Most disapointing game of 2013

[Not G. Ivingname]

This year has been an interesting year. The Ouya launched without much fan fare, sequels are everywhere, and the most interesting games are full launches based on mods.

There have been truly great games, like the Stanely Parable, or awful abominations that should never of been sold, like Ride to Hell: Retribution.

Then there are games that just are disappointing. The hype is sky high, but the results crashed and burned. Sequels that haven't changed a thing, glitch filled launches that even make the shareholders gasp, or outright lying to the customers. They aren't the worse game of the year, they may even be perfectly good games, but they are not nearly as great as you hoped they were.

Spoiler: Let's just get this one out of the way

A half finished, glitchy mess of a shooter, this game really toed the line what constitutes "false advertising." Only the War Z... err.. "Infestation: Survival Stories" was willing to tell worse lies to it's customers.

The game's plot tried and failed to stitch together the second and third films together, brought back to life a character we were certain was dead, completely missed several themes of the second film while relying on nothing but references to it as a crutch, and in general barely made any sense.

The aliens were dumb, the humans were dumber. The shooting was bland, the most fun anyone could have is finding all the programming errors in this piece of trash.

Spoiler: This is still my favorite

It isn't nearly half as good as even the worse Alien vs. Predator game.

 

[Zhukov]

Disappointment kinda depends on one's expectations.

For example, I thought Remember Me was pretty awful, but I was expecting it to be kinda bad or average at the very best, so I wasn't disappointed. I thought Deadpool was terrible, but I had no real expectations to begin with.

So with that in mind, I'll go with Shadowrun Returns. Went in expecting an interesting setting, a cool plot and flexible turn-based combat. Ended up getting a stale stat-em-up with standard video game pap for a plot.

 

[Jynthor]

I don't have one, didn't really hype games this year.
Then again, I tend to avoid bad games by sheer luck. It's my gift.

 

[MysticSlayer]

BioShock Infinite, no question about it. I was highly anticipating that game, beyond any game in recent memory. It was also the first game in years that I bought on release day. Based on what I had seen and read about the game, I was expecting a complex, thoughtful story with more varied gameplay than the original set in a world that would come to life at least close to what Rapture was.

Boy was I disappointed when it turned out to be a convoluted mess of a story with forgettable characters, horrible pacing, and incredibly shallow commentary. Its gameplay was a watered down mess that had all the problems of the original with none of the charm, but then brought its own set of problems such as no hacking, out-of-place vigors that couldn't at least be an improvement on the ones from the first two games, a pointless two weapon limit, too many enemies for how clunky the combat was, and even more linear level design (how the fuck you do that in a more open environment is beyond me!) with absolutely no random encounters and absolutely nothing even remotely close to the Big Daddy fights. Colombia also hardly came alive. It did, at times, and during those times was when the game shined, but going from highly crowded streets to desolated ghost-towns in a fraction of a second killed the mood when the game transitioned to combat, which took up over half the game.

And to make matters worse, I can't not recommend people to play the game. It has enough (mostly unintended) discussion value that you pretty much need to play it. Most bad games I just tell people to never bother playing. As if to add insult to injury, I can't do that with Infinite.

But hey, looking on the bright side, it rekindled my interest in playing The Walking Dead Season 1, and that was one of the most compelling experiences I had all year.

 

[Wickatricka]

Yeah I didn't really play any bad games this year lol. Not any that stick out in my mind. Seems like all games these days are very generic though..

 

[nogitsune]

Gone Home...

I heard so many nice things about the game and how it has this great story, but it doesn't. It's a bad romance story that leads to Tragedy and then pulls a U turn at the last minute. It's a poor story that is poorly told with a good message but honestly, you can get that message better elsewhere. I opened my mind to the game and all it gave me was a terrible YA novel story filled with stupid histrionics and a main character that does nothing but whine and could not live her life without her girlfriend, to the point that she would have killed herself if Launnie didn't jump off the bus to bootcamp to drive back. Yay, a story where the main characters learn nothing and the writers can't portray the love as anything but pure and good even though it rips Sam apart and she is unable to live her own life even in the slightest. It's a toxic relationship that is showed to be pure and good and that it's the horrible parents that don't understand... and they're the toxic part, not that Sam can't live without Launnie and Launnie chose to leave to the military before a last minute change, one that could mean Desertion depending if she signed anything.

So yeah, that's my biggest disappointment. And no, I have nothing against homosexuality, if it's in a good story then I'm fine, but Gone Home is a joke, a horrid story told in mostly exposition with some environmental storytelling that only tells shallow things.

 

[Elfgore]

I've bought alot of games in the past year, but most of them are games from previous years so my list is rather small to begin with.

Total War: Rome 2. The game was a mess at launch, with so many bugs you would have a tough time counting them all. They managed to make the game playable after seven patches, but the AI is still piss-poor. Mods have also helped with the games many faults.

The game isn't bad, just me expectations were set pretty high by Shogun 2.

 

[SquidVicious]

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

Despite learning that thechineseroom was going to be developing it I was still holding out hope. Even after learning that they had removed the sanity meter I was still on board but man after playing it... I can honestly say it didn't scare me once. The worst part is that the things they removed could have made the game scarier had they been left in. One of the biggest fear aspects of survival horror is dwindling resources because it forces you to leave the safe areas to gather more. The fear of running out of lantern oil or tinderboxes at the worst possible moment always hanging above your head, never getting to plan because all the horror is reactionary leaving you in a very vulnerable spot, all gone in Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. What's that? My lantern's flickering, oh well that means there's monsters so I'll formulate an evasive strategy to get around this pig monster thing in a wide open area with plenty of hiding spots.

I really had to force myself to finish this game and while I can say I enjoyed the story quite a bit, when I see the title "Amnesia" in a video game, I expect to be scared.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

Going to have to go with Bioshock Infinite. I personally loved the story, but the game itself just was kind of there. At best, it was like every other shooter in the last decade. At worst, it got in the way. There were a few moments a jarringly bad design that really show the evils of having a save system the player really has no control over, among other things.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Definitely Bioshock Infinite. Oh boy was that a mess. I was expecting sub-par shooting because the Bioshock games are well known in that department but once the alternate universe crap kicked in it almost immediately contradicts its own "rules" then does not stop until the train flies off the rails and into the moon.

Everything was either unfinished/unexplored or just nonsensical in general. Why do they have gene altering super drugs? Oh because they had them in the other two games and couldn't very well drop them now could they? All their themes were either dropped or shoved into the back row in place of the shitty time travel story causing them to be pretty window dressing instead of key elements in the plot like in the other Bioshocks and fuck it, I could go on into every single detail of the game so I will stop here.

Why was there a ghost? No really. A fucking ghost. Are you fucking joking?

I guess Amnesia Piggy Mcgee but to a much lower standard since I never played the first one. I was kind of scared until it became painfully obvious that there were no enemies at all in like the first two hours of the game at least. Every time I think there's a monster it becomes apparent that it's just clever sound design and I move on.

I knew it was beyond hope when the first time you have to run from something, you run down a small corridor, close a tiny wooden door and it just fucks off immediately. What? Curses Watson! Not the small rotting wooden door! That's my one weakness, i'll never catch you now!

I was feeling alive for about 10 seconds there. Allotted fun time up, please take a seat in the waiting room.

Oh and lantern flickering = monsters was a failure of the game designer. Once I realised that, it's just a pretty tour of impressive creepy environments with an above average story until you have to ultilise obvious stealth routes to sneak past things in a completely linear way.

 

[Nouw]

I defended Aliens:Colonial Marines on the Gearbox Community forum many times and for about half a year discussed and speculated. "Oh it'll be fun, have faith in the game, wait until it's released etc etc." In my naivety upon hearing the news that it was shit, I decided that I would hold true to my word and save judgement until I played it myself. When I finally managed to play it, well, I was annoyed. Then frustrated, then depressed, then pissed off. I am very glad I held off pre-ordering the collector's edition but I do not regret my purchase. Most staff wouldn't have had a say in the game's overall production and simply had to do the tasks given to them within the deadline. Much kudos to you guys. On the bright side, I'm not going to be pre-ordering anything in the forseeable future or following any games during their development. I have learned my lesson n____n

 

[kingthrall]

Rome Total failure 2, yet again another peace of absolute shoddy designer-ship by Sega. Seriously if you want to know which company should be rated worse than EA, Sega should take the crown.

 

[DanielBrown]

Mine would be God of War: Ascension.
I'm a huge fan of the God of War games and have played them all(except for Ascension, which I've only beaten once) several times. Ascension had extremely pretty graphics and environments, but not much else. Combat was the same as ever, but the camera zoomed out way too often and way too far. Often I had no clue where Kratos was and what was enemies. Took me quite a while to understand what little story there was as well.
Another thing would be Kratos himself. Since I've only played it once my memory might be fussy, but from what I recall he hardly had any lines in the entire game. He also hardly used any expressions, so it felt like I played as a Kratos doll.
Extremely disappointed, but at least I didn't buy it at full price.

Bioshock Infinite would be a close second. A vast majority on this site and reviewers kept praising the game like fanatics, but when I actually got around to playing it the game it only brought me frustration. The areas, colorful as they were, was dull. The enemies wasn't nearly as fun as Splicers. The vigors were disappointing. The story was better than average, however still Shamalayananan bad... After a few hours I just wanted it to end.

 

[Legion]

For a game to be a disappointment I need to have high hopes for it. I cannot think of any that I felt "let down" by.

Dead Space 3 kind of fits in the sense that it could have been a lot higher quality than it was, but I didn't expect it to be mind blowing. The fact that Dead Space 1 had the right kind of atmosphere and story, while Dead Space. 2 made some game-play improvements showed that they were at least capable of better.

Dead Space 3 didn't really add or improve on anything at all. The combat wasn't more enjoyable, the story was noticeably worse and pretty much all tension and atmosphere were gone thanks to the poor level design, which made it painfully obvious when you would be attacked.

I still cannot fathom why zero gravity was never used to it's full effect. It had so much potential once they allowed you to move in all directions but they never took advantage of it.

Overall it was an average game, that could have been a great one, if they decided to focus on its strengths, rather than try and simply appeal to a "wider audience". Which is code for wanting to make the kind of money COD does, by appealing to the shooter crowd, as they make up a large chunk of the gaming demographic.

 

[Catfood220]

Dead Space 3: It wasn't looking good with all the rumours coming out before this game was released, but I thought "fuck it, its Dead Space, it'll be fine". Then the meh reviews started coming in and I was still like "it'll be fine". Then I played it and for the first part of the game, the escape from the Unitologists as they activate The Markers and then going up to the abandoned fleet that kinda invoked memories of the first Dead Space, everything is fine. Even crashing to the planet and having to not freeze to death was fun. Then your RIG gets fixed and then nothing of any interest happens for about 8 hours until you end up beating the ridiculously easy boss and then nothing. Very disappointing.

 

[bug_of_war]

Payday 2. Of all the hype and promises that Overkill gave me, only to then be slapped in the face. They removed some of the best aspects of the first game and crammed in a bullshit, half assed and half finished rewards system, and small isolated robberies that at no point made me feel the insane awesomness of Payday: The Heist.

Here's a list of shit that fucked me off:

Spoiler

1) Collectors edition only had 1 exclusive item, the rest of the crap could be obtained by finishing literally 1 mission.

2) The ridiculous over pricing of certain weapons and their attachments.

3) The only way to obtain said attachments is to play a stupid card flip mini game that could just as easily give you $1000 (seriously not that much money) a mask, mask colour or mask pattern.

4) Previously mentioned crappy card flip mini game

5) Description page up until release promised 30 unique missions, what they delivered on day 1 was roughly 8 missions, 3 being 3 parters, 2 being 2 parters. They then told everyone that the crappy escape sections also counted (however counting the escape missions in total still only made it 19 total missions).

6) The horrible descriptions and implementation of any "extra" assets bought before going into the heist.

7) Segments of the game such as customizing your safe house being completely absent, with only a small part of dialogue promising that it's coming. Still haven't seen it be implemented.

8) Re using entire maps for multiple missions.

Now onto the list of things that made the game suck even harder AFTER the game was released.

Spoiler

1) The constant updates ruining skill tree upgrades such as the class specific heavy armour that only enforcers can wear (it makes you move so slow that you are better off not wearing it, plus it will completely wear off after one shot on overkill difficulty). Also the implementation of safes that can not be exploded open, thus making the Mastermind skill of c4 explosives far too risky to invest in.

2) The lack of update that is desperately needed for the "casing" phase, making it feel like our supposed master criminal boss Bane just glances at joints and doesn't bother to see what the whole situation is prior to going in.

3) Frequent updating wasting download quota, especially when they're fixing or discarding previous shit from older updates.

4) An update that punished players who wanted to play the game going in fast and hard, effectively forcing players to play stealthily.

5) An update that caused the experience that you obtain to be drastically less, thus making you have to grind to level (which is funny because the update was put in to stop players from playing 1 heist over and over, basically saying, "how dare you play one heist frequently because it's quick, fun and gives decent exp).

6) After months of being promised the first DLC missions which involve stopping a money transport vehicle, we finally get a shitty mission that barely tried to cover the fact that they were re using maps from other missions in order to give you a boring mission that at no point requires you to actually stop the vehicle, and only requires you to rob it and wait for the get away driver to come and pick you up.

7) Horribly over priced weapon DLC.

8) Weapon updates that nerf so many weapons that only a very select few are actually worth using.

Payday 2 is a pathetic attempt for a game, and what scares me is how much the developers believe they're doing the right thing by CONSTANTLY updating a game and releasing it absolute bare bones.

If anyone wants to play what Overkill promised Payday 2 was, go and buy Grand Theft Auto V, because the few heist missions in that game absolutely destroy overkill and shows what real casing, preparing and executing a heist is like.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Oddly enough my most disappointing game is also one of my favourite games of the year; Assassin's Creed 4.

I had a great time sailing the seas and plundering boats, shooting dudes in the face with the swivel cannon, and upgrading my ship. But in typical AC fashion it throws way too many characters at you, and really outstays its welcome, topped off with a truly dissatisfying ending. I finished it and was left with a feeling of never wanting to play it again.

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

Gears of War Judgment. I wasn't taken with the first Gears of War, was impressed by the second, and thought the third was fantastic. In the wake of 3, Judgment felt like a damp squib, a stripped-down, pointless prequel that added nothing to the story and took away considerably from the gameplay. Unnecessary control changes? Cruddy graphics? Removing Horde mode and Beast mode and replacing them with lame Overrun mode? Ugh, wake me when it's over.

Between that, Arkham Origins, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and the egregious stability problems of the otherwise fun Battlefield 4, for me 2013 is shaping up as the Year of the Underwhelming Sequel.