Sequel Disappointment

[Dalisclock]

I've gotten the impression the game basically got revamped(and it's creative lead got tossed/quit) about halfway through development, which explains a lot about just how awkward so much of it feels(Time Travel was apparently supposed to be part of the plot and that would probably explain the intro whirlpool thingy). This was on top of the FROM B-team being on DS2 while miyazaki and the A-Team were making BloodBorne.

Yeah, the original director left(or got thrown out as he doesn't appear to work for Fromsoftware anymore; who knows) and the disparate maps got stitched together and retrofitted into Tanimura's vision. Which, given the limited time and creative leeway, he actually did a remarkable job. Th Dark Souls 2's mood and themes are still very intriguing I think and a very interesting take on that of the first one.

I don't know if it's ever actually backed up in the game, but the best justification/theory I've heard for the world map is that, similar to how DS went with "Time is Warped" due to first flame dying, in Dark Souls 2, Space in warped. Those areas aren't supposed to be that close together but the world is starting to collapse and compress as the flame dies. I believe Dark Souls 3 more or less made this canon with it's world map(Lothric is basically what's left of the world more or less piling on top of itself in one spot before eventually resulting in the big pile you see at the very end).

I do admire that Dark Souls 2 tried to do something different and sometimes it worked. It just felt like a lot of time things didn't work very well.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Dark Souls 2 was my big heartbreak. It had so little of what I liked and was amazing by in the first game that I never once got into a comfortable groove. The whole game felt like a clunky slog - a cover song performed poorly.

You know what's funny about this?

Dark Souls 2 was my first Souls game. I beat Dark Souls 2, 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. Only last night I literally just bought the Dark Souls remaster, because i had been avoiding DS 1 because it looked so janky and sluggish.

Having spent a few hours last night with DS1, I gotta say it is my LEAST favorite of all the FromSoft games. I can feel the ideas that have been improved in every game to come later, but there is so much shit in DS1 that just feels like it is trying to fuck the player over, and the stuff it expects you to pull off is just stupid. Like the hydra, or everything in Blight Town. Just fuck off.

Of course I'm sticking to it and "getting gud" but holy shit I hate it. I never would have stuck with the game or the series if this was the first game I played.

While I don't agree with your ranking of the games I can understand where you're coming from on this. I don't have a playstation so I've never played Bloodborne, but like you I've also been through all the Souls games and Sekiro. If DS1 was the last one I played I'd probably see it differently too. Because you're right, it has issues. Lots of them. The game is obtuse as hell with basic systems going unexplained (upgrade system) or areas downright unfinished (Izaleth). But when it was new none of that crap mattered because I was so entranced by the environmental storytelling, weighty combat, and sense of place the game had. Now, in the year of lord 2019, with newer games refining all the things Dark Souls introduced I'm sure playing through it for the first time could be a little disappointing.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Deus Ex: Invisible War
Airline Tycoon 2
GTA IV
Fallout 3(to a lesser degree)
Skyrim(to a greater degree)
Max Payne 3
Resident Evil 5

Not all of these games are crap ofc. Some just had things that stunted the enjoyment, compared to previous entries.

...and then Warrior Within. Because what we totally needed was an edgelord, 90s cliche of a character, that totally broke the tone of the hero rascal we loved from the previous game. And then on top of THAT...we have Metal Thong Girl. Oh dear lord Metal Thong Girl. When I got to the fight with her, and the game stopped to go to a cutscene, that was a FULL SCREEN CLOSEUP on her metal clad ass, as she came up from below the deck of the ship......yeah, I just turned the game off. It was just...so wrong for the previous game. Now I don't have any problems with a hot female ass, quite the opposite. But it just didn't belong in my Prince of Persia game. And it was just so blatant.

This might be a benefit of playing through WW at the age where girls in metal thongs aren't a problem at all, but Two Thrones was kind of like that for me. Supposedly it took the best things about previous entries and combined them. But the end effect, and gameplay felt kinda... flat.

San Anrdreas I respect for the shout out to films like Boyz N Da Hood, Menace II Society, and New Jersey Drive. The soundtrack is just as great as Vice City. With that said, I did not like the gameplay. I hated having to watch for my characters literal health and dietary life style. I found it obnoxious and annoying. I know cheat codes exists, but it's the principle of the matter. Also, CJ I did not like and consider him a punk ass *****. Franklin is the better version of that character. And I am not exactly a huge fan of GTAV either.

Fair criticism. I still remember having to swim for half an hour in a sea, to max out the 'lung capacity' bar for the mission...
And CJ do pales in comparison to the side cast he's interacting with, doesn't he?

That being said, SA is still the ultimate open world sandbox for me.

 

[wings012]

Deus Ex Invisible War.

 

[Yoshi178]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

 

[Trunkage]

Deus Ex Invisible War.

I've always wondered how this game would have been recieved if it wasn't called Deus Ex. I think it was a fine game that came after a really good one. The comparison doesn't not work in IWs favour

 

[Kyrian007]

Mine had to be Masters of Orion 3. 2 is still in my top 5 of all time, 3 had a lot to live up to. And it is so bad I've only logged a few hours on 3 before I gave up. The whole idea of a "macromanagement" game is ridiculous anyway, I'm not likely to enjoy paying for a game and then just watch it play itself. Digging into specific control of details is one of MoO 2 strengths, and they went the opposite direction for the sequel. Strange call that one.

 

[Dalisclock]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

Mine had to be Masters of Orion 3. 2 is still in my top 5 of all time, 3 had a lot to live up to. And it is so bad I've only logged a few hours on 3 before I gave up. The whole idea of a "macromanagement" game is ridiculous anyway, I'm not likely to enjoy paying for a game and then just watch it play itself. Digging into specific control of details is one of MoO 2 strengths, and they went the opposite direction for the sequel. Strange call that one.

I think I tried MOO3 but couldn't get into it. It felt like doing tax returns, or doing all the paperwork required to run a galactic empire rather then the fun stuff.

 

[BrawlMan]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Perfect fucking dark fucking zero. Alright, it's a prequel, and alright, I've mellowed out about it years ago, but still...the principle remains. One of the primiest examples of sacrificing content for graphics.

Oh and Metro Last Light. Where da fuck is hudless mode, you cowards??? Does Exodus have hudless mode?

 

[Dalisclock]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

Oh god, I remember now.

I wonder if Yoshi complains that "The Neverending Story" is only 94 minutes/450 pages long or that Super Mario World doesn't actually contain a planets worth of content or if this is an abnormally selective, overly literal interpretation of a certain title because reasons.

 

[wings012]

Deus Ex Invisible War.

I've always wondered how this game would have been recieved if it wasn't called Deus Ex. I think it was a fine game that came after a really good one. The comparison doesn't not work in IWs favour

I don't think I would have really liked it that much regardless. It played like absolute jank, just as if not worse than the original DX. As the newer game, I'd expect a bit better in that department. It still had the same derpass enemy AI and I couldn't help but draw comparisons with Halo or Noone Lives Forever whose enemies were a lot more fun to engage in gunfights with.

The whole universal ammo thing really didn't work and conceptually just seems really goddamn dumb. There wasn't much incentive to use the weaker guns since they all drew from the same ammo pool. It might have worked if balanced more properly, but the weaker weapons were downright useless really. The pistol was too anemic to even land headshot kills. The riot prod didn't stun anything until you prodded them an unnecessary amount of times, which kinda defeats the whole purpose.

If we removed the Deus Ex name from it, I might have just found it a rather half assed game rather than my complete and utter hate for it. I don't think I would've found it particularly good or memorable regardless.

Though I also acknowledge that I'm hardly unbiased in this assessment.

 

[Yoshi178]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

but you just said i made a joke. how can i be serious if i made a joke?

you don't make any sense. :3

 

[BrawlMan]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

but you just said i made a joke. how can i be serious if i made a joke?

you don't make any sense. :3

You're serious about making the same joke twice.

 

[Yoshi178]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

but you just said i made a joke. how can i be serious if i made a joke?

you don't make any sense. :3

You're serious about making the same joke twice.

So does that mean i'm serious about not being serious at all?

 

[BrawlMan]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

but you just said i made a joke. how can i be serious if i made a joke?

you don't make any sense. :3

You're serious about making the same joke twice.

So does that mean i'm serious about not being serious at all?

You figure it out.

 

[Yoshi178]

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

You already used that joke. Second, how about game you actually played?

TLOU2

They lied to us when they told us that was the last of them!

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

He's serious.

but you just said i made a joke. how can i be serious if i made a joke?

you don't make any sense. :3

You're serious about making the same joke twice.

So does that mean i'm serious about not being serious at all?

You figure it out.

Don't tell me what to do.