Sony had an unusual E3 press conference this year. They had previously confirmed that their show will focus on deep dives on four of their big first party games — The Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man. But nobody was expecting the overall structure of the event to be this different.
It opened with The Last of Us, and we saw Ellie sneaking, stabbing and shooting her way to safety. While it looked beautiful, it was pretty much in line with what one expects from this series and genre. After this, there was a segment with awkward interactions between the hosts while we waited for the E3 audience to get to the main stage. This transition felt so unnecessary and killed any momentum they were planning on building. After that, the presentation fell into a much more natural flow.
Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch looked unbelievably atmospheric but I want to know more about the battle system, as whatever they showed in the demo looked pretty basic. A new IP by Remedy called Control was revealed, which looked pretty familiar to their previous game Quantum Break and allows you to use time-based powers. The highly anticipated remake of Resident Evil 2 was announced next, followed by a new trailer of Kingdom Hearts III showcasing a Pirates of the Caribbean world. The Death Stranding trailer gave us more context with regards to our hero and what is happening in the world. We saw Sam travel across gorgeous landscapes, before coming face to face with a monster he cannot see but can determine its position through the footprints. Later on, a stealth section involved figuring out the position of these alien beings with a device on his back as he carefully tries to manoeuvre around them. We still don’t know much about the gameplay or the combat, but Death Stranding looks intriguing as ever. Then
we were greeted with the surprising announcement of Nioh 2.
Next up was a gameplay demo of Spider-Man showcasing more of the extremely fluid combat and movement. We also saw first glimpses of Electro, Rhyno and Scorpion among other iconic villains. When it seemed like the conference was over, they managed to squeeze in the announcement of Deracine, a VR game by From Software.
Sony’s E3 2018 conference was woefully paced and structured. Considering the announcements and the games shown, the content was fine but could have done without the awkward intermission and the abrupt ending.
