The worst INDIE game you have played

[shrekfan246]

Topic.

Suprised this has not been created yet. Well sure, theres plenty of "Bad/worst games" thread but none of them especifically aim towards indie games. So yeah. Lets tell what indie games are (as always, in our opinion) the worst to us.

I will start with this ************:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Bastion_Boxart.jpg/255px-Bastion_Boxart.jpg

Because I am STILL a noob in this forums, this image probably dosnt renders right here and most people wont even bother clicking on it since in the URL it already tells you thats the games name is...


BASTION. I honestly dont get what people see in this game. In short, it suffer badly with the pretty bland gameplay. This is always a first for me, I dont care/CANT care about the story of a game if the gameplay is not at the very least decent enough. Its just how I work. Its probably the same reason of why I dont enjoy BIOWARE games...


No flames or anything. I respect the people who liked it, but its just not for me. Oh well.


As always please try to stay civil

You're either posting this as flame-bait or you don't play a lot of indie games if you say that Bastion is the WORST indie game you've ever played.

I can understand not liking it, sure, and I agree with a lot of the stuff you said, but to label it the WORST is pretty intense.

I'll be honest, a good number of you are just posting flame-bait (I know, I know... "Welcome to the Escapist...") but seriously... most of these games don't compare at all to an actually shitty indie game.

Limbo and Journey are probably the only two games mentioned here that I can truly say were not too fun, and neither one of them is substantially bad.

Call these games overrated or disappointing, but don't label them the WORST.

Try Heavy Payload or Block Fight and then we can talk...

EDIT:

Also to post a picture you just use [ img ] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Bastion_Boxart.jpg/255px-Bastion_Boxart.jpg [ /img ] without the spaces.

Clearly you haven't seen all of the "Worst game evar!" threads where people say things like Dragon Age, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Halo, Half-Life, Gears of War, et al. I'm relatively sure that at least four of those titles were probably brought up in the recent "Objectively bad games" thread.

OT: I don't spend much attention on indie games, to tell the truth, so I'd say the worst one I've played was Braid, by virtue of it being so slow and boring that I quit after about two hours. Generally I only hear about indie games from watching TotalBiscuit or various threads around here, and I like to get as much information as I can before checking out a game for myself, indie or not.

 

[Samus Aran but a man]

Spoiler

An old lady hobbles into a graveyard, and might DIE. That's literally all the game is.

 

[aguspal]

I am suprised so far no one has mentioned Minecraft...


If it werent for Bastion, it would have been my number 1 choice. But at least it does what it wants to do WELL, so bonus points for Minecraft.

Well arent you the hipster of the decade?
And for me, Super Meat Boy.
I never got what the fuss was about, it was more or less a boring platformer that had shitty control schemes, almost forced you to play with a controller on pc, and the level difficulty was all over the place.

I will never understand the meaning of "hipster". Its a word with so many possible meanings, that without context its really hard for me to understand. Kinda like "Failure" and "noob". Except those are at least funny when right.

And Super Meat Boy looks likea nice little hard game, I only played the flash version, but I imagine the full game is as good, probably better in many aspects.

Topic.

Suprised this has not been created yet. Well sure, theres plenty of "Bad/worst games" thread but none of them especifically aim towards indie games. So yeah. Lets tell what indie games are (as always, in our opinion) the worst to us.

I will start with this ************:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Bastion_Boxart.jpg/255px-Bastion_Boxart.jpg

Because I am STILL a noob in this forums, this image probably dosnt renders right here and most people wont even bother clicking on it since in the URL it already tells you thats the games name is...


BASTION. I honestly dont get what people see in this game. In short, it suffer badly with the pretty bland gameplay. This is always a first for me, I dont care/CANT care about the story of a game if the gameplay is not at the very least decent enough. Its just how I work. Its probably the same reason of why I dont enjoy BIOWARE games...


No flames or anything. I respect the people who liked it, but its just not for me. Oh well.


As always please try to stay civil

You're either posting this as flame-bait or you don't play a lot of indie games if you say that Bastion is the WORST indie game you've ever played.

I can understand not liking it, sure, and I agree with a lot of the stuff you said, but to label it the WORST is pretty intense.

I'll be honest, a good number of you are just posting flame-bait (I know, I know... "Welcome to the Escapist...") but seriously... most of these games don't compare at all to an actually shitty indie game.

Limbo and Journey are probably the only two games mentioned here that I can truly say were not too fun, and neither one of them is substantially bad.

Call these games overrated or disappointing, but don't label them the WORST.

Try Heavy Payload or Block Fight and then we can talk...

EDIT:

Also to post a picture you just use [ img ] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Bastion_Boxart.jpg/255px-Bastion_Boxart.jpg [ /img ] without the spaces.

No flame bait, really. Bastion IS really the worst Indie game THAT I HAVE PERSONALLY PLAYED. Thinking about it, yes it IS a bit unfair since I havent played that many indie games (I belive I have played around 10 or so), but its still the worst one out of those 10 that I personally have played. There surely worse than that, I know. I admit I come of as kind of overy harsh with the game, but still... It really IS the worst indie I have played... so yeah.

And thank you for the tip on how to post an image

COMPLETLY OFF TOPIC:

Journey. That game was simply awful in every respect: controls, immersion, visuals, audio, and presentation. I do not understand how anyone looks upon it favorably. I feel like a sociopath in a society of care bears.

Journey isn't an indie game, it was funded by Sony.

So I can conveniently ignore all that hate and pretend you said nothing but nice things about it, so I don't have to strangle you with your own intestines

"Strangle you with your own intestines"....

Now, I KNOW I have heard that somewhere else, but WHERE?....

This just in... I am 100% neautral towards Journey. Partially because I never played it, now I plan to do since its not on pc so... yeah. And for what I heard, it seems something that I would find to be a neutral game, so yeah. I dont think its bad or good.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

huh, it's surprising how much hate there is for Braid and Bastion...

I liked those two games. I liked Braid because the puzzles were fun and challepnging enough and I liked Bastion because the narrative was masterfully done. Might've not been the best games ever made but I was having fun while it lasted. I do get why some people wouldn't like them though.

But boy, do you guys throw the word 'pretentious' around a lot.

As for me, the worst indie game I played was Lugaru HD. I kinda get the appeal of it but the controlls were so broken that it was nearly impossible to play the game.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Clearly you haven't seen all of the "Worst game evar!" threads where people say things like Dragon Age, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Halo, Half-Life, Gears of War, et al. I'm relatively sure that at least four of those titles were probably brought up in the recent "Objectively bad games" thread.

This is the internet, you don't even have to look hard to find people (different people, to be fair) who will drop their hate on something that you quite innocently enjoyed, or indeed, anything.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Any number of things on Newgrounds. Dear Esther at least has production values.

 

[floppylobster]

I have to agree with your dislike of 'Bastion'.

But I also disliked two indie darlings - 'World of Goo' (I played on Wii) and suffered to the end hating *almost* every minute of it.

And 'Lost Winds'. That game was duller than the crappiest of the old Megadrive platformers. Not only boring but unfocused and the controls weren't even very good. I can understand why people might like 'Bastion' and 'World of Goo' but I just don't get the love for 'Lost Winds'. Have platformers fallen that far, that a half-arsed game like that is considered great? I would rather play 'Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind'. And that's saying something.

 

[floppylobster]

I did like Braid though.

 

[aguspal]

Telltale's The Graveyard.
It's so boring. All you do is walk, sit down, some music plays and then there's a small chance of you dying. Maybe I'm not "deep" enough or something, but I don't think it deserves any of the awards it got.

I watched a few videos of it, this one in particular is just play hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElcOkz3LYSI&feature=related

The best part is the youtube comments, easily. But thats not the game itself, so..


Also, I LOVE the "(Non-tool assisted)" in the title LOL.


Just to not drive off topic my own thread, I heard that Magicka is apparently a rather hated game for some reason. IMO its a pretty damn solid, fun game. And its not as hard as people make it out to be, AT ALL (Thats actually something of a con for me, because I love challenges in games, but still, is fun).

Soloing the whole game in 2 hours or so... its really all about knowing the best combinations and spells. After that, its a cakewalk.

 

[crazyrabbits]

The worst indie game I've played recently would have to be Epic Inventor. I thought it was going to be this interesting platform game where you level up your robot helper to help you fight enemies, while also finding upgrades. It turned out to be a Terraria-cum-Minecraft ripoff with blatantly broken game mechanics (enemies Zerg rush you all the time, and you barely get a moment to pause because they're always faster than you and greatly overpowered), an incredibly limited game area, and a fun factor that wears off after the first hour.

I honestly can't believe they were charging $10 for it, let alone that there are so many glowing reviews of it online when it's just a "follow the leader" clone.

 

[TheRussian]

Finally someone who agrees that Braid was overrated.
On the subject: Dear Esther. What can I say? Pretentious bullshit. Barely qualifies to be called a game, because the experience is neither entertaining, nor interactive, and offers little challenge or obstacle.
Now, if someone likes these games, more power to you, but there is always the off-chance that you like it because some pretentious art critic likes it.

 

[Gabanuka]

snip

You've made a powerful enemy today my friend, none shall insult Bastion!

Obviously I'm joking, but I thought it right to explain Bastions appeal. Given that is my favourite game of the past few years.


Basically its three factors; storytelling, music, art.

While the gameplay itself is very simplistic (not un-fun though), the gradual reveal of the the world and its story via the narrator, is one of the best examples of storytelling in gaming I have ever seen. Meanwhile its soundtrack is amazing, even if its not to you taste you cant deny the detail put in to make it match the world and your experience. Finally the art, I cant speak for the Xbox version, but on the PC is gorgeous. Both in aesthetic and graphics.

Either way I encorage you to play it again and try to look past the gameplay, listen to the narrator and his story, notice the music and look at the world.



TL'DR: Bastion is great and defiantly not the worst indie game of all time (I cant say what is, probably Dear Esther. In fact, that's a great counterpoint to Bastions amazing story telling)

 

[SirDerick]

Braid.

The last level in braid was pure art. I'd describe it as poetry in motion.

Everything else in that game: meh...

Now I have to agree that braid is the worst indie game I've played as well. While other indie games have kept me entertained from start to finish this one only entertained me at the very end, with everything building up to that point as busy work.

 

[TJC]

Naturally, "I didn't like the game" equates to WORST. GAME. EVAAAAA444444RRRRR.
Should've known.

Oh well, then I'll go with Cogs, and incredibly boring and unmotivating puzzler.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Braid.

The last level in braid was pure art. I'd describe it as poetry in motion.

Everything else in that game: meh...

Now I have to agree that braid is the worst indie game I've played as well. While other indie games have kept me entertained from start to finish this one only entertained me at the very end, with everything building up to that point as busy work.

I'd agree with you about the ending, it was very cool.

Everything up to that point was pretty basic stuff though, with no thematic consistency with the message it was trying to tell.

 

[shrekfan246]

Clearly you haven't seen all of the "Worst game evar!" threads where people say things like Dragon Age, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Halo, Half-Life, Gears of War, et al. I'm relatively sure that at least four of those titles were probably brought up in the recent "Objectively bad games" thread.

This is the internet, you don't even have to look hard to find people (different people, to be fair) who will drop their hate on something that you quite innocently enjoyed, or indeed, anything.

My point was more that if you want to look at games "objectively" (as if there is such a thing), none of those particular titles are explicitly bad. They all function, they've all sold tons of copies and spanned multiple titles, they all have very tight, well-developed controls, they've all garnered quite substantial fan-bases, and they all still look fairly decent when played today. Which is more than can be said for the likes of E.T., Bubsy 3D, Daikatana, Superman 64, or Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, which were completely terrible/flat out broken on release and have aged even worse.

People are completely entitled to their opinions, I don't deny that. In fact, I prefer it when someone makes it explicitly known that they're stating their opinion instead of trying to pass it off as fact (unless they use 'opinion' as an excuse for why they shouldn't have to discuss why Big Rigs is a bad game). If you've only ever played big budget, highly reviewed AAA games, then I don't doubt that Half-Life might be the worst game you've ever played. If you were never a fan of RPGs but someone convinced you to try out Dragon Age, I would be surprised if you did like it. But technically speaking, they're not bad games. Likewise, if you've only ever played the indie games that get a lot of exposure and publicity, I'm not surprised if something like Bastion or Super Meat Boy would be the worst one you've played. But it still doesn't make them bad games.

 

[aguspal]

Naturally, "I didn't like the game" equates to WORST. GAME. EVAAAAA444444RRRRR.
Should've known.

Oh well, then I'll go with Cogs, and incredibly boring and unmotivating puzzler.

No.


It translates into the worst game you have played.

By that rule, if a person where to play, say, COD, GTA, BATTLEFIELD and only played those games only, the worst one would have been one of those 3, even thougt they all 3 are (In theory & general opinion anyways) awesome games.
Same thing here.

 

[aguspal]

snip

sniped

But... But the gameplay... the gameplay man...

I cannot process all the stuff you just said, because GAMEPLAY. ARGGGHH.

Also what didnt help was that the game was in pure English (not my native lenguage). Now try to image yourself playing a heavy story driven game like this one (apparently) in whats not your native lenguage, leaving you with the okay-ish gameplay and maybe the music (BTW I found the soundtrack to be... also okay-ish, pretty much like the gameplay itself. I dont see whats so awesome on it) and you might understand why I didnt liked this game. Even if you do understand (MOST) of the stuff thats going on, its just not the same feeling.


Granted, none of those are actually the fault of the game ITSELF, but still...

I might give it another try someday, someday....


EDIT: OMFG FUCK I just COMMITED A SIN and accidentaly DOUBLE POST please dont kill me mods it was not my intention NOOOO.


Seriously, I will try my best so this wont happen again. But then again why dosnt this forums have a delete fuction for posts? I can understand threads somewhat, but posts? why not?

 

[kortin]

Braid is garbage. Complete and utter garbage. As is the developer.

I would also like to add something:

Dear Esther is not, no matter how much the devs try to push it, a game. It is NOT A GAME. It's a really slow roller coaster that goes through pretty scenery. That's it. There's no gameplay. There's barely any story. Not a game.

 

[Denamic]

I admit that Super Meat Boy has a niche, but I personally find "trial and error" to be the lowest form of challenge. Whether or not I beat a level should be a matter of skill and reflex, not memorization.

Even some of the old NES games could be beaten the first time around with no prior knowledge of the level layout assuming you knew the mechanics.

SMB isn't trial and error.
Trial and error implies a problem without any hints of a solution. SMB will almost always have an obvious path for you to take, where the problem is execution. That you try and retry a level countless times isn't trial and error. It's practice.