Personally there are a few games which left me very dissappointed, after hyping myself up for years in certain cases.
Divinity Original Sin: turns out I prefer more streamlined, less packed games (love Pillars of Eternity) and that coop play in a CRPG stresses me out.
Wasteland 2: I actually managed to finish this one but secretly I admit I was hoping for a better Fallout which I didn’t really get. New Vegas did the cowboy theme much better.
INSIDE: while the design was cool, it was just a ton of boring, easy puzzles in comparison to LIMBO, its predecessor.
RDR2, I eventually caved and bought it after months of friends telling me how good it is. But the movement and control scheme are just so bad it instantly ruined the game for me. Even qwop has better controls.
YES!
I’ve been a PC gamer for 25 years, and RDR2 is by far thebmost annoying control setup. Everything feels laggy due to the emphasis on fluid and realistic animations.
Plus it suffers feom the same issue as GTA5: “Press Key to progress story”. They both seem more like open world tech demos to me.
Good graphics, though. But graphics don’t matter if the gameplay is good.
That tops my list. I started out maybe 4 or 5 times and then decided I had better things to do with my time. Like housework or getting a root canal.
Same here! It seems like a great game otherwise, but I just couldn’t get immersed in it because of the controls. Didn’t feel like I was playing as Arthur so much as watching him and hoping he’d do what I want.
If the controls are even remotely close to the first game (or GTA:IV) I totally understand what you mean.
I think this was why I started playing it for a while but just dropped off and never went back. I was always fighting the controls.
Elden Ring
It’s just Dark Souls 3.5. Which is not necessarily bad if you really liked DS3 and just want more of the same thing, but I considered DS3 by far the weakest in the series to begin with, and playing the Nioh series after it has opened my eyes to just how much room for improvement there is in the DS series as a whole. From Soft has basically followed the same path as Bethesda - they used to make varied games until one of them randomly became wildly successful, and from that point onward they haven’t had the balls to deviate from the winning formula and have just been remaking that same game over and over with a slightly different coat of paint each time. Which makes sense from a business point of view, I guess, but after this many repetitions, it’s become clear to me From Soft is totally creatively bankrupt. Hell, it’s been more than a decade since Demon’s Souls, and they still can’t even figure out a better counter to the “roll behind them and stab them in the butt” strategy than making enemy tracking ever more effective and their movements ever more spasmodic and unreadable in each subsequent game. The end result of this complete lack of willingness and/or ability to innovate is that despite being expertly crafted, Elden Ring feels very by-the-numbers and utterly soulless (if you’ll pardon the pun).
Planet Zoo.
As a kid who grew up playing Zoo Tycoon, I was STOKED for a new Zoo management game. I even built a whole new computer to run it.
Turns out it’s more of a 3-D modeling program than a management/simulation game. And I don’t have the time or patience to figure it out.
This is the one for me as well. I spent hundreds of hours as a kid playing zoo tycoon and was very hyped for Planet Zoo. I still can’t quite place what makes it so unfun but it was pretty heart breaking.
Every. single. action. is. so. tedious. The second I tried to place my first path and build an enclosure, I knew I was in over my head.
I understand the finicky controls are what allow people to build incredible, elaborate structures. But I don’t want to spend 12 hours designing a crystal monkey enclosure.
The original Fable. I wasn’t yet aware of Moleyneux’s reputation as a liar and bought into all the neat shit that was supposed to be in the game. Like at one point he said you could cut a tree and then adventure for years in game and the scar would still be there. Outrageous to think now, but he also said there would be a dragon fight and even back then this wasn’t difficult to make happen, yet it didn’t even have a dragon.
Also Oblivion. I had found Morrowind and fell in love, went back and got Arena and Daggerfall and loved those, too. They talked about all kinds of things it would have and showed graphics that looked top tier in magazines during development. It came out and didn’t look as good, was majorly dumbed down compared to Morrowind, and had even more technical issues. It was disappointing, but it still turned out to be a fun game regardless.
I was getting pretty sick of the chicken chaser bs until I was doing battle with town guards for shits and giggles. I parried an attack and the game loaded a different zone and auto-saved over my file. There was no way to go back because manual saving and loading were not a feature of the game. It completely ruined the whole thing and I never returned.
I liked Oblivion but I loved Morrowind. The ui and controls were substandard but the atmosphere and pacing of that game were amazing. Oblivion was Bethesda’s turn to mainstream and love for money.
Cyberpunk 2077. I waited a year for the bugs to be sorted out, got it for half price, and it was just a very blah game. The Ascent is a way better game both in terms of being cyberpunk-y and also just being a fun game.
(don’t hurt me)
So far it’s been Baldurs Gate 3. I’ve found it clunky to play and it doesn’t run well on my machine despite far surpassing the recommended hardware.
I’m definitely going to do some trouble shooting and give it a much more in depth try, but it’s way easier to just play another game than figure out why this one is broken lol.
Cyberpunk 2077 CD project red was the golden boy after Witcher 3 and the dlcs. They could do no wrong. Of course their next game was gonna be critically acclaimed GOAT right? Nope. Dumpster fire. Couldn’t play it for more than 30mins without it crashing. Unimmersive and confusing. That’s when I learned corporate greed has no limits
God I hope I don’t add starfield to this list!
It’s a modern bethesda title. Not to be pessimistic, but you should probably lower expectations for it. It has a high chance to be 1. Buggy. 2. Shallow and derivative in both mechanics and story. 3. Full of DLC and shady monetary models. Bethesda succumbed to corporate greed and formulaic design principles a long time ago.
See, that’s the part that baffles me about Starfield. I’m hyped as fuck for it, since a bethesda space game is exactly what I want (and let’s be honest, aside from the horse armor back in oblivion, their DLCs have been pretty solid with some misses)… but whenever I read people hype about it, it seems like they are expectont a completely different game, made by IDK, rockstar or something.
I don’t know, if I’m honest, if there is one AAA developer out there that makes games that will keep me engaged for at least a couple of hundred hours, it’s probably Bethesda. I think Starfield will be the same. Will there be bugs: yes. Will it be a variation on a well-known theme? Most definitely. Will it be less good than the hype: very likely. Will it be totally worth it nonetheless: probably yes.
To me it was immersive af, except the Johnny Silverhand levels, even though I played on a weaker rig that I have currently and the framerate wasn’t great. What I did was focus on the story and largely ditch the open world aspect, since I hadn’t been fond of this type of games for some time anyway. I played it almost a year ago and don’t remember it notoriously crashing, or at all tbh, but maybe I was just lucky.
I’m very curious about Phantom Liberty, although being a patient gamer, I’ll probably wait a bit before buying it to see if it’s any good.
Honestly the worst about CP2077 wasn’t even the bugs. I also pre ordered it and while the performance was kinda shit and there was a bug or two, it was still playable. Yes we shouldn’t let it slip but unfortunately it’s also kind of the standard these days.
However the game was shallow af and not at all matching what we had been told for years. The whole, create your own story from scratch? Yea you choose some background option, have a 1 min cutscene and then that’s basically it. We had been told that would be hours of gameplay depending on the option and it was a short cutscene.
The whole city was supposed to feel completely alive and you were told that you would be able to do whatever you wanted. That wasn’t close to true either. Plenty of stuff like that.
Luckily I had bought it on GOG to support CDPR because I had loved the Witcher games. Was able to refund it entirely and never locked back. Not even looking to play it anytime soon and maybe ever.
I’m going to call it now and say Starfield…
That demo thing they did a while back looked pretty lack-luster.
“make any ship you can imagine” while they cycle through like 5 premades, 2 of which have the exact same cockpit…
Stiff character models again, too. The lead animator must be the bosses nephew or something.
Yep…
Dead Cells. I played for ~60 hours, but could not get the final boss down. It’s a tiny stage with a huge boss that has very quick combos that can 2 shot you. I tried a dozen times to figure him out in the training area (where you can practice boss fights) and I still couldn’t get it. It’s probably me though, my reflexes aren’t quite what they used to be.
Honestly my biggest problem with Dead Cells is that in Boss Cells 0 (BC for short) the game feels fun and fast but once you go to 2 and above it really feels like a slog to play for me.
Call it a skill issue but I have more fun on lower BC/difficulties than on the higher ones
The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion is probably my best answer. Remains the only modern Elder Scrolls that I’ve only played through once with no desire to return to. Feels clunky and sluggish, the world is washed out and bland, the enemy scaling is a slog, itemization is not interesting or impactful, the UI is uncomfortable, etc. While it does a lot of things better than Skyrim, I just can’t bring myself to enjoy the experience like I did Morrowind, and I admit I’ve sunk far more hours into Skyrim as well.
You ain’t the only one. To this day, it’s the only proper Elder Scrolls game I have not completed. I’ve even beaten Arena.
This one is wild to me. Oblivion very well be my favorite game of all time. I love the world it is set in so much. Skyrim is actually my answer for this question because I was expecting the game to to be as good as Oblivion.
Yeah, I realize it’s an insanely unpopular opinion. Oblivion, on paper, is an objectively better RPG that is truer to the Elder Scrolls formula than Skyrim, but I just don’t know, man. I’ve always had great difficulty liking it and tend to come up with nothing but gripes. I will give it another honest shot if this remake I’ve heard wind of ever comes to fruition. I owe it that much.
Oblivion, on paper, is an objectively better RPG that is truer to the Elder Scrolls formula than Skyrim
Hard disagree on that one. It’s truer to the Morrowind formula, but Morrowind itself was a radical departure from the previous TES games’ design philosophy. And I despise Oblivion precisely because of that, because it slavishly apes Morrowind’s formula without really understanding what made it tick. I’ll spare you the diatribe. Morrowind was a great triumph but also a turning point for Bethesda. Up until that point, they used to make varied games. Ever since they found success with Morrowind, they’ve stopped trying to innovate and improve and have just been remaking the same game over and over with a slightly different coat of paint each time.
To each their own, obviously. Some games just don’t click for some people.
I was going to say the same thing. I’ve still only played Skyrim once, but I’ve played through oblivion at least a few times. I played through Morrowind even more, but oblivion surpasses Skyrim without question for me.
I can’t go back to older ES games. The levelling system is just too much boring work for me. I have been a tES fan since the early 90’s when I got Arena, but Skyrim is the only one I’ll pick up anymore. I’d love to do another Morrowind playthrough with Skyrim’s systems (and I hear there’s a mod out for that, but I’ve never dug into it)
There’s a mod for it, but i never add it to the manager when I replay Morrowind. Maybe because I only played it once, I can’t even remember the difference in the leveling. What did they change in Skyrim?
Levelling and skills are dramatically simpler in Skyrim than in previous titles. The Elder Scrolls games and Fallout games generally have a middlegame where mislevelling can lead to you being dramatically underpowered. It’s still hypothetically possible in Skyrim, but a lot less so because it’s easier to just not screw up a build.
Others here call it “watered down”. I guess it technically is.
I’m sorry for asking, and I’ll look it up if you don’t want to explain it here, but can you give me just an example of the gameplay experience of what you’re talking about? Just elder scrolls to elder scrolls player.
I’m sure it is there, I’m just curious because I didn’t notice it when I was playing Skyrim, but like I said, I only played it once.
And I think that was about the time they stopped providing user manuals which i always read before games so I don’t even know if I got to read the skill tree.
Dude I remember when Morrowind came out, I read that pamphlet like a tome multiple times.
With Skyrim I don’t remember anything except running from dragon to dragon, then killing the main dragon and then I couldn’t believe the game was over so quickly, and I thought it was like a false ending, but it wasn’t.
And there was a really cool laboratory on a mountain near the wizard school that was very versatile but didn’t actually matter but I felt like it should have played some part in the main storyline.
Yeah as you can tell, sorry, my memories aren’t super strong of that game.
Sure.
Oblivion is a great example. In Oblivion, skills level similarly to Skryim (with use). Unlike Oblivion, a lot of skills do not provide survival value as feedback. Simply “living your best life” often leads you to have a master of Acrobatics and Atheletics. You run and jump too much, you end up finding enemies are outpacing you because they scale from you running and jumping too much.
This exists to a lesser extent in Skyrim. The difference? Feats. Your feats improve your build focus in two ways. They’re virtually ALL good even if you only dabble in your skill of choice. And they create a pressure to focus on a skill to reach the feat. Yeah, you could blow 10 levels in heavy armor and then run around naked, but dead builds are a bit more contrived.
But then, there’s part 2. In Oblivion, the skills drive your attribute gains. When you level, you pick an attribute to gain, but how much you gain is based on how many skill points you spent. If you overblow a level, you will find you have to choose between 2 or 2 maxed +5 (I think +5 was max), and then in future levels you will have fewer increased +x options. It’s a great little spreadsheet game to be “better”, but if you screw it up, you feel it.
Actually, check out “the Leveling Problem”
Ditto in a way with Morrowind. I had to google to remind myself. Morrowind is similar to Oblivion, but still had more “firm” classes. How you level and train will still affect whether your attributes are good or shit, even if you end up levelling basically the same skills with basically the same overall attribute goals.
In both, you are heavily disincentivized from organic leveling because “some of this, some of that” gives you a net lower attribute gain. And level after level, you start to feel it.
Supreme Commander 2. Threw out all the things I respected from the first game and swapped in a bunch of trendy bullshit that I did not. A crushing disappointment.
Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. What came of the series anyway?
It ended? Planetary Annihilation came out, but I didn’t care for it.
For me it was TLOU pt 1. I was so excited for it to come to PC, but it ended up being completely unplayable, and I wasn’t really a huge fan of the third-person cover-shooter gameplay. I played about 3 hours (and 4 hours of waiting on the menu) during the first week, and haven’t touched it since.
When I finally played Red Dead Redemption 2. I usually don’t play this type of big budget game, but my friends loved it and kept talking it up. I waited for years for a steam sale until it was finally about $20. Also, I loved outlaws (1997) and was pretty keen for another cowboy game.
An hour of listening to guys walk through the snow and I was out.
People complain about slow games?? I love that in not just rushing from A to B and to do stuff in the open world
I finished the prologue because I was told the prologue is slow. But the whole game is slow. I think people just get used to it. But I couldn’t. It’s too slow. I was chasing a bear and I was so bored that I put it down and never touched it again.
Fallout 4…
I was patient on it. Mostly involuntary, but patient still. It was incredibly disappointing. So many amazing features from 3 and NV was gone. Speech is a joke. So you want to agree, agree but be an ass about it, disagree, or disagree and be rude about it.
Those are your options in every single encounter.
It’s a good RPG game overall. Just not a good Fallout game.
Sorry, between the wine and your reductionist overview I have to respond.
Unless you want to fondle their balls, lick their butthole, or just fuck off and 69 with yourself, agreeing or disagreeing are essentially the only options one is given in conversation. Or you could just listen and not reciprocate, but that’s not interactive.
If you want something deeper or more varied just hit up ChatGPT.
I played F3, NV and F4 and I don’t see anything so lacking in F4 that I have to return to the previous games. It definitely wasn’t limited to “I agree”, “I agree, you clod”, “I disagree”, “I disagree and you smell bad” as you seem to make it out to be.
I don’t really understand the premise. The point of being patient imo is to avoid the hype.
So I’ll just answer the question if disappointment in games generally:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It knew it was different, but it still didn’t feel like Zelda to me, so it didn’t scratch that itch I had. I’m enjoying Skyward Sword much more than BotW, the first dungeon just feels like I’m back in Ocarina of Time, the forest feels like Minish Cap somehow, and the premise reminds me of the original The Legend of Zelda (get the sword and go off on an adventure without knowing where you’re headed). BotW is my least favorite Zelda game, mostly because of disappointment. When I heard Tears of the Kingdom was much the same, I didn’t bother getting it. Maybe I’ll get it eventually, but I have no desire to play it.
Borderlands. I had avoided the game so successfully that I knew nothing about it other than that it was a shooter RPG, but I knew it was popular among friends. I missed the window when it came out, so I figured I’d give it a shot. After about 15 minutes, I realized it was just a looter shooter and noped right out. For some reason, I absolutely hate the genre and was disappointed that’s what my friends were so hyped for.
Lords of the Realm III. I loved Lords of the Realm 2 as a kid and played the original at a friend’s house and enjoyed that too. So when Lords of the Realm III came out, I naturally wanted it. However, they threw out pretty much everything I liked about the previous games (strategy around county/resource management) and doubled down on everything I didn’t like as much (sieges) and it just felt like a worse version of the Total War games. Because of this game, one of my life’s goals is to remake Lords of the Realm by preserving the good parts of each game in the series, essentially to make the Lords 3 game I wanted.
So these days, I watch gameplay footage before diving in to a game, because that would’ve avoided my problems with each of the above. There isn’t really a game I’m waiting for, I just have a big wishlist of games that looked interesting at one point that I’ll review when I’m looking for a new game to play.
What’s an example of an excellent game?
Here are a few that really surprised me with how good they were (tried to grab different genres from my recently played list):
- Yakuza 0 - imo, the mix of serious story and silly side content worked fantastically
- Ys 1 - one of my favorites of all time; the combat system really made the game feel urgent and it flowed really well; Ys Origin is close and more modern
- Black Mesa - good enough graphics, great pacing (except Interloper, that dragged), high quality gameplay; I didn’t expect much from a fan-made recreation
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - dungeons were a ton of fun, and side content was enjoyable as well; I originally played on GBA, and replayed on SNES emulator
- INSIDE - clever puzzles, but the real kicker imo was the feeling at the end
- Slay the Spire - one of the few “rogue likes” that I actually ended up playing through; I finished a run with each main character at least once, and I enjoyed it thoroughly
- GTA IV - my favorite GTA, from the compelling story, interesting MC, and relatively realistic feel of driving, it narrowly beats GTA SA for me; V was a disappointment (hated the story and the characters), III is just too dated (though i enjoyed it at the time), and Vice City didn’t feel good to play imo
And some that are probably less well known:
- Recettear - interesting mix of dungeon diving and store management
- Stacking - you play as Russian stacking dolls, and the game doesn’t overstay its welcome
- Abzû - super relaxing, and the story was surprisingly emotionally impactful
An eclectic mix, and some I haven’t heard of. Thanks for the in-depth response.
Yeah, no problem! I hope you find something you enjoy. :)
