Between street-wise cybernetic fixers, terrifying fungal zombies, and shadowy vampire assassins, there’s plenty of big titles dropping in 2020. Games that have been carefully hyped for years will be released this year, and their audiences couldn’t be more ready. But what about the games that didn’t, or couldn’t, get quite such a good ticket on the hype-train?
Gaming has its hidden gems every year, but very few games are released without any marketing at all. Every game on the list below has had a trailer, or was announced at a major event, but that doesn’t mean that people haven’t forgotten them since. The sheer number of games announced at E3 last year means that its quite easy for a few to slip under the mental rug, so here’s a few coming out later this year.
Spiritfarer
Announced at Microsoft’s E3 press conference back in June 2019, Spiritfarer is a game that wants to talk about death. Players will take on the role of Stella, ferrymaster to the deceased, as she guides spirits to the afterlife. The game plays from a 2D perspective, and the announcement trailer shows Stella growing crops, making friends and charting a course for her customizable ship.
Spiritfarer is being developed by the Montreal-based studio Thunder Lotus Games. Despite being a small-scale developer, the studio has already demonstrated an ability to produce beautiful, 2D games. Their previous titles, Sundered and Jotun, were both praised for their art style by critics, and Spiritfarer looks set to continue that legacy.
Ooblets
What would happen if someone combined Pokemon and Stardew Valley, two of the coziest, cutest games out there? Well, ask no longer, because the answer is coming 2020. Ooblets is an adorable-looking farm-sim/creature-battler from development duo Glumberland. Players will be able to explore the game’s cartoony world, grow new creatures, battle with them, decorate their character’s house, and change their look with spray-on hair and clothes-shopping.
Unfortunately, the development of Ooblets hasn’t been quite as cutesy as its characters. First announced back in 2017, the game was initially to be published by Double Fine Games, until that company’s acquisition by Microsoft. Afterwards, the developers announced that they intend to self-publish instead. In August 2019 Glumberland announced that Ooblets would be an Epic Store exclusive on PC, prompting a instant backlash. Despite this, the developers have stuck to their guns, and kept their fans up-to-date with the game’s progress throughout the rest of the year.
Witchfire
Developed by Polish Indie-studio The Astronauts, Witchfire is a dark-fantasy first-person shooter in the vein of the classic Painkiller games. The similarity isn’t surprising, as The Astronauts is a studio created by former members of People Can Fly, the developers of Painkiller, as well as FPS staples Bulletstorm and Gears of War. Despite this, the developers have stated that the game actually bears more similarity to FromSoftware’s Souls-series, or Bungie’s Destiny, than it does to Painkiller.
First announced back in 2017, the game takes place in a world inspired by the art of classic landscape painters Thomas Hill and Albert Bierstadt. A world where witches are very real, and very dangerous. Not much is known about the story so far, only the few snippets revealed by the developers and the first trailer. What’s clear is that players will be spending a lot of time amid gothic ruins, blasting undead and demonic monstrosities with arcane firearms.
Bleeding Edge
Bleeding Edge is a multiplayer, class-based brawler in the vein of Overwatch or Team Fortress 2. The game has a heavy focus on melee combat, helping it to stand out in a popular genre. Players will choose from 12 characters, each with their own weapons and abilities, to compete in classic multiplayer game-modes. The characters are divided into three classes, assassins for dealing damage, supports for helping allies, and tanks for absorbing hits.
Developed by British-based studio, Ninja Theory, Bleeding Edge was first announced at E3 2019. The game’s 4-fighter teams are a little smaller than the standard for games of its type. Presumably this is to stop every melee devolving into a chaotic maelstrom of fists, swords and particle effects. Thankfully, the character designs are extremely diverse, and players are unlikely to mix up Maeve the geriatric tech-witch, and Kulev, the long-dead professor whose body is steered by the robotic snake he uploaded his consciousness into.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Ori and the Blind Forest was one of the surprise hits of 2015. A Metroidvania-style platformer, the game followed the journeys of the titular Ori as he attempted to restore balance to his beautifully-depicted forest. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a continuation of that story, and features Ori coming to terms with new threats and challenges in his forest home.
At the time of its release Ori and the Blind Forest was praised by critics for its art direction and smooth platforming, and its sequel seems set to continue this legacy. Gameplay trailers released so far show Ori facing new puzzles and beautifully-rendered enemies as he attempts to discover his true destiny beyond the forest.
Boyfriend Dungeon
Not many players, having just battled their way through Bleak Falls Barrow with their trusty Ebony Sword at their side, would think of taking it out for an intimate, candle-lit dinner for two afterwards. And yet that is the premise of Boyfriend Dungeon, a genre-twisting RPG dating sim from Canadian developers Kitfox Games. Set in the city of Verona Beach, an urban-fantasy setting where monsters pose a danger to everyday life, Boyfriend Dungeon blends action-RPG combat with Visual Novel-esque plot.
The protagonist fights in dungeons from an isometric perspective, using a variety of weapons to slay monsters and collect loot. Where things get interesting is that these weapons are actually people with the power to transform into them, people who can be dated between dungeon dives. Dating a weapon gives opportunities to get to know it better, thereby increasing its stats and capabilities. Boyfriend Dungeon’s unique blend of action and romance won’t be for everyone, but its crisp, clean art-style and frenetic combat might still be enough to entice some detractors.
