Gamescom 2023 highlights: 10 best upcoming games to wishlist now
The conference is over for another year. These are our ones to watch!
With the surprises of Opening Night Live, the exhaustion of three days of meetings, and the frustrations of one very delayed flight home all in the rearview mirror, it’s safe to say that RadioTimes.com’s trip to Gamescom 2023 is over.
One thing that will outlast our physical presence at the Cologne-based conference? Our excitement for a lot of the upcoming games that we saw, played and spoke about at the show. And the picture of our Gaming Editor posing with the Gamescom robot. That will last forever.
It was hard to pick just 10 highlights, but we had to draw the line somewhere! Read on, then, and we’ll tell you which 10 games really caught our attention for console and PC (plus a couple of honourable mentions on mobile).
Gamescom 2023 highlights: 10 best upcoming games we tried
Note: these games are listed in the order that we saw them, rather than being ranked by any other metric!
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd
What a way to start the show! Hellboy creator Mike Mignola was on-site with the developers to talk about Big Red’s latest foray into gaming. We’ve got an interview to share with you later (pray for my to-do list), but for now, we’ll just say that the art style is absolutely stunning.
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The gameplay we experienced was a little on the simple side, but it was the tutorial, and it looks like the combat gets a lot cooler later on. The developers also assured us that the game’s rogue-like elements do not make it too difficult for non-expert gamers to enjoy. Phew.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd launches 4th October. Wishlist now.
Undisputed
Boxing/gaming fans will already know that Undisputed has been out in beta form for a while now. We got the chance to see its upcoming Career Mode, which looks very cool.
You’ll be able to fight your way up from the amateur scene to the elite level, with a custom character of your own creation, picking your support team and fighting against the clock as your character ages in real-time (once you’ve hit your peak age, which is randomised for each fighter, your bouts won’t get any easier!). If you love boxing games, we feel like you might come back to this mode again and again.
Undisputed is available now in beta form. Buy now.
Hyenas
Last year, Sega’s sci-fi co-op shooter was only shown in a hands-off manner at Gamescom. This year, we got to try out Hyenas for ourselves! The concept is still quite a surprising one, with quirky characters fighting over retro merch in futuristic spaceships, and the gameplay was quite fun.
A new beta is coming soon, and we also have an interview to share (there's one clip above and you can see another one here). One playable character wears a DIY Sonic costume into battle, which really caught our eye. We can’t wait to see cosplayers take that on!
The new Hyenas beta opens on 31st August. Request access.
Payday 3
Payday 3 is well worth checking out, we'd say, even if you haven’t played the previous ones. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a co-op heist game, where you’ll team up with pals to try to rob banks and the like.
When things go wrong (as they did in our demo session), they go really wrong, with never-ending police squads descending on your location with lethal force. A challenging one, but with room for fun and laughter, this game really caught our eye. Interview coming soon!
Payday 3 launches 21st September. Pre-order now.
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Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2
No Warhammer knowledge? No problem! The long-awaited Space Marine 2 game has plenty of fan service planned for returning players, but it also works really well as a standalone action game.
The demo thrust us straight into an epic battle, where our heavily-armoured character had to work with AI companions to fight off visually-stunning hordes of violent alien enemies. Whether or not you understand the lore behind it all, shooting and slashing through swathes of slimy creatures is fun, pure and simple.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is expected winter 2023. Pre-order now.
Mortal Kombat 1
Just when you thought the fatalities couldn’t get any more bloody and brilliant, they do! With the newest trailer having earned gasps and applause at Opening Night Live, we were excited to try out the game later in the week.
We played the first chapter of the Mortal Kombat 1 story mode (which blends a down-to-Earth tone with the wackier elements of the franchise really well), and the Invasions mode (which features some light relief and lots of extra fights away from the main action). Mastering each character’s move set is still a challenge, but the rewards can be great. Interview to follow!
Mortal Kombat 1 launches 14th September. Pre-order now.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Definitely our pleasant surprise of the week, this survival crafting game should be on every Lord of the Rings fan’s radar. After all, Return to Moria is the first licensed product to be set in the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth, making it a sequel to the original trilogy of Frodo-starring books and films.
Taking inspiration from a line in which Profession Tolkien stated that Gimli and the dwarves would eventually retake their homeland, the game has you fighting through caverns, building bases, drinking ales, singing songs and generally living your best dwarf life. And they’ve even got John Rhys-Davies back in the role of Gimli! Watch out for our developer interview soon.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria launches 24th October. Wishlist now.
Total War Pharaoh
The Total War Pharaoh demo was also a pleasant surprise, and we were particularly impressed with how the developers have blended historical accuracy (real names, places and details) with some creative licence to let you have as good a time as possible.
For example, even though the pyramids had all been built by this point in history, the developers do allow you to build your own pyramids if you so wish. There is also an impressive amount of colour, making this far from the beige battles you might have been picturing. Interview coming soon.
Total War Pharaoh launches this October. Pre-order now.
Sonic Superstars
This is one that we had been really looking forward to, and it didn’t disappoint! With all the frantic speed and imaginative levels that you’d want from a 2D Sonic game, Sonic Superstars feels like the proper new entry that fans have been waiting for.
We played the co-op mode with one other player, and it was fun to see how the game would adapt to either of us dying or falling behind. Basically, the game will follow whichever player is furthest forward through the level, but your slower friends will always get a chance to pop back up (except in boss battles). There were so many little twists to the gameplay, too, with mini games and power-ups being generously delivered throughout.
Sonic Superstars launches 17th October. Pre-order now.
RoboCop: Rogue City
Just as the event was coming to an end, with people saying goodbye and packing up their areas, we managed to squeeze in one final demo, and it was one of our favourites!
Set in between the second and third Robocop films, Rogue City is a first-person shooter where you play as a tank-like hero, unravelling a criminal conspiracy and shooting up baddies as you go. The gameplay was bloody and really fun, and to top it all off, Peter Weller reprises the iconic title role!
RoboCop: Rogue City launches 2nd November. Pre-order now.
Honourable mentions on mobile
Away from the usual console and PC fare, there were a couple of very different mobile games that really stood out at the show.
Assassin’s Creed Jade tries its very best to fit an authentic AC experience onto mobile, with some impressive visuals and lots of familiar elements. The gameplay is a bit basic, but it’ll do very nicely on the go. You can sign up for more info here.
Monster Hunter Now takes a totally different approach, with Niantic taking lessons from Pokémon Go to adapt another popular franchise to mobile. You’ll hunt for monsters in the real world, team up with friends and make tactical choices in this simplified entry point to the franchise. You can pre-register your interest now.
Stay tuned to RadioTimes.com in the coming days, weeks and months as we work through our Gamescom interviews and deliver deeper impressions for a lot of these games!
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