10 games that did not work out to turn the industry
There were many revolutions in the history of the video game – some concerned individual mechanics, while others turned the whole industry from their heads. So Half-Life The narrative with gameplay in a single whole weaved, Minecraft Popularized construction and proved that indie can earn millions, and Dark Souls returned the interest of publishers in completely non -casual projects.
However, not every revolutionary idea manages to adequately realize. Today we will recall ten projects whose creators strove – and, perhaps, we could – shake the foundations and lay out new traditions. But for various reasons this did not happen.
1. Die by The Sword (1998)
This slasher about the completely standard misadventures of the knight at one time greatly surprised the players with the combat system. They were offered not only to hammer on the keys, trying to portray a series of animations prepared in advance,-the protagonist's blade repeated the mouse movement. That is, the player, in fact, fenced personally, drawing the trajectory of every blow. For a couple of years Die by the sword She became quite popular, but her fighting still did not take root-the gamers preferred the good old combo. Ten years later, repeat the same trick with the mouse, tried to restart Alone in the Dark, But this was unsuccessful again.
2. Red Faction (2001)
Geo-Mod technology from the shooter about Martian miners really overtook its time. Moreover, so much that the game itself, for which the technology was created, did not ripen behind it.
By the beginning of the zero, few people were surprised by partial destruction-in the first parts of Half-Life or Soldier of Fortune It was already possible to crush all kinds of interior items into chips. But in Red Faction We could not just destroy the scenery, but change the structure of locations itself. And use such changes in gameplay! We exploded the walls and even the rock, paving our own path to victory. But the technical restrictions of those years have not allowed the developers to truly accelerate. Specifically, in the first part, the main feature was used only episodically, but the game could not boast of anything more – a mediocre shooter, no more. So the reviewers noted the tricks with destruction, but did not become a hit of Red Faction, even if she gave the life of the same mediocre franchise.
3. "Blood Magic" (2005)
In the middle of the zero, Voronezh developers made a serious attempt to refresh and modify the conservative Hack’n’slash genre created by the Great Diablo. The attempt in many ways was a success: "Magic of blood" Heatedly accepted (but not in the west), they talked a lot about her, and a large -scale addon followed her.
Studio SkyFallen Entertainment was able to surprise the players with an unprecedented witchcraft system. We studied some incredible number of spells, combined them and improved them https://sister-site.org/jammy-jack/, but the main innovation was to change the appearance of the protagonist-each school of magic when studying one way or another transformed the protagonist. The character’s model was overgrown with spikes, horns, wings, tentacles, and as a result, each gamer really got a unique sorcerer.
The revolutions did not give technical mistakes – those very tails and tentacles on models merged and passed through each other, spoiling the effect. And the game itself suffered from an uneven style, then getting down into a gloomy parody, then including excessive epic.
4. "Steel monsters" (2006)
It just so happened that the revolutions in Gamdev often conceived precisely the developers from the post -Soviet space. So the St. Petersburg studio Lesta , Famous today by World of WarsHips, Thirteen years ago I tried to show the second world on the Pacific with an unprecedented scope. In extremely ambitious "Steel monsters" elements of global strategy, tactical battles and a simple aircraft system connected. The abundance of encyclopedic information, a beautiful picture and the flexible management of the army were supposed to consolidate success. The project really had the potential of a big hit at least in the CIS.
However, the project was accepted well, but nothing more. The disease of many domestic projects of those years also struck the “monsters” – there was no salvation from the abundance of programmatic errors, and in addition there were poor optimization and the highest threshold of entry.
5. Far Cry 2 (2008)
In the continuation of the hit shooter, we were moved from the tropics to Central Africa. But the main marketing chip Far Cry 2 There was not a “black continent” at all – Ubisoft showed in the game the fire is as believable as the technology of the period allowed. It was the flamethrower in his hands that encouraged to go through this good, but very monotonous game.
In Far Cry 2, it was possible to arrange a fire on a checkpoint and forget about it, diverted to a shootout with mercenaries. And the fire, meanwhile, was overgrown with the player’s participation: dry grass glowed, huts were engaged, fried enemies screamed. A skilled arsonist in this game could do without shooting and knife attacks. And the flame looked in Far Cry 2 hypnotically beautiful.
But the fire extravaganza was not enough to provide the game with a cult status. The joy of Pyromaniac soon forgotten, because a significant part of the gameplay was reduced to wandering on the picturesque but dull African land. The third part returned the series to its former glory, only the fire in it was already the most ordinary. But what is it – in eleven years we never saw the simulation better.
6. SPORE (2008)
Immediately about the main thing: Will Wright created an excellent game. SPORE You can praise for a long time and reasonably for the wide coverage of the audience, accessibility, pleasant visual style and with capabilities internal designer-editor. We were offered to go through the path of evolution from the simplest organism to the race entered into space. It turned out fervently and brightly.
But at the mention of SPORE, thoughts about missed possibilities are increasingly coming. The abundance of fresh ideas turned into a gameplay overload, especially in the later stages. The era of cosmic expansion was played rather sluggish compared to the communal-tribe stage. And if the previous creation of Wright, The Sims series, still brings Electronic Arts billions of dollars, then only those who found a hype around her at the time of the release remember about Spore.
7. "Turbor" (2008)
And here is another attempt by developers to surpass themselves. On the wake of the popularity of surrealistic Immersive Sim “Mor. Utopia" team Ice-Pick Lodge I tried to do something, even less like a regular game. Something balancing on the verge of horror, erotic imagination and simulator of contemporary art – "Turbor". And this is in those days when the word "indie" has just begun to enter the vocabulary of especially progressive game designers and journalists.
The player fell into a strange world, where he had to survive and try to return to the world more familiar and less dangerous. In gray, dark open spaces, the color has become a tangible substance. And also with currency, weapons, experience points and passes into native penalties. Bizarre locations, unusual flora and fauna, strange inhabitants – everything in the game is performed non -trivial and extraordinary. That is why she received a cult status (though only in narrow circles). Most gamers simply missed Turgora, realizing that it would be necessary to master for a long time and sometimes painfully.
8. No Man’s Sky (2016)
No Man’s Sky It can serve as a vivid example when it comes to the difference between reliable and current versions of games. To date Hello Games You can call a pure conscience a fascinating, rich in capabilities. But even this is not enough, if you remember how much Sean Murray promised a few years ago. The quadrillions of worlds who will be explored even by your grandchildren, unprecedented creatures, the spirit of a real adventure, as in the classic of science fiction ..
Yes, at the time of the release, the audience saw the endless expanse of space and procedural generation at an unprecedented level. The most diverse, countless planets, amazing flora and fauna, spaceships and all kinds of astronomical objects-there were really a lot of all this, and the game designer constantly sculpted something unprecedented. The feeling of novelty in the epic research career did not go. But the root gameplay, the basis of activity in No Man’s Sky, left users in bewilderment. Critics and ordinary players noted that it turned out as boring as it was fresh. Praise to developers: they successfully improve the game by releasing large DLCs.
9. AnceStors: The Humankind Odyssey (2019)
The next revolution was recently threatened by Patrice Dezile himself, the creative director of the first parts Assassin’s Creed. So it happened. Almost.
Dezile invited players to go through the thorny path from monkey to man. The essence and basis of the project is the life and adventures of primates from a third party. And all this in the inhospitable primitive Africa, with races through generations, role -playing elements and a mass of really new, interesting gameplay mechanics. There were simply no similar games before, gamers were really able to get a new experience.
But so that the poles of the gaming industry are really shifted, new ideas are not enough. The number of flaws in AnceStors Too great for turning the coup. Many players noted the dull repeatability of actions and the need to look for solutions by trial and error, which frankly enjoyed. The Humankind Odyssey was simply too unfriendly to the general public. It is not surprising that they almost forgot about the project only three months after the release.
10. Death Stranding (2019)
Well, where without Hyipova himself (and someone will say “overhaled”) game of recent years?
Kodzima himself at the development stage said directly that his new project does not fit into any familiar criteria and framework. That a game of joint creation will appear before us, and not about destruction, that we will see a fundamentally new type of multiplayer. I-and-and … partly all this is true. Partly. It is almost impossible to recall another such courier simulator. Moreover, walking with cargo through rough terrain really managed to make fascinating … The first ten times. But then you either squeeze your teeth and continue your way in a couple of hours to see the next Kitsquen for about twenty minutes, or spit everything on everything, drop the gamepad and go to inspect the plot on YouTube.
And after all, the multiplayer components, despite the conceptual resemblance to the analogues in Dark Souls, are really unique. Where so much more time was devoted to almost disinterested help to strangers? But the reaction to the game is already too ambiguous for it to be considered unconditionally successful. And it is not very much like a revolution. However, time will tell here.
The list is naturally incomplete. And what announcements made you believe that everything will change? Write in the comments!
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