Best NEW Single-Player Games at E3 2019
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VOICE OVER: Andrew Labelle
WRITTEN BY: Jarett Burke
E3 2019 had a lot of surprising moments, and best of all were the announcements of brand new games. So here are our picks for the best new game announcements at E3 2019.
Best New Single Player Games at E3 2019
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today we’re looking at the best newly revealed single player games at E3 2019. Games in this list are allowed to have a multiplayer component as long as it offers a single player campaign as well. We’ll not be including live-service games or coop exclusive titles.
“Blair Witch” (2019)
For those of us craving another first-person survival horror in the wake of “Resident Evil 7,” look no further than “Blair Witch” being released on August 30th of this year for Xbox One and PC. While little is known about the title, we do know that it is developed by the same team behind the deeply chilling “Layers of Fear” released in 2016; and, that it is set in the same universe as the iconic 1999 film of the same name. Its story follows an ex-cop’s search for a missing child in the creepy Dark Hills forest while touching on aspects of the occult, black magic and mythology found in the movie series. Psychological horror games are the perfect single player experiences because they are meant to be played alone in the dark… if… you have the guts, of course.
“Gods & Monsters” (2020)
The team behind “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” is returning to the open-world action genre for their next game, but they’ve taken a more fantastical, stylish approach to both the environment and the narrative compared to past “AC” games – creating what we hope is a mixture of “Breath of the Wild” and the revamped “Assassin’s Creed” titles. We’ll play as the Greek hero Fenyx, as he’s tasked with saving the gods of Olympus from one of the most deadly monsters in all Greek Mythology in Typhon. Along the way, we’ll solve puzzles and overcome difficult dungeons on route to restoring balance to the land. Will “Gods and Monsters” provide as much single player content as “Origins” and “Odyssey?” We’ll have to wait until February 25th, 2020 to find out.
“12 Minutes” (2020)
Surely one of the most innovative single player games at E3 this year, “12 Minutes” is a time loop thriller where a husband and wife are about to enjoy a romantic evening alone when a cop bursts into the apartment, accuses the wife of murder and kills the husband. As the husband, you’ll re-awaken 12 minutes earlier and have to learn new details from your wife to break the time loop and avoid certain death. It’s an interactive title, so we’re guessing there won’t be a whole lot of gameplay outside of point and click controls, but allowing players to effectively experience a crime fiction “Groundhog Day” is the real appeal here. It’ll launch in Early 2020 on the PC and Xbox One.
“No More Heroes III” (2020)
Picking up two years after the “Travis Strikes Again” spinoff, the next proper installment in the “No More Heroes” series goes for broke, pitting Travis Touchdown not against fellow assassins but against an entire alien invasion. We didn’t learn much from the trailer, aside from the fact that it’s coming in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch, but it’s clear that the series’ over-the-top, violent tone is sure to continue in the third entry. And, if the gameplay is anything like the first two games, expect the Switch’s motion controls to play a huge part in delivering slicing katana blows and devastating wrestling moves in a large, open world environment. Just make sure you give yourself enough standing space when playing this one, lest you perform a devastating katana strike on your mom’s favorite vase.
“Trials of Mana” (2020)
One thing’s for certain after watching the trailer from E3: this game already looks more polished than last year’s “Secret of Mana” remake that disappointed fans of the legendary Japanese RPG series. But, this time around, Square Enix has rebuilt this one-time Japanese exclusive from the ground up into a modern-day action RPG for the Nintendo Switch, including an overhauled battle system, controllable camera, and reworked map. While there’s no shortage of good RPGs on the Switch, we’re certainly not going to complain about what is essentially a new Square RPG for North American gamers (as long as they can resist playing it in the recently released “Collection of Mana” compilation, of course). It looks to launch early next year.
“Baldur’s Gate 3” (TBA)
One of the more shocking announcements at E3 was the fact that the team behind “Divinity: Original Sin 2” is bringing one of the greatest RPG series back to life in “Baldur’s Gate.” For RPG fans, this announcement is kind of like winning the Super Bowl, as “Baldur’s Gate 2” was one of the best role-playing games ever made back in 2000, and Larian Studios’ “Divinity: Original Sin 2” won many Best RPG awards upon release in 2017. It vows to play very much like the original series while adding modern elements that made the “Divinity” series so popular. But, there’s no hint of a release date yet, so that likely means that this game is a long ways off as of yet. It will release on both the PC and Google’s Stadia.
“Elden Ring” (TBA)
While From Software wasn’t afraid to upend its Soulsborne formula in the wildly successful “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice,” it looks like they’re heading back to their RPG, Dark Souls-inspired roots with “Elden Ring.” And, this time they have famed “Game of Thrones” author George R. R. Martin collaborating with Hidetaka Miyazaki to create the game’s lore, which no doubt means we’re in for a complex and bleak open world setting. Plus, Hidetaka Miyazaki has stated that this will be From’s biggest, most open world experience yet – great news for us single players! While there’s no release date, and the trailer doesn’t point to a lot of details, we do know that it’s coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Luckily, this game has been in development for a while already, so hopefully, we get our hands on it sooner rather than later.
“GhostWire: Tokyo” (TBA)
The studio behind the “The Evil Within” series is back with a new twist on their trademark survival-horror style. For one, this game ditches the more traditional horror settings seen in “The Evil Within” for the open streets of Tokyo, and it focuses more on the supernatural and the occult than on big grisly monsters. As people literally vanish from the streets, we’ll be tasked with interacting with the city’s spirits to uncover the sinister forces behind the disappearances. Again, little else is known about Tango Gamework’s new title, and there’s no release date as of yet. For all we know, this could be a next-gen project, but let’s keep our fingers crossed we’ll be pouring countless hours of investigation into this one in the near future.
“Watch Dogs Legion” (2020)
While this game was leaked slightly before E3, the game’s reveal at the conference still garnered a lot of attention and has gamers buzzing with excitement, mainly because it’s set in a post-Brexit, surveillance-state London, and it doesn’t have one main protagonist. Instead, we’ll be able to control a number of NPCs around the city, with the cutscenes, narrative beats, and dialogue changing depending on which DedSec member we control. It all sounds wildly ambitious, with over five main storylines and 60-plus missions fleshing out the game’s single-player campaign, so let's hope it lives up to the hype. Luckily, we know this title will drop on March 6th of next year and will release on the PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Google Stadia.
“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2” (TBA)
Not only are we heading back to Hyrule, but also it looks like we’re going back to the very same Kingdom of Hyrule from “Breath of the Wild” in what appears to be a continuation of the first game, with new gameplay and story elements. Not only that, but director Hidemaro Fujibayashi is returning to direct the sequel as well, and his team has been playing a lot of “Red Dead Redemption 2” in preparing for the next Zelda game. So, expect this game to further innovate on the open world front compared to the first title, and provide endless areas to climb and explore. While there’s no release date yet, we hope Nintendo spends as much time as they need on this one to make it every bit as perfect as the original “Breath of the Wild.”
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today we’re looking at the best newly revealed single player games at E3 2019. Games in this list are allowed to have a multiplayer component as long as it offers a single player campaign as well. We’ll not be including live-service games or coop exclusive titles.
“Blair Witch” (2019)
For those of us craving another first-person survival horror in the wake of “Resident Evil 7,” look no further than “Blair Witch” being released on August 30th of this year for Xbox One and PC. While little is known about the title, we do know that it is developed by the same team behind the deeply chilling “Layers of Fear” released in 2016; and, that it is set in the same universe as the iconic 1999 film of the same name. Its story follows an ex-cop’s search for a missing child in the creepy Dark Hills forest while touching on aspects of the occult, black magic and mythology found in the movie series. Psychological horror games are the perfect single player experiences because they are meant to be played alone in the dark… if… you have the guts, of course.
“Gods & Monsters” (2020)
The team behind “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” is returning to the open-world action genre for their next game, but they’ve taken a more fantastical, stylish approach to both the environment and the narrative compared to past “AC” games – creating what we hope is a mixture of “Breath of the Wild” and the revamped “Assassin’s Creed” titles. We’ll play as the Greek hero Fenyx, as he’s tasked with saving the gods of Olympus from one of the most deadly monsters in all Greek Mythology in Typhon. Along the way, we’ll solve puzzles and overcome difficult dungeons on route to restoring balance to the land. Will “Gods and Monsters” provide as much single player content as “Origins” and “Odyssey?” We’ll have to wait until February 25th, 2020 to find out.
“12 Minutes” (2020)
Surely one of the most innovative single player games at E3 this year, “12 Minutes” is a time loop thriller where a husband and wife are about to enjoy a romantic evening alone when a cop bursts into the apartment, accuses the wife of murder and kills the husband. As the husband, you’ll re-awaken 12 minutes earlier and have to learn new details from your wife to break the time loop and avoid certain death. It’s an interactive title, so we’re guessing there won’t be a whole lot of gameplay outside of point and click controls, but allowing players to effectively experience a crime fiction “Groundhog Day” is the real appeal here. It’ll launch in Early 2020 on the PC and Xbox One.
“No More Heroes III” (2020)
Picking up two years after the “Travis Strikes Again” spinoff, the next proper installment in the “No More Heroes” series goes for broke, pitting Travis Touchdown not against fellow assassins but against an entire alien invasion. We didn’t learn much from the trailer, aside from the fact that it’s coming in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch, but it’s clear that the series’ over-the-top, violent tone is sure to continue in the third entry. And, if the gameplay is anything like the first two games, expect the Switch’s motion controls to play a huge part in delivering slicing katana blows and devastating wrestling moves in a large, open world environment. Just make sure you give yourself enough standing space when playing this one, lest you perform a devastating katana strike on your mom’s favorite vase.
“Trials of Mana” (2020)
One thing’s for certain after watching the trailer from E3: this game already looks more polished than last year’s “Secret of Mana” remake that disappointed fans of the legendary Japanese RPG series. But, this time around, Square Enix has rebuilt this one-time Japanese exclusive from the ground up into a modern-day action RPG for the Nintendo Switch, including an overhauled battle system, controllable camera, and reworked map. While there’s no shortage of good RPGs on the Switch, we’re certainly not going to complain about what is essentially a new Square RPG for North American gamers (as long as they can resist playing it in the recently released “Collection of Mana” compilation, of course). It looks to launch early next year.
“Baldur’s Gate 3” (TBA)
One of the more shocking announcements at E3 was the fact that the team behind “Divinity: Original Sin 2” is bringing one of the greatest RPG series back to life in “Baldur’s Gate.” For RPG fans, this announcement is kind of like winning the Super Bowl, as “Baldur’s Gate 2” was one of the best role-playing games ever made back in 2000, and Larian Studios’ “Divinity: Original Sin 2” won many Best RPG awards upon release in 2017. It vows to play very much like the original series while adding modern elements that made the “Divinity” series so popular. But, there’s no hint of a release date yet, so that likely means that this game is a long ways off as of yet. It will release on both the PC and Google’s Stadia.
“Elden Ring” (TBA)
While From Software wasn’t afraid to upend its Soulsborne formula in the wildly successful “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice,” it looks like they’re heading back to their RPG, Dark Souls-inspired roots with “Elden Ring.” And, this time they have famed “Game of Thrones” author George R. R. Martin collaborating with Hidetaka Miyazaki to create the game’s lore, which no doubt means we’re in for a complex and bleak open world setting. Plus, Hidetaka Miyazaki has stated that this will be From’s biggest, most open world experience yet – great news for us single players! While there’s no release date, and the trailer doesn’t point to a lot of details, we do know that it’s coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Luckily, this game has been in development for a while already, so hopefully, we get our hands on it sooner rather than later.
“GhostWire: Tokyo” (TBA)
The studio behind the “The Evil Within” series is back with a new twist on their trademark survival-horror style. For one, this game ditches the more traditional horror settings seen in “The Evil Within” for the open streets of Tokyo, and it focuses more on the supernatural and the occult than on big grisly monsters. As people literally vanish from the streets, we’ll be tasked with interacting with the city’s spirits to uncover the sinister forces behind the disappearances. Again, little else is known about Tango Gamework’s new title, and there’s no release date as of yet. For all we know, this could be a next-gen project, but let’s keep our fingers crossed we’ll be pouring countless hours of investigation into this one in the near future.
“Watch Dogs Legion” (2020)
While this game was leaked slightly before E3, the game’s reveal at the conference still garnered a lot of attention and has gamers buzzing with excitement, mainly because it’s set in a post-Brexit, surveillance-state London, and it doesn’t have one main protagonist. Instead, we’ll be able to control a number of NPCs around the city, with the cutscenes, narrative beats, and dialogue changing depending on which DedSec member we control. It all sounds wildly ambitious, with over five main storylines and 60-plus missions fleshing out the game’s single-player campaign, so let's hope it lives up to the hype. Luckily, we know this title will drop on March 6th of next year and will release on the PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Google Stadia.
“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2” (TBA)
Not only are we heading back to Hyrule, but also it looks like we’re going back to the very same Kingdom of Hyrule from “Breath of the Wild” in what appears to be a continuation of the first game, with new gameplay and story elements. Not only that, but director Hidemaro Fujibayashi is returning to direct the sequel as well, and his team has been playing a lot of “Red Dead Redemption 2” in preparing for the next Zelda game. So, expect this game to further innovate on the open world front compared to the first title, and provide endless areas to climb and explore. While there’s no release date yet, we hope Nintendo spends as much time as they need on this one to make it every bit as perfect as the original “Breath of the Wild.”
