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It’s gonna be good
Hold up! Don’t like reading? Watch instead…
All things considered, 2022 was a suprisingly good year for first-person gaming.
We got some highs with Scorn and Prodeus…
Mids with Dying Light 2 and High on Life…
And shear disappointments with Modern Warfare II.
But 2023 looks like it’s going to be a better year for quality first-person games.
So pray with me as we hope that these developers’ reputations and the gameplay they’ve shown thus far live up to the hype.
I want these games to deliver. The industry needs these games to deliver.
5. Dead Island 2
Games that have a production value, don’t take themselves too seriously, and are fun are becoming rarer and rarer these days.
The first Dead Island kind of capped off a lost era of gaming — fitting right in with the silliness of Dead Rising and the novelty of Far Cry before the forced Oscar-level performances.
The industry has been missing honest and genuine games for a while but that 90s fun formula might be making a comeback.
We don’t need another deep story with so-and-so actor making a cameo or starring.
If Dambuster Studios can just give us a beautiful zombie-killing sandbox with creative weapons and environmental traps and exploits, that’ll be a win.
I just want to run around and get gory.
Dead Island 2 drops in April.
4. Atomic Heart
Am I the only person that thinks there’s something different about the way Eastern European developers create first-person shooters?
Metro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Tarkov… all those scary indie steam games…
There’s just something unique about the way they do things.
Atomic Heart feels like if Bioshock, Half-Life, and the Russian sense of humor had a baby.
The world feels completely alien and the “utopia gone wrong” story is always cool…
The gunplay and combat look meaty and visceral…
And Mick Gordon is doing the soundtrack.
There’s a lot for Mundfish to live up to on this one — especially with the rumors of a rocky development cycle.
Here’s hoping they deliver in February.
3. Witchfire
Remember, the 90s is coming back.
And Witchfire is proof of it.
From the creative leads that brought us Painkiller in 2004, The Astronauts is giving us a rogue-like arena shooter.
Except they delayed it to modernize the gameplay loop.
Instead of moving into an arena and having to defeat enemies before moving on, they’ve converted the game into a semi-open world experience.
I’m all for more Doom-like, adrenaline-pumping shooters that make you feel like a badass. And Witchfire’s dark fantasy world looks like an R-rated Van Helsing or a gun-wielding The Witcher remake.
The game is scheduled to release early this year as an Epic Games Store early access exclusive. They plan to officially release it everywhere later on.
2. Transience and Deadrop
This is a 2-for-1.
Game development has been extremely expensive and cumbersome for the past 20 years. That’s why games now are formulaic, cookie-cutter, and boring.
But that’s all changing.
We are entering a new renaissance of games created by gamers, for gamers.
Transience is a tactical shooter being developed by Bigfry Media Ltd. — the very same BigFry of YouTube. His team is creating a single-player shooter that respects the depth, tone, and seriousness of tactical IPs of the past.
We get to play as a hired gun that apparently gets double-crossed and hunted down. Whatever the final product is, based on BigFry’s love for franchises that used to treat gamers like adults, I’m excited to play Transience this year.
Deadrop is a vertical extraction battle royale being developed by Midnight Society and Dr Disrespect. If you know anything about The Doc, aside from the raging, he’s actually knowledgable about game design — he helped create a few Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare maps.
But more than the maps, Dr Disrespect’s approach to game design is the 90s attitude personified — he prioritizes feelings over formula.
I’m excited to see a battle royale that isn’t interested in nickel and diming and just wants the player to have fun. Deadrop won’t make it in 2023, but it’s definitely one to watch out for until its likely 2025 release.
1. Redfall
The game I’m most excited about in 2023 is Redfall.
Arkane Studios, to me, is one of the few studios today that are crafting unique, vivid, and coherent worlds the right way. You know you’re not getting the shades of brown and dudebro formulae.
But Arkane looks like they’re trying something new with their game design this time.
Redfall is a coop FPS set in a small Massachusetts town infested with Vampires. And based on Arkane’s past games, I’d be a bit worried if this Microsoft-exclusive title designed to appeal to a console audience… controlled like their usual immersive sims.
What I’m seeing and hoping for is a move away from the studio’s trademark FPS controls which can sometimes feel “thin” or “detached”, and a move towards more responsive and arcadey FPS standards.
Games that feel like Fallout, Thief, Elder Scrolls, and Deus Ex will always have a place in the industry, but being able to go vampire hunting in a coastal Americana town with friends without being limited by FPS mechanics is going to be something special.
In fact, it was rumored that Id Software was helping Arkane with Redfall’s development.
I hope Redfall gives us the best of both worlds — an immersive open-world populated with small and big stories and environmental detail you can get lost in, and a visceral first-person, stake-shooting experience.
Redfall is likely dropping this year as a Microsoft exclusive.
Conclusion
2023 is going to be a great year for first-person gaming.
Starfield, Payday 2, and more are likely to drop this year so there’s going to be no shortage of ways to hurt your wallet.
Keep gaming and as always, stay cool, gentlemen.
