The "other" games from well known developers

[LookingGlass]

Quite often a developer is known mostly for just one game or series. However I'd say it's rare for a talented dev team to make just one great game, or to suddenly start making great games out of nowhere after making a bunch of crap. If it took them a while to get some marketing behind their games, you might have missed some great ones.

So I think we should have an informative thread about that kind of stuff. The humble beginnings of some of the big game developers out there today, their first releases, their hidden gems, their "I didn't know they made that" games, etc.

Here's a few off the top of my head:

Dev: Avalanche Studios
You know them for: Just Cause 2
They also made: Renegade Ops, a downloadable top-down, vehicle-based twin stick shooter. As with Just Cause 2, this game is all about blowing shit up... and damn it does it well. It's got a great 80s action movie feel to it too.

Dev: Irrational Games
You know them for: Bioshock, or System Shock 2 if you're older.
They also made: SWAT 4. I only found out earlier this year that they were the dev team behind this. Every bit as good as SWAT 3, as well as the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games, it's impressive that this was the only tactical FPS made by these guys.

Dev: Volition, Inc
You know them for: The Saints Row series
They also made: Freespace 1 and 2 (these were their first two games). In my opinion, the two greatest space-combat simulation games ever produced.

Dev: Arkane Studios
You know them for: Dishonored
They also made: Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, a first-person melee focused action RPG with a wonderfully satisfying combat system. This is a fantastic source engine game that begs me to replay it every six months or so. Dishonored might have snuck up on a lot of people, but those of us who'd played Dark Messiah and Arx Fatalis (their only other game, and probably the last great first person dungeon crawler) were expecting great things.

 

[Sixcess]

Dev: Insomniac Games
You know them for: Resistance, Spyro, Ratchet and Clank
They also made: Disruptor, in 1996 on the PS1. Their first game and one of the last sprite based 'Doom clones' before the Quake era introduced full 3D polygonal enemies. The story was told through live action FMVs - hey, it was the 90s - the high tech environments looked great, the guns were inventive and you could fire off psionic powers alongside your shooting in the first example I can think of of dual wielding different weapon types in a video game.

 

[Jazoni89]

Dev: Rebellion
You may know them for: Aliens vs Predator Requiem, Sniper Elite, That Piece of Shit...Rogue Warrior game.
They also made: Skyhammer, the last official game released for Atari's ill-fated Jaguar system. Skyhammer was in development when the Jaguar was still in retail, but due to complications it didn't get a release until 2000, and only in limited quantities. So the game fetches a pretty penny on ebay, and rank up there as one of the most expensive game on the system with Battlesphere being the most expensive at nearly a thousand pounds. Unlike most Jaguar games, it used a lot of the Jaguar's raw power, and took advantage of it's twin processors (which made the Jaguar presumably hard to develop for). By doing this Rebellion made a game that showed what the Jaguar was truly capable of, if only it arrived sooner then maybe the Jag wouldn't of been seen as a huge joke by the majority of the gaming public.

Here's a video, it looks like almost a late psone game. It's mighty impressive stuff for a system that struggled to put out 3d polygons. I would love to get a hold of this game...someday.

 

[Frezzato]

Had to post this even though everyone already knows:

Dev: Bungie
You know them for: Some game named HALO or HAHO--STABO? Dunno.
They also made: Oni, beautiful, horribly controlled Oni for PC, Mac and PS2.

Also, I believe Bioware made MDK2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSrSzKTZoxg] I have it for Dreamcast.

 

[DoPo]

They also made: Oni, beautiful, horribly controlled Oni for PC, Mac and PS2.

I love Oni. It's a pretty kickass game - one of the best where you get to fight people (outside Mortal Kombat and such).

Also, I believe Bioware made MDK2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSrSzKTZoxg] I have it for Dreamcast.

I had crazy fun with MDK2 on PC. I never managed to beat the final boss, though... :/ and then my save disappeared so I didn't want to try any more.

EDIT: Ugh, yeah I pushed the post button too fast. I wanted to go with something, but I don't know how "well known" the developer is, still

Dev: Haemimont Games
You know them for: maybe not but if you do it'd be for Tropico 3, Tropico 4
They also made: Tzar: The Burden of the Crown a quite enjoyable medieval fantasy RTS game from way back in 2000. I recall it even had units gaining experience and eventually turning into heroes (so, that was their last upgrade, IIRC). Celtic Kings - another medieval fantasy RTS from a few years later with more Celtic theme running in it. I didn't really like it as much, I thought it was quite meh but it had its interesting points. Rising Kingdoms, Glory of the Roman Empire, and Grand Ages: Rome which I haven't even heard of, until I looked up the Wikipedia page just now. And Imperium Romanum - a game I've only heard the title of and didn't know anything else about, including that it was made by Haemimont. Now I know just the dev.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Had to post this even though everyone already knows:

Dev: Bungie
You know them for: Some game named HALO or HAHO--STABO? Dunno.
They also made: Oni, beautiful, horribly controlled Oni for PC, Mac and PS2.

Also, I believe Bioware made MDK2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSrSzKTZoxg] I have it for Dreamcast.

I wanted to love Oni so bad, but I couldn't get over the controls. Everything else about it was perfect, but the controls gave it a nasty case of fake difficulty that I just couldn't get over. Doesn't help that my copy is on the PS2 -- as I understand it, the PC version controlled reasonably well, the PS2 just didn't have enough buttons to pull it off properly.

OT: I'm tempted to say "Hideo Kojima" and list ZoE, but since A.) that just got a re-release as a major title, and B.) Hideo Kojima is a director, not a studio, I guess it doesn't really count. Maybe Shogo: Mobile Armor Division? It was Monolith (the company better known of late for F.E.A.R. and Batman: Gotham City Impostors)'s first full 3D game, running on their own proprietary engine. It was a unique title that blended giant robot and on foot action into a compelling whole, with a campaign that was an absolute love letter to mecha anime (not to mention well done as a game) and a multiplayer mode that to this day is still unlike anything else I've ever played, in a very good way. The reason we didn't get a sequel? Half Life came out a few months later, Unreal a few months before. The poor game never stood a chance against the marketing blitz for those two, despite the game itself stacking up to them quite nicely.


The first video there shows the first few levels, only one of which actually involves any shooting -- levels 2 and 3 involve walking around your own military base and getting background information about the story and your role in it. The second video is the first few mech levels, the last video is one mech level and a couple of on foot levels. I don't expect anyone to actually watch all of them, but if you want an idea of the full range of gameplay, you need to look at both modes, and that was the most convenient way to show them.

I would link some multiplayer footage, but the videos I'm finding are all one on one and with players that don't seem to be very good, like someone bought the game on GoG and decided to do some fragging with a friend. The old online was intense and, in the mechs, very acrobatic. 2 minute long duels[footnote]I mean just to get one kill, by the way, and in a one on once situation. Adding other players to the mix gave you more targets and made it easier to hit someone who wasn't paying attention specifically to you, although some of the maps were big enough that this kind of situation could happen on one end of the map while the other players were busy on the other. Then there were the Madskills maps, which were a free for all tiny room with every weapon in the game available. Absolute chaos, in a good way.[/footnote] in the large open areas were not unheard of, because people who were good at dodging were just that fricken' hard to hit. On Foot multiplayer was good too, but not as impressive to watch.

 

[Squilookle]

I don't have time to post one right now, but I hope someone does this for Body Harvest, by a little known company called Rockstar North...

 

[DoPo]

I wanted to love Oni so bad, but I couldn't get over the controls. Everything else about it was perfect, but the controls gave it a nasty case of fake difficulty that I just couldn't get over. Doesn't help that my copy is on the PS2 -- as I understand it, the PC version controlled reasonably well, the PS2 just didn't have enough buttons to pull it off properly.

I played it on a PC - it was quite good, I don't remember many hiccups. Some of the combos were a bit awkward to pull off (window of opportunity was very small, or they were too close to other combos) but that wasn't really hindering - you mainly ended up punching somebody in a different way than how you intended to punch him. Although, I recall one boss battle (the one where you had to dodge many laser beams where you had to hide behind some terminals and...use them or something. It was a long time ago, and that's the only memorable thing) - that gave me such a hard time. I remember most of it even today, yet most of the rest of the game, I don't. I resorted to cheats there and I think it was because dodging/sliding/jumping over moving beams was a pain in the ass. I even recall I had to use a hex editor to enable cheats and the cheat I used was "minime" which made you so small, you could walk under the lasers. Sheesh, why do I remember this and not more important things?

 

[LookingGlass]

I really enjoyed Oni. I saw and read a little bit of it at release time and just had to buy it. The big levels felt a bit empty and some of the combos were a pain in the ass, but I had a lot of fun with it and I replay it every now and then. It's the kind of game that badly needed a sequel to fully realise its potential... maybe one day.

Shogo is a monolith game? The guys who made FEAR and Condemned and No One Lives Forever? And it's on GOG and thus on sale for $3 [http://www.gog.com/gamecard/shogo_mobile_armor_division] right now? Sold.

 

[LookingGlass]

I don't have time to post one right now, but I hope someone does this for Body Harvest, by a little known company called Rockstar North...

And on the topic of Rockstar North, they also happen to be the developers of the Lemmings games (as DMA Design).

 

[Saulkar]

Dev: Bioware
You know them for: Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, MDK 2, KOTOR, Dragon Age, Jade Empire
They also made: Shattered Steel. A first person arcade mech simulator that was overshadowed by several other mech games at the time including but not limited to Mechwarrior 2 and Earthseige 2. This in turn resulted in the loss of any potential for a sequel despite advertising for such and interviews going into depths over its potential content.

 

[The_Echo]

Dev: Insomniac Games
You know them for: Resistance, Spyro, Ratchet and Clank
They also made: Disruptor, in 1996 on the PS1. Their first game and one of the last sprite based 'Doom clones' before the Quake era introduced full 3D polygonal enemies. The story was told through live action FMVs - hey, it was the 90s - the high tech environments looked great, the guns were inventive and you could fire off psionic powers alongside your shooting in the first example I can think of of dual wielding different weapon types in a video game.

Closely related:

Dev: Sucker Punch Productions
Known for: Sly Cooper, inFAMOUS
They also made: Rocket: Robot on Wheels, as 3D platformer for the N64, which used an advanced-for-its-time physics engine.

Dev: Naughty Dog, Inc.
Known for: Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, The Last of Us
They also made: Three games under the name "Jam Software": Math Jam, Ski Crazed and Dream Zone. Then, as Naughty Dog, they made Keef the Thief, Rings of Power and Way of the Warrior, before breaking through with Crash.

 

[Cheesus Crust]

Dev: Konami
You know them for: Anything that has the words "Metal Gear" in the title
They also made: Zone of the Enders 2. A third person mecha game that had a lot of flaws, but was really fun to play. It was fast paced and exhilarating, but monumentally short and the story was a bit lame in hindsight. To this day I still think Jehuty and Anubis are some of the most amazing mecha to come out of Japan. Minus the literal cockpit of course, which I'm glad they're ditching on the next ZOE game.

 

[lithiumvocals]

Dev: Hudson Soft
You know them for: Bomberman, "Hudson Soft's Patented Nintendo-Themed Friendship-Ruiners" (AKA the Mario Party series)
They also made: Sonic Shuffle. Sonic Shuffle is... Well, let's not beat around the bush. Sonic Shuffle is basically Mario Party but for Sonic. But instead of using trusty and reliable dice, Sonic Shuffle uses a card system where you can pick the amount of spaces you can move from cards in your hand. When everyone runs out, you are all dealt new hands. Hence, "Shuffle". Sadly it's nowhere as engaging as Mario Party, despite and perhaps partially because isn't as arbitrary, as random, or as infuriating as Mario Party.