Although overshadowed by their first-person counterparts, third-person shooters are still pretty popular, with a couple of notable games coming out each year. That said, the genre hasn't really been at its most productive during the 2020s, so you need to look to the past to find good old-fashioned TPS brilliance. Putting aside instant hits like Mass Effect and Gears of War, quite a few of the best third-person shooter games debuted by falling flat on their faces.
I tend to play FPS games more than third-person shooters simply because there are just more of them. Don't get me wrong, the latter has produced plenty of masterpieces, but only a handful were successful enough to help propel the genre to new commercial heights. Let's run down a few greats that weren't hits (at first, or ever in some cases).
"Nobody played" is a bit hyperbolic, but none of these games found their audience at launch. Also, I'm only talking about their release period, as most of them attracted a following in time.
In some ways, Spec Ops: The Line seemed designed to fail, at least commercially.
Presented as a stock military shooter and released at a time when audiences were growing tired of generic third-person shooters, this 2012 masterpiece suffered through one of the biggest marketing misfires. Unsure how to promote its feel-bad game, 2K tried to reach the Call of Duty and Gears of War demographic, with trailers that sold a bombastic action ride that didn't exist.
Famously, 2K hired an entirely different studio to build a conventional multiplayer, something that was completely at odds with Yager's single-player campaign.
Spec Ops: The Line bombed so hard at launch that it might as well not have been released at all; however, deep discounts and bundles helped spread it around, allowing word of mouth to do its thing. While the gameplay isn't particularly good, the game tells a riveting story based on Heart of Darkness, one that deconstructs or subverts the hero complex and player agency, resulting in one of the most unforgettable 6-hour campaigns in the third-person shooter genre.
As I'm sure most of you know, Spec Ops: The Line was delisted in 2024 due to licensing issues. It's a real shame the game met this fate, but it undeniably left a long-lasting impact on the industry.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/third-person-shooters-best-games-nobody-played/
