Near-Perfect Forgotten Sci-Fi Games

Not every sci-fi concept is going to be the next Star Wars, Avatar, Blade Runner, and so on. That said, props go to any filmmaker or game developer who tries something new or puts a twist on traditional conventions. For video games in particular, there have been a metric ton of sci-fi games that have either gone the distance, flopped, or fallen somewhere in the middle.

The most tragic examples are the ones that came so close to perfection that no one seemed to notice for any number of reasons. Some of these games are still available, while others are a bit more lost to time, but either way, let’s honor them well today.

Binary Domain

The Robot Invasion Is Nigh

Binary Domain has a wild concept for a sci-fi game involving sentient robots that rise and start killing civilians. That’s where the heroes come in as players assume the role of Daniel, the leader of a specialized unit designed to handle this robot uprising.

Think of it like Gears of War meets The Terminator, as it is a squad-based shooter with killer robots. Players can choose their allies, level up their relationships, boost gear, and so on in a relatively fun cover shooter from the Yakuza team, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, at Sega.

Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

Horizon Zero Dawn

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a linear action-adventure game that is based on the Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, mythos from Chinese folklore. The game puts a twist on the lore by setting it in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth.

Monkey is the playable character, a brutish man with supernatural abilities, who is being controlled by a woman, Trip, as the two try to escape a dystopian landscape filled with robot pursuers. Think of it like Dragon Ball meets Horizon Zero Dawn with the action of Devil May Cry and the platforming majesty of an Uncharted game. It’s a short hodgepodge of ideas that is worth playing at least once.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Starship Troopers

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition was an early shooter for the Xbox 360 about a group of colonizers who go to an icy foreign planet for a rare energy source, only to get bombarded by alien bugs. Players can blast aliens with all manner of weaponry, along with escaping harm via a grappling hook.

The best part is the various mechs, called Vital Suits, that come in a variety of forms, from stereotypical big tanks that walk upright to more mobile vehicles. It may be a bit monotonous, but shooting alien bugs is a concept that will never get old, and neither will mechs.

World War Robot

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is one of many platformers that hit the PS2, GameCube, and original Xbox in the early 2000s. Instead of a cute critter or some weird humanoid as the star, this game was all about a plucky robot fighting in a robot war.

Players could gain various weapons, like machine guns or rockets, and pilot several vehicles and turrets through their run. For a platformer, the shooting was surprisingly good, even if the rest of the game’s level design wasn’t as thrilling.

Panzer Paladin

Shovel Knight With A Mech

Panzer Paladin is an underrated modern pixel game featuring a mech pilot, Flame, who controls the titular Paladin mech called Grit. Players can gain all manner of melee weapons from enemies, from swords to spears, plus Flame can get out of the mech in some sections to grapple around and unlock pathways to continue forward.

Developed by Tribute Games, who some may know from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge or Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Panzer Paladin is an 8-Bit inspired game that plays and looks just as good as Shovel Knight. One of the cooler elements is the weapon editor, which allows players to create their own melee monstrosity.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

Flame On!

Third-person shooters were very experimental in the 2000s, and Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is a good example. Instead of just blasting enemies with guns, players also had a plethora of psychic powers to use.

It was just as fun igniting enemies on fire as it was hurling objects at them like some sort of weird, futuristic, deadly dodgeball match. It’s a shame there aren’t more physically charged shooters today, as it makes for a good sci-fi thriller concept, or at least it does in the case of Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy.

Rogue Galaxy

Avast Ye Aliens

Rogue Galaxy came out at the tail end of the PS2’s lifecycle in North America, long after the Japanese debut. It’s an action RPG from Level-5, one of the finest RPG developers that touched the PS2. Players were part of a m group of space pirates, which is already a fun idea, going from planet to planet to find adventure, from a desert town taken over by monsters to a set of ruins hiding deep inside a lush jungle.

It may not be Level-5’s best on the PS2, but Rogue Galaxy has a good party system with diverse characters, a weapon evolution mechanic, and challenging gameplay that will make the adventure more rewarding with a little patience.

Shadow Complex

A Nathan Drakevania

Shadow Complex was one of the earliest indie games to try to pass on the legacy of Metroidvanias in the 2000s, but through a different lens. Situated in a near-future society, two cave explorers, Jason and Claire, stumble upon a facility underground, leading to Claire getting kidnapped and Jason having to rescue her.

It’s a low-fi sci-fi story as the secret bunker’s design isn’t too flashy, but futuristic weapons and robots do help set it apart from other 2D Metroidvanias. Also, Jason is voiced by Nolan North, so you can pretend this is like a 2D Uncharted game since North voices that franchise’s hero, Nathan Drake.

Starhawk

Build Bases And Dominate The Skies

Starhawk was an ambitious spiritual successor to Warhawk, one of Sony’s oldest games from the PS1 era. Set on a foreign planet, players could gain rift energy while playing to call down structures from space to build walls, bases, and other structures during conflicts.

It was part RTS, part tower defense, and part third-person shooter, and watching those buildings drop from space could be immensely satisfying. Beyond that, there were hover bikes, jets to fly around in dogfights, mechs, and more. The gameplay mechanics are what sold the game, even though the world itself and the story weren’t as interesting.

Transformers: War For Cybertron

Robots In Disguise

There are a lot of Transformers games out there, most of them bad, but Transformers: War for Cybertron is a forgotten classic. This original game let players be Autobots and Decepticons, but either side had a plethora of heroes or villains to inhabit.

Characters could shoot various weapons from cannons to rifles, but the coolest part was transforming between vehicles and humanoid forms in battle in the blink of an eye. Transformers is such a rich sci-fi toy line cartoon franchise that it is painful there aren’t as many good games as Transformers: War For Cybertron, or that it isn’t available to purchase digitally anymore.