Games you think are overrated

[MetalDooley]

Mass Effect 3

Now I know that game created a lot of controversy but I'm talking purely about "professional reviews".Seriously go on to it's Metacritic page and just look at the amount of perfect 100's and 90+ scores it got.Only 11 of the 74 reviews they used scored it less than 90 and the lowest score it received was 75

I just look at that and think "Did these people play the same game I did?".It wasn't just the ending Mass Effect 3 was a deeply flawed game from the very beginning yet you would never think so from looking at Metacritic.To be honest ME3 was a major reason why I don't pay much attention to the so called "professional" games media anymore

 

[Vern5]

I'm kind of with Zhukov on this one; most games don't deserve all of their praise. But if I had to be specific:

Umm... I was joking.

[sub][sub]I know it can be hard to detect sarcasm or insincerity in text, but come on, one would think that ending a post with "my opinion reigns supreme" would be sufficient.[/sub][/sub]

I only read the parts that sounded reasonable. Blame it on subconscious conditioning that comes with reading anything that came from the internet.

 

[thejboy88]

The Halo Series, GTA V, Tomb Raider (most recent one) and more I'm sure.

The Halo Series because I never saw the major appeal in them. They're great games, but they're just way over-rated I believe. GTA V and GTA IV because they were kind of boring in my opinion. Both games had crappy endings and kind of didn't deliver the GTA experience we expected from past games.

With GTA V I think it's because of the three endings, all of them were quite cliche and boring. I was expecting an awesome ending all the way round, but instead they gave me three mundane endings. And for Tomb Raider, I couldn't get into the story and the new voice actor just wasn't cutting it for me, it just didn't feel right or some reason.

That's how I feel though.

 

[PinkiePyro]

assassins creed, halo, pretty much most shooters

tryed several of the AC series just do not get the appeal

as for halo the series looks boring as most shooters do to me

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

EDIT: Why is it necessary for the first comments on these threads to always be people talking about how "oh, no game is overrated, people like a game for a reason, and however much they like it is how much that game deserves it and blah blah blah..." Seriously, it adds nothing to the discussion. You didn't think games were overrated, so you have nothing to contribute to the thread, then just move on.

Because posts like Zhukov's are dead on. I haven't posted on the escapist in months and of course there's an "over rated x" thread. No matter what game, no matter how good it is, even if it's a benchmark for an entire genre, someone will post about how it's "over rated" and defend their opinion with bland and vague descriptors. "It was boring, the story didn't make sense, it wasn't terrible but it just wasn't that good, it's outdated, it's a rip off of 3 different games, I don't understand why people like a thing, 3 million people bought and like game x and it has a meta critic above 80% but I swear the game play is completely broken". There's a point where you've seen it all

Things can be overrated and there will probably be many good posts in this thread, but I also expect some that are filled with way too much vitriol and spite over nothing. Or people who think they have good taste because they don't like a game that was voted game of the year

 

[THEMILKMAN]

I apparently just don't get Half-Life. I've played through both 1 and 2 (all three parts) and I don't feel that they're bad games by any means but besides an interesting plot they don't really stand out to me in any way.

 

[Trinket to Ride]

Also, the original Fallouts. Call me a monster but I prefer them as first-person shooters with RPG elements. Fallout 3 is more atmospheric than any of the older ones, and Fallout New Vegas is just as witty and well-written.

Older Fallout games: OK, maybe these were really good for their time, but I just don't get how they can still be considered pinnacles of the RPG genre. I've tried multiple times to get into all of these games, and while I can sort of see how they could be appealing for their time, they mostly just remind me that I would rather be playing Fallout 3 or New Vegas. They just haven't aged well at all, and the world just isn't as interesting to follow as it was in the newer Fallout games.

I'm so glad to hear other people say this. I LOVE Fallout 3 and New Vegas (NV especially) and have dumped literally hundreds of hours in each one. I the lore and universe are really interesting to me, but despite multiple tries, I just can't get into the original or 2. Whenever I mention that to a "true" Fallout fan, they write me off as some CoD-bro with zero patience who just wants to see things go boom.

OT: I never played it all the way through, but people paint Borderlands 2 as one of the funniest games ever made. To me, it was just a bunch of teenage boy humor and dated memes. I hated the gameplay too, but I hate almost all loot games, so I won't hold that against it.

 

[Denamic]

Basically any high profile game that's about to come out. Including the ones I salivate over, like Wasteland 2, Torment, Pillars, Massive Chalice, etc.

 

[Racecarlock]

After the first boss in dark souls, I figured out what kind of game it is.

Grind monsters and dodge hits. Not just that, but I found the game itself felt clunky to play. Not hard, although I did have to ask how to get past the first boss because I thought the game would be harder than "Run past boss done". But clunky. As in the character itself feels clumsy and slow to play as. It feels like you when you just wake up from bed and are all groggy.

It also seems to have a focus on grinding. I found dead rising 2 harder. But yeah, a focus on grinding. The thing people hate MMOS for. Why does it get praise here? Because it feels difficult or pads out the time. I stopped playing symphony of the night for this reason.

Because grinding does not require skill. It does not require wit. It only requires willingness to kill the same worthless peon enemies repeatedly until you get enough power.

Eat my ass. I don't buy games to test my patients. I stopped playing DR2 because of that. Although, I did get off the record tonight, because it has cheats. A game with visceral and satisfying combat, and hell, I got the cheats DLC because that's the whole reason I got the game.

While you're not allowed to save once they're enabled, I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to finally focus on just killing zombies for fun and not to level up. Especially when I found a fucking broadsword. Hell yes. Give me that. I want more of that. And the game in general is geared towards creative ways to kill zombies in bright environments. I love that. When the combat is satisfying, hell, I might not even care about the grinding in this game since in this game it would actually be fun, because killing zombies in this game is fun and satisfying.

I'm actually going to play off the record without cheats for about 10 minutes tomorrow. Just long enough to get a broadsword and a guitar and run back to save. And then giblets will rain and I will smile.

 

[IFS]

I'd say Farcry 3, its a fun game sure but there are parts of the gameplay that just didn't click with me very well, the upgrade system was honestly pretty stupid once you start to think about it (why do I need a special skin to make a bigger wallet? Its pretty blatantly an arbitrary restriction on my upgrades based on my game progress) and the story is not nearly as clever as it seems to think it is and is even downright bad at times. Vaas is a genuinely fun character but the rest of the cast are mostly one off jokes that are occasionally mildly amusing at best, and rather racist stereotypes at worst. I also found the protagonist fairly unlikeable for large chunks of the game. Overally its still a very fun game just not nearly as amazing as people say it is.

 

[Fullmetalfox]

The Half-Life series, I was never able to discover whatever it is that made it so special to everyone else. Half-Life 2 is nothing more than a 8 out of 10 experience for me. I don't understans the obcession with Half-Life 3, I'd rather see valve do something new like an First-person RPG with the cartoony aesthetic of TF2 or Dota 2.

 

[McKitten]

Overrated by whom?
Go on metacritic, find a list of all games that have a representative number of reviews and where the metascore is significantly higher than the user score and you'll have a list of games that are being overrated by the press compared to gamers. Do the reverse and you get a list of games overrated by the fans compared to critics. And so on.

 

[likalaruku]

Psychonaughts. I was panning back & forth between extreme boredom & nerve wrecking frustration.

 

[Edl01]

Last year the game I couldn't get into most was The Last of Us. I've tried three times now, but the story is just really predictable and the gameplay is just not that fun for me honestly. Personally I live by the opinion that if it was judged as a movie it would be seen as a fairly generic zombie apocolypse story, while if it is judged as a game it is incredibly average and(at least in the first 8 or so hours) lacks enemy variety.

Okay. I don't think I'm being controversial enough here...I can't let the thread down...

Every NES game ever. There is plenty of SNES games that have aged great and are still a ton of fun to play. But NES games always feel so dated to me. They generally have poor controls, inaccurate hit boxes and ugly graphics. Granted I do understand why people liked them at the time, but modern games are just so much better in every way. I would never choose to play the original Mario over Rayman Legends. I would always play Dust or Guacamelee before the original Metroid.

There you go, I feel that's controversial enough.

 

[nevarran]

Most of the games.
Devs and Publishers are very good at playing the hype card, courtesy to all the zealot fanboys out there.

 

[Ratty]

[sub][sub]I know it can be hard to detect sarcasm or insincerity in text, but come on, one would think that ending a post with "my opinion reigns supreme" would be sufficient.[/sub][/sub]

You've been here long enough to know better by now.

OT: Final Fantasy VII gets a lot of crap these days, but people always seem to gloss over The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The fact that not only is it demonstrably worse than Wind Waker but was also still heralded as "A MASTERPIECE" with the 3DS re-release convinces me that everyone except me must simply be mad.

It took me a long time to finish that one, got about halfway through then finished the second half a year or two later. Though part of that is because the replacement analog stick I'd been trying to use on my N64 controller was too sensitive and it wore out my patience. Anyway, I'd say OoT holds up significantly better than FF7 BUT it's still just sort of average compared later games. I'm in no hurry to play Windwaker but Twilight Princess on the Gamecube was way better than OoT.

I do find it funny how everyone now claims to have always loved Windwaker's artstyle but all I ever heard was bitching about it when the game came out. Though to be fair I wasn't a gamer then and it probably had a few defenders.

 

[klaynexas3]

EDIT: Why is it necessary for the first comments on these threads to always be people talking about how "oh, no game is overrated, people like a game for a reason, and however much they like it is how much that game deserves it and blah blah blah..." Seriously, it adds nothing to the discussion. You didn't think games were overrated, so you have nothing to contribute to the thread, then just move on.

Because posts like Zhukov's are dead on. I haven't posted on the escapist in months and of course there's an "over rated x" thread. No matter what game, no matter how good it is, even if it's a benchmark for an entire genre, someone will post about how it's "over rated" and defend their opinion with bland and vague descriptors. "It was boring, the story didn't make sense, it wasn't terrible but it just wasn't that good, it's outdated, it's a rip off of 3 different games, I don't understand why people like a thing, 3 million people bought and like game x and it has a meta critic above 80% but I swear the game play is completely broken". There's a point where you've seen it all

Things can be overrated and there will probably be many good posts in this thread, but I also expect some that are filled with way too much vitriol and spite over nothing. Or people who think they have good taste because they don't like a game that was voted game of the year

Then why come into these threads? They aren't meant to tear down the walls of society by exposing those GOTY for the shit they are, they're just fun little threads for expressing your opinion about games you think get more praise than they deserve. Sure there might be some spite towards a particular game itself, but I've rarely seen that spite spill over to another user in these threads. There are other threads that that'll happen in, but most people coming into this thread realize that opinions are opinions and just roll with it. So if you don't like to see games get bashed on, don't come into this thread. It's like complaining when Yahtzee doesn't like something.

 

[Super Cyborg]

I might get a lot of flak for this, but I'm going with Chrono Trigger. It is a good game, don't get me wrong, but when I finally played it, I didn't get why it was loved the way it was. It had a good story, and some of the characters were pretty good, but It didn't have that oomph factor I was looking for. It might be because I didn't play it at the time it came out, and it was considered a mile stone for JRPGs at the time, but playing it now it didn't hit me with greatness. As I said, it was good, and even by todays standards it's good, but I just don't see it as great. I think I don't look at it as fondly because I feel there is a much better game with a time travel mechanic, Radiant Historia for the Nintendo DS. While that also has it's faults, I was more engaged with the story.

 

[babinro]

A game is never overrated, Frodo Baggins. Nor is it underrated. People rate them precisely how they mean to.

Exactly this.

Having said that...games that I feel don't personally deserve their mass praise are:

- Half-Life 2: This is an excellent gaming experience and one that I've played through about 3 times. The game is unquestionably good. That said...it feels like a well polished FPS game and nothing more. Nothing about the experience screams revolutionary and nothing about the game stands out as being among the best games ever released, period. I'd compare this experience to something like Mario Kart 8/Street Fighter 4/Super Mario 3D World/etc. These are simply excellent examples of well polished games that deliver an ideal polished experience in their respective genres.

- Skyrim: This games popularity has everything to do with it's release timing and the hype generated around that. People were sick of the flood of shooters and this was a top name IP with a somewhat fresh feel. The game itself is just more of the same. The combat feels as weak and as dated as ever. Oblivion's combat was only 'okay' for its time...sticking with essentially the same experience in Skyrim so many years later was an awful decision and one that practically kills this game on it's own. Add to that the less interesting world to explore compared to Oblivion and a system where dragon battles quickly go from exciting and new to tedious and intrusive...you have a decent game at best. Skyrim, in my opinion, is not even remotely deserving of it's praise.

- GTA 4: I won't go into this one and I don't feel I need to. People seem to accept that this game wasn't truly the 10/10 game of the year experience that both players and critics claimed it to be after the initial hype wore out. It seems unfair to call it overrated.

 

[shrekfan246]

I do find it funny how everyone now claims to have always loved Windwaker's artstyle but all I ever heard was bitching about it when the game came out. Though to be fair I wasn't a gamer then and it probably had a few defenders.

I wouldn't say "everyone".

Personally though, I did love it. I wasn't a defender or anything, as back then I was barely even aware of forums as a thing which existed, but for the longest time all I had to play of Wind Waker was the demo which was contained on the Gamecube Zelda Collector's Edition disc, and how pretty it looked was certainly one of the reasons I wanted to get it.