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7 Games From E3 2016 You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
They Might've Missed the Spotlight, But They're Still Awesome
E3 2016 was dominated by games like Battlefield 1, For Honor, Mafia III, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild--all amazing games that we are excited for. But there were also a lot of other games at E3 that might not have gotten the same sort of attention as these blockbusters. We were able to play some of the smaller, lesser known, or just simply overlooked games at E3, and we came away impressed with the breadth of experiences on display. Our editors have compiled seven of their favorite games from E3 that you might've missed.
Gonner (Alex Newhouse)
Think Spelunky meets The Binding of Isaac--Gonner is a procedurally generated roguelike that has extremely difficult platforming, always close to too many enemies on screen, and a cartoonish art style reminiscent of Team Meat's games. Messing around with different combinations of hats and guns is particularly entertaining. Hats give you different movement abilities, and pairing each with different types of weapons make Gonner's brutal difficulty more entertaining than frustrating. During my demo, I relied just as much on the character's ability to pull off acrobatic maneuvers as I did on shooting during combat encounters, especially because I could only shoot left and right. Gonner a fascinating game with a great aesthetic and I'm excited to see more of it. It doesn't have an official release date yet, but it's coming to PC and Mac.
The Long Journey Home (Alex Newhouse)
This game seems wildly ambitious. Like Gonner, Iit's a procedurally generated roguelike, but it also has a pretty significant amount of dialogue and a huge, open galaxy to explore. The closest analogue is something like FTL: Faster Than Light, if FTL gave you full control over your ship in atmosphere and in space. The conceit is that you and the crew of a spaceship end up transported to the edge of the galaxy when a warp goes awry; your crew must make its way back home. Meeting aliens along the way presents opportunities through dialogue trees to make war or peace; planets in solar systems have opportunities for discovery and mining. The Long Journey Home is due out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in the second half of 2016.
Overland (Mike Mahardy)
Dysentery was the bane of my fourth grade existence. I would ford the right rivers, get enough sleep, and hunt every buffalo, but somehow, dysentery always brought me down, long before I reached the Willamette Valley in those fabled lands of the Pacific Northwest.
Oregon Trail, however iconic, was bareboned. It was more of a point-and-click educational adventure than a full-fledged strategy title. But Overland, the new strategy-survival game from developer Finji, is all about crucial decisions. It follows you across a post-apocalyptic America as you gather survivors, avoid radioactive monsters, and scrounge for supplies in the wilds of the new world. It plays like an XCOM game, with an overhead isometric perspective and maps composed of tiles. A constant tension hangs above everything as you decide whether searching for gasoline to fuel your vehicle, looking for medical supplies to heal your party, or, in some cases, saving someone is worth the subsequent problems they might cause. It's these choices, and the consequences you carry with you to the West Coast, that fuel Overland's intense momentum. It's available now in early access on PC.
Furi (Matt Espineli)
Fans of Japanese-made action games will find a lot to like about Furi; it showcases a level of tension and fast-paced action seen in games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and God Hand. Its premise is simple: you play as a nameless silver-haired swordsman who must fight his way out of imprisonment, facing off against a gauntlet of deadly bosses.
Furi's standout quality is its fast and frenetic combat, which is tight and nuanced, but elegantly simple. It's an eclectic combination of both hack-and-slash games and shoot 'em ups, challenging you at any moment in a fight to dodge a barrage of projectiles or test your reflexes in tense melee battles. The game also sports a striking visual style, featuring character designs by Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki. Furi’s stylish and thrilling action is shaping up to be a great new addition to its genre, and we can't wait to play more of it once it launches for PS4 and PC sometime in July.
Everything (Scott Butterworth)
Here’s a modest sampling of just some of the playable objects I controlled during my time with David O’Reilly’s aptly titled art project Everything: a used piece of chewing gum, a galaxy, a deer, a strand of DNA, a city bus, pollen. The game simply drops you into an unstructured open world and allows you to not only explore but to possess and control every single object you encounter. Patch of grass? Sure. Giant boulder? Swap over to it and start rolling around.
If you find objects of a similar type, you can tap a button to have them follow you. If enough objects are following, you can tap another button to make them all dance. And if you find the smallest or largest object in a given environment, you can dive down to a more micro level or scale up to more macro objects, respectively. As time passes, the environments grow and change, providing new objects for you to possess. While it’s not clear if there’s any real end goal, we’ll have plenty of time to search for the answer to life, the universe, and, well, everything when the game is eventually released on PS4.
Gnog (Scott Butterworth)
Part puzzle game, part digital toy box, Gnog presents you with a series of intricate objects (described by the game’s creators as “giant monster heads”) that can, in a roundabout sense, be solved. As you examine each head, you’ll find switches to pull, knobs to turn, wires to connect, and so on. Experimenting with these various interactive elements gradually unlocks new options, and while you’ll never receive explicit instructions, each monster head employs its own visual language to help you progress.
While toying with sliders on a boom box-like head, for example, I noticed that the color-coded waveforms this produced matched a series of buttons on the back panel. Using corresponding sliders and buttons in sequence not only changed the music, it illuminated a previously unlit screen. None of Gnog’s vastly different heads seem to pressure you with a time limit, though, suggesting that the process of experimentation and discovery is just as important as finishing the overall puzzle. The game launches on PS4 and PS VR later this year.
Let It Die (Eddie Makuch)
Let It Die, the next game from Killer7 and No More Heroes designer Suda51 and developer Grasshopper Manufacture, is one to pay attention to. It's a hack-and-slash game set in Tokyo--and it's pretty over-the-top. During my hands-on session at E3 I learned that you can eat frogs to replenish your health or throw them at enemies. Obviously, I threw them at enemies more often than I ate them. It felt like the right thing to do. Let It Die has a gorgeous, cel-shaded art style that is striking and unique.The combat mechanics, including melee and ranged attacks, seem to be coming along well and have a certain weight to them that makes the fight sequences stand out. After a 20-minute demo, I was left wanting to play more. Let It Die is coming sometime this year for PlayStation 4. It's a free-to-play game but don't let that scare you off: Suda51 says the game is not pay-to-win.
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E3 2016 was dominated by games like Battlefield 1, For Honor, Mafia III, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild--all amazing games that we are excited for. But there were also a lot of other games at E3 that might not have gotten the same sort of attention as these blockbusters. We were able to play some of the smaller, lesser known, or just simply overlooked games at E3, and we came away impressed with the breadth of experiences on display. Our editors have compiled seven of their favorite games from E3 that you might've missed.
Gonner (Alex Newhouse)
Think Spelunky meets The Binding of Isaac--Gonner is a procedurally generated roguelike that has extremely difficult platforming, always close to too many enemies on screen, and a cartoonish art style reminiscent of Team Meat's games. Messing around with different combinations of hats and guns is particularly entertaining. Hats give you different movement abilities, and pairing each with different types of weapons make Gonner's brutal difficulty more entertaining than frustrating. During my demo, I relied just as much on the character's ability to pull off acrobatic maneuvers as I did on shooting during combat encounters, especially because I could only shoot left and right. Gonner a fascinating game with a great aesthetic and I'm excited to see more of it. It doesn't have an official release date yet, but it's coming to PC and Mac.
The Long Journey Home (Alex Newhouse)
This game seems wildly ambitious. Like Gonner, Iit's a procedurally generated roguelike, but it also has a pretty significant amount of dialogue and a huge, open galaxy to explore. The closest analogue is something like FTL: Faster Than Light, if FTL gave you full control over your ship in atmosphere and in space. The conceit is that you and the crew of a spaceship end up transported to the edge of the galaxy when a warp goes awry; your crew must make its way back home. Meeting aliens along the way presents opportunities through dialogue trees to make war or peace; planets in solar systems have opportunities for discovery and mining. The Long Journey Home is due out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in the second half of 2016.
Overland (Mike Mahardy)
Dysentery was the bane of my fourth grade existence. I would ford the right rivers, get enough sleep, and hunt every buffalo, but somehow, dysentery always brought me down, long before I reached the Willamette Valley in those fabled lands of the Pacific Northwest.
Oregon Trail, however iconic, was bareboned. It was more of a point-and-click educational adventure than a full-fledged strategy title. But Overland, the new strategy-survival game from developer Finji, is all about crucial decisions. It follows you across a post-apocalyptic America as you gather survivors, avoid radioactive monsters, and scrounge for supplies in the wilds of the new world. It plays like an XCOM game, with an overhead isometric perspective and maps composed of tiles. A constant tension hangs above everything as you decide whether searching for gasoline to fuel your vehicle, looking for medical supplies to heal your party, or, in some cases, saving someone is worth the subsequent problems they might cause. It's these choices, and the consequences you carry with you to the West Coast, that fuel Overland's intense momentum. It's available now in early access on PC.
Furi (Matt Espineli)
Fans of Japanese-made action games will find a lot to like about Furi; it showcases a level of tension and fast-paced action seen in games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and God Hand. Its premise is simple: you play as a nameless silver-haired swordsman who must fight his way out of imprisonment, facing off against a gauntlet of deadly bosses.
Furi's standout quality is its fast and frenetic combat, which is tight and nuanced, but elegantly simple. It's an eclectic combination of both hack-and-slash games and shoot 'em ups, challenging you at any moment in a fight to dodge a barrage of projectiles or test your reflexes in tense melee battles. The game also sports a striking visual style, featuring character designs by Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki. Furi’s stylish and thrilling action is shaping up to be a great new addition to its genre, and we can't wait to play more of it once it launches for PS4 and PC sometime in July.
Everything (Scott Butterworth)
Here’s a modest sampling of just some of the playable objects I controlled during my time with David O’Reilly’s aptly titled art project Everything: a used piece of chewing gum, a galaxy, a deer, a strand of DNA, a city bus, pollen. The game simply drops you into an unstructured open world and allows you to not only explore but to possess and control every single object you encounter. Patch of grass? Sure. Giant boulder? Swap over to it and start rolling around.
If you find objects of a similar type, you can tap a button to have them follow you. If enough objects are following, you can tap another button to make them all dance. And if you find the smallest or largest object in a given environment, you can dive down to a more micro level or scale up to more macro objects, respectively. As time passes, the environments grow and change, providing new objects for you to possess. While it’s not clear if there’s any real end goal, we’ll have plenty of time to search for the answer to life, the universe, and, well, everything when the game is eventually released on PS4.
Gnog (Scott Butterworth)
Part puzzle game, part digital toy box, Gnog presents you with a series of intricate objects (described by the game’s creators as “giant monster heads”) that can, in a roundabout sense, be solved. As you examine each head, you’ll find switches to pull, knobs to turn, wires to connect, and so on. Experimenting with these various interactive elements gradually unlocks new options, and while you’ll never receive explicit instructions, each monster head employs its own visual language to help you progress.
While toying with sliders on a boom box-like head, for example, I noticed that the color-coded waveforms this produced matched a series of buttons on the back panel. Using corresponding sliders and buttons in sequence not only changed the music, it illuminated a previously unlit screen. None of Gnog’s vastly different heads seem to pressure you with a time limit, though, suggesting that the process of experimentation and discovery is just as important as finishing the overall puzzle. The game launches on PS4 and PS VR later this year.
Let It Die (Eddie Makuch)
Let It Die, the next game from Killer7 and No More Heroes designer Suda51 and developer Grasshopper Manufacture, is one to pay attention to. It's a hack-and-slash game set in Tokyo--and it's pretty over-the-top. During my hands-on session at E3 I learned that you can eat frogs to replenish your health or throw them at enemies. Obviously, I threw them at enemies more often than I ate them. It felt like the right thing to do. Let It Die has a gorgeous, cel-shaded art style that is striking and unique.The combat mechanics, including melee and ranged attacks, seem to be coming along well and have a certain weight to them that makes the fight sequences stand out. After a 20-minute demo, I was left wanting to play more. Let It Die is coming sometime this year for PlayStation 4. It's a free-to-play game but don't let that scare you off: Suda51 says the game is not pay-to-win.
More...