E3 2017 - Sony Overview

Much like last year, Sony opened its E3 press conference with a live musical score. This time, away from the drama of 2016’s orchestra, it was a much more ambient Asian inspired score, complete with a dancing waterfall background. Of course, all the panache was for one of Sony’s key exclusives: Uncharted. The ‘sort of spinoff, sort of sequel, sort of additional story content’ The Lost Legacy continued to impress with a breathless trailer featuring protagonists Chloe and Nadine as they search for the Tusk of Ganesha.

Instantly, it became clear that 2017’s conference would run in a similar style to recent Sony’s shows. Trailer after trailer played with little interference from people on stage. Following Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, snow began to fall in the auditorium as we got a brief glimpse at Horizon: Zero Dawn DLC, titled The Frozen Wilds. Coming later this year, it looks to continue Aloy’s quest as she ventures to the snowy north to battle different enemies and machines.

And before we could even catch breath, we were back to the not-so-far into the future with an extended look at Days Gone, Sony Bend’s foray into the zombie genre. The trailer shown screamed The Last of Us, with extreme violence and gritty realism, twinned with tactical stealth, making traps and a dynamic open world. Perhaps more importantly, this one has motorcycles and bears.

It wasn’t until after seeing these three PlayStation exclusives that Shawn Layden took to the stage for only a matter of seconds stating that “Sony worldwide studios is bringing everything you want”. What did he mean by that?

Well, Monster Hunter is finally coming back to the PlayStation console in the form of Monster Hunter Worlds, coming early 2018. The Capcom IP is well loved and has spent recent years exclusively on Nintendo consoles, but the trailer shown finally gives PlayStation gamers a chance to hunt, kill, cook and eat creatures of all shapes and sizes.

Speaking of massive creatures, the next trailer shown was for a current-gen remake of the PS2 icon Shadow of the Colossus. In what is really the only “holy shit” surprise announcement of Sony’s showcase, it is set for release next year, but given Studio Japan’s record on game development, that could change pretty dramatically.

Following a story trailer for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite in which Thanos was freed from prison, it was confirmed that a story demo is available to download now.

From warring dimensions, to warring nations, a story trailer for Call of Duty: WWII was next on stage, displaying a variety of environments from dense forests to destroyed cities and blooded covered snowy fields, before transitioning into space. This of course was for Destiny 2, where Sony’s partnership with Activision continued to be flaunted, as the PlayStation version of the Bungie title will feature an exclusive strike called Lake of Shadows as well as exclusive gear, exotic weapons and a PvP map.

The show then pulled on the handbrakes and plunged us into a world of VR announcing six new titles coming to the device. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim seemingly just won’t die as on top of heading to Switch, a PlayStation VR version is coming, though no date was given. Next was sci-fi style side scroller Star Childs, Bravo Team which looks to be a generic FPS and Final Fantasy XV Monster of the Deep - essentially Final Fantasy fishing. It wasn’t until the last games that may viewers interests were piqued, The Inpatient, developed by Supermassive and described as a prequel to Until Dawn looks set to give VR uses my terrifying psychological experiences, while Moss, is the other end of the spectrum where you guide a warrior mouse through platforming levels.

God of War finally returned to our screens after a being in hiding since its announcement last year. This time around we got a much broader look at moment-to-moment gameplay as well as clues towards the story. Essentially, it’s a father teaching a son the way of the world, albeit a world full of weird monsters and massive water serpents. It’s a million miles away from the hack and slash of previous iterations and appears to bear a closer resemblance to the Souls genre; we’ll have to wait until 2018 to find out more.

Continuing with the flurry of exclusives, it was Detroit: Become Human’s time for another gameplay demo, though with the trend of anticipated games, this one is coming in 2018 too. Much like other Quantic Dream titles, this one is all about finding and creating your own path through the story. Another android leading the revolution, Marcus, is introduced as he leads a small team to free others from a showroom, concluding in dramatic fashion which could end in a number of different ways.

Rounding off a shorter than normal press conference was the highly anticipated Spider-Man (2017) exclusive, developed by Insomniac Games in which we were given reams of actual gameplay and a breathless boss battle through the skies of New York. In it, Spidey faces against a group of bad guys called The Demons and is shown using a whole host of web slinging skills to bring them to justice.

Granted, there seems to be a lot of QTEs and button matching, but consider how both Arkham and Uncharted games play and that’s what you’re getting with Spider-Man (2017); cinematic nonsense featuring Spidey. Unfortunately, we’ve got a little longer to wait with the date given being a vague and distant 2018.

And with that, the 2017 press conference came to a close. It was far from the legendary show of last year, and we only saw a handful of completely new IP, but there’s certainly a lot to look forward going forward for Sony.