A fun hero shooting game that has ended

Key Takeaways

• The hero shooter genre is suffering from market oversaturation from major franchises like Overwatch and Valorant.
• Games like LawBreakers, Concord, Crucible, and Rocket Arena faced server shutdowns and poor sales despite their potential.
• Even acclaimed hero shooters like Renaissance Heroes and Lemnis Gate failed to maintain their player bases and had their servers shut down.

The shooting genre has been popular in video games since the arcade days, but has become a recurring staple in the industry with games like fate, GoldenEye 007Also includes the latest titles: splatoon and Titanfall. But there's one thing the shooting game subgenre is quite lacking these days: It is a character-based hero shooting game.

It gained popularity with titles such as . team fortress 2Hero shooters are dominated by franchises such as: Overwatch and brave. There are a lot of great hero shooters out there that sadly don't last long due to market oversaturation. These hero shooters have had their servers shut down at one point or another due to exclusivity from much more popular games.

1 lawbreaker

This game has been scrapped forever

lawbreaker was released in August 2017, but its online servers were shut down after a year due to lack of funding. The game did little to revolutionize the hero shooter genre, with players taking on the role of characters on the Law or Breakers teams, and featuring capture-the-flag, turf wars, ball-based game modes, and more. sports.

Despite the positive evaluation, lawbreaker It was free-to-play for a short period of time before being discontinued and removed from the Steam store. Director Cliff Bleszinski teased the future of the series, but these days there's unlikely to be much of an audience for a hero shooter that hasn't been active in over five years.

2 agreement

It was supposed to be Sony's Overwatch

Compared to previous games on this list: agreement Lifespan was also shorter. Sony developed the game for nearly a decade and invested hundreds of millions of dollars, finally releasing it for PC and PlayStation 5 in August 2024. After just a few weeks, extremely low sales led to the game's servers being shut down and the developer being shut down by Sony.

Considering it includes 16 playable characters from various alien races, it's a shame that Sony gave this game so little opportunity to find an audience. The game received some decent reviews despite mixed reactions, so Sony's complete abandonment of the game after less than a month says something about the company's overall poor development process.

3 crucible

It was a victim of bad timing

Amazon had high hopes for the first game coming from Amazon Game Studios. but, crucible It may have been a rather ambitious attempt to enter the highly competitive hero shooter market. The only difference is crucible Other successful hero shooters lacked certain archetypes, such as healers or tanks.

Aside from the game's fundamental flaws, it also had the misfortune of being released in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. By October of that year, Amazon had shut down the game and even refunded all purchases, refocusing video game development on the 2021 MMORPG. new worldAs of 2024, life expectancy is much better.

4 second wave

Fans wish they had a chance to improve

It's a pity for those who fell in love with the charm. second waveThe game never made it out of Early Access before it was released on the Steam store. The hero-based MOBA features unique 3D anime-inspired characters and features three game modes: turf wars, three-way team brawls, and a capture-the-flag style game where players must maintain control of the stones.

In addition to its unique art style, second wave It also included customizable skins and voice lines for the characters, and reviews were quite positive. Unfortunately, many players cited expensive microtransactions and technical difficulties as one of the reasons why the cancellation was taken for granted, even if it had the potential to get better once it left Early Access.

5 Battleborn

It's hard to live in the shadow of Overwatch

Battleborn It was an unlucky hero shooter considering the fact that it was released in the same month as the highly anticipated game. Overwatch. As a result, the game had little opportunity to grow its audience, despite incorporating many of the cool mechanics of MOBA titles, such as leveling up characters mid-match and bringing different item loadouts to each fight.

Surprisingly, the game's servers remained online for several years, despite the player base declining shortly after launch. The server shutdown took place in January 2021, although some fans attempted to revive the game through player-made remakes. Battleborn RibbonAt some point, they revived the single-player mode to incorporate an online PvP mode.

6 password

If only Tom Cruise could help

Don't let appearances be deceiving. Gamers can head to the Steam store and download it right now, though. passwordGame servers will be closed starting in 2022. This is a surprising fate for the video game division of media company Skydance Interactive. Mission: Impossible and Top Gun: MaverickBut unfortunately, despite good reviews, there was no saving this ill-fated 2018 hero shooter.

Although there were only 5 playable characters, password Even after switching to free-to-play less than a year later, it was unable to maintain its user base. The game's failure can also be attributed to the gimmick of having to do a victory dance (or “PWN”) after killing a player, which even fans who liked the game got sick of after a short while of playing it.

7 Lemnis Gate

This game is short on time

Lemnis Gate A lot happened when it first launched in 2021. The game takes a different approach to arena-based hero shooters by incorporating a time loop mechanic where teams rotate between players completing the same objective within a certain amount of time. You have the ability to support your team's future endeavors through strategic puzzle solving.

Despite positive evaluations of originality, Lemnis Gate Disappointed with sales expectations and unable to maintain a steady player base, the servers were shut down in 2023. The developers didn't respond to fans' pleas to keep the local multiplayer servers online, but it ended up being just another remnant. This is a changing industry dominated by several large multiplayer games.

8 rocket arena

Simplicity was both its greatest feature and its flaw.

rocket arena Released in 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, the game introduced the gaming industry to a brand-new hero shooter where characters wield rocket launchers in 3v3 deathmatches or capture the flag mode. Even though cross-platform play was available at launch, it wasn't enough to convince gamers to play it a few seasons later.

Future update development rocket arena It was officially discontinued at the end of 2023, with game servers shutting down in 2024. It's a disappointing fate for a game that's said to be easy to learn and fun to play, but unfortunately doesn't have enough content to attract more gamers. Rather than being satisfied with other successful hero shooting games.

9 renaissance heroes

It was a short and sweet experience for the fans.

Even die-hard fans of the hero shooter genre might not have heard of it. renaissance heroeswas originally released for PC in 2013. Unfortunately, the game's original roster of heroes wasn't charismatic enough to attract a large audience to this 16th century-based FPS with deathmatch and duel modes.

The game's lifespan did not last until late 2013, with the servers shutting down at the end of that summer. It's a mystery why the game failed to gain any traction, considering reviews praised its graphics and gameplay. Unfortunately, in a gaming industry that struggles to maintain diversity, a title with the word “Renaissance” in the title probably won't grab the attention of younger gamers.