Fun shooting games with heroes that have been closed

Key recommendations

• The hero shooter genre is facing challenges due to market oversaturation by dominant franchises like Overwatch and Valorant.
• Games such as LawBreakers, Concord, Crucible and Rocket Arena have experienced server shutdowns and poor sales despite their potential.
• Even well-received hero shooters like Renaissance Heroes and Lemnis Gate couldn't keep their player bases, leading to server shutdowns.

The shooter genre has been popular in video games since the arcade days, but has truly become a recurring staple in the industry with games like Doom, GoldenEye 007as well as more recent titles such as Splatoon and Titanfall. However, there is a subgenre of shooters that is sorely lacking these days: the character-based hero shooter.

Popularized by titles like Team Fortress 2the hero shooter is dominated by franchises such as Overwatch and Valorant. Due to the oversaturation of the market, there are a lot of great hero shooters that unfortunately don't last very long. All of these hero shooter games have shut down their servers at some point due to the monopoly held by these much more popular games.

1 Law breakers

This game has been shelved for good

Law breakers was launched in August 2017, but within a year its online servers were shut down due to lack of funds. The game admittedly didn't do much to innovate the hero shooter genre, with players taking on the role of a character in either Team Law or Team Breakers, featuring game modes like capture the flag, turf war, and even a ball based game. sports.

Despite positive reviews, Lawbreakers it was discontinued and removed from the Steam store after being made free for a short period of time. Although director Cliff Bleszinski has teased the future of the series, there probably isn't much of an audience these days for a hero shooter that's been dormant for over five years.

2 Concordia

It was going to be Sony's Overwatch

Compared to the previous game on this list, Concordia had an even shorter life span. Sony spent nearly a decade developing the game, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into it, eventually releasing it for PC and PlayStation 5 in August 2024. In just a few weeks, its abysmal sales caused the game's servers to be closed and developer be closed by sony.

It's a shame that Sony barely gave this game a chance to find its audience, given the inclusion of sixteen different playable characters from various alien races. The game even got some decent reviews despite the mixed reception, so for Sony to completely abandon it after less than a month says something about the company's overall poor development process.

3 Crucible

He was a victim of bad timing

Amazon had high hopes that the first game would come from Amazon Game Studios. However, Crucible it may have been a bit ambitious, entering the highly competitive hero shooter market. The only thing that made a difference Crucible from these other more successful hero shooters was the lack of certain archetypes, such as Healers or Tanks.

In addition to the game's fundamental flaws, it also had the misfortune of being released in May 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. By October of that year, Amazon shut down the game and even refunded all purchases, refocusing its video game development on the 2021 MMORPG. The New Worldwhich has seen a much better lifespan as of 2024.

4 The Second Wave

Fans want a chance to improve

Unfortunately for those who were charmed by The Second Wavethe game never made it out of Early Access before being pulled from the Steam store. The hero-based MOBA featured unique anime-inspired 3D characters with three game modes, including a field war, a three-team brawl, and a capture-the-flag-like game where players must maintain control over stones.

In addition to the unique art style, The Second Wave it included customizable skins and even voice lines for its characters, and its reviews were quite positive. Unfortunately, many players cited expensive microtransactions and technical difficulties as part of the reason why its cancellation came as no surprise, even though there was likely a chance for it to improve after leaving Early Access.

5 Battleborn

It's hard to live in Overwatch's shadow

Battleborn was an unlucky hero shooter given that it was released in the same month as the highly anticipated Overwatch. As a result, the game barely had a chance to attract an audience, despite having some interesting mechanics from MOBA titles that involve leveling up characters mid-match and bringing different item loadouts to each battle.

Surprisingly, the game's servers remained online for several years despite a dwindling player base shortly after release. The server shutdown occurred in January 2021, although some fans attempted to revive the game through a player-made remake. Battleborn Rebornwhich revived its single-player mode with hopes of one day incorporating online PvP modes.

6 PWND

If only Tom Cruise could help it

Don't let appearances be deceiving. Although players can go to the Steam store right now and download PWNDthe game's servers have been shut down since 2022. It's a surprising fate for the video game from Skydance Interactive, the media company behind Mission: Impossible and Top Gun: Maverickbut unfortunately good reviews couldn't save this doomed hero shooter of 2018.

Even though his roster only consisted of five playable characters, PWND it couldn't sustain a user base even after going free-to-play in less than a year. Its failure could be attributed to the gimmick of having to do a victory dance (or “PWN”) on players after killing them, which even fans who loved the game grew tired of after only a short time playing it.

7 Lemnis Gate

This game has run out of time

Lemnis Gate had a lot to live up to when it first launched in 2021. The game takes a different approach to arena-based hero shooters by incorporating a time loop mechanic where teams run between players who are accomplishing the same goals in a certain amount of time, with the ability to help a teammate's future attempts by strategically solving puzzles.

Despite positive reviews for its ingenuity, Lemnis Gate it disappointed sales expectations and failed to maintain a stable player base, shutting down the servers in 2023. The developers didn't even respond to fan requests for the local multiplayer servers to stay online, but at the end of the day, it became just another remnant . of a changing industry led by several large multiplayer games.

8 Rocket Arena

Its simplicity was its greatest feature and flaw

Rocket Arena was released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2020, introducing a brand new hero shooter to the gaming industry where characters use rocket launchers in 3v3 deathmatch or capture the flag modes. It even had cross-platform play enabled early on after release, but that wasn't enough to convince players to play it after a few seasons.

Developing future updates for Rocket Arena it officially ceased at the end of 2023 and the game's servers were shut down in 2024. It's a disappointing fate for a game that was apparently easy to learn and fun to play, but unfortunately didn't have enough content to attract them on players who were more. than satisfied by other successful hero shooters.

9 Heroes of the Renaissance

It was a short and sweet experience for the fans

Even die-hard fans of the hero shooter genre may never have heard of Heroes of the Renaissancewhich was originally released for PC in 2013. Unfortunately, the game's original roster of heroes just wasn't charismatic enough to attract much of an audience to this 16th century FPS with deathmatch and duel modes.

The game's lifespan didn't even last until the end of 2013, with the servers being shut down by the end of that summer. It's a mystery why the game didn't get any action considering the reviews were complimentary of the graphics and gameplay. Unfortunately, in a gaming industry struggling to stay diverse, a title with the word “Rebirth” in the title probably didn't appeal to young gamers.