Yesterday, the gaming world received some sad news. Pandemic Studios was shut down as a part of the sweeping EA cuts. They were one of my favorite game studios. Let's take a look back at some of their awesome games.
Star Wars: Battlefront. You had a choice of over 20 different classes (soldier types) from multiple factions on a number of different planets. You could also man vehicles like the X-Wing. Nothing but combat and I loved it. Maybe it's just me, but being a Storm Trooper was a bigger draw than a Jedi.
Mercenaries I and II. Mercs was one of the best sandbox game's I ever played. It was all about combat and there was a ton of stuff to destroy. You had objectives throughout the open world and how you accomplished them was up to you. Earning new vehicles and methods of destruction was rather addicting.
Destroy All Humans. Based in the the 1950's, you played the role of an alien sent to Earth to rescue a fellow alien. From there hilarity ensues. You can fly around in your spaceship, tossing around pretty much anything with your tractor beam. Since it too was a sandbox game, you could do things your way. I was really hoping for a 360 sequel to this.
Pandemic developed several other games, but these are the ones that I remember the most. No one did Sandbox games quite like Pandemic. In a month or so, The Saboteur launches , which promises to be another fun sandbox. It is a shame that most of the employees were let go before even before it released.
I am even thinking about taking The Saboteur off of my list due to my personal disgust at how this whole thing went down. However, the folks at Pandemic put a lot of effort into it and I'm they want it to succeed. We'll see though, I'm still undecided.
Thanks Pandemic, you made some awesome games. Hope you all find ways to keep doing it.
| Mercenaries
| Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
| Destroy All Humans
