Apart from the highly-anticipated release of Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel’s Avengers, September 2020 looks to be a mostly transitional month in video games. The release slate for September is loaded with an overabundance of remasters and smaller indie titles to hold gamers over until the crowded holiday season begins later this year.
There are still several stand-out titles releasing throughout the month that include some incredibly exciting sequels, remasters of beloved titles and a handful of notable indie games that are sure to entertain. If you’re looking for something to play this month, look no further; here are the biggest games coming out in September 2020.
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Marvel’s Avengers
Crystal Dynamics’ long-awaited Avengers project looks to deliver a big-budget, AAA experience based on Marvel’s incredibly popular cast of superheroes, all while establishing an evolving platform for the future. While initial reactions to the game’s beta weekends have been fairly mixed, the ongoing nature of its design allows for the developers to iterate and improve on its features in the weeks and months after launch.
A third-person beat ’em up at heart, Marvel’s Avengers puts players in the shoes of iconic heroes like Iron Man and Thor as they punch, shoot and swing their way through hordes of AIM soldiers in an experience that blends an original narrative with co-op multiplayer goodness. Heroes have unique movesets, upgrade trees and cosmetic items, making it possible to customize your favorite heroes to suit your preferred playstyle and appearance. With new heroes and content coming in regular updates after launch, Marvel’s Avengers has the potential to foster a thriving community of fans long after its September 4 release.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2
Nearly 20 years after their original releases, two of the most beloved skateboarding games ever finally return with a fresh coat of paint. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 bundles together the first two games in the series in one adrenaline-fueled package, rebuilt from the ground up in stunning HD with all the original skaters, tricks and levels players have come to love making their return.
The remaster adds eight new skaters, including Aori Nishimura and Lizzie Armanto, as well as new tricks that were introduced in later titles like the wall plant, revert and spine transfer. Like the original games, players can create their own skaters and skate parks and test out their creations in either local split-screen or online multiplayer modes. The first two games in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series hold a special place in the hearts of fans, so it’s heartening to see that this exciting remaster looks to deliver on both the nostalgia and new content for players who’ve waited two decades to drop back in.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
Of all the remasters coming out in September, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is the most surprising game of the bunch. First released in 2012, this expansive action RPG was a collaboration between well-known fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore, comic book writer Todd McFarlane, video game composer Grant Kirkhope and Elder Scrolls director Mark Nelson. With such a talented team behind its development and over 100 hours of content to play through, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning became an instant cult classic for fans of the western RPG genre.
The cleverly titled Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning includes the base game and all previously released DLC, along with native 4K support, improved graphics, textures and character models and refined gameplay systems to create the definitive fantasy RPG experience. Publisher THQ Nordic has even announced a brand new expansion,Fatesworn, to be released in 2021, adding over five hours of story and gameplay to an already sprawling world for players to explore.
Spelunky 2
The classic indie platformer gets its first sequel with Spelunky 2, a greatly expanded and finely-tuned follow-up to one of the very first examples of the roguelike genre. Players will once again control a spelunker as they explore procedurally generated caves in search of treasure, lost NPCs, useful items and hidden passages while avoiding a vast bestiary of deadly monsters and cleverly hidden traps. The randomized levels make each subsequent run of the game feel fresh and unique, creating a sense of endless replayability that inspired an entire generation of roguelikes.
Spelunky 2 ups the ante with a much larger world to explore, including new areas, monsters, traps and items to uncover. The addition of a new dimension to explore allows for things like hidden passages, treasure rooms and other surprises so that even the most curious of spelunkers will have their work cut out for them. Other new features include four-player online co-op, a customizable base camp for breaks between runs and collectible mounts with special abilities that make traversing the caves of Spelunky 2 even more exhilarating.
Crysis Remastered
Heavily rumored earlier this year before the uproar over a less-than-impressive leaked trailer, Crysis Remastered finally arrives on September 18 with significantly improved visuals, more detailed textures, better lighting, ray tracing and up too 8K resolution on higher-end PCs. If you were hoping to experience the graphics card-melting visual fidelity of the original game’s release once again, you look to be in luck.
For those that have never played Crysis, it revolves around the discovery of an alien structure on an island off of the coast of the Philippines. A U.S. Army Delta Force soldier by the name of Jake Dunn arrives on the island with his team and encounters a deadly extraterrestrial force that could endanger the entire planet. Referred to in-game by his callsign Nomad, Dunn employs a diverse arsenal of weapons to engage the many enemies on the island, including a highly-advanced Nanosuit capable of changing modes to suit any situation.
Crysis first made a name for itself for its incredible graphics and staggering PC requirements, so it’ll be interesting to see if this remaster can bring about a resurgence of what was once an all too common question: Can it run Crysis?
Going Under
If you’re looking for an off-beat, quirky indie to hold you over to the next big tentpole game release, then Aggro Crab Games and Team17’s Going Under: Internships Can Be Heck is exactly the kind of thing you’re looking for. A roguelike-inspired satirical dungeon crawler with a colorful and bubbly art style, Going Under presents players with the hilariously off-kilter premise of a world where failed tech startups sink beneath the Earth and their former employees are cursed to wander their halls for eternity as monsters.
Players assume the role of Jackie, a fresh-faced college graduate and unpaid intern in the city of Neo Cascadia who sets off to explore the ruined startups below to repossess their assets so that her boss can buy a new car. Jackie can wield anything she finds as a weapon, including laptops, thumbtacks, smart cars, body pillows, brooms and more, and can use them to defeat the former employees (and bosses) of these failed startups while uncovering the true motives of her mysterious employer. Going Under looks like an absolute blast to play, with a distinctive visual style and an eccentric premise that set it apart from its more traditional roguelike contemporaries.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Baldur’s Gate and its sequel, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, were a series of role-playing games set in Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms campaign and created by the acclaimed studio BioWare in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Two decades later and the series’ long-awaited follow-up, Baldur’s Gate III, has finally become a reality. The talented Larian Studios is developing the game, who have garnered universal praise for their turn-based RPG Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel. Expectations for the latest entry in the Baldur’s Gate series have skyrocketed.
Baldur’s Gate III sees players return to the Forgotten Realms in a new tale of friendship, betrayal and survival. You can customize your character’s race and class from a selection of D&D favorites and set out on a grand adventure across the Forgotten Realms where you can loot, battle and romance to your heart’s content. The game also features online multiplayer with up to four players, an upgraded turn-based combat system based on the D&D 5e ruleset and a branching narrative that could see your character’s story end in redemption, ruin and more. If the quality reaches anywhere near the heights of Divinity: Original Sin, then fans of the Baldur’s Gate series are in for something truly special with Baldur’s Gate III.
