Flawed gems

[Evonisia]

Seeing as I finished it yesterday: ZombiU.

Quite a good game I find, but ho boy does it suffer from launch title syndrome. The copy pasting in that game reaches the point where the second half of the game is going back to the old places and collecting one item, as well as all of the transport areas being identical (yes I'm sure that graffiti would be common next to Buckingham Palace). The guns are complete shit yet the game tells you that they're effective, I ended up saving enough bullets to fill my upgraded bag by the end (which actually requires the guns by virtue of there being too many Zombies). Then the game really, really falls apart towards the end. Things get ridiculous with doors randomly locking and the game glitching on you constantly. That final mission will forever taint what is an otherwise good game because of the shitty level design and the sheer amount of Zombies is ridiculous. Some of the Zombies have too much health as well.

It's quite good on the whole, though. Solid atmosphere that really plays some tricks like making shadows look like Zombies. A great intro combined with the first few intro missions where you learn how to survive, all solid stuff. The Prepper speaking to you through the Wii U game pad is a delight, too. The weapons outside of the guns are all in some way useful, resource managing is quite nice and the Wii U pad really is quite useful with the inventory system and the scanning thing.

You get my thumbs up ZombiU, but I'm hesitant to replay you because of that terrible last hour and half.

 

[Spudgun Man]

That'd have to be Risen for me, absolutely loved that game but its flaws run deep.

 

[wauwau]

Yahtzeevania: Symphony of the night: Amazing game with one huge flaw. The inverted castle bollocks, it may not be as cryptic as Simon's Quest but bloody hell is it unecessarily hidden. Without the internet, most players would miss half the game.

Resident Evil 4: QTEs...nuff said.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

Virtua Quest... A gem so flawed that barely anyone knows about its existence...

But seriously, outside of some questionable control choices[footnote]The C/Right stick to use the game's version of a grapple hook that only goes in the direction the character's facing instead of just using the L/L1/L2 buttons... Then again, the L/L1/L2 buttons only moves the camera to the default "behind the character" camera position instead of just using the C/Right stick to control the camera more freely... So, I only ask this one question: Who the fuck thought that kind of control scheme was a good fucking idea?![/footnote]as well as a basically pointless "level-up"-type system[footnote]Why have it if the game's going to force me to "level-up" anyway?! It's not like it increases my stats or anything like that because only the upgrade tools as well as which fighting type I end up adopting the most can do that... Just because I can't do certain sidequest[footnote]which are only there to, hopefully, get a rare upgrade tool for your stats or "lost data" for you collected Virtua Souls...[/footnote] because I'm not at the right "level" story-wise doesn't mean it counts by any stretch of the meaning in this situation and you know it, game...[/footnote] due to plot reasons (just to name the major flaws), its use of both stats and fighting style customization options gave this game potential to be a good spin-off to the Virtual Fighter series...

Too bad it was a ~10-hour repetitive/mediocre game with an ending that will remain a cliffhanger for the rest of its life, basically... and I keep going back to it either on GameCube or PS2 because I have both versions...

I agree. I really wanted to like Virtua Quest, but the dungeons got monotonous I started falling asleep because fun stuff had stopped happening for at least an hour. It's too bad too, because the demo was a lot of fun

 

[Mister K]

I have 2 picks:

- Dragon Age II. Yes the game was rushed, yes it lacked some features and the combat was a bit too flashy. But I like how it didn't focus on saving the world. I like how there was at least an attempt to get away from high-fantasy dogmas. Overall, I think it is a good game. Not the best game, just a good one.

- Brutal Legend. I liked the story, setting and characters, but Iwould have preffered if instead of having strategy elements it was a pure lasher with an ability to summon a single unit to support you in certain situatiions with war itself happening in the background.

 

[Doctor Teatime]

I can think of a few games.

-Dragon Age II. Like a lot of other people I quite enjoyed it despite the flaws.

-Sonic Adventure 2. I played this for so many hours when I was young. I recently got it for the PC and it's still awesome.

-Heroes of Might and Magic, the later entries. While never quite as great as the third installation I've still enjoyed every game in this series.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Nier. Uninspired combat, underwhelming graphics, monotonous side quests, the necessity to play the game multiple times to get the full story. And yet I loved every minute of it.

Telltale's The Walking Dead. Yes I know it has received commercial and critical acclaim but those action sequences (if you can call them that) are complete and utter garbage. Well, I guess they're no worse than the average QTE but as someone who avoids QTE heavy games they really stood out to me. I still love the games though.

Mass Effect 3. A lot of little flaws and one huge glaring flaw. I'll never be one to defend the ending but it didn't actually bother me that much.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Another for Dragon's Dogma.

That game had the makings of the be-all Fantasy action RPG. It added something that was sorely missing in every action RPG to date; Action... that is satisfying. Capcom's pedigree really came into play here. All that experience they've accumulated over the years in the action genre hadn't left them yet. Fighting enemies was not a chore to get through like with every other action RPG, it was the main draw of the game. There had been many Fantasy games in the last decade, many that tried to capture the appeal of the Lord of the Rings movies, but Dragon's Dogma was the first to really make me feel like that type of adventurer; Running across the hills with my companions in tow, coming across a battalion of goblins for us to engage in battle, and ofcourse taking on huge monstrosities which took great effort, care, time, and climbing. Leaping off of a cyclops as it breaths its last breath and is ready to keel over, is one of the most orgasmic experiences I've ever had during a game.

All of this is accompanied by animation of top tier quality. None of the typically awkward RPG animation here. Just running around and jumping is a joy to behold. And the character customisation is probably the most user friendly I've ever seen. It also is one of the few games that handles light and dark areas extremely well. Shadows really feel like they conceil, and nighttime turns everything pitch black, but not in a cheap way.

BUT ofcourse everything else doesn't work as well. The story sucks, the characters barely have any, your companions as well as shop owners recite the same fucking lines over and over (and over and over and over and over), the map is a bit too small, there's not enough enemy variety, and the lack of shortcuts makes getting around a nuisance.

 

[stroopwafel]

All of this is accompanied by animation of top tier quality. None of the typically awkward RPG animation here. Just running around and jumping is a joy to behold.

'Top tier' srsly? I thought DD(the game, not the cup size) was jittery and clumsy when it came to animations which led to very imprecise and awkward controls and to make it worse the camera was bouncing all over the place if I could even see what's going on in the first place with all those pawns getting in the way and cluttering up the screen. The environments that you had to repeatedly traverse were also bland and boring with very few locations to break up the monotony. DD was a game I really wanted to like, espescially b/c(atleast on paper) it had so much potential.

Anyways another vote for Deadly Premonition from me. It is the most prominent example of a 'flawed gem' I could think of. Controls are poor and the game looks like an early PS2 game. Driving controls are so poor it's like they were deliberately made to mock the player. But there is no denying this game is an absolute labor of love. The atmosphere, the characters, the story; this is what carries the game. I mean, the story is so 'out there' that it had me intrigued from the start so much so that I couldn't put the game down and absolutely wanted to see what other twist laid just around the corner. Also the characters are so colorful, original and just..fun. None of these boring archetypes but real personalities.

The real star of the game is ofcourse York(what everyone calls him). With his quirky attitude, introspective demeanor and detached, analytical mindset that often rubs people the wrong way. His love for coffee, meticulous knowledge of cult movies, imaginary friend Zack and inability to connect(yet with his heart in the right place). Not to mention his impeccable sense of style and class. That guy is a piece of work. Love that character! For better or worse I could really identify with York(not that I talk to imaginary people though).

Also the soundtrack of Deadly Premonition is really good. Meant to be played at inappropriate times!

 

[Someone Depressing]

The original Clock Tower, on the SNES. The art is gorgeous, and for such an early horror game, it works surprisingly well...

And the plot consists of "haunted clock tower, dude with scissors, run around and do some spooky stuff". Most of the plot points are Wallbangers of an unequalled degree, and when the characters aren't being particularly stupid, they're all being stupid.

And I love it.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Yeah. Far Cry 2.

Maybe I want different things in an FPS, but I feel like this nailed the setting and atmosphere more than any other shiny shiny open world game with loads of bullshit (or at least Ubisoft bullshit) to do. I'm too immersed in the world to care about how 'meh meh meh my gameplay's being interrupted I just want to shoot'.

I LOVED Far Cry 2. I'm fairly sure that I wouldn't love Far Cry 3.

BITCHES!!?!

 

[Pr0]

Mass Effect 3

Nothing to say that hasn't already been said far more eloquently by others. ME3 is the classic flawed gem game.

*kicks that dead horse a few more times*

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Ima Lemming]

Nier. Uninspired combat, underwhelming graphics, monotonous side quests, the necessity to play the game multiple times to get the full story. And yet I loved every minute of it.

This. I loved that game up until the insulting plot twist at the very end.

I actually loved the writing in that game so much I was going through those annoying fetch sidequests just to see more of it... again, up until it shit itself in the final dungeon.

 

[scorptatious]

For me, that would probably be Valkyria Chronicles.

I fucking love the game, but I'm not going to deny that it has issues.

The grading system is solely based on speed, and it encourages players to just use Defense Boost on a scout or two and just rush to the base camp, kill the guys in there, and win the whole level. I don't know why you would put that kind of thing in a strategy game. At the very least though, it has been shown through Youtube videos that you can A rank most missions without relying on scout rushing or using orders, but it's pretty hard to do.

And speaking of Defense Boost, orders are pretty much broken in this game. Some are worthless (mortar launch, sniper support) others just snap the game in two. (Defense Boost as stated and stuff like Penetration)

If you're playing the game for the first time, I highly HIGHLY recommend not using orders. Trust me, I feel the game is a lot more fun when you're not using them.

Oh yeah, and the AI is kinda dumb too. Although I can forgive it somewhat as the way the levels are designed, you still have to watch for ambushes and thick defenses.

Besides those things, I still consider Valkyria Chronicles among my most favorite games.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

The biggest one that I get flack for liking is Dragon Age II. Just yesterday, when I said I was going to buy a PS4 when Inquisition comes out, one of my coworkers looked at me like I was mad because Dragon Age II was terrible, so why was I excited about the third one. When I told him I liked DA II, his eyes popped out of his head in disbelief.

I enjoyed that game very much. It had terrible flaws, but it was still fun for me to play and I liked the characters.

I liked Dragon Age II as well. I understand why many who loved Origins didn't like it, but I still don't see how it was worthy of the hatred it recieved.

OT: The Legacy of Kain series.

Blood Omen plays like a clunky Link to the Past with bad load times and awful sound design.

Soul Reaver was too short and had it's story changed to a cliffhanger in the 11th hour.

Soul Reaver 2 was too linear; in general, the excellent gameplay from SR1 was horribly watered-down.

Defiance was too lacking overall in story content, too repetitive in the gameplay department, and was the story was forced to write its way around the silly junk in that happened in Blood Omen 2 (and that is the ONLY mention I will make of Blood Omen 2...).

HOWEVER!

Taken as a whole, the Legacy of Kain series has some of the coolest characters and one of the most epic plots of any video game series. Also, in an world where video game voice-acting can easily be mocked, even up to the present day, Legacy of Kain features some of the greatest voice-acting in any medium, pulling in amazing talent like Simon Templeton, Tony Jay, and Michael Bell to deliver AMAZING voice performance as far back as the late 90s!

Seriously, I could listen to these characters verbally joust all day...

 

[FPLOON]

Virtua Quest... A gem so flawed that barely anyone knows about its existence...

But seriously, outside of some questionable control choices[footnote]The C/Right stick to use the game's version of a grapple hook that only goes in the direction the character's facing instead of just using the L/L1/L2 buttons... Then again, the L/L1/L2 buttons only moves the camera to the default "behind the character" camera position instead of just using the C/Right stick to control the camera more freely... So, I only ask this one question: Who the fuck thought that kind of control scheme was a good fucking idea?![/footnote]as well as a basically pointless "level-up"-type system[footnote]Why have it if the game's going to force me to "level-up" anyway?! It's not like it increases my stats or anything like that because only the upgrade tools as well as which fighting type I end up adopting the most can do that... Just because I can't do certain sidequest[footnote]which are only there to, hopefully, get a rare upgrade tool for your stats or "lost data" for you collected Virtua Souls...[/footnote] because I'm not at the right "level" story-wise doesn't mean it counts by any stretch of the meaning in this situation and you know it, game...[/footnote] due to plot reasons (just to name the major flaws), its use of both stats and fighting style customization options gave this game potential to be a good spin-off to the Virtual Fighter series...

Too bad it was a ~10-hour repetitive/mediocre game with an ending that will remain a cliffhanger for the rest of its life, basically... and I keep going back to it either on GameCube or PS2 because I have both versions...

I agree. I really wanted to like Virtua Quest, but the dungeons got monotonous I started falling asleep because fun stuff had stopped happening for at least an hour. It's too bad too, because the demo was a lot of fun

Oh my glob, I remember playing the fuck out of the demo on [mainly] the GameCube whenever I went to my local Target or, at the time, Circuit City! *sighs* I still remember how it had a snippet of the first server where you reach your first Virtua Soul...

(Also, as far as I'm aware of right now, you are the only one I know who also knows about this game's existence beforehand...)

 

[Pink Gregory]

Far Cry 2. One of my favourite games ever, and in many ways, its better than Far Cry 3.

*knocking on the door*

Oh, I wonder who that is.

*opens door to see men in white clothes and straight jacket*

They're coming for me! Far Cry 2 was better than Far Cry 3 in terms of emergent storytelling and weapons were more balanced and [sub]even though the combat in Far Cry 3 is undeniably better Far Cry 2 offered better surrounding which gave better ways to engage the enemy and I know the voice act-[/sub]

*van doors slam shut*

I am in complete agreement.

Read this - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/20/why-far-cry-2-is-the-best-in-the-series/

and also this - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?16981-Conflict-Diamonds-in-the-Rough-%96-Far-Cry-2-s-wasted-potential-and-the-Ubisoft-Game

Personally, it might be more to do with the fact that I don't like what everyone feels that shooters should be (i.e. Doom or Duke Nukem 3D), I find those games boring, ironically.

Also as far as I'm aware this was before that buuuuuuuhUbisoft... feeling that I personally started feeling around AC Brotherhood.