1666: Amsterdam was easily one of my favourite showings at this year’s Summer Game’s Fest. It’s an atmospheric, dark, third-person action-adventure game where you play as a witch named Noa who uses her spells to uncover demons hiding within humans. The game will take place across multiple time periods, most prominently being the mid-17th century in Amsterdam where you will, as the game’s blurb reads, “Investigate by day. Face your demons at night.”

The game is being developed by Panache Digital Games, a studio created by Patrice Désilets, who served as creative director for both the first and second Assassin’s Creed games as well as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Quite the resume. Due to creative differences, Désilets left Ubisoft in 2010, moving on to become the Creative Director at THQ Montreal in 2011, where he’d begin work on 1666: Amsterdam. When THQ Montreal was sold off to Ubisoft in 2013, Ubisoft, being the petty f*cks they are, planned to fire Désilets while keeping the 1666: Amsterdam IP. Thankfully, Désilets fought and won to keep the creative rights to the IP, which brings us to today and a genuinely exciting reveal trailer with a playable prologue available to play for free. A prologue I recently finished playing, and for which I have…some thoughts.

Firstly, this is not a “demo” wherein you’re given a proper vertical slice of the game’s mechanics. No, rather, this is, as the word suggests, a prologue that gives you a taste of the world, lore, and characters. There’s very little actual gameplay (and no combat) for the duration of this 30-minute, as the developers like to call, “amuse-bouche” (Get it? Because they’re french). A shame, because the snippets of combat we did see in the reveal trailer did look quite good. The prologue is split into three sections: A modern-day section where you play as Clio, a section during the late-90s where you play as her dad (who turns into a cat!), and a section during 1666 where you take control of the witch Noa. Gameplay that shifts between modern-day and historic time periods…where have I seen that before?

What popped out to me right away was how well the game implemented its atmosphere and art style, evoking that dark, gothic theme with great use of shadows and the colour red. The Noa sections, in particular, were a treat for the eyes. Unfortunately, I did run into quite a few framerate hitches and graphical bugs during the half hour. Facial and hair textures popped in and out, XESS upscaling looked quite bad, and cutscenes were very, very choppy. Performance on PC, in general, was piss-poor throughout. Still, this is just a preview, so here’s hoping it all gets ironed out for the final release. As for the prologue itself, I won’t lie, the more I played, the weirder things got.

Now, I’m perfectly fine with weird. Weirdness pertaining to the occult, especially, is right up my alley. But there was something about the weirdness of this prologue that didn’t quite hit. The less-than-stellar vocal performances that failed to capture any sense of dramatic weight, sounding closer to the performances you’d find in an Assassin’s Creed side quest, coupled with the implementation of the cat, whose inclusion (narratively speaking) felt at odds with the game’s tone, all made for a middling storytelling experience. I’m also unsure if the prologue did a good enough job at setting up this world and these characters. There were a couple of interesting sequences with some frenetic and unnerving editing, but overall, there was a lack of cinematic weight and polish, which lead to the prologue landing a tad flat—maybe taking a little too much inspiration from Assassin’s Creed. Nevertheless, my curiosity remains and I’m willing to keep an open heart and mind for 1666: Amsterdam.

Beyond that, SGF saw the return of Fumito Ueda, the creator of masterpieces like Shadow of the Colossus, with some more gameplay of his new project, gen Atlas, which basically looks like sci-fi Shadow of the Colossus—and I’m all for it. Code: Veronica is getting a remake and has decided to lose the “Code.” Platinum Games are working on The Last Ronin, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project. Platinum either create some of the greatest games of all time, or absolute duds, so it’ll be interesting to see which side this one lands on. Mafia: The Old Country is getting a story expansion, Virtua Fighter Crossroads looks to be a deep story-mode for the next Virtua Fighter, and Tupac is back, for whatever reason.

On Sony’s side, their State of Play showcased Bancho the Chef, which looks dope. I never finished Dave the Diver, but Bancho was already my favourite character in that game so I’m happy he’s getting a standalone title. Marvel’s Wolverine looks basically like Marvel’s Spider-Man, but with way more blood. Frankly, though I’ve enjoyed Insomniac’s past works, their games have gotten a tad formulaic and their writing is oftentimes hit-or-miss, so this a “wait and see” for me. Hope you prove me wrong, my Canadian chum. ILL looks like nightmare fuel I will not be engaging in, Rayman: Legends Retold looks wonderful, and God of War Laufey (a.k.a “Mom of War: Luffy”) looks spectacular. You sexist pigs can go stuff it.

Xbox might have had the best showing out of the bunch. From Gears: E-Day looking absolutely stunning with the crew brutalizing hordes of Locust while wearing denim to Fable having a trailer that actually made me want to play the game. Ninja Theory are working on yet another Senua game. Though it looks decent, I’m surprised they’re still making games for this IP, seeing as the last entry didn’t do all that great. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is easily one of my most anticipated titles for the year; August 27th can’t come quick enough. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse looks great, as does Clockwork Revolution. The game of the show, however, was easily Magician’s: The Devil’s Deal; a narrative-driven, first-person, action-adventure game that takes a lot of cues from Bioshock. The trailer was stellar, showcasing some great art direction alongside a smattering of unique gameplay mechanics that put physics-bending magic at the forefront.

Lastly, Nintendo. This Direct was incredibly strange. From showcasing a whole bunch of nothing to then, out of nowhere, ending on both Kingdom Hearts 4 and a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Like, what?! I consider myself a begrudged Kingdom Hearts fan, so seeing KH4 here, randomly, was a nice surprise, even if the game likely won’t be a day-one purchase for me. The Ocarina of Time remake is, apparently, coming out in 2026, which is surprising considering how bereft the reveal trailer was of any real gameplay footage. Though, Nintendo are likely preserving showing more until their Tree House event.

Beyond that, we saw trailers for a new turn-based Final Fantasy game with awesome sprite-work, and Xenoblade Genesis, which looks to be a prequel to the series and has very high-fantasy, Hogwarts vibes. I mentioned recently how much I love the Xenoblade games, so this has me very excited. A new Fire Emblem game is also coming this September, making the month easily one of the most packed we’ve see in recent years. And, as per usual, we saw a bunch of ports of older games finally making their way to the Switch 2—oh, and we’re getting a One Piece cooking game, which looks dope.

Obviously, I’m missing a ton of announcements, but these were the few that popped out from each showcase. Overall, for me, I think Xbox had the best showing, followed by SGF, then Sony, and Nintendo straggling closely at the end. I don’t think any were particularly bad, but none blew me away, either. Let me know what announcements had you most excited in the comments below!