Instead of directly spending money by buying a product, gamers can play the game for free, but to improve or ease the gaming experience, they can buy items or accessories that is unavailable for purchase with in-game currency.

The answer possibly lies with how Korea’s abnormal gaming industry operates, with game developers focusing on developing free-to-play (F2P) games. So, what happened? What happened to the 30 billion KRW invested to make a decent game? Yes, many other games have some of the problems stated above, but for a game that was supposed to be revolutionary and bring hope to the Korean gaming industry that has already been weakened by games from overseas, this was such a complete disaster that even Nexon realized it was easier to simply pull the plug instead of trying to save it. The following is a “short” list of problems gamers encountered with it-that-shall-not-be-named: graphics and textures that can barely be considered on par with games out today, so poor of an optimization that even high-end computer users had trouble playing it smoothly, a mediocre single-player prologue that is full of clichés from previous shooters, gameplay and maps that basically copied off its antecedent, characters that focus - to the point of being extreme - on female sexuality, absurd random boxes that only offer items for lease after one buys them with real money the list goes on and on. So disappointing was Nexon’s newest brainchild that the company announced to close the game servers in a mere three months after its release, something that has not happened before in Korea for a game of this scale.

On the other side is a game that was proclaimed to overcome the technical limitations of its predecessor - and, according to its catchphrase, become “The Evolution of No.1 FPS” - but turned out to be only a graphic remastering for a game that came out 10 years ago needless to say, it was panned by critics and gamers alike.

On one side is a game released way back in 2005 that still captivates the attention of a significant number of Korean gamers to this day. Welcome to the “short” story of Sudden Attack 2, and how the current gaming industry in Korea led to the demise of a game that may have been doomed before it was even released. That’s the amount of money a game developing company called Nexon invested for 4 years to develop their next-generation first-person shooter (FPS) game.

Sudden attack gameplay