Game news System Shock, Outcast 2, Deliver us Mars… 6 sci-fi games to remember
Genre overrepresented at Gamescom 2022, sci-fi is clearly back in force. Here are 6 games featured at the show that caught our attention.
In addition to horror, science fiction was the big trend at Gamescom 2022. Whether in the stars, on earth or under water, there was anticipation at Europe’s largest video game fair and we saw many interesting games on this topic. Here’s a selection of the six SF flavored games that caught our attention the most.
The remake of the first System Shock from 1994, which has been in development for years, is finally on track, although the exact date is still unknown. That being said, we had the opportunity to check out the Nightdive Studios title for half an hour and we have to admit we were pretty reassured. In the shoes of a hacker who must invest in a space base taken over by the evil AI Shodan, you must explore corridors and offices in a terrifying atmosphere of the most successful. First and foremost an FPS, with a bit of infiltration and hacking, System Shock has a graphic style that’s half modern, half retro, very pleasing to the eye and offering a good combat feel. The “old-fashioned” user interface is reminiscent of the first Deus Ex, but with a whole range of ergonomic options that make the experience enjoyable. We now hope that the adventure will not become too linear and that the script has some surprises in store for us.
Scars Above, which was introduced during Opening Night Live, appears at first glance to be an uninspired rip-off from Returnal. But a grab at Gamescom has allowed us to clear our doubts and we have discovered a pleasant title to pick up, very classic in the background, but still offers some interesting ideas. In the shoes of a young scientist whose ship crashed on an unknown planet, you must find your surviving crew and try to survive in this hostile land. The title is presented as a TPS in semi-open areas but with the possibility of scanning fauna and flora to learn more and unlock many situations. Visually, the set is pretty clean, with a nice artistic direction in particular, but the animations, which aren’t very stiff, still betray the “AA” side of this production. Despite everything, the demo turned out to be pleasant to browse, thanks in particular to the comfortable dialogues and a very sympathetic “environmental analysis” aspect.
This is the least “sci-fi” game of this selection, but we included it anyway, thanks to the 70’s alternate history bias, where retro technologies go hand-in-hand with very advanced AIs and robots. And then you have to say Under the Waves is one of our big favorites from Gamescom, so much so that we’ve dedicated a full preview to it.
. To sum up, this game developed by Parallel Studio (White Night) and published by Quantic Dream puts us in the shoes of a diver who works for an oil company. In the middle of the North Sea, he must explore the depths with his bathyscaphe and live entirely alone in a deep base, but with the ability to communicate by radio. The title is very narrative, with lots of exploration (it’s a “small” open world) and lots of puzzles to solve. Under the Waves, a psychological thriller with a SF twist, seduced us both with its proposal and with its visual and audio atmosphere.
Like Alone in the Dark on the horror site, Outcast 2 is a project to revive a cult PC game from the 90s, one of the first open-world games and a title that impressed with its technology at the time. In the meantime, open-world games have exploded and this sequel will have to fight hard to stay on top. Still being developed by Belgian studio Appeal, Outcast 2 isn’t a huge production (40 people are working on it), but its presentation at Gamescom reassured us on several counts. Visually, the planet Adelpha has just as much charm. Very colorful and full of vegetation, it is reminiscent of Pandora’s Pandora. In this little paradise, we once again embody Cutter Slade, who must help the natives in the face of an emerging dictatorship. Unlike the amusement parks of Ubisoft games, we are promised an “organic” open world here. No activity markers everywhere, but the will to make the player discover things on their own. A strong connection to wildlife will also be possible thanks to a system for studying the animals of the planet, which should lead to nice opportunities such as: B. making a flying creature your own mount. Appeal clearly wants to get it right with Outcast 2 and it shows. Give them time to monitor their baby.
A sequel to 2019’s Deliver us the Moon, Deliver us Mars takes place on the Red Planet, where we play a young woman searching for her missing father. The first title was very narrative, with a lot of exploration and a desire to represent the lunar landscapes as faithfully as possible. This sequel maintains the same proposal but with a much more varied gameplay that we are promised, including puzzle and platform stages. We were able to experience this during a 30-minute grip, in which we climbed steep walls of Mars with adapted ice axes. It was necessary to use the joystick’s triggers to position his arms properly to avoid a fatal fall. Then came an environment puzzle based on electrical pillars that had to be placed correctly in two rooms to power a circuit capable of unlocking an elevator. A fairly classic puzzle, but well done, following the Talos principle. However, Mars is still very mysterious and just this short overview has left us wanting much more.
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Abyssals, a management/survival game published by Shiro Unlimited (Dune Spice War, Wartales) and developed by OverPowered Games, puts us in control of a group of people who want to settle on a whole new planet. The only “small” problem: It consists entirely of water. That’s why they install their first feeding systems and their first flocks in the depths, hoping to keep their colony alive for as long as possible. We were able to give a 30-minute presentation of the title, which introduced the main principles of the game: the key lies in the distribution of energy and the importance of setting up electrical circuits between all buildings, while ensuring that enough electricity is produced for everything to function properly . Light also plays an important role, and any colonized area bathed in darkness will be attacked by creatures from below. Management of production chains, balanced placement of buildings, crisis management… We must be on all fronts and constantly in tension. The game is not expected for many months, so we will have time to talk about it.
