Your 5 most disappointing games, 2008-2012

[Voulan]

In no order:

- Alice: Madness Returns: I don't hate it, but it could have been so much better than it was. I partially blame EA's rushing the title for this, since originally the game was going to be far more interesting and had a lot more elements planned, but they were all removed. And the supposed murder mystery plot could be worked out within the first hour of gameplay, so there was no twists at all that I didn't see coming. I also paid a lot of money for it, which now makes me feel extremely cheated. I feel a little sick every time I look at it now.
- GTA IV: it took everything I loved about the series and removed it completely. Not only is half the game a bloody tutorial, but its so utterly bleak and pessimistic that I actually feel like every kind of stereotypical mass-murderer-waiting-to-happen gamer trope that gets thrown on this series by ill-informed media.
- Tomb Raider: Underworld: for almost the exact same reasons as Madness Returns. It promised so much, and most of this contect was removed in the final product without so much as a word. I still kind of like it, but it was nowhere near what I expected for Lara's first proper game on the new generation.
- Dead Island: way to take such an intriguing concept and then conform to every bad gameplay practice ever. All of the emotion was sucked out, and instead I was faced with a generic zombie-shooter.
- Dragon Age II: I haven't played it, but I was intending to after hearing how great the series was. Then, apparently, this game was released and ruined everything. I know its hard to call it without having actually played it, but it certainly ruined much hope I had to discover a new and exciting franchise, with the amount of backlash it received. I'm cautiously waiting for DA3 now. I mostly put it here because I can't think of another game.

 

[Epona]

Reviews save me from playing games based on features I know I won't like. I actually read reviews thoroughly, looking for a general idea of what the game's like. If there are real dealbreakers, the game isn't even worth a look. You can decide based on a trusted reviewer or two, that's what they're for. I'm not going to waste any time playing a game that is clearly not going to be what I'm looking for, when there are so many more suitable games out there.

If you're willing to write something off based on someone else's opinion without actually trying it yourself then who am I to argue.Just seems silly to me

Wait, are you saying you bought every game you were mildly interested in? If you only trust first hand experience...

 

[prophecy2514]

5: Dead Space 2 - Still a nice little third person shooter, but disappointed me with its focus on visceral action rather than the claustrophobic and tense atmosphere of the first game. Adding in unnecessary multiplayer didnt help

4: Prototype - picked it up after hearing it was on par with infamous. NooooooOOoooOOOOoooope! Bland and clunky action with a silly overcomplicated control scheme made combat frustrating and boring. Exploration pretty fun though, will give it that

3: Devil may Cry 4 - I still liked this game... but having nero replace dante as the protagonist for most of the game disappointed me immensely, as well as the worst backtracking I probably have ever witnessed in a game

2: Medal of Honor - loved the series entries on the ps2 - frontline and rising sun. This was trash served up to appease the CoD crowd. (DNF)

and number 1: Dragon Age origins - what a clusterfuck of a game. A snorefest combat-wise, bland setting and the story and characters I really didnt give a shit about...what a letdown after really enjoying the mass effect series. I thought surely this game wouldn't let me down there. It bloody well did. (DNF)

 

[mattttherman3]

There's more than 5 but here goes

Fable 3- felt like a chore replaying the game, I actually had to stop to take naps I got so bored
Dragon Age 2
Fable 2- final boss was an obelisk, riiiiiiiiiiiiight
The Old Republic
The Force Unleashed 2- 4 hour campaign is INEXCUSABLE, also shit story, sacrifice content for CGI scenes.

Honourable mentions: Darksiders, infamous, Star Trek Online, Brink, Crisis 2, Tales of Graces F(I love the tales series, but this just feels so out of place, I HATED the combat, the only good thing about this game was the fully voiced skits)

For those who said ME3, I disagree, it is second favorite game of all time (next to ME2), the extended cut made that game great, if it was in the game to begin with, there would have been no movement. And the MP was FUN!

Upon further reading, I see Skyrim a shit ton, let me say this, leveling athletics and acrobatics was fucking dumb in oblivion, DUMB, and combining blunt blade and the axe skill? One handed, WHO CARES, you LIKE leveling the same thing 3 times to 100? Please. Hand to hand? Ok I guess thats the ONLY one. Dragons destroying the world is generic, but being able to use the dragons powers without using magic? New to me! Main story wasn't great but the game was GREAT!

I gotta stop reading posts in this thread, I'm just getting mad

 

[lacktheknack]

Borderlands: Got it for really cheap on Steam sale. Totally worth the twelve bucks, but I still had the niggling feeling of "Well... this is it?"

BRINK: Didn't play it, but was so going to buy it until the reviews were released. Maybe they'll get it right next time.

Limbo: Totally worth the money and playing time, but as above, I had the little niggling feeling of "Is this it?" I dunno, the atmosphere wasn't as bleak and oppressive as I had expected. It had its moments (the chase with the army children, the spiders), but then, it had its not-moments as well.

Origin (All Of It): I'm trying to move AWAY from the Steam model, not sideways to it. This wouldn't be disappointing, if they didn't make a bunch of games exclusive to it (still haven't played Mass Effect 2 or 3, or the Mirror's Edge DLC).

That's all I got. I avoid disappointments.

 

[StBishop]

Final Fantasy 13. I had a limited edition FF13 PS3 imported from Japan and almost bought another 360 just because the HDD had FF13 engraved on the side... But then the game was utter shit.

I think Fable 2 falls into those years.

GTA 4

Star Wars the Force Unleashed (might not fit the year range but I'm searching hard for games I was disappointed with.)

White Knight Chronicles. I didn't give it much of a chance, it let me down very quickly.

 

[kingthrall]

2012- year of an entire games worth of disappointment.
Yet to find even one game to live up to expectations

 

[Arina Love]

1. Mass Effect 3 everything in this game was rushed out of the door, quest system, battle depth and balance,interface, story,character writing and ending.

2. Skyrim i was hoping for advancement in W-RPG formula but what i got was oblivion 1.7. Was very boring to play.

3. Diablo 3 Just a loot game, very boring loot game and they made it worse by limiting skill/stats freedom.

4. Dragon Age 2 Just as mass effect 3 everything in this game was rushed out of the door. Story writing is bad, choices have NO impact on the world.

5. Last Rebellion on paper is was a good concept but poor execution killed it.


and now just for perspective of what sort of gamer i'm here is my top 5 games that i liked a lot.

1. MGS 4
2. Ar tonelico qoga
3. Atelier Meruru
4. Tales of Graces F
5. Disgaea 4

 

[MammothBlade]

This confuses me. When was it being touted as similar to Fallout? I can't even put them in the same genre. Sandbox RPG vs. what's essentially a corridor FPS.

Well, the very first teaser was showing an apocalyptic world, exploration with vehicles and lots of wide desert areas, it felt like a FO without its boundaries. It wasn't.

But it's true that most of that comparison came from my buddies and me, after seeing the first teaser.

 

[BrotherRool]

Here's a rare one
Lord of the Rings: War in the North Part of it was my fault, I decided not to read reviews and just by the game because I really want a decent Lord of the Rings RPG. There have to this date only been two great Lord of the Rings games (the movie tie-in hack 'n slash') and two kind of good RTS'. The RPG was terrible and there could be such a good chance for a good RPG in this setting and I thought this was it.

...and it turns out it wasn't really an RPG, but a diablo hack 'n slash. It wasn't bad actually the gameplay got fun towards the end and the armour and weapons looked absolutely beautiful with really nice progression and the game gets much better when you sit down with a friend and do stuff (besides how many good local co-op games do they even make?).. but it wasn't quite as good as the first two hack 'n slashes, although adding the loot system and RPG stats and levelling was really good.

But most of all, apart from the weapon/armour designs, it just didn't use the setting well. There were no really epic battles like the first two hack 'n slashes, the locations weren't mindblowing beautiful and the story felt second rate. Most of all it felt like a theme park sightseeing tour of the characters 'look you're speaking to bilbo!' in the end even LotoR:The Third Age, used the actual characters better than here. Mostly the world wasn't connected, there's so much travelling in the books what I really wanted was a game where it feels like you're actually travelling from place to place, but instead you pretty much go from level to level here with a map select and a few hubs.


So this was a disappointing game, that actually wasn't bad, it just wasn't as mind blowing as I hoped it may be.


Even more obscure
Resonance of Fate
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/1627-Resonance-of-Fate
It has a really interesting setting, the story hook was amazing. The Steampunk esque idea looked great and the combat looked a little like Valkyria Chronicles, so potentially amazing. The story did seem good as far as I could see it (haven't got close to completing it) but it's so thinly stretched out with so much inbetween and doled out formulaicly over such a long period of time that it's impossible to actually be hooked.

The combat is original, but doesn't work well and is really unfun to play a lot of.

They didn't have the budget to really display the awesomeness of the setting and you don't experience much beyond the concept.

Finally this
http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/14336224/images/590/walkthrough_000e.jpg
What the fudge is that and why is it in my game? The tone is all over the place and its even hard to work out if Cardinal Pater looks freakish in his own world or if everyone accepts him as normal or not.

Braid disappointed me. I think most of what people liked about it was all in one level and there wasn't much else special beyond that level. The fact the story didn't really make sense also annoyed me.
... which brings me onto Dear Esther which I really did enjoy, but I'd expected their to be some resolution where everything made sense, and it turns out it wasn't really building up to that.


Finally a bigger game, Uncharted 3. It was still good but their were cracks all over the place and it's possibly even the start of the end of the franchise. I bought Uncharted 3 blind, confident because of the other 2, and whilst I don't feel betrayed by it, I'm not going to be buying 4 without much more careful consideration

 

[Random Argument Man]

I would post Duke Nukem forever. However, to be disapointing, I must be hyped before released. The trailer with "Invaders must die" almost did it for me. Although, it's been what? 12 years of development time? There were a lot of red lights, before the demo came out.


Also, disappointing games does not mean they're not good, but they didn't live up to their hype.

Let's see now... top 5....

-I liked Dragon Age 2 and I don't understand completly all the rage. I do find it lacking in certain areas when you compare it to its predecessor.

-Goldeneye on the Wii was disappointing. Controls were sluggish and there was no Sean Bean... I might buy the other version on the Ps3.

-The Fable series's problem was Peter Molyneux. He could hype me for a bar of soap. The problem is...it's a bar of soap and nothing more.

-Naruto Ultimate ninja storm generation...Yes, it's a Naruto game. Yes, it increased the roster by a lot. However, what else did it do other than what I've mentionned and a few tweaks? The single-player was horrible too.

-The Silent Hill series for not being able to revive its name. The only thing that was close was Silent hill: Shattered Memories. However, it's biggest fault was that it wasn't scary.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I really can't think of many disappointments... only Dragon Age: Origins and Blizzard's attitude towards Diablo 3. I never played Duke Nukem Forever.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

1 Hydrophobia
2 Metro 2033
3 Anno 2070 (It's not a bad game, it's just not my type of game. I don't know why I bought it).
4 Split/Second
5 Silent Hill Homecoming

Items 1, 2, and 4 come down to execution. They could have been fine games with a little tweaking. Item 5 continues to drag a once grand title through the dirt. (I agree with other posters that Shattered Memories was worthwhile).

 

[BENZOOKA]

"Let's complain about things" -thread, vol. 4124943
Meets "List things" -thread, vol. 182240

Numbers 1 through 5:
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Here i go again:
Saints Row 3- I liked the first, loved the second and hated the third for all the already written reasons. The sucess of the third also destroyed the hopes for a better fourth game. Less money to spend on my part for the future.

 

[MetalDooley]

Wait, are you saying you bought every game you were mildly interested in? If you only trust first hand experience...

No I clarified this in a later post.

Deciding whether or not to buy a game based on reviews is fine.I'm sure we've all done this at some point.

However declaring a game to be one of the most disappointing games released in the last 5 years(which the OP did)without any first hand experience is,to put it bluntly,stupid.

See the difference?

 

[BrotherRool]

Snip....There have to this date only been two great Lord of the Rings games (the movie tie-in hack 'n slash') and two kind of good RTS'. The RPG was terrible and there could be such a good chance for a good RPG in this setting and I thought this was it...

How can you say this is terrible!?!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEMLNRy25uM

I did play it when I was 10 and it was pretty much the only game I had for ages, so I might be biased a little....

Oh wow I had not idea that even existed, that was released before I was even born =D