Bad/mediocre games with something amazing in them

[jademunky]

sunless sea I'll begrudgingly admit looks pretty and has a nice soundtrack.

I would also add that I have not seen better writing in a game before or since. Seriously, for once, the main reward of the quest was the story of the quest itself.

**Edit**

Muh fanboyism is approaching worrying (almost Jehova's Wintess-esque) levels with this game.

 

[meiam]

So many, I'll skip the controversial (TW3) and go for:

Last remnant: It has this awesome system where you can have up to 20 fighter in your party at once that you then subdivide into multiple team, you can either make them mix or everything (mage and fighter) or super specialize them, there's tons of skill, class, ability and plenty of cool stuff you can find in the world.
But holy crap did they screw the pooch with bad decision. You can't choose what ability your unit use in combat, it's more or less random. You can't choose what class they become (you can steal it but you need to follow a wiki to even know how that work). You can't equip them. And the game has the worse leveling system possible with some weird hybrid of party level and character level and experience system. The end results is that if you just level naturally while you play the game your character are gonna suck big time, you need to avoid fighting normal battle and grind special monster (which are random), and yes you need that if you want to play trough most of the content, eventually the game introduce insanely strong side boss that you have no hope of defeating if you don't grind the right way. Such a shame, the party system is really cool.

 

[Zeraki]

I'd have to say, Advent Rising has no aged well(and probably wasn't that amazing when it first came out either, despite what my nostalgia says), but that soundtrack is absolutely stunning.

It's one of my all time video game soundtracks, for a game I haven't played in 13 years. The soundtrack alone made that game a memorable experience.

Spoiler: Just... wow.

 

[Dalisclock]

Valkyria Chronicles is a disappointing mess of a game with piss poor writing and gameplay that is adequate but not much more. Credit where credit is due though, it's very good at coming up with interesting designs for soldiers, weapons and tanks (it's actually really good at designing tanks) so the game looks quite interesting. Honestly I'm more frustrated with it than taking active glee in ragging on it, because I feel like there's an interesting story to be told in this world.

I really liked the idea of a small nation fighting off an invading army and to some extent the game delivers on that with some fun tactical battles. OTOH, you get some rather forced writing. The whole superhumans subplot also felt jarring as well. I get it, it's an anime type game, but it started off fairly grounded. Even the Giant tanks were based off designed the Germans had(never designed or put into service during WW2, for obvious reasons), then suddenly there's magical girls and giant crystal laser cannons popping up.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yeah, you know I think it actually worked to my benefit that I had not played any of the previous Metal Gear games before MGSV. I wasn't aware of any of the contradictions or retcons and the story was so impenetrable that I gave up on having any hope of figuring out what was going on. That freed me up to play MGSV purely as a game, just enjoying the mechanics, world, and toys it gave me.

That's probably the best way to enjoy it. I still get a kick out of watching people fuck around in the game whereas the story/characters itself just makes me feel like so much opportunity was lost.

"Such a lust for Vengeance! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?"

 

[DrownedAmmet]

I really liked the war table missions in Dragon Age: inquisition. They were interesting, simple, and fun. You're presented with a problem, given three options to solve it (militarily, diplomatically, or with spies (espionagically?)), and then you wait and find out what happened later. I always loved going back to the table to find out what happened, to see if my military parade caused that rebelling noble to back down, or to see if I was able to secure an ally through a marriage

They were so much more interesting than some of the actual missions (I never had to return some farmers stupid buffalo at the war table)

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Firewarrior. It had some great 40k lore at the end of the tutorial in the Tau library. Also to date has the best Bolter in 40k games/movies. Actually felt like a rapid fire rocket launcher, literally causing enemies to explode or catch fire.

That game was way too hard. I managed to get to, I dunno, some big space hallway surrounded by snipers that one shot you. I am surprised I even got that far.

Really? I don't remember struggling too much in that part because if I think they give you a rail rifle. Also the best gun in the game was hands down the laspistol. Because of a bug it could one-shot all human enemies and kill Space marines in only a few shots.

sunless sea I'll begrudgingly admit looks pretty and has a nice soundtrack.

I would also add that I have not seen better writing in a game before or since. Seriously, for once, the main reward of the quest was the story of the quest itself.

**Edit**

Muh fanboyism is approaching worrying (almost Jehova's Wintess-esque) levels with this game.

I want to give that game another shot, but I just remember dying so many times because I'd run out of fuel trying to find any objective anywhere. And the few quests I completed never gave enough resources to justify. According to steam I have 9hrs on that game, and for the life of me I don't remember completing more than 2 quests in any single run-through.

 

[CaitSeith]

Mass Effect 3

The Vagrant class gameplay. While the other classes optimal tactic rely mainly on cover-shooting/cover-power, Vangard's combos are just insane in comparison.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Wild Arms 5 has one of my favorite gaming soundtracks of all time, but it dumbs down the combat, discards much of the previous entries' unique setting and feel while throwing every single annoying anime cliche in the book at you. I liked Tidus in FFX, but hated Dean Stark. I did also like how the game gave all of the previous player characters side cameos, even Rudy Roughknight's crew from the first game over ten years before this one.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a disappointing successor to one of my all-time favorites, and I feel I'm certainly not alone in that opinion especially when the Law system comes into play. I did however, enjoy some aspects of the story where your allies gradually grow attached to certain parts of the medieval-era Ivalice (for example little brother Doned getting to be a street thief in the new world instead of a paraplegic in the real one), and decide that they don't actually want to destroy the Crystals and go back to snow-covered modern Ivalice. They end up turning against you until you can talk/fight some sense into them.

It's sort of like your character has been given the same goals as X-Death from Final Fantasy V except for more noble reasons, and I often try picturing doing a similar thing with other Final Fantasy villain plots.

 

[meiam]

Wild Arms 5 has one of my favorite gaming soundtracks of all time, but it dumbs down the combat, discards much of the previous entries' unique setting and feel while throwing every single annoying anime cliche in the book at you. I liked Tidus in FFX, but hated Dean Stark. I did also like how the game gave all of the previous player characters side cameos, even Rudy Roughknight's crew from the first game over ten years before this one.

WA 5 was so weird, I don't understand how it ever got made, they really threw everything out the window and went 110% anime (girl fall from the sky on man character with amnesia), was really a shame after 3 and 4 which are both excellent in there own way. I'd say it killed the franchise, but JRPG never really recover past the PS2 era as a whole, so I doubt a new one would have existed anyway.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a disappointing successor to one of my all-time favorites, and I feel I'm certainly not alone in that opinion especially when the Law system comes into play. I did however, enjoy some aspects of the story where your allies gradually grow attached to certain parts of the medieval-era Ivalice (for example little brother Doned getting to be a street thief in the new world instead of a paraplegic in the real one), and decide that they don't actually want to destroy the Crystals and go back to snow-covered modern Ivalice. They end up turning against you until you can talk/fight some sense into them.

Yeah I really liked the story... a bit too much honestly since I didn't understand why I was supposed to want to destroy the crystal anyway, literally everything was better for MC in Invalice yet he want to go back to real world for reason. The gameplay dumb down was unfortunate, didn't like that some class were race restricted too and overall class felt less unique (dragon not really having jump anymore and such). Plus getting the right mission was annoying, I think I actually locked myself out of some side quest for ultimate weapon because I didn't do the right quest order. Shame that there never was a proper FFT sequel, I think that would work extremely well even today.

 

[Yoshi178]

Game: GTA series

Amazing thing all the games have: Sales

 

[Dalisclock]

Game: GTA series

Amazing thing all the games have: Sales

Can you elaborate a bit? The reason I ask is because between Steam, Humble Bundle and GOG, one could say that pretty much any game in existence can be found on deep discount sale at some point or another.

The sole exception being perhaps Blizzard games, which as far as I know never go on sale.

 

[Catfood220]

Dead Space 3: The first couple of hours where you are exploring a derelict fleet of space ships, it has the same claustrophobic feeling of dread that the first game did. Even when you get down to Tor Volantis with a damaged suit, trying not to freeze to death while fighting off Necromorphs is good fun. As soon as your suit is fixed, the game becomes a massive boring slog.

The Last of Us: Is not a bad game, it is just severely over rated. The bit with the giraffes towards the end of the game is nice.

 

[Yoshi178]

Game: GTA series

Amazing thing all the games have: Sales

Can you elaborate a bit?

Sure.

it's amazing how anybody would buy such a terrible game.

 

[Squilookle]

Game: GTA series

Amazing thing all the games have: Sales

Can you elaborate a bit?

Sure.

it's amazing how anybody would buy such a terrible game.

Careful you don't cut yourself on all that edge there...

 

[Dalisclock]

Game: GTA series

Amazing thing all the games have: Sales

Can you elaborate a bit?

Sure.

it's amazing how anybody would buy such a terrible game.

I remember having a lot of fun with vice city back in the day(when vice city was fairly new. If it tried to go back to it now, I'm not sure if it will have aged very well.) I remember kinda liking San Andreas but being put off by the gang war aspect(where you had to go out and defend territory because all your mooks were incapable of holding their own turf without you being there) and getting constantly called by girlfriends to go on dates constantly. All of which apparently could happen during missions IIRC.

Which is probably why I never played GTA IV, because I've heard a big chunk of the game is your idiot cousin bugging you to go hang with him when you aren't constantly bailing his ass out.

Anyway, another example that came to mind is "The Witcher". The story is actually pretty good once it's unfolded, especially once you see how all the pieces fit together. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else is either bad(the combat) or mediocre(the overall presentation, the opening chapters). It's one of those games I routinely tell people not to bother with unless they really, really want to play all the of games in the Witcher series.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Game: GTA series

Amazing thing all the games have: Sales

Can you elaborate a bit?

Sure.

it's amazing how anybody would buy such a terrible game.

I remember having a lot of fun with vice city back in the day(when vice city was fairly new. If it tried to go back to it now, I'm not sure if it will have aged very well.) I remember kinda liking San Andreas but being put off by the gang war aspect(where you had to go out and defend territory because all your mooks were incapable of holding their own turf without you being there) and getting constantly called by girlfriends to go on dates constantly. All of which apparently could happen during missions IIRC.

Which is probably why I never played GTA IV, because I've heard a big chunk of the game is your idiot cousin bugging you to go hang with him when you aren't constantly bailing his ass out.

Yeah I loved Vice City too but lost interest in the series after San Andreas, I just really didn't like all the maintenance with my food and the busy work but the last straw was doing some kind of trucking mission and going halfway across the map and dying because of one reason or another and having to go ALL THE WAY BACK to the mission location (which was through loading zones too) to try again.

The map was just too big and there was just too many things to do in it that weren't all that fun and the despite how the main character and supporting chars should in theory have been more sympathetic than those in Vice City, I just really didn't like them. My memory is vague but I remember that my problem with the characters was that they were idiots making stupid choices AND killers while at least in Vice City, Tony is competent despite being a hardened criminal.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

That freed me up to play MGSV purely as a game, just enjoying the mechanics, world, and toys it gave me.

Off-topic, but Splinter Cell is one of my favorite franchises and every, single one of them I enjoy this exact same way. Geopolitical intrigue isn?t my thing, so I?m never able to follow the grander story of each game beyond the first mission or two, but the pure stealth gameplay and amazingly well-crafted missions just makes for the best badass sneaky-sneaky fun.

I hear you on that one. Splinter Cell is one of my favorite franchises for your exact reasons. There's so much fun to be had in setting your own challenges and restrictions. No pistol, limited gadgets, non-lethal only, etc. Those games are an expertly crafted playground with all the new shiny stuff to play with. I both eagerly await and nervously anticipate Ubisoft's eventual announcement of a new game and the inevitable changes they'll implement to the formula.

 

[Xprimentyl]

That freed me up to play MGSV purely as a game, just enjoying the mechanics, world, and toys it gave me.

Off-topic, but Splinter Cell is one of my favorite franchises and every, single one of them I enjoy this exact same way. Geopolitical intrigue isn?t my thing, so I?m never able to follow the grander story of each game beyond the first mission or two, but the pure stealth gameplay and amazingly well-crafted missions just makes for the best badass sneaky-sneaky fun.

I hear you on that one. Splinter Cell is one of my favorite franchises for your exact reasons. There's so much fun to be had in setting your own challenges and restrictions. No pistol, limited gadgets, non-lethal only, etc. Those games are an expertly crafted playground with all the new shiny stuff to play with. I both eagerly await and nervously anticipate Ubisoft's eventual announcement of a new game and the inevitable changes they'll implement to the formula.

Oh man, I know what you mean. Plus, given the current climate of games regularly being released to controversy in unfinished states with microtransactions and content stripped out for sale as DLC on season passes, Splinter Cell has a steeper hill to climb than most if they try to shoehorn it in with the masses; I fear it?s all but inevitable that Ubisoft will find a way to screw up a franchise I love but they?ve neglected and undervalued forever. And it?s frustrating because Chaos Theory touched near objective perfection on the Original Xbox/PS2, then ever since the installments on the Xbox 360/PS3, Sam Fisher just hasn?t had a fair shake; even though all of the games are still incredible fun, the franchise identity has been kinda all over the board in one respect or another, so it?s been hard for Splinter Cell to? stay relevant(?) to the gaming community at large. Doesn?t help that it?s already a niche genre that is pretty much the antithesis to what sells/is popular today: ?hey kids, why don?t? you put down the brightly-colored, frenetic chaos of Fortnite and try this game that lives in shades of black and green, requires actual planning and strategy, has the pacing of a snail on Quaaludes and your gun? Yeah, it?s best when you DON?T use that.?

 

[PFCboom]

Major/Minor is awful. It's a visual novel, and I absolutely refuse to call it a game, because there is even less player agency than the most basic Newgrounds dating sim. YET, the premise is rock-solid, with a few teases of it being halfway-decent throughout.
For context: Early on in this novel, the PC is told they were given some measure of godly power to help you in your quest to save a world which is parallel to Earth; the character who says that then states, "I know you have many questions, but we only have time for an answer to one.
Immediately after that little speech, the game shouts out "IT WOULD BE GREAT TO SAVE NOW, AND MAKE USE OF THE MULTIPLE SAVE SLOTS."
At this point, you might draw the same conclusion that I did. This game is going to have a meta aspect to it, whereby the information gleaned from the PLAYER'S perspective is greater than the PC's perspective, turning the overarching story into a complex web of narrative threads which have a be carefully maneuvered; after all, if the PC accidentally reveals information too soon, it could end up being either useless or utterly disastrous in that moment.

And you and I would be wrong. All of that comes to nothing.

YET

The kernel of a phenomenal idea is there, waiting for someone far more ingenious to come along, scoop it up, and carry that whit of information into an actually good game.