11 Things You Should Care About from the Future Games Show: Spring Showcase

When E3 shut down along with everything else in 2020, multiple organizations stepped in to fill the void and satisfy our press conference addiction. One of these that has since become a regular is the Future Games Show. Their presentations tend to be overly long with few big announcements BUT ultimately worth it because they always have at least a few strange things you’d never hear about otherwise. Fortunately, whoever plans these has the sense to hire hosts that have enough charisma to carry most of their bits (today’s event was hosted by international sweethearts Ben Starr and Samantha Beart). 

I could have attempted to write something interesting about every one of the 40-50 games shown but I do my best to respect my readers’ time and I understand that most people can only skim “it looks fine” so many times before their brain shuts off. Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Star Wars Outlaws are still impressive. I enjoyed my time with Tchia but it was so buggy at launch it was barely playable (New Caledonia has great geckos, though). I reserved the spots on this write up for either brand new things or, at the very least, new footage of old things. 

These are the 11 titles shown that interested me the most. You may notice a spooky through line as you make your way down the list but that should hardly be a surprise to anyone who knows my taste. 

Zoochosis

If you haven’t heard of this, I won’t spoil the concept. Go watch the trailer. It’s the one with the giraffe in the thumbnail. 

Do you like John Carpenter’s The Thing? Do you enjoy that uncanny, sinking feeling of seeing recognizable features not quite where they’re supposed to be? The creature designs and animations are spectacular but I’m not sure how this plays, yet. If it leans into the investigation aspect, it could be one of the more unique horror experiences we’ve had in years. I just want it to be more than a jump scare generator. Either way, this is going to be huge in the react community. 

The Constructors

I don’t play many building sims (I’m 95% on console and this is a genre that notoriously hates controllers). I’ve definitely never played one that allowed me to manipulate designs all the way down to the blueprint. 

My interest is entirely tied to how extensive the customization will be in the final product. We might be restricted to a single neighborhood, but I wouldn’t mind too much if I can control everything from pouring the foundation to interior decorating. 

Tenebris Somnia

This was my favorite surprise of the show. It blends the aesthetics of an NES adventure game with live action horror cinematics. The behind the scenes clips put some awesome practical effects front and center. I hope they find ways to push the dissonance between the two visual styles in the final release to their limit. 

As a side note, Andres Borghi worked on When Evil Lurks, one of the best and nastiest horror movies I saw last year. We’re in good hands–or claws. 

Omega Crafter

Under normal circumstances, I’d be cynical about Omega Crafter (have we reached our crafting/farming/survival game quota yet?) but the gimmick here allows players to use the Scratch programming language to assign tasks to their helper droids. Scratch works by slotting together variables and functions like a colorful jigsaw puzzle. I’m not sure exactly who this would be a selling point for (you can play around with Scratch for free in your browser if you’re interested in learning to code), but it caught and held my attention.

Wait, am I the target audience?

No Rest for the Wicked

A brutal, top down, action RPG from the Ori studio. Imagine if Dark Souls had more pirates. It received extensive coverage last month and early impressions hint that it could be a GOTY contender in what has already been a prolific year. 

It enters Early Access on April 18th. I can’t wait.  

Holstin

I’m very familiar with Holstin but I think the first-person forest driving in this trailer is new. The atmosphere is thick–peeking through cracks in the windshield, looking for the things lurking just beyond the headlights. 

Keep moving and shooting or get consumed by fungus is a winning formula. I can tell they’ve taken inspiration from the right places in the way inventory items spiral towards the screen. The devs have said that it will be released when it’s finished and they should absolutely take their time. This could be something special. 

Hauntii

I love ghosts of all shapes and sizes. I’ve been following this one for a while on Twitter and we finally have a release date of May 23rd (two days after Hellblade 2 and one day before Furiosa for those that keep track of that sort of thing). I’d describe the style (inadequately) as sketchy glow chalk. Look up a trailer so you can see it in motion, screenshots don’t do it justice. I’d be okay with simply walking (floating?) through this world and meeting its characters. 

Blockbuster Inc. 

I spent a chunk of my freshman year in college with an old Lionhead title called The Movies (it probably holds the record for the most hours I’ve ever spent in this style of game). Blockbuster Inc. appears to be a spiritual successor to that game in every way  (not only are you in charge of shooting the films, but also designing your studio, cultivating talent, etc.). I’m so ready…

…but if I don’t have the ability to make cinematic masterpieces and then immediately shelve them for a tax writeoff this is going to feel awfully unrealistic in 2024. 

Blue Prince

Is 2024 the year of blueprints? 

The player is tasked with solving puzzles and progressing through a mysterious mansion by altering its floor plan. The cel shaded graphics look nice and the voice-over here manages to be dramatic but not cheesy. I’m intrigued. 

Plus my sister and I both shouted “ohhhhh” as the title was revealed and the pun hit. That’s worth something. 

Someone make a new Eternal Darkness, please. 

Worshippers of Cthulhu

One part city builder, one part cult management sim, one part tentacles. 

Most people feel like the Lovecraftian mythos are overplayed at this point (I don’t necessarily disagree with that), but I love cosmic horror and this could be a new setting to engage with some old ideas (older than death). 

I don’t think Cult of the Lamb or The Shrouded Isle count. 

Tails of Iron II: Whiskers of Winter

I wasn’t expecting this. 

The trailer is intense and wonderfully bleak (it doesn’t hurt that Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt of Rivia, practically purrs the narration). I haven’t played the original but it’s supposed to be good. Dark fantasy done well outside of the soulslike genre is not as common as you’d expect it to be. 

Give me more things with fairy tale framing. 

Give me all the rats. 

Demos for many of the titles are available on Steam if you’re feeling impatient. Now that we’ve weathered the early storm of 100 hour games (literally three of the year’s biggest titles are launching on March 22nd) it’s time to get cozy with some indies. After a feast of RPGs, hopefully you left enough room for gaming dessert.