This year's E3 Expo came with plenty of new game reveals, along with progress updates and new footage from previously-announced titles that many were looking forward to. Many viewers have noted that E3 2021 seemed to feature a recurring theme of science fiction video games. The genre got plenty of attention in 2021, and here are just a few of E3's biggest sci-fi titles.
The E3 Expo was entirely digital this year, which may have contributed in part to why so many felt underwhelmed by the presentations, feeling like many anticipated games were missing from E3 2021. Another factor could be that a number of companies opted to split their presentation between E3 and other showcases this year. Still others, such as EA, were absent from E3 entirely. Although some fan-favorite coming releases were left out of the showcase, there were still quite a few exciting reveals, and many viewers noted that this year's announcements skewed highly toward science fiction.
In addition to plenty of AAA titles, there were a handful of indie releases revealed during E3 that went hard sci-fi. One Lonely Outpost describes itself as a space farming sim, while Starmancer is a space station management sim. Although Death Trash seems to border more on the post-apocalyptic side of things, both cyberpunk and science fiction have a visible influence on its tone. The turn-based strategy game Lemnis Gate focuses on deep-space operatives caught in a time loop. Many of these smaller titles will be releasing in early access form in the months, and are exciting in their own right, but there were a number of heavy hitters that got reveals as well.
E3's Biggest Sci-Fi Games - Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy
A space adventure RPG based around Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise was announced by Square Enix during their E3 showcase, and keeping with the setting of its inspiration, it seems to pull heavily from the sci-fi influence of the films and comics. That said, it definitely seems to lean into the comic side of things, making it a fresh take for anyone whose only Guardians exposure has been the MCU.
E3's Biggest Sci-Fi Games - Metroid Dread
One of the more exciting reveals from Nintendo's presentation was confirmation of development on Metroid Dread, which will be releasing in October of this year. The game will function as a continuation of the main Metroid arc and focus on the fate of Samus Aran after the events of Metroid Fusion.
E3's Biggest Sci-Fi Games - Starfield
Although Starfield's development has been confirmed for some time now, progress updates on the game have been slow, and many were hoping that Bethesda would finally reveal more about the science fiction space exploration RPG during this year's presentation. Fortunately, Starfield was finally given a release date of November 2022.
E3's Biggest Sci-Fi Games - Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora
Given how much attention the Avatar franchise has been getting recently, it wasn't much of a surprise that it made an appearance during E3. The open-world title Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was revealed during Ubisoft Forward, and will serve as an independent entry in the timeline of James Cameron's epic sci-fi universe.
E3's Biggest Sci-Fi Games - The Outer Worlds 2
Although viewers were provided little more than a teaser, the cheeky trailer reveal for Obsidian Entertainment's Outer Worlds 2 still generated a lot of hype among fans of the original game. From what's been revealed thus far, it looks like it will be keeping both the sci-fi-based setting and humorous tone of its predecessor, something that helped to make this reveal one of the most welcome surprises at E3 2021.