The 11 Best Games We Played at Gamescom 2026

Gamescom 2026 was full of surprises, from reveals of never-seen-before games during Opening Night Live to the announcement of a remaster for one of the best games of all time. Beyond the opening showcase, though, Gamescom is also a trade show and consumer gaming event — basically, the replacement for E3 — held in a sprawling convention hall with hundreds of games to play. Polygon was on the floor this year, and while there, we went hands-on with a ton of those games, from AAA behemoths like Fable to under-the-radar indies like Wilderings: The Lost Spring.

But what were the absolute best games we played while we were out in Cologne, Germany? Here's our list of the top 11 games we played at Gamescom 2026, in no particular order.

1 Fable

Image: Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios

We'd be remiss not to start with one of the most anticipated AAA releases of the whole event, right? You can read more about Fablein our dedicated preview, but the gist of it is as follows: tight, satisfying combat with fluid mechanics that allow you to switch between melee, ranged, and magic with ease. Our fighting-focused demo involved following the very British Humphry (voiced by comedian Matt King, of Super Hans fame from Peep Show) through an old mine, where undead foes arose around every corner. It then culminated in a fantastic boss battle against a ferocious spirit in a misty bog, and even though Fableis going to be a shorter game than we were expecting, I cannot wait to play more. —Ford James

2 The Expanse: Osiris Reborn

Image: Owlcat Games

I’ve been hungry to get my hands on The Expanse: Osiris Reborn pretty much since the second it was revealed. Now that I have, the only thing I’m disappointed about is that I’m not literally playing the full game right this very second. Few sci-fi universes are better-realized than The Expanse, with its strict physics and grounded approach to human interplanetary expansion. And it turns out Osiris Reborn is so much more than the third-person shooter it’s been promoted as. Based on the 90 minutes I played, the game also captures the subterfuge, personal machinations, and political turmoil that made so many fans fall in love with the source material. We genuinely could be getting one of the best book-to-game adaptations of all time. —Ari Notis

3 Valor Mortis

Image: One More Level

“First-person Dark Souls” is a pretty compelling elevator pitch. “First-person Dark Souls set during the Napoleonic Wars” is even more compelling. “First-person Dark Souls set during the Napoleonic Wars and developed by the makers of Ghostrunner, one of the tightest first-person games ever?” Yeah, little surprise here that Valor Mortis absolutely rules. Valor Mortis specifically offers two olive branches to onboard new players. The parry is almost imperceptibly more forgiving than anything spawned out of the halls of FromSoftware. And the checkpoints come a bit more frequently. This compels one to keep trying, trying, and trying again, ultimately capturing the live-die-repeat essence that made Ghostrunner and its sequel such breakout hits. —Ari Notis

4 Stuntman: Hollywood

Image: Saber Interactive

When the news broke that the original Stuntman was being revived in the form of Stuntman: Hollywood, fans of this cult-classic PlayStation 2 game went wild. We played five of the game's levels earlier this year at Summer Game Fest, but when the opportunity arose to play an entirely different set of five levels, we couldn't say no. Stuntman: Hollywood is exactly what you'd expect: driving sequences that last a few minutes each, full of over-the-top, cinematic effects and stunts you need to get inch-perfect to land the highest score possible. One level I played was themed after Jurassic World; I dare you to not feel immense joy as you ride a motorbike over the top of a dinosaur then slide under the long neck of another. —Ford James

5 Tides of Annihilation

Image: Eclipse Glow Games

Where seemingly every new action game these days swerves left into "parryslop," Tides of Annihilation goes right. Yes, there's a parry, but the combat is more akin to traditional character action games. Beyond your standard attacks, you cycle through two equipped knight avatars, each of whom have different abilities that help you in combat. Pair that with some God of War (2018)-like spectacle and unexpectedly rich exploration elements (a bow that lets you create ziplines, a groundpound that you use to open up new pathways) and Tides has become one of my most-anticipated action games. —Ari Notis

6 Wilderings: The Lost Spring

Image: Herobeat Studios/Kabam Games

Wilderings: The Lost Springis essentially Hades meets Pokémon with a hint of Animal Crossing thrown in for good measure. That's because at its core, it's a roguelike: you embark on runs, gradually getting stronger over time, defeating enemies and taking down bosses, all while exploring the world around you. However, there's also a creature-collecting element, where you collect small critters known as "hantu." These adorable animals each have their own skills and can be leveled up, allowing you to have a party fit for your playstyle. The reason you're doing all of this? To restore the world to its natural beauty, with a number of biomes that have dying ecosystems that need you to save them. Oh, and you can also grow plants back on your airship base, for a little more wholesome flavor. —Ford James

7 Guns of Eschaton

Image: Eschatology Entertainment/4Divinity

Guns of Eschatontackles an interesting conundrum: How do you turn a first-person shooter into a Soulslike? The FromSoftware-inspired genre has certainly had games with guns before, but they've often been third-person shooters, and melee combat is usually an option too. Founded by the late, great Viktor Antonov (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Dishonored), the team at Eschatology Entertainment is creating an all-out FPS Soulslike. How? Beyond the concept of just making each enemy really beefy, every foe you encounter has weak spots. This means it almost becomes an aim-trainer; shoot the weak spots in the correct order and your target will fall quickly, but if you miss, your bullets will deal negligible damage. Amidst a stunning apocalyptic Western setting, this is one to keep an eye on when it launches in December. —Ford James

8 The Defiant

Image: Hangzhou Hoothanes Entertainment/4Divinity

World War 2-set FPS games are a dime a dozen and have been for decades, but The Defiant is doing something slightly unique. Developed by Hangzhou Hoothanes Entertainment, the China-based studio is abandoning the much-explored angle of the war from a western perspective, and is instead telling the story of "China's War of Resistance," to quote the Steam page. Mechanically and structurally, The Defiant strongly resembles one of the early Call of Duty games, or perhaps a classic Medal of Honor, but when speaking with one of the developers after playing the Gamescom demo, he told me that Call of Duty: Vanguard was actually the team's biggest inspiration. The entire campaign is also split into the four seasons, with each one taking around four hours to complete, meaning you'll explore all sorts of terrain and environments. —Ford James

9 Nodusfall

Image: HoYoverse

The makers of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are making a... Monster Hunter clone? Sure! Nodusfall, on its ONL reveal, was instantly compared to Elden Ring. That holds up on a visual level, but after playing a mission, I found its combat to be much more like Final Fantasy 16, particularly in how extravagant these boss fights are. Giant gryphons, giant dragons, giant swords — everything is massive. From the mission I played, which tasked me and three other players with fighting a rotation of evil spirits, you really get the sense you're fighting legendary beasts. There's lots still unclear about Nodusfall, but I'm curious to see how this one plays out. —Ari Notis

10 Exterminauts

Image: Behaviour Interactive/Level Infinite

It's about time Helldivers 2 got some competition, and if you're a fan of defending Super Earth, you'd be foolish not to check out Exterminauts. The next game from Behaviour Interactive, best known for Dead By Daylight, is wearing its inspiration on its sleeve, because this is an all-out monster-slaying riot. After playing one full round in a team of three at Gamescom, I'm both impressed at how much of a hook the gameplay loop is, and astounded that it's taken until now for a developer to emulate the success Arrowhead Game Studios has seen with Helldivers 2. Lock 'n' load, exterminauts. —Ford James