We have always craved great adventures that could keep us playing for hours and hours. Immersive games have become a major success in the past decade, being constantly praised for their complexity and depth.
We’ve seen many games come up in recent years with intricate gameplays and fully immersive experiences, that helped reshape the industry, which shifted its focus to a different approach to how we play video games. Non-linear gameplay, new and more comprehensive narratives, and storylines, and well-constructed characters were able to provide countless hours of playing, attracting new players all around the world.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several studios were forced to shut down operations, which led to the postponement of many titles. So 2021 is expected to be a year full of great new games, and the following are some of the best immersive experiences scheduled to be released in the next few months.
Biomutant
Biomutant is an upcoming open-world action RPG developed by Experiment 101 and published by THQ Nordic, and described by developers as a “post-apocalyptic Kung-Fu fable RPG”. The game is set to be released in May, for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
In Biomutant, players take control of a fully customizable warrior, with attributes like height, body shape, and thickness having a direct impact on gameplay. As the name suggests, the game will allow players to combine mutant powers and bionics to customize their characters, with a comprehensive crafting system for making new weapons and armor. It will also feature a reputation system that will influence the storyline. With a non-linear plot, decisions made by players will decide how the story will progress.
After being first announced in 2017, Experiment 101 went through a rocky road during development and was forced to postpone the release a few times, before finally setting on May 25th for the launch of the game. With beautiful graphics and stunning innovative gameplay, Biomutant is expected to be one of the best releases in 2021.
Starbase
Starbase is a new space-based massively multiplayer online game developed and published by Frozenbyte. It is also scheduled to be launched in May for Microsoft Windows, but an Early Access release is already available on Steam.
Set in an open-world environment, Starbase presents us with a fully destructible and expanding universe, with gameplay focusing on designing and building spaceships and space stations, exploration, scavenging, crafting, and trading. Featuring an innovative physics engine and mechanics based on a hybrid of voxel and vertex technologies, a simple fast-speed collision can rip ships apart and cause catastrophic failures.
After five years of secret development, Frozenbyte states that Starbase will keep improving after its release, with enhancements and upgrades being constantly released until the game can provide a complete creative environment for gamers.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox Game is an open-world adventure game based on the Ethereum blockchain, developed and published by Animoca Brands. The game is currently in its open beta phase and is expected to be fully launched later this year.
The Sandbox Game features a virtual ecosystem, with its own revolving metaverse, and allows players to create their own games and adventures with their 3D game maker, build virtual worlds, design characters, scenery, and items, and trade all these assets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in a completely decentralized marketplace. The gameplay system focuses on gamers sharing experiences and playing at each other’s levels, either as players or creators. Creativity and entrepreneurship are encouraged, and all content created can be monetized using the game’s very own cryptocurrency, called SAND.
The currency can be used to buy assets, to visit other players’ levels and adventures, and to purchase virtual building lots called LANDs, where it’s possible to design games, apply gameplay mechanics and place scenery assets, for other gamers to join in.
Gamedec
Gamedec is an upcoming single-player non-combat isometric RPG, developed and published by Anshar Studios, and set to be released on September 16th for Microsoft Windows. The game is based on a series of novels and stories of the same name by Polish writer Marcin Przybylek, who actively participated in the creation of the game.
Players take control of a game detective, or Gamedec, who solves crimes inside virtual worlds. The gameplay revolves around investigating these crimes by gathering evidence at crime scenes and interrogating NPCs, with the game adapting to the choices made by the players. However, there is no single solution to any situation in the game, and different approaches are available throughout the storyline.
Gamedec has already garnered some good reviews and won several awards and nominations, including the “Best of the Show” award at Gamescom 2019.
