Games you didn't like, but you liked the idea of

[Relish in Chaos]

Just what the title says. What are games that you thought were mediocre or just didn't enjoy playing, but thought the premise behind them were good?

One that comes to mind for me is Sonic Spinball. I like the idea of a pinball game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series (Sonic when he rolls into a ball does look like he'd make a great pinball), and the sprites, backgrounds and overall presentation genuinely look pretty nice. But the gameplay's broken and clunky.

 

[Jarek Mace]

Spore. The Spore we saw in 2005 was amazing. The Spore we got, was not.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Could have been a great game with another developer.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Could have been a great game with another developer.

Exactly this. Playing as super geared out and equipped Umbrella Operatives instead of a shambling shlomo scraping by to survive. Class based multiplayer with highly unique skills. Being able to enslave zombies, lay explosive traps, cloak and go invisible, having to fight hundreds of zombies and powerful super zombies head-on instead of running away... It sounds awesome. But the execution was so, so bad. And the final nail in the shit-coffin: It was short as hell.


OT: BRINK - Everything about this game got me hyped up to the max. But those who have played it know how it fell so embarrassingly short of it's goals.
And you know what, I still had fun playing it with friends. But the fun soon ended, and it could've been so much better and so much more glorious. It still makes me sad thinking about it.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Spore. The Spore we saw in 2005 was amazing. The Spore we got, was not.

Spore is a good fit for this category. I didn't hate it or anything, but it was phenomenally underwhelming.

Same goes for Dungeon Keeper, really. I wanted to craft an intricate dungeon and pipe heroes through my monster chambers and diabolical traps. Not grab all my minions with my disembodied hand and plonk them on the hero's head the moment they came in through the wall.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Crackdown, I thought it sounded cool, but when I played it it was shitty.

 

[krazykidd]

So anything original?

Mirrors edge . Cool idea , average execution

Skyrim . Cool idea , average execution without mods ( and i played it on the xbox360)

Metro 2033 . Cool idea , great atmosphere , everything else pretty average .

Dragon age 2 . WHERE IS THE STORY? WHY IS EVERYTHING RECYCLED?

 

[Gone Rampant]

Mass Effect 1's gunplay nearly turned off a friend of mine who was playing the thing out of interest. Thankfully, he enjoyed the story enough to move on to ME2.

The irony? He finished it a day before the comic that let you skip ME1 came out.

 

[Gone Rampant]

[/quote] Exactly this. Playing as super geared out and equipped Umbrella Operatives instead of a shambling shlomo scraping by to survive. Class based multiplayer with highly unique skills. Being able to enslave zombies, lay explosive traps, cloak and go invisible, having to fight hundreds of zombies and powerful super zombies head-on instead of running away... It sounds awesome. But the execution was so, so bad. And the final nail in the shit-coffin: It was short as hell.


OT: BRINK - Everything about this game got me hyped up to the max. But those who have played it know how it fell so embarrassingly short of it's goals.
And you know what, I still had fun playing it with friends. But the fun soon ended, and it could've been so much better and so much more glorious. It still makes me sad thinking about it.[/quote]

Brink's actually pretty good. Mind you, I didn't spend a penny on it since it was a birthday present, but...

 

[Mr.Mattress]

The Nintendo Virtual Boy is a cool console, and while I like it, it could be improved greatly upon. Like, give it more color then Red, Dark Red, and Black.

... I sort of want to make a new Virtual Boy styled Console, but I stink at math and engineering, so...

 

[Smooth Operator]

Brutal Legend, saving the world with the power of my Metal? Hell fucking yes!
The actual game... no, no, noooo, that is not how we do that.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, I don't dislike the game but it also isn't the proper Warhammer experience, yes you made it visually impressive but where is the thick lore, where is my squad, where are the tactical battles... back to your room and do it again!

 

[Swyftstar]

Mercenaries 2. I had such a blast playing the first one that when I heard the second one was going to be co-op I was in heaven. Then my friend and I played it. We wanted to like it so bad that it took us a couple of days before we angrily agreed it was horrible.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Skyrim- It looked like it would be a descent game but, fuck was it a mess.

Haze- For some reason this game looked really fun in advertizing. And I remember this being my first big disappointment of the current gen. Short ass campaine, the very premise of the game is thrown out in hours, and stuff just generally not making sense.

 

[DugMachine]

Brink sounded like a cool idea but I heard it flopped pretty bad. Still haven't tried it for myself but when its a running gag on the interwebz there must be some truth to it.

 

[WFox]

Too Human. A scifi RPG based on Norse mythology? It sounded awesome, but was among the worst games I have ever played.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Too Human. A scifi RPG based on Norse mythology? It sounded awesome, but was among the worst games I have ever played.

Agreed. Too Human was just painful to play through. I was almost willing to pay somebody else to play it just because I wanted to know how the story turned out.

 

[scorptatious]

Spore. The Spore we saw in 2005 was amazing. The Spore we got, was not.

I used to play that game for a little while. It was fun for a little while, but I got bored of it not too long after. Plus, one of the creations I made in that game inspired my username.

OT: Well there's Mirror's Edge. I really liked the idea, but I felt the execution was pretty bad. The story wasn't engaging, the characters were bland, and it was really difficult to figure out where to go most of the time even with the game's feature that points you in the right direction. And half the time, you have cops chasing you during these kinds of segments whose accuracy increases ten fold if you're going the wrong way.

It was a frustrating and miserable experience. And I found myself returning the game almost immediately after I beat it.

No offense to those who enjoy the game.

 

[AT God]

Red Orchestra

The idea of massive battles isn't new, BF1942 nailed it on the first try but Red Orchestra looked like it would bring the realism. Sadly the online mode isn't as fun as I thought and it turns out the bot behavior is terrible.

I haven't played the second one but without good bot support I probably wont get it.

BTW, Sonic Spinball was great, I just sucked at it, never got past the second level.

 

[Overusedname]

Oddly enough...Kirby's Epic Yarn is high on the list for me.

Amazing Art, fun premise, lots of potential for creative gameplay based off the visuals...and then you actually start playing it.

I love several kid-friendly games but well...Mario can be enjoyed by anyone, so can Zelda, so can several older Kirby games. But oh god, this game feels like it was made for infants. The bed-time story presentations and the creepy narrator, the boring, risk-free gameplay, the overly cute and peaceful atmosphere with no emotional variation whatsoever.

*sigh*...it looks so pretty...and it's kirby. Why is it so bad?

 

[Vivi22]

Spore. The Spore we saw in 2005 was amazing. The Spore we got, was not.

I'd say Spore as well. The concept is freaking brilliant. Unfortunately, they basically divided up the main game into 5 smaller chunks based on other genres and completely half assed them. Each stage of the game is seriously like a poor mans version of some other title/genre. Spore is pretty much the definition of terrible execution.