These Hero Shooters Didn’t Survive The Test Of Time

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 14, 2025 3 Views 9 Min Read
These Hero Shooters Didn't Survive The Test Of Time



A shooting game with interesting characters wielding unique abilities in objective-based PvP gameplay: what is the first game you can think of with that description? Likely, your first thought is Overwatch (or its current iteration, Overwatch 2), which makes sense since it popularized the genre of hero shooters, and when it burst into the scene, everyone wanted a piece of the action.

Art for Gears 5, Doom Eternal, and World War Z Aftermath.

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Finally a fair fight.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to make one of these games stand out in the shadow of Overwatch. While a few of these titles came and went before Overwatch release, many of them were created after and failed to draw enough of a crowd. Here are some of the hero shooters that you’d forgotten (or maybe never even heard of) and how long they lasted.

7

Honorable Mention: Concord

Service Ended

September 6, 2024

Lifetime

2 Weeks

If you know about Concord, you likely found out about it posthumously and not for its gameplay or world. Rather, you probably know about it because of its incredibly short life and how much of a loss it was for its publisher, Sony Interactive.

While it’s too soon to forget such a monumental failure, it’s probably not going to stick in anyone’s minds for much longer. At best, it’ll be an object lesson to future devs. What makes it a tragedy was that, by most accounts, the game was fine– good even. However, in a year full of great games in an already saturated genre, Concord stood no chance.

6

Monday Night Combat

The clones from Monday Night Combat
Monday Night Combat

MOBA

Third-Person Shooter

Systems
Xbox-1

Released

August 11, 2010

Developer(s)

Uber Entertainment

Publisher(s)

Uber Entertainment
, Microsoft Game Studios

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence

Service Ended

MNC – N/A, SMNC – May 23, 2018

Lifetime

4 Years

This gem of the Xbox 360 era was a third-person shooter/MOBA hybrid that came out long before Overwatch was even an idea. The game was set in a shiny dystopian future where clones battled it out in the titular bloodsport.

The servers for Monday Night Combat are still up, though they are likely empty on any given day. Still, if you can gather some friends, you can experience it yourself.

The ‘heroes’ in this case were character classes like the swift and silent Assassin or the well-rounded Assault. They were full of personality, even the former, who doesn’t even speak. The world of MNC, a satirization of consumer culture, was interesting, even if what we know about it is limited to the level designs and the lines from the in-game sportscasters and the Pros on the field.

Super Monday Night Combat was a sequel that leaned more into the MOBA side of things but was shut down due to low player counts.

5

Battleborn

Service Ended

January 31, 2021

Lifetime

5 Years

Battleborn is perhaps the unluckiest entry on this list, having the misfortune of being released around the same time as Overwatch and, as a result, was completely overshadowed by the worldwide hit.

Though this game actually came a few weeks ahead, it fell on the short side of the ‘shooter with a wildly unique cast and a Pixar aesthetic’ comparison and was shut down due to a low player count. A shame, because both titles were actually pretty different, with Battleborn being more MOBA-like and actually featuring a story mode, which was also lost in the server shut down.

4

Lawbreakers

Service Ended

September 14, 2018

Lifetime

1 Year

Lawbreakers was a kinetic entry into the genre, made in the mold of classic arena shooters with an emphasis on movement.

on the left is the medic from Team Fortress 2, in the middle is an assortment of characters from Valorant and on the right is Mira from Rainbow Six Siege

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Almost all of the heroes in the roster had a means of rapid movement up, down, and across the map– from jetpacks, to hoverboots, grappling hooks, and even the famous rocket jump. The map design encouraged this chaotic gameplay with plenty of verticality and even areas of low gravity.

It was unique, well received by critics, and had the pedigree of being directed by Cliffy Blezinsky (Gears of War, Bulletstorm). But even then, the game failed to flourish.

3

Gundam Evolution

Service Ended

November 29, 2023

Lifetime

2 Years

The gameplay of Gundam Evolution was the familiar mix of 6v6 gameplay and a handful of objective-based game modes. However, it sets itself apart by having giant fighting robots from the long-running Gundam anime franchise.

Each mobile suit is unique and is pulled from across the Gundam multiverse, from the classic RX-78-2 from ‘79 to the Heavyarms from Gundam Wing, to the Gundam Barbatos from Iron-Blooded Orphans. Each mech felt authentic to the source material, so even unusual elements like transforming into a jet or swinging a ball-and-chain are preserved.

2

Foamstars

Systems
PlayStation-1

Released

February 6, 2024

Developer(s)

Toylogic

Publisher(s)

Square Enix

ESRB

e

Service Ends

January 17, 2025 (No more new content)

Lifetime

Ongoing

Foamstars plays out like Splatoon by way of Overwatch, with the area-covering and territory-denial of the former and the unique heroes of the latter. Each character has unique ways to foam up the stage, and they all move rapidly on friendly foam via surfing.

Unlike Splatoon, where knockouts are in service of covering territory for the win, it’s the opposite. Foaming the stage serves the goal of outmaneuvering and eliminating the opposition. This is best shown in its main mode, Smash the Star, which is a take on the rarely-seen VIP game type where teams score by eliminating the Star player while defending their own. Foamstars is still running but will no longer receive updates after January 17, 2025.

1

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Series

​​​​​​​

Service Ended

N/A

Lifetime

Ongoing

Of all the entries on this list, the Garden Warfare games are the strangest and most successful, being well-received and even getting a sequel that still has a small but steady pool of players. A mashup of Call of Duty and the classic hit tower defense game, Plants vs. Zombies, this game featured the titular plants and zombies duking it out in TDM and other classic FPS game modes.

Familiar foliage and undead from the original game make appearances as the characters of Garden Warfare, each sporting a unique kit. The games are feature-rich, too, having a story mode, horde mode, and, of course, the various PvP modes.

Star Wars Dark Forces on the left and Marathon 2 on the right

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