What are some of the game releases that had you most disappointed?

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

As you may know, I am a massive Metal Gear fan, so like many gamers out there I was very excited for The Phantom Pain. After putting 40+ hours into it, getting through all of the story missions and most of the side-ops, I must say that in many ways I am quite disappointed. While on one hand, it was definitely the best gameplay the series has ever seen, and for me, some of the best I have ever played, the pacing and omitted story elements hurts this game in a big way. Light spoilers follow:

For many gamers, the story plays a big part in the motivation of the character’s actions, and Metal Gear is certainly one of those franchises. As you may have seen, theres is major story elements and a complete final mission that was axed from the game. And I mean its completely obvious when playing through the story and it happens to be available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube. It’s clear Kojima ran into some issues with Konami at some point during development, but it would be a shame if this is the reason loyal gamers/customers got the short end of the stick. Even though it might be one of the best games I have ever played, considering my particular affinity to the series, it is also one of my most disappointing.

For this week’s open forum we want to know what your most disappointing gaming moments/releases were? Are these things really a big deal or should we just be happy to get them at all?

Permalink to story.

 
Thief. Actually it wasn't bad, but it definitly shouldn't have been named after the great trilogy. And this whole no free jumping thing... No, just no.

Heroes 4 had the same issue, though it was still very good, but it just didn't feel like Heroes anymore.

Also: Titan Quest and first Drakensang were super boring to me, although they got good reviews.
 
Destiny (year one) and The Evil Within. Although both games released with exactly the the flaws I had anticipated, I cannot recall any game of recent memory being more of a chore to play than these two. In both cases, I was stuck contemplating the gap between each game's vision and the product that was actually delivered, as they were both too void of substance and innovation to command any other attention.
 
It's between MGS 5 and Halo 4 for me.

You pretty much hit it with MGS 5. Although the story does pick up near the end considerably, not that I've finished it but currently doing Quiet's mission at 45 or whatever. I'm a huge fan myself, even during my very early childhood. Can't count how many times I've replayed the series and unlocked literally everything in each iteration. Still ponder what if the game wasn't open world and more linear as pacing is always different between the two. Wonder how Konami will tarnish the series since they claim they will continue it...

Halo 4...story I thought was horse s**t. Not that any of the series was perfect story wise, but I invested enough time into it all, and found it all quite interesting regardless that 4 was a let-down and just lacked a lot of what the other games in the series had.
 
* XCOM (the remake): no depth whatsoever, but what do you expect from an strategy game designed for consoles? Oh, and one of the most egregiously cheating AIs ever.

* Dishonored: possibly the most derivative game of its type ever made. It felt like somebody had raided the trashcans at Valve, Bethesda and Bioware for alpha versions of their games, and then cut-and-pasted together an abomination. The entire "you have to kill but we punish you for killing" scheme was a complete insult to anyone who paid for that pile of stink.

* Master of Orion 3: I think enough has been about this...and now I'm hearing some disquieting things about the MOO reboot as well. Does nobody understand that we don't need this genre "reinvented"? We just need it updated and fleshed with more variety and customization. If there's too much micromangement its not fun. If there's no depth at all then it gets old really quick. If the UI isn't intuitive and well-designed (and there's no way to fix it via modding) frustration builds and people give up quickly. Same goes if the AI cheats like a fiend. Games like this are a real balancing act, and not just because their primarily a single-player experience.

* Civilization 5: I don't even know where to begin. Between the lack of time-honored and basic game mechanics like mixed unit groups and the unbelievably slow pace of gameplay, I can't think of a single thing about Civ5 that I actually liked. I actually got the guy at the store to take it back, because he knew it was really bad and sympathized with my disappointment.

* Every WoW expansion since WOTLK. Need I say more? Well, just one thing: WOTLK should have been first with TBC as the follow-up. I think everyone knows this should've been the case and that something should have been done to keep all lands relevant.

I could probably come up with another dozen easily but just thinking about all the wasted potential is too depressing. Suffice to say that from here on out anything good that's *not* a CoD or LoL clone will probably come from Kickstarter. The big studios have completely forgotten how to do anything but iterate their biggest multiplayer-only money cows. Even Bliz has dumped any pretense of being an innovator and is now just another MOBA studio. Truly sad.
 
*braces for impact* skyrim. Generally (with exceptions) more boring stories, more boring (although less cheesy than oblivion, but that was the fun to me) voice actors, much more boring environment, and too easy.
 
Witcher III, hands down.

CD Projekt Red hypes the game to no end for over two years and delivers but a shadow of what they had envisioned and led us to expect from them... they had promised so much and in the end, they accomplished so little compared to the high standards they had set for themselves. The game has amazing gameplay mechanics and unparalleled potential for skill based badassery only to be hindered by the lamest difficulty curve (after Kingdoms of Amalur, the easiest game ever) and stupid A.I.
And the bugs... after release, it was very clear that CD Projekt Red had engaged on a much bigger task than they were ever able to manage, each patch breaking the game even more and they were never able to put their sh*t together. When I stopped playing it, months ago (1.06), the game was a mess, I don't know about its current state.
And the cherry of this crappy cake is the forever wasted modding potential. Here we were expecting (according to their own hype) Skyrim levels of modding and all we get is cosmetic changes, a huge step back from Witcher II.

In my opinion, they aimed for the stars and fell very short of it. The game is undeniably good, but not what we were promised good.
 
*braces for impact* skyrim. Generally (with exceptions) more boring stories, more boring (although less cheesy than oblivion, but that was the fun to me) voice actors, much more boring environment, and too easy.

Without extensive user mods Skyrim did not age well. Put it down after a month or so and never looked back. Especially after my brother figured out how to legit cast infinite magic with strong spells, demonstrating how broken some aspects of the game were.
 
Well not the most recent... but Watch Dogs. I had high hopes but the graphics kind of disappointed me and I can't stand the vehicle control. Maybe there is a way to make it better but it just felt like the car wanted to drive itself, into everything. I played maybe three hours and just got annoyed with it and haven't gone back since. I got it on a Steam sale but at this point I still don't feel it was worth the $10 I paid. Maybe I'll give it another chance later.
 
Watch Dogs. The campaign was just awful! The side missions were complete joke; you have to do exactly the same things, just in different locations. The graphics were mediocre but I fixed it with the worse mod.
 
This thread confirms it, people have opinions and ever the most popular games are subject to them.

For me Diablo III was a massive let down. Felt more like a korean grinding MMO than a Diablo Game. Even more annoying when the game was setup to never give you something for your own character thus forcing you to use the auction house.

Mass Effect 3. The ending was bad and Bioware bungled the press around it like a bunch of *****s. This game was the swan call for Bioware as a game studio. Now they are just another EA stodge.

bloodborne. I always find it funny when people call bloodborne combat good. No, it's really really old school. No, it's not fun spamming the dodge button a thousand time and neither is the hole map resetting just to add extra time onto what is really a short game. Character customization is zilch and all the boss fights are of the same flavor. If I wanted to play a game like this, I would pay $1 and get one from GOG.


*braces for impact* skyrim. Generally (with exceptions) more boring stories, more boring (although less cheesy than oblivion, but that was the fun to me) voice actors, much more boring environment, and too easy.

Without extensive user mods Skyrim did not age well. Put it down after a month or so and never looked back. Especially after my brother figured out how to legit cast infinite magic with strong spells, demonstrating how broken some aspects of the game were.

Chances are, any bugs you find are fixed by the community skyrim patch. Not to mention, you can really mold it into any kind of game with the vast amounts of mods that are out there.

The infinite mana bug isn't what I'd call legit and it's been fixed. The only way to get infinite mana is to have a maxed out enchanting skill with maxed out enchanting gear and a potion of enchanting and use that to enchant rings of mana regeneration. The only problem with this is that it requires you to have played a very long time. Many other games are, as you say, "broken" at the end because you are supposed to be a god at the end of the game.
 
I was disappointed with FEAR 2 and 3. FEAR 2 because it ends too abruptly and the consolization of the game is too obvious. It's annoying of how much consolitis it suffers. It also is too easy, not scary at all. Barely any sense of dread (very slight) AND the visuals are lacking compared to the original FEAR. Like, laughable destructible environment and barely any dynamic shadows at all. Also, no soft shadows in a game in 2009 when the original FEAR in 2005 had then.

FEAR 3 because it was anything but FEAR. Decent game in its own right, but not a FEAR game. Again, no horror to be had and the story was stupid.

I was disappointed by Splinter Cell Double Agent on the technical side on PC. A much worse looking game than the X360 version and very buggy at the time. Loved the game itself otherwise.

Disappointed with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Bad story, meh enemies, bad antagonist, weird face design for the Prince and meh combat. Great visuals, optimization and platforming sections though.

I was extremely pissed when they replaced Michael Ironside in Splinter Cell Blacklist for no good reason. Also, Sam Fisher's new character model was weirdly different and young.

Disappointed with the latest Thief. It was a solid 8 game IMO. But the story was meh, the paranormal elements too random put into the universe, the game too puzzely like design, especially the central game hub. And the sound. My god, I haven't heard a more broken sound in a AAA game in my life. Loved the visuals, animations and some of the gameplay flexibility though. Liked the new actor who voiced Garett, but he wasn't Stephen Russell, which again was replaced for no good reason. I was dissapointed the story was .... meh. The previous 3 Thief games had brilliant stories.

I was disappointed with Need for Speed Undercover. Easily the worst in the series by a wide margin. Barely any "NPC" cars in the game at any given time. Visuals were horrendous for the first proper Pixel Shader 3 game in the NFS series (up until ProStreet, the games were limited to DX9, pixel shader 2, can you believe that?). Horrible HDR and depth of field. You could barely see anything. The open world was pointless. The cop chases were too easy. The story had no logic. The upgrading of the cars was pointless because you always unlocked a new stock car that was faster than your previous, fully maxed out car.
 
I personally think the story in phantom pain is typically cheesy and overacted like most japanese works and skipped most of it to enjoy the brilliant gameplay...but to the topic at hand: Diablo 3 - I dreamt a few times I sued Blizzard to get my money back for that one, Skyrim, all WoW expansions after WotLK, Far Cry 3 - I still cringe when I think about the dialogue and voice acting in that one apart from vaas...fun gameplay tho especially with ziggy's mod but ruined as a whole experience, Dark Souls 1 and 2 just horribly boring and slow paced wastes of time and at the same time ridiculously easy and bugged when speed running using shortcuts, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris input lag ruined it and it's very short I loved Guardian of Light so major disappointment, the whole new Fallout series..skyrim in a shittier environment. I can't remember others so I guess that makes them forgettable/insignificant rather than disappointing.
 
The infinite mana bug isn't what I'd call legit and it's been fixed. The only way to get infinite mana is to have a maxed out enchanting skill with maxed out enchanting gear and a potion of enchanting and use that to enchant rings of mana regeneration. The only problem with this is that it requires you to have played a very long time. Many other games are, as you say, "broken" at the end because you are supposed to be a god at the end of the game.

My brother did it with a upper mid-spec magic investment and the robe you get from Hogwarts (the arcane university) after finishing the quest there. No potions, rings, not even close to end game. That's broken (or was, anyways).

As for modablitiy... Skyrim was a pan flash. Really cool out of the box, but dead after about 10hrs. If it takes an entire community of modders to make a game worth playing, that game was designed poorly.
 
ME3 ending bad?? oh you were one of those cry babies...

This thread confirms it, people have opinions and ever the most popular games are subject to them.

For me Diablo III was a massive let down. Felt more like a korean grinding MMO than a Diablo Game. Even more annoying when the game was setup to never give you something for your own character thus forcing you to use the auction house.

Mass Effect 3. The ending was bad and Bioware bungled the press around it like a bunch of *****s. This game was the swan call for Bioware as a game studio. Now they are just another EA stodge.

bloodborne. I always find it funny when people call bloodborne combat good. No, it's really really old school. No, it's not fun spamming the dodge button a thousand time and neither is the hole map resetting just to add extra time onto what is really a short game. Character customization is zilch and all the boss fights are of the same flavor. If I wanted to play a game like this, I would pay $1 and get one from GOG.


*braces for impact* skyrim. Generally (with exceptions) more boring stories, more boring (although less cheesy than oblivion, but that was the fun to me) voice actors, much more boring environment, and too easy.

Without extensive user mods Skyrim did not age well. Put it down after a month or so and never looked back. Especially after my brother figured out how to legit cast infinite magic with strong spells, demonstrating how broken some aspects of the game were.

Chances are, any bugs you find are fixed by the community skyrim patch. Not to mention, you can really mold it into any kind of game with the vast amounts of mods that are out there.

The infinite mana bug isn't what I'd call legit and it's been fixed. The only way to get infinite mana is to have a maxed out enchanting skill with maxed out enchanting gear and a potion of enchanting and use that to enchant rings of mana regeneration. The only problem with this is that it requires you to have played a very long time. Many other games are, as you say, "broken" at the end because you are supposed to be a god at the end of the game.
 
Anything from Wargaming.. from the obvious Russian bias and North american disdain, to the arrogant money grabs. The latest instalment of World of warships has a money grind that is epic. the player base is already falling off and it's just into the first month of open beta.. (sadly the money grind is one of the few things that has not been touched in closed beta and looks like it won't be as it's keeping in line with WG's move to more grind and more premium ' pay to win' attitudes).
 
Titanfall - so much potential and it was just too clunky.

BF4 - regression from BF3

COD after MW1 - hackers, boost, and lame servers

Unreal 2 - great graphics (for time) not so great a game
 
Back