E3 2017 will see the likes of God of War, Crackdown 3 and Super Mario Odyssey grace the big stage alongside a myriad of other big budget games. But what about the games that have quietly boarded the hype train? Over the last 5 years, there have been some fantastic game reveals from smaller studios at E3 but have since been overshadowed by much larger announcements.
That, or they’ve simply fallen off the face of the earth and we haven’t heard a peep from them ever since. These are the hidden gems we hope get an encore at this year’s E3.
5. Matterfall
This PS4 exclusive, which was announced at Paris Games Week 2015, and has been missing in action ever since. Which is a shame because the reveal trailer looked awesome. Developed by Housemarque, the team behind Resogun and next month’s Nex Machina, Matterfall takes place in the “vertical cities of a distant future” where you fight for the control of a mysterious “smart matter” which is overrunning your world and giving rise to hoards of matter-infected enemies. We’re not sure how it plays but it’s safe to assume it will be some sort of twin-stick shooter. Given the game’s apparent and prolonged quietness, there’s a fairly strong possibility it may shelved for the time being, but lets hope we’ll see it resurface at E3 2017.
4. WiLD
Like the previous game on our list, WiLD was also coincidentally shown at Paris Games Week 2015. It hasn’t been as quiet as Matterfall, but it isn’t shouting from the rooftops either. The last update on the game was by veteran game designer Michael Ancel’s instagram account back in January when he posted a beautiful screenshot of the game with the caption, “Getting lost in your game is a great satisfaction.” Lets hope this isn’t the last we see of WiLD.
3. Eitr
The last time we saw Eitr was at Sony’s 2015 E3 Press Conference and it’s gone silent ever since. It was slated for a 2016 release then moved to 2017 and now it’s looking like it may quietly slip into 2018. This gorgeous game is a 2D isometric Dark Souls style action RPG by Devolver Digital set in Norse mythology. It is supposed to be challenging and require precise timing of blocks, combos and buffs in order to overcome battles.
2. Vane
Announced at PlayStation Experience 2016, Vane looks like a cross between The Last Guardian and Tequila Works’ Rime. I was blown away by the reveal trailer and i can’t wait to see more of the game. The team behind the game is Friend & Foe and they’ve been working on Vane for over 2 years now. They’ve been awfully quiet since PSX but on the PlayStation Blog they’ve confirmed 2017 as a launch date for Vane. Of course that may very well change in the near future but for right now, consider us hyped. Lets just hope we don’t have to wait for the next PSX to learn more about it.
1. We Happy Few
We Happy Few left quite the impression on me when it was shown during Microsoft’s E3 2016 press conference. It felt like Bioshock and had all the quirks and off-kilter humor i expect from games like it. Developed by Compulsion Games, We Happy Few is a survival game with Permadeath in a procedurally generated world. Players will have to juggle precious resources like food, water and sleep to survive in this crazy city called Wellington Wells. The game is currently in Early Access on Steam and available on GoG as a Game In Development and on Xbox One through the Xbox Preview program but no firm date has been given for the full game. Will it be at Microsoft’s E3 presser this year? Let us hope so.
Are there any other gems i missed that you’re excited for? Leave your thoughts and predictions down below as we inch closer to E3 2017.
