8 Video Games That Ended Before They Started
Running Out Of Gas Before Turning On The Engine.
With the long-form nature of video games, it's pretty common to see the aspect of narratives approached from a "slow burn" perspective and, in a world in which we equate the value of a game to the entertainment it provides in terms of hours spent with it, developers are actively encouraged to make their games long and their stories drip-fed in nature.
However, it's here we run into our good friend "pacing" as despite supposedly offering players hundreds of hours of gameplay, your story might suffer immensely if you don't keep the fanbase actually engaged in the story you're telling. Therefore it can sometimes feel that the action only kicks into gear come the close of the game, and as such end just at the point in which you're feeling like things are just getting started.
Other times exceptional ideas can fall afoul of bad release windows meaning the series they represent are buried before they've had a chance to bloom, and other, even more unfortunately titles can be killed off or cancelled before even getting to market. These are the tales of the unloved, the underappreciated, and the downright unlucky.
8. Vanquish
Yes, it's that time again for Jules to wheel out the "Where Is Vanquish 2?" soapbox and loudly shout from atop it once more, as seriously this game demanded and deserved more.
While the story might be a good old slice of B-Movie ham, the action tied things together so well it fits like a well-tailored suit, and with the late-game reveal that your own government was in on the whole coup of the solar sunspace station turned death laser is something that hypes up the player for a showdown for the ages.
Who's first? The Rascally Russian leader Victor? Or is Elizabeth Winters the US President about to get her teeth booted down her throat? Either way, you're scooting towards the end at such speed that you resemble a coked-up greyhound with worms and it's here that the action is put down with a brick. After battling a pair of suped-up mech suits, it's revealed that Victor has already left the space station and Winters has shot herself rather than have the world find out about her treason.
Oh. ok then. Sooooo do we get a final boss battle? No? Just the looming dread that despite the cheery tone of the ending we're about to crash back to Terra Firma and have to deal with a resource war and a panicked central government? Cool.