Whats a gaming failure or undeveloped project you wish had a more successful release/was fully realized? For me its tomb raider angel of darkness. There were a lot of problems with the production, ranging from lack of leadership to scrapped concepts to the unpreparedness of the team for the complexity of programming for the PS2. Core design didnt have enough time to iron out the kinks even with all the crunch time, and eidos didnt give them more time because they wanted to release in june.
The game was an unfinished mess, full of bugs and haphazard level design. But its gained something of a cult status within the raider community, with memes centering on its iconic side characters like janice the parisian sex worker as well as lara’s feisty one-liners. Its still being kept alive by a dedicated community of speedrunners and unofficial remasters. I often think what could have been if it had more time to at least be passable at launch. Core planned two sequels that would have continued the story. Obviously they were scrapped, core design went defunct, and tomb raider was handed over to crystal dynamics.
Makes me think of Dwarf Fortress. I know that Rimworld kinda-sorta is this, but I feel like there’s space for games like Dwarf Fortress and traditional roguelikes with the backing and polish of a AAA team.
I had a similar feeling playing Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past for the first time in adulthood. I had played dozens of visually and mechanically similar indie games, but I was struck by it’s depth, interconnectedness, the sense of exploration and adventure and scale. AAA companies are capable of great things when they stick to principles and actually create art, instead of creating products.
And to a lesser extent, the same is true for Metroidvanias and Super Metroid.