by Jayce Ham
Game studios have continued to surprise us this year with impromptu showcases and live-streamed events. The first few months of the year are usually slow for games as everyone is preparing for summer game releases and they are still reeling from the busyness of the holiday season, but this year every month has been filled with exciting announcements.
On April 14, 2021, Nintendo held an Indie World showcase, highlighting indie games coming to the Nintendo Switch. The show started off with the game Road 96, a game already on my Steam wishlist. This game is narrative-heavy with some exploration and puzzle-solving and hundreds of different outcomes depending on the choices you make. The game is set to release later this year.
The game I am most excited about, however, is Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, which is a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time Oxenfree. With the same type of gameplay and environment as the first game, Oxenfree II, is a supernatural narrative adventure game about a researcher who happens to stumble upon ghosts and mysterious radio frequencies. The game is set five years after the first game and is set to release sometime in 2021.
Another creepy game announced that sounds right up my alley is The Longing, which released right after the Indie World event. You play as a servant of a king who will not awaken for 400 days, of real-time. That’s right, the game takes a real 400 days to complete, making you feel fully immersed in the longing the servant feels to one day see his king again. The game lets you sit there for 400 days or you can complete puzzles and tasks while you wait. I am deeply intrigued by the uniqueness of this game and the eerie and deep immersive emotions it could make you feel. 
Last Stop, is a single-player narrative adventure game set in London. You play as three different characters whose stories collide due to a supernatural event. The game is created by Anna Purna, the same studio as What Remains of Edith Finch, a favorite game of mine and a deeply immersive tale of a family who is all cursed to die. Last Stop releases in July 2021. Many games were announced during the Indie World showcase, but these are my most anticipated of all of them.
On April 15, 2021, there was finally more information on Resident Evil: Village during a Resident Evil showcase. The showcase featured a brand new trailer and more details on the gorgeous nine-foot-tall vampire lady everyone has been excited to know more about. They also announced that there would be several new free demos to play until the game launches on May 7. The demos, however, are only available on certain days and for an eight-hour time period on those days, and players are only allowed to play for thirty minutes at a time. The demos allow players to explore both the village and the castle settings of the game.
This year is setting out to be an exciting year for video games. I can’t wait to see what showcase and live event comes next.
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