Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Ken Levine’s Next Title
With a resume that includes Theif: The Dark Project, System Shock 2, and the BioShock series, Ken Levine has earned his reputation as one of the industry’s most talented developers.
But it’s been over five years since his last game, BioShock Infinite, and although we know for certain that he’s got something in the pipeline, we’ve no idea what it actually is.
Levine has been tight-lipped on his next project, teasing precious few details in the months since the initial tease in 2017. What little we have heard, though, makes it sound very exciting, indeed.
After leaving Irrational Games with several other members of the development team, Levine stated that his first project with new studio Ghost Story Games would incorporate “narrative elements that are non-linear and interact with each other” where “all narrative elements to trigger off player action.”
Levine has spoken of his love for Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor; in particular, praising its non-linear game design via the innovative Nemesis system.
Other inspirations include Civilization, Xcom, and Minecraft, which offer players plenty of choice without resorting to traditional branching narratives seen in series such as Dragon Age, which Levine thinks do not “offer truly player-driven narratives.”
Most recently, Levine stated that the “impetus [for change was] you spent five years on a game which people finish in a weekend.” He went on to say that he was “envious of games like Civilization” and wanted to create a game that players had a longer relationship with.
Assuming he can find the right balance, everything we’re hearing sounds like a perfect recipe for what could end up as Levine’s most accomplished title.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Take-Two’s Teased Game
Speaking of BioShock, we’re long overdue a return to the popular franchise, and we think it’s very likely Take-Two has a big announcement to make this year in regards to its anticipated comeback.
Last year, the publisher teased a “new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises,” which was only alluded to in passing as part of a financial report last year.
The internet was immediately ablaze with speculation as to exactly what they were talking about, with Borderlands and BioShock the frontrunners.
We’re not actually basing our own prediction on anything official –there’s absolutely no word at all from Take-Two or 2K Games to suggest BioShock is returning– but it just feels like the more likely of the two.
For starters, the long-expected BioShock Collection launched last year. But more importantly, whispers of a top secret studio by way of the development team at Hangar 13 (Mafia III) working on a BioShock game surfaced earlier this year
The report stated:
“Next door, a small group of people were working on a project code-named Parkside, quietly recruiting from across the video game industry for a game so secret, they wouldn’t even tell their colleagues at Hangar 13 about it… Word got out, though, that it was, in fact, a new game in one of the most interesting shooter franchises of the past decade: BioShock.”
The real question is whether the timelines match up. The way in which Take-Two spoke of this upcoming game as launching fairly soon doesn’t sound like a project as early in the making as the rumored BioShock title in the Kotaku report. Only time will tell.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Harry Potter The Magic Awakened
Harry Potter The Magic Awakened might potentially turn out to be one of the biggest QA leaks in recent memory.
The substantial (by leaked footage standards) video, which leaked last year, looks like a full-scale AAA production, showcasing iconic locations from the popular franchise in high fidelity graphics.
It’s hard to say with any certainty exactly what sort of genre The Magic Awakened falls under yet, but it does appear to be a meaty role-playing experience in which players guide a young wizard of their creation through the Hogwarts Academy.
We see a character creation menu, scenes that look like something you’d expect from a story-driven experience, and various spells and attacks similar to a fantasy RPG.
A synopsis was also posted alongside the video, which spoke of a 19th-century setting starring a fifth-year student who joins Hogwarts as a late arrival.
Players are able to curse “dark wizards” and “goblins,” choosing from eight different character classes and either act as either good or evil.
The strangest part about the whole mystery is that we’ve since heard nothing official about the game despite the footage.
In the days following the leak, Rocksteady was named as a speculative developer behind the project but has since denied any connection to the game. Perhaps, it is Avalanche Software who is behind the game?
Last year, the company posted a job listing looking for developers with “a deep understanding of British and grammatical presentation”, with a good knowledge of “gaming narrative and branching storytelling, particularly in the realm of RPGs”.
The job listing certainly matches the nature of the game, and the Avalanche Software, which is best-known for its Disney Infinity games, is also under the Warner Bros. umbrella that owns the rights to Harry Potter.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Rocksteady’s Next Game
So what is Rocksteady actually working on if not the leaked Harry Potter game? And no, sorry, it isn’t a Superman game.
Disappointingly for some, Rocksteady Game Director Sefton Hill confirmed that it is not working on a game based on the Superman franchise in the buildup to The Game Awards this year.
“When it’s ready to show, you’ll be the first to know. Spoiler: it’s not Superman,” he said, also confirming that the development team was still hard at work on their next project and not close to a reveal in the near future.
But perhaps there’s a way for the persistent Superman rumors and Hill’s denial of a Superman game to be true at the same time: Justice League.
Could it be that Rocksteady’s upcoming title is a Justice League game, one that involves characters from the wider DC universe rather than just focusing on Superman? It’s possible.
It certainly seems more plausible than Warner Bros. giving the green light to Rocksteady creating a brand new IP, which is something they’ve never done before. Particularly, when one considers their entire reputation is based on adapting a licensed property.
As for another Batman game. Well, that’s on the table, too, but it does feel rather like the Arkham series has run its course, at least for now. We’ll just have to sit back and wait for details, which surely must be coming in 2019?
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Square Enix’s Avengers Game
As for comic book’s other powerhouse publisher, Square Enix is working on a video game adaptation of what is possibly Marvel’s hottest property these days: The Avengers.
After a succession of Box Office smash-hit movies, The Avengers has become even more of a household name, and it’s obviously crying out for a video game of the same quality.
Square Enix certainly has a big task on its hands, and a high standard to match after Insomniac Games’ critically acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man last year — the 2018 PS4 exclusive really lifted the bar for licensed games, and superhero games, in particular.
Quite how development is shaping up, though, is anybody’s guess at this point.
Other than the fact that The Avengers game exists and that Square Enix has assigned the talented Crystal Dynamics Studio (Tomb Raider) to its production, we’ve no idea what sort of game to expect.
Shaun Escayg, a creative director for the game recently thanked his team for their hard work on what he describes as an “ambitious game.”
Not much to go on, but it certainly has us excited daydreaming at the prospect of an open world AAA Avengers game.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
WiLD
Where on earth is WiLD? The game that was to be directed by Michel Ancel (of Rayman fame) and published by Sony disappeared after a Paris Games Week gameplay demo in 2015.
And we’re not just talking about a 30-second trailer tease, either — WiLD was showcased in a substantial presentation that lasted five minutes, detailing an expansive prehistoric open world setting in which player worked together with animals to overcome various obstacles.
It looked absolutely fantastic, and the prospect of a legendary developer teaming up with Sony on such an innovative project sounded like the stuff of dreams.
Yet here we are, nearly five years after its initial announcement, with absolutely no news on the upcoming project.
Ancel’s status as a Ubisoft employee working on a Sony project was always a little confusing, and that’s recently become even more unclear after he was revealed as game director for Ubisoft’s Beyond Good and Evil 2.
So where does that now leave WiLD? With such a long time between updates and the PS4’s lifecycle seemingly drawing to close, could the project be dead in the water?
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Death Stranding
Come on, did you really think we could write a list of mysterious games without including Hideo Kojima’s anticipated Death Stranding?
After all, even after the trio of tone-piece trailers and a meaty E3 showcase, we’ve still no real clue as to what the rockstar game developers’ first solo project actually is.
We can say that it’s off the wall, unusual, bizarre — the culmination of one of the industry’s most clever and inventive minds, famous acting talent, and, er, babies that ward off some sort evil presence?
But as for how to actually describe Death Stranding as a video game experience, even what genre it falls under, would be complete guesswork.
Perhaps this is all part of Kojima’s master marketing strategy? The man has always had a penchant for weaving mystery and confusion into the build-up of his games.
Remember Moby Dick Studios and the bizarre interview with the bandaged Joakim Mogren?
If it is some sort of wider strategy then it’s certainly proven effective. It seems as though we’re all chomping at the bit for more Death Stranding information before the start of every major video game convention.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Starfield
You can’t really blame Bethesda for alternating its fantasy/post-apocalyptic open world games for the past decade and a half. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout have been so wildly successful and, save for the recent Fallout 76-sized blip, beloved by players.
But it’s definitely time for something new, and at last year’s E3, executive producer Todd Howard teased Starfield, an all-new IP that will push Bethesda into all-new territory.
Starfield, as the name might suggest, is set to be a sci-fi action-RPG set in a futuristic space setting.
And that, folks, is about all we know about the nature of the game and its design.
The game’s teaser announcement was essentially a one-minute logo reveal that gave us even less information than the Elder Scrolls VI trailer of similar length.
Howard has said that Starfield probably won’t launch this generation, despite having already been in development for some time. And while the game is being built with Bethesda’s DNA, it will feature “a lot of new systems.”
You probably shouldn’t expect to hear much about Starfield for some time, possibly even until the next console generation kicks off.
After the mess that was Fallout 76, it seems unlikely that Bethesda is going to rush the IP that it’ll be hoping becomes its next marquee franchise.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Project ReFantasy
Project ReFantasy, the debut title from Atlus-owned Studio Zero is shaping up to be one of the most bizarre fantasy RPGs ever if the latest concept trailers are anything to go by.
The game, which is being built by developers with experience working on the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series of role-playing games, is said to be a complete departure from Atlus’ recent projects.
The initial description sounded promising: “a fantasy game with a distinctly Atlus flavor,” but the most recent concept trailers for Project ReFantasy are confusing, to say the least.
The first features people riding flying dragons and wielding swords introduce its story, before the trailer goes into a live action sequence that showcases the different character classes.
We’re then shown the game’s world evolve from medieval to industrialized, as a narrator speaks of a “true hero” who will change the world.
Confusing stuff. And the second trailer doesn’t really clear things up, either; instead, presenting a live-action sequence of an armor-clad actor eating chicken…
We’re more than a little intrigued as to how this one is going to turn out.
Top 10 Most Mysterious Games
Metroid
Nintendo shook the gaming community with the most surprising of announcements at last year’s E3 direct: A new Metroid Prime game is in development.
More than just the return of one of the publishers’ most acclaimed and beloved franchises, it was the nature of the reveal that was so unusual.
In very un-Nintendo fashion, it unveiled a logo of its upcoming game without any gameplay, story-tease, or indication of its release window.
Of course, we see teasers such as this all the time in the video game industry. But it’s quite unprecedented (at least recently) for Nintendo to forecast a game so far in advance. Metroid Prime 4, apparently, is an exception to the rule.
But what an exciting prospect it is to finally be getting a new mainline chapter in the Metroid universe. We can assume it’s going to be a first-person action experience with a heavy emphasis on exploration, platforming, puzzle-solving, and shooting.
The big question is what that will look like a decade after the last Metroid Prime game. How much will Nintendo tweak the formula and incorporate new mechanics?
It’s all a matter of conjecture and speculation at this point as Nintendo has literally not said a word on the game since its reveal 18 months ago.
We’re expecting more news this year, though. With only the upcoming mainline Pokemon game penciled in for 2019’s major release, Metro is can’t be too far away… we hope.
Published: Jan 9, 2019 12:31 pm