Sure, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being ambitious, especially if you are developing a video game. After all, some of the best FPS titles of all time have been created exactly because studios were willing to experiment and test new approaches. However, there’s generally a huge difference between trying to make your game better and biting off more than you can chew.
There are cases when developers try to combine so many different mechanics to appeal to all kinds of audiences that they end up compromising the entire experience. This is quite unfortunate, of course, especially when we’re talking about FPS titles that actually had potential.
1
Brink (2011)
Ambitious Movement Meets Frustrating Level Design
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Image via: Splash Damage -
Image via: Splash Damage
Brink is a team-based FPS game developed by Splash Damage, and the story takes place on the Ark, which is a floating city divided between its wealthy inhabitants and refugee populations. The storyline basically focuses on the conflict between the city’s security forces and the Resistance, and you get to choose which side you would like to support. Perhaps the biggest ambition that Brink had was combining a story-driven shooter, objective-based multiplayer, and the parkour system called SMART.
Find all 10 pairs
Find all 10 pairs
The idea was to allow players to automatically vault obstacles and slide while sprinting. However, the movement system had serious trouble working properly because of the level design. The problem is that it doesn’t really encourage creative movement, as players are often forced through narrow chokepoints, so you can already see why people quickly started to find the mechanics quite frustrating.
What doesn’t help the situation is that Brink requires cooperation between players, and teamwork becomes quite difficult when you ignore objectives.
Last but not least, Brink attempted to blur the line between single-player and multiplayer, which may sound pretty cool in theory, but it was actually quite unsuccessful. When the single-player campaign and multiplayer use the same missions and objectives, players are forced to rely on AI teammates to complete objectives designed around teamwork, and we all know how competent AI teammates are. Ultimately, Brink is one of the best examples of why trying to please all types of FPS players is not only unnecessary but also harmful for the entire game.
2
Battleborn (2016)
A Hero Shooter That Tried to Do Everything
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Image via: Gearbox Software -
Image via: Gearbox Software -
Image via: Gearbox Software
Battleborn is a science fiction FPS set in a universe where nearly every single star has gone dark except for one. Obviously, different factions have gathered around it, and they are trying to stop the enemy that is threatening their civilization. The premise of the story sounds compelling enough, but the problem is that the developers tried to combine multiple genres into the same game, which, as we all know, rarely ends well.
Battleborn features a cooperative story campaign, a huge roster of heroes with different abilities, competitive multiplayer, and some MOBA-inspired mechanics. Many players would agree with me when I say that this is just unnecessarily complex, and it makes sense why the game struggled to attract a broad audience, especially if we compare it to Blizzard’s Overwatch, which offers a way more accessible experience.
Generally, the game tried to appeal to two very different audiences and failed to predict that players interested in traditional FPS combat would probably not want to get used to some of the MOBA mechanics, and those who enjoyed these same mechanics might find its first-person combat less appealing. At the end of the day, the best this game managed to achieve was mixed reviews.
3
LawBreakers (2017)
Gravity-Defying Combat Couldn’t Attract Enough Players
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Image via: Boss Key Productions -
Image via: Boss Key Productions -
Image via: Boss Key Productions
LawBreakers is an FPS set in a futuristic world where gravity is disrupted. If you haven’t heard of the game, you are not missing out on much, at least in my opinion. Its main ambition was to reinvent fast-paced arena shooters through gravity manipulation, which basically means that there was a lot of zero-gravity combat that was supposed to allow players to attack from unexpected directions and even fight across different elevations.
Sure, mastering movement, positioning, and abilities could be quite interesting in a zero-gravity environment, but it made the game extremely inaccessible to new players. Another ambitious but pointless decision was to launch LawBreakers as a premium paid multiplayer shooter at a time when free-to-play competition was huge.
Sure, it makes sense that developers want to generate as much revenue as possible, but if the strategy is not executed correctly, it can be extremely damaging for a game, just like it was with LawBreakers. Also, it’s important to mention that attempting to give your characters distinct weapons, abilities, and combat roles in a fast-paced arena shooter might make the game stand out, but it seems like it might not be the way to go.
4
Redfall (2023)
An Ambitious Project That Failed to Deliver
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Image via: Arkane Austin -
Image via: Arkane Austin -
Image via: Arkane Austin
There’s no combo that I love more than New England and vampires, so if you’re like me, then Redfall will definitely sound appealing to you, at least at the beginning. The story takes place in a fictional Massachusetts island town that is overrun by vampires. So far, so good. Of course, most of the humans try to fight them, and the rest is pretty obvious.
However, Arkane Austin wanted to combine its signature immersive gameplay with an open-world FPS that supports up to four-player cooperative play and give players an opportunity to select heroes with different abilities, explore the island, and experiment with their own strategies.
Unfortunately, it seems like trying to combine all these features at once did not leave the studio enough time to fix the repetitive missions, the poor enemy AI, and the tiny little technical problems that often stack and turn into this massive avalanche of bugs. This was truly such a disaster that it likely contributed to Microsoft closing Arkane Austin in 2024. It seems like the developers ventured too far outside their area of expertise, or were pushed to venture too far out of their area of expertise, as with Redfall.
5
Daikatana (2000)
John Romero’s Dream Became an Infamous Disaster
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Image via: Ion Storm -
Image via: Ion Storm -
Image via: Ion Storm
Daikatana was a very ambitious FPS directed by John Romero. I’m mentioning this specifically because he is one of the creators of Doom and Quake, so it makes sense why people would have high expectations. The story follows Hiro Miyamoto, who basically travels through different historical periods and tries to stop an enemy who constantly alters important events.
Generally, the idea was to create a game that is far more elaborate than conventional shooters, as it featured four time periods, RPG-style progression, an insane arsenal of weapons, and AI-controlled companions. To be fair, maybe this would have turned out well if John Romero hadn’t decided to take advantage of newer technology, wanting to improve the game even further and deciding to switch Daikatana from the original Quake engine to the Quake 2 engine.
Unfortunately, this decision proved disastrous, as it forced the team to rework huge parts of the game. This, in turn, led to repeated delays and even contributed to internal problems between the team members. In any case, by the time the game launched in 2000, its technology was extremely outdated, which is quite ironic, to say the least.
