Other Dead Games that you miss

[SirArthurIV]

I'm not talking about games that don't have anyone playing them anymore. I mean games that have been killed by the developer. 

 

Nosgoth was an amazing asymmetrical arena shooter. One team played as vampires and another as vampire hunters. Each vampire could take on a hunter 1v1 but that encouraged hunters to team up and take down the vampires. The vamps had abilities that would try to isolate the hunters while the hunters had area control abilities that would keep the vamps coming in from predictable angles. It was a great game that relied a lot on teamwork, map knowledge and communication. 

For such an asymmetrical game it was remarkably balanced between the sides with winrates being pretty much 50/50 for the entire run. 

 

It's a shame that it is IMPOSSIBLE to run a 4v4 arena shooter locally in he unreal engine. Can't possibly be done so it had to die./s

[Oubliette_Red]

Tiny Death Star - A Star Wars themed version of the mobile app, Tiny Tower.

 

[Skyhawke]

Auto Assault. Loved that game! It fell out of the zeitgeist fast and the guild I ran with back then dropped it. I stayed longer and got to the endgame, but it was barren by then. Miss my transforming bike! 

[Octogoat]

The Saboteur - it had a sequel in the works that was smothered in its crib upon pandemics acquisition.

[WanderingAries]

Kinda wish they'd either Remake / HD upgrade the Xeno Saga Trilogy.

 

 

[SirArthurIV]

22 hours ago, Octogoat said:

The Saboteur - it had a sequel in the works that was smothered in its crib upon pandemics acquisition.

Not really the sort of thing I'm talking about. I mean a game that can no longer be played by the people purchased it.  It looks like you can still buy and play that one. Unless steam is asking 6 dollars for a game you can't play.

[Techwright]

MMO Firefall.  Technically, it never left open beta, but beta ran for years, and at one point was functioning pretty close to a full starter game..  I joined during closed beta for 3 years before the ultimate shutdown.  So much potential wasted.  The game's funds were used up for expensive, unnecessary bling during the development phase, forcing the sale to a Chinese company who hadn't a clue how to finish the game and market it.  It died about a year or so after that.  I've never had an MMO that allowed freedom of movement and attack like that, nor one that allowed, even encouraged hiding in the higher rocks and sniping your opponent relentlessly.

 

MMO Tabula Rasa - The behind-the-scenes failures that deep-six'ed this game are almost legendary, but despite a lot of problems which made me feel the game released 6 months to 1 year too soon, I did find the game a heap of a lot of fun.  It did have one of the earliest "storm and control the fort to open up missions" mechanics that I'd ever encountered.

 

 

 

[Ronastiny]

The asymmetrical design where teamwork and map knowledge were key is rare and something that really set it apart. I was just thinking about a similar situation with CS:GO—had a blast customizing skins on skin.land recently, but sometimes it feels like the core experience gets overshadowed by things out of your control. It’s a shame when games like Nosgoth, with such cool concepts, get the axe.

Edited April 16 by Ronastiny

[Octogoat]

On 4/4/2025 at 2:48 PM, SirArthurIV said:

Not really the sort of thing I'm talking about. I mean a game that can no longer be played by the people purchased it.  It looks like you can still buy and play that one. Unless steam is asking 6 dollars for a game you can't play.

Oh ok does Secret World count as a dead game yet?

[SirArthurIV]

1 hour ago, Octogoat said:

Oh ok does Secret World count as a dead game yet?

If you can still access and play the game it isn't dead. You can load into the map and run around and fight mobs. Like if you can have it installed on your computer and cannot play it, that's what qualifies as dead. Wildstar is Dead. Nosgoth is Dead. The Crew is Dead. Battleforge is Dead. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex First Assault Online is Dead.

Edited April 14 by SirArthurIV

[Octogoat]

1 minute ago, SirArthurIV said:

If you can still access and play the game it isn't dead. You can load into the map and run around and fight mobs. Like if you can have it installed on your computer and cannot play it, that's what qualifies as dead. Wildstar is Dead. Nosgoth is Dead. The Crew is Dead. Battleforge is Dead.

ok then I've got pirates of the Caribbean online still on my old laptop

[wednesdaywoe]

On 4/4/2025 at 4:37 PM, Techwright said:

MMO Firefall.  Technically, it never left open beta, but beta ran for years, and at one point was functioning pretty close to a full starter game..  I joined during closed beta for 3 years before the ultimate shutdown.  So much potential wasted.  The game's funds were used up for expensive, unnecessary bling during the development phase, forcing the sale to a Chinese company who hadn't a clue how to finish the game and market it.  It died about a year or so after that.  I've never had an MMO that allowed freedom of movement and attack like that, nor one that allowed, even encouraged hiding in the higher rocks and sniping your opponent relentlessly.

 

Oh goodness, Firefall. I adored that game for the short time it was around. Loved my Dragonfly and Rhino. It was fun with wonderful visual and audio design, and deserved so much better.  I still carry a grudge against -that guy- who seemingly ran it into the ground. I wish it could be brought back like CoH was.

[Techwright]

36 minutes ago, wednesdaywoe said:

Oh goodness, Firefall. I adored that game for the short time it was around. Loved my Dragonfly and Rhino. It was fun with wonderful visual and audio design, and deserved so much better.  I still carry a grudge against -that guy- who seemingly ran it into the ground. I wish it could be brought back like CoH was.

 

Unfortunately, it was sold to Chinese company The9, which began rolling out patches and "updates" that broke the system further with each patch.  It almost seemed a deliberate act of sabotage. Then they fired every last employee that was associated with the game, hiring what appeared to be a lone foreign language community manager who kept telling any who came to the forums that it was all okay, they were going to build back better than ever.  They didn't, and the game became a glitchy ghost town.  At the time, I began to wonder if The9 was a front for Chinese spycraft.  There had been rumors and discussion about 15 years back of empty, but still active, virtual world games being used for private communications outside the normal monitored grid. Stray visitors might observe two player characters facing each other for hours, apparently in conversation.    Whatever reason, or lack thereof, that The9 wrecked the game, it finally closed in 2017.

 

As to "that guy", that would be Mark Kern.  Kern tried to buy back Firefall when it became quite obvious The9 was ruining it (far more than he did), but was rejected.  So he started indie game Em8er, pronounced "Ember", which supposedly will be a spiritual descendant of Firefall.  It's been most of a decade, and while there's progress, there's not much to show in a polished game.

[SirArthurIV]

I remember that there was one MMO that had a sort of starfox/rogue squadron gameplay style around the time city of heroes was active. I can't remember the name of it.

[jc57]

1 hour ago, SirArthurIV said:

I remember that there was one MMO that had a sort of starfox/rogue squadron gameplay style around the time city of heroes was active. I can't remember the name of it.

Maybe you are thinking about Jumpgate?  It was space-based MMO that was active back then.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpgate:_The_Reconstruction_Initiative

[SirArthurIV]

43 minutes ago, jc57 said:

Maybe you are thinking about Jumpgate?  It was space-based MMO that was active back then.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpgate:_The_Reconstruction_Initiative

I don't think so....it was from sometime in the 2004-2007 range. The gameplay had more planet based maps. I want to say it was related to Flyff or it was available on the same website...

Ace Online! that was it. looking it up...oh shit is it not dead? Well, looking it up in the form I remember it as, it's certainly not the same game now. But Looking at old screenshots and gameplay that was it.

Edited April 15 by SirArthurIV

[Sakura Tenshi]

Preemptively saying For Honor seeing as it’s a Ubisoft game and they’re probably not going to be picked up by anyone else.

[merrypessimist]

I miss Earth and Beyond.  It was my first MMO, and EA killed it when they bought up Westwood Studios.  So far as I know there may or may not be a private server, but last I checked (10+ years ago) you still needed a retail CD to use that.

[Octogoat]

Tachyon: the fringe Bruce Campbell voicing your pilot as you blow other players out of the sky while trying to destroy absolutely massive starliners.

[Andreah]

On 4/14/2025 at 12:50 PM, Octogoat said:

Wildstar is Dead

I miss this one; even though I quit playing it before it died.

 

Edited April 20 by Andreah