Titanfall 2 and 4 Other Games That Failed, But Were Undeniably Ahead of Their Time

Titanfall 2 is a title that will go down in history as a title that offered tonnes of quality but wasn’t appreciated enough, but it wasn’t the only one that didn’t get its due credit.

Some other video games, too, are so ambitious and ahead of their time that it does them more harm than good. These five titles managed to challenge the status quo but couldn’t manage to succeed.

#5 Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is a title that came out in 2016, eight years before the time of writing. Respawn Entertainment created the perfect concoction of incredible gameplay with fast-paced movement and controllable mechs. However, the title was among the few that balanced single-player and multiplayer content quality.

The game wasn’t a disaster, but it underperformed, as per Respawn’s founder, Zampella. This is what he said about the title:

The game was successful, it sold well, but it didn’t quite sell as well as it should have.

The game sold only 4 million units, 2.5 times less than its predecessor, which sold over 10 million. This led to Respawn pulling the plug on a sequel after working on it for ten months. Eventually, it killed one of the most unique franchises ever to release.

#4 Alone in the Dark (2008)

The original Alone in the Dark was an incredibly acclaimed game. Its reboot in 2008, however, was incredibly disappointing for most. While playing it, one could see how much the game’s team tried to make it work. For a game that was released in 2008, the game had stunning visuals and incredible physics technologies.

However, the game did a lot wrong; the whole TV show-inspired theme and progression were subpar. Also, the ability to play through the ‘episodes’ in any order was incredibly preposterous because it led to the game suffering from a significant identity crisis.

Later games like Quantum Break tried to do things similarly, like producing a video game and bundling a TV show and were received reasonably well. However, Alone in the Dark is a chaotic jumble of media forms.

#3 Far Cry 2

The Far Cry series from Ubisoft is one of the industry’s most exciting, well-regarded, and critically acclaimed open-world FPS series. Everything began with the first title doing reasonably well in 2004 with 2.4 million sales, despite being a new IP.

However, the second installment was lukewarm at best. Despite being a considerable step up from the first title in terms of visuals and the majority of quality-of-life aspects, 2008’s Far Cry 2 felt like it was trying to find itself.

Players complained of the gun jamming, the degradation system, the empty open world, and the overall repulsive feeling in the game’s lore in which the protagonist suffers from Malaria, compared to its successor, Far Cry 3, considered arguably the best entry in the series.

#2 Doom 3

One of the longest-standing franchises on this list, Doom, was a title that revolutionized the shooter space. The game offered an entertaining concoction of fun gunplay and chaos.

Doom 3 was a huge step up, too; it has loads of new guns and enemy types, and the game looked gorgeous. However, things also seemingly went downhill for loyal fans with Doom 3, the title of which was a massive transition from the series formula.

While the original made you feel like the Doom Slayer, who was incredibly lethal and ruthless, this game was different. It felt more like a blend of survival, horror, and FPS. While many of the lighting effects and mechanics were incredible, all of it wasn’t enough to make for the lack of essence.

#1 Sleeping Dogs

The game was initially called True Crime: Hong Kong, which was supposed to be the latest installment in the iconic True Crime series. However, the title was canceled by Activision and was later picked up by Square Enix, and the company dropped its affiliation with the True Crime video game series. They were then called Sleeping Dogs.

Everything from the game’s soundtrack, voice acting, combat, driving, and story was an absolute delight for video game fans. While initially dismissed as ‘just another GTA clone,’ the game had a lot of things that it did better than the Rockstar Franchise.

With the prominent branding of Square Enix came sales expectations that the game couldn’t meet and was branded a failure. Tragically, no possibility of a sequel was entertained.

Which title is the most overrated and underappreciated among all these games? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!