Summer Game Fest 2022 Recap

Last week's Summer Game Fest livestream was an interesting one. It didn't bring us too many new exciting reveals, but we did get some long-awaited updates for games we already knew about. Check out our full recap of everything shown during the stream below and let us know what your favourite announcement was.

Summer Game Fest 2022 Recap

Whilst it may not quite have been on the same level as E3, last week’s Summer Game Fest was likely the biggest gaming event that we can expect to see this summer. The show brought with it a few interesting reveals, as well as some deeper looks at games we already knew to be in development. You can check out our full recap of the Summer Game Fest 2022 below.

Recap

Street Fighter 6

After host of the show; Geoff Keighley, delivered his opening monologue, the first trailer shown gave us our first look at gameplay in Street Fighter 6. Sure, Street Fighter fans have known about this title for a while now, but it was exciting to see some actual gameplay on display.

The new trailer also brought with it the reveal that Guile is returning to the Street Fighter series. He has a new look and a new move set to go along with it. However, his new move set is said to be an adaption of his classic moves.

Aliens: Dark Descent

The next trailer shown was for a game called Aliens: Dark Descent. Upon first watching the trailer, I naively believed that this could be a sequel to the fantastic Alien: Isolation. However that is sadly not the case.

Instead, this was an extended CG trailer for what looks like a fairly basic isometric sci-fi shooter. Learning that this will not be a fully-fledged AAA Alien experience came as somewhat of a disappointment following the fantastic extended CG trailer which preceded the brief look at gameplay.

The Callisto Protocol

The show continued with a further look at the utterly horrifying Callisto Protocol. During the latest State Of Play stream we got an intriguing look at a story trailer for The Callisto Protocol. It also contained a few brief glimpses of gameplay sprinkled throughout. However, this trailer gave us a much better idea of how the game will actually play from moment to moment.

It has been widely reported that The Callisto Protocol is being made by a team of former Dead Space developers. The gameplay between the two looks uncannily similar. From the gunplay, to the third-person camera, to the limb-shooting action. The tone and environmental design also heavily echo that of Dead Space.

Whilst doing this recap for the Summer Game Fest, I have come to the conclusion that this was my favourite trailer shown during the stream. The eerie tone along with the intriguing set design and familiar gameplay made for a fantastic-looking trailer.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

Following the worldwide reveal of Modern Warfare II, we then saw a trailer showing off a mission in the game’s campaign called Dark Water. This trailer gave us a more detailed look at the additions to the well-established gameplay systems of a Call of Duty game.

Flashback 2

The next game shown was a side-scroller and was a sequel to a 30 year old game. Although there was already a sequel to the original Flashback released called Fade to Black, this game will be called Flashback 2. It will be released sometime towards the end of 2022.

Witchfire

Next up, we got a look at some gameplay from the very Doom-esque Witchfire. The gameplay looks dynamic and fun. Although we have seen this game before, it is still fascinating to see the team responsible for The Vanishing of Ethan Carter take on a project like this.

Routine

Yet another space horror game was shown and it turned out to be the long-anticipated Routine from Mike Gordon. The game looks really creepy and the enemy design is interesting. Although this was the third horror game set in space to be shown during the show, it looks vastly different in tone to both Callisto Protocol and Aliens.

Outriders Worldslayer

Worldslayer is the name of a new game mode coming to the online third-person shooter; Outriders. Although People Can Fly are an extremely talented studio seeing them add game modes to a generic online-only shooter is fairly disappointing to me.

Personally, I would much rather see them develop a new single-player title, but I am sure that fans of the game will be pleased with this additional mode.

Fall Guys Free For All

The majority of Fall Guys players likely picked up the game when it launched free on PlayStation Plus. Although, this new trailer revealed that the game will go free-to-play for all. This is likely welcome news if you aren’t subscribed to PS Plus, or if you happened to miss the initial release of the game and want to check it out.

Goat Simulator 3

Parodying that brilliant trailer for Dead Island 2, (which never actually resulted in a true sequel to Dead Island being released,) Goat Simulator 3 was announced. It will likely bring with it more of the same quirky, glitchy fun that the series has become known for.

Although I am slightly over the intentional goofiness of the Goat Simulator games, Coffee Stain Studios have always taken a pretty meta look at the gaming industry throughout the series. Therefore, it makes complete sense that Goat Simulator 3 would be announced in the form of an absurd parody of the Dead Island 2 trailer.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

The big hashtag behind this one refers to the fact that Spider-Man, ‘is back,’ on Xbox consoles. Although before you get too hyped, it should be noted that this is not the Insomniac version of Spider-Man, (who is coming to PC in August.)

Instead, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a boring turn-based card game with a Marvel skin thrown over the top of it. This type of game is not my thing at all, no matter how much superhero brand recognition is draped over it.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

Remember that Cuphead DLC that was promised away back when? Well, it is finally coming at the end of this month and a trailer was shown for it during the Game Fest. 2D side-scrollers have never been my thing, but I have always admired the art style of Cuphead and it is nice to see the game getting continued support.

Indie Games at Summer Game Fest

A handful of indie games were also shown throughout the stream. Titles such as; Neon White, Midnight Fight Express, Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero, Highwater, American Arcadia, and Stormgate, all got trailers during the show.

Shredder’s Revenge

This 2D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game got a trailer and a release date. Shredder’s Revenge will drop extremely soon, on the 16th of June.

World Premieres

The next part of the show saw back-to-back world premiere trailers for One Piece Odyssey, Metal Hellrising, Nightingale, and Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

Gotham Knights

The penultimate thing shown was a new gameplay trailer for Gotham Knights revolving around Nightwing. The combat looks dynamic and fluid. Although this title isn’t being developed by Rocksteady, it is clear that WB Games Montréal have taken a lot of inspiration from the Arkham series, similar to how they did with Arkham Origins.

The Last of Us

The final game shown was the Last of Us Part I, A.K.A. the Last Of Us remake. This announcement was actually leaked by PlayStation themselves just before the Game Fest event kicked off. We also got a brief new look at the Last of Us series coming to HBO Max.

In amongst the official remake announcement was an image of the Last of Us Factions. This will apparently be sold as a standalone product, even though it is essentially just the online component of The Last Of Us Part 2.

I can’t quite believe that such a lacklustre trailer is ending this recap of the Summer Game Fest. I really expected a huge reveal to close out the show, not a trailer for a completely unnecessary remake.

Summary

Overall, the announcements made during the Summer Game Fest were pretty weak. The most interesting trailer by far was the one shown for the Callisto Protocol. Although we already knew that game was in development.

In terms of fresh new reveals, it left quite a lot to be desired. The big, ‘one last thing,’ announcement being for a remake of a game which is less than ten years old at the time of writing was also a disappointment. Especially when you consider that we have been hearing rumours of this project for the past year.

2022 was the year for the Summer Game Fest to really capitalize on the absence of E3 and I really don’t feel like they did that. This time next year when E3 is back, the Summer Game Fest will likely just go back to being a forgettable footnote in terms of major gaming events.

Last year’s Game Fest saw the official reveal of Elden Ring and this year’s show had nothing on that same level. Keighley needed to get a huge reveal akin to that under his belt for this year’s show. Sadly he evidently did not manage to do that.

With all of that said, what did you think of our recap of the 2022 Summer Game Fest? Which trailer shown was your favourite? Did you feel that the stream was disappointing? Let us know in the comments section or you can hit me up on my Twitter which is linked below.

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