Gamescom had a helluva lot of great games this year, even with a lot of blockbuster developers and publishers taking a year off. As the first major in-person event since the pandemic began, I was also particularly keen to absorb everything I could at the event. TheGamer sent four editors and we were busy soaking up games and talking to devs throughout the entire show, meaning we saw a lot of cool things that we might have missed if we had a smaller presence. However, it also means there are too many damn games to cover. Too many I say. Let's stop all games until we can figure out what's going on. Below you'll find a bunch of games I saw at Gamescom that I might not be able to write full previews of, but want to make sure everyone checks out.
Railway Empire 2
First we have a game that is both the most chilled and the most stressful game I saw all weekend. Railway Empire 2 asks you to become the number one railway magnate in either the UK, the USA, or all of Europe. To do this you'll need to choose which towns and cities to connect with railways, and then buy out businesses. For example, if you have a town with a distillery and a town with a penchant for alcohol, it serves you to connect those two towns, and possibly buy out the distillery yourself.
What's more, if the alcohol town makes leather and the distillery town has a cobbler, you can make the trip twice as useful by shipping goods back and forth - and don't forget to add a few guest carts to pick up passengers. This time around, the track direction system has been automated, and more personality has been injected into each of your competitors. Mostly, I liked that you could just ride alongside your train and watch the frontier of the US unfold endlessly in front of you. Time to get rich off trains, shoes, and booze. The true conductor’s dream.
Dungeons 4
Obviously I'm not the best judge of Dungeons 4, having missed out on the previous 3, but from what I've seen it appears to be a nice fun romp through a comedy-styled dungeon with creative building techniques and some fascinating designs. For fans of the series, there have been additions to how the traps work and more options for co-op.
Tortuga: A Pirate's Tale
I saw a few RTS games at Gamescomꦓ, and while Tortuga got a lit💜tle too bogged down in slow combat for its own good, the pirate themes gave it a little bit of an edge. I especially liked that you could elect to simply intimidate your opponent to preserve your ship and gather the loot they threw overboard, which added a nice element of strategy. A decent entry in the genre with some interesting artwork.
Teslagrad 2
Teslagrad 2 instantly reminded me of Rayman: Legends, which in turn instantly made me want to play it. The metroidvania sees you harness the powers of electricity and magnetic fields to explore freely, discovering new routes and finding new secrets. It seemed charming and whimsical in its approach, yet difficult enough to keep your interest without pushing you away. You don't die in Teslagrad, you only restart from your current screen, giving it a Celeste-style forgiving nature even as it pushes you to think and act quickly. The only downside was the combat, which while rare, seemed repetitive and a fairly reductive and waste of the character's powers. Still, one of the titles from Gamescom I'll be firmly keeping my eye on.
Afterimage
I saw metroidvania Afterimage in the same preview I saw Teslagrad 2, and I think I'm more likely to play Teslagrad 2, but I was more impressed with Afterimage, so bear with me. The painterly art style was reminiscent of Child of Light and several aesthetically charged JRPGs, but still managed to stand on its own. It features 150 unique enemy designs, all hand-drawn, and it all looks positively gorgeous. My issue is it seems too interested in combat, using exploration as a tool to find new things to kill rather than for discovery, which is why Teslagrad 2 has the edge for me.
Kukoos: Lost Pets
I'm not entirely sure what to make of Kukoos. A platformer in the vein of Spyro or Yooka-Laylee, more concerned with collecting over progression, I think I'd have a decent time with it. That said, it's not a universally popular genre these days, and the game didn't sparkle. A co-op mode is a nice touch, but the boss battle seemed overly complex. I imagine I'd have a decent enough time with this one, all things considered, but it left me wanting a little more.
Superfuse
Superfuse was an interesting Diablo style dun🅠geon crawler with a decent range of weapons. Only two of the final four characters were available in the preview, but the two I saw seemed like fairly strong iterations of tried and tested tropes made into superhero trappings. Another one I expect to find a home with fans of its genre, but not challenge those at the top of the ARPG tree.
Mr. Sun's Hatbox
Mr Sun's Hatbox was one of the funniest games at Gamescom, but the difficulty of the game meant the joke got a little old. You play as a delivery man trying to reclaim a stolen hatbox from the mob, and in doing so build a secret underground lair. This makes it part base builder, while the actual gameplay levels are vertical platformers. Your soldiers have various abilities, such as shitting themselves when attacked or surviving getting hit in the face when their gun bounces off the wall. It was charmingly simplistic and I could see getting into it, but it was way less forgiving than I'd expect a game this silly to be.
Ad Finitum
Ad Finitum is the game I most regret not getting a hands-on for. Due to scheduling conflicts I couldn't slot it in, but the presentation made me interested and wary in equal measure. It's a psychological horror about a WW1 veteran with PTSD, which could offer a compelling and moving experience or could easily be cheap shock value. The devs spoke with authority about wanting to show the endless cycle of war and its impact on the innocents, but also talked up the horror elements and showed off a terrifying skull monster stuffed with teeth to highlight the plight of the hungry. I've got my eye on it, but I haven't made up my mind.
Do Not Feed The Monkeys 2099
I said Mr. Sun's Hatbox was the funniest game at Gamescom, but Do Not Feed The Monkeys 2099 runs it close. A sequel to Do Not Feed The Monkeys, it's a game where you watch people on hidden cameras with one rule - do not interfere. Of course, you can interfere if you wish, but that concludes that story early. In my preview, I saw a famous pop star being hypnotised and mocked by her therapist, and could sell the recording to a TMZ-style site in order to make money; you also need to pay for resources and food throughout the game. It's a basic idea executed extremely well, and I'm looking forward to checking out the full game when it launches next year.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos saw me take control of the ugliest character across all of Gamescom, but I think I sort of liked it. An over the shoulder action exploration game a little like the early God of Wars, it had some interesting gimmicks, like being able to play the whole thing in a pencil shaded filter. Vaguely open world but without the modern day baggage that comes with, the game mostly sees you beating up enemies in hack and slash combat, with the cool feature of having a bonus power up that tak🥂es you into first person punching mode in tribute to the original Clash game.