After last January’s Xbox developer showcase where Hi-Fi Rush was surprise dropped, this now seemingly annual tradition might be one of the most anticipated gaming showcases of the year. This year was guaranteed to be a big deal because the next Indiana Jones game was being revealed, and there were hopes for another surprise as well.
Overall, I thought it was fine. I will get into the games individually in a moment, but nothing absolutely blew me away this time around, and one showcase in particular had me a little less excited for the game. I think every single game was missing showing off one thing that I wanted to see, but they also can’t do 30 minutes for each game, so it makes sense. I still think that this has the potential to be a very strong year for the Xbox. With that, let’s get to the ranks!
5. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle
The brief glimpse of reactions I saw on Twitter looked mostly positive, which is awesome, but I personally found myself a little less interested in this game after the showcase. MachineGames is known for first-person games with its work on Wolfenstein, so it’s probably not completely shocking that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be a (mostly) first-person game.
But also, it is kind of surprising! The treasure hunter genre has traditionally been third-person games, most notably with the Uncharted and Tomb Raider series. Generally, big set piece moments and the moment to moment exploration that these games have work a bit better in third-person. When you have an iconic character like Indiana Jones, it is also a bit shocking to make it so you can’t see the character most of the time. It’d be pretty stunning to go first person with Lara Croft as well. MachineGames admits as much when they say that you will go third person for certain moments (like climbing).
The brief glimpses of gameplay I saw also didn’t really overwhelm me. Once again, the set pieces don’t look quite as cool in first-person, where your perspective is narrowed, and you don’t get the same sense of scope. I also thought the whip gameplay looked a little weak. It is an interesting twist on the genre to seemingly have a more stealth focused adventure, and I’m optimistic that MachineGames will be able to make it work well.
The beauty of Xbox Game Pass is that even though my excitement for this project has waned a bit, I will still end up playing it, and I’m still hopeful that it will live up to the hype.
4. Ara: History Untold
As someone who doesn’t play this genre at all, I thought that Oxide Games did a pretty nice job of selling their vision. A pure strategy game like this isn’t always easy to sell, but I actually found myself somewhat engaged in their presentation. However, they weren’t able to sell me on why someone who has never played the genre might want to check it out, and I think at a presentation mostly for console gamers, that might have been a better direction to go.
3. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
The original Hellblade was unanimously acclaimed for its atmosphere, storytelling, and acting. When it came to the actual gameplay elements, reviews were a bit more mixed. With their track record, I have all the faith in the world that Ninja Theory will once again nail what worked in the first Hellblade. What I’m really interested in is how they will evolve the gameplay this time around.
Unfortunately we didn’t get anything on the gameplay at this presentation. All the non-gameplay elements looks fantastic, and it appears like they will once again knock it out of the park there, but that was a known quantity. Not getting real gameplay makes me question if there will be any serious evolution there, and left me in the same place I was before with this game.
Once again, the beauty of Game Pass is I will be giving it a shot either way, but I did hope for more from a game many are hoping will be a legitimate Game of the Year contender.
2. Visions of Mana
The surprise showing of this year was Visions of Mana, and I think it gave a good account of itself. The game looks absolutely lovely, the animations are great, and the soundtrack seems strong. While it didn’t blow me away, it looked incredibly competent and like a fun game.
However, It was a bit of an odd fit at this showcase. The surprise factor didn’t hit as hard since this has already been revealed. If they announced that this would also be on Game Pass, it would have been a huge win, and that would have hit on my hope for one fun surprise from this, but that also didn’t happen. It ended up being a nice little display that actually did make me slightly more interested in the game, so it was still a net win for Square Enix overall.
1. Avowed
After a trailer in 2023 that focused mostly on action elements, I was expecting a showing more focused on RPG elements this time around. To my surprise, Obsidian immediately started talking about combat again. But it actually did impress me a fair bit. The ability to quickly change combat styles looks fun, and the action itself looks fast-paced and entertaining. I always feel like combat in a game like this is greatly enhanced if its easy to switch between ranged and melee, and you aren’t shoehorned into one or the other, and it looks like this will hit the mark there.
The game then showcased the decisions you can make during quests, which looks about as you’d expect (that is a good thing). They also showed off the environments and world, which all look really good, certainly a lot better than I expected.
In my list of most anticipated games of 2024, I joked that Obsidian has perfected the art of making an 8.5/10 game, and this looked like a game that will probably end up getting reviews in that range, which is a great thing. This was easily the game that I came away the most impressed with when all was said and done.
Microsoft is really fantastic at making these showcases. The production values are top notch, the developers always do a great job of showing their enthusiasm for their project, and the pacing is always brisk. This time around, the games just didn’t quite show off what I was looking for, but I still had a pretty good time watching it thanks to everything else. Hopefully we continue to get more of these in the future, and hopefully a few of the games showcased prove me wrong in the coming months.
Big Nerd Gaming 
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