The Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Trailers at the Game Awards

James Whitbrook

December 8, 2023 at 11:34 AM·6 min read

Screenshot: Saber Interactive, Atlus, Square Enix, Seasun Games, Arkane

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The Game Awards brought with them, alongside a host of rapid-fire award ceremonies, the usual and unfortunately actual main event of the show: a whole bunch of new looks at upcoming video games. Here’s the best of what we saw from the genre worlds of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and then some out of last night’s show.

Usual June

This ghostly, cel-shaded action game sees a young woman exploring the supernatural layers beneath her town over summer break—before a cataclysmic schism in space-time threatens to put a bit of a bummer on the whole “summer break” thing.

Matthew McConaughey headlines this new sci-fi RPG from group of former BioWare developers, as players defend humanity from the threat of an advanced, hostile race known as the Celestials.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla

A surprise free DLC for the latest God of War game is dropping next week, infusing Ragnarok’s norse action gameplay with roguelike elements.

No Rest for the Wicked

Ori developer Moon Studios’ next game enters the realm of Diablo-esque ARPGs, in a new fantasy game set in a kingdom beset by chaos after the death of its king.

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero

The Budokai Tenkaichi games return with a new name and the same hyperkinetic anime action, as Dragon Ball dives back into the world of 3D fighters once again.

The Casting of Frank Stone

The horror world of Dead by Daylight gets its first single-player, story-driven game, as a group of friends explore an abandoned steel mill and uncover a mystery much more than they bargained for.

Visions of Mana

Square Enix’s seminal JRPG series returns for a brand new story for the first time in over 15 years, as a young man joins his friend on her pilgrimage to the legendary Tree of Mana.

OD

Perpetual Game Awards fave Hideo Kojima revealed his next game coming exclusively to Xbox, OD, a horror game intended to show players what it’s like to overdose on fear itself. No real details were revealed, but Kojima is working with director Jordan Peele on the game, which will star characters played by Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schaeffer, and Udo Kier.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

The creative talent behind the last three mainline Persona games takes a crack at a medieval fantasy, in a game where the population of a kingdom participates in a grand tournament to vie for the throne.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau

A new game as part of the EA Originals line, Tales of Kenzera is a magical side-scroller set in a fantastical world that follows a young man teaming up with the God of Death in an attempt to rescue his father from his mortal fate.

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage

The development team behind Life Is Strange sets out to create a new urban fantasy world, in a narrative adventure game that follows four women bound by a mysterious discovery they made as teenagers.

Marvel’s Blade

The world of Marvel games expands and heads to Paris in a new title from Arkane, the developer behind the Dishonored games and Redfall. This time it’s Blade stepping into the spotlight, as the Daywalker heads to France to battle his vampiric foes.

Mecha Break

A new multiplayer game about piloting rad-looking giant robots? Say no more, Seasun games, we’re all the way in.

Light No Fire

Ten years after it first unveiled its instantly-viral sci-fi sensation No Man’s Sky, Hello Games returned to the Game Awards to show off its next title: Light No Fire, which looks a lot like someone asked themselves “What if No Man’s Sky had dragons and cute little Redwall mouse people?”

Final Fantasy XVI: Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide

The latest Final Fantasy game stealth-dropped the first of two DLC story expansions, each set before the events of its climactic battle, as Clive takes on the villainous Omega and faces the Eikon Leviathan.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

The battle between the Ultramarines and the alien hordes of the Tyranid hive fleets is going to have to wait a little longer, after a new trailer revealed that the long-in-the-making Space Marine sequel, originally set to release this winter, will now drop in September 2024.

Monster Hunter Wilds

The latest Monster Hunter game is a spiritual successor to the smash hit Monster Hunter World, but you’ll be waiting a while to gather your hunting party for fun and smashing bones off of giant beasties: it’s not due out until 2025.

Jurassic Park: Survival

In perhaps the most obvious genre/franchise crossover imaginable, Isla Nubar hosts a new Jurassic Park action adventure survival game; you play a poor soul trapped on the island after its Jurassic attractions have broken loose.

Last Sentinel

A new open-world sci-fi game from PUBG Mobile developers Lightspeed Studios takes players to a dystopian future Tokyo.

Exoborne

Why have climate crisis anxiety when you could... play an extraction shooter all about it? Set in a post-apocalyptic America beset by increasingly deadly weather, Exoborne pits players against not just human foes, but nature itself.

The First Descendant

The third person sci-fi looter-shooter all about taking down huge, colossal enemies sets its eyes on a summer 2024 release date with a spring in its step and a sick-looking energy grappling hook.

Kemuri

Ikumi Nakamura’s new studio showed off its debut game with a slick new animation blending parkour and Japanese folklore, as players fight an unseen supernatural world hidden in the layers of their futuristic metropolis.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Rocksteady’s rapidly incoming DC game returned to the Game Awards with another new story trailer, asking players and Wonder Woman alike if they’re ready to save the world by killing the Justice League. I hope so, because it’s in the title and we’ve known that for a while at this point

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Square Enix also showed off the next game in its trilogy of Final Fantasy VII remakes, as Cloud and his friends tackle the threat of Sephiroth, Cloud’s own mysterious memories, and avoid the threads of destiny that bound them together—and seem set on converging around Aerith Gainsborough at her most desperate hour.

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