Bad games with great ideas or settings

[Ihateregistering1]

So I was thinking about games that weren't all that good, but had great ideas or, even more appropriately, had really great and original settings that you really wish would get explored in greater depth. Unfortunately, since the original game wasn't so hot (or didn't do so well), it's likely the last time we'll see it.

Nocturne: Came out in the 90's, about a secret Government organization in 20's and 30's fighting against paranormal creatures. Sort of a combination of The Untouchables, X-Com, and the X-Files. Awesome characters, great atmosphere, great settings with very cool ideas, but was hampered by terrible combat and atrocious camera angles (it used the old-school Resident Evil fixed camera angles, forcing you to frequently shoot guys you couldn't even see). Plus someone decided to add jumping puzzles (awful idea). Interestingly, one of it's characters, Svetlana, was pretty much the direct inspiration for Rayne from 'Bloodrayne'.

Krush, Kill, and Destroy: The 90's saw a whole plethora of RTS games coming out looking to cash in on the success of Warcraft 2 and Command and Conquer. KKnD was one of them, but stood out from the crowd with its humor, and interesting post-apocalyptic setting. The game was basically a combination of Mad Max, Command and Conquer, and Fallout. However, the real stars of the game were the "Evolved" faction, who were surface dwellers who survived the nuclear holocaust and now fought with giant mutated animals as their tanks, including rocket-launcher equipped Fiddler crabs, machine gun toting mammoths, and acid spewing beetles. Unfortunately, the game was hampered by its crazy difficulty and old-school, outdated RTS controls.

Anyway, Escapist folk, what say you? Games that had awesome ideas but just didn't have the gameplay to back them up?

 

[FalloutJack]

So, there was a game that came out that...I can't remember the name of, but it was apparently a game that turns your computer into a battlefield against viruses on said computer, that you can wage war with directly. I liked the idea, but I was disappointed in one very important thing: This wasn't a game that allowed you to interactively clean up your computer and make it both an effective and fun way to do that. It was just a simulation. A simulated virus would get released into your system and blah blah blah... I wanted a game that actually allows me to personally crush real computer viruses. So, good in theory, but not in execution.

 

[Vykrel]

wouldnt quite call it a bad game, but a very mediocre and disappointing one: Destiny. the premise is really interesting, but it just wound up having no depth whatsoever.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Genesis Rising, think Homeworld where every ship in the game is entirely organic. However it doesn't run on modern OS's is very buggy if it does run and the writing lies between "amusingly bad" and just "bad" and generally the game isn't worth trying to get it to run for laughs alone.
However I really think this insane idea where the empire of man is built upon an armada of evolving modifyable organic ships you can shape to your will has real potential.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Too Human sounded really great on paper and the world was very pretty to look at. Unfortunately the awful game play ruined everything and the abysmal sales resulted in the death of a planned trilogy.

Man that game sucked... such a let down.

 

[The Madman]

I actually really like the basic idea behind Dragon Age 2: A smaller tighter focus towards a singular location and cast of characters over a longer period of time. I'd love an rpg that actually did that properly.

Another fun one, since a recent topic reminded me of it, is Hellgate: London. Semi-futuristic humanity vs the legions of hell completely with an awesome cyberpunk meets gothic are style? Hell yeah!

 

[Sight Unseen]

Recently, I think that The Flock has a very interesting core gameplay premise but it's ruined by a lack of variety and that silly population counter that will NEVER reach 0. The game is basically abandoned already.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Too Human sounded really great on paper and the world was very pretty to look at. Unfortunately the awful game play ruined everything and the abysmal sales resulted in the death of a planned trilogy.

Man that game sucked... such a let down.

It was the kind of silly idea that might have done well in one game, but Silicon Knights definitely overreached and Dyack was a piece of work,. Suing Epic didn't help them any.

OT: Sunset is the obvious game of the moment; experiencing a civil war one step removed could have been great, if only they'd put a game into their software toy. Or a decent story. Or developers who'd take criticism and use it to build something better instead of insulting everyone and ragequitting the industry.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

While I heavily enjoy The Godfather II, I know it's heavily flawed. But that Strategy system though!

I want a multiplayer take on street turf warfare that actually incorporates some hands on shooty shoots.

 

[SD-Fiend]

Avalon Code for the DS. The game is centered around you being the only one who can decide what will or won't survive the inevitable apocalypse by scanning people, monsters and whatever else into a magical book that gives you the ability to mess around with their traits and abilities to change how they act and react to things.

Neither the story or gameplay actually uses any of it in any substantial way whatsoever.
If you don't mind spoilers:

The whole game is just a huge... disappointment from it's story, basic gameplay, and main gimmick.
I implore anyone with the time and attention span to read the Let's Play the LP'er has created for the playthrough. He gives the game the story that it should have had whilst staying true to the original.
lparchive.org/Avalon-Code/

 

[Tuxedoman]

Gawd there are a few.

Syndicate's remake did an amazing job of painting the world I think, as well as providing a lot of interesting hints as to what was going on behind the shallow story you were presented with. Yes the 20th century version exists, and yes it can still be played, but i'll be damned if it doesn't look and run like ass.

I'd be so bold as to say Wildstar actually. Lets be honest, the game at launch was a -mess-. Sure it's better now, but at launch half the systems didn't work and you were left with broken PvP or insanely punishing PvE as your only endgame options. That all said, I loved the Ratchet and Clank art design, the sci-fi western fantasy mixup of genres and the quirky humor. Hopefully it's re-release will do better.

Now to get my hipster e-peen out, and list AI War: Fleet command. It has a very positive average review score, but my -god- its presentation is bad. I don't care that its sprite based, the fact that those sprites aren't even all in the same rendering style is awful. Some are pixel art, others are 3-d renders converted into a 2-d plane, and most of them are uninspired to begin with. Its a shame because the PvE focus against an enemy you can't ever defeat with brute force is a really cool idea, and some of the mechanics are really sweet. Alas, it lacks polish and feels like its full of placeholder art and animation rather than being actually finished.

 

[someguy1231]

Destiny. My go-to example of "Good Concept, Bad Execution" in gaming.

 

[renegade7]

Dust 514 had this great idea. You would get to be the foot soldiers in the player-driven wars connected to EVE Online. The plan was that there would ultimately be things like boarding actions against other people's ships and stations, single-player campaign content, and seamless integration with the main EVE Online game.

Instead, how it came out was a second-rate, PS3-exclusive (which I don't begrudge in general so much as the fact that EVE Online's fanbase is entirely PC gamers) Battlefield clone with some sci-fi elements the only saving grace of which being that it was free. Supposedly there are "plans" to fix it, but CCP hasn't laid out anything concrete.

The only really interesting or exceptional thing about that game was the tie-in novel (Templar One) that came out after it entered Beta.

 

[PhantomEcho]

Destiny. My go-to example of "Good Concept, Bad Execution" in gaming.

Destiny is such a goddamn bummer for me.

I really, really wanted to love the game. I wanted to be excited by the concept behind it. I wanted to see what kind of magic they would whip up without the burden of Halo's expanding universe and lore. What did they do with their new freedom? They made Halo meets Diablo 3 minus any of the cool story.

It felt like it wanted to be an MMO, an RPG, and an FPS all rolled up into one... but it only managed to pull off a semi-solid FPS game with a bit of Diablo's random items and multiplayer tossed in as a lazy afterthought.

It could have been so much better than the epitome of Mediocre.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Alpha Protocol can be likened to a scratch-off ticket that has two Jackpots and one Cherry. I love how your character is the biggest asshole in the world, I love how you can specialize in a ton of skills, I love how if you don't train in a skill you're basically useless with that skill but the game needed more time in development. The plot was interesting and I liked the spy angle but again, the gameplay was buggy and laggy and just...not very good.

Star Wars the Force Unleashed was a mediocre game with an amazing idea: Star Wars Anthology based around force users who lived on the fringes of the official time-line. Starkiller was neat and the first game was a good proof-of-concept but the next game could be about anybody like Exar Kun, Ulic Quel-Droma, the resurrected Darth Maul...It's too bad that idea was scrapped to make way for a useless direct sequel based around a love interest that didn't fucking exist in the original game.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Remember Me. Interesting setting and premise, interesting concept with the whole "recreating memories" bit. It was all brought down by the actual memory recreation being a side thought to bland and mediocre third person beat 'em up action and on-rails, boring parkour.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Avalon Code for the DS

Oh cool, there's at least one other person who played this game. I thought it had a really great concept, the world is going to be destroyed and your choices in the game decide how it will be reborn.

Except, spoiler alert, they do almost nothing with this. At the very end, you barely even get to see anything of the world you created. Unfortunately it's been a while since I played it, but I think you just got to choose the color of the sky and small details like that.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Star Wars the Force Unleashed was a mediocre game with an amazing idea: Star Wars Anthology based around force users who lived on the fringes of the official time-line. Starkiller was neat and the first game was a good proof-of-concept but the next game could be about anybody like Exar Kun, Ulic Quel-Droma, the resurrected Darth Maul...It's too bad that idea was scrapped to make way for a useless direct sequel based around a love interest that didn't fucking exist in the original game.

Nevermind the whole "canon" ending of TFU2 was completely batshit crazy and absolutely tossed the entire Star Wars universe into chaos...

Spoiler: Thankfully this is retconned/removed by Disney

Starkiller/clone defeats Vader and captures him, shipping him off to the Rebels? WTF... this would have been the point I lost faith in LucasArts but they'd pretty much did that by other means prior to this.

 

[Godhead]

Spore. It will always and forever be Spore. The void in my heart will never be be healed.