- [Host] Some video games
truly shoot for the moon, and well some of them don't
quite land on that moon. Here are some overly
ambitious games that flopped either financially or just
by player expectations. And if you wanna read up more about these, all of our sources will be linked in the description down below. Starting off at number 10, let's talk Mass Effect: Andromeda. Now the one two punch of Mass
Effect Andromeda and Anthem really did a number on
BioWare's reputation. You know, both games could easily fit into a list like this, but in many ways Andromeda was a much more
ambitious game than Anthem. The real issues with Anthem seemed to be that nobody at BioWare knew
what it was supposed to be. While with Andromeda,
they had an entire trilogy of Mass Effect games to
draw inspiration from and still managed to create a game that nearly killed the franchise. The original vision for Andromeda was that it was going to be
a game about exploration. You know, the original Mass Effect game had some planets you could explore outside of the main missions but they were generally
kind of half baked. Andromeda was going to
take that kernel of an idea from the first game and
expand upon it massively. They wanted to have hundreds
of explorable planets which they planned to be
mostly procedurally generated. You know, they wanted you to be able to manually fly a ship and
directly land on planets. Basically, it was going to
be a lot like what we've seen of Bethesda's Starfield, or more importantly No Man's
Sky, now that it's good, But like you know, before that. Now it was a fine idea in theory, but they ran into endless problems trying to get the space model to work with EA's Frostbite Engine and they struggled to figure out how to get all this
procedurally generated stuff to even work in a Mass Effect game. According to a report from Kotaku with deadlines fast approaching, a lot of that ambitious stuff was dumped because nobody could really figure out what it would actually add to the game. And what we ended up getting
was a kind of dull set of open world areas
and a game that remains not really very solid
on a fundamental level. It's rare you see a
major game get abandoned as quickly as Andromeda was. It definitely had its fans, sure. there are some people out there
that still really like it, but it was such a flop
that BioWare decided to just give up on it and move on to other projects like Anthem which it's a whole other bag of worms. Next over at number nine, Let's talk XCOM. Yes, well, XCOM that
would eventually become The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Now, this game isn't brought up too much when talking about big,
ambitious failures, probably because the game
that eventually came out looks nothing like the
original version of the game that was advertised. Originally just called XCOM, the game was a pretty unique
looking first person shooter where you and a team of agents investigate this strange alien phenomenon. It looked like it would've
been part Ghostbusters part Phasmaphobia, maybe
a little X Files thrown in and it seemed like it could've
been something special, had it been called
anything other than XCOM because let's face it,
there's nothing about this that looks similar to the
original X-COM UFO Defense which was a top down strategy game. Remember, and believe it or
not, this is crazy looking back, this XCOM announcement trailer came out before anybody knew about
the Firaxis developed new kind of classic
style XCOM: Enemy Unknown which ended up being absolutely awesome. A surprise hit that single
handedly revitalized the turn based strategy genre. This game was meant to include strange and weird unknowable
enemies, which seems cool but the developers. Now, according to reports
from Polygon and TV Tropes, the whole thing really lacked
direction and progress stalled until they eventually just gave up on the entire original premise and made this half baked
third person shooter with some strategy elements instead. (rapid gunfire) And to be honest, that ,
like a lot of people forgot that even came out. Next over at number eight,
let's talk Crash Twinsanity. One word you rarely
hear when talking about the post-naughty dog era of
Crash Bandicoot is ambitious. Now, the first game after
the series went third party was The Wrath of Cortex, one of the all time least
ambitious sequals ever. It was still solid, but
they played it safe. And with a small amount
of time to make the game you can't really blame the developers for sticking with what works. The next major game in the series was going to be bigger and better. Originally called Crash
Bandicoot Evolution. The game was meant to
be a kind of soft reboot which would've been edgier and had a new enemy steel Crashes island and attach it to a giant planet made from pieces of another planet. That sounds like a fun idea,
but there was one problem. The recently released Ratchet and Clank had a fairly similar plot so they were forced to
scrap the idea entirely. They totally ended up rebooting the game and instead of making it darker, they went in a more comedic direction. It was a fine idea, but
all that wasted time means that huge chunks of this
new version of the game had to be cut because of the constraints. Entire characters and levels
were apparently pulled, some that were almost finished, just to get the game out the door in time. - Ah. Ow. Oo. Ow. Ugh. Oo. Ow. Oo. Ow. - [Host] This one was meant to be a huge, new reimagining for Crash Bandicoot, but it ended up being this
weird half baked thing. Even if there is still a lot
of stuff to like about it. It's worth pointing out, some people still have a lot of love for
this one, so just saying. Now, next over at number
seven, Advent Rising. Oh boy, do you remember this one? Not a lot of people do, but I do. This story begins with
GlyphX, a support studio who was looking to break into
the big leagues of gaming. This wasn't just going to be a game, like Advent Rising was supposed to be an entire multimedia
franchise with the first and, I mean as of right now the only game, meant to be the start of a
planned trilogy of games. This is one of those
games that was ambitious to the point of hubris, I think. The studio was completely
unprepared to make a game as big as this one was supposed to be, while being led by a certified ideas guy that seemed more interested in the future than what they were actually
doing with the present, with making the game. And the final product was
infamously a strange mess. You know, this hodgepodge of ideas nicked from popular
games, especially Halo, where it's one defining feature the Flick aiming system was a bit awkward. (rapid gunfire) (electronic zaps) (rapid gunfire) It's one of those games that
appeared with a ton of hype and then it just
disappeared just as quickly. Next over at number six Defiance. You remember this one? Defiance was this weird MMO/TV crossover with the ambitious idea that
what players do in the game can have an effect on
the events of the show. Now, there's a lot of wishful thinking going into something like this. The MMO has to constantly
update to keep up with the show while the show has to be
popular enough on its own to stay on the air. It's one of those ideas
that probably sounds good to an advertising executive like it's the ultimate cross
promotion something thing. But there were just so
many ways the whole thing could fall apart and yeah, it did. Interest in the game, while the
game itself wasn't that bad, I actually thought some
of it was kind of cool, it started to quickly fade. And while they tried a few
things to keep people playing, the content was just a little too shallow to keep a steady player base. If anything, the show
ended up sticking around longer than we thought. Back when the game came out, we just assumed that the
show would be done in a year but it managed to go
along for four seasons. Neither the game or the show though ended up being much of a success, but the idea behind the whole thing was really ambitious as hell. We gotta give 'em props for that. Now, over at number five, I'm excited. Let's talk Too Human. Originally, it was announced back in 1999 for the original PlayStation and then it finally came
out in 2008 on the Xbox 360. That's full three console
generations later. So I think it's pretty
safe to say that Too Human had kind of like a rocky development, man. The reason the game
took so long to come out was that the developers, Silicon Knights, had development deals that
took priority over Too Human. This happens sometimes. Silicon Knights was too busy with games like Eternal Darkness and the Game Cube Metal Gear
Solid remake Twin Snakes and Too Human just kind
of kept needing more time. Still, the original version
was incredibly ambitious. Like a third person 3D action game meant to span four PlayStation discs equivalent to like a Final Fantasy IX or the Legend of Dragoon. So the game was meant to be massive. Now, when they got Microsoft
to agree to publish the game on Xbox 360, Too Human was meant to be the first game in a planned trilogy. But of course, other things got in the way like a lawsuit with Epic
Games over the Unreal Engine. Now, when the game finally came out, what we got was anything but ambitious. It was a basic hack and slash with the only interesting thing about it being its weird cyber punk
meets Norse mythology setting. And for me that was why I stuck with it. I still enjoyed playing it but ultimately it wasn't low
sales that killed the game at least not completely. It was the utter stupidity of the whole epic games lawsuit thing which Silicon Knights didn't just lose, they were counter sued and
forced to destroy all copies of the game alongside the
similarly troubled X-Men Destiny. Next, over at number four, the two thousands were
a weird time for games. After the 2004 release
of World of Warcraft everyone wanted to make the next big MMO and pretty much all them
ended up being disappointments or crashing and burning in a big way. Now, one of the biggest
failures of all time was Tabula Rasa, a blockbuster MMO that was meant to be a persistent shooter that combined action
gameplay with RPG elements, which was pretty ambitious for the time. Now, this was actually
created by Richard Garriot, AKA Lord British. You know, the guy responsible
for the Ultima series. So this game was meant to be massive and apparently cost its publisher over a hundred million dollars to make. So there's a lot of
money put into this one. Shout to alteredgamer.com
for breaking down a timeline of this game's development. It was ambitious, but it never really
managed to meet reality. The game's launch was a disaster with many of its missions kind of bugged and most players having to deal with unplayable levels of lag. Now, ironically, for a
game called Tabula Rasa, which is actually Latin for blank slate, there was hardly any actual
game in the final version. Pretty much all there
was to do was run around and shoot random enemies. The game never managed
to find a player base and eventually it was shut down
over low subscriber numbers. Now down to number three, let's talk Jurassic Park Trespasser. Basically everything that
was originally planned for the game ended up
being broken at some level. You were supposed to be
able to use malay weapons but they could never get them to work. Dinosaurs were supposed
to have these advanced AI routines that would
control their behavior but the whole thing was so broken that the dinos would just stand there. They were kind of stuck,
unable to choose a mood so they would just not do anything. We know a lot about this
behind the scenes stuff thanks to an article
from game developer.com. The game was meant to
have high quality textures that would have made the game like really cutting edge visually, but they ran into compatibility issues that forced them to make
the game launch way uglier. They weren't even able to
use the Jurassic Park music because someone screwed
up the licensing deal. Basically, the developers seemed like they were completely unprepared
to make a game like this, and the final result had some cool stuff like some cool physics, but like that's one of the only
things that actually worked and was cool about the game. It was ultimately a total bummer and a huge disappointment. Down to number two, let's Talk Daikatana. This was supposed to be the next big thing from Doom developer John Romero, the video game legend. Unfortunately, an infamous
advertising campaign for the game made it the subject of ridicule
before it even came out. And then like the kind
of buggy, strange mess that was released to the public really kind of finished the job
of hurting some credibility. 'Cause Daikatana was supposed
to be huge, you know, an FPS game made by one of the pioneers of the genre free to do
whatever the hell he wanted with his own game studio called Ion Storm. Now, originally it was
meant to ship in 1997 but the game saw numerous delays and ended up being kind
of a joke for a while. And all this was before it even came out. Now the thing about the game is that compared to most
of the stuff on this list this one actually has most of
its planned features intact. Like the companions and the
four different time periods, which had their own
unique sets of weapons. This time the problem isn't that the game was cut to pieces to meet a
deadline or anything like that. The problem is that the
game just isn't good. The companion AI is almost
completely lifeless. You know, they get in the way constantly and have to be babysat at all times because if they die then you lose. Many of the guns are awkward
to use and are too gimmicky. The levels can be maze
like and kind of annoying and there are way too
many tiny little enemies that are hard to hit. The game just straight up isn't very fun. And unfortunately, Daikatana
just floundered as a result. Now, down to number one let's talk a APB: All Points Bulletin. This was made by Realtime Worlds. The guys behind the first Crackdown. It was an incredibly ambitious project that was basically going to be GTA online three years before that came, and with an almost obsessive level of player expression and
customization and stuff to do. Now, that level of customization options are still impressive, even today. The character creation alone is huge. But on top of that, you can
completely customize your car, create custom sprays, change
pretty much everything about your clothes, design custom tattoos. There was even an in-game music editor that let you create your
own custom death theme whenever you killed someone. This stuff wasn't just for show, like too you could actually sell
your custom designs on the in-game market but the rest of the game,
it wasn't so interesting. The game we finally eventually got was basically just a series
of randomly generated PVP missions in a few small
open world city areas. Clearly, the game was meant
to be much, much bigger but at some point they had
to give up their MMO plans and just make it a relatively
modest PVP shooter. It definitely does not play like one of the most
expensive games ever made. This is another one that costs over a hundred million dollars to make when it finally came out in 2010. The game didn't even last three months in its original incarnation. Realtime Worlds went into administration and the game was sold
for a measly 1.5 million in the United Kingdom, and
it's somehow still been going under one publisher or another ever since. It was a game that was
meant to be the ultimate Grand Theft Auto style MMO, but the whole thing crashed and burned. By the time the actual Grand
Theft Auto Online came out, APB was already forgotten. But those are some big ambitious games with cool ideas that ultimately
it didn't quite work out. Some of these games still
have their player base and if that's you we want to hear from you down in the comments. Or if you were looking
forward to one of these games and you ultimately were left
disappointed, let us know why. If you like talking games with us all you gotta do is click the like button. We very much appreciate that. And if you're new, consider subscribing because we put out
videos every single day. But as always thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time.
