Hollow Knight: Silksong

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Gamescom’s ONL kicked off with a surprise showing from the infamous Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game sequel that’s been known for 6 years, with countless unannounced delays and little information shared by the developers. This year, they provided a small teaser for the Gamescom Audience, showing new gameplay and updated visuals from previous trailers. While the title was teased to be released this year as part of the Nintendo Direct in April, during the montage in the showcase, the teaser at Gamescom still came as quite a surprise to many fans.

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Before Gamescom, community sentiment towards Hollow Knight: Silksong was fairly middling. As Believers, Doubters, and Deniers all prepared the clown makeup for another industry showcase, others were clamouring for a defined release date as they weren’t about to be fooled by another vague release window. However, amidst the running jokes and denial, plenty of community members did their best to stay positive and continued to believe that Silksong would indeed be tomorrow.

The teaser during the ONL caused community sentiment to rise into the positive; however, it wouldn’t be until the big reveal 2 days later that it would absolutely skyrocket from a humble +21 to an unrivalled +87 on PlayerXP’s sentiment scale. This trailer, released on August 21st, not only showcased a plethora of new gameplay details and information but also gave that much-deserved release date of September 4th. Sentiment has since dipped as the initial hype died down, but it’s needless to say that the community is unfathomably excited for the release of Silksong.

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In the days since the big announcement, people have been sifting through the trailers trying to glean as much information from them as possible. Players maintained the hype for the game they’d waited over 6 years for, as it was finally releasing in 2 weeks! Gamescom was quite a big event for Hollow Knight fans, with all the major announcements, teasers, and the playable demo at the event. Silksong was a resounding success.

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‍Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

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On the other side of the Gamescom coin is the title that followed the brief Silksong teaser with a full light show and interview, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. To put things bluntly, very few people are looking forward to this game. Sentiment sits squarely in the negatives at present, with the community being very unhappy with the apparent monetisation that has plagued the series’ previous titles, alongside some notable gripes about what gameplay has been shown so far.

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Leading into Gamescom, sentiment towards Black Ops 7 was actually quite neutral. Players were most looking forward to hearing more of the game’s narrative campaign, accompanied by cautious discussions about what little was known of how it played. It wasn’t until the trailers that were released during and after Gamescom that things started to spike downwards.

After the Black Ops Showcase, players found themselves unsatisfied with what they’d seen of the gameplay and story, with overall sentiment dropping from +13 to -43. It was at this point that people started to draw comparisons to older titles and other games in the genre. After they released the trailer for the game’s Vault Edition, complaints about the game’s monetisation and cosmetic skins started to arise, as people saw it following the unfortunate trends of its predecessors.

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In the days following Gamescom, sentiment started to stabilise, but it remains firmly in the negatives. The community finds itself in a state of constant lamentation, already pronouncing the game dead several months out from its release. Needless to say, things aren’t looking good. But hey, at least there’s Zombies, right?

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‍Valor Mortis

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Now, Gamescom isn’t all about the big AAA hits. Far from it, actually! And out of all the indie and AA titles shown in the Opening Night Live, Valour Mortis was able to stand out quite well! With its first-ever trailer showcasing both CGs and Gameplay, the community already has a good grasp on what sort of game it is, and numerous players are already loving what they see. Add developer One More Level’s positive track record with their Cyberpunk Freerunning Action Series ‘Ghostrunner’ alongside that, and Valour Mortis seems set to be something truly great!

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While the overall community size of Valour Mortis is notably smaller than the other titles in this post, it doesn’t change the fact that its initial announcement at Gamescom’s ONL was received extremely well! Its Alternate History Napoleonic take on the mechanics of the Bioshock franchise, combined with a first-person Souls-like foundation to its action, makes for a really interesting combination of elements that has the potential to create a truly unique experience.

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After the initial reveal, the hype for Valor Mortis has since dwindled, but its overall sentiment has remained firmly in the positives, never going lower than +31. To-be-players are absolutely loving the vibes of Valor Mortis, and the numbers more than prove that many people are looking forward to seeing more from this title. We at PlayerXP will be keeping a close eye on this, as we believe it has potential to be quite the underdog when it releases next year!

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LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

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Gamescom had plenty of big hitters, but the World Premiere of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight captured the entire audience. This game marks the Caped Crusader’s first appearance in a LEGO Game in over 10 years, and he returns with drastically improved graphics and gameplay seemingly inspired by the Arkham series of games, and members of the community seem to be loving what they’re seeing!

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The initial reveal at the Opening Night Live was pretty positive, though interestingly, there wasn’t as much positive conversation as in other titles. The interesting part is that Community Sentiment towards Legacy of the Dark Knight has been a lot more stable since the reveal, consistently fluctuating around +40 and +60, leading to this title being the most consistently received title in this post! 

Since the reveal, there’s been quite a lot of discourse amongst the community about its gameplay, mostly due to it diverging from the standard style of the LEGO Games franchise. Overall, the reception to Legacy of the Dark Knight has been very positive, and the game looks to still have all the trademarks of a LEGO Game. With its story focused on comedy and parody, and penchant for perfectly handcrafting silly moments in both its gameplay and story, the community is loving what they’ve seen of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight so far!

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Resident Evil 9: Requiem

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Near the end of Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, they gave us another trailer for one of this year’s biggest reveals of Resident Evil: Requiem, or just Resident Evil 9. This title diverges from the story of the past couple of games by shifting focus back to the original setting of Raccoon City! However, interestingly, the community doesn't seem overly hyped about the news presented at Gamescom.

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Prior to the event, sentiment toward RE9 was fluctuating between -10 and +30 as players expressed a positive interest in the title’s gameplay and characters, while holding concerns about the direction of its story. However, overall, sentiment towards the title was ultimately positive. It wasn’t until the reveal that players started to show dissatisfaction, particularly with the trailer shown at the event. Overall sentiment after the reveal dropped down to -4 as players seem confused about where the content of the trailer sits in the game’s story, and mention that protagonist Grace seems cowardly for someone introduced as an FBI Agent in a previous trailer.

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After the event, though, while the community as a whole finds itself split on how it feels about Resident Evil: Requiem, sentiment ended up stabilising and found itself firmly in the positive. It’s still a little while until RE9 is set to release on the 27th of February 2026, so we at PlayerXP will be keeping an eye on the community to see how things change as we learn more and more about this series’ new instalment!

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The Event as a Whole

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All in all, the Opening Night Live had a lot in store, with there being some good, some bad, and some neutral receptions to the various reveals the event held. The Gamescom expo, after the fact, seemed to have a similarly divisive opinion, as many people found themselves enjoying the countless booths strewn across the event floor, while others found themselves caught up in the crowd and waiting in lines for hours. Community Sentiment for the event as a whole landed at an okay +6. 

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At the end of it all, Gamescom serves as yet another opportunity for game developers of all types to display their ability, and they give the community something to talk about! Whether you find yourself a fan of the latest indie hits, a devotee of a long-running big-budget series, or someone who just plays games to wind down from the day, it’s almost certain you were able to find something for you during Gamescom! 

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As always, we at PlayerXP will be doing our darndest to keep up with the community! Events like Gamescom allow us to truly get a sense for what gamers are truly excited about, and give us a chance to showcase what we’re capable of, so while we wait for the next big thing, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on what the community feels about the latest in gaming! 

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Finally, if you’re curious to see the PlayerXP perspective on your game or event and gain a comprehensive overview of how the community feels about every aspect of it, be sure to contact us!

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