Death of a Game: Dirty Bomb

[@grimmjowvsjaggerjack]

So. That's how it feels to see a game you liked being featured on this channel...

[@Rags]

Over the course of its lifetime, I put over 900 hours into Dirty Bomb. One of the most responsive, skill based, enjoyable shooters I have ever played. Seeing the developers squander such an amazing base game with their stupid decisions will never be something I forget.

[@brabbelback2757]

This is one I'm especially sad about... I've spent 100+ he's in this, bc it was A LOT of fun! I still hop in for a round or two now and again

[@Arko777777]

I soon as I saw this video I knew you would be there my doggo. I'm not an FPS player myself, but I can empathize with the loss of a game. R.I.P Dirty Bomb.

[@CommodoreChauncy]

Hey Rag's, just watched your EFAP with the moron Major Lee! Love you, you glorious doggo!

[@JanReichelt]

Got 1.2K on the clock and can fully agree...

[@kamakozy13]

I remember playing it back when it was "Extraction." After I stopped playing I would watch your videos and it would make me go back to it again. Possibly the best hero shooter ever. To bad it's a wrap now.

[@SirIzzyBlack]

It’s rare for me to see a DOAG about a game I’ve actually played. This is only the second.

[@circleofsorrow4583]

Sir, You look like Nigerian, and Robin Williams was a famous American comedian. Do you really share your name with him?

[@Nikp117]

@@circleofsorrow4583 more like robbing williams amirite

[@zakurn1086]

First was Paragon?

[@SirIzzyBlack]

Zakurn It was.

[@zakurn1086]

@@SirIzzyBlack Feels bad man. We're in the same boat.

[@demoncushion9600]

Dirty Bomb had some of the TIGHTEST, and CLEANEST gunplay I have EVER played. It was incredible how polished the gunplay way, I only wish it was more popular and had a few more guns.

[@matejvojak1858]

Try it again... there are still some veteran players who play till this day....

[@dudester6442004]

@@matejvojak1858 bro, ill install it for the first time in like 2 years right now, but it wont be the same yo

[@p0larz0mbies]

It breaks my heart to see Dirty Bomb pronounced dead. It was truly a game with excellent gunplay and amazing movement mechanics that kept bringing me back. Dirty Bomb in the end really should have deserved better for how fun it was to play. Dirty Bomb you will be missed.

[@douglaslevati7030]

It's only dead if the servers are off. I'm still playing.

[@jaromarusic325]

@@douglaslevati7030 me to

[@Skullkan6]

It's not really dead. I'm still playing. I saw six servers full today.

[@Phoenix-fw7bm]

@@leonseuropeanislandadventu7398 as of now, 1

[@davo4074]

It's only "dead" because people like you jumped ship to play fortnite mate

[@Raycevick]

Since launch, I always imagined BRINK with Dirty Bomb's gameplay, as I think both failed because they lacked the strengths of the other. BRINK had a distinct presentation and Dirty Bomb had supremely tight gameplay, but those were never combined into a single project that could've been Splash Damage's finest work to date. Will always wish I got to play more DB though, as the hours spent with friends were consistently entertaining and rewarding. Very well-written and presented video. Will watch more in the future!

[@Ueberdoziz]

oh hi nice to see you here

[@SnugglesPrime]

Ohh man when Raycevick compliments your Video Essay, you know you've made it.

[@skimaskedabi]

Brink would be cool for a doag lot of hype leading up to it reminds me quite a bit of APB in a lot of ways. Even down to the great customization lol

[@SurrealLumberJack]

Maaaan I can't believe Raycevick is here! He is one of my favorite youtubers, and I was just thinking about how these videos reminded me of his. If you are reading this Raycevick, love your videos man!

[@liamobrien9451]

Splash damage just made tons of cash off of their new gears tactics game, and dirty bomb was like their fourth? attempt at a class based shooter, I'm predicting they are going to try again soon

[@infectedbait5693]

Funny how, although it's come to a stalemate, the game didn't go without a bang, the game is remembered, heavily. Top 50 games on steam lmao. Honestly, with over 1,700 hours on this game, if the devs had just listened to their player base more... I reckon the game wouldn't have ever been left behind.

[@Abadeez]

It wasn't the devs, it was more Nexon. They tried to bust away from them but it was too late and by that time it had already started it's decline.

[@sjekx]

if i remember correctly silver loudouts and up had all the same tier of perks, gold and cobalt just had nicer cosmetics

[@LovroZimak]

yes

[@starrysock]

Bronze and up actually. And eventually they removed everything below bronze, so all the cards were the same. Also they weren't randomly generated as said in the video either, you pick from a pool of 12 of them for each merc I think

[@papaJOHNCENA]

@@starrysock Pool of 9 loadouts per merc, all of them preset just different array of weapons they use/abilities to give variety, when looking at crafting the higher up ranks such as silver gold or cobalt you would see a TON of different cards but those were just due to different color schemes (two per rarity), always 9 per, just repeated for each color scheme.

[@fassungnorbert]

This, also not having all three perks was not a substantial handicap, and you could just buy any bronze tier loadout for credits in the store for super cheap, so it's not a game changer.

[@agreeable_frog]

Yep, the argument of db being pay 2 win is completly bullshit

[@zuccx99]

Oh I still remember screaming when I got the cobalt Vasili.

[@krypt1c490]

ZuccX99 I got one yesterday lol, I still play aswell. It’s not even bad and I don’t see much that couldn’t be easily fixed. Balance issues are pretty much it.

[@Dystinction1]

DOAG on Blacklight: Retribution could have some promise. That's a spicy meatball.

[@Ueberdoziz]

uuh i remember that game. i remember the mech suits thingies. xD

[@Dystinction1]

@@Ueberdoziz They were awesome. And way more balanced than credit given.

[@VladTepesVEVO]

Ah, BLR. I've sunk ove 500 hours on that game! I still haven't found any other game that scratches the itch that the "Siege" game mode left. Is there anything similar out there?

[@Dystinction1]

@@VladTepesVEVO I've moved onto Planetside 2. It's not the same by any means, but I feel like it's the closest. And it's free. The guns aren't as flexible but there's customization and better anti-armor options.

[@zot171]

@@VladTepesVEVO we played the crap outta siege! pity it was removed when the codebase was merged with the PS4 version. too bad they didnt merge the servers for cross platform play...

[@new-dk6vk]

Looking forward to DOAG: Artifact

[@Pheeze]

'Lack of birth of a game' would be a more accurate title for that one

[@DaleonM4]

That game need more time to get to know what will happen

[@EraVulgaris-]

Dead On Arrival : Artifact

[@boxtank5288]

@@Pheeze ABORTION OF A GAME.

[@TigerKirby215]

I can give you the exact reason in less than 10 words: Twenty dollar game and no free card packs. You can't release a virtual card game in late 2018 and actually expect people to pay for it. Like it or not the genre is dominated by free to play games. So even if it's more akin to traditional card games, a virtual card game charging an initial $20 *and then charging for more card packs* is just downright ridiculous. I'll tell you what the average consumer saw in Artifact, because it's what I saw in Artifact: I can pay $20 for a card game that looks really complicated and then spend extra for packs *or* I can play Hearthstone for free and just drag shit onto the screen without having to learn 40 different mechanics. I don't care if Artifact's price "was actually not that expensive" or that the game was "really unique and complex" - what I and many other people saw was an airplane cockpit for $20 when you could get a car for free. Some people want a plane, but most people only need a car. There were many other issues too (Kripperian's stream where he "discovers the Artifact economy" [buy high sell low kappa] is a really good example) but the core of the issue was that no one is going to pay $20 when they can play Hearthstone for free.

[@Dekaku]

I disagree on the notion of UE3 being a brown shitstain. It was simply the most used engine of that generation. The sheer mass of games released meant that there were bound to be some that ultimately failed. By that logic, Unity would be a terrible engine too, considering the amount of asset flip games.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Fair point. It's also just that, UE3 has huge issues in multiplayer. And even huger for MMOs, so I am a bit biased against it for that reason.

[@scruffybones321]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Id Tech 3/4 was *infinitely* worse than UE3 in just about every aspect, and most especially in netcode/online performance. It's a big reason why Brink was such a damp squib. Id Tech 3 was simply not built for online play, and 4 was basically the same as 3, except it was even more of a convoluted, unusable mess thanks to John Carmack's complete detachment from reality and obsession with completely impractical tech that only sounded good in his head. UE3 on the other hand was the defining game engine of that generation and more than proved its capability of running multiplayer servers, even with its flaws. Splash Damage most definitely moved to UE3 because it was cheaper, far easier to use third party tech with a whole generation's track record whereas Id tech is a proprietary engine absolutely nobody used (because it was awful) and were likely only forced to use because of Bethesda/id's involvement.

[@0shii]

Unreal 3 is actually my favourite ever engine, an opinion I came to playing Tribes Ascend and a number of other games in that era. I never had the best computer, but it somehow managed to be gorgeous (For the time) as well as extremely performant. I'm surprised to hear it has a bad reputation.

[@davidsomoza]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Octopath Traveller, Nintendo Switch's Yoshi, Kingdom Hearts 3... there are tons of colorful games made unreal engine these days. But its true that years ago every game was gray or brown, ue or not.

[@CountlessPWNZ]

ue3 had bad netcode implementation

[@NoahDaArk]

Hearing you talk about how many of these multiplayer games (Dirty Bomb, The Culling etc) don’t have their updates tested before they go live makes me realize why Ubisoft and Blizzard have dedicated test servers. They let players test out the update and offer feedback, then they make changes and release the update so everything works and everyone has a good time. It’s a smart move more companies need to do

[@xyfurion]

The thing is, Dirty Bomb _did_ have a test server, but the issue was that it was a private test server that only a handful of players were a part of, myself included. I did sign an NDA but the time has long passed since the game died. We did indeed offer our feedback and had extensive games with some of the lead developers of the game who did actually listen to our feedback most of the time. Even so, there were still issues with the PTS. Not all updates were tested; mostly the bigger ones like major map releases and Merc releases. But I don't think that balance was the main issue (although it did the game no benefit). I feel that the game was trying too hard to please both the competitive players as well as the casual players and ended up catering to neither side. I could talk for hours about this but I digress

[@liquidsweg4858]

And those test servers are pretty muh useless considering how incompetent ubishit and blizzard are with patches

[@Cyan-hide]

I think the biggest problem with dirty bomb is that it tried too hard to please a larger audience than it had. By trying to please both hardcore and casual audiences, they ended up alienating both. The hardcore audience would simply go find another game that doesn’t mess with the balance of the game after every update. The casual audience would find another more fun game and completely forget about DB entirely

[@DigitalStains]

Yeah spot on

[@emmanueljohndidal7714]

Dirty Bomb will be the best class based shooter I ever played. Press F for a GREAT game

[@Kaosxca]

F

[@Franon_4869]

F

[@krypt1c490]

F

[@andromeda6135]

F "Go ahead and try, doctor Frankenstein" -Pineapple boi

[@mvnny5381]

F

[@Karter_Blackpaw]

What killed it for me and 3 of my friends who loved playing the game was when they removed the party feature. It made it impossible for us to play together and we'd up spending 20-30 min trying to get into a match together on the same team but never could and would end up with 2 on one team and 2 on the other. So without a party feature, (something that's pretty much a requirement in games) there was little reason for us all to have fun in the game anymore.

[@GoldInk-ds5up]

Ouch! ;(

[@adamknight5089]

This definitely made it very hard to recruit people into the game. I'd get them in and then when we spent half the matching trying to get into the same team, it killed the buzz... definitely one of the worst parts of the game, and party would have provided a much bigger playerbase .. they didn't realise that though, more players would have turned into more money too as ppl got into it

[@pandosham]

Phantom legit sounded fine (a stealth meleer) and then you mentioned a shield and I understood all his problems

[@amerikaOnFire]

Phantom was never a melee character though. He had the exact same melee that everyone else did. People just PLAYED him as melee because he had a cloak and he also brought the Katana into the game (which other characters got access to) and it functioned mostly the same as every other melee weapon. So if you played PHantom as melee you were either just having fun (similar to playing Kira melee only) or you weren't playing as intended. They took away his shield at some point in order to give him an EMP...but then made the EMP melee range too rather than giving him a ranged EMP that would allow teamwork and synergy and not expose Phantom's biggest weakness (easy to spot him through cloak at close range). Phantom was an all around bad design that could have been good if Exedore and Smooth listened to competitive feedback closely.

[@systemhalodark]

The only multiclass fps game that implemented stealth right was TF2. And as we can see, it's really not a very flexible feature.

[@pandosham]

@@amerikaOnFire oh I see. Never played this game so thanks for the info

[@flamingmetroid]

In the early closed beta Phantom didn't have a primary weapon, and loadouts for mercs were fixed, so he was the only merc that got the katana. I'm pretty sure he also didn't have the shield at that point. He was taken out around the time the game moved to Steam and the loadout system was reworked into the system described in the video. I think it was about a year before he was put back into the game and became so infamous.

[@Chg267]

tbh honestly the main reason i played phantom was cause he reminded me of deadpool

[@estubbi9230]

It was so sad to see my favourite all time game died like that. The game has 3 dedicated servers and 40 players at it's peak now in 2024 and we the loyal fans just hang around remembering the joy we had back in the day. Fly high, mi king DB.

[@zzcolby27]

Toontown would be an interesting topic for a video imo

[@guyinbluu]

I'd definitely watch that

[@Numenor76]

I still hold Brink dear to my heart. Mostly for it's unique aesthetics and the parkour gameplay. The potential was never realized unfortunately.

[@Gkowi]

My biggest issue with Dirty Bomb was the other players. Somehow nobody understood what an objective was

[@rwentfordable]

That's multiplayer gaming all over.

[@novarity6561]

Only just watched this in 2023. Very sentimental game for me as it was one of the first FPS games I had ever played. I remember playing it back in 2017 on my parents old crappy pc. Could barely run the game and had low fps because of it, but I only remember having a blast playing it. R.I.P my early gaming memories.

[@BorninFlames237]

PLEASE cover Infinite Crisis, it was my favorite moba before it got shut down (despite its flaws) and I'd really love to hear your take on it.

[@Azazreal]

So much yes to this. Broke my heart when Infinite Crisis was taken down. Atomic Wonder Woman will always be missed :(

[@Red_Lanterns_Rage]

I never played it, don't care for MOBA's but I don't mind hearing why it was canned....

[@solcabooseguy5494]

OH GOD YES

[@AzureKite]

Oh yeah I tried that game out. It was interesting but didn't really grab me. Would be interested in seeing what was up with it.

[@shiroyasha7324]

Hmmm, wish I could have checked it out.

[@zerophoenix8312]

I remember picking up DB back in 2019, five years went by and I had yet to find a better hero shooter. In games like TF2, OW, and Paladin, you are more or less limited by the character/class you pick, but in DB the only limitation is your aim.

[@Outerwebs]

Despite an often toxic community, the rampant hackers and the monetisation model, I really enjoyed Dirty Bomb. I clearly remember that just as I was about to crack open my wallet to support the game, Phantom was released... Never considered spending money on it again.

[@histhoryk2648]

If somebody wonders, you can still play Dirty Bomb on Steam in January 2022. Community can still rent servers, so you can try it Remember that there's a very small player base without middle ground, you will encounter only hardcore players or total noobs

[@Jessie_Helms]

I’d say they should have focused on serious bugs more, actually spent money on marketing, and made less promises. Removing casual parties was the bullet to the head of a man already poisoned.

[@starrysock]

DB had anticheat before EAC, it used Nexon Anticheat. It wasn't that great, but hackers were still very rare, no more common than any other game really, so I don't think I'd call hackers a big issue. A bigger problem was that experienced, high skilled players frequently got placed into low level servers, so they appeared to be hacking to inexperienced players. Having played DB for years, ultimately the biggest issues I can see were the extremely slow rate of updates, especially when SD was under Nexon's control, the really iffy balance patches, like the burst rifle nerf or even entire mercs like Javelin, refusal to listen to community feedback with things like weapon skin polishing, ranked ELO, community servers, and balance in general, the steep prices to buy anything, and the near complete lack of any advertising. The core game itself isn't an issue imo. Adding more ability dependent mercs didn't ruin it. There may be some people who feel alienated by what dirty bomb is and it may not appeal to the same large crowd as Overwatch or Fortnite, but there are still lots of people who would have been and were interested in dirty bomb. Not everyone likes super ability focused games like Overwatch, not everyone likes super aim focused games like CS:GO, sometimes something in between is the best option, even if it isn't completely new and revolutionary. It just never got enough polish and advertisements to bring it to everyone.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

I don't think it worked very effectively in my anecdotal experience, or according to the many reviews/testimonies i have gathered from players. I used to have 2/10 games with a hacker when I played ranked.

[@starrysock]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Idk, I heard EU had a lot of hackers, moreso than NA, which were the only servers I ever played ranked on. Even before we got EAC tho, I never really ran into many more than what you'd expect to see in any other game. As for casual, it was pretty much barren of anyone even remotely suspicious I know a lot of people who played DB religiously too but never really liked ranked that much for a variety of reasons, so DB definitely had a dedicated audience outside of competitive, which is why I don't think hackers were as much of a nail in the coffin as other issues. When talking about ranked, I hear deranking because of level 10 teammates and whatnot far more often after all. Definitely not saying their crappy nexon anticheat wasn't a problem of course EDIT: Also thanks for making this video. I love this game to death and it's sad to see it end up as it is, so it's pretty rare to see anyone even mention DB on youtube now lol

[@nukepizzaa]

I played dirty bomb for 1500 hours and encountered 2 hackers in all that time. Hackers are so rare that people dont have a comparison between who is a hacker and who is just good. Hacker *accusations* could be found in abundance though. Almost every single match ppl would call out "hackers", who went literally 23/8 or something, just a normal player. The hacker argument really doesnt stick.

[@bobuscesar2534]

@@nukepizzaa I agree. There was a short two week peek usage of aimbots in 2016 (quite obvious cheats/Hochfire aces in 5 seconds across the entire map). But that was it. Never encountered any issues afterwards. The issue weren't cheats but that the shooting required skill and some people had it and some people didn't.

[@anicca4443]

there were short periods in the distant past where hackers were an issue.. say 2-4 weeks where they were everywhere, this happened a few times within a 6-12month period, so other than that period, I'd agree with your point that many new players just incorrectly identify veterans who have dialed in long-TTK aim, as hackers... that still happens to this day in tons of games, hackers have been basically non-existent for a very long time in db, very very rare in the last couple of years

[@zakurn1086]

First the Paragon lobby music at 14:54 then the Monolith music at 19:55, do you want me to break into tears while watching this video? =c

[@Maken-X]

Greetings from the future! DoaG: Anthem is quite the tale indeed! Excellent vid!

[@graham757]

Loved this game ;-;

[@davo4074]

its 2023 and im still playing we as gamers need to show this game some love, Brink was the first fps i played and i played the shit out of it and hold it near to my heart. i see dirty bomb as the brink 2 we never got. its our job as players to revive the player count on this so the game can get some very much needed attention and inturn content. now is the best time becuase there is no monitization you can literally get everything in the game for free!!! something needs to be done before the game gets straight up taken off steam and we lose another great game every game has its own set of flaws, but so do we all.....

[@SoloQueuer69]

Seems a lot of people remembered this game for its gunplay and balanced abilities (for the first few classes at least), but honestly I think this game had some of the best characters and voice lines I've ever heard in an FPS (other than TF2). Nobody took anything seriously since they were all mercs and just hearing Spark say "I LIVE AGAIN, like MOVIE SEQUEL" or Fragger talk about his mom in Vermont in the middle of a firefight was what kept me going through a lot of bad patches (Also Phantom going oooOoOOooOOoo when cloaked). Gold moments like finding out the best melee in the game was THE OBJECTIVE or rushing a hacker with Naders that killed via martyrdom to win really sold me for a while. No "I'm a cool hero" self-insert fantasies or cheesy lines, just unabashed craziness from talented voice actors that really made you feel for these violent anti-heroes. Unfortunately even though I've sunk thousands of hours into other FPS's I could only stand ~500 hrs in this one as the population dwindled and hackers kept ruining competitive. Was even considering joining 3rd party tournament leagues what with the cool walljump movement but it had become a performance + matchmaking mess already. Sad that a game with this personality had to die.

[@VenomusScorpion]

Got 700+ hours in this game. One of the best feeling shooters. Too bad it didn't work out.

[@gwimrweepr8137]

God I love your intro so much

[@DigitalStains]

I had no idea that Wolvenstein ET, Brink and Dirty Bomb were from the same devs. Makes so much sense! These were my games, I have so many good memories playing these!

[@Phreec]

Press K to pay respects

[@Ringo_ChanSan]

only real fans will get this ^

[@le_spider3668]

@@Ringo_ChanSan uh was K tap out?

[@thesaltyduckling80]

Oh okay -Dies

[@dylanbobst7025]

This game succed I had the merc yellow and black holiday cards for my 2 favorite characters then I saw how fucking grindy the game was. And I dropped

[@pixeldot7171]

K

[@RexcorJ]

This was a hell of a learning experience for MMO/online game development. I picked up a few more notes for my development compilation folder. Your DOAG series got me started on this so I can have some guidelines to follow for when I get started on my own games. That aside, Dirty Bomb looks so awesome, and has some nice, simple ideas that they should have stuck with. I'm really bummed to be finding out about it only now. But that seems to be the theme for me with this series, haha.

[@jemxs]

2021 and I'm still playing DB daily, I agree with most of the assessments here but still love the game and can still find a match easily on community servers. It still has a small but loyal player base with a sprinkle of new players. I played W:ET and loved it and DB was a natural progression for me.

[@iridys9075]

Man I miss this game so much. I'm still in highschool, but when I was playing at my peak, I was putting in 40+ hours into it a week. And this was with school, and maintinaing an A in all of my classes, extra curriculars, as well work. I had fallen in love with it. It really got me in the feels when they cancelled it. This video has actually made me lowkey wanna go back and wait an half an hour (let's be honest, it's probably more now that it only has 300 players) and wait for a match. Thanks for bringing back the old memories :/

[@Dazz3601]

*That feel when your favourite character in the game was also one of the main causes of the game's dying population* Case you don't know who that is, look at my profile pic. Phantom is my favourite merc/character to play as in the game but even I understood that his place and his implementation in the game was a big mistake and should've had more thought put into it or rather not include at all. Oh well, Rest in Peace DB, we had some good times together

[@klyxes]

Nothing quite like sitting invisibly at popular enemy routes and one-stabbing the first lone sucker that runs near you XD.

[@forsakenvipoerx9077]

i didnt like that they turned phantom from a invis boii into an emp'er. made him worthless to me. Stroker for life.

[@emp437]

Pheonix for life

[@wilsan806]

Hey man, i know how you feel... For me phantom was the most fun pre-buff, when you actually had to sit still to be invis, and his main gun sucked. Ah yes, only his weebstick and revolver were good. Those were the days ;)

[@marvinradermacher5781]

@@emp437 True, Phoenix is fun as hell and gets you dozens of points with his healing pulse. You can also run a round a bit and take on some enemies yourself because of it, atleast if it's not a rhino.

[@JuletzMusic]

Oh man, the memories... The death of Dirty Bomb has left a hole inside me no other game has since been able to fill and I'm sad to this very day. For me, it was the perfect team based shooter.

[@nachoolo]

Loved the game. it was a really good objective-base shooter. I can only hope that Splash Damage is succesful with its next original game.

[@justing1984]

Subscribed. I watched this whole series in three days. Not only the nostalgia, but the history of ftp has really hit home. Your research into the companies that are frequently at the heart of the failures really opened my eyes.

[@ulcar77]

Dude you are playing with my heartstrings with that paragon soundtrack

[@GiggaGMikeE]

Enemy Territories is still one of my favorite shooter experiences. I remember being in high school and waking up early/staying up late to play the game, and the fact that we could get it running on computers in my Digital Multimedia course(and had a super chill professor) meant we usually had 10-15 people either having LAN matches or going online together to play. I especially loved that custom map where you are the size of a toy soldier and fighting in a house with low gravity. Good times.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

EDIT: When I say most Cobalts on your team wins, I mean cobalt rank. Hello everyone, I appreciate you tuning into the video and showing your support. As I am doing per usual now, next podcast (25th) I will address the common points of criticism concerning my video. That way I can find a defacto place to address common criticisms, get to things maybe I omitted or missed, and put a bow on my DOAG videos. So tune in 12PM est, I will have a segment where I answer most of the pressing questions/criticisms here. I would like to offer an invitation to ANYONE who wants to address their criticism to me directly on the stream :). Thanks for your support, and as always sources in the description. Note: Most of the criticism levied here, is found amongst the Dirty Bomb population. Metacritic and Steam user reviews, critic reviews, and the like. I try my hardest to make sure it's not JUST my opinion. So don't be so quick to dismiss something you disagree with and dismiss me, considering many of the criticisms I levied are repeated very often during my research/analysis by others.

[@bobbyrne8591]

im such a massive fan of your show. I love shows about video game history.

[@thrmoptc]

Very thoughtful analysis. Hoping that some of the blanks will be filled in this year. The engine switch from Idtech to UE3 is rooted in Zenimax purchasing Id, which is easy to find information on.

[@djdawg89]

i did not realize how fresh this was, loving your videos man glad i found you!

[@PlugSocketStudios]

I got worried you meant loadout cards, but I quickly realised you meant rank.

[@Tiger_Simple]

It’s crazy to see this video because I used to play back in 2016, and have recently picked up the game again. There’s still a (small) community in the game, servers are still up and people are having fun with it. I’ve played now more than I ever did in the past, and wondered “why did this game die? It’s amazing!” Now it really makes sense

[@Nuvizzle]

I find your mention of balance issues with new merc designs plaguing the game a little odd, as someone who played Dirty Bomb from the very beginning. Even Phantom on release was mostly just a cheese merc who could easily get in and kill someone which was very disruptive and annoying if it was for example your healer, but once he was in he has nothing to fall back on and usually died immediately to competent players who weren't lone wolfing. Kira's laser wasn't really a gamechanging team wiper the likes of which had never been seen before, either - it was very easy to see coming and was mostly area denial. Rhino was... unique, sure, but never all that good. In fact I don't think there was ever a point in the history of dirty bomb where Fragger wasn't the best merc for more than a single patch - with among the highest health stat, very consistent weapons, and the ability to instagib most mercs (and sometimes several) with a single grenade that could be cooked and therefore be very hard to anticipate, and he had several throws on hand at a time compared to other one-and-done abilities with far more counterplay, like Kira's laserbeam. Additionally, mercs that were more ability focused weren't a shift in game design - they existed from very early on. Sparks is the definitive example of this considering she didn't even have access to a standard primary weapon and in exchange had a long-range revive gun (which could also act as a makeshift sniper rifle.) As far as I'm concerned, what caused dirty bomb to bleed players from the beginning, and ultimately killed it, was the shitty monetization. All the other shitty decisions that were made along the way stemmed from trying to work around their shitty monetization. More though was put in to how the lingering playerbase could be milked for more money than how the game could be improved and made more appealing to more people. I also strongly disagree with this persisting sentiment that a game has to cater to a casual audience to any degree in order to be successful. No, it just needs good matchmaking. Valve has gotten very good at pushing games that are "hardcore" through and through - DotA and CS do very little to cater to a casual audience and still manage to be extremely successful because casual players cans till enjoy the game against other casual players. That of course is one of the biggest failings of dirty bomb and frankly any "hardcore" game that doesn't gain a ton of traction on its release; without a broad enough population it's difficult to have balanced matchmaking, and without balanced matchmaking the game is less fun for everyone, particularly the more casual players who are getting stomped in uneven matches.

[@IonAeon]

I played about 1000+++ hours of dirty bomb and yeah, the monetization was horrible. I'm willing to spend tons of money on cosmetics, but 5€ loot boxes with 3 levels of rng... no thanks. By the time they released actual skins it was too late. I LOVED that game, it was the first one that brought back the old Wolfenstein: ET feeling for me, but I felt zero incentive to spend any money. Finally though, and this was just my personal pet peeve instead of what I think killed the game, while there were some mercs I found somewhat more annoying to deal with than others... Turtle is what got me to stop playing. I did not join this game to either play merc ability rock paper scissors or shoot at Reinhardt shields. I joined to play a fast objective based shooter that rewarded aim and his shield, when used correctly, removed 2 of those 3 aspects from the game.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

Your points are exactly how I feel. I only gave Dirty Bomb about a half hour back when they were still partnered with Nexus. It wasn't fun getting my butthole pushed in by better players/cheaters, and them pushing the cards as much as they were just felt like they wanted me to spend more to not suck.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@harrythebarry You can't pick what weapon loadouts, you had to hope that you got the combos that you enjoyed on the characters that you played, and that was a no go for me. Insult me all you want, that shit is just crap on all levels.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@harrythebarry wow, you're really missing my point aren't you? If a player, for whatever reason, wanted a specific combo (like they wanted a specific rifle with a specific pistol), they NEEDED that card for that character, otherwise they couldn't do that. There was no way around that. That was my point, and why I walked away from the game because the only way to get those cards was through boxes (from what I remember).

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@harrythebarry 'earn it' out of lootboxes is a stretch. My whole argument, which is what your first post was responding to, is that the weapons combos were locked into lootboxes. Every other game that was at that time (again, from what I remember) had individual weapons locked to progression, not weapons locked into loadouts while having those loadouts RNG based. New generation kids? How old do you think I am? Does my age even matter though to this discussion?

[@matejvojak1858]

Guys if you wanna bit of nostalgia, download it again, it is still played. Ehm 150 players awarage, but that doesnt matter you will always find match and have fun

[@mushymcmushington7176]

Heeeey, I still play this game. I've got 1600 hours in Dirty Bomb so far. It's got some pretty solid community servers.

[@Zatweeb]

I was surprised to see you not have a million subs yet, the quality of your vids are amazing

[@WilliamShakspere]

Reminds me of Ghost in the Shell. The fanbase ditched because of the design direction (though I personally loved it). I wonder if anyone else even remembers that game

[@DragoonCenten]

What the hell I looked that game up last week. I saw a guy streaming it two years ago and randomly remembered it.

[@WilliamShakspere]

@@DragoonCenten Still my favourite FPS. rip

[@K3end0]

it still kills me to see this video appear in my reccomended. Dirty Bomb was *the* game for me. It feels so weird loading up steam and not being able to play a round rounds of DB for my daily and weekly missions, even though the game has been "dead" for almost as long as i originally played the thing. Its gameplay was just so freaking good, its movement and gunplay pristine. But other than that, the game was such a mess. The cosmetics system was so weird, proper matchmaking too little too late, and had fairly lacklustre worldbuilding. My "life" as a PC gamer basically went with DirtyBomb, i still play games but all the time i'd still be putting into DB now just go into other hobbies. Thanks for making this video, its great seeing a breakdown of all that went from an outside perspective. Very well crafted, you've earned my sub!

[@oliverphilbrick2986]

Really good video. I just wanted to say from personal experience that the gameplay time needed to unlock a merc is not as high as you stated. I’d place the grinding at closer to 15-25 hours. I had every of the then 12ish mercs unlocked by about 200 hours

[@VynalDerp]

I do hope you cover Brink, honestly. It's a game that I only ever got to play years after release and the servers were dead - but the bugs (most of them) were fixed and the gameplay and story was unique. I was expecting worse than I got tbh and because I missed the launch I don't know precisely why it died. Would be interesting to see a video on it.

[@KingLeone201]

I would love a "Life alert on a game" or "Check up on a game" for Overwatch. It's totally interesting how such a juggernaut that killed some of its competition is now kinda in a death spiral. I know the "Is Overwatch dead?" meme is kinda dumb but I would love an analysis of why a game that came out swinging is now kind of just there. Great Vid though. I played a bit of Dirty Bomb, it was fun but it felt like it was trying to be Overwatch when it just wasn't made to be like that.

[@stevestrangelove4970]

I support this idea if it add all the money spend in making OW a esport. If anything one of the most interesting things from the death spiral its going is how Blizzard/Activision aproached esport, invested in it and had just a long term plan to recover the investment when not even withing 2 years and another game took a big slice of their audience.

[@GDDR14]

According to the internet every popular game is dying and when asked why, everyone comes up with an answer that was pulled right from their asses. Were you to check the forums, reddit, the comments here on youtube or any other cesspool of filth where people can share their personal opinion, you'll come across a great number of threads dealing with whatever game's "death" When people have a personal problem with a game, from that moment on, that game's dead. Their reasoning is childish at best. Most of the time it's simply because they don't like it by the looks of it or their lack of succes in that game. Whatever their metric of succes is. So if you go to Twitch and see the top list of games that are streamed, you can be assured that those are fucking dead. That's why these people want videos dealing with the big names, so they can get their "revenge" on the game, that they were right all along about the game's failure. They are desperate to find confirmation to their dissatisfaction. It must suck to be them.

[@CErra310]

Shit game that was bought and played because it was the newest craze

[@calebnowland9272]

lol dirty bomb came out way before OW. Any game that people says copies OW doesn't. I am talking about Battleborn and Paladins.

[@RK-zf1jm]

@@GDDR14 Well Yeah sometimes its true the reasons people give for a game dying have no reasearch and are just that particular persons feelings towards a game. I for example was a massive world of tanks fan i dont think its dying but there is no denying that its player base has declined even Wargaming yt partners admit that.

[@zatriaxthealchemist]

The ambient paragon music in the background fits well with your content, but fills me with a deep sadness. rip paragon :( and rip Dirty bomb

[@HoodedHavoc]

The Pargon theme music in the background is only making me slightly depressed.

[@diogoalves1589]

Same!

[@advanced2431]

Thank you for making this video. I saw this game in my steam library with me having played it last back in 2015. I guess I stopped playing it after I got bored of it. I never knew what happened to this game 7 years later and this is pretty much the only video that gives an extensive full chronology of what happened.

[@LovroZimak]

As vet in Dirty Bomb that was in few videos you put in this one. You kinda got it right.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

I appreciate that. I tried as much to listen to players stories/criticisms and general thoughts concerning each major change in the game. But ultimately I forgot things such as Fragger being able to easily cook a grenade that instagibbed and blew up in your face (twice), which is a big one :P.

[@Hanfgurkenhasser]

Man I would KILL for a new version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars! It was the game that introduced me to both FPS and online gaming all the way back in 2007 - and it holds a special place in my heart to this day. Such a great game.

[@majesticfool]

enemy territory was the best fps ive ever played. such a great game

[@Oatsdumbchannel]

Was in the top five in the final year of my play time. Miss everything about this game, great friends and memories made.

[@JoeisChili]

Man, this game was so fun :(

[@davientheartist]

This is my first coming across your channel, that's one of the best intros ive seen

[@Acemans]

I remember playing this game pretty often when I first put my garbage PC together. I stopped playing it since it got stale and I upgraded my PC

[@xSAOAsunax]

I got this video recommended to me... I tried Dirty Bomb back when it was still in Beta? It was an experience that needed some optimization, but I don't complain about that, it /was/ a Beta afterall. From that time, I recall having such a great time with the game, friendly players on mic and people having fun, didn't ever really come across a toxic person, and the game itself was fun. It saddens me to see that it is gone, even if I didn't keep playing it as much as many others did. Fly high, Dirty Bomb, you were great.

[@haunshaul7222]

Man, whoever thought of that chicken coop pun sure is a genius. =P The video turned out fantastic!

[@Goldleader469]

Any complaints regarding the card system are a bit ridiculous since anything over bronze was genuinely just a cosmetic difference. Bronze card were all you needed to be on par with cobalt cards. Although I’m commenting 4 years late this game still holds a place in my heart simply for the amount of hours I put into it and the sheer amount of joy I got out of it.

[@Onbu_]

Nerd,keep them puns coming. I cant be only one who appreciates lame puns.

[@davo4074]

Guess who's back? Its 2024 lads theres no time like the present. Im part of the 100 or so cult members left on dirty bomb. And lifes good man, no cheaters, cheater streamers, greifers or squeekers it is just responsive, reactive and engaging gameplay. It can be competitive if you want it to be and if you play it that way in your own mindset. Everything is completely free and earnable ingame and the skill ceiling is as high as you can make it. Every game has it flaws, but so do we all 😄

[@Lord_Shmesh_The_Squishy]

jfc.. Every single DOAG I have played so far. Damn nerdslayer! Are you spying on me!??! :P - You should do brink seeing you did dirty bomb just now.

[@Mezurashii5]

Goddamn, you must bring bad luck or something. Go play all of EA's games now!

[@Lord_Shmesh_The_Squishy]

@@Mezurashii5 I do and they make me wanna kill myself. Lol. Here are some MMO's I have played over the years. There are more, just some that I forgot to list. Age of Conan​ The Secret World​ Age Of Wushu​ Allods Online​ Aion​ ASDA 1​ ASDA 2​ Darkfall 1.0​ Darkfall Unholy Wars​ Diablo 3​ (if considered an mmo) World of Warcraft​ Star Wars Galaxies​ Star Wars The Old Republic​ Dragons Prophet​ Entropia Universe​ Second Life​ EVE Online​ Ether Saga Online​ EverQuest​ EverQuest II​ EverQuest Next (Alpha)​ EverQuest Landmark (Alpha)​ Fallen Earth​ All Points Bulletin (APB)​ Final Fantasy XI​ Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn​ Guild Wars Factions​ Guild Wars Nightfall​ Guild Wars Eye of the North​ Guild Wars 2​ Jade Dynasty​ Mabinogi​ Minecraft​ Dungeons & Dragons​ Online Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter​ Wizards 101​ ToonTown Online​ Lucent Heart​ Flyff​ Runescape​ Silkroad Online​ TERA​ Ultima Online​ Mortal Online​ The Elder Scrolls Online(Beta - Release)​ ArcheAge (Alpha - Release)​ Star Citizen​ (Alpha) The Repopulation​ Black Desert Online​ SkyForge​ Shroud Of The Avatar​ A Beautiful Day (ABD)​ MechWarrior Online Dark Age of Camolot Ultima Online Ryzom Lord of The Rings Online Wurm Online MapleStory ROSE Online Rapalz Cabal Online Wakfu Runes of Magic Atlantica Online League of Legends (If Considered a "MMORPG") Rift Blade & Soul Vindictus Forsaken World Villagers and Heroes Eden Eternal RaiderZ DOTA 2 (If considered a "MMORPG") Elsword Realm of the Mad God Haven & Hearth Salem FreeRealms Anarchy Online Puzzle Pirates WildStar Dream Of Mirrior Online [DOMO] S-Zone Stalker Online

[@KenjiYam]

The vibe to your videos are absolutely amazing. Keep it up man

[@josephrobinson6171]

Phoenix was honestly fine balance wise. His heal was weaker than others and had to be charged to heal the full amount. His self-revive was not much of a problem because you could just shoot him while he was on the floor, and it had a long cooldown. Rhino was headshot bait and was only a problem if you rounded a corner directly into him in close quarters. Kira was not a problem. Her gun was a bit too good but her ability was no better than the base heroes like Skyhammer. Phantom was a massive problem at launch. The armour combined with the fact his sword near one shot you meant he could just tank shots while in stealth. German grenade launcher chick had by far one of the most impactful ‘abilities’ in the game. Basically, many mercs who were around at the start of the game like Aura had more powerful and impactful abilities than most of the new ones. This is coming from someone who played this game from its release up to basically almost its death. What killed the game for me was selfish players. Every game it felt like the enemy team always had techies like Proxy who could do objectives quickly, medics etc, whereas my team was full of Vassili and Phantom players who aren’t contributing to actually playing the objective at all and are instead running around like the game is a team deathmatch.

[@Lorenzo_631]

I played 56.6 hours of dirty bomb and it was/is the best teambased shooter I've ever played. Also, i loved brink and instantly fell in love with dirty bomb. It's sad how this game went. Even now i redownload it every year just to get that hit again. Like I just played it at 2am and at first there were only 3 people in the lobby then ot climbed to there being 14 and man...its insane how this game still holds up in 2024.

[@Leyvin]

Dirty Bomb's issues (and I'd say this is true for Splash Damage as a whole., which I have nothing against the Studio... some friendly guys whom I've done a fair amount of Contract Work for over the past Decade, given they're located basically in my back garden :p) … is that the Studio itself was founded and has the internal Culture of that of a Modification Team than a distinct Creative Studio. That is to say., you can give them an Established Game and say "Go make a Multiplayer Component"... and what they'll make will be insanely awesome. But here's the thing... they're not World Building... they're not establishing the Core Balance... they're not Crafting the "Feel"... etc. instead what they're doing is taking a rock solid Single Player Base Game and creating an Epic Multiplayer Component. On top of that notice the Longevity of their Projects... we're talking typically Game Release Cycles (3 to 12 months)., then usually people don't care and they've moved on to the next project. Again, nothing against the guys; but they're definitely a better Studio when they're working to a Crunch Time Budget; as opposed to when they're given Free Reign. Is Unreal Engine 3 to blame? Eh, to a degree. The DirectX 10/11 Paths for said Engine, had just become Super Bloated; and Epic having NVIDIA as their Super-Special-Awesome BFFs (who are also renown for such in Gameworks) … not to mention UE3's prevalence was *SO* ubiquitous., you'd have thought no other Middleware existed from 2005 - 2014. As such, this meant that "Anti-Cheat" Systems were basically pointless endeavours in Frustrations. Popularity essentially entails that focus from Malicious Groups is entirely like the Eye-of-Sauron, knowing all of the weaknesses out-of-the-box of such an Engine. Unreal Engine 4 doesn't fair _much_ better., but that it's hardly as Universal as UE3, does means that unless you're using the Built-In Defaults (coughSeaOfThievescoughFortnitecough) then you're less vulnerable to such rampant hacks and cheats. I mean one of the key reasons Enemy Territory didn't suffer quite the same as Quake III., was well because Splash Damage completely rewrote and built a custom Multiplayer Engine for the ID Tech 3 Engine... and they kind of had to., because while Punkbuster was "Okay" it was far from infallible. Many of the later Project they'd work on, essentially the Engines were so "Unpopular" (in terms of Industry Adoption) that most Malicious Groups just didn't bother putting in the time / effort to keep maintaining their Hacks and Cheats. So, they were relatively speaking much easier to remain ahead of. It's a key reason why I'm always telling friends that "Unity / Unreal / etc. Middleware are *great* Engines for RAD Prototyping and / or Single Player Focused experiences... but you ideally WANT to build a Proprietary Engine *IF* you want to have any sort of Competitive Multiplayer" … as well … you *NEED* that level of absolute Command and Control over said Systems,. along with being unique enough that it's an absolute bitch for external groups to crack. Security is never about making an "Unbreakable" Lock,. but rather one that becomes so much effort that, it's just worth the time investment. Now beyond this., personally I just never saw the appeal of Dirty Bomb... just as Counter-Strike doesn't *really* have much appeal. I know that sounds strange to say for the latter., but consider for a moment just HOW MUCH of the Success of Counter-Strike actually comes from the Brand Recognition *NOT* the Game being... well "Fun" You'll notice that with a lot of games where, when 'Clones' appear... they basically tank. Why? Well, because said game isn't popular or good on the merits of the Game *but* rather because it's more just a recognisable brand. World of Warcraft, is (always was) a terrible MMORPG., so why was it (and still is to a degree) popular? Simple, the Warcraft and Blizzard Branding... combine that with an audience who are literally buying a PC for the first time *purely* to play said Game... same is true for Minecraft, League of Legends, etc. They're not "Great" Games on their own merit. Rather they become Brands and Associated Experiences., a bit like Apple and the "Smart Phone", Intel and the "x86", NVIDIA and "Graphics Card", etc. Dirty Bomb (as Splash Damage themselves admitted) was heavily influenced by combining elements from two Niche Games... this didn't mean it appealed to both, but rather ONLY retained those who liked both making it even more Niche Game as a result.

[@justdis804]

19:54....... that paragon music hit me with a wave of nostalgia like I haven't felt in years

[@CIARUNSITE]

Why SD succeeded: mods and player driven content. Why DB failed: lack of mods and player driven content.

[@PatrickTCAPIreland]

As a console single player focused (I play Siege and Overwatch a fair bit though) kind of guy, hearing all these stories of the failed MMO/Multiplayer games from the online multiplayer gold rush is fascinating. Keep it up dude!

[@agabrield]

PSA: The silver and above/special editions loadouts are only cosmetics and have no differences from the bronze one

[@randodox8375]

I missed this game. It was such a blast when I first played it.

[@agenteles]

Great video, i loved this game too. Spent nearly 1800 hours playing. Your reasons are valid and concise, I also think one major reason people quit this game was due to the fact dlcs were ridiculously overpriced, especially Merc and weapons skins. Devs seem more interested in searching for few whales than actually whole player base that adored the game and wanted to pay for pretty much every new dlc at fair price but the blind sided devs constantly ignored every fan request to make dlc fair price.🤬

[@thecatwithatophat4069]

I love Dirty Bomb and I have one really fun story. For all those who played its hard to forget the map Chapel with its tight corners and basically being one long choke point with one of the most distinctive parts being the chapel. That map is where I earned my longest kill streak ever, 23 kills which for some isn't too impressive but the fact that I held up the entire enemy team with the mounted MG at the chapel was pretty impressive for me. It didn't help the opposing team that I had the augment that made it take longer for MGs to over heat and that their only sniper was genuinely bad often trying to take shots from the open.

[@exxplosion9276]

I loved dirty bomb always had fun playing proxy with a pump action

[@happymikasa7226]

That was genuine cancer, she was terribly unbalanced and her small hitbox made it worse.

[@bar5167]

Lmao proxy you don't need skills to use her

[@callmebomb]

I remember playing dirty bomb a bit back in the day. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but I remember that the game just felt good to play, and it was fun even though I didn’t even know wtf I was doing. Really wish I could go back and play it a bit more

[@FrostyEspresso]

I loved the video! Pretty much sums up the whole entire problem with the game. From early on ditching their idea of bringing a modern day ET to ignoring feedback from it's PTS and all parts of the community and just simply not implementing anything worth anyone's while, the game sadly crumbled into a unbalanced and incomplete abyss. I appreciate you using my footage!

[@CErra310]

AngryJoe lying about cards higher than bronze giving you an advantage did unspeakable damage to this game

[@ilikeeggs3328]

Your vids give me a skullgirls vibe with the detective music

[@GatlingHawk]

DOAG :Starhawk and Warhawk. They had full servers since 2007 till they were shut down recently :(

[@solhsa]

This is honestly the first time I've heard of this game.

[@DermotiusOfficial]

I played this game back in 2015, then i didn't touched it and now its gone

[@StonedMedic]

I still play this today

[@jaimeromeo7367]

same

[@slipperyman6034]

fuck I remember playing phantom so much. I always felt so badass using the longjump into the thrust, and talking shit to other snipers and fucking over phantoms as redeye haha

[@asdf1f8]

Bethesda stopped licensing the id tech engine when they bought id software.

[@elevenknives0]

Nice that you included clips from my Wolfenstein ET videos thank you :)

[@koomekimathi8011]

i still play it and its still fun but damn this game had so much potential

[@leandroemmanuelgaitan5469]

You know when the whole thing finally hit me? at the very end, the credits, rolling with the sound of Dirty Bombs main hud song.......fuck i loved that game........

[@ErdrickHero]

56 hours is not a week of grinding. No game should be expected to be played 8 hours every single day. This is abusive.

[@BmikroB]

Hearing Paragon soundtrack at the background had doubled the pain factor of this video. I really miss these two games... :'((