8 Shut Down Games That I Would Give Anything To Play Again

The modern gaming world has been plagued by the prevalence of dead games. This doesn’t refer to titles that just lose their player count over time, but rather to the select number of releases that are pulled from stores and switched off forever, with only videos, screenshots, and the occasional community project keeping their legacy afloat.

As someone who has been playing games for about as long as I could walk, I have seen countless amazing titles come and go, many of which fell pretty close to my heart when they were still around. Community efforts do exist in a few of these cases, but for the most part, the original product has vanished into the void like so many others, never to be seen again.

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Nosgoth

Vampires Vs Hunters

• Free PvP with two sides, each with varied skills and abilities.
• Canceled due to a smaller-than-expected player base.

When I first started getting into PC gaming, the concept of a free game was very appealing. The fact that I would enjoy a brand-new game without spending a dime sounded great, so when Nosgoth appeared on the store, I was beyond excited and quickly logged a dozen or so hours of the brutal yet satisfying vampiric gameplay it had to offer.

To this day, I still remember getting a penta-kill and jumping with glee, and as time went on, I had high hopes that the game would really take off. However, as is the way of the world, things don’t always pan out as expected. Nosgoth was shut down just over a year after its beta launch, crushing my and many others’ joy in one fell swoop.

Lawbreakers

Gone Too Soon

• Hero-shooter with stylish characters.
• Heavy emphasis on mobility and speed.

PvP shooters are the biggest culprit for video game shutdowns because of how heavily they depend on an active player base and the steep competition they face. In the case of Lawbreakers, the pattern is all too familiar. A solid FPS game built around mobility and ability usage, and a real addiction for me during its beta and after launch.

I found myself instantly captivated due to the high skill ceiling that let you really take over matches if you were good enough and had the right game sense. However, when your competition is games like Overwatch, it is hard to stay afloat, and despite having a very fun gameplay loop, Lawbreakers could only hold on for so long.

Overwatch

Game Of The Year For A Reason

• The best of the modern hero shooters.
• Changes altered the identity of the game forever.

Overwatch was Blizzard’s way of showing the world that they were more than just an MMO company, and that they could actually contest an entirely different genre. At launch, everyone was playing, regardless of whether they were a diehard shooter fan or a MOBA veteran, and I was among the masses, starting on a console, then a terrible laptop, and eventually a full-on tower PC towards the end of 2020.

As someone who logged upwards of 3,000 hours in the game at all tiers of play, when the sequel/update was announced, I was super hyped. Suddenly, my favorite game was about to get a lot more content. Yet when it finally dropped, without the PvE and with a complete rework of the entire game, from the move to 5v5 to the individual heroes, the spark was gone. While I would give anything to turn back the clock to the glory days, I now have no desire to touch the game in its current form.

XDefiant

COD-Killers Never Truly Win

• Marketed as a true competitor to COD.
• Lost its player base in a matter of weeks.

In the FPS space, there is virtually no game that can hold a flame to Call of Duty. Many have tried, and among them was XDefiant, a promising new shooter from Ubisoft that tried to bring a more grounded approach to the genre that many had been craving in the years prior.

I am not the biggest COD fan in the world, at least not like I used to be, but I have always found some fun in the fast-paced nature of the gameplay loop, so when XDefiant launched, I was pretty happy that I could enjoy something similar, yet entirely new at the same time.

I spent a lot of time perfecting loadouts and figuring out new map tricks, but when the shutdown was announced, I basically gave up and accepted the grief as early as I could, instead of clinging on any longer.

Loadout

Customization That No Longer Exists

• A unique take on the concept of loadouts.
• Fast, over-the-top, and plain gory.

Loadout is a name that many players will remember from the mid-2010s as a standout shooter with a lot of cool ideas going for it. As the name suggests, the main focus was on creating weapon loadouts, from the scopes to the barrels, and each combination brought with it a genuinely distinct playstyle that added a load of replay value to the experience.

My friends and I would run around for hours blasting each other, and there was so much charm in the game compared to the competition, which was otherwise focused on more serious military settings or futuristic sci-fi ones. Good idea, yes, but the longevity just wasn’t there, and after several subsequent server closures, the doors were finally shut forever in 2020.

Battleborn

Living In Another’s Shadow

• A hero shooter developed by Gearbox.
• Launched in a hotly contested release window.

The mid-2010s were a time dominated by gritty military shooters that were showing no sign of slowing down. That all changed in and around 2015-16, with the announcements, trailers, and releases of so many hero shooters, from Overwatch to the Paladins beta, and of course, Battleborn.

The cinematic announcement was enough to hook me, and coming from a seasoned developer like Gearbox, I knew the game was going to be a hit. In the first few weeks after launch, I was clearing lobbies as Rath, putting up big numbers, and really finding my groove. Then it all came crashing down, with Overwatch’s launch resulting in a mass migration of players over to what many considered to be the better game. I enjoyed both games equally and would regularly hop between the two, yet that back and forth couldn’t last forever, and the passage of time caught up and claimed yet another promising soul.

Robocraft

Building Vehicles Piece By Piece

• Modular vehicular combat.
• Advanced modeling mechanics.

Robocraft was a very interesting game that revolved around building vehicles of all shapes and sizes and then taking them onto the front lines to fight a whole lobby of other creations. The loop of creation, refinement, and mastery was pretty cool, and I spent a lot of time honing my craft, opting for fast and agile vehicles over big, bulky ones.

Over time, I gradually moved on to other games, but would jump back in every few months whenever a new content drop was released or if I had a desire for some more robotic combat. That routine, though, would ultimately cease to exist, and as much as I would love to revisit my early gaming days, the mechanical chaos is simply no more.

Evolve

The Peak Of Asymetrical Gameplay

• Monster vs humans gameplay.
• Multiple different weapons and ability types to master.

Evolve is one of the biggest names that comes up when people talk about dead games, and I, for one, agree that the fate it got was far from deserved. Previously, most games focused on human vs. monster combat, but here you could step into the claws of several different monstrosities, each with unique playstyles and abilities that completely altered how matches played out.

I adored the game at launch, and my appreciation of Lovecraft led me to become a Kraken main, a high-damage monster with a lot of range and aerial mobility. However, whether it was the DLC content, progression, narrative, or a combination of all three, the player base moved on very quickly, and even after a change to free-to-play, the evolution became more of an extinction. Indeed, the game is technically still accessible thanks to a small group of fans, but I still wish I could queue up a game online without the extra friction just one last time.