THE SABOTEUR

The definition of a cult classic, Pandemic Studios’ 2009 World War 2 stealth action game is one that deserved more praise than it got back in the day. Though it certainly had issues, it had more than enough strengths to make up for them, from an incredible visual aesthetic and an atmospheric setting to excellent open world action and much more.

Army of Two: The 40th Day

A sequel to an EA title selling less than 250,000 copies in its first month isn’t ideal, which is a shame because Army of Two: The 40^th Day was a genuinely fun game. It leaned even more into the original’s Michael Bay-style of explosive action, added new heavy enemies that further reinforced co-op tactics and even had morality-based decisions. Though not the most trail-blazing title, it was still a nice time-waster with friends.

Nex Machina

Housemarque, better known for the arcade shooter Resogun, released an arguably superior follow-up in Nex Machina. The latter is more of a top-down shooter akin to Robotron and Smash TV, and had Eugene Jarvis – who designed both – as a consultant. The result was an intense, action-packed arcade title with heaps of particle effects, great bosses and excellent areas. Unfortunately, Nex Machina and Housemarque’s other arcade title Matterfall reaped so little success that the developer proclaimed the arcade genre dead and focused on more mainstream genres.

However, not all games or even new IPs are the subject of great commercial success. Some of them may have scored very well commercially but added that extra zing to really win consumers over. Some of them were disappointing and didn’t live up to the hype. Some, however, were just criminally over-looked.

Here’s out top 10 games that no one played last generation. If you did experience these titles, and wonder why they’re here, then remember that they didn’t (probably) receive even half as much acclaim or attention as they might’ve warranted.

1. Asura’s Wrath

The adventures of Asura were a rather quirky affair. You switched between the third person perspective and executed several quick time events, with the story being broken up into episodes with openings and credits, and each episodes consisting of several short parts to play.

It was odd, for sure, and the style of gameplay wasn’t for everyone as some critics sounded off on the excessive use of QTEs. Nonetheless, as a game, it’s unique and worth a go.

2. Binary Domain

Sega’s Yakuza Team decided to do something different this time around with the typical third person shooter. They wanted to make a cooperative experience but with the game’s AI, allowing players to use headsets to issue commands to their squad-mates in game.

A Consequences system that made you think and consider your actions to win over your team-mates also broke away from the typical run, gun and cover mechanics of most other TPS games. And it didn’t hurt that this one had its fair share of addictive action. Sadly, it only sold about 20,000 copies in its first month of release and has since sunk into oblivion.

3. Warhawk

The multiplayer only release from Incognito Entertainment and SCE Santa Monica Studio focused on aerial combat and warfare, and was actually a remake of the same game from the PlayStation days (despite having nothing in common with that game).

Warhawk came off as an addictive, action-packed title that was one of the better initial releases on the PlayStation 3. For some reason, it never received the same amount of commercial acclaim as more mainstream PS3 titles. Nonetheless, it holds a special place for many, 6 years on.

4. Blue Dragon

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s first project since leaving Square Enix introduced an intriguing concept of shadow beasts. However, it flailed hopelessly with its rote gameplay, boring characters and less than stellar visuals. It didn’t help that the project took so long to release, or that it saw decent sales only in Japan.

While the game wasn’t a total failure, it lacked the spark of the Final Fantasy series (well, before XIII came around) and certainly wasn’t worthy of even half their recognition. At least it inspired a half decent manga with Ral Grad though.

5. Lock’s Quest

5th Cell’s Lock’s Quest brought tower defence gaming to the Nintendo DS in an under-stated but nonetheless big way. It allowed for attacking with your main character while building towers to defend, and integrated an RPG like campaign and story.

The overall gameplay was almost deceptively complex and featured some of the most challenging levels possible. Sadly enough, it won its fair share of Best Game No One Ever Played awards when it released in 2008 for the DS, and hasn’t popped up in public memory since.

6. Dark Void Zero

Even though the reboot for the game on consoles was a bust, Dark Void Zero, the follow-up to the game which released on PC, DSiWare and iPhone, was an excellent return to the series NES roots.

It’s amazing that the game started off as a joke but then quickly materialized into one of the better action platforming experiences ever made. What’s not funny is that hardly anyone has bothered to play it.

7. Infinite Undiscovery

For all the bitching we do about Square Enix and the rut they’re in with Final Fantasy XIII, we fail to give credit for games where they truly attempt something new and different. What if you played an RPG where things weren’t scripted? Where everything happened in real-time? Where you could just be sitting around and bam, plot device? That was the logic behind tri-Ace’s Infinite Undiscovery.

It took advantage of its real time settings to allow gamers variety in how they approach different missions, and you could even manage large missions with entire teams of party members. Sadly, the game only barely broke through a half million units sold on launch. The exclusivity to Xbox 360 didn’t help matters either.

8. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This is the game that featured both R.A. Salvatore of the Forgotten Realms fame as writer and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane for artwork. This was supposed to be the next big action RPG. However, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning only ended up being a tremendous disaster, with Big Huge Games and 38 Studios shutting shop.

38 Studios is currently involved in a legal tussle with the state of Rhode Island over the same issue, following which the Kingdoms of Amalur IP was sold off. And to think that it released to a strong critical reaction.

9. Lost Odyssey

Another attempt by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker at an exclusive JRPG on the Xbox 360, only this time with more mature characters and story-telling and far better visuals. Despite the significant leap over Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey just never caught on.

Delays and other issues such as limited marketing – which isn’t quite what a title from the creator of Final Fantasy should have – ensured that the game only sold a few hundred thousand copies since its launch.

10. Folklore

Yet another failed action RPG from Japan from Game Republic, Folklore could easily be one of the few games on the PS3 to make decent use of the SixAxis controller to reel in “folk” for one’s use.

The game’s eschewing of epic story-telling in favour of a fantasy-mystery and use of famous folklore characters – not to mention the vivid art style – helped set it apart from the pack. The poor sales of the game caused developer Game Republic to shut down, with plans for a sequel left to be forgotten.

What are your thoughts? Any particular game you played last generation that didn’t receive enough love? Let us know in the comments below.

Sega has posted a loss of 7.1 billion Yen, which amounts to $80 million roughly. The situation is so bad that most new games in development have been cancelled and the company will be concentrating on key franchises like “Total War”, “Sonic”, and “Football Manager” which are expected to bring in profits.

The restructuring process will take place soon and hopefully the company will recover its earnings slowly.

“The Company decided to implement structural reform of the Consumer Business at Sega Corporation to strive for a shift to a structure corresponding to the market environment for the purpose of earnings recovery in the following period and after,” read the PR.

It remains to be seen whether good IPs like Bayonetta and Binary Domain are used, or whether they stop creating new IPs till they recover.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

[Press Release]

Binary Domain will be released on PC from April. The game will also be releasing on consoles: Xbox360 and PlayStation 3.

“As well as the excitement generated by Binary Domain in the console press we were seeing increasing numbers of players asking for a PC version. So we listened and we delivered.” said Gary Knight, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sega.

Only one down side though. The PC version will be available at a later date.

Binary Domain is a pioneering third-person squad shooter from the creators of the Yakuza series. Set in 2080 Tokyo, Binary Domain paints a vivid picture of a country in social and environmental meltdown; players will battle against robotic defences in a city where climate change has forced many to live in extreme poverty in the slums, while the others live in the near future upper city built on top of the lower city. With a central branching storyline, voice recognition in combat and conversation and AAA shooter mechanics Binary Domain offers something genuinely unique to the genre.

Robots, robots and robots, that’s what you’ll encounter in Binary Domain. I was slightly being dismissive of this game earlier, because it looked cheesy and undercooked, but boy, was I wrong! The game got hold of my attention and never let go until the end, due to the fantastic pacing that throws new setpeices, cutscenes, and splendid combat sections, so boredom never set in. The game has a Japanese flavour to it, and manages to get the basics right, which is one of the main things you’ll appreciate about this game.

At a first glance, when you look at the main protagonist, Dan, you’ll notice that he resembles roided Chris from Resident Evil 5 a lot, and automatically you will assume that this game might be a nightmare to control. But that’s where you’re wrong- Binary Domain’s controls are one of the best I’ve ever seen in a third-person shooter before. Yes, it’s up there with Vanquish, and the game also has a splendid cover system to complement it.

And you know what’s the best thing about this game? Shooting enemies is so damn satisfying. The running animations when you equip the handgun – and the punchy sound when you fire one – everything manages to blend in nicely, and that’s one of the things that this game does so well. You must have noticed that I’m mostly talking about the pacing and gameplay till now, and there’s a reason for that. No, I’m not saying that the story and other things are mediocre; they’re surprisingly quite good, but the main thing here is that I actually wanted to shoot enemies. It was fun, and after playing so many shooters this gen, not a lot of them managed to make me feel like that.

The story was actually gripping and interesting for me; I was actually felt surprised by that because it also feels so generic and clichéd. A ragtag group of soldiers who are on a mission in Japan to stop Amada Corporation, which is guilty of creating robots called the “Hollow Children”. The entire plot revolves around this, and there are a lot of twists here that will definitely surprise you. Hollow Children are basically robots who are programmed to think they’re human. They feel fear, pain and other emotions, and blend in nicely with the real humans. The problem is, such research is banned, and Amada has been charged guilty and needs to be stopped.

You play as Dan, who, like the other members in his group, doesn’t really have a solid personality, but mostly you’ll not notice this as you play the game due to the pacing which will keep you occupied with other things. Although, I have to say that Cain, a robotic squad member with a French accent, is undoubtedly the star of the show. There’s a big black guy with a muscular constitution called Bo, but he isn’t that stereotyped here, and is actually quite bearable.

The boss fights deserve a special mention as well. While they’re your standard shoot-weakpoint-to-kill type of enemies, the design and excecution can leave you completely satisfied when you take one down. You will encounter some gigantic and intimidating bosses here, and all of them are presented quite well. When it comes to standard grubs – you’ll find them of various shapes and sizes in this game. From the slow moving humanoid robots, to robot ninjas – there is everything here. My main strategy to take them down was to go for the legs. Yup, you could never go wrong with that, and it’s satisfying to see them crawl towards you to give their one last shot to take you down. Yeah, like that’ll work. Hint: it does.

The game is quite linear, but doesn’t really make you go irritated like, “great… another tunnel, sigh”. The level design is quite good, and stands out due to the great art direction. The visuals give that futuristic sci-fi vibe in some places and looks quite good, but isn’t really a technical showcase. I played this on a PS3, and didn’t really find any game breaking issues, although, the frame rate is questionable during boss fights and heavy action sequences. The soundtrack was completely non-existent here, and I didn’t even realize there was any sort of music in-game. There are some volume issues here that makes the music less prominent in-game. The main menu music is  absolutely phenomenal, though.

Since I gloated over the handgun earlier, and while that is most definitely my most used weapon due to the ‘coolness’ factor, the standard gun given to you and your team mates can be upgraded with credits, which you get by destroying enemies. The conveniently placed shopping terminals make your job quite easier. You can also buy nano-machines to upgrade the stats of everyone. In a way, this game seems heavily inspired by Metal Gear Solid and Vanquish to some extent, but that’s not a bad thing obviously.

It took me close to 8-10 hours to beat the game, and it was a great experience which I completed in 2-3 sittings. I felt really satisfied after beating this game, so it was the perfect length I feel. Again, the pacing is the main thing that binds everything together, and the development team nailed this aspect well. You can also communicate with your teammates using a microphone, and the in-built voice recognition is poorly implemented at least for me, it didn’t work that well as I would have liked. Although, you can also communicate with them using buttons (phew), and your team mates perceive you in a certain way depending on your behaviour. Friendly Fire is absolutely not tolerated here.

There are some online modes as well which will keep you busy for a while, but the main attraction of Binary Domain is definitely the campaign mode. I would heartily recommended people to buy this game, as games which mentally engage you to such extent with satisfying combat mechanics are quite rare. This definitely doesn’t seem like a big budget project, but the production values on offer here is quite respectable. I really enjoyed playing Binary Domain, and in a way, any game that manages to successfully do that has succeeded in my book.

This game was reviewed on the PS3.

Toshihiro Nagoshi, the creator of the awesome Binary Domain (you’ll know soon), has been appointed as Sega’s new CCO, and replaces the outgoing COO, Okitane Usui.

No wonder Sega can recognize the amazing talent of this man. Stay tuned for our review of Binary Domain soon. Like really soon.

There’s been a little reshuffling at Sega, with company directors, Shigeru Yamashita and Yuki Sugino being promoted to senior directors, according to GI.Biz.

Sega’s overall business posted a 5% decline for the first nine months of this fiscal year, and hopefully they’ll bounce back so that we can have Binary Domain 2.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Binary Domain’s central theme of life is also key to the way the innovative AI system is being developed. The highly advanced AI will make the battlefield a more compelling experience than ever before and players will have to plan their moves strategically and carefully in order to progress through the hostile environments of the game.

The game is due next week for the Xbox 360 and PC.