gaming Games that SHOULD have been great but just weren't

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,284]

We all know those types of games. The type of game that sounds PERFECT and should be incredible, but for one reason or a lot of reasons, it turns out mediocre or even bad. Then we proceed to wonder for the longest time how such a great concept was screwed up entirely.

 

Let's share our own personal choices for this category. What are some games that you think should have been awesome but just didn't hit the mark?

 

Here is a very easy choice for me: One Piece Burning Blood. A game that should have been incredible because it is a fighting game with the characters from One Piece, how can that not be amazing? Well, the fighting engine was barebones and not fun, the balance was non-existent and it just wasn't good. The content and visuals were top notch but the fighting itself was unpolished. Somehow, this game just didn't turn out well despite the amazing concept.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,704]

Spore.

 

Game about evolving from cell organism to advanced space civilization is highly interesting one. Demo of game from 2005 looked amazing. However, for some reason, game became very simplified in finished product. I still had fun playing it, but it was nowhere near potential it had. Hopefully if Spore 2 ever gets made, it will be notably better.

[Megas 27,064]

FREAKING TMNT MUTANTS IN MANHATTAN

YOU HAD TO LET THE KORRA DIRECTOR LEAD THE GAME DIDN'T YOU?

[baba_booey 4,299]

No Man's Sky I felt had lots of potential, involving a lot of exploration and crafting and being set in space across multiple planets was a great idea, yet we ended up getting a game that was poorly optimized and buggy to the point where even console ports (which should be optimized correctly for the console it's on) crash running it. It is still new, so there'll probably patches for it in the future which will improve it, but that's the one that comes to mind for me at the moment.

[Guest]

Metal Gear Solid V. I tried a little bit at my friend's house and I didn't get a buzz from it like the predecessors. I don't know if I've lost my love for it or it's because it's in the new generation of gaming which I don't have a potential to liking...

[Guest]

I'll say it:

 

Duke Nukem Forever.

 

While it entices reactions of snickers and ridicule now that it's actually out, Duke Nukem Forever SHOULD have been an easy home run. A classic, established comedic character, a fun concept from a game that set some of the standards for the genre with modern technology to make the new game. It should have been a "piece of cake".

[Prospekt 10,984]

Sonic '06.

 

It was supposed to be a triumphant 15th anniversary release to commemorate how far the series had come. Instead, it was a slow, glitchy, sloppy, and cumbersome game with a messy excuse for a plot. It's generally considered the worst Sonic game ever made, and for good reason.

[Light of Night 332]

The Warlords of Draenor expansion for World of Warcraft.  The zones were fun, I loved the treasures one could stumble across.  However, there were only about three raids, the character arcs were mediocre in my opinion, and at the end, it was just garrison chores then jumping around all day.  I only just got back into it because I'm hopeful about Legion.

[SolyWack 482]

The timing of this post makes me think it was created for No Man's Sky. In which case, I would agree. I never expected the No Man's Sky: Coming of Jesus edition, but I still expected a little more...game in my game. Especially for $60.

 

I won't name off everything I hate, but real short, I expected a game about space exploration, galactic trading, and occasional space battles. There's no objective, so exploring feels empty. Trading is dumbed down to basic RPG, buy for a lot, sell for half. And space battles are pretty much a pirate ship here and there.

 

Really disappointing. I wanted to like it, 24 hours in, I think I'm cutting my loses. But I respect other people, and realize that it probably isn't objectively bad, and might just not be my type of game. I'm not so low to rage about a lost $60 here and there. The government takes more from me every two weeks anyway (hey hey! oh..).

[KirbyFluttershy 2,517]

Well I know people who liked maple story's new content would hate me for this, but as I speak for the players who liked the old content better which is the pre-big bang and talking about the game's problems and issues, I believe that maple story was great till post-big bang, but it didn't hit the mark of the old contents even when there's pre-big bang event going on, it just didn't attract players back. As for the problems and issues with maple story, well it's over-the-top in terms of complaints and bad reviews and endgame contents weren't up to the par with other MMORPG's endgame contents. I mean cmon, bossing as a endgame content? where's the fun in that? Party play in maple story was just terrible, there are supporting classes that needs party play, but solo play isn't the type of thing for supporting classes like bishop, beast tamers, and kannas and I believe that the party play wasn't just up to par compared to the other MMORPG's party plays.

[Envy 5,999]

Animal Crossing City Folk.

 

The way they advertised it, it really led us fans from the original AC:GCN era to think that the game would be a best of both worlds between the GCN version and Wild World. Since Wild World had issues (removing holidays, among many other smaller things I no longer remember), but also did some things that majorly improved the series (hats being optional, hairstyles, Wi-Fi, large house, etc.).

 

Instead, City Folk just felt like a watered down Wild World. They added holidays back, but that's all I could give it. They did so many other unforgivable things and the whole game just felt slopped together. Thank goodness they really redeemed themselves with New Leaf, but that took many years.

[Twilight Dirac 720]

The last two chapters in the Ultima series definitely apply:

 

Ultima 8 - The Avatar gets banished to a post apocalyptic world were he must work to escape by mastering five different schools of magic, banishing the dark gods that control the world and take there place in this action RPG.  It was rushed out by EA largely incomplete and with much of its content cut and with most of its gameplay functions barely working.  To make things worse, the game is padded with some of the worst platforming I have encountered in any game.

 

Ultima 9 - This was supposed to be the grand finale and capstone of the series, but basically had its staff cut by EA and was again rushed out by EA.  The game was highly linear, largely based around mediocre puzzles, was beyond buggy and barely paid any attention to continuity, a major problem when you are supposed to be tying up the plot threads at the end of a prolonged video game series.

 

The moral of the story is that EA f---ing sucks and they need to stop buying out smaller game studios that churn out good products.

 

 

 

Spore.   Game about evolving from cell organism to advanced space civilization is highly interesting one. Demo of game from 2005 looked amazing. However, for some reason, game became very simplified in finished product. I still had fun playing it, but it was nowhere near potential it had. Hopefully if Spore 2 ever gets made, it will be notably better.

 

I am not really surprised by its failure.  Spore was just too ambitious and pulling off 5 separate games modes successfully and having them tied together in a sensible, coherent way that actually enhanced the disparate games modes and expecting it all to work was just short of asking for divine intervention.   

Edited August 15, 2016 by Twilight Dirac

[~Sassy Dashie~ 712]

I'm gonna go with Pokemon ORAS.

 

I kinda thought it flopped. I know it was a remake but the whole game was so damn easy, the gyms were like swatting flies! Could have had more to it while still keeping it like the original.

[A Black Circle 1,585]

Fallout 3. You have a lot of the same team that had worked on Morrowind transitioning one of the greatest RPGs into a first person shooter. Seems like it should work out, but what we got was the bare fucking minimum for a fallout game. Literally everything was bland, and FNV showed it up 2 years later.

[Envy 5,999]

Spore.

 

Game about evolving from cell organism to advanced space civilization is highly interesting one. Demo of game from 2005 looked amazing. However, for some reason, game became very simplified in finished product. I still had fun playing it, but it was nowhere near potential it had. Hopefully if Spore 2 ever gets made, it will be notably better.

 

Don't get your hopes up. EA can't even do The Sims right anymore. Like seriously... The Sims 4 is just as bad as Animal Crossing City Folk. I just didn't mention it, because I knew The Sims 4 wouldn't be worth my time or money the instant they showed the first trailer, had nothing to really show for, and then went an entire year without revealing any information about the game at all (which was coming up very close to its release.)

 

If they couldn't get Spore right back in 2007, there's no chance in the world they could now.

 

I'm gonna go with Pokemon ORAS.

 

I kinda thought it flopped. I know it was a remake but the whole game was so damn easy, the gyms were like swatting flies! Could have had more to it while still keeping it like the original.

 

Did you have Exp. Share on? That sure has made X/Y and OR/AS a breeze to go through... and I can't get myself to play with it turned off because it's just so tempting! >.<

 

I thought OR/AS were pretty good actually.  They took the story to new heights... (Lol. Get it?) and the PokeRadar feature is easily the best of its type in the entire series. (for that reason alone I know it will not be in Sun/Moon. >.>)

Edited August 15, 2016 by Envy

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,704]

@@Twilight Dirac,

Perhaps, but I will say that the demo from 2005 looked far more interesting than the actual released game. True, perhaps if the game continued down that path, there still would have been flaws. But I would think that far more people would have enjoyed the game.

 

@@Envy,

Well, it's more wishful thinking than anything. But even if EA weren't such a... questionable publisher, I'm not too confident about a second Spore game happening at all. Unless I'm mistaken, they haven't done anything with Spore brand since 2011; though I suppose you could argue whether it is good or bad that they are not milking the franchise.

 

As for Sims 4, it's really a shame because the new mood, create a sim, and multitasking feature seem quite appealing but they have also taken several steps back by notably removing open world and easy customization. Sims 3 remains to be the best in the series in my opinion.

 

SimCity 5 is another great disappointment. Honestly, I didn't think improving upon SimCity 4 would have been difficult at all. At least from my view, just making the cities bigger and have everything in 3D would have been great. It boggles my mind how backwards they seemed to be. But fortunately, Cities Skylines exists.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Tsaritsa Luna

[Flutter's lover <3 8,204]

Destiny.

 

 

We were promised open world "if you can see it you can go to it" stuff....Not much of a story to it. Not much is known about the enemies and any lore is separate from the game. if you wanna read the lore, you gotta go to the Bungie website...lame. Once you got the "end game gear" everyone looked the same...there's really no individuality in Destiny aside from a shader...which there's only so many of....even with the recent addition of CHroma gear, it's still kinda bland...not to mention the reskins of Year 1 armour and weapons being in Year 2..only difference being a different colour. Whole lotta recycled stuff in it...and you still pay for it with each DLC. Character customization is rather lackluster. Everyone has basically the same gear and everyone looks the same. Not to mention the amount of grinding for gear....

[Envy 5,999]

@@Envy,

Well, it's more wishful thinking than anything. But even if EA weren't such a... questionable publisher, I'm not too confident about a second Spore game happening at all. Unless I'm mistaken, they haven't done anything with Spore brand since 2011; though I suppose you could argue whether it is good or bad that they are not milking the franchise.

 

As for Sims 4, it's really a shame because the new mood, create a sim, and multitasking feature seem quite appealing but they have also taken several steps back by notably removing open world and easy customization. Sims 3 remains to be the best in the series in my opinion.

 

I never played Spore, so I'm not even aware they were still releasing something from it as recent as 2011. I just remember one of my friends playing it back in September or so of 2007.

 

It's true - The Sims 4's Create a Sim is really nice, the recent gender diversity patch they released was also excellent. The added content where they added businesses and restaurants also looks really nice. But The Sims 4 itself is such a step backwards that there's not much they can even do for it.

 

They should just go release all of that for The Sims 3!

[Twilight Dirac 720]

A post a just made in a different thread reminded me of another pair of games.

 

Starcraft & Starcraft 2:  Brilliantly designed RTS games emphasizing asymmetric warfare that are ruined by the need for stringent build orders and excessive micromanagement.

[Celli 4,332]

Let's see... 

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor had a lot of potential but so much was left out at launch, and it ended up being even worse than Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria.

Destiny. Had lots of build-up and hype, and should have been a fantastic game from the geniuses at Bungie. Things unfortunately didn't work out in the end. 

[Justin_Case001 4,855]

I'll go with a very interesting title that warrants closer inspection: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  I had just finished Skyrim, which was my first experience with Elder Scrolls.  I was blown away, but it many ways the game left a bitter aftertaste due to bugs, crashes, and Rimlag.  I was searching far and wide for another rpg experience that might give me the open-world, vast scope of Elder Scrolls, but with better performance.  It was a Herculean task, for sure.  Nothing seemed to fit the bill.  A lifetime of Final Fantasy had left me....weary, and it need of more freedom.  I finally settled on Reckoning, which promised to be a blend of Elder Scrolls and God of War.  An open world rpg with hyper-responsive, God of War combat.  What more could you ever want in a game?  It sounded like it could well be the greatest game of all time.  And, honestly, it was very well done, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for.  It did indeed boast responsive, fast-paced combat, an open world, and best of all, near flawless performance.  Not one crash, and nary a framerate hiccup to speak of.  And the visuals!  My sweet Celestia, the visuals!  It should have been the greatest game of all time, but it just...wasn't.  Cookie cutter quests and a lack of anything original to see just left me feeling bored.  Honestly, I found myself struggling to stay awake many times, even though I wasn't really tired.  Also, there was something about the combat that just felt a tad askew.  It was a great system, but many enemy attacks felt cheap an annoying.  It felt like when you died, it was the game's fault, and not yours and that's not what you want.  It didn't feel like the combat was really in your hands.  But with some minor tweaking, it could have been God of War perfection.  It was just such a beautiful game, but without any of the interesting things in Skyrim that just kept you daydreaming about the next time you get to play it.  I wanted so badly to love Reckoning, but I just didn't.  Most of my time in-game was spent wandering around my house in my underwear.

 

 

Ultima 9 - This was supposed to be the grand finale and capstone of the series, but basically had its staff cut by EA and was again rushed out by EA.  The game was highly linear, largely based around mediocre puzzles, was beyond buggy and barely paid any attention to continuity, a major problem when you are supposed to be tying up the plot threads at the end of a prolonged video game series.

Oh, man, good ol' Ultima 9.  That's a blast from the past.  That was a big deal when I first played it.  I had never played any Ultima before, and a friend gave me 9.  It was the biggest and most impressive rpg I had ever seen.  I became obsessed with it.  I thought it was the greatest thing ever, but in retrospect, it really was a piece of crap.  Once every 5-10 years, I'll go back and play around with it a little again, just for a laugh.

[Discordian 6,013]

Sonic '06.

 

It was supposed to be a triumphant 15th anniversary release to commemorate how far the series had come. Instead, it was a slow, glitchy, sloppy, and cumbersome game with a messy excuse for a plot. It's generally considered the worst Sonic game ever made, and for good reason.

Legitimately I have always attributed this game's failure to the fact that it was quite literally never finished. If it had at least been a functioning game it would have been one of, if not the best games in the series.

I'll say it:

 

Duke Nukem Forever.

 

While it entices reactions of snickers and ridicule now that it's actually out, Duke Nukem Forever SHOULD have been an easy home run. A classic, established comedic character, a fun concept from a game that set some of the standards for the genre with modern technology to make the new game. It should have been a "piece of cake".

Maybe this is because I've never really had a chance to sit down and really play the older Duke Nukem games but I thought DNF, aside from the shitty loading times even after you die in the same area over and over again, was actually a really fun game. It was exactly what I expected out of it.

[Snow 5,305]

"crossout" a newish mad max themed vehicular shoot em up arena game that kinda resembles robocraft, it is currently in closed beta testing (i was lucky enough to get an early access key) but it just turned out to be not as fun as i hoped :c i should feel privileged considering how many other people want to play it but i cant enjoy it like others can, the restrictions in the game make it a bit too hard to enjoy..

[Guest]

A post a just made in a different thread reminded me of another pair of games.

 

Starcraft & Starcraft 2:  Brilliantly designed RTS games emphasizing asymmetric warfare that are ruined by the need for stringent build orders and excessive micromanagement.

 

That's more of a case of the community ruined them. Right now, smurfing is hurting SC2, but little can be done. :c

[RealityPublishing 323]

Now, I'm going with the majority on this one, but Watch_Dogs has been known to be one of the most disappointing releases. Personally, I love the game and would play it again and again, but when comparing to what Ubisoft advertised at E3?

 

No.

 

Ubisoft promised a next-generation experience with civilians littering the streets, beautiful graphics, and unforgettable mechanics. Instead, we got a watered-down, buggy, unstable, bare piece of crap with a story about as deep as a revenge plot goes. (Seriously, kill 500 people over the death of your niece? What is this?)

 

Again, I love the game to death, but I will always have to admit that it wasn't the game it was supposed to be.