Gamescom Opening Night Live 2021 - Event Recap

Yesterday, Geoff Keighley, gaming's very own Ryan Seacrest, the presenter of all things, kicked off Gamescom 2021, with ONL, and as he always delivers, a great show. We got a lot of great trailers, news, and updates. Here is a list of the major announcements and reveals at ONL 2021. If you go back and watch it, word of advice, don't play the "World Premier" drinking game.

We got a lot of great news on anticipated AAA games such as Halo Infinite, Lego Star Wars, Far Cry 6, and Call of Duty Vanguard. We also got word on some exciting and hyper popular games such as world phenomenon Splitgate, Genshin Impact, and more. There were some "surprises" such as Saints Row and Marvel's Midnight Suns.

Full Presentation

For those who wish to watch the entire event, the link is above. For the rest, here is our break down of the major announcements and news.

Saints Row (Reboot)

As a huge fan of the Saints Row franchise, with Saints Row III and Saints Row IV being some absolute fun memories when I was younger. The outlandish guns and world was just a blast. I still have a replica Dubstep gun sitting in my gamer collection. This is why I am both excited and disappointed with Saints Row being rebooted. On one hand, if it is good, I am happy to have Saints Row back. However, I am very hesitant. While all we got was a cinematic trailer, it looked very bland to me. The location and the characters look like they are trying to hard to be Rage or Borderlands, and not Saints Row. Honestly, with new characters and a more desert like setting, I could see this being a new IP, but nothing about it felt "Saints Row". There were no purple suits and gangster GTA parody vibes. I just was pretty disappointed by the reboot being so complete so much it feels like they are just using the name for sales sake. Time will tell if I am wrong.

Marvel's Midnight Suns

Midnight Suns was the worst kept secret reveal of the night, as leaks and rumors of a "Marvel XCOM" have been circling for some time, and we got an admittedly very exciting cinematic reveal. However, as cool as the trailer is, and the vague description of the type of game we got, it most likely will be an XCOM style game that will either appeal or turn away many gamers.

Call of Duty Vanguard - Campaign Gameplay

Up until now, we didn't have any actual gameplay from Vanguard, but ONL gave us a great 9 minute look at the campaign. I will say I enjoyed the slower pace of the gameplay rather than the over the top Michael Bay edition, and I also enjoyed the historical priority that Sledgehammer enjoys in their games.

Halo Infinite - Multiplayer Cinematic Intro + Release Date

While a new cinematic trailer is not really what I wanted from Halo Infinite, as we have gotten many so far, I would have far more enjoyed a gameplay deep dive for campaign and multiplayer, what we did get was a new release date of December 8th. This was later than I think a lot fo gamers were expecting, I really expected no later than a November release. I just hope this won't be another Cyberpunk-December disaster. While Halo Infinite has been consistently at or near the top of my most anticipated lists, what is interesting is this release date actually puts it in the Game Awards and our own end of year event standing for 2022 not 2021. This means even if it is amazing, it can't qualify for a GOTY 2021 nomination.

Cult of the Lamb

Midnight Flight Express

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Splitgate Season 0

Splitgate is an absolute surprise hit for me, as it wasn't on my radar at all until everyone just started playing. Even in Beta I gave it an impressions score of 9/10 and it is clearly the most fun I have had in a entirely new game this year so far. ONL gave us a look at Season 0 and future content coming to this amazing game. If you haven't tried Splitgate yet, it is free and a must play. It is a beautiful Frankenstein of Halo and Portal, and some of the most perfect online formula.

Riders Republic

Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga

We are huge Star Wars fans here at Game Infinite, so much so we have a dedicated Gi Channel for all things Star Wars news, cosplay, fan art, and more over at Star Wars Infinite.

News on anything Star Wars in the gaming world has been so dry we Star Wars fans are in a metaphorical desert. EA Play came and went without a single mention of Star Wars, (a perfect telling of how low priority it has for EA); and also Ubisoft Foward came and went with no mention of Ubisoft's Star Wars project. It has also been a year since we got any news on the much anticipated Lego Star Wars Skywalker SAGA that was supposed to launch last year. It was later delayed to 2021, and now it has received a 2022 release date. While the new trailer we got was amazing, and the scope of this project is understandably great, I just can't wait to play a new Star Wars game.

Synced: Off Planet

Synced looks to be a new scif-fi game where humans are escaping an oppressive race of Nanite-created machines called Nanos. Interesting, but not much is known about it yet.

The Outlast Trials

Jurassic World Evolution 2 - Gameplay and Release Date

Far Cry 6 Story Trailer

Newer to the franchise, having only played Far Cry 5, I became a fan of the series with just how phenomenal and beautiful 5 was. For that reason alone, I am excited for 6, but more so that the premise and villain look to be phenomenal. We got a new look at the game with a in game story trailer.

Bloodhunt

Vampire the Masquerade universe has been hit with some set backs as the main line game set to launch this year received a major issue with a last minute delay and full reboot. What felt like very shortly before release, the game was all but scrapped and handed to a new team, and delayed indefinitely. While fans of Vampire might be a little let down by this, we are getting a multiplayer focused Battle Royale that I bet was meant to pair with the main game. It is launching on Early Access and we got a short look at the game in ONL.

Park Beyond

Horizon: Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West received a new trailer, alongside a delay to February 2022. We also got confirmation of more of Sony's backtracking on their "We believe in generations" strategy because Forbidden West is also coming to PS4.