E3 2016: Sony Slings Fun Amidst the Familiar

Jeremy LaMont writes: It’s hard to find the weakness, or the finesse, in a massive wall of guns, but sometimes brute force may be the right strategy for the battle. Over the course of Sony’s E3 press conference on Monday, a nearly nonstop barrage of PlayStation 4 game footage buffeted onlookers with pretty, though traditionally scripted and sometimes samey teasers of the months to come.

“We hope to astound you,” Shawn Layden said, accompanied by a live orchestra at the onset. To their credit, Sony got out of the way and let the games and their cinematics speak for themselves, not even trotting out developers, save for one exception later on.

The event led with a new God of War game set in a Norse environment. A bearded Kratos mentors a young boy, perhaps a son, in stalking and killing an elk. A horned troll fight ensues, but the action seems much more pre-determined than your bearded father’s God of War, and somehow seems to hearken to Sony’s other character-action games. Light RPG elements could be spotted as the boy learned archery, and likely many other dismemberment skills from the old man.

Sony re-committed to The Last Guardian, providing a release date of October 25.

A cinematic for Days Gone, a newly-announced title, came next, giving off a very distinct The Last of Us vibe. Toward the end of the conference a live demonstration seems to place it right in the middle of “third-person-Naughty-Dog-style-action-game” territory. It feels a bit like the apocalypse has been done as much as it can, and this game might have benefited from being folded into The Last of Us brand as a side-story to reduce end-of-world fatigue.

Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn, which has previously shown well, demonstrated an extended sequence of capturing a mount and a protracted boss battle. The incidental banter of protagonist Aloy seemed a little too on-the-nose, and evoking a feel of a vertical demo that was just a tad overprepared. However, the game’s studied capture and tactical fighting seem to be solid at this point, and if the Monster Hunter-hooks are executed correctly, it could have legs.

Possibly the most interesting trailer, mechanically, was Detroit: Become Human. New character Connor was introduced, standing down an android hostage taker. Quantic Dream showed us the slow evolution of their method, including Heavy Rain-style investigation and a variety of possible outcomes for the encounter. The trailer showed several approaches to the hostage situation including successful negotiation, disastrous bum-rush, and the hint that there are many other possibilities to choose from.

In a “PSVR Fall Experience” segment, Sony showed off a surprised reveal of Resident Evil 7 (playable completely in VR, although presumably available on several platforms and more traditional interface), as well as a decent look at Farpoint by studio Impulse Gear, and much less substantial intimations at Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing VR Mission, Batman Arkham VR, Final Fantasy XV VR Experience (“Play as Prompto”), and a confusing transition into the next segment…

Without introduction, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare footage began to roll, causing some confusion about whether it was intended to be included in the VR segment, but later on seems clearly not to be related. Regardless, Call of Duty seems to get more interesting the further away from the Modern Warfare rubric it gets. Infinite Warfare still smacks of heavily-scripted events, even in space, but that’s part of the CoD experience. A few standout moments like an anti-gravity grenade and grappling hook showed that Infinity Ward is still conscious of the appeal of a good gimmick. Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered made a brief appearance.

That ended the last of the playable demonstrations at the event, and Shawn Layden again took the stage to announce the return of Crash Bandicoot (remasters) on PS4, along with a guest appearance by Crash in Skylanders Imaginators. A cinematic for LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens showed fairly standard fare for the series, launching in two weeks with a demo immediately available to tide over the interested.

The only guest appearance of the night followed when Hideo Kojima stepped out to show a Norman Reedus-powered Death Stranding trailer, which may or may not be or ever become a product. It was evocative of a dream, showing several surreal images of dead sea life on a beach, and disappearing oil babies. No, it doesn’t make more sense if you watch it.

Finally, a new Spider-Man by Insomniac Games shows that the studio is flexing its Sunset Overdrive muscles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which seems at once like a strange and a perfect choice.

A demo of Days Gone, and a sizzle reel wrapped the evening, reminding us that there are quite a few other titles in the PlayStation 4 pipeline that didn’t get any air at all, and indeed several first party studios have not revealed their projects as yet, and their absence was noticeable.

Overall, Sony kept the pace of the presser clipping along. Although it’s tempting to give them the decisive nod over the competition, it’s important to think back to the proportion of substance to empty calories. Although the night saw an undeniably decent showing for Sony, the final strategic value of brute force is not always so clear.