In this day and age, new IPs are a dying breed, or at least it feels that way with all of the sequels and various cash-ins flooding our systems. We here at Just Push Start wanted to take the time to acknowledge the games of E3 2013 that broke the mold and showed us something new. We’re talking the games that are the exact opposite of the next Call of Duty or Halo installment. Games that breathe new life into the medium and give us something fresh to look forward to. While engaging new masterpieces are currently being crafted, such as Watch Dogs and The Evil Within, it seemed appropriate to focus on new IPs that received their reveal at this year’s E3, of which there were few.
WINNER: The Division
“Oh, man. A shooter wins it? What a terrible choice.” I can almost hear this backlash as I’m writing this, but I must stick to my guns. I believe Ubisoft’s upcoming game Tom Clancy’s The Division has tremendous potential. What we have here is a third-person, open online world (basically, an MMO) that sees players creating squads and wandering through a ravaged, plague-infested city. Whereas most MMOs lose minute details and overall quality due to the massive scale, The Division manages to incorporate the smallest of details into its open world. Here we see all the characteristics of other top-notch, AAA titles in the third-person shooter genre fused into an MMO-styled game. Characters react to minor changes in the environment, such as open car doors, glass shatters realistically and cover penetration depends on the material separating you from your target. To be fair, we haven’t seen too much of The Division, which means it could potentially turn out to be something far less awe-inspiring. But based on the little we have seen, it’s hard not to get excited thinking about how you and your friends will go on patrols together, scavenging for new weapons only to be cut off by a hostile squad searching the same area. The Division has, for now, earned its place atop our “Best New IP of E3 2013” list.
RUNNER-UP: Mad Max
Okay, before you start yelling that this isn’t a new IP, it made it on this list because the game is being treated as a “completely new property” and also because it didn’t fall in the established franchise category for video games — pretend for a second that a NES game doesn’t exist (it gives me an excuse to write about Mad Max). Hopefully that settles that. On to the details!
Ah, yes. Those were the days. If you grew up watching the Mad Max films, chances are you have fond memories of Mel Gibson’s role as The Road Warrior. Avalanche Studios is building off that nostalgia (and the upcoming movie reboot) with a video game entry for the franchise. Simply titled Mad Max, players are given the opportunity to play as this iconic, post-apocalyptic antihero as they roam the open wastelands, learning the intricacies of vehicular combat and customization. The developer’s previous series, Just Cause, seems to have influenced Mad Max in some regards, as clearly seen in the harpoon tethering system during car battles. On the flip side of the coin, the human combat is just as brutal as one would expect from such a game, especially when the memorable sawed-off shotgun and thunderstick come in to play. Mad Max is entering the open-world arena, one filled with savage competition (ex: the soon-to-be-released GTA V), yet early impressions had me walking away feeling that the game would be able to stand its ground against the established series. Only time will tell if my gut was right, but for now let’s all welcome the return of Mad Max in what looks to be a wonderfully-crafted game.
HONORABLE MENTION: The Order 1886
The Order 1886 wasn’t given much screen time beyond a three-minute announcement trailer, which supposedly used “live game footage” representative of what to expect in game, but that only made us more curious. It seems to be a four-player cooperative shooter set in an alternative Industrial Revolution time period with Steampunk stylization and monstrous enemies. The Order 1886 earns the Honorable Mention spot due to the fact that we are dying to know every detail of what extraordinary, next-gen adventure Ready at Dawn and Sony Santa Monica have planned for the PlayStation 4.
Did one of the few new IP reveals at this year’s E3 not make our “Best of” list that you believe should have been included? Let us known in the comment section below.
