These talks of No Man's Sky and Molyneux promises got me thinking. I tend to not belieive in such promised features (either because I imagine them not feasible, or because I imagine that the great idea would not really translate well in an actual videogame), and thus to enjoy the promised "ideal game" daydream for what it is.

But then, when has this (enjoyable) pessimism of mine been proven wrong ?

I mean : What are the games -if any- that did truly make the impossible, providing an experience that would have been deemed crazy to promise at the start of the development ? Did any game, launched on Molyneux-level promises, ever fulfill them against all odds ? Or : Before today's early marketing hypes, did groundbreaking game offer the kind of experience that would have been judged unrealistic to expect, if they had been announced as early as features get announced nowadays ?

The latter formulation may be harder to answer, because you cannot compare the imagined game and the result without broacasted traces of the early intents (but you "post mortem" readers might have the required knowledge). Still, the candidates I'd have in mind would be :

- The Sid Meier classics. Like : "Covert Action" (such a fantastic, open, total spy caper game, covering so many aspects in such a flexible self-generated plot and investigation system), or the "Civ" madnesses (for the time).

- The "Total War" series. Sublime strategy and sublime tactics with sublime graphics, again some sort of total game in its gameplay scope. Because of how good it is at all the different things it tries to be, this is my desert island videogame choice. And yeah, i find these games precisely unbelievable.

- The "Elite" series ? Today we could see them as empty, but back then how would we welcome the promises of a whole independant universe to roam ? Would the resut have disappointed us, or exceeded our expectations ?

- The Molyneux successes ? But how accidental were they ? Are these classics way below what they were meant to be ?

- Adding "Kerbal Space Program", which is a game that should not even exist.

- And you know what ? I wouldn't have believed the "Project Zomboid" description either. And I'm talking of "Project Zomboid" in the state it was in several years ago (I haven't yet played the later versions, which should be even more amazing).

In short, can you think of games that managed the impossible ? The sort of games whose history would lead you to believe in No Man's Sky and/or the next Molyneux milestone-for-humanity because "why not, after all remember ___" ?

Can you think of games that have fulfilled 'unrealistic' promises - either publicized promises (through marketing), or promises that the devs had privately made to themselves ?

Can you think of exemples invalidating knee-jerk scepticism in front of such hypes and promises ?

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Edit: New discaimer. I have been typing this half asleep, crushed by a heavy summer night. I'll check for the words order and the missing letters tomorrow. Sorry if it's barely readable, i hope the gist of the question still gets across.

Cid Meyers Alpha Centauri




This game set a standard that to this day no one is bothered to match in terms of the overall combination of features, especially terraforming.

For example, no matter how good the civilization series keeps getting.... they still don't have the ability to raise/lower terrain, therefore in my book SMAC is still king.

People actually think games will meet the hype???????

But... since on topic...

Neverwinter Nights.

I remember when bioware threw up the first webpage explaining the game and how it was in development..
Years down the road when it was finished it was the game I wanted.... and dreamed it would be.

There was bit of disappointment though
The first plan was to have linux client for the game...

Never came to be, just a linux server.

Otherwise out of all the years I been "gamer" , I have watched countless vaporware that no one even heard of come and go.

Features promised and features not provided. Companies start up and Companies go down.

Quest for Glory is a series of five excellent (1 to 4) to okayish (5) full-length adventure games with a single continuous plot, sequel hooks and cliffhangers. I'd say that's pretty hard to pull off, either for a company or for an indie dev.

Stardew Valley, Terraria, La Mulana and DROD 5 are close to perfect with huge amounts of content and it's all excellent (this is not to say short games fail as artworks, its just they're more realistically achievable). Nothing is half-assed or rushed. I never feel like the game is lacking features / options / minigames. I'm never pushed toward suboptimal / unsatisfying choices for the sake of "winning".

Only DROD 5 is a good desert island choice, though (I'd emphasize replayability and plot over sheer size; and content creation tools if those are allowed).

I agree with the nominations for KSP (a game developped by a marketing company that makes orbital mecanics and thrust ration calculations fun? What is that madness?) and Civ (no comment, that game probably destroyed the future careers and sleep patterns of a whole generation of students)

And Stardew valley too. Not that impressive, after all it's a Harvest Moon clone, until you realize a single guy working after hours at home somehow managed to get a near perfect blend of addictive gameplay, heart warming story, cute graphics and nice music. For his first game ever oO

My addiction to the mix : The Ultima series. Open world rpgs with tons of content in 1981, only one year after Pacman? That stuff blew my mind away when I discovered it.

Project Zomboid? Yes, that game was already tons of fun several builds ago. My only fear is that they might want to add possibly the most requested feature before 1.0, namely NPCs. That's gonna take a while :P

As for games that managed to live up to the hype? I can't really remember being hyped up for anything other than Warcraft 3 and Half Life 2, but on both of those occasions the games delivered above and beyond what I wanted. I'm not sure though how the final product compared to what was promised because I didn't follow it too closely. Warcraft 3 though is an interesting case because they changed the genre mid development. It was going to be more of an action rpg, but thankfully they relented and made it into a more traditional rts. And I'm glad they did. To this day it's my overall favorite rts.

Oh yes come to think of it I was really hyped for The Sims as well, and that game certainly delivered. Amusingly I quickly got bored the first time I played it. But after a week or two break I returned to it and got completely hooked on the game.

Impossible Creatures.

Mix and match creatures to create monstrosities? Check!

Create tiger scorpion as featured on CD cover? Check!

Ultima VII. Honestly, I don't remember the marketing for this game because I doubt there was any in my part of the world. However, what was unprecedented and amazing to me at the time was the amount of interactive clutter. Pots, forks, crates, fruit, bread, etc, could be freely manipulated in real time. Such were the limitations of game engines and hardware, I consider this to be a triumph. We take it for granted now, but I struggle to think of another game that did that until a couple of years after.

How is those NPC's bro?
Been what only twenty years in the making?

I have no idea how it was marketed or what the developers had promised themselves, but for its time, Star Control 2 seemed like an "impossible" game. It had a (for the time) huge universe, a ton of unique alien races each with their own cultures and backstories, and some of the best writing in any game ever. It also transcended genres and mixed up so diverse game mechanics that by rights it ought to have been an unplayable clusterfuck, but instead it all came together in a glorious whole that just works. Furthermore, despite being 24 years old at this point, the game still holds up perfectly today.