Try-hardiest games

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Yes, I'm using that as a word.

I think the title is fairly self-explanatory. What games either went so far that they went full circle, or just weren't compelling enough despite their hardest efforts? The ones where you just rolled your eyes instead of tensing up, being on edge or scared.

I make this thread because Dead Space 2 was this for me. I'd heard it to be a good game, and in most ways it was. Looked great, mechanically sound and well balanced. But it failed so hard at trying to be scary, building atmosphere or a story that it actually dragged the perfectly enjoyable gameplay down with it, and left my final feeling at merely "Meh". From the opening seconds it tried so hard to shock that it blew its load 15 seconds in and after that couldn't do anything to provoke me anymore. What's left to see when the very first scene is you escaping from a mental ward, booming sound going off everywhere and monsters fully lit? I was never scared or surprised after the first 2 hours, and in a surprisingly long game for this day and age that's a problem. Since you're always expecting to fight one hideous malformed monstrosity after another, which you do, there can be nothing that subverts your expectations.

The story and characters were completely lackluster. A bunch of nonentities all talking as if they'd just ran a marathon with some rather gratuitous swearing mixed in. When the only emotional registers in the game are "desperate terror" and "paranoid anxiety" with no levity in between, it's hard to think of the characters as people.

Okay, your turn.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Max Payne 3

It tries its darndest to show you this gritty underbelly and it comes across as so fucking juvenile and obnoxious. Ooh, a "sick" filter and random words from the dialoge flashing on screen; it's like I'm right there in the grit. And then there's Max constantly monologuing to himself how much of bad seed he is... Grow up, you fucking dweeb.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2

It's worth noting that this one wasn't made by the team that made all the other (overall great) Legacy of Kain games.

This one was supposed to be the darkest in the series, as it tells of Kain's bloody rise to power and how we eventually reached the point where, as the first words of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver state, "Kain was deified."

How did they approach this? Well, the first Blood Omen had a very down-to-earth art style. Think Game of Thrones aesthetic rendered in pixel-art. In Blood Omen 2, they dressed Kain and all the other vampires in the game in impractical fetish armor. The female vampires were also tapping into the "vampire babe" stereotype. The setting felt like a maladjusted 13-year-old boy's version of "dark and gritty." It was just awful... And this spilled over into the story as well. LoK is a very story-intensive series. Blood Omen 2 is a pockmark on an otherwise intriguing saga.

As if this all wasn't bad enough, they felt they had to reinvent the entire gameplay system. The game doesn't play like anything else in the entire series, and this new gameplay SUCKS. It's slow, it's tedious, and it's unintuitive on the basic levels of control.

Ungh, I'll try not to hate you OP for triggering these terrible, repressed thoughts

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Max Payne 3

It tries its darndest to show you this gritty underbelly and it comes across as so fucking juvenile and obnoxious. Ooh, a "sick" fliter and random words from the dialoge flashing on screen; it's like I'm right there in the grit. And then there's Max constantly monologuing to himself how much of bad seed he is... Grow up, you fucking dweeb.

Setting the game in sunny Brazil and having Max wear Reyn Spooners while sipping daiquiris didn't contribute a whole lot either.
It's like having Batman lording over Hawaii.

 

[TranshumanistG]

Yes, I'm using that as a word.

I think the title is fairly self-explanatory. What games either went so far that they went full circle, or just weren't compelling enough despite their hardest efforts? The ones where you just rolled your eyes instead of tensing up, being on edge or scared.

I make this thread because Dead Space 2 was this for me. I'd heard it to be a good game, and in most ways it was. Looked great, mechanically sound and well balanced. But it failed so hard at trying to be scary, building atmosphere or a story that it actually dragged the perfectly enjoyable gameplay down with it, and left my final feeling at merely "Meh". From the opening seconds it tried so hard to shock that it blew its load 15 seconds in and after that couldn't do anything to provoke me anymore. What's left to see when the very first scene is you escaping from a mental ward, booming sound going off everywhere and monsters fully lit? I was never scared or surprised after the first 2 hours, and in a surprisingly long game for this day and age that's a problem. Since you're always expecting to fight one hideous malformed monstrosity after another, which you do, there can be nothing that subverts your expectations.

The story and characters were completely lackluster. A bunch of nonentities all talking as if they'd just ran a marathon with some rather gratuitous swearing mixed in. When the only emotional registers in the game are "desperate terror" and "paranoid anxiety" with no levity in between, it's hard to think of the characters as people.

Okay, your turn.

Granted that I didn't play DS2 past the train level, it didn't struck me a game that was trying to be scary, more like "we're hanging up the horror shtick and making you an action hero who fights hordes of evil disgusting monsters"

OT: most recent case that I can think of is Deponia, particularly Rufus, the main character. I get it, he's a dumb arrogant jerk, but the way this characterisation just keeps going and going made me cringe. It felt like the voice actor was short of saying out loud: "look at me, I'm so arrogant and I'm being a dick to everybody". Oh, and every time he hums a melody in an over-excited manner and much longer that he had to makes it even worse. That said, the puzzles were fun enough to complete the whole trilogy.

Now that I think about annoying over-the-top characters, Emiya Shirou from Fate/Stay night VN comes up with his constant "But Saber's just a little defenceless girl, she can't fight/ I want to protect Saber". I get it, you have a superhero complex because of your adopted father and you've got feelings for Saber, but it feels like his brain just gets reset every day or so. It goes like this:
Saber: -I'm your servant, I'll fight for you.
Shirou: -I'm not comfortable with this, but OK.
Then they get into a dangerous situation and Saber leaps into a fight, but Shirou just can't watch her get hurt and jumps in to rescue, getting hurt himself.
Saber: -I thought we had a deal.
Shirou: -Sorry, sorry, I understand, this won't repeat.

And this goes again and again. Granted, I've only played through the Fate route, maybe in others he's different.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

By far, Final Fantasy XIII is this for me. You guys liked Advent Children and want a remade FF7 now? Well how about you whet your appetites with THIS first! This game looks BETTER than Advent Children doesn't it? The combat is really visceral [sub][sub]to look at[/sub][/sub] and everything is really stylized and, I'm sure you haven't seen a game on the PS3 that looks anywhere NEAR this good, have you?!

I'll stop with that shtick now. Final Fantasy XIII wanted to be the dawn of a new era when it came to Final Fantasy and while it was beautiful to look at, playing it was disappointing (to be charitable). The cast of characters were unlikable, the plot was incomprehensible, the epic music that plays for the recurring villain amounts to a choir of people shouting the same three notes until your ears bleed. The actual game part of the game was so disengaging and boring that I could only find fun in the weapon-crafting thing. What's worse, this thing was such a mess that it required 2 more games to try and untangle the ball of christmas lights that this mess of an experiment turned out to be. As bad as it is, you can see just how much time and money went into the project. People poured a LOT of time and energy into Final Fantasy XIII...but the final product was just woeful.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

I would ditto Dead Space 2, but the feeling kind of extends to horror games in general. I picked it up on the recent Humble Bundle and just put it down about half an hour ago after the first wave of kiddie necromorphs. It wasn't scary, but gleefully charging into the horde with the Ripper out and shouting "Come and play with Uncle Issac, children! Bwahahahahaha!!" seemed like the perfect kind of feel-good high-note to leave off on.

I go through any 'horror' game that lets me fight back either in full, suicidal-bravery combat mode or groaning with annoyance as the background noises signal the violence I'm there for happening nowhere near me for the fifth time that hour. I think most of the horror genre tries too hard because most of it not only allows, but forces you to defend yourself from the monsters before you can move on, and if you're killing them by the truckload, they're no scarier than any other kind of virtual enemy to be shot/stabbed/bludgeoned through.

With that in mind, all the screams, bloodstains, and flickery lights in the world are just so much white noise.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Max Payne 3

It tries its darndest to show you this gritty underbelly and it comes across as so fucking juvenile and obnoxious. Ooh, a "sick" fliter and random words from the dialoge flashing on screen; it's like I'm right there in the grit. And then there's Max constantly monologuing to himself how much of bad seed he is... Grow up, you fucking dweeb.

"It was like Baghdad with G-strings"

Oh Rockstar. Oh you. Never stop trying.

OT: Uhhh I suppose Witcher 2 was this for me. Actually my complaint is exactly the same as that Max Payne 3 one, it tries so fucking hard to look mature and stuff but it just comes off as obnoxious. You're not mature Witcher 2, you're just needlessly Grimdark. Swearing 24/7 is the sign of maturity guys. Yet they use a censor word in place of "fucking" sometimes. Odd.

Would it kill someone to smile in that game? Hell the only comic relief was Gerald and his mates getting shitfaced in a bar then he wakes up with a shitty tattoo. That actually made me even more depressed ironically enough, if that's the game's idea of comic relief Jesus Christ... I like dark things sure but only if there's at least a chance for a happy ending. Remember that old Jimquisition episode, the one about tragedy and comedy? Yeah, that.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Probably WET.

It's a game that tries to be a tribute to "Grindhouse" cinema, but comes across as more of an angsty teenager's idea of what grindhouse is, with a main character who's so "edgy" that I truly wonder why she's not put up against characters like Donte or Shadow (and yet Ryuko from Kill la Kill of all people is.)

I'd also add Max Payne 3, even though I did enjoy the game. The style really got on my nerves.

 

[Fox12]

Max Payne 3

It tries its darndest to show you this gritty underbelly and it comes across as so fucking juvenile and obnoxious. Ooh, a "sick" fliter and random words from the dialoge flashing on screen; it's like I'm right there in the grit. And then there's Max constantly monologuing to himself how much of bad seed he is... Grow up, you fucking dweeb.

"It was like Baghdad with G-strings"

Oh Rockstar. Oh you. Never stop trying.

OT: Uhhh I suppose Witcher 2 was this for me. Actually my complaint is exactly the same as that Max Payne 3 one, it tries so fucking hard to look mature and stuff but it just comes off as obnoxious. You're not mature Witcher 2, you're just needlessly Grimdark. Swearing 24/7 is the sign of maturity guys. Yet they use a censor word in place of "fucking" sometimes. Odd.

Would it kill someone to smile in that game? Hell the only comic relief was Gerald and his mates getting shitfaced in a bar then he wakes up with a shitty tattoo. That actually made me even more depressed ironically enough, if that's the game's idea of comic relief Jesus Christ... I like dark things sure but only if there's at least a chance for a happy ending. Remember that old Jimquisition episode, the one about tragedy and comedy? Yeah, that.

Ugh. When will some people learn that the most tragic stories are tragic because the dark moments are few and fsr between. Berserk, Eva, Titanic, or any other "tragic" story you care to mention worked because the story built up to the tragedy. You remember the boat sinking, but the only reason you care is because of the character development that occurred before. Even fucking Game of Thrones had moments that made me burst out laughing.

Otherwise? Bungie in general is like this, but they struck gold with Destiny:

"We like to tell big stories and we want people to put the Destiny universe on the same shelf they put Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Star Wars; we've already seen they do that with Halo.

It's funny, because I don't think Tolkien, Rowling, or Lucas set out to impress anyone. They just wanted to tell the stories they had in their heart. But keep comparing your work to Tolkien Bungie, maybe you'll fool people into believing you.

 

[ArkhamJester]

Granted that I didn't play DS2 past the train level, it didn't struck me a game that was trying to be scary, more like "we're hanging up the horror shtick and making you an action hero who fights hordes of evil disgusting monsters"

OT: most recent case that I can think of is Deponia, particularly Rufus, the main character. I get it, he's a dumb arrogant jerk, but the way this characterisation just keeps going and going made me cringe. It felt like the voice actor was short of saying out loud: "look at me, I'm so arrogant and I'm being a dick to everybody". Oh, and every time he hums a melody in an over-excited manner and much longer that he had to makes it even worse. That said, the puzzles were fun enough to complete the whole trilogy.

Now that I think about annoying over-the-top characters, Emiya Shirou from Fate/Stay night VN comes up with his constant "But Saber's just a little defenceless girl, she can't fight/ I want to protect Saber". I get it, you have a superhero complex because of your adopted father and you've got feelings for Saber, but it feels like his brain just gets reset every day or so. It goes like this:
Saber: -I'm your servant, I'll fight for you.
Shirou: -I'm not comfortable with this, but OK.
Then they get into a dangerous situation and Saber leaps into a fight, but Shirou just can't watch her get hurt and jumps in to rescue, getting hurt himself.
Saber: -I thought we had a deal.
Shirou: -Sorry, sorry, I understand, this won't repeat.

And this goes again and again. Granted, I've only played through the Fate route, maybe in others he's different.[/quote]

For the love of god go through Unlimited Blade works or Heavens feel (the other two routes) Shirou is sooooo much more tolerable (in Heavens feel he more or less abandons trying to be a hero and shifts focus to getting shit done) that said I only know of this through heresay (everyone says the Fate route is the weakest), anime and what I can scrounge as i have no clue where to find a copy digital or physical so a hook up would be most appreciated.

Now as for my try hardiest game without a shadow of a doubt its the Tomb Raider Reboot. i actually really like the game but Laura's death animations are borderline over the top it feels like its trying so hard to be "gritty" and "real" that all I can think of is the dev's screaming at me "This here's real!" "This here is Mature!" or to put it another way they're saying

https://youtu.be/gAYL5H46QnQ?t=115

 

[Johnny Impact]

I'm in for Dead Space 2, for exactly the reasons stated. It's not horror at all, it's a shooter with lots of splatter. I didn't think it was a bad game, it just wasn't what it tried to be.
Max Payne 3, for exactly the reasons stated.

Saints Row IV jumped the shark, then jumped that shark with another, bigger shark, which they then jumped with a third, rocket-powered shark. It was like watching Tom & Jerry cartoons for twenty straight hours: you reach the point of total saturation WAY before it's over. There's over the top, then there's so frickin' far over the top that it stops being funny and becomes tedious.

 

[ExDeath730]

Max Payne 3

It tries its darndest to show you this gritty underbelly and it comes across as so fucking juvenile and obnoxious. Ooh, a "sick" fliter and random words from the dialoge flashing on screen; it's like I'm right there in the grit. And then there's Max constantly monologuing to himself how much of bad seed he is... Grow up, you fucking dweeb.

Setting the game in sunny Brazil and having Max wear Reyn Spooners while sipping daiquiris didn't contribute a whole lot either.
It's like having Batman lording over Hawaii.

São Paulo isn't sunny for most of the year. The problem was that they tried to make SP into Rio de Janeiro, and that fucked up everything, since both cities have really distinct feels. RJ is vibrant and sunny, while SP is gray and dour (really, even the people there have the fame of being boring and depressing workaholics). If they actually could capture how SP actually is, it could have been an interesting thing.

OT:

DiRT 3.

Since i'm playing a lot of Rally games lately, i noticed how...Damn, this is a sore thumb, i guess it's since the second DiRT game, when the franchise tried to become "cool", but things in here are really bad, because of how they try hard to make everything look way "cooler" than it is. Hammering your head with it, and at the same time trying to get a reaction out of you.

I still remember that game going all "XTREEEEMMMEEEE!!!" while trying desperately to make you care about Gymkhana and Drift, really, i guess Codemasters didn't notice yet how most of the fans hate drifting? Gymkhana is even worse, and most people consider a waste of time, i can say that having it as a multiplayer mode could be really fun to play with friends and such, but the problem is that they put the damn thing into the Career mode, and it's actually some finals...I just want to rally, people, and at most do some rally cross and trailblazing, not try to do stuff for points.

 

[Evonisia]

The Dead Space 2 lashings given can also be applied to Dead Space 1. In addition to that, Dead Space 1's interactive storytelling is awful. I know you're trying to be BioShock, but you're doing it wrong.

But as for a game I can give my own reasons to: Grand Theft Auto V. Dear Gods, this game is a huge mess. It came off as a desperate apology for Grand Theft Auto IV being so shit, and rose to the stunning level of mediocrity. The game pushes the three-character game mechanic, desperately hoping that you like one of them. So they start us off with Franklin, who is as generic as GTA characters get, but is also so whiny that I need to screwdriver his eyes out. Then we get Michael to play as for like an hour before we move on to Trevor, and the plot just stops there. In a failed attempt at getting a grand narrative, the plot is just a series of events with no cohesion and no sense of pacing or direction. I can't take this shit seriously when it's so utterly inept and meanders around trying to stay afloat by virtue of the characters (bad move).

As for the gameplay? More apologies for GTA IV's awfulness. A nice world, to be sure, but the game is keen to show you it, meaning that half the bloody missions have you driving across huge plains of the map and no amount of pretty scenery is stopping me from getting bored. The shooting is actually worse than in GTA IV because of the obligatory RPG elements, the aim assist feature is woefully broken meaning that ironically Franklin has the best aim. The driving is OK, but I won't grant points just because it's not as terrible as GTA IV's driving.

So in summary, I can't take GTA V seriously because it's such a try-hard of narrative, resulting in an inept mess. I also can't take the technical aspect of the game seriously either because the core mechanics are so broken and the amount of effort put into the detail is all for nought when the only way I can explore them when playing the story missions is driving up gigantic roads and pathways, rather than just having missions in various parts of the map.

 

[Silvanus]

By far, Final Fantasy XIII is this for me. You guys liked Advent Children and want a remade FF7 now? Well how about you whet your appetites with THIS first! This game looks BETTER than Advent Children doesn't it? The combat is really visceral [sub][sub]to look at[/sub][/sub] and everything is really stylized and, I'm sure you haven't seen a game on the PS3 that looks anywhere NEAR this good, have you?!

I second this. FFXIII is the try-hardiest game I've played.

I enjoyed DS2 a great deal, but DS3 was pretty try-hardy.

CAPTCHA: Haste Makes Waste. Hrmm, I don't think that was the problem captcha-- it was more to do with budget-bloat and confused priorities.

 

[GabeZhul]

And this goes again and again. Granted, I've only played through the Fate route, maybe in others he's different.

Yes he is. It's a obvious character flaw that is a setup for this little thing called "character development". You might have heard of the concept.

Also, if VNs count, I have two:

-Remember 11: Nice little mystery/time travel/body swap story almost ruined by trying to appear really smart and positively lecturing the reader in info-dumps that are not even in the same neighborhood as the real science (my personal favorite was how they demonstrated "quantum teleportation" by swapping a mug of tea with a mug of coffee, but then the coffee tasted like tea because it "retained its essence as tea"... whatever the fuck that means). Again: building up your metaphysics is fine. Parading them as the real deal while condescendingly winking at the reader is not.

-Coμ: The basic concept of the game is that a group of unlikely individuals get a mysterious power that allows them to summon a giant black metallic dragon that they can use to combat other groups with similar powers, with the caveat being that if the mon is destroyed, all the people that control it die.

Sounds interesting, right? Too bad the writing is absolutely horrendous, with faux-philosophical ramblings about society, repeatedly repeated repetitious description repetitions and a protagonist and cast that repeatedly dissects every single one of their actions and motivations yet somehow manage to never get any kind of meaningful character development out of hours of introspection... which would still be all fine if this was some sort of camp, tongue-in-cheek parody of similar stories and characters, but the fact that it takes itself 101% seriously is what makes some routes almost impossible to read.

 

[Evonisia]

I'm pretty sure you misunderstood the story on such a grand scale that you may actually be talking about a different game..

It's just a bunch of people doing stuff, with some aspects of the plot very loosely being tied into what happened before. Most of the actions that take place in the game are just almost self contained affairs that could have been cut and nothing would have been lost in the overall story. It's structured almost episodically in what is presented as a singular story.

And even if it somehow works as this great story, the presentation is beyond irredeemable because of how scatter shot every aspect of it is.

 

[TranshumanistG]

It's just a bunch of people doing stuff, with some aspects of the plot very loosely being tied into what happened before. Most of the actions that take place in the game are just almost self contained affairs that could have been cut and nothing would have been lost in the overall story. It's structured almost episodically in what is presented as a singular story.

That actually sounds basically like every GTA game I've played (I, II, III, Vice City, San Andreas, IV).

 

[Nuuu]

I'd say Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It focused way too hard on being "borderlands-y" and not on the aspects on which made Borderlands 2 great.
Ignoring the main storyline (which I liked), 90% of the sidequests don't relate to anything and are just there for a cheap joke or reference. At least half of the sidequests in BL2 gave interesting character introduction or backstory. The elements are also so unbalanced that they seem to exist purely for novelty rather than spicing up combat.