another game that’s taken inspiration from a clear genre favourite, the Metroid style adventure game. But like Unknown 9: Awakening, it seems to have found the juice in culture. In a year where Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown kind of blew everyone away, it will have a hill to climb, to be sure. Nevertheless, it’s cool to see new studios bringing fresh perspectives and settings to older genres like this.
As industry-wide layoffs have continued to decimate the industry this year, there’s been a lot said about the things that need to change. First up is addressing the problem of scale. AAA budgets have ballooned out of control and it has pushed studios into making more and more sprawling games in hopes of soaking up player time and nudging them toward paying for microtransactions. Here, we see a stack of games that are going the other way. Smaller-scale games with smaller budgets, but quite a few with ideas outside of what has traditionally been considered a sure-fire hit. Even the ones that are apeing successful formulas are bringing something of their own to the table. That’s to be admired.
I’ve wondered if this isn’t the next phase of the Great Realignment we see happening in the industry at present. Are we about to make an abrupt return to the kind of smaller, odder games that defined systems like the PS2 and OG Xbox? Games that didn’t have to appeal to everyone and sell 25 million copies to break even?
People will moan, I’m sure. People have been conditioned to expect huge announcements from every single trailer parade like this. But maybe we don’t need huge announcements and blockbuster IPs in every single showcase? Maybe just being interesting is enough? A wild concept, I know, but go with me on that one.
After a long month of bad press and putting their foot in it, last night’s Partner Preview was, to me, the win Xbox was looking for. Good gear.
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