Deep Fear

Among the many quality horror titles lost to history, Sega’s Deep Fear definitely warrants a mention. Despite Resident Evil still being at the height of its popularity, Deep Fear’s tale of ex-Navy SEAL John Mayor as he investigates The Sea Fox submarine and Big Table facility for mysterious parasites still earned praise.

With excellent sound design and music, the latter composed by Kenji Kawai of The Ring fame, what could possibly kill the horror mood? The voice acting, unfortunately. It comes across as monotone at times and downright corny at others, marring the dialogue and any sense of tension. Plus the less said about DuBois Amalric, the designer of The Sea Fox and Big Table, the better.

Mass Effect: Omega

The next Mass Effect is still a long way off but it could seemingly use Unreal Engine 5 based on a recent job listing (and from sources speaking to VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb). In the meantime, why not imagine how Mass Effect 2’s Omega could look in the engine? Leo Torres had the same idea and used the engine to create a dynamically lit scene based on the overall atmosphere from the seedy destination. Though not based on a particular scene or section from the games, it does showcase what’s possible, especially with some gameplay thrown in.

Ferra and Torr

One, or rather two, of the most bizarre fighters in the franchise, Ferra and Torr were bodyguards for Kotal Kahn in Mortal Kombat X. While Torr is the muscle, possessing exceptional power, Ferra is a quick and agile warrior. They’re essentially a symbiotic duo and serve as an incredibly interesting combat option but ultimately, they would be set aside after being defeated by Sub-Zero.

Sindel

Everybody screams in Mortal Kombat but there’s only one screamer who revels in it – Sindel, the Queen of Edenia. Sindel’s powers are actually derived from air magic – she can hover in mid-air, channel magic to shoot fireballs and of course, screams at enemies to stun them. Not content slaying with her voice, she also uses her hair to grab opponents and toss them around (or slam them multiple times into the ground like in Mortal Kombat 9).

Game over- always a sign of temporary setbacks, but some games and developers know how to have fun even in these dire circumstances. Sure, a plain old screen telling you that you’re dead or that you failed your objective does its job perfectly well, but why not have some fun while doing so? In this feature, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen games with some of the most creative and fun game over screens. Without further ado, let’s begin.

SEGA RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

If you remove the audio from this one, it’d pretty much be the most boring, drab, cookie-cutter game over screen of all time. It literally just says “Game Over” on a white screen. But it’s the audio that makes it so special. Because that screen is also accompanied with a weirdly cheerful person singing the very words on display. Why? We don’t know. Would we have it any other way? Absolutely not.

Mortal Kombat Special Forces

Mortal Kombat Special Forces released after Mythologies and some how turned out worse. The “story” saw Jax trying to stop Kano and his gang from obtaining an artifact. Yes, that’s really it. Combined with awful action, no real gore and pathetic design, Mortal Kombat Special Forces could only be possible if many members of the development team, including co-creator John Tobias, just up and left. Which is exactly what happened. Co-creator Ed Boon would further confirm the various problems plaguing development, even though he didn’t work on it either.

Reptile, the Secret Boss – Mortal Kombat

Back in the boom period of arcade fighting games, Reptile was a super secret fighter in Mortal Kombat that couldn’t be fought unless certain conditions were met. In fact, Reptile himself would provide clues on reaching him, which meant obtaining a Double Flawless victory in the Pit in single-player mode and finishing the match with a Fatality. Once fans actually fought Reptile, he revealed just how cold-blooded and brutal he could really be. Such was the positive response to Reptile’s inclusion that he became a series regular from the second game onwards.

SOMA

Frictional’s SOMA is a compelling adventure, one that’s seemingly mimicking Amnesia: The Dark Descent but soon evolves into its own sci-fi moral dilemma. Protagonist Simon isn’t the same as the one who started the game – instead, he’s a robot copy and the Earth is more or less finished. His mission throughout is to transfer the consciousness of both him and Catherine, another robot copy, to the ARK which will launch into space. Unfortunately, there’s a coin-flip of sorts involved and their consciousness aren’t transferred, leaving them trapped on Earth. This leaves Simon angry, thinking that Catherine betrayed him, and that causes the OmniTool to malfunction. Simon is thus less left alone with no one else around.