10 Games to Look Out For in 2018

After a week of for the holidays, I'm back and at last! The raging dumpster fire that was 2017 is finally extinguished and we can all look forward to a brighter, slightly less terrible 2018. It certainly seems that way for gaming; we can wave “goodbye” to the crushing disappointments that were Star Wars: Battlefront II and Destiny 2, and bring in from the cold some interesting looking, delightful works in the coming 12 months.

But with the myriad of games that come out every year, what should you be looking out for? When it comes down to design, narrative, and gameplay, just which games are going to be worth your £20-50?

10 – Days Gone (releasing at some point in 2018)

Bend Studio and Sony’s answer to the action/adventure/survival horror, open world, post zombie apocalypse game craze from about 3 years ago. But behind the sarcasm I’m rather excited about this one. The gameplay shown so far looks fun and engaging, with working stealth (!) and more challenging gameplay depending on the time of day.

The swarms of zombies have taken inspiration from the waves upon waves of zombies from World War Z, and just look like an utterly terrifying reminder for the player as to the consequences of getting it wrong.

9 – Detroit: Become Human (between January and June 2018)

Detroit: Become Human is David Cage’s latest offering: a narrative-driven game exploring robot rights in an automated future. The game may wind up doing the usual David Cage Game™ thing and being too pretentious or falling short of what was promised, but so far the marketing for the game has been minimal and gameplay has been allowed to speak for itself.

It certainly is interesting. Cage appears to have been reading Asimov and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with Detroit asking questions about robot rights and what it means to be a human.

8 – Sunless Skies (May 2018)

Failbetter Games, 2018

Failbetter Games’ follow-up to their engaging and addictive Sunless Sea. Set in the same Lovecraftian version of Victorian London, Sunless Skies sees the player reach for the skies and even space in search of fame, glory, and not being eating by giant creatures lurking in the depths.

Taking inspiration from C.S. Lewis, H.G. Wells, with a new Art Nouveau aesthetic, this game is going have an amazing story and a truly wonderful look. If you want something to sink entire weekends into, this game will fill that spot.

7 – Vampyr (between January and June 2018)

The next game being added to Dontnod’s small but brilliant repertoire. Vampyr is set in post – World War One London during the Spanish Flu epidemic, but throws another danger into to the mix: vampires.

Or rather, being killed by vampire hunters, as the player assumes the role of a doctor who has been turned into Buffy bait. The player must wrestle with who is the most deserving to be feasted upon, and dealing with the consequences of their decisions. Dontnod have proved their narrative muscle before, and I have total faith in this endeavour.

6 – We Happy Few (April 13^th 2018)

We Happy Few was revealed to the world back in 2015 to the intrigue and horror of many at PAX East. The white “happy face” masks of the NPC’s and the twisted British Bobbie’s, combined with the drug based stealth and Monty Python inspired humour has many people, myself included, eagerly anticipating the game’s release.

However, after a successful kickstater campaign, Compulsion announced they had partnered with Gearbox to publish the game, and the extra cash would expand the game’s story and scope. Whilst great for the team, I am apprehensive about Gearbox’s involvement. I worry that the game will be negatively impacted by corporately mandated DLC, financial goals, and the dreaded metacritic based bonuses. Time will tell.

5 – Skull and Bones (between July and December 2018)

Ubisoft, 2016

Ubisoft has finally delivered on its promise of a pirate game 5 freakin’ years after the release of the acclaimed Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. Skull and Bones certainly looks promising so far, with a 3 vs 3 online multiplayer being shown at E3 where players battle over an AI convoy and the treasure aboard.

A singleplayer story has also been alluded to, but nothing much shown so far. I’m eager to hear more, but the graphics appear a touch dated from the E3 presentation. But if the game sucks and under-delivers we will always have…

4 – Sea of Thieves (March 20^th 2018)

Microsoft and Rare's open world, online answer to Ubisoft’s pirate game. The cartoony aesthetic and co-operative gameplay is like a wonderful blend of Captain Pugwash and Minecraft, with hopefully a greater focus on exploration than constantly crafting tools.

What’s more, this is more of a family game as opposed to Ubisoft’s distinctly more adult offering. With this in mind, if Sea of Thieves turns out to be a good experience, it may just spur me to buy an Xbox One X, or whichever one has the most X’s at the time. Microsoft, sort your console naming out.

3 – A Way Out (March 23^rd 2018)

A co-op story based action/adventure is the most unique pitch I’ve seen from a AAA style game in a long time. I love story based games, and being able to share that experience with someone on my sofa in splitscreen or online is a major draw.

A Way Out comes from the studio that created Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons, and judging from the studio lead’s speech at the Game Awards a few weeks ago, he wants to do AAA style games differently. Eagerly looking forward to see if he accomplishes this.

2 – Metro Exodus (between October and December 2018)

4A games are back after having to relocated from Kiev to Malta due to the Russian Army’s ongoing, ahem, “holiday with tanks” that started in 2014. Since then, they have set up a new studio in Malta and this past E3 they reveal the next game in the Metro series – Metro Exodus.

Exodus sees Artyom and co. finally leave the crumbling wastes of Moscow to discover what fate has befallen the rest of Russia. Filling the void left behind by the Stalker series, Metro has been the darker side of Fallout’s post-nuclear antics for some time now, and the Russian books that inspire the series offer a different perspective on the end of the world.

1 – Anthem (between October and December 2018)

This not necessarily one to look forward to, but perhaps more a game to be incredibly wary of. Bioware’s first non-Mass Effect project for some time, it is billed to be EA’s answer to Destiny: an online shooter with MMO elements and a loot based reward system.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, this should have you worried. EA, along with Activision and 2K, and their scummy business practices have been under the spotlight in recent months. We know that they have been willing to push unregulated gambling into sports games for years now, but it has reached a new low in the new UFC game.

We also know EA want to implement these predatory systems into other games in their library, like the ridiculous card system pushed into Need for Speed: Payback that utterly ruined the game as a result.

And we know that they are willing to do these things on Disney’s buck, encouraging children to spend huge sums of money on fruit machines with a Star Wars: Battlefront II branding in order to be a position to compete in multiplayer.

Bioware has not been in EA’s good books thanks to the outrage at ME3’s ending and the dismally disappointing Andromeda. I worry that if Anthem is ruined by EA’s intrusive, exploitative monetisation plans, the egg will land squarely on Bioware’s face. Visceral Games was the previous disappointment, and I'm sure the suits at EA have a nice spot under the patio where Bioware can join them and the other studios that were no longer profitable.

Shit, this was meant to be optimistic, wasn’t it?

Edit: it appears that Anthem has been delayed until 2019, whether it be to re-evaluate monetisation or to give the devs more time to perfect their craft, time will tell. However, I'm now left with a list of 9 games not 10. Forgive me, Internet, for I have sinned.