Critically Panned Games You Will Defend to the Death

[Fidelias]

Beast Wars for the PS1. That's right, I'm going there! My favorite thing about that game was being able to play as the Predicons and not just the good guys, the Maximals.

Hold on a second. THEY MADE A BEAST WARS GAME!?!? WHY DON'T I HAVE THIS!? I NEED TO HAVE THIS!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Beast Wars was basically, no, it WAS my childhood.

Anyway, I'd defend KoTOR 2 to the death. Not sure if it counts, but it does get a bad Rep for being unfinished. And yeah, that sucks. But the below average ending didn't mess up the storyline for the game or the series, so it wasn't too bad. I actually think that if they just added a ten second clip at the end showing your character walking alone on some deserted planet, "following Revan's path", that the ending would've jumped up to "pretty damn good".

 

[Mariakko]

I will defend Two Worlds to death. Yes it had horrible voice acting, balance issues, spelling errors, and glitches up the wazoo but I got a great 2 play-throughs out of it.
Apparently Mirror's Edge got panned? I shall defend that too!

 

[Don Savik]

Mirror's Edge and Tenchu games. Mirror's Edge was both unique AND very playable. I don't get what all the fuss was about. Tenchu is......... well you're a fucking ninja and you actually have to be stealthy. I dare you to do better.

Mirror's Edge is my choice as well, and a lot of people hated it because it was disorienting. You know how gamer's reaction times are apparently like those of a fighter pilots? Well APPARENTLY there are an exception to the rule made up by the older game reviewer types that projectile vomit if put into a fast paced first person perspective......who knew.

Was it that hard really? I found the movement to be fluid and fun, and not at all disorienting. Seriously how old are we? Unless your really really prone to motion sickness I can understand, but cmon gamers, we have better reaction times than this.

Also for SOME reason people wanted it to be open world, like that makes it better somehow. To be honest, linearity did that game justice because it gave it a sense of urgency when running to and from your location. Also people died a lot because they're bad at the game, so that apparently made it a bad game.

The "negative" aspects of the game look more like people who are bad at games complaining that they're bad at games.

 

[bobmd13]

I dont know someone said the Harry Potter games.

Now I won one of these in a EA giveaway and believe me if this game had been released on the PC as a title solely, it would have died a quick and very very horrible death.

I mean I cant say anything good about it.

Graphics: Atrocious

Gameplay : see above

Controls: see above

Never Never Never again

but then 40 mins of play does not make a game but hey thats all i can do in Assassins Creed 2 will not allow me to reconfigure the controls to a left handed person.

But then I should say the same about Dead Space 1 and 2 it has the same fookin problem.

May be good I will never know, even with ini file changes which cause conflicts

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'm going to join the increasingly not-so-fringe-looking club of defending Dragon Age 2.

People say the story doesn't go anywhere, but considering the stock alternative in every fantasy RPG ever is "there is evil stuff and you are the only one who can stop them", I'll take it. The use of recurring minor characters and interweaving plot threads is something no modern RPG has really done.

The levelling system is hugely better than Origins. There are problems with the way it is implemented, and doesn't allow for some of the more unusual concepts which you could build in Origins (like a heavily armoured battlemage or a dual-wielding warrior) but it's extremely tight. A lot of the choice in origins was false choice, as there was generally a very clear "best" way to play.

The only thing I think is genuinely worse is the combat, which unfortunately is a large chunk of the game. But hey, it's not horrible. Plus I appreciate how it tried to limit the effectiveness of potions and healing, thus ever so slightly purging the excessive influence Blizzard entertainment has over modern RPGs.

Oh, and I suppose I can see how some people didn't like the recycled environments, but then I'm not sure how much more annoying and/or visually boring it was than simply using the same 3 or 4 tilesets for every dungeon or building and just making random room layouts out of them.

 

[Hawk eye1466]

Too Human
Also the first Two Worlds

TO
THE
DEATH

Not trolling or trying to start a fight but. Why I'm curious.

Oh and I don't care but I sorta liked black ops Woods was just too cool and then they played sympathy for the devil so yeah it may have sucked and the multiplayer may have gotten on my nerves to the point where I wanted to show certain players what a shotgun can do from an inch away but you know the ending was just pure awsomeness so I can forgive it for the minor issues.

 

[Chronologist]

I'll stand behind Alpha Protocol and Mirror's Edge as well. AP had the same sort of mission design as Mass Effect, and for that (and the dialogue choices and story influences), I will always look at it favorably. Mirror's Edge has a FANTASTIC score, seriously outstanding. Still Alive (not the song from Portal) by Lisa Mickovsky is incredible. Mirror's Edge also managed to make first-person platforming WORK, which is more than I can say for a lot of 3rd person games.


Ultimately, though, my favorite panned game is...

Dark Void

With a 50%-60% metacritic rating, it's not exactly a winner. And true, the story was a bit flimsy, but it worked. The game was too short, but that's just because I wanted MORE. The mechanics are solid, the quick time events actually tolerable, and it had incredibly fun boss and mini-boss battles. Imagine the quick-time grab-and-stab finishers of Shadow of the Collosus, but instead of a horse you have a jetpack that fires rockets.

The game lets you fly around in a jetpack shooting a minigun strapped to your back, eventually upgraded to a ROCKET LAUNCHER, had a nice variety of different weapons to choose from, and did I mention the JETPACK? Seriously, try the game out. I've played the sections with the jetpack easily 10 times over each. It's an incredibly fun experience, and if you can find it for 15$ or less, pick it up. You won't regret it.

 

[Chronologist]

I'm going to join the increasingly not-so-fringe-looking club of defending Dragon Age 2.

People say the story doesn't go anywhere, but considering the stock alternative in every fantasy RPG ever is "there is evil stuff and you are the only one who can stop them", I'll take it. The use of recurring minor characters and interweaving plot threads is something no modern RPG has really done.

The levelling system is hugely better than Origins. There are problems with the way it is implemented, and doesn't allow for some of the more unusual concepts which you could build in Origins (like a heavily armoured battlemage or a dual-wielding warrior) but it's extremely tight. A lot of the choice in origins was false choice, as there was generally a very clear "best" way to play.

The only thing I think is genuinely worse is the combat, which unfortunately is a large chunk of the game. But hey, it's not horrible. Plus I appreciate how it tried to limit the effectiveness of potions and healing, thus ever so slightly purging the excessive influence Blizzard entertainment has over modern RPGs.

Oh, and I suppose I can see how some people didn't like the recycled environments, but then I'm not sure how much more annoying and/or visually boring it was than simply using the same 3 or 4 tilesets for every dungeon or building and just making random room layouts out of them.

Meh. I would say the worst part of Dragon Age 2 was that Hawke wasn't REALLY that important a figure in history. He/She just happened to be close-by when all of this happened.

Grand total of Hawke's achievements: Saved Flemeth (not really a good idea, honestly), made some money from looting dead people underground, let a piece of solid Lyrium loose on the world, killed a Qunari warlord in (mostly) single combat (okay, that was pretty awesome), and made the judgement call that determined whether the lyrium-corrupted Templars or blood-magic-corrupted Mages would win a battle.

Doesn't really seem that heroic to me, especially since Hawke was supposed to be the most important figure in the history of the Dragon Age world.

Here's the thing, though: I didn't hate the game. It has, by far, my favorite banter in any RPG I've ever played. I played through that game twice just to hear Varric talk about his racy novels, and to hear Merril's adorable and naive comments (and sexy Welsh accent too).

 

[WaReloaded]

I've no issue with defending 'Two Worlds', I loved that game. The soundtrack was great, particularly the opening/menu music. I enjoyed how "arrogant" the lead character was, I found it quite amusing. I liked the game in general, especially the art style and the ability/skill system.

 

[bobmd13]

I actually agree with evil.

The leveling system is better and in Origins I knew from the moment I met the General that he was going to betray us.

Dragon Age 2 got a lot of criticism and I ignored that until the program decided to delete all files inside its save folder.

Now the problem is that the DA save folder is the same foler for ME1,ME2,DAO,DAO awekenings and DA2.

The moment it did that it lost all my smypathy.

But EA have denied this can happen strange how their is over a 1000 complaints about it and I am not one of them

 

[astrav1]

Perhaps not defend to the death, but Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Unleashed. They're not the greatest Sonic games, not by a long way, but I enjoyed Sonic 06 in parts and pretty much all of Sonic Unleashed (although the length of the night stages was ridiculous at times)

Sonic '06? I didn't think that was possible. How?

 

[piinyouri]

Too Human
Also the first Two Worlds

TO
THE
DEATH

Not trolling or trying to start a fight but. Why I'm curious.

I love loot type games, and Too Human satisfied that itch for me very well. Also I never understood people saying the controls were bad. They take about 10 minutes to get used to, and then it became second nature, only occasionally did I have trouble with the camera. I had some seriously hectic, difficult and fun fights in that game. I just wish I could have skipped the valkyrie scene, because you will be seeing it a LOT late game.)


Two Worlds

The game was a mess.
A glorious, open world broken mess.
Seriously, Morrowind has nothing on this in the "Loopy sandbox" game category.
Sure you can make mega potions that fortify your strength to 10K but can you tape together 500 swords that you got from farming a whole cities worth of guards multiple times thus combing their power into the most egregiously overpowered weapon to ever exist ever?

Joking aside, the combat was fairly varied, depending on what class you wanted to play.
Melee was admitedley:
Get Berserk/Bash skill
Turn it on
Acquire big sword that swings in a wide arc
Never turn Berserk/Bash off

I was one shoting dragons and those golems on the treasure island.

Magic was fun. Ranged I never tried, and I do remember the traps being a great way to get yourself killed.

Anywho that's not even the biggest reason I love the game.

It has a huge goddamn world. Not only is it big, it's varied, moreso than Oblivion, Skyrim, and Morrowind combined.
Really.
There's a snow area, a desert, a bamboo forest type place, a blasted volcanic wasteland, a swamp, an area that has been cursed by the undead.
There's more, I can't remember them though since it's been so long since I played the game.

Game also has serious narm charm for me, what with how bad the NPC's voice acting is. And looking up to see my character crosseyed was always a hoot.

The framerate was indeed pretty bad at times though. That wasn't exaggerated.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Duke Nukem Forever and Ninja Gaiden 3 until the day I die.

 

[mrdude2010]

LA Rush. I won't defend it to the death, the paying for a race mechanic is fucking retarded, but the challenges and free roaming through the city was fun.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

I don't like any games that have been bombed by critics and the masses soooo... I'm good.

 

[shrekfan246]

Perhaps not defend to the death, but Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Unleashed. They're not the greatest Sonic games, not by a long way, but I enjoyed Sonic 06 in parts and pretty much all of Sonic Unleashed (although the length of the night stages was ridiculous at times)

Now, I agree with you on Sonic Unleashed, but die-hard Sonic fan that I am, even I couldn't stick with '06 after finishing Sonic's storyline. The game felt like it was only half-finished, had more bugs than any Sonic game I've ever played before, and was just... so... so bad. And I'm someone who will defend Adventure, Adventure 2 and their Gamecube re-releases, Heroes, Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and 4: Episode 1&2.

... which brings me to the OT part of my post! Most of the Sonic the Hedgehog games. Especially Unleashed, Colors, and Generations.

 

[piinyouri]

Quest 64 was an awesome game. Okay, no it wasn't, but whatever. Fuck your rules. I've probably finished it more times than anyone on the planet.

EDIT: And that's not in a good way.

I discovered once you grind water magic it becomes a bit less horrible.

 

[Luke Gomez]

God Hand

Slammed by critics, but one of my Top 25 (so sue me I've played a LOT of) PS2 games.

This has already been quoted plenty but I'm throwing my two cents into this opinion. This is the game our world needs but not the one it deserves.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Now, I agree with you on Sonic Unleashed, but die-hard Sonic fan that I am, even I couldn't stick with '06 after finishing Sonic's storyline. The game felt like it was only half-finished, had more bugs than any Sonic game I've ever played before, and was just... so... so bad. And I'm someone who will defend Adventure, Adventure 2 and their Gamecube re-releases, Heroes, Unleashed, Colors, Generations, and 4: Episode 1&2.

... which brings me to the OT part of my post! Most of the Sonic the Hedgehog games. Especially Unleashed, Colors, and Generations.

Sonic '06? I didn't think that was possible. How?

Like I said for '06, it was only in parts, but I still found parts of it enjoyable. Yes, the story was pretty shit and it was buggy out the arse, but I enjoyed running through some of the stages, especially went it went to ludicrous speed on a few of the levels. And the last boss. That music is among the best, if not the best, in a Sonic game.


Which reminds me, some of the music isn't bad either.

And sherkfan246, I would gladly defend all the games you've listed to the death, but out of that list I would only have thought Unleashed and perhaps Heroes needed defending (unless it's on the SEGA forums, in which case, every Sonic game needs defending in one way or another =P )

 

[Yopaz]

Although the combat wasn't stellar this game is a masterpiece in my eyes:

I'm not lying to you when I say this:

There are interesting characters
The Writing is on level with Mass Effect
The Darkness level, for a pokemon game, is perfect
Pokemon actually die

I didn't believe you when you claimed this game wasn't loved. I went to Metacritic and saw that it had received 60/100. How the bloody fuck is that possible? It gets dull after you've completed the main quest and the story related side quests, but everything up to that point is golden! I love these spin-off titles to death. They present us Pokemon in a whole new way and skillfully done at that. How anyone can give this below 7/10 is beyond me. I myself would rate it 8 or 9.