What did you miss? The top games that were shown at Gamescom 2020

Disney treated us to a look at the new LEGO Star Wars title. Spanning all nine movies, the game is going to hit you right in the nostalgia feels. This won’t just be a remaster with the new games though, it’s a whole reimagining, or rebuilding if you prefer, of the original trilogy and prequel trilogy in LEGO form. The Deluxe Edition has also confirmed the addition of DLC packs from other Star Wars media such as The Mandalorian and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The game promises nearly 500 playable characters, including all of the favorites, plus other characters, such as ‘Yoda in a wig’ Yaddle. From the gameplay trailer shown at Gamescom, we can expect to see more classic LEGO fun full of jokes with C3PO getting the brunt of Chewbacca’s fury in one scene.

We also saw that the game will not just be limited to being on your little LEGO legs with Snowspeeder action, Millennium Falcon flying and AT-AT driving all part of the fun.

Unfortunately, for those eagle-eyed amongst you, the release date has slipped back to Spring 2021 from the October date that was mentioned beforehand.

Activision announced the next Call of Duty: Black Ops title will be set during the Cold War a day before Gamescom. During the event, they then showed off more information through a cinematic trailer. This not only showed off great graphics, but also a tense board meeting with US President Ronald Reagan about the threat of a Soviet spy called Perseus.

Some in the CIA doubt that Perseus is even real but instead is more of a myth, lending to a delicate balancing point for the plot that won’t just be overseas but in the US itself. 

Whilst we saw no gameplay during the trailer, we’re excited to see how the Treyarch team are going to approach the war that led to the Soviet Union’s dissolution.

The next-generation Dragon Age game is still in early production as highlighted in the trailer, however, BioWare has given us a glimpse at the game they’re working on.

The fantasy action-RPG has some beautiful concept art that the developers are promising will create an interactive universe that isn’t just fun to play through the story in, but also to explore. As for the story, it will be about not having power and talking to the people who lived in the universe and have tales to tell about it.

The trailer heavily focused on the realism of characters and connecting with them in the universe - whether that’s loving or hating them! Player choice will be important to this as you can determine the fate of characters by your in-game decisions.

Needless to say, six years on from Inquisition and we’re very excited to jump back into the Dragon Age universe. Though there’s probably a few years to wait yet.

We got a look at the Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart gameplay with this 7-minute long demo. The Lombax and his sentient robot are going up a level thanks to the Playstation 5’s capabilities. This includes a reflective Clank who now shines as much as his personality.

Within the gameplay, we saw the introduction of the interdimensional traveling as Ratchet heads through the rifts to traverse through the levels and shoot Dr Nerfarious’ army. Plus, we saw some dimension-hopping which creates fast-paced action where you have to rail-grind, fly a dragon and battle pirates all in quick succession.

At the end of the trailer, we see our famous duo being split up before Clank meets up with a female white and blue Lombax wielding a hammer. We don’t know much about her yet, but it seems like she will have a big part to play in the game.

Set after the destruction of the second Death Star, we got a look into the story of Star Wars: Squadrons at Gamescom.

The dogfighting game set in the Star Wars universe will put you on both sides of the war as both the Imperial and New Republic forces. 

Missions will include escorting ships through dangerous territories, setting traps and completing bombing runs. With you able to customize your pilots and ships through unlockable upgrades as you progress through the game.

Plus, these missions will all be playable in Virtual Reality if you prefer to play the game that way.

Releasing on September 3rd, we got the launch trailer of the free-to-play Battlemage action-spellcasting game at Gamescom.

Within the game, you have to swap a gun for spells as you weave combinations of spells, as well as craft strategic builds to become the Ultimate Battlemage in this Battle Royale.

The Pre-Alpha feedback was exceptional and its release in just a few days has got a lot of excitement. The graphics look superb and the blend of spellcasting and the popular Battle Royale genre make it an interesting game that will certainly be one to dip your toe, or wand, into for free. 

Cyanide Studios’ Blood Bowl 3 comes five years after the release of the 2nd game. The Warhammer fantasy football game combines one of the most popular fantasy universes with a tabletop football strategy where it’s not just your arms and legs that do the talking.

With elves, humans, orcs, and other creatures taking to the field, the game is a more lethal take on the American sport. Shoulder charges, kicks, punches, and weapons all cause damage to your opponents and can lead to a touchdown for your team.

The game focuses on the strategy of the sport as each team is treated as units and can receive bonuses, skills, and even career-ending injuries! The trailer indicates that Blood Bowl 3 may be taking the violence up a level too with less than game-legal moves occurring within the 2-minute cinematic.

There isn’t much to say about the Paradise Lost trailer at Gamescom, however, it certainly got our interest and people talking on Social Media. The chilling music combined with the freeze-frame room opened up to a Fallout-esque vault followed by a winter environment that we can only compare to the Metro series.

Paradise Lost will be a first-person adventure game that explores the themes of retrofuturism and transhumanism in a post-apocalyptic story. 

Set in an alternative version of WWII, the end of the war led to the Nazis launching nuclear missiles that left Europe covered in destruction and radiation, as well as isolated from the rest of the world.

Within the game, you play as a 12-year-old survivor of the nuclear wasteland of Poland where you find a retrofuturistic bunker with Slavic pagan imagery and an underground city. It all sounds very intriguing!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning releases on September 8th, but we’ve only just got our second look at the remaster of the 2012 RPG hit Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

The game was from the minds of bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston. Together these made a game with lots of lore, over 10,000 years in fact, plus a sprawling game world with lots of customization.

Highly-rated on the launch, the game challenges you to play your way as you sneak, dodge, or go all in to beat the story. The game offers a blend of magic and melee combat and includes the revolutionary Destiny system that allows you to evolve your character class to your style of play throughout the game.

With the remaster, you’ll get over 100 hours of gameplay with the base game and all the expansions from Reckoning, all with remastered visuals and gameplay enhancements to bring it up to modern-day.

An adaption of the popular novel Unknown 9: Genesis, the paranormal story of Unknown 9: Awakening is a PC and next-gen console game that certainly looks the part if the teaser trailer is any indication about the future of the game.

The narrative-driven action-adventure game follows a young girl raised on the streets of Kolkata, India. Within the trailer we see her use a mysterious ability to travel through into a hidden dimension, known as The Fold, in order to avoid an attack from a particularly aggressive boy.

The dimension looks a bit like a pause or slow down of time where our protagonist, Hoorana, can see the future movements of the people around her. The game will focus upon her finding a mentor that helps her gifts and propels her on a journey to unlock the mysteries of the dimension.

Bandai Namco spoilt us at Gamescom with a 15-minute look at the Little Nightmares II gameplay.

Following on from the critically acclaimed horror game, the sequel continues the dark theme with a new villain. Armed with a rusty shotgun and lantern-style flashlight, The Hunter, is a menacing threat that is as creepy as the antagonists from Little Nightmares. 

The sequel to the puzzle-platformer shows how Mono meets Six outside the Pale City. The pair will have to escape The Hunter in side-scrolling gameplay through gloomy lit settings.

Medal of Honor is back! Above and Beyond is the first Electronic Arts’ Virtual Reality experience alongside Star Wars: Squadrons. 

At Gamescom, we got a look at the nuts gameplay thanks to a new story trailer. Within the game, you will be skydiving out of planes, throwing knives, and blowing up tanks with added authenticity thanks to the help of World War II veterans.

It’s not just a foot soldier’s job that you will be doing. The trailer showed off flying over the skies of France for the French Resistance in aerial dogfighting. The game looks to be taking the franchise back to its roots after an eight-year absence. Though the Virtual Reality element is a new twist to a formula that has worked for the series since 1999.

Released in March this year (2020), DOOM Eternal has kept us blasting and ripping through demons for five months now. Thankfully the brutal FPS action game isn’t stopping there though with a new DLC coming soon.

Available on October 20, 2020, The Ancient Gods: Part One will see new enemies, bigger bosses, and even more hell razing gunplay. In typical DOOM style, we saw the DOOM Slayer using a variety of weapons to deliver his brutal take on justice to his enemies.

Through the DLC you will be making your way back to Urdak to decide the fate of the cosmos once again. However, it won’t be easy for our Slayer as a new angelic entity that fires cross-shaped bolts are one of the new enemies, amongst a powerful roster of existing favorites, that will stand in the way.

If you’ve not yet picked up DOOM Eternal, then you needn’t worry as the DLC will also be available as a standalone game.