Bad Games In A Good Series?

[Tattaglia]

Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

The single player was pretty bad, the only thing different was the "trust system" which you never had to worry about if you don't absolutely botch a main objective. The JBA HQ missions were simply awful. What, you walk slowly around the enemy base to... collect data on the bad guys? Why? The only saving grace for that game was the multiplayer... too bad nobody ever plays it.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Yes, yes, it was a good game, just not up to standards with the rest of the Elder Scrolls. What happened to my levelling system? Why can I beat the main quest a level 3 character?

 

[ZantetsukenQ]

the transition from Nero to Dante was just unsettling, and broke up the game.

I agree. I wonder if it was perhaps just me, but I'd finally started getting Nero mastered and they threw Dante at you to control(though the boss battle was amazing, I hold it up as one of the best battles around) and by the time I was really mastering him they gave you Nero back.

Totally got used to combo-ing with the Devil arm, which is a great addition to the DMC series, but it feels wasted on Nero. Sure, if you go through the game again and again it isn't such a big issue, but my displeasure in comparison to DMC 3 and especially DMC1 yielded no real desire to replay.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Doom 3

 

[PersianLlama]

I thought FFVIII blew.

Edit: Oh and Oblivion, I've only played Morrowind and Oblivion. (Morrowind was a very good game though imo.)

 

[Graustein]

It seems that the number 2 is cursed with games that just don't fit or are underwhelming. Case in point:
Super Mario 2
Zelda 2
Devil May Cry 2
Metal Gear Solid 2
Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest

Maybe it's like Star Trek movies where the odd numbered ones are crappy.

Hey, Zelda 2 is GOOD. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's just not Zelda.

Metroid 2 though, I don't like at all.

 

[Spektre41]

Jak II.

Jak and Daxter was amazing.

Jak 3 was great.

Jak X was pretty fun.

Ah come on now Jak 2 wasn't bad.

Yes, yes it was.

I thought Jak 2 was the best of the series. It took the biggest leaps in terms of changing things up. Jak 3 felt really easy and the story just felt like they didn't know what they were doing. Jak X just wanted to be Mario Kart excepted unbalanced and Jak 1 was...well, Jak 1.

Also, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Perfect Dark Zero, Final Fantasy X-2, Mercenaries 2, and Megaman X6.

The transition from Jak and Daxter to Jak 2 was like turning gold into lead.

Awful gun controls, terrible writing, abysmal vehicle sections, and a city that was too big for it's own good.

 

[Yassen]

I'd probably say Munch's oddysee from the Oddworld series. I understood their desire to go from 2D to 3D but that just doesn't work for those games. But I wouldn't really call it terrible, just worse than the others.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I would just like to take a moment to represent my fellow Legacy of Kain fans by saying that while every-other game in the series was great in one way or another, Blood Omen 2 was absolutely terrible (and riddled with glitches).

 

[varulfic]

Not sure about MGS2. Yeah we all know Raiden was annoying, but overall, the storyline was cool, and it fueled MGS4 to an extent, which in turn redeemed Raiden.

Raiden was far from the worst thing about MGS2. The whole game was just filled with annoyances: The levels design was boring, just cramped orange corridors with no reasonable places to hide. You'd think with PS2 we'd get bigger levels than in the first game, but no, they are all smaller and not that fun. Also, if you are discovered, might aswell turn of the game, since there's no place you can run and hide, where the enemy won't find you.

You're given a bunch of cool weapons like two rifles and a grenade launcher, but damn you if you try to use any of them except the silenced pistol or sniper rifle, since every other weapon sets of the alarm and then you're dead.

Also, the story was abysmal. It was not cool in any sense of the word, it was just lame. I mean, come on, a possessed hand? You can't defend that, it's possisbly the dumbest idea ever. Solid Snake Simulation? Who cares? And the la-li-lu-le-lo, oh my god, it's like Kojima intentionally wanted to break suspension of disbelief by adding the most random, horrible plots imaginable. Any cool part about the story was just rehashed from MGS, like the ninja, mr X/deepthroat, and the torture room.


So yeah, MGS2 definitely does not live up to the standard of the rest of the series.

I thought FFVIII blew.

Amen. I didn't mind the love story so much, emo Squall and his stock character friends were annoying, but all that is eclipsed by the sheer unbridled horribleness of the combat. It's easily the worst combat I have ever seen in any turn based RPG ever. It's overly complicated (I still don't care enough to understand it) trying to strengthen your character, and ultimately pointless since every battle can be won using your GFs, which deal 10x more damage than regular attacks and makes you practically invincible while you use them. I got to the end of the third CD by using only GFs, and then I got stuck on a boss on which GFs were useless. Also, turn based combat is supposed to be relaxing, allowing you to think before you make your move, sort of like chess. ATB kind of screwed this up, but it got even worse in FF8 since you had to boost your GFs by pressing square as fast as you could for two minutes to deal more damage, and time your gunblade attack. If I wanted to test my reflexes or button mashing speed, I wouldn't be playing a freaking Final Fantasy game. Atrocious.

 

[Dommyboy]

Paper Mario and Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year door were great but than they went into platforming with Super Paper Mario and its lost its charm.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Final Fantasy 8. Horrible storytelling and character development.

I would say Warcraft3, but really it was just matching its predecessors in crapiness.

 

[varulfic]

Warcraft 3 is awesome, and so is the rest of the series.

 

[Digitalpotato]

Final Fantasy X. To this day I still seek the version of the game that the reviewers got to play. Maybe it was a version without Tidus, or where he jumped off the airship at the end and got sucked into the engine, maybe it was a No Sphere Grid version where Wakka and Kimarhi actually had some use without Trio of 9999.

 

[haruvister]

Doom 3

I was going to say Doom 2! I like Doom 3, and its sweaty, oppressive atmosphere. It truly feels like a descent into perdition. I found Doom 2 too 'set-piecey', too contrived. Although not bad, as such.

On topic: Escape From Monkey Island.

 

[TheDean]

Jak II.

Jak and Daxter was amazing.

Jak 3 was great.

Jak X was pretty fun.

Ah come on now Jak 2 wasn't bad.

Yes, yes it was.

I thought Jak 2 was the best of the series. It took the biggest leaps in terms of changing things up. Jak 3 felt really easy and the story just felt like they didn't know what they were doing. Jak X just wanted to be Mario Kart excepted unbalanced and Jak 1 was...well, Jak 1.

Also, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Perfect Dark Zero, Final Fantasy X-2, Mercenaries 2, and Megaman X6.

Jak and Daxter was frickin' amazing! You had all the types of eco, and the nice animated paradise type of place and it was fun and good. Jak 2 made it evil and nastry- which is good in 90% of games, but not when the first was so nice. Jak 3 was ok but nothign great, and i didn't buy Jak X cos it had cars.

 

[Hachura]

Call of Duty 3. - One word. Treyarch.
Medal of Honor: Airborne. - Something about it... don't know. EA went overboard with trimming down the violence in the series.
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. - Waited so long... so many glitches and we still have to put up with the crappy hit detection b/s. Bugs and bad utilisation of the UT3 engine killed what could have been a great game, the story is fantastic.

 

[TheDean]

Crash bandicoot Series works as follows: First game is so frickin' awesome i want to marry it.
2 is ok, but it does introduce the evil warp rooms, and wher the hell is tawna?
3 was really fun, but i don't like the talking masks, and i don't want this new story at all. Also, i hate crystals.
CTR was the only good game with cars EVER.Plus the return of some of my fav bosses from 1.
Crash Bash=fun multiplayer game i loved.

Then it all goes horribly wrong. No more Naughty dog, no more good games. Wrath of Cortex= completely broken and i hate it.
Nitro cart completely fails. too many new people, and can someone please tell me WHERE THE HELL IS TAWNA???????
Then Twnsanity. I refused to buy this game, or any since because it SUCKED. bad idea people! Then some more crpa games like Crash of the titans. i played the demo, it was horrible. Why lack of wampa fruits?
Then it gets worse. The new game will have newly designed msaks, complete fail with everything, at least Brio is back hough, AND where the hell is TAWNA?

 

[varulfic]

Doom 3

I was going to say Doom 2! I like Doom 3, and its sweaty, oppressive atmosphere. It truly feels like a descent into perdition. I found Doom 2 too 'set-piecey', too contrived. Although not bad, as such.

I think Doom 2 was the best in the series. It was kinda like the first one but with more interesting levels, and the double barreled shotgun is just so satisfying to use. I found Doom 3 to be boring, especially after the first few levels when you had gotten used to the 'scares', and it far too easy - like in Doom 2, the enemies are weak and easy to kill, but in that game you face twenty at a time, in Doom 3 you face two to three. And later in the game, the soul cube gives you full health every five kills, making you practically invincible. The only level I really liked in Doom 3 was the last one, where you start by fighting three hell knights and then some boss arachnids - it felt more like the older games, with non stop blasting fun and no weak attempts at horror. If they just made the whole game like that then it would probably be among my favorite games ever, it was that fun.


edit: Oh my god, Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex was awful. It was exactly like the third game only with uninspired boss battles and the longest loading times I have ever seen in a Playstation 2 game. I mean, first the menu had to load, then you had to load your game, then you picked your level and it had to load AGAIN! Each loading time was over 30 seconds long, some felt like minutes but that might just be my memory playing tricks on me.

 

[Baby Tea]

On topic: Escape From Monkey Island.

Totally! I loved 1, 2, and 3.
4?
Boo.

Also: King's Quest 7 and 8 (For all my fellow old school gamers!)

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Tiberium sun and its firestorm expansion. (Im counting only the cannon series line red alert->c+c1->tib sun->firestorm->c+c3<->Kane's wrath) I still loved the story but I hated the units and the new style just didnt feel like command and conquer and made me only play it to get to the next cutscene.