Since I started to follow with more attention the videogame industry, I had this somewhat farfetched dream of attending an E3, which was for around 20 years the pinnacle of the medium. That dream never came to life since the days of E3 are now long gone. While The Game Awards absorbed some of the space left by it for the big and surprising game reveals, it was Gamescom who assumed the role of the biggest gaming conference in the world, growing considerably year by year in terms of attendance and relevance to the industry.
For me that was perfect, since a trip from Portugal to Germany, where the Gamescom is hosted, was way shorter and cheaper than to the United States. The dream was back on in a more attainable form - a win-win situation. With that in mind, I decided that this would be the year where I would attend Gamescom for the first time. I’m here now to tell you how it went.
The logistics
Going to an event of this magnitude required some preparation. From the accomodation to the experience while visiting it, many aspects had to be considered to take the most out of the day. This were my main considerations:
- Cologne, the city in the western part of Germany where all this happens, is a very expensive city. Flight directly to there and stay at the city can become extremely costly. I went for the most logical and affordable solution by staying at the neighbour city of Bonn, 20 minutes away by train. Luckily the event ticket came with a free transport pass for the region during the day of attendance, covering the commute expenses.
- When entering the venue of Gamescom, one thing became abundantly clear: all food and drinks in there were also ridiculously expensive. I came prepared for that though. After a quick search on Reddit I found out that consumables from outside were allowed, as long as they weren’t alcoholic or contained in glass. I was able to save some money and time as well, as I took the chance to eat during the queues to try some game demos.
- It was difficult to visit the entire venue in just one day. Not only it was massive in terms of area, but moving from hall to hall was a challenge on itself due to the massive crowds. I did a plan beforehand in order to prioritise what I really wanted to see and experience, but outside of that I simply didn’t have enough time to explore more what else Gamescom had to offer. In retrospective, two days would be the ideal timeframe to a more complete insight on the whole event.
The event
Gamescom had a lot of things to offer for a single day, to a point of being almost overwhelming. There were merchandise and artist alleys, cosplay contests, retro gaming areas, game tournaments, meet and greets, talks with game creators and many more. However, the main draw of the event was without doubt what they called of “Entertainment area”, where the companies present there put their best suits and presented their upcoming games in gigantic, colorful and captivating booths. I didn’t have opportunity to visit all them, but it was still possible to get some insights from an overall perspective.
- There was an evident huge investment from asian companies besides Japan, most noticably the south korean Krafton, that was there mainly to promote their new social simulation game InZOI by flexing its powerful character creation tool. Hoyoverse from China also had a strong representation, promoting their hallmark games Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, beside their recently released Zenless Zone Zero, by offering enormous gift bags that turned their visitors into mobile outdors. Really clever, I must admit.
- Household names like Ubisoft or Capcom also had a noticable presence there. The first was promoting Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws while the latter put their money almost entirely on Monster Hunter Wilds. Actually, the promotion for that particular game was so heavy that there were outdoors everywhere inviting people to their booth, even outside the boundaries of the venue, being spread around the digital advertisement panels of the city itself.
- From the big three console manufacturers, the only one who was there in a substancial form was Microsoft, showcasing Avowed, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle and Starfield Shattered Space, to name a few. Sony was nowhere to be seen and Nintendo presence was limited to the Indie hall, supporting a few developers to showcase their titles for the Switch. Sony’s absense seems logical as they don’t have any upcoming flagship title, but Nintendo actually have a new Zelda about to be released, it seemed odd for them to not take the chance to promote it. I assume they are saving all their PR efforts to the reveal of their next system.
Beside the entertainment area, there were also a lot of interesting things to explore on the indie and retro gaming areas. On the indie one, there were simply too many games to try out, it was impossible to catch everything. I was able to briefly try two titles, Grimoire Groves and Victory Heat Rally, but both seemed to be still in a rough state to be honest. On the retro gaming area, there were a few booths of projects and entities dedicated to the subject, like the Retro Gaming Magazine, selling some of their editions (sadly only in german), and the Sega Saturn focused podcast SHIRO!, whose booth was obviously composed by several Saturns ready to be played. Unfortuately I didn’t spend as much time as I would like in this areas, but I will pay more attention to them if I ever return to the Gamescom in a future edition.
The demos
What’s better than see new games? Playing them. I had the opportunity to watch exclusive gameplay of two titles from Bethesda and try out in first hand two other from Sega/Atlus. Here are my impressions from each one of them:
- Starfield Shattered Space: This is an expansion that promises to deliver in areas where the base game was severly critizised for, particularly the environmental design, that will be composed by a handful of carefully crafted planets instead of a multitude of randomly generated ones, and the story. In visual terms, every footage they’ve shown looked way more eye catchy than everything the game offered before.
- Indiana Jones and The Great Circle: A brand new game focused on the famous movie franchise where we impersonate a digital recreation of a young Harrison Ford, from a first person perspective. I have some reservations regarding that first person view, as it doesn’t look ideal for platforming. On the other hand, it’s the best choice for shooting and puzzle solving. I wonder how they will integrate seamlessly all this mechanics in the final product.
- Metaphor: ReFantazio: This was by far the game I was most anticipating to play at Gamescom. Being from Atlus, it carries a lot of heritage from their previous games, starting by its development team, lead by the director of Persona 3, 4 and 5. Metaphor however is set in a medieval fantasy universe, contrasting with the contemporary setting of Persona. During the 15 minutes demo, I was able to experience a bit of the dungeon exploration and combat, that introduces a action oriented style, combined with the traditional turn-based one. From my limited experience, it works perfectly and it will make grinding much more fun and effortless. In the audio-visual department I have nothing but praise. In my opinion few companies make better game user interfaces than Atlus and Metaphor is here to prove it once again.
- Sonic x Shadow Generations: The last game I tried out during my time at Gamescom. Sonic Generations is essentially a remaster of the 2011 original for modern platforms, but what makes it interesting even for me, having played it back in the day, is the all new Shadow Generations. The model seems to be similar to Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, essentially a compilation of two separated, yet related games. The demo available allowed me to experience two levels of each and my lasting impression of the new Shadow levels was really positive. They look great and play great, what more can I ask?
Overall, going to the Gamescom was a fulfilling experience, even if a bit tiresome and overwhelming at points. I’m not sure if I’ll return next year, but I know (and I hope) this won’t be my last time here.
Lastly, I also participated on the latest episode of The Games Tome podcast, where I talked more in depth about everything I mentioned here (in 🇵🇹).
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