Here's how the summer showcases usually go for a site like TheGamer, that is able to attend lots of events with a good amount of staff and thus see many games. We all come back with a much longer wishlist than before and a flutter in our hearts whenever we think about the unique indie games we saw, but all anyone wants to read about are the triple-A games that play, who'd have thunk, just like triple-A games.
Obviously seeing these huge behemoths as they're still being formed is valuable, both for us as writers and for you as readers. We enjoy it, and when you get to see a game you know is going to take the world by storm, it can be the highlight of a show. Yet a lot of the time, you really want to be able to write about the cool games no one really knows about. But no one really knows about them, so they aren't guaranteed winners. So, here's my plan - tell you about some cool games I'm seeing over the summer now, so you do know about them, and then when I play them and write about them later, you'll all already want to hear more. It's foolproof.
Mouse
Starting with the one you're most likely to have heard of, this legally distinct parody of Mickey Mouse is also a legally distinct parody of BioShock - and not in the dull way Judas is. Reimagining the first-person shooter as a rubberhose cartoon, Mouse has a killer artstyle that will get players in the door. Beneath that, the gameplay we've seen so far looks like it could be the reason for them to stay.
Usual June
Finji's part comedy, part horror conspiracy investigation adventure is flashing on my radar mostly because of the first word in that sentence, but the third, fifth, and sixth are pretty good too (that's 'Finji', 'comedy', 'horror', and 'conspiracy' for the record). Finji was the developer behind Chicory: A Colorful Tale, one of the most compelling indie games in recent memory, as well as publishing Night in the Woods and Tunic. Though this move to more combat-heavy gameplay and a more traditional narrative comes with some risks, I'm hoping it comes off.
The Berlin Apartment
This is a game with very bad SEO as searching for it only brings up apartments in Berlin, but the idea behind it is excellent. Taking us through different vignettes of events that happened in the same Berlin apartment down the decades, it has chosen one of Europe's most tragic, yet resolute cities as its setting.
Reminiscent of The Berlin Stories/I Am A Camera/the musical Cabaret/the movie Cabaret, which are all the same thing told in different ways, The Berlin Apartment could touch on human questions that video games often eschew for violence and flashy high scores.
Fans of this idea should keep an eye out for Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming film Here, all about the stories that happen across centuries on a single plot of land.
OPUS: Prism Peak
I have been so spoiled by some of gaming's truly great photo modes that the hackneyed, half-hearted attempts to shove them in other games is a constant disappointment. So when a game bases itself around photography, my ears perk up. Well, assuming someone told me. If I just see it in an email, I dunno. I probably say "Oh that looks interesting" to myself in an empty office, I suppose. And then after hearing that, my ears perk up.
Anyway. OPUS: Prism Peak is a narrative adventure about photography so it remains to be seen how much actual photography you can do in the game, but here’s hoping the answer is ‘quite a bit’.
Henry Halfhead
Good old 'enry 'alf 'ead, 'e's the boy with 'alf a 'ead 'e is! Honestly, I'm not sure I could tell you why this game is so interesting to me. All I know is that from the moment I saw it in last year's Day of the Devs trailer, that half-headed Henry has had power over me.
In the game, Henry can possess any object near him and make them bounce around and/or solve puzzles. Why? No idea. Possibly too quirky for its own good and a one note premise, also possibly the silliest and funniest game in a long while. I'll find out this summer.
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