* Now that I look, it was a year ago to this very day, in fact!
The Sinking City
Last year, I lamented that one of my favourite developers, Frogwares, had lost the contract to make the Call of Cthulhu official video game to Cyanide, allegedly due to lack of activity. But then in May, Frogwares announced The Sinking City: explicitly taking place in a Lovecraftian setting, it’s hard to believe that this can be anything other than the rejected version of Call of Cthulhu under a different name, especially since it comes out less than five months after the officially sanctioned release. Why the licence holders rejected Frogwares’ offering seems baffling, especially since previews of The Sinking City rate it slightly higher than Call of Cthulhu; but the upshot is, I get two Lovecraftian games from two of my favourite developers in the space of less than half a year, so I’m not going to complain too loudly. The Sinking City certainly seems more tapped into the zeitgeist than its legitimate sibling: a non-linear experience, with an open world and optional side-quests, it’s perhaps more what you might expect from a modern RPG than the heavily narrative-driven Call of Cthulhu. Otherwise the two games are, unsurprisingly, broadly similar: a private detective in 1920s Boston investigates cosmic-horror shenanigans at the cost of his own sanity. Just my cup of tea!
Release date: March 21st.
The Beast Inside
Kickstarter-funded The Beast Inside came onto my radar last March, when the demo became the subject of my now-favourite episode of Scary Game Squad. I’ve had mixed experiences in the past when playing indie horror games I discovered through YouTube videos, but I’m optimistic for this one. Even though it appears to contain some of the “hide-for-your-life” mechanics that I regard as the path of least resistance in indie horror titles these days, there seems to be a lot more going on. You only have to watch the trailer to realise that even the demo (which was very good) doesn’t do the game justice. The demo tells a familiar story: a man moves into his ancestral home only to learn that the land is cursed by bad blood, and the sins of the fathers are soon visited upon the son. The trailer, on the other hand, is bat-shit crazy! It reveals that the protagonist is not just moving to the countryside to start a family: he’s also a CIA cryptanalyst during the Cold War, and the fates of millions rest on his shoulders. It’s a busy concept, and I can’t wait to see how these plot tropes from completely different genres end up tying together.
Release date: Q1 2019 (a.k.a. January-March), according to the game’s Steam page.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
I rarely (if ever) buy a game the day it’s released, but Man of Medan might well tempt me. From the makers of Until Dawn and very much in the same mould, it’s amazing that I hadn’t pre-ordered it before the trailer had finished playing. Like its predecessor, Man of Medan sees a group of attractive young people (including “the guy from Quantum Break”) suddenly thrown into a perilous supernatural scenario, with the player making a series of choices to aid their survival. It’s not just a reskin of Until Dawn, though: the mechanics of Man of Medan are quite different. To begin with, the player is asked to declare themselves either a rational or emotional decision-maker, and every choice in the game explicitly follows those alignments, testing your sense of your own judgement and character. I queued up to play the demo multiple times at EGX, and it really was gripping. It’s not just a stand-alone, either: Man of Medan is a self-contained story, but it’s also the first game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, a planned episodic series of short horror games connected by a framing narrative, starring Pip Torrens from Preacher as the creepy “Curator” of the titular photo collection. Needless to say, I can barely contain my excitement.
Release date: Supermassive have so far shied away from providing anything more specific than “2019”. However, with the second episode in The Dark Pictures Anthology also supposedly due for release by the end of the year, first half feels like a reasonable guess. “Spring” seems to be the unofficial estimate.
Layers of Fear 2
When the makers of Layers of Fear and Observer revealed that their third horror game, originally given the working title Project Méliès, was in fact Layers of Fear 2, I was less than enthusiastic. I feared a rehash of the original game that would be high in technical quality but offer little new in terms of story, especially after the first game’s Inheritance DLC already approached the same concept from a different perspective. Fortunately, the first trailer looks amazing. It seems they’re going to keep the “tortured artist” concept as the series touchstone; but the “layers” of the title, originally punning on the layers of paint on the artist’s portrait, are becoming less literal. Layers of Fear 2, as the Méliès reference suggests, focuses on a different artistic medium: cinema and acting. Apparently set on a cruise ship with unmissable art deco vibes, the trailer was massively reminiscent of Fort Frolic and Sander Cohen from the BioShock games (a.k.a. “everyone’s favourite departure from the plot” - in both senses of the phrase). So far the “fear” element has been relatively absent from the promos, but with the series’ focus on tense storytelling rather than challenging gameplay, I trust I’ll be terrified from the moment I start playing.
Release date: Confirmed for 2019, but otherwise unspecified.
Cyberpunk 2077
My most ambitious inclusion on this list, Cyberpunk 2077 hasn’t actually been confirmed for a 2019 release. However, my Sherlock sense tells me that they’ll want to play on the original tabletop game Cyberpunk 2020’s titular setting, maybe by getting it out for the Christmas market leading up to that once-futuristic new year. Or maybe that’s just my optimism showing. Anyway, my penchant for video games based on tabletop RPGs is no secret - my death-defying love for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and ongoing enjoyment of last year’s Call of Cthulhu are both well documented. And with Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood (my original fifth choice for this list) officially delayed until 2020 due to last year’s production takeover by Cyanide (another one!), Cyberpunk 2077 is looking like my best chance for some RPG immersion in 2019. It’s also worth noting that I do genuinely love me some cyberpunk. In addition to its overall cool aesthetic, I’m looking forward to pushing the limits of body modification with my character: the gameplay previews already promise plenty of opportunities to remold yourself with technological implants; and with the rise of trans voices in the cyberpunk genre of late, I’m excited to see how far the devs decide to take gender customisation options, too.
Release date: Ha! Who knows? I predict September-November if there are no major delays in development, but that is 100% me trying to second-guess the devs.
The Sinking City
Last year, I lamented that one of my favourite developers, Frogwares, had lost the contract to make the Call of Cthulhu official video game to Cyanide, allegedly due to lack of activity. But then in May, Frogwares announced The Sinking City: explicitly taking place in a Lovecraftian setting, it’s hard to believe that this can be anything other than the rejected version of Call of Cthulhu under a different name, especially since it comes out less than five months after the officially sanctioned release. Why the licence holders rejected Frogwares’ offering seems baffling, especially since previews of The Sinking City rate it slightly higher than Call of Cthulhu; but the upshot is, I get two Lovecraftian games from two of my favourite developers in the space of less than half a year, so I’m not going to complain too loudly. The Sinking City certainly seems more tapped into the zeitgeist than its legitimate sibling: a non-linear experience, with an open world and optional side-quests, it’s perhaps more what you might expect from a modern RPG than the heavily narrative-driven Call of Cthulhu. Otherwise the two games are, unsurprisingly, broadly similar: a private detective in 1920s Boston investigates cosmic-horror shenanigans at the cost of his own sanity. Just my cup of tea!
Release date: March 21st.
The Beast Inside
Kickstarter-funded The Beast Inside came onto my radar last March, when the demo became the subject of my now-favourite episode of Scary Game Squad. I’ve had mixed experiences in the past when playing indie horror games I discovered through YouTube videos, but I’m optimistic for this one. Even though it appears to contain some of the “hide-for-your-life” mechanics that I regard as the path of least resistance in indie horror titles these days, there seems to be a lot more going on. You only have to watch the trailer to realise that even the demo (which was very good) doesn’t do the game justice. The demo tells a familiar story: a man moves into his ancestral home only to learn that the land is cursed by bad blood, and the sins of the fathers are soon visited upon the son. The trailer, on the other hand, is bat-shit crazy! It reveals that the protagonist is not just moving to the countryside to start a family: he’s also a CIA cryptanalyst during the Cold War, and the fates of millions rest on his shoulders. It’s a busy concept, and I can’t wait to see how these plot tropes from completely different genres end up tying together.
Release date: Q1 2019 (a.k.a. January-March), according to the game’s Steam page.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
I rarely (if ever) buy a game the day it’s released, but Man of Medan might well tempt me. From the makers of Until Dawn and very much in the same mould, it’s amazing that I hadn’t pre-ordered it before the trailer had finished playing. Like its predecessor, Man of Medan sees a group of attractive young people (including “the guy from Quantum Break”) suddenly thrown into a perilous supernatural scenario, with the player making a series of choices to aid their survival. It’s not just a reskin of Until Dawn, though: the mechanics of Man of Medan are quite different. To begin with, the player is asked to declare themselves either a rational or emotional decision-maker, and every choice in the game explicitly follows those alignments, testing your sense of your own judgement and character. I queued up to play the demo multiple times at EGX, and it really was gripping. It’s not just a stand-alone, either: Man of Medan is a self-contained story, but it’s also the first game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, a planned episodic series of short horror games connected by a framing narrative, starring Pip Torrens from Preacher as the creepy “Curator” of the titular photo collection. Needless to say, I can barely contain my excitement.
Release date: Supermassive have so far shied away from providing anything more specific than “2019”. However, with the second episode in The Dark Pictures Anthology also supposedly due for release by the end of the year, first half feels like a reasonable guess. “Spring” seems to be the unofficial estimate.
Layers of Fear 2
When the makers of Layers of Fear and Observer revealed that their third horror game, originally given the working title Project Méliès, was in fact Layers of Fear 2, I was less than enthusiastic. I feared a rehash of the original game that would be high in technical quality but offer little new in terms of story, especially after the first game’s Inheritance DLC already approached the same concept from a different perspective. Fortunately, the first trailer looks amazing. It seems they’re going to keep the “tortured artist” concept as the series touchstone; but the “layers” of the title, originally punning on the layers of paint on the artist’s portrait, are becoming less literal. Layers of Fear 2, as the Méliès reference suggests, focuses on a different artistic medium: cinema and acting. Apparently set on a cruise ship with unmissable art deco vibes, the trailer was massively reminiscent of Fort Frolic and Sander Cohen from the BioShock games (a.k.a. “everyone’s favourite departure from the plot” - in both senses of the phrase). So far the “fear” element has been relatively absent from the promos, but with the series’ focus on tense storytelling rather than challenging gameplay, I trust I’ll be terrified from the moment I start playing.
Release date: Confirmed for 2019, but otherwise unspecified.
Cyberpunk 2077
My most ambitious inclusion on this list, Cyberpunk 2077 hasn’t actually been confirmed for a 2019 release. However, my Sherlock sense tells me that they’ll want to play on the original tabletop game Cyberpunk 2020’s titular setting, maybe by getting it out for the Christmas market leading up to that once-futuristic new year. Or maybe that’s just my optimism showing. Anyway, my penchant for video games based on tabletop RPGs is no secret - my death-defying love for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and ongoing enjoyment of last year’s Call of Cthulhu are both well documented. And with Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood (my original fifth choice for this list) officially delayed until 2020 due to last year’s production takeover by Cyanide (another one!), Cyberpunk 2077 is looking like my best chance for some RPG immersion in 2019. It’s also worth noting that I do genuinely love me some cyberpunk. In addition to its overall cool aesthetic, I’m looking forward to pushing the limits of body modification with my character: the gameplay previews already promise plenty of opportunities to remold yourself with technological implants; and with the rise of trans voices in the cyberpunk genre of late, I’m excited to see how far the devs decide to take gender customisation options, too.
Release date: Ha! Who knows? I predict September-November if there are no major delays in development, but that is 100% me trying to second-guess the devs.
If it looks like I’m going to spend 2019 exclusively playing horror games until I lose my goddamn mind, fear not! There are plenty of other games on my radar that may well come out this year (though very few confirmed release dates as yet). Continuing the obsession with alternative dating sims I cultivated in 2018, Boyfriend Dungeon is high on my list of slightly more chilled games to pick up this year. Dreams (from the makers of LittleBigPlanet) and Sky (from the makers of Journey) both look incredibly relaxing. I’m also waiting for a few more episodes of Life is Strange 2 and The Walking Dead: The Final Season before I start catching up, which I’m longing to do to. There’s some awesome looking indie sci-fi on the horizon (Outer Wilds, not to be confused with upcoming Obsidian RPG Outer Worlds; Lifeless Planet sequel Lifeless Moon; and Journey to the Savage Planet), and in a rare turn of events I’m even eyeing some big-name offerings that are tackling the same genre (namely Death Stranding and Control). Ghosts of Tsushima looks like it will fill the gritty historical hole in my soul when I eventually finish Kingdom Come: Deliverance; while A Plague Tale: Innocence has an intriguing Hellblade vibe that I’m keen to learn more about. Meanwhile, every truly excellent year in gaming needs a Twin Peaks-inspired game and something that’s the spiritual successor to BioShock: to which I offer up Twin Mirror and Close to the Sun, respectively. It’s shaping up to be a crazy, busy, but hopefully very fun twelve months.
Awesome blog! I'm looking forward to pretty much all of these games. But my most anticipated game of 2019 is Heaven's Vault by Inkle studios! Scifi archaeology adventure, it's basically Daniel Jackson simulator 2019. Played it at EGX, loved it. I cannot wait!
ReplyDeleteYou should also check out a game I just found out about called In The Valley of the Gods. It's made by the people who did Firewatch, and I just saw it described as "more Heaven's Vault that Tomb Raider"! It's apparently due for release sometime this year.
ReplyDeletehttps://inthevalleyofgods.com/