10 overly ambitious games that flopped
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Date: 2022-10-03
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Comments and reviews: 14
Fastony96
The Bureau is honestly kind of a gem. Kind of.
The tactical sci-fi cover shooting gameplay is actually pretty damn fun, and even pretty tough. Staying on your toes and managing your team, pulling off combos from each of their abilities as well as yours is exhilarating.
In terms of squad based cover shooters, it's genuinely great to play.
The problem with the game was absolutely all about its lack of direction (and I highly advise checking out the Polygon article, explains so much more, better. Throughout its different devlopment cycles and iterations, the only thing that seemed to stick was the setting. and that's it. So with the finished project, you have a super cool first 1/3 of the game, but the remaining 2/3 has NO idea how
1) to flesh out more of its concept
2) to bring its story to an end, making it feel rushed, clunky, and even far fetched (even for a game about aliens.
And all this to say, it only takes about 10-12 hours to finish. Even on harder difficulties.
I do believe when I say that, if the finished project was the concept they had from the very beginning, and they had all that time to work on it, it would be considered a great game.
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The Bureau is honestly kind of a gem. Kind of.
The tactical sci-fi cover shooting gameplay is actually pretty damn fun, and even pretty tough. Staying on your toes and managing your team, pulling off combos from each of their abilities as well as yours is exhilarating.
In terms of squad based cover shooters, it's genuinely great to play.
The problem with the game was absolutely all about its lack of direction (and I highly advise checking out the Polygon article, explains so much more, better. Throughout its different devlopment cycles and iterations, the only thing that seemed to stick was the setting. and that's it. So with the finished project, you have a super cool first 1/3 of the game, but the remaining 2/3 has NO idea how
1) to flesh out more of its concept
2) to bring its story to an end, making it feel rushed, clunky, and even far fetched (even for a game about aliens.
And all this to say, it only takes about 10-12 hours to finish. Even on harder difficulties.
I do believe when I say that, if the finished project was the concept they had from the very beginning, and they had all that time to work on it, it would be considered a great game.
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CatchFlipsidE
I m not a fan of MMOs that are combat-only and don t give the player a way to be truly be worthwhile without ever fighting. A great example of allowing players to be a part of the game without ever fighting was Star Wars Galaxies. Such a great game in its original form.
That said, the only combat-only MMO I really enjoyed was Tabula Rasa. While a lot of the game was repetitive and fighting against bots, I had a blast with it! I truly miss that one. Defiance probably runs a close second when it comes to combat-only MMOs that I truly enjoyed. It s a shame that both of them had such short lives.
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I m not a fan of MMOs that are combat-only and don t give the player a way to be truly be worthwhile without ever fighting. A great example of allowing players to be a part of the game without ever fighting was Star Wars Galaxies. Such a great game in its original form.
That said, the only combat-only MMO I really enjoyed was Tabula Rasa. While a lot of the game was repetitive and fighting against bots, I had a blast with it! I truly miss that one. Defiance probably runs a close second when it comes to combat-only MMOs that I truly enjoyed. It s a shame that both of them had such short lives.
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jkincaid582
I played Advent Rising about a year after it came out. I could tell that it was this ambitious project that was supposed to be this massive thing, and yet it was just very shallow. The gameplay was cool, but it seemed like it didn't know what it wanted you to do. It starts as a shooter, but then you got powers, and the gunplay was pretty much forgotten. The environments were too streamlined and linear. And overall the biggest issue I had was that the game was too short. Plus the cliffhanger ending, that by the time I saw it, was already not going to lead to anything else.
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I played Advent Rising about a year after it came out. I could tell that it was this ambitious project that was supposed to be this massive thing, and yet it was just very shallow. The gameplay was cool, but it seemed like it didn't know what it wanted you to do. It starts as a shooter, but then you got powers, and the gunplay was pretty much forgotten. The environments were too streamlined and linear. And overall the biggest issue I had was that the game was too short. Plus the cliffhanger ending, that by the time I saw it, was already not going to lead to anything else.
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fanjoy
Remember Me (by Capcom) really needs to be in this. I think it was way too ahead of its time. I haven't yet met a single person who knows of the game. When I showed a friend gameplay of it they were blown away by how much it resembled games of today. There was so much going on in it that it was kind of like everything and the kitchen sink was thrown in. It had so much potential but I think was too ambitious for the time. If they remade it nowadays it would be a huge hit. (This is just from memory from many years ago though haha)
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Remember Me (by Capcom) really needs to be in this. I think it was way too ahead of its time. I haven't yet met a single person who knows of the game. When I showed a friend gameplay of it they were blown away by how much it resembled games of today. There was so much going on in it that it was kind of like everything and the kitchen sink was thrown in. It had so much potential but I think was too ambitious for the time. If they remade it nowadays it would be a huge hit. (This is just from memory from many years ago though haha)
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Oahkery
Going into XCOM: The Bureau knowing nothing about it and years after playing Enemy Unknown, I enjoyed it. It's a pretty solid game! It plays in a similar style to Mass Effect, with the three-person squad and being able to command your party to use different powers, but instead of being in a big, sprawling RPG, it's got the light strategy layer. Which is fine! Sometimes you want meaty games to sink your teeth into for 50-100 hours, sometimes you want a quick game that you can 100% in about 20. Overall, I quite enjoyed it.
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Going into XCOM: The Bureau knowing nothing about it and years after playing Enemy Unknown, I enjoyed it. It's a pretty solid game! It plays in a similar style to Mass Effect, with the three-person squad and being able to command your party to use different powers, but instead of being in a big, sprawling RPG, it's got the light strategy layer. Which is fine! Sometimes you want meaty games to sink your teeth into for 50-100 hours, sometimes you want a quick game that you can 100% in about 20. Overall, I quite enjoyed it.
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Drew
I'm one of the few that actually enjoyed Andromeda for both its story and gameplay. I think if the side quests had focused more on uncovering lore or world building it could have gone a long way. I also think Bioware should have been allowed to at least complete the Quarian Ark DLC.
What really makes me sad is seeing how almost anyone but EA would have continued developing and refining the game. But they were obviously way more interested at getting Anthem out so they had something to monetize.
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I'm one of the few that actually enjoyed Andromeda for both its story and gameplay. I think if the side quests had focused more on uncovering lore or world building it could have gone a long way. I also think Bioware should have been allowed to at least complete the Quarian Ark DLC.
What really makes me sad is seeing how almost anyone but EA would have continued developing and refining the game. But they were obviously way more interested at getting Anthem out so they had something to monetize.
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Ineedmoney
This game did flop but it was never released cause of Bethesda wanting to buy out the developer and giving them problems and other stuff and it s the game Prey 2. I played the first game cause my friend had it and they were making a second one but it never released. I do wish that it did cause what they showed of it it looked cool and interesting. Not liking the new Prey game that released a few years ago is in part cause of the original Prey game and the sequel I feel gamers were robbed of.
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This game did flop but it was never released cause of Bethesda wanting to buy out the developer and giving them problems and other stuff and it s the game Prey 2. I played the first game cause my friend had it and they were making a second one but it never released. I do wish that it did cause what they showed of it it looked cool and interesting. Not liking the new Prey game that released a few years ago is in part cause of the original Prey game and the sequel I feel gamers were robbed of.
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Colin
BioWare didn t abandon Andromeda because it wasn t good, they abandoned it because the toxic fanbase s reaction to the game. They could have, and were going to, work on it but decided that the visceral reaction wasn t worth the effort. Financially, it didn t flop, either.
It s a lesson in humanity. Andromeda could have been made great, but we, the fans, prevented that. And EA s decision to not allow them to delay the game further so they could meet their fiscal year projections.
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BioWare didn t abandon Andromeda because it wasn t good, they abandoned it because the toxic fanbase s reaction to the game. They could have, and were going to, work on it but decided that the visceral reaction wasn t worth the effort. Financially, it didn t flop, either.
It s a lesson in humanity. Andromeda could have been made great, but we, the fans, prevented that. And EA s decision to not allow them to delay the game further so they could meet their fiscal year projections.
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Andy
Xcom had other entries in the franchise which weren't the squad tactics of the original or reboot. The bureau might not have been what folk expected but it was still an xcom game.
One issue for defiance was that the show wasn't broadcast to sync with the game in a lot of areas. In some ways it came out too soon and would have fitted into the a streaming platform with global coverage such as netflix or prime.
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Xcom had other entries in the franchise which weren't the squad tactics of the original or reboot. The bureau might not have been what folk expected but it was still an xcom game.
One issue for defiance was that the show wasn't broadcast to sync with the game in a lot of areas. In some ways it came out too soon and would have fitted into the a streaming platform with global coverage such as netflix or prime.
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Gamers
Mass effect Andromeda had much better combat, I think most of the game was an improvement. What I felt let down by was 2 tings. 1 the ket are just like the collectors and reapers, 2 and more importantly, Andromeda is a massive galaxy double our own and we only get 2 alian races, ket and angaran, the mass effect trilogy had so many different species of intelligent alians. That was the biggest let down
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Mass effect Andromeda had much better combat, I think most of the game was an improvement. What I felt let down by was 2 tings. 1 the ket are just like the collectors and reapers, 2 and more importantly, Andromeda is a massive galaxy double our own and we only get 2 alian races, ket and angaran, the mass effect trilogy had so many different species of intelligent alians. That was the biggest let down
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Bryon
#9 At least with this version of X-Com YOU CAN ACTUALLY HIT STUFF! NOT (OG X-Com) 99% hit rate, still miss a MILE AWAY and you are standing right next to the alien.
#3 What is with the Elastic Man Arm?
#1 CUSTIOMZATION as far as you can see. BUT they forgot about the game play. BUT LOOK HOW GREAT YOU AND YOUR STUFF LOOKS! We also spent all of our money to get Terry Crews to hype this game.
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#9 At least with this version of X-Com YOU CAN ACTUALLY HIT STUFF! NOT (OG X-Com) 99% hit rate, still miss a MILE AWAY and you are standing right next to the alien.
#3 What is with the Elastic Man Arm?
#1 CUSTIOMZATION as far as you can see. BUT they forgot about the game play. BUT LOOK HOW GREAT YOU AND YOUR STUFF LOOKS! We also spent all of our money to get Terry Crews to hype this game.
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Jonathan
I may be looking back with rose tinted glasses, but I do remember Tabula Rasa being really fun, and having a lot of cool features that other MMOs didn't. Such as dropshops coming in to spawn enemies, player controlled outposts, and an easy checkpoint system so that it was easier to make alts.
It was in no way a perfect game, but there was so much potential that it was sad to see it go
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I may be looking back with rose tinted glasses, but I do remember Tabula Rasa being really fun, and having a lot of cool features that other MMOs didn't. Such as dropshops coming in to spawn enemies, player controlled outposts, and an easy checkpoint system so that it was easier to make alts.
It was in no way a perfect game, but there was so much potential that it was sad to see it go
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Reijek
Jurassic Park: Tresspasser seems to be ahead of it's time. I liked that they wanted the idea of having a free floating hand as control and having to use it for physics puzzles but it might have been better if it was implemented with VR controls like Half-Life: Alyx rather than the older controllers which made it feel awkward and unnecessarily complicated to use.
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Jurassic Park: Tresspasser seems to be ahead of it's time. I liked that they wanted the idea of having a free floating hand as control and having to use it for physics puzzles but it might have been better if it was implemented with VR controls like Half-Life: Alyx rather than the older controllers which made it feel awkward and unnecessarily complicated to use.
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sonofkabisch
Advent rising and The Bureau actually weren't tha bad. XCOM was like a Mass Effect game with reduced scope. Speaking of which, a new Mass Effect game would be simple in my eyes. A prequel that ecnompasses humanities trip to Mars, first contact with the Turians, and the following war as humanity struggles to reconcile its new status in the galaxy.
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Advent rising and The Bureau actually weren't tha bad. XCOM was like a Mass Effect game with reduced scope. Speaking of which, a new Mass Effect game would be simple in my eyes. A prequel that ecnompasses humanities trip to Mars, first contact with the Turians, and the following war as humanity struggles to reconcile its new status in the galaxy.
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