In the weeks before E3, Bethesda had been slowly dropping info on the upcoming Fallout:76, with an ambiguous reveal trailer dropping to large amounts of speculation and anticipation. With Bethesda’s overall quietness, it was safe to assume that their E3 show would focus around this Fallout game, plus the upcoming and highly-anticipated Prey DLC that has been in the works for some time and a few more shots of Rage 2.
But that assumption was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Gamers lucky enough to watch the show caught a glimpse of Fallout 76, Rage 2 and the Prey DLC, (as expected) but also a new Doom, a new Wolfenstein, The Elder Scrolls VI, and, for the first time in 25 years, a 100% brand new Bethesda series: Starfield.
That’s a lot of titles. But unfortunately, titles are pretty much all that was given, at least for the Brand-Newest and Most-Unexpected appearances to Bethesda’s E3 roster.
The Elder Scrolls VI, for example, got a logo and that’s it. It was the basic title reveal that well-renowned franchises are known to do, set to some Skyrim music and a pretty backdrop. Bethesda did mention that this won’t be releasing for a while, as they’ll be focusing other titles before this, so the reveal doesn’t mean much at all. It more or less “revealed” that TES VI will eventually be made, something that many fans already knew or suspected.
Starfield was a logo reveal as well. Fans anticipate that it will be the large, first-person type of game that Bethesda is famous for, this time in a futuristic Sci-Fi setting. It is likely that the game will be set on a mining station or some kind of abandoned town rather than a large futuristic city, however, judging from Bethesda’s general avoidance of setting their games in densely populated locations.
The new Doom is not Doom 2, but Doom Eternal. And while that name might invoke vibes of a re-mastered updated edition, the trailer’s CG magnificence certainly highlights a brand new Doom game. While the last game had players traveling into Hell, it seems that in this game, Hell has come to us, as Demons hop and skip over a demolished taxi cab with a destroyed skyscraper burning in the background. Multiple large, many-legged brain monsters similar to Doom 2016’s final boss also walk around the rubble. While it was only a CG trailer, many cinematic teasers often include hints that will be relevant to gameplay. This trailer seemed to feature even wider and more open areas than the first Doom, possibly hinting at a larger scale. The Super Shotgun also made an appearance.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood looked like a souped-up Wolfenstein game set in the 80’s. The trailer showed two near-identical female protagonists suiting up in tech armor and holding large weapons atop a flaming structure, looking out onto an expansive burning city. The dual protagonists hint at co-op options, or at least multiple playable characters in the upcoming title.
Fallout:76 is an expressly multiplayer experience, says Bethesda Executive Producer Todd Howard.
“Of course you can play it solo”, Howard is quick to mention and seems to understand the breadth of trying to jump a group of hardcore singleplayer-only Fallout fans into a multiplayer experience. Howard was careful to correctly convey the central idea of the game, that is, to make it so that every other human you encounter in this Fallout world is a real person. Howard also mentioned that the game would be played with a small smattering of other players, rather than a massive group. He said the game’s focus would be survival first, and that he was excited to see how the series would perform in its new direction.
These announcements came alongside a new TES: Online Expansion, a new TES Free Mobile game coming later this year, and some more info on Quake: Champions. Stay on the lookout for more details from Bethesda, as well as the plethora of other announcements from this year’s E3 conferences.
Featured Image Via Flickr / SteamXO
