8 of the Most Overrated Video Game Franchises Ever

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Oh come on, Dark Souls didn't make the list?! The poster child for padded gameplay timesinks?!

Resident Evil. Lets face it. 1, 2, 0, 4 and Outlast are the only good ones. Of the like 30 trillion other titles.

Kingdom Hearts. I'll grant they're fun, and I even played the first one. But oh boy are they not worth the hype and salivating squishy love.

Also Dead Space. Its just...boring. And not scary.

 

[Cowabungaa]

"Overrated", also known as the most vapid and empty of critiques on something. C'mon Escapist, maybe the whole Daily Gallery isn't such a good idea. Make it weekly so you've got the time to think of more interesting ones.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Why is a forum post an article?

 

[TheScorpion]

1. Honestly I prefer MK over SF since it has more characters that I like and I enjoy the story of it as well. Then, I did hear MK was kinda in decline back in the PS2 era but it's outta that now. Though I am worried about the business practices that WB Games love to initiate lately.

2. Yeah, aside from the Horde Mode(which every game these days has now), I don't care for Gears either.

3. I only played Fable II, didn't grab me much.

4. Yeah the last time I cared for Assassins Creed was Black Flag which I only played because Yahtzee put it on his worst of list. It's kinda what happens when you pull a Madden/COD and release a game entry each year.

5. Yep another casulty of EA. I seriously only cared for Sims Castaway on the DS anyway but I feel sorry for fans of the series though. It reminded of what happened to Skate.

6. I avoided WoW and I intend to keep it that way. I do want that re-release of Warcraft II for my dad's sake(it was one of his old favorites) even if Blizzard stupidly cancelled that plan. I am considering getting Warcraft III though.

7. Wow what an obvious choice. Then again, it is common for a Gallery of the Day to try and out-obvious WatchMojo. I stopped caring after Black Ops anyway.

8. Yeah, I only cared for Halo when I had the PC version of the first game playing CTF on Death Island and Danger Canyon along with Forge Mode in Halo 3 playing Duck Hunt, Smash Bros, Jenga, among other things in that mode.

 

[Sassafrass]

Hey, we're now recycling forum threads from 2010 into actual content, sweet!

 

[Paragon Fury]

Good sir, prepare yourself for fisticuffs at dawn in the yard. You have insulted both Gears of War and Halo, and therefore me.

This dishonor will not go unpunished.

 

[Worgen]

Oh please, the only good plot blizzard ever did was the first Diablo game... and Lost Vikings. None of their other game have good plots just intricate ones.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Gears of War does cover-based shooting better than anyone hands-down. Far Cry 3 actually had a really decent cover-based mechanic that nobody noticed at all, but even that wasn't as good as Gears.

Halo CE and 3 will not be insulted. I will punch you, n0e. CE had the best Campaign, no contest. 3 had the best Custom Games and base combat. Reach had the best engine, Firefight, Forge, and Theater versions. The ONLY console shooter game that I've seen trump Halo CE, 3, and Reach was Timesplitters 3. And even then, they're really two different games in the end with different feature sets.

Also, the first Black Ops was really really good. Not quite at Halo 3's level, but still. Nevertheless, yeah, they're getting pretty samey.

 

[Hawki]

- Half-life 1&2 belong assuming two games make a franchise as both titles push the envelop in its field.

Personally, I count Half-Life 2 as being "overrated," at least in the sense that for all its hype, I don't enjoy it that much.

I'd also add Doom and Metroid to the list.

Resident Evil. Lets face it. 1, 2, 0, 4 and Outlast are the only good ones. Of the like 30 trillion other titles.

...seriously? RE1 (unless you mean the remake) is one of the weakest titles in the series, so is Zero, and Outlast (do you mean Outbreak) is fun only in limited doses.

You could at least put 3 in there if you're going by the pre-4 era.

Oh please, the only good plot blizzard ever did was the first Diablo game...

Diablo 1 hardly has a good plot. It hardly has a plot, period.

 

[Kyrian007]

I really wish I liked any of those franchises. That way I could say, hey... its a valid argument, commentary, and listicle even though I disagree with one of the selections. But it leaves my defense a little hollow because I agree with each and every selection and point made. Oh well, editorial commentary doesn't have to make everyone happy. That doesn't decrease its value.

 

[Worgen]

Oh please, the only good plot blizzard ever did was the first Diablo game...

Diablo 1 hardly has a good plot. It hardly has a plot, period.

Apparently someone never had the manual to read. It's plot was fine and good. Having a ton of plot does not make it a good plot.

 

[Covarr]

"Overrated", also known as the most vapid and empty of critiques on something.

I've seen the word used meaningfully, but only very rarely. Among others, I would call Undertale overrated. Not because it isn't a great game; it is genuinely excellent and I really enjoyed it. Rather, I'd call it overrated because much of its fanbase elevates it so high that literally no game can live up to as good as many of them think it is. Enjoying a game is one thing, but treating it with near reverence is, in my opinion, when it's fair to call a game overrated.

P.S. Thanks

P.P.S. Judging by GameFAQs polls back in days gone by, Final Fantasy VII used to be overrated in this way also. Again, great game, but not worthy of the better-than-perfect praise it often got.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

May I ask exactly what the point of this list was? Seems like it was made to shit on popular series more than anything else.

Right? Seems kinda Buzzfeedy.

 

[sXeth]

Oh hey a list. Surface analysis, clearly someone of the "PC Master Race", and more then a tiny grudge against Xbox for whatever reason.

Doesn't "Overrated" imply a certain level of hype? How does a "Series" qualify as an overrated "game". The article seems to praise the first 2 ACs and the RTS Warcrafts despite including the series in blanket form. I actually can't tell if they played the MMO version from what seems to be an error in the first sentence, though the basic MMO gets some praise in the entry before it gets to the expansions.

I don't even like Halo (or Xbox), but I'm not in some bubble chamber where I'm unaware of it being the first major FPS on consoles that dictated a ton of genre standards to follow (like the whole way you aim and move with dual sticks). Goldeneye/Perfect Dark were their thing in their time, but don't hold much influence over their predecessors (although a game taking inspiration from Perfect Dark's sheer variety of weapons and customization (yes I'm aware one or more of the Halos did the custom game stuff too) would be nice).

P.P.S. Can someone explain to me how Destiny turned out so reeky? I would've thought that having so much of the old Halo: Combat Evolved through Reach team would've led to pure magic, but at its best it feels like a half-hearted Halo clone and at its worst a bland grindfest. Seriously, Bungie, y'all can do better.

Lack of cohesive direction seems to be the main gist of it.

According to the various leaks and stuff, they started out writing some space-(MMO?)RPG thing. At some point that turned into a shoot-and-looter. That got further hacked up by technical limitations or something (Supposedly it takes hours or even days just to open a map, move a rock and save it again in their engine) that shrank everything drastically from whatever original plans.

Then they added a versus/"competitive" mode, and apparently unable to handle two separate balance systems, scrapped or nerfed anything powerful or unique to make a level playing field. Which really kind of kills off your loot grindy wheel when your loot is all kind of samey crap. Presumably also why the space magic powers are all pretty lacklustre tiny stat alterations or variants on grenades, and supers are either "big bomb thing" or "one hit kill melee thing".

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

On the very first game...
MK
"Nowadays, all that MK tries to mimic is a Tekkan style way of combat, with weapons and a more three-dimensional map to fight on."

What.The.Hell?

It's spelled Tekken by the way. And MK isn't even remotely trying to play like Tekken. Has OP played either game?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Enjoying a game is one thing, but treating it with near reverence is, in my opinion, when it's fair to call a game overrated.

That's exactly what makes it pointless. Because A: it has nothing to do with the game itself, but with the fanbase. And B: every thing in the history of ever had a fanbase that made it seem like the second coming of Christ. Everything is overrated if you look at the fanbase. And if everything can be called overrated why even bother using the word.

 

[Devin Barker]

Seems I am in the minority but I agree with almost all of this. I have been playing WC since WC1 and I am very disappointed that the RTS is gone and all we have left is WoW. I liked Halo 1 but to me it always seemed that after that one they stopped caring about the story in favor of the multiplayer... which I never cared for. I never enjoyed Assassins Creed... there are only so many times you can run up a wall and stab a guy so you can run up a wall and stab a guy so you can finally run up a wall and stab a guy before you are kinda sick of running up a wall and stabbing a guy.

 

[Jandau]

So, The Escapist is literally posting troll articles as clickbait now? Has it really gotten that bad? I mean, I disagree with pretty much every entry here, and I don't even LIKE most of the games/franchises listed...