We’re back from a little Christmas reprieve with another fistfull of games that we’re looking forward to playing in 2024. Whether it’s slowly driving through the wilderness, fighting alongside your ghostly loved one or trying to survive the start of the universe, there’s another intriguing set of games here.
30 – Mayhem Brawler II: Best of Both Worlds
PC – 2024
If you’ve seen one beat ’em up, you’ve seen them all, haven’t you? Not so with Mayhem Brawler 2. The sequel to the 2021 homage to 90’s beat ’em ups, Hero Concept’s sequel is throwing tons of new ideas into the mix, from roguelite and RPG elements to a wild time swapping mechanic!
Mayhem Brawler 2 takes place in two time periods 20 years apart and events running in parallel. You’ll be able to jump back and forth between Stellar and She Wolf in these two settings as you battle through Mayhem City. Throw in roguelite elements and endgame content and this should be a beat ’em up to enjoy for a good long time.
29 – Thrasher
Quest, Steam VR – 2024
Thumper has gone down as an all-time classic of the rhythm action genre – branded as a ‘rhythm violence’ game – and especially for the VR versions that fully enveloped players in the dark visuals and brutalist soundtrack. Now there’s Thrasher.
While there’s a lot of similarities in terms of audiovisual tone, Thrasher looks to take a different direction with the gameplay. Here you’ll be using gesture controls to evolve a space eel from a worm up to a beast, racing to survive the universe’s rapid growth at the dawn of time.
A VR exclusive, the one mystery here is why this isn’t also coming to PSVR 2. Hopefully that’s something that can be sorted out soon.
28 – Expeditions: A MudRunner Game
PS5, XSX|S, PC – 5th March 2024
In the realms of video games, MudRunner was practically unique. A driving game where the idea isn’t to zoom around at well above the speed limit, pulling ridiculous drifts and bashing into your rivals? Expeditions: A MudRunner Game takes that foundation of wilderness driving and pushes it in a new and intriguing direction.
The MudRunner DNA is still very present within Expedition, forcing you to drive slowly and sensibly as you navigate off-road environments, but this time around you’ll have other jobs and options available to you. Leading a scientific expedition, you’ll head out to investigate interesting sites and ancient ruins, using drones to scope out the region, new tools like the Echo Sounder to map the depths of a body of water as you tentatively drive through, and adding new winch and tyre pressure mechanics to help with simply getting through tricky terrain.
Read our hands on Expeditions preview here.
27 – Avowed
XSX|S, PC – 2024
Microsoft will be hoping that 2024 can be a big year for Xbox, carrying on the momentum from Starfield and Forza Motorsport through to more big first party releases. As part of that, Obsidian Games will be making a return to big first person RPGs with Avowed.
Set in the same world as the Pillars of Eternity CRPGs, Avowed makes a massive shift from top-down gaming to first person, putting both the fate of the world and a vast amount of power directly in your hands. You’ll be an envoy of Aedyr, sent to investigate a plague that is reportedly spreading across the lands, a task that will push you to the limits.
We’ve high hopes for this one, though Obsidian will need to show plenty more gameplay in the next few months to ramp up the excitement.
26 – Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
PS5, XSX|S, PC – 13th February 2024
Does anyone else remember that offbeat detective show Pushing Daisies? The one where a pie-maker has fleeting life restoring powers, revives his childhood sweetheart who’s been murdered, but then can never come into physical contact with her again or she dies forever? I kind of get the feeling that someone at Don’t Nod remembers that show. Except that Banishers is a much darker fantasy adventure.
Your role as Red Mac Raith is to protect the land from spirits, curses and ghosts, using both your martial skills and your supernatural ones, but he has a secret, as his beloved Antea passed away and cannot bring himself to banish her as well. In action, you can control both Red and Antea, shifting between the physical and spectral in combat and while exploring the world. It’s a compelling concept and setting, and with Don’t Nod’s storytelling chops, we’re excited to play more.
Read out Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden preview.
Did any of these games tickle your imaginations? Keep an eye out for the next set of five tomorrow.
