Two principal characters duel in a maelstrom of vivid color. Beyond the assurance that this is a “world premiere” trailer, I have a little inkling as to the context of their battle. Each blast of magic is a gorgeously animated treat. Despite enjoying the spectacle, however, my mind races to put the pieces together.
“Is that the Hades theme?”, I ask myself in disbelief. I hear the melody again. “No, it can’t be, it is, isn’t it?”. My suspicions are confirmed, my jaw drops and I pump my fist with excitement. “Hades 2: holy moly!” I joyfully exclaim to my empty living room. More Hades means more tight, responsive gameplay, more mystery, melodrama, and dreamy Ancient Greek deities. More Hades is most welcome.
Over the next hour or so, The Game Awards 2022 continued to wash over me and I found myself going through this cycle again and again. Before I knew it, I had lost count of the number of times I’d cheered and gasped while watching the trailers being premiered at the ceremony. It was a good feeling; a tentative but unashamed combination of nostalgia and optimism.
Over the past few years, we have had to reckon with the stark economic, social, and psychological strain imposed by the Covid crisis and the shadow it has cast over the games industry. While there have been heaps of excellent titles between the beginning of the pandemic and now, things haven’t been the same for developers or consumers. However, though the pandemic is still very much in force, it was wonderful to see a games industry at The Game Awards that seemed to be looking to the future once more.
Rinse and repeat
Sequels seemed to be the theme of the evening and ranged from the unexpected to the keenly anticipated. Hades 2 and Death Stranding 2 blindsided me (in a good way). Hades 2 was especially surprising, given Supergiant Games’ historical aversion to sequels. Even Death Stranding 2 came out of the left field, what with the ending to the original having seemed rather conclusive at the time.
We are now moving to a period of incubation, where discrete titles are being given the opportunity to expand into larger, more holistic sagas of their own.
Space Marine 2 and Jedi: Survivor were also previewed, continuing the trend of sequels to previously standalone titles. To my mind, this indicates the start of a promising industry trend. We are now moving to a period of incubation, where discrete titles are being given the opportunity to expand into larger, more holistic sagas of their own. Though this process is no guarantee of quality, it is promising and reassuring to see the next generation of long-form multi-part video game series take root.
On that note, we also saw a range of keenly anticipated sequels to longer-running series, with Armored Core 6, Final Fantasy 16, and Street Fighter 6 all on the horizon. Though we cannot speak as to the quality of any of these titles yet, the prospect of a return to FromSoftware’s classic mech series alongside the most promising single-player Final Fantasy we’ve seen in years is possibly more than my JRPG-loving heart can handle.
The future is now
Despite an overarching trend towards iteration, we were also treated to a range of fresh titles aiming to carve out fresh niches within the game-o-sphere. The Game Awards 2022 had a lot to offer in this regard: anachronistic explore-em-up Nightingale, eerie Metroidvania Earthblade, the anime-inspired RPG stylings of Blue Protocol, the decadent 90s palette of Crime Boss: Rockay City and free-to-play fantasy co-op adventure Wayfinder all featured amongst the show’s roster of new offerings.
What was most striking about this diverse melange of new titles, however, was not a predisposition towards a certain style of gameplay de jour, but a refreshing commitment to diverse and vivid aesthetic statements. The colorful, absurdist world of Inflexion’s Nightinggale is boldly reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland while Earthblade’s luscious pixel art conjures evocative images of lurid jungles and foreboding temples. Even Rockay City’s grimey 90s aesthetic is punctuated with vivid purples and decadent golds. It would appear that a return to the days of drab grays and browns dominating our screens is absolutely not on the cards.
Sunk costs
However, there was one major element of The Game Awards 2022 that gave me cause for concern: the awards themselves. Though God of War Ragnarok is, undoubtedly, a well-crafted game, the sheer amount of adulation the game received did seem disproportionate to its influence on the medium as a whole. Though the trailers exhibited at The Game Awards were bursting with futurism, the awards side of the show seemed stymied by outmoded industry views.
The Game Awards seems set on perpetuating a narrow view of what a “prestigious” video game looks like. Though the Game of the Year award was well-earned by Elden Ring, titles that failed to tick the “third person prestige action game” box seemed to be widely ignored. Though it was promising to see Final Fantasy 14 win the best ongoing game, the “Games for Impact” and best independent game categories seemed patronizing in the way that they relegated some of the best titles of the year to their own little indie corner.
Though there has been slow progress in this regard compared to previous years, the contrast between the bold futurism of the ceremony’s trailers and the constrained traditionalism of the awards ceremony proper was palpable.
Despite this, the future as a whole seems bright for video games. I came away from The Game Awards feeling a sense of profound excitement and hope for the future of games; something I’d not felt since the start of the pandemic. As I did in the before-times, I was able to watch a showcase of exciting trailers with child-like wonder in my eyes – no mean feat in this age of financial crisis and tribulation.
