Saved by: the community
Greatest RPG ever? Almost. What I can say, after Planescape, Bloodlines is one of the most unique RPGs. Which really highlights the pain regarding the buggy mess of the release. The game when released was so bad, it was the final nail on the developers "Troika Games" coffin, which eventually shut down. In fact, its the last we've seen of the VtM universe in eRPG. Considering the vast richness in Vampire the Masquerade table top RPG, plus the surge & success of vampire in recent TV media, its crazy to think the IP is left for dead in Activision limbo. Thanks to the love of the community, this game was given new life in the form of community patches. In fact, when researching community development in gaming, this game is always listed. The most recent patch was Sept 2012, 8 years after release!
Saved by: the developer
The Developer, Tripware, is a relatively small company with limited resources They made their start as a mod team, who would later migrate to stand alone titles. Where they lack in polish, they make up for in long term support of their games; 2009s "Killing Floor" continues to see updates. Perhaps their roots in the mod community and relative independence from publishers, have aloud Tripwire to offer this well receive support. This game is a must for WWII enthusiasts who look for multiplayer gaming realism over the CoD fodder.
Saved by: the developer
Like Tripwire, CD Projekt is another one of those companies that has a bit more free reign. Not so much because they are small, but because they are an underdog eastern bloc company, that can work under the radar. As Witcher was their first game, it was buggy. This led to one of the largest free patch/enhancements ever seen in gaming. Such act of kindness rebooted recognition in the game, and even fuel professional reviewers to re-review the title.
Saved by: the developer and community
Stalker is another one of those former Soviet states developer, that manages to put out a good concept, with bad execution. In the case with STALKER, both developer and community cleaned the game up, creating a stand out series.
Saved by: the community
Worth mentioning, because this was an example of a game, where the actual story went unfinished. It baffles many how this could have happened to a Star Wars branded game. It would seem publishing politics won this round, and very well killed the chance of a KotOR III. Modders ultimately uncovered hidden files and other data, allowing them to piece together the rest of the story.
Something to note, large AAA developers are almost absent from this list because a) they are well polished titles due to QA funding, or B) they never get fixed.
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