Gamescom 2023 was awesome – with these exceptions

Domagoj Belancic

26.8.2023

Translation: Veronica Bielawski

Gamescom has been and gone. We played through numerous demos and fell in love with many new games. Unfortunately, there were also some letdowns.

We got to play some outstanding games at the largest game fair in the world. You can read all about that here:

But not all the games we played have ended up on our wishlists. In addition to all the gems, we did also encounter some disappointments. What’s more, some of the titles we were looking forward to were nowhere to be found. And there were a few other things that annoyed us, too.

These are our lowlights and letdowns of Gamescom 2023.

Nintendo passes on new Mario Games

Nintendo suspended the first post-Covid Gamescom last year. This year, the Switch manufacturer returned with a huge booth. It looked imposing, but proved disappointing overall. This is mainly due to the glaring lack of games featuring everyone’s favourite Italian plumber.

The first game missing was Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The title was announced back in June at Nintendo Direct – and I was immediately enamoured with the new 2D Mario. With its crazy items, the game looks like a colourful mushroom trip. Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released on 20 October. Gamescom would have been the perfect opportunity to give fans a little taste of Mario’s new adventure.

A remake of the classic Super Mario RPG was also announced at the Nintendo Direct. This new edition has been completely revised and looks impressive with its cute 3D look. The remake will be released on 17 November. There’s no trace of this game at Gamescom either.

So what was there at the Nintendo booth? A whopping twelve stations where you could try playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and just as many for Pikmin 4 – both Switch games that have been out for a long time and have already sold millions of copies. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great games. But Nintendo’s focus on older games instead of upcoming blockbusters feels like a missed opportunity. Mamma mia!

Fortunately, this hasn’t dampened my excitement for the new Mario games. And at least there were still a few new games to appreciate at the Nintendo booth, such as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Hyenas is only mediocre

Admittedly, I was very sceptical about the multiplayer shooter even before my appointment to try out Hyenas. Why, you ask? Because the game is being developed by Creative Assembly, the development studio that’s otherwise known for strategy games, such as Total War, or for the brilliant single-player horror game Alien: Isolation. My question is why is such a studio suddenly developing a free-to-play shooter? I somehow can’t shake the feeling that it’s not doing so entirely voluntarily.

The half-hour demo at Gamescom confirmed my scepticism, leaving me mostly cold. Hyenas is an extraction shooter. This means four teams of three fight against each other on a large map. The goal is to collect as much treasure as possible and escape from the map with as much loot as possible at the end of the round. In the process, computer-controlled opponents also try to hinder the teams. So far, so extraction shooter.

What’s special about the game? You play certain parts of the map in zero gravity. These parts are really cool and add variety to the shooter gameplay. But they weren’t enough for the demo to win me over. The shootouts are solid, but also generic. The special powers of the individual characters are also unspectacular. In terms of graphics, the entire thing looks dull and lacks detail at times. For the life of me, I can’t imagine this game will prevail in the highly competitive free-to-play market against the seasoned shooter giants.

Publisher Sega doesn’t seem entirely convinced by Hyenas either. In an investor meeting, Sega described the game’s development as «challenging», continuing to say, «We are striving to improve its quality towards the release on the front line of development.»

From 31 August, you can test out the quality of the title for yourself – that’s when the closed PC beta is launching. You can sign up for it on Steam.

Sony, where are you?

Sony is also conspicuously absent at Gamescom this year. The fact that the PlayStation manufacturer had no booth came as no big surprise. The Japanese company has largely withdrawn from gaming trade fairs in recent years. It’s a shame, too – especially because Sony would have had something to show this year.

First, there’s the new PlayStation Portal handheld that allows you to stream your PS5 games via Wi-Fi. Sony recently announced the official name of the device (known as Project Q until now) as well as the price. If the rumours are to be believed, it’ll be released this year. I would have loved to get a first impression of this strange piece of hardware at Gamescom.

Editor Martin has summarised what we know about the PlayStation Portal here:

It also would have been perfect timing for a demo of Spider-Man 2. The Marvel blockbuster will be released exclusively for the PS5 on 20 October. A playable demo would have made the game one of the absolute highlights of the fair. I sincerely hope that Sony will change its current strategy in the near future and start participating in fairs again.

Hellboy: Web of Wyrd – great looks, not-so-great gameplay

It hurts me to write these lines. It really does. This is partly because of the ultra-motivated developer who guided me through the demo of the new Hellboy title at Gamescom. I could feel his enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the game at all.

Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is a roguelike brawler set in the Hellboy universe. You take on the role of the eponymous half-demon and fight your way through huge hordes of enemies in procedurally generated levels. Unfortunately, the gameplay didn’t capture me at all.

The controls in Hellboy feel extremely sluggish. According to the developer, this is deliberate to an extent. But at times I feel like there’s a noticeable delay to my inputs being registered – dodging, slamming and shooting the enemy is no fun like that. The POV is also annoying. It has me so close to the game character that I often lose my bearings. Every now and then, it goes completely nuts and gets stuck between Hellboy and a wall.

What you have to give the game credit for: it looks hella good. It feels like flipping through a comic book. The strong cel-shading effect is complemented by an animation system reminiscent of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Hellboy is animated with fewer frames, making him look even more like a comic book character coming to life. He also sounds fantastic, voiced by the recently deceased Lance Reddick. This was one of the last roles Reddick took on before his death.

If you want to get a taste of the comic adventure for yourself, you can do so starting on 4 October – the game will then be released for PC and all current consoles.

Stage-stormers at Opening Night Live – not funny

In the run-up to Gamescom, Opening Night Live takes place – a two-hour stage show hosted by industry guru Geoff Keighley. Like every year, a lot of trailers for new games were presented in 2023. Editor Kevin summarised the highlights of the show here:

This year’s event was disrupted by two stage invaders who stormed the stage, proclaiming that Bill Clinton wants to play GTA 6. This seems to be a reference to the guy who interrupted the 2022 Game Awards during the presentation of the Game of the Year – he got up on stage and nominated Bill Clinton for an award. For whatever reason. Then again, let’s be honest. The reason is clear in at least some of the cases. One of the Opening Night Live crashers had a T-shirt displaying YouTube and TikTok accounts for people to follow. It comes down to internet fame and followers.

I find stunts like these extremely annoying. Let the developers have their stage. They’ve worked hard on these games and deserve to be in the spotlight. Idiotic «pranks» from even more idiotic TikTokers have no place here.

The fact that such moves are even possible to begin with is questionable. In a world where developers receive death threats from supposed «fans», it shouldn’t be possible for the stage to be stormed so easily.

Sand Land – the demo that did the game no favours

I loved anime and manga as a little boy. As I grew older, my interest in the art form waned. There are some manga I used to devour as a child that I haven’t touched since. Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land is one of them. When a new game from the Sand Land universe was announced at Summer Game Fest in June, I was overcome with a wonderfully nostalgic feeling. And when my colleague Kevin named the game as one of his Summer Game Fest highlights, my nostalgia evolved into a genuine interest.

At Bandai Namco’s press event, I had the opportunity to play a short demo – emphasis on «short». Any interest I’d built up in the weeks since the announcement collapsed within minutes.

In the demo, I take on the role of the pink prince Beelzebub. The gameplay excerpt starts with an ultra-boring and never-ending car chase in which our jeep is being chased by a huge sand worm. No matter how horrendous my driving, the worm just can’t catch us. «Am I doing something wrong?» I wonder. When will the car chase be over? I’m confused.

Suddenly, the chase ends. Though I couldn’t tell you why that is. This is followed by a short section where I can freely explore part of the desert. I decide to steal myself a stray tank. I jet around in it, shooting down enemies. Teehee, fun! But it doesn’t look all that great, despite being developed in Unreal Engine 5... My exploration is abruptly interrupted by a cutscene. In the cutscene, I’m suddenly back in the jeep from the beginning of the demo. But I was just in my stolen tank a second ago! I’m confused. Again.

Some villains challenge me to a fight in the cutscene. The animations seem buggy. The scoundrels’ voices don’t really match their lip movements. A combat sequence follows, in which I can briefly try out the combat system. Before I know it, the demo interrupts me. The end. I’m confused. Yet again.

Yeah, yeah, I know – it’s a demo. It’s allowed to be unfinished and have bugs. But this one really didn’t leave a good first impression. A trailer would definitely have been the better option. And here I was, thinking I could rekindle my love for manga and anime with the Sand Land game. What a shame. Sorry, Kev. I’m not sure if they can still turn this one around.

Starfield – a film presentation only

In the run-up to Gamescom, Microsoft already announced that Bethesda’s sci-fi epic wouldn’t be playable at the fair. Instead, there would be gameplay demonstrations in a small cinema room at the Xbox booth. I don’t find this decision tragic in and of itself. But I read so many comments from fans in the run-up to Gamescom who were extremely disappointed about the lack of a playable demo. The fact is the anticipation is at its highest just before the game’s launch.

Some fans didn’t get the memo that Starfield wouldn’t be playable; standing in line for the Black Myth: Wukong demo, I talked to visitors who asked me if I’d played the Starfield demo yet. When I informed them the game wasn’t playable, the disappointment on their faces was clear. It was as if they’d just found out that Santa wasn’t real.

Mind you, I thought the Xbox booth was sensational overall – it even made it into my Gamescom highlights. But a proper Starfield demo would have made the booth truly legendary and earned it an entry into the books of gaming history.

By the way, Phil is currently thoroughly testing the open-world hit. His game review should be available in our magazine on 31 August.

What were your highlights and lowlights of Gamescom?

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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