Best of Gamescom 2024: A guide to the schedule, new games and trailers, and more
8.15.2024
By Dave Tach, Contributor
The scale of Gamescom—which ran from Wednesday, August 21 to Sunday, August 25, 2024—is almost impossible to describe. Gamescom’s organizers said that last year’s festival drew 320,000 visitors from 116 countries. The show is massive, and 2024's show felt even bigger, with exhibitors representing more than 30 different countries.
Per usual, it all began with Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live (ONL) show. Yes, the same Geoff Keighley behind Summer Game Fest, which just brought world premieres, news, trailers, and more to Los Angeles in June. Keighley was joined by co-host Eefje Depoortere, a.k.a. Sjokz, whose resume includes stints as a professional esports player and host of the League of Legends European Championship.
We've recapped all of the biggest news from Opening Night Live, along with the Xbox Showcase and Future Games Show, at the bottom of this post. And you can find our voluminous write-ups, hands-ons, and interviews from the Gamescom show floor below!
The show floor: Interviews, hands-on previews, and news
Rogue Waters is a swashbuckling fantasy that puts the tactics back in sword fighting
Hands-on with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s gritty medieval world and Holy Roman Empire politics
The Stone of Madness: Conduct a monastery heist in the heights of the Pyrenees
Marvel Rivals delivers guaranteed destruction with a roster of iconic characters
Commandos: Origins brings a Hitman-esque redesign to a long-lost PC classic
Sonic X Shadow Generations embraces the darkness in a wonderfully Y2K new Shadow campaign
Hands-on with Killing Floor 3: a terrifying evolution of the series’ monsters
STALKER 2’s world is exactly as bleak and unforgiving as you expect
Path of Exile 2’s Gamescom demo let me build a terrifying skeleton army
In Anno 117: Pax Romana players dictate Britain's fate under Roman rule
Atomfall imagines a British apocalypse where cricket bats are deadlier than radiation
Planet Coaster 2 might feel familiar, but it's still making waves at Gamescom
Hands-on with Civilization VII’s new historical sandbox
Hands-on with Splitgate 2, a slick love letter to the arena shooters of yore
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII: 5 revolutionary changes that redefine the series
Star Wars: Outlaws’ dev talks creative control, accessibility, and the fluffy force
Dying Light: The Beast throws series protagonist Kyle Crane back into the spotlight
How Farming Simulator 25 aims to plow over all your free time this NovemberOpening Night Live: The big show
Geoff Keighley and Eefje Depoortere, a.k.a. Sjokz, kicked off Gamescom 2024 with Opening Night Live in Cologne, Germany. Here’s the biggest Opening Night Live news for Epic Games Store users—and stay tuned as we update this story every day of Gamescom with more news and announcements.
Sonic X Shadow Generations
Sonic X Shadow Generations aims to blend classic and modern Sonic games. The story-driven campaign stars Shadow, who sports new abilities and sets off on an adventure to explore his past and save the world. Sonic X Shadow Generations also includes a game-within-a-game, as it ships with a remastered version of 2011’s Sonic Generations.
Sonic X Shadow Generations is set to be released on Oct. 25, 2024 on the Epic Games Store.
Roadcraft
Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment announced RoadCraft during the Opening Night Live preshow. RoadCraft is a simulation game where players restore ravaged industrial sites around the world—often in the wake of natural disasters like floods and sandstorms. Restoration, powered by more than 40 vehicles, includes clearing the land, restoring infrastructure, and reviving dormant factories. It’s scheduled to be released in 2025.
Revenge of the Savage Planet
In Revenge of the Savage Planet, corporate greed makes players redundant—and then leaves them stranded. The four-planet-hopping adventure is all about exploration, scanning, and crafting as players lasso and capture strange alien creatures. Developer Raccoon Logic Studios’ irreverent sequel is set to be released with cross-play and split-screen options in 2025.
Borderlands 4
Gamescom Opening Night Live proper began with a surprise (one that Geoff Keighley was proud to declare hadn’t leaked). The mysterious trailer showed a cracked planet, a smoldering fire, and a mechanical hand at the end that picked up the classic Borderlands mask. It's Borderlands 4!
Goat Simulator Remastered
Goat Simulator Remastered arrived at Opening Night Live with an excellent trailer full of strange juxtapositions, blocky and super-realistic characters, nods to other games and their remasters—a mishmash of dozens of elements as bizarre as the franchise that it represents. It’s scheduled to be released in 2024 with updated graphics and all of the original game’s DLC.
Dying Light: The Beast's Opening Night Live trailer explored what happens when you—as the narrator said—push a man so much that you unleash the beast. Host Geoff Keighley said that original Dying Light protagonist Kyle Crane returns for an adventure that holds about 20 hours of parkour-infused, zip-lining, arrow-shooting, zombie-killing gameplay.
Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong's launch trailer showed off the action role-playing game’s frenetic action. For more on the game—which was released on the Epic Games Store on August 19, 2024—check out our guide to Black Myth: Wukong’s best skills.
No More Room in Hell 2
No More Room in Hell 2, the eight-player co-op action game from developer Torn Banner Studios, showed off its multiplayer action with a short trailer during Opening Night Live. No More Room in Hell 2 forces players to scavenge to survive, and every playable character has one (and only one) life. Surviving means leveling up. Dying means starting over. It’s “co-op with consequences,” according to the developer.
Check out our impressions of the game, which puts a zombie horde between you and your co-op pals.
ARC Raiders
ARC Raiders is a free-to-play, third-person, PvPvE extraction shooter set in a lethal future earth ravaged by a mechanized threat known as ARC. The trailer shown during Opening Night Live showed off its barren environments and hammered home just how bad things are in the future—and how big the opportunities are for players.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, developer Saber Interactive’s upcoming action game, focused on the emperor’s elite warriors and the call of war. A sequel releasing more than a decade after its predecessor, this third-person action game's campaign follows an Ultramarine named Titus, returning from the original Space Marine. It also features competitive multiplayer modes.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 releases on September 9, 2024—but before then, check out our impression of the multiplayer modes.
Path of Exile 2
Developer Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 2 is an action-RPG set six years after the original. Setting off into the dark world of Wraeclast, your job is to stop the spreading corruption.
Path of Exile 2's creators promise a staggering amount of content, including a six-act campaign (and endgame content), 100 environments, 600 monsters, and 100 bosses. There are also 12 character classes that players can shape and tweak as they play. The numbers and the possibilities don’t stop there. A new Skill Gem system includes 240 Skill Gems plus 200 Support Gems to modify their behavior, as well as a Passive Skill Tree with 1,500 skills. Also? There are 700 equipment base types, each one with a unique item that players can find.
Check out Path of Exile 2 in the Epic Games Store ahead of its November 15, 2024 Early Access date.
Enotria: The Last Song
Enotria: The Last Song showed off a bit of its gameplay, inspired by Italian folklore and FromSoftware’s brutally difficult action role-playing games, during Opening Night Live. For more on the game, check out our hands-on with the Italian Soulslike.
Enotria: The Last Song releases on the Epic Games Store on September 18, 2024.
Infinity Nikki
Infinity Nikki is the latest entry in Infold Games’ cozy fashion-centric series, and the upbeat aesthetic was on full display during Opening Night Live. Check out the trailer above to see the magical creatures, the many outfits, and the fundamentally musical nature of this fifth game in the series. Expect lots of singing cats and mythical creatures crooning.
Infinity Nikki is coming soon to the Epic Games Store.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves arrived at Opening Night Live with a brief trailer showcasing the fighting game franchise’s return after 26 years, thanks to developer SNK Corporation.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is scheduled to be released April 24, 2025 on the Epic Games Store with 17 fighters, new and old.
Naraka: Bladepoint
The Opening Night Live trailer for Naraka: Bladepoint showcased an upcoming crossover that will take players to the Tomb Raider universe starting August 28, 2024. The franchise-combining update for developer 24 Entertainment’s melee-based battle royale is aptly titled Bladepoint x Tomb Raider.
Naraka: Bladepoint is available now for free on the Epic Games Store.
Genshin Impact
The Genshin Impact trailer during Opening Night Live served as a showcase for Natlan, a new area coming to the game. It included glimpses of characters like Mulani and Kinich mugging for the camera, riding sharks, hanging out on the top of plateaus, and having epic battles on floating rocks.
Genshin Impact is available for free now on the Epic Games Store. The showcased updates will arrive November 20, 2024.
Sid Meier's Civilization VII
As promised, Opening Night Live included the first look at gameplay for Sid Meier's Civilization VII. The game showcased the civilizations that will vie for world domination early next year as the long-running strategy series reworks major aspects of its 30-year-old campaign.
The trailer began with a retrospective of the franchise, which always encompasses the history of the entire world—and that’s not about to change. In the new trailer, cities grew, knights rode, hurricanes swirled, tanks fired, and mushroom clouds glowed. For a deeper dive on what's changing, check out our brand-new preview of Sid Meier's Civilization VII. And for more on the venerated franchise and its current entry, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, check out our story about why Civilization VI remains so popular and our guide to the best starting civs.
Sid Meier's Civilization VII is currently set for a February 11, 2025 release on the Epic Games Store.
Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is an upcoming team-based PvP shooter from NetEase Games, and its Opening Night Live trailer showcased heroes like Wakanda’s own Black Panther and Bucky Barnes a.k.a. Winter Soldier. Captain America also spent a lot of time bashing his way through levels with friends at his side—and enemies flying back after being hit with the concussive blast from his trusty shield.
Marvels Rivals releases December 6, 2024 with every hero free-to-play. For more on the game, be sure to read our story that explains why Marvel Rivals’ greatest strength is embracing the comics’ high weirdness.
Delta Force
The Opening Night Live trailer for Delta Force showed off flaring tensions, flamethrowers, and a team of elite soldiers who bravely plunge into the chaos to restore peace and end suffering. Delta Force will be free-to-play at launch, and will propel players across two timelines, set in 1993 and 2035.
Delta Force is coming soon to the Epic Games Store.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the sequel to 2018's acclaimed RPG from developer Warhorse Studios and publisher Deep Silver, returns players to 15th-century Bohemia. Its Opening Night Live trailer showcased protagonist Henry of Skalitz and the many things he’ll get up to this time—playing politics, traveling by horseback through idyllic countrysides, and (of course) the brutal melee combat that often ends with enemies impaled on a sword. For more on the game, be sure to read our interview with its developers, who explain how Kingdom Come: Deliverance II pushes the medieval RPG series even further.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is coming soon to the Epic Games Store, arriving Feb. 11, 2025. You can also catch its upcoming gameplay premiere on August 21.
Xbox Showcase
The Casting of Frank StoneIn the latest trailer for Behaviour Interactive's single-player horror spin-off from Dead by Daylight, we get a glimpse into some unique features coming to the game.
In The Casting of Frank Stone, due out on September 3, developer Supermassive Games drops players into the small town of Cedar Hills, Oregon, which is haunted by the legacy of sadistic serial killer Frank Stone. Players join a group of friends as they attempt to solve the mystery surrounding the killer and his legacy.
The video shown tonight highlighted a number of new features, including four-player couch co-op and deep Twitch integration, which allows viewers to vote on each choice throughout a gaming session.
We also got a look at an in-game 8mm camera that can unveil the team's supernatural pursuer, a feature called Cutting Room Floor (included with the Deluxe Edition) that allows players to revisit key story decisions after beating the game, and Plunderer’s Instinct, which highlights the aura of any Trinket Chest you might have missed. You get this feature with a pre-order or after you beat the game.
[Redacted]
Developer Striking Distance (Callisto Protocol) gave us a look at the recently renamed [Redacted] (formerly known as Project Birdseye] in a trailer that shows off gameplay with a focus on “rivals,” characters who are survivors of a mysterious viral outbreak at the Callisto prison known as Black Iron.
[Redacted] is an isometric roguelike set in Black Iron. You take on the role of a prison guard trying to get to the last escape pod. The rivals—Sark, Liz, and Don—are also trying to get to the escape pod and will do whatever it takes to be the one aboard it when it slips away from the other creeping horrors of the prison.
[Redacted] releases on October 31.
The Future Games Show
The Spirit of the SamuraiDigital Mind Games showed off a slice of their stop-motion samurai title. The Spirit of the Samurai is an artistic action-game, where the characters and world have all been hand-crafted and animated, bringing a startling aesthetic to the side-scrolling Soulslike. It’s out sometime in 2024 and can be wishlisted now. Bionic Bay
Side-scrolling physics platformer Bionic Bay shook our world when we saw it. You play a scientist who can manipulate the world and teleport around. Giant levels full of objects are flipped and twisted, sending backdrops and platforms tumbling into new positions. It’s literally ground-breaking. The Stone of Madness
We got a close look at The Stone of Madness in action. Five prisoners of a Spanish monastery band together to escape in a real-time stealth tactics game. You have to work out the best route while the guards go about their daily routine. But being a prisoner in a bleak place takes its toll, and you must manage your escapee’s phobia and fears as you make your bid for freedom.
The beautiful artwork and menacing tone make it one to watch out for in 2025. Rogue Waters
We got our first look at Rogue Waters, a tactical, turn-based rogue-like set in a cursed pirate world. The game will have you taking on the role of a captain as you assemble a crew and then take to the procedurally generated seas.
Rogue Waters is due out on September 30. Bloomtown: A Different Story
Cozy gaming meets demon fighting and a really creepy grandpa voice-over in the latest trailer for Bloomtown: A Different Story.
The pixel-art narrative JRPG mixes turn-based combat and monster taming with a social RPG set in the 1960s. The video gives us a glimpse of how those divergent ideas collide in Bloomtown, which releases on Sept. 24. Faaast Penguin
Who needs Mario Kart on PC when you have tummy-sliding Faaast Penguins? In this new trailer, we get a look at the free game coming in September. Races feature up to 40 penguins, which can attack one another, zip through shortcuts, and hop on “ultimate rides” as they battle to be the first to cross the finish line. Worshippers of Cthulhu
Worshippers of Cthulhu dropped its release date in a stunning new look at this Lovecraftian-soaked city-building strategy game.
Players build and manage a thriving city while walking the fine line between madness and the horrors of ancient gods. The game hits just shy of Halloween, on October 21. Beyond Galaxyland
A trailer for Beyond Galaxyland, developer Sam Enright’s role-playing game heavily inspired by classic science fiction movies, follows a high school protagonist named Doug and his armed guinea pig sidekick, Boom Boom, across the galaxy on a quest to save the universe using puzzle-solving abilities and battling more than 25 bosses with classic turn-based combat.
The duo will arrive on the Epic Games Store rendered in a retro, pixelated 2.5D adventure on September 24, 2024. Squirrel with a Gun
Developer Dee Dee Creations’ Squirrel with a Gun puts players in the paws of an obnoxious rodent, hands them some weapons, and invites chaos in this open-world mashup of sandbox shooter and puzzle-platformer. The trailer is full of what looks like classic special agents in dark suits, sunglasses, and white shirts, who are no match for the tiny troublemaker who bounces around the neighborhood with guns blazing, toy cars chasing, and drones buzzing the hapless human inhabitants.
Squirrel with a Gun arrives on the Epic Games Store August 29, 2024. Ravenswatch
A trailer for Ravenswatch from developer Passtech Games is full of action, combat and a mocking, evil witch hanging out in a cauldron inside of a walking house. Check out the trailer for a glimpse at the isometric action across multiple randomly generated maps and featuring its heroes fighting and sometimes ping-ponging their way through evil enemy hoards.
Ravenswatch, the latest game from the team behind Curse of the Dead Gods, is coming soon to the Epic Games Store solo and four-player co-op play.
That's it for Gamescom 2024! Keep an eye out, as all of the games above are slated to make their way to the Epic Games Store in the future—and some, like Star Wars Outlaws, are already out! Stay tuned for additional interviews, hands-ons, guides, and more as these games get closer to release.