Top 10 Failed Games That Were Too Ambitious

These games shot for the moon, they missed. And they landed on this Top 10 list. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down the top 10 games that failed because they were too ambitious.

For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the video games that attempted to revolutionize the industry, only to fall short of expectations, either critically or financially; leading to obscurity, mediocrity, or infamy. However we will not be including games that were cancelled, no matter how much we really wanted Scalebound.

#10: “Too Human” (2008)

A mix of cyberpunk and Norse mythology, “Too Human” was envisioned as an epic first installment in a trilogy. What we got though, was a thoroughly mediocre action RPG with an unintuitive control scheme. Much of this can be blamed on the long development time, which saw the game move between three different consoles and several engines. The last of these signed the death blow for “Too Human” though, as the developers, Silicon Knights sued Epic Games, whose Unreal III engine they had previously used; only for Epic to counter-sue them, which lead to Silicon Knights’ dissolution and copies of “Too Human” being ordered destroyed for still containing Unreal code. To err is human, and the folks at Silicon Knights were...too human.

#9: “Shenmue” (1999)

Critically, Shenmue was incredibly well received and often hailed as the best game on the Dreamcast. The game gave a lot of attention to detail to it’s world, long before Red Dead Redemption 2 tried that. Not to mention how influential its gameplay was, since it helped give rise to QuickTime events in video games, for better or for worse. All this is perfectly true. However, “Shenmue” budget came at a hefty 70 million dollars. And the game didn’t even come close to recuperate that amount at retail. The same happened with its sequel, and the pair of games are often cited as a major factor as to why the Dreamcast died.

#8: “Fallout 76” (2018)

Bethesda games are not without their faults, but they generally succeed, for the most part. “Fallout 76” is the rare exception. The developer’s first online multiplayer game, “Fallout 76” had plenty of interesting ideas, like no human NPCs, base building, and the largest map out of any “Fallout” game, but in execution, most of the game’s attempts at new ideas fell flat. The game was buggy and prone to crashing at launch and the big world was often devoid of much in the way of content. We can only hope the “Fallout” of “76”’s failure doesn’t damage Bethesda too badly and that they learn from their mistakes.

#7: “Fable” (2004)

It’s fitting that a game called “Fable” failed in its ambitions because of some tall tales. Peter Molyneux managed to get gamers everywhere incredibly hyped for “Fable” before its release by calling it “the greatest video game ever made.” So, although the game sold well and received decent critical reception, many gamers were still disappointed, as their expectations were sky high and the result was a fairly tall building, or at least a hack and slash RPG with some innovative elements. We’re all for hype, but it should be tempered by realistic expectations.

#6: “Outcast” (1999)

It may have come out decades ago, but “Outcast” is a surprisingly modern game, with intelligent A.I., great graphics (for the time), and some unique and inventive features, such as a sound/equipment based save system. Despite how innovative “Outcast” was though, it failed to make a splash when it was released near the turn of the millennium. While it was critically well-received, it was not commercially successful and was quickly forgotten about. I mean, had you ever heard of it before now? “Outcast” takes place on an alien world in a parallel universe and we just wish we could experience a world where it had gone on to influence the industry for the better.

#5: “Daikatana” (2000)

For a game whose name loosely translates to “big sword,” “Daikatana” was far from the biggest thing around. Lead by John Romero, who was involved with industry defining games like “Doom” and “Quake,” “Daikatana” had plenty to live up to. Although the game had an ambitious plot, voice acting, and AI partners years before they became common, much of it was poorly implemented, thanks to 3 years of development hell, changing engines, and other behind-the-scenes difficulties. The hype and controversy surrounding Romero’s new company’s first game, thanks to the man’s rock star mentality and an infamous ad campaign only increased the disappointment upon its release.

#4: “Jurassic Park: Trespasser” (1998)

“Jurassic Park” is a name that inspires both fear and majesty all at once. “Trespasser” does not live up to its franchise, or either of those feelings. On paper, the game has everything going for it: Steven Spielberg was involved in development and it included ambitious features, such as a naturalistic style with no HUD and cutting-edge physics that influenced many later games. Unfortunately, even with the best computers of the day, running the game proved taxing and buggy, while the game’s attempts at realism proved unintuitive. Plus, there were hardly any dinosaurs.

#3: “APB: All Points Bulletin” (2010)

Although it was lead by David Jones, who worked on the original “Grand Theft Auto” titles, “APB: All Points Bulletin” didn’t quite manage the success of that infamous crime franchise. An online multiplayer game, “APB” allows for players to essentially act out “cops and robbers” style gameplay with each other as either enforcers or criminals. While cool in concept, the execution didn’t live up to it, with the finished product feeling unfinished. The company that made it going bankrupt didn’t help either. Despite being relaunched as a free-to-play game and getting recent ports to the XBOX One and PS4, “APB”’s initial failure was still put out like a…uh…one of those police notices over the radio.

#2: “Spore” (2008)

Beginning its life as “Sim Everything,” “Spore” allows players to develop life from a single-celled organism and evolve it into a space travelling intelligent species. Conceptually, it doesn’t get much more ambitious than that, but, once again, implementation marred an otherwise great idea. The initial phases of the life cycle were criticized as lacking gameplay depth or good controls and a controversy regarding the game’s DRM made it one of the most pirated games ever made. Still, we have to say, the character creator is a lot of fun to use.



Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

“Descent to Undermountain” (1997)



“Destiny” (2014)



“Brutal Legend” (2009)



“Duke Nukem Forever” (2011)

#1: “No Man’s Sky” (2016)

Well who didn’t see this one coming? When you reach for the sky, sometimes you fall back down to Earth. Developer “Hello Games” envisioned a massive universe of randomly generated worlds and cultures, where players could meet up with one another, get into space battles, explore worlds, and many other things besides. We know, because that grinning Sean Murray promised us all these things repeatedly. What players got was a big empty universe full of repetitive planets, dull gameplay, and an ending that let us do it all over again. Joy. Although the game has received updates and has its diehard fans, the vast majority of people were let down by everything “No Man’s Sky” was promised to be from the start.