Gamescom 2021: The 12 Best Gameplay Reveal Trailers

America plays host to E3 every year in order to highlight the biggest AAA projects and indie titles set to come within the world of interactive entertainment.

Over in Germany, Gamescom plays the part of that country’s largest video game expo. Even though this year’s installment was an all-digital event, Xbox, lauded gaming journalist Geoff Keighley, and a smattering of other notable game publishers/developers showed up to put their titles in the spotlight. We got release dates (Halo Infinite is landing on December 8th, Horizon Forbidden West is launching on February 18th, and Sifu is releasing on February 22nd!), reveal trailers, and gameplay demonstrations of some exciting games that are on the horizon.

We’re going to show love to the best trailers we laid eyes on during Gamescom 2021 just in case some of you missed them or just need a gentle reminder!

A week before its official reveal, rumors began appearing on gamers’ timelines about a potential Saints Row reboot. It turns out that rumor had plenty of legitimacy to it. This fresh take on the long-running open-world series transports players to the fictional city of Santo Ileso. As the leader of The Saints, you’ll lead your gang against rival crews and try to take the top spot. The cinematic and short gameplay trailers exposed viewers to a vibrant world filled with wild car chases, explosive gunfights, and the same outlandish humor the franchise is known for. Building The Saint’s criminal empire in this reboot looks and sounds like it’ll certainly be a highly amusing endeavor.

This next game on the list also got leaked weeks prior. When we heard that this XCOM meets Marvel Comics mashup wouldn’t feature any actual characters from the comic book juggernaut, we had plenty of reason to worry. But after finally getting to see the game’s reveal trailer, those fears have thankfully subsided. Marvel's Midnight Suns is a turn-based RPG that’s being developed by XCOM developer Firaxis, but it will share zero similarities with the XCOM series according to an interview done by Polygon. That concept certainly excites us and so does the revealed lineup of Marvel heroes we’ve seen thus far - Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Blade, Nico Minoru, Magik, Robbie Reyes as Ghost Rider, and Wolverine are all ready for war. And as the newly created character The Hunter, we’ll fight alongside those iconic saviors against the Mother of Demons, Lilith.

Now that we’re just a few months away from the release of the latest Call of Duty, the hype train is speeding up as new trailers start trickling in and even more info comes across our timelines. The multiplayer footage we’ve been treated to thus far impressed and so did the first extended demo for Call of Duty: Vanguard’s single-player campaign. In that demo, we were treated to voice actor Laura Bailey’s role as the Soviet soldier known as Polina. Watching her pick off her unsuspecting targets with stealth kills and concentrated sniper shots excites us for the rest of her side of the single-player campaign. The chaotic level put on display here has us chomping at the bit to play it for ourselves.

If a game looks like it’ll be the perfect marriage between Super Smash Bros., Power Stone, and War of the Monsters, then count us all the way in. After getting a longer look at the multiplayer arena brawler in action, we instantly added it to our wishlist. GigaBash is a clear nod to the Kaiju film genre as it features a mixture of massive beasts, towering robots, and large costumed heroes. The free-for-all skirmishes this game lives by look incredibly fun and just what the doctor ordered for party gatherings. This clash of the titans in playable form has us ready to stomp around big cities and beat our comparatively huge enemies into submission. 

Were we disappointed to learn that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is coming out next year instead of this year. For sure. But did our sadness quickly wash away as soon as we locked eyes with the game’s newest playable character? YESSIR! The famed TV news reporter who’s known for rocking a super fashionable yellow suit looked amazing as he beat the breaks off of some lowly Foot Clan ninjas. Her implementation of the tools she uses to get all the breaking news as combat items has us extra hype to take her for a spin. We can’t wait to literally drop the mic on some bums while our friends put their “Turtle Power” to good use. WE WANT THIS GAME NOW!

Every time a bunch of new footage of Dying Light 2 Stay Human hits our timeline, we can’t help but get even more enthralled with what’s shown off. The Gamescom footage that we were treated to featured some brutal melee combat, breathtaking parkour leaps, and a better look at all the interesting individuals & groups that will influence our journey. So not only will we have to contend with those less than friendly humans, but we’ll also have to defend ourselves against an army of bloodthirsty zombies. Since this long-awaited sequel equips the main character with a grappling hook and a paraglider, we’ll have a much easier time evading our enemies and getting a better lay of the land.

Before this trailer landed on our screen, we had no idea that an entirely new Outlast game was in the works. It was quite a pleasant surprise, that’s for sure. So The Outlast Trials places you in the shoes of a test subject that’s been imprisoned in a secret facility by the Murkoff Corporation. You’ll be forced to endure the many horrors within that location on your own or with friends as everyone tries to keep their sanity intact. The Outlast Trials gives us heavy Saw vibes, so we can’t wait to scream in horror alongside our online buds once it finally comes out.

Where the hell did this gorgeous game even come from? The whole time we were watching it, we were practically in awe. So DokeV goes the Pokémon route by giving players access to a collection of whimsical creatures known as Dokebi. The game’s vibrant in-game world is massive and every bit of it looks amazingly lifelike in motion. The footage that was showcased clearly gave us an extensive look at a game that’s still early in development, but what we saw was promising. The Dokebi creatures are essential during the game’s busy combat sequences, which we can’t wait to be a part of when this project (hopefully) releases someday.

It’s been a while since we last heard about the explosive first-person shooter CrossfireX. Thankfully, it made an appearance at Gamescom during the Opening Night live stream and looked way better than we anticipated. Remedy Entertainment are the developers of the game’s campaign, which looks like it’ll be a wild ride full of Michael Bay-esque movie moments. The same can be said for the multiplayer modes, which are still being worked on by dev studio Smilegate Entertainment. The gameplay that was shown off here looks like it’ll offer a mix between Call of Duty’s fast-paced gunplay and Crysis’ visual design. Sounds like a great combination to us.

Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is certainly a game that’s not for everyone. Its cryptic storytelling and unique gameplay mechanics were appreciated by those who gave it a chance, but there’s also a slew of gamers out there that don’t care for its trippy premise. Death Stranding Director’s Cut is going above and beyond to please its loyal fanbase and possibly attract gamers that passed on it beforehand. This trailer showed off all the cool updates arriving with this definitive edition of the game - there’s going to be motorcycle tricks that are aided by ramps, new weapons that ramp up the game’s action sequences, new missions, minigames, etc. This nine-minute-long trailer gave us reason to be invested in this updated version of Death Stranding.

SNK’s premiere fighting game series is doing it real big for its 15th official entry. This extended version of the trailer we got during Gamescom dropped a ton of information that dedicated fans have been waiting for. We got a better look at the game’s actual in-game user interface, learned about all the modes included at launch, and got a better idea of the battle mechanics at play. The most exciting portions of this trailer were definitely the new character reveals (we’ve already made that chick with the colorful braids one of our main’s!), the DLC characters teaser, and the confirmation of Rollback Netcode for the game’s online modes suite. The King of Fighters XV is shaping up to be the most mainstream-worthy entry in the series to date. 

If you've watched the Berserk and Claymore anime series, then everything you've seen from Soulstice so far should have you interested. It sure has us ready to pull up and try out some of those dope moves the main heroine Briar pulled off in these trailers. Soulstice is now on our radar thanks to its dark aesthetic and frantic combat that evokes memories of Nier Automata and Devil May Cry. Hacking and slashing all sorts of demons while your ghostly sibling accompanies you looks and sounds like a fun time. It damn sure looked that way during the hyperactive gameplay demonstrations dedicated to this game.