Gamescom 2012: New IPs of Interest

I was surprised to see that there were a number of new Intellectual Property (IP) titles that were announced at Gamescom 2012, below I list the titles I found the most interesting:


Remember Me

Personally, Remember Me is my highlight of Gamescom 2012 concerning new IP.  Remember Me, a Sci-Fi-thriller, is set during 2084 in the French capital city, Paris.  The feature that has caught my attention is that the game allows players to change and remix the memories of enemy characters.  Remember Me is developed by Dontnod Entertainment and to be published by Capcom.

In the world of Remember Me, inhabitants all have implants implemented into their brains that prevent deletion, exchange or trade of their own memories.  The brain implants are controlled by a company called Memoreyes (a double meaning, if I ever heard one).  The Errorists, a group of underground activists, are trying to fight against the control of Memoreyes.

So far, all that is known of Nilin, the heroine of the game, is that she is a former company agent whose memories have been erased, and she is being hunted for a seemly unknown reason.  She is now a member of The Errorists and a memory hunter, someone that can break into people's minds.

The video below showcases a portion of the gameplay, it all looks very Assassin's Creed, but set in a futuristic city.  The player looks like they can use a mixture of stealth and plat-forming in order to reach the final part of a mission.  As can be seen in the video, when Nilin reaches her destination she can delve into the minds of her targets.  The target's memory can be viewed as how it originally happened, then the player can rewind the memory and make subtle changes in order for the memory to play out differently.

The memory in the video shows the target having an argument with his ex-wife in the process of their break up.  The player can then take control of this memory and make the target remember falsely killing his wife.  During the memory the player can manipulate the memory, so that the target takes the safety off his gun, knocks over a bottle so that he trips over it, then falls and grabs his gun from the table and shoots her.

With the memory now changed and, the target believing that he killed his wife, the target is distraught with despair for his supposed actions, and ends up killing himself as a result.

All in all, Remember Me envisions a very scary future where the memories of people can be changed by others, in an instance.

It looks like Remember Me will be released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC with a scheduled release date of May 2013.


Rain

Very little has been released about this PlayStation Network title, but from the debut release trailer (can be seen below) it sounds like an interesting premise for a game.  The gist of it is that a boy notices a silhouette of a girl in the rain, he finds himself lost in a mysterious world and then he suddenly becomes invisible.

The boy's silhouette can only be seen in the rain and this seems to be the main focus for gameplay.  From the brief trailer it looks like the player will have to deal with creatures and platform on buildings while chasing the silhouette of the girl he saw.

There are sections where the player will have to guide the boy while only being able to see his footprints pass through puddles and platforming on buildings while being able to see the full silhouette of the boy in the pouring rain.

It looks quite interesting and I look forward to hearing more about Rain.


Tearaway

A title set for release on the PS Vita and developed by Media Molecule, the creative minds behind LittleBigPlanet.  The Gamescom 2012 announcement trailer can be seen below:

It looks like it is a 3D plat-former set in a world where everything seems to made out of paper (I guess a little like the Paper Mario game, but in the 3D rather than 2D).  The game appear to use the buttons on the Vita, but is also controlled by touch and tilt controls.

Will have to wait and see how the full game turns out.


Puppeteer

Set for release on the PlayStation 3, Puppeteer, has an art style that is reminiscent of LittleBigPlanet.  The story of Puppeteer involves the journey of a young boy named Kutaro who has been transformed into a puppet and his head has been eaten by the moon bear king (yes - it is very Japanese).  The Gamescom 2012 Puppeteer trailer can be seen below:

The gameplay involves Kutaro having to find a new head, and Kutaro will be finding and using different heads throughout the game.  Heads, in Puppeteer, act like lives and different areas of the game will require Kutaro to be wearing certain heads in order to pass through or find certain items.

It looks like it will be a quirky game, but will it be fun?  Players will have to wait until sometime in 2013 to find out.