Disappointing games of 2018?

[CriticalGaming]

Spiderman: Spidey Arkham Asylum

Great game, not on Nintendo so Yoshi must hate.

For me I think the year overall has been disappointing.

Far Cry 5: Without the player character having any personality the motivation to push through and see how the game develops just falls away. It doesn't take long to realize you are just going from area to area to fill in the "do shit" quota until you fight that area's boss. With no story development for the player character, you have no drama pushing you forward to see what happens next. This is a huge step back from Far Cry 3 and 4.

Octopath Travler: A beautiful game and nothing more. It's a JRPG with eight stories that barely interact with each other. The leveling grind is annoying and even pointless because the bosses are so fucking padded with health that they become extremely long and boring fights that you can't overpower or overlevel without way too much boring work.

Fallout 76: I mean....do I have to explain this one?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Spiderman: Spidey Arkham Asylum

What did it take from Arkham other than the stealth sections? And don't say the combat.

He hasn't played it.
He's already said a bunch of times he doesn't have to play a game to criticize it.
He didn't even play his GOTY last year, at least not long after crowning it as such.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Okay so.. how is it just an Arkham clone?

i never said it was a clone. don't twist my words.

What's with you twisting the title to make it seem like it is then? I'm still waiting for that answer, unless it was just for yucks.

 

[Yoshi178]

Okay so.. how is it just an Arkham clone?

i never said it was a clone. don't twist my words.

What's with you twisting the title to make it seem like it is then? I'm still waiting for that answer, unless it was just for yucks.

because they just made a game with gameplay very SIMILAR to Arkham Asylum gameplay but theyjust decided to throw Spidey in there instead of Bats this time.

it's called a comparison.

What's with you taking everything so literally?

 

[Yoshi178]

Wow! such unique and original gameplay Spidey has right guys?!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2j9UplgTyM

 

[Casual Shinji]

because they just made a game with gameplay very SIMILAR to Arkham Asylum gameplay but theyjust decided to throw Spidey in there instead of Bats this time.

it's called a comparison.

What's with you taking everything so literally?

Did you ever stop to consider the Arkham games weren't that unique gameplay wise? It's kind of impossible not to make a Spider-Man game with similar gameplay, since they're both superheroes in a big city setting. It also has similar gameplay, maybe even more so, as Infamous.

Wow! such unique and original gameplay Spidey has right guys?!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2j9UplgTyM

Most of the gameplay mechanics from Spider-Man PS4 are from older Spider-Man games that pre-date Arkham Asylum, like the webswinging and the combat. Arkham pretty much made a more refined and Batman-centered version of Spider-Man 2's combat. The only thing Spider-Man PS4 actually lifted from Arkham are the 'predator' stealth sections.


Throw shade for it not being unique as much as you want, for it just being Spider-Man 2 with more money, better tech, and more gameplay refinement, but at least get it right.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I'm having a LOT of trouble remembering games that came out this year that were disappointing.

Most of the bad ones were so forgettable that I literally can't remember them.

Like...If I REALLY try I'll remember stuff like Wizard of Legend, which I rag on about often enough. I expected Streets of Mage, I got one of the less engaging roguelikes I've ever played.

-

Still, the main one I think of for this year is Octopath Traveler. Which is a shame, because I enjoy the combat system, I adore the art and music, and I enjoy the stories...

It's just that the story structure is absolutely not conducive to a cohesive narrative experience. The game essentially expects you to play one of each character's chapter's at a time instead of getting a proper narrative flow. By the time I get I get back to Therion's story arc, I've half forgotten what happened last time! :s

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

-God of War
I found the combat really disappointing as I've said before. The game just does all the little things wrong for satisfying combat like getting enemy super armor wrong, gliding character and enemy movement, the enemies themselves just aren't fun to fight, etc. The RPG mechanics in the game ruin a lot of the combat as well because if you wanna do side stuff before like end-game, enjoy getting OHKOed by purple-level wolves.

-Vampyr
I was hoping the game would be heavy on actual role-playing with heavy consequences for your choices of being a vampire. I was also expecting the writing to be good since it was Dontnod but the writing is quite shit (especially at the end). The game is mainly just talking to boring NPCs and fighting enemies in a poor-man's/wannabe Bloodborne combat system. The score was great but that's really it.

-Spiderman
I was expecting an 8/10 game and I got a 7/10 game. So not really that disappointing but I definitely thought Insomniac could to a bit more than just nail the gameplay (which we all knew they could). The overall mission structure and side missions are just so basic and copy-paste from every other open world game and the gameplay really saves everything really. The overall game design and mission structure pails in comparison to what Rocksteady did with the Arkham series. Spiderman is a fun game, sometimes damn fun, but it should've been more than just a fun Spiderman game.

 

[Casual Shinji]

-God of War

The RPG mechanics in the game ruin a lot of the combat as well because if you wanna do side stuff before like end-game, enjoy getting OHKOed by purple-level wolves.

I don't really understand where this criticism comes from - GoW's side missions aren't all available right from the start, they get dished out bit by bit as you progress through the main story and the lake exposes more of the land. Therefor you can never be underleveled for any of them, unless you don't buy skills or find/equip better gear. The only side activities that'll kick your ass are the rift breaches and the valkyries, and those are supposed to be really challenging.

 

[Elfgore]

Vampyr continues to baffle me. I got it pretty early thanks to deep discount from GMG, I think I played it for two hours, and then uninstalled and never looked back. The gameplay reminded me way to much of those mediocre as hell RPGs from Spiders, like Bound By Flame and Mars: War Logs. Granted so does The Witcher 3, but I guess the writing/world was enough for me to stay. I might have to try Vampyr out again at some point. I do love Vampires!

And it's been mentioned, but Dynasty Warriors 9. What a damn heartbreak. They went open-world and added in tedious gathering and crafting, all while removing some of the most interesting and unique weapons. Only to of course add them back in as DLC. This game really soured my opinion on any of their own series. They almost need a 3rd party smacking them when they get to lazy.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

For me Battlefield V. I mean... what a fucking failure. Its sales are terrible and its community is split on so many things. Its funny because all the new Battlefield games do so many things right, while at the exact same time do 360s and sprint backwards.

Battlefield V has no season pass! Except now it relies purely microtransactions, so we can expect a tiny portion of the extra content we usually get. The TTK is back to its pre-BF1 state! Except the weapon balance is all off and they can't seem to decide on what they want the TTK to be. The graphics are amazing! Except for some reason it doesn't look as good as Battlefield 1.

I hate to be the elitist piece of shit, but I really do feel like the gameplay has been streamlined and dumbed down, in really weird ways too. Battlefield is less of a playground now and more of tour of a park.

The fact that so many people still play BF4 is very telling. Modern warfare games were going out of style sure, but going back to WWII doesn't seem like the greatest idea.

On the other hand, this is great! I love it when games fuck up so badly, but the playerbase is big enough that the devs still give a shit so they continue the support. I joined the BF4 community maybe a year after its release, and I still experienced a SHIT TON of changes and additions to that game. What a wild ride. Hopefully BFV is the same. Also its poor sales means discounted pricing, shit right now you can get it for half off! A few months from now you could probably get it for $4, like all the other BF famously did.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

For this year (played, not released), Nier Automata was the greatest disappointment for me. Everybody was singing its' praises everywhere and I was legitimately expecting something emotionally moving and inspiring. But it didn't deliver at all and now I can't help but feel super cautious about being swept up in such hype for Japanese niche games, like Persona and various others.

Onrush would be one that did get released this year, though I don't think it is as disappointing as others who appear to have expected a traditional track racer thought it so. But codemasters have a standout track record (pun initially unintended...kept nonetheless) for making great racing games with substantial single-player modes, and this was their apparent attempt at a "live service" with good old [small]("cosmetic only!")[/small] lootboxes. It is still pretty fun to play with colourful open tracks, but it commercially failed hard with company staff layoffs following and I'm not surprised. Also it has no distinct personality. Instead, rather, it has all the characteristic endeavor of "whacky" customisation for the preset player models...the sort of uninspired "whacky" you'd find under a Microsoft preset clipart selection for the word. [small]("Look! He's dancing weird with a yellow stereo radio instead a head! How random!")[/small] The characters you can choose from all look like they should have interesting backstories and personalities, but nooo, of course they're only surface level aesthetics. Silly codemasters. Can only hope this bump doesn't hinder future projects of theirs.

 

[FakeSympathy]

For me Battlefield V. I mean... what a fucking failure. Its sales are terrible and its community is split on so many things. Its funny because all the new Battlefield games do so many things right, while at the exact same time do 360s and sprint backwards.

Battlefield V has no season pass! Except now it relies purely microtransactions, so we can expect a tiny portion of the extra content we usually get. The TTK is back to its pre-BF1 state! Except the weapon balance is all off and they can't seem to decide on what they want the TTK to be. The graphics are amazing! Except for some reason it doesn't look as good as Battlefield 1.

I hate to be the elitist piece of shit, but I really do feel like the gameplay has been streamlined and dumbed down, in really weird ways too. Battlefield is less of a playground now and more of tour of a park.

The fact that so many people still play BF4 is very telling. Modern warfare games were going out of style sure, but going back to WWII doesn't seem like the greatest idea.

On the other hand, this is great! I love it when games fuck up so badly, but the playerbase is big enough that the devs still give a shit so they continue the support. I joined the BF4 community maybe a year after its release, and I still experienced a SHIT TON of changes and additions to that game. What a wild ride. Hopefully BFV is the same. Also its poor sales means discounted pricing, shit right now you can get it for half off! A few months from now you could probably get it for $4, like all the other BF famously did.

That's.....what I actually wanted to say about multiplayer. Thanks

 

[meiam]

For this year (played, not released), Nier Automata was the greatest disappointment for me. Everybody was singing its' praises everywhere and I was legitimately expecting something emotionally moving and inspiring. But it didn't deliver at all and now I can't help but feel super cautious about being swept up in such hype for Japanese niche games, like Persona and various others.

Yeah Nier reputation is far above it's execution, gameplay isn't very interesting and nothing about the story is that memorable, it's the whole "auteur" game, where praise is given for originality regardless of whether it's good or not. Oh plus you have to play trough the game 3 time to see everything, which would be fine if the gameplay was good, but it's just tedious. Soundtrack was great, can't take that away. And I'm saying all that as someone who loved drakengard 1/2.

I'm playing valkyrie chronicle 4 at the moment and it's also really disappointing, it's still fun and a pretty unique gameplay, but they made 0 attempt at fixing the gameplay biggest flaw; there's no reason to use multiple character in battle since you can just re use the same one over and over again to rush objective, and the game reward you for doing that, so much for having a big squad when you only use the same 2-3. They even made it worse by letting tank be used multiple time for the same cost as normal infantry. They also didn't bring any of the few positive innovation that the PSP one had (like class changes and such). At this point I can only hope for a miracle and that somehow the IP is picking up by another dev team so that they can improve on the formula in good way because there's an amazing game buried under.

Vampyr was also kinda disappointing, they had all the pieces but didn't bother making them fit together correctly. At first I though that literally the only way to gain exp was to kill civilian, but it turn out you get tons of it just doing quest/combat, so you don't need to kill anyone. Plus killing people make the district worse off no matter who you kill, killing a serial killer or a ruthless mob boss does the same thing for the district well being than killing the kind barman. Instead they should have made it so you have to kill civilian to progress but you're free to choose your target, so the game would be about finding who you can kill to have as little negative impact on community as possible (or as bad as possible if you wanted to play that way). The story quest decision are also ridiculously unimpactful, at some point you can get banished from some club, later on in the story you need the club most sacred artifact, you'd think getting banished would make that impossible or require a really hard mission, but turn out you can just ask and they'll give it to you. The civilian health system was also pretty annoying, everytime you go to sleep (to level up) you have to run all over town to cure people, it's not hard every item needed to cure people respawn all the time, it's just tedious.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah Nier reputation is far above it's execution, gameplay isn't very interesting and nothing about the story is that memorable, it's the whole "auteur" game, where praise is given for originality regardless of whether it's good or not. Oh plus you have to play trough the game 3 time to see everything, which would be fine if the gameplay was good, but it's just tedious. Soundtrack was great, can't take that away. And I'm saying all that as someone who loved drakengard 1/2.

So as someone who played through the game "properly", is the A scenario anything other than a 9 hour long set-up, or was I simply missing this game's.. brilliance? Because I didn't get anything from it, and dropped the game right after it told me to keep playing presumably because the actual interesting stuff was still ahead. And I honestly didn't feel like traversing through the same boring gameworld with the same boring combat in order to find out. I was just getting serious MGS2 vibes, and I decided to quit while I was ahead.

 

[Yoshi178]

So as someone who played through the game "properly"

How does someone play a videogame "properly"?

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

-God of War

The RPG mechanics in the game ruin a lot of the combat as well because if you wanna do side stuff before like end-game, enjoy getting OHKOed by purple-level wolves.

I don't really understand where this criticism comes from - GoW's side missions aren't all available right from the start, they get dished out bit by bit as you progress through the main story and the lake exposes more of the land. Therefor you can never be underleveled for any of them, unless you don't buy skills or find/equip better gear. The only side activities that'll kick your ass are the rift breaches and the valkyries, and those are supposed to be really challenging.

I went to do them as soon as they opened up and I was underleveled for just about all of them when my main difficulty was Hard. There were purple enemies pretty much around every corner from wolves to the rock monsters. I remember there was a rock monster where I was just taking a sliver of his life and any attack would one-shot me. I would have on the best equipment that was available at the time, at least the best level I could get Kratos up to. I must've changed the difficulty well over 20 times (which I rarely ever do in any other games) because of the stupid RPG mechanics. What are they adding to the game anyway even if done right? Because if you do stuff like character levels and loot right, they just serve to keep the game the same all the way through (keeping you and your enemies on an even playing field) so why even do it (especially in a character action game that doesn't need that bullshit)? Kratos is a god at the start of the game, not some level 1 fighter. The rift breaches are also kind of dumb because you don't even know if you'll just grab some dust or pull out an enemy.

I might have to try Vampyr out again at some point. I do love Vampires!

Just don't, it's a waste of time, the writing and world only get worse as you progress.

For this year (played, not released), Nier Automata was the greatest disappointment for me. Everybody was singing its' praises everywhere and I was legitimately expecting something emotionally moving and inspiring. But it didn't deliver at all and now I can't help but feel super cautious about being swept up in such hype for Japanese niche games, like Persona and various others.

Never play Danganronpa then. The same thing kinda happened with the 1st Nier as well, I played it because it's even small fanbase (than Automata) proclaimed it the best story of last-gen so I played it, it was at best an average anime-level plot with entertaining characters at least. I played the demo for Automata and it was basically smooth but simple Platinum combat with boring android characters. I might as well just play a real Platinum game with better gameplay and characters then.

 

[Casual Shinji]

So as someone who played through the game "properly"

How does someone play a videogame "properly"?

There isn't, that's why I put it in quotation marks, but there's certain games that the fanbase gets really uppity about if you don't play it a certain way, like Undertale or this game. The whole mentallity of 'you need to get ending a, b, c, d, e, f, g otherwise you're doing it wrong'.

I went to do them as soon as they opened up and I was underleveled for just about all of them when my main difficulty was Hard. There were purple enemies pretty much around every corner from wolves to the rock monsters. I remember there was a rock monster where I was just taking a sliver of his life and any attack would one-shot me. I would have on the best equipment that was available at the time, at least the best level I could get Kratos up to. I must've changed the difficulty well over 20 times (which I rarely ever do in any other games) because of the stupid RPG mechanics. What are they adding to the game anyway even if done right? Because if you do stuff like character levels and loot right, they just serve to keep the game the same all the way through (keeping you and your enemies on an even playing field) so why even do it (especially in a character action game that doesn't need that bullshit)? Kratos is a god at the start of the game, not some level 1 fighter. The rift breaches are also kind of dumb because you don't even know if you'll just grab some dust or pull out an enemy.

Then either you're doing something very wrong (yes, I realize the hypocrisy of that statement after what I just said above) or your copy is totally busted, because that never happened to me and I was playing on Hard too. It's impossible for the first couple, or even any rock monster to one-shot you with any attack if you update your gear (on Hard difficulty anyway). The only attack to be able to do that is the area of effect attack he unleashes if you get up close and personal, and that's only if you're already missing health.

I don't even know how you can only take off a sliver of health from those guys, since their only weak spot is their chest core, and the attacks available are your axe throw, chucking dislodged rocks back at them, parrying their projectiles, and QTE punches, all of which do a good amount of damage.

And what do RPG mechanics add? A sense of change. You can't tell me God of War plays exactly the same toward the end as it does at the beginning, because it doesn't. And the reason for that is because enemies change, get stronger, get newer attacks, and so do you. Whether it's this, Resident Evil 4, classic God of War, Okami, Batman: Arkham, Horizon: Zero Damn, heck, even Shadow of the Colossus, it feels good to have a sense that you're working toward something, that you're getting stronger. It helps motivate and invigorate you to keep going in an increasingly harder world.

And Kratos maybe a god, but he's pretty much just been sitting in a log cabin for the last 100+ years, occasionally chopping some wood or hunting some boar. That's why he has such a hard time against Baldur eventhough GoW3 Kratos would've taken him apart in like 2 minutes, immortality be damned. This is the first GoW sequel where the power-down actually makes sense. If you want to criticize inconsistencies in strength, that has always been an issue with this franchise, all the way back to GoW1.


And yes, that's the idea behind the rift breaches; not really knowing. It's not dumb, it's meant to make you feel weary about what's gonna come out.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Yeah Nier reputation is far above it's execution, gameplay isn't very interesting and nothing about the story is that memorable, it's the whole "auteur" game, where praise is given for originality regardless of whether it's good or not. Oh plus you have to play trough the game 3 time to see everything, which would be fine if the gameplay was good, but it's just tedious. Soundtrack was great, can't take that away. And I'm saying all that as someone who loved drakengard 1/2.

I'm playing valkyrie chronicle 4 at the moment and it's also really disappointing, it's still fun and a pretty unique gameplay, but they made 0 attempt at fixing the gameplay biggest flaw; there's no reason to use multiple character in battle since you can just re use the same one over and over again to rush objective, and the game reward you for doing that, so much for having a big squad when you only use the same 2-3. They even made it worse by letting tank be used multiple time for the same cost as normal infantry. They also didn't bring any of the few positive innovation that the PSP one had (like class changes and such). At this point I can only hope for a miracle and that somehow the IP is picking up by another dev team so that they can improve on the formula in good way because there's an amazing game buried under.

Vampyr was also kinda disappointing, they had all the pieces but didn't bother making them fit together correctly. At first I though that literally the only way to gain exp was to kill civilian, but it turn out you get tons of it just doing quest/combat, so you don't need to kill anyone. Plus killing people make the district worse off no matter who you kill, killing a serial killer or a ruthless mob boss does the same thing for the district well being than killing the kind barman. Instead they should have made it so you have to kill civilian to progress but you're free to choose your target, so the game would be about finding who you can kill to have as little negative impact on community as possible (or as bad as possible if you wanted to play that way). The story quest decision are also ridiculously unimpactful, at some point you can get banished from some club, later on in the story you need the club most sacred artifact, you'd think getting banished would make that impossible or require a really hard mission, but turn out you can just ask and they'll give it to you. The civilian health system was also pretty annoying, everytime you go to sleep (to level up) you have to run all over town to cure people, it's not hard every item needed to cure people respawn all the time, it's just tedious.

Oh wow, honestly was starting to believe I was the only person on Earth not in love with the game. It's relieving to know it's not just a madness. Or if it is, at least it's a less lonely madness.

Was also excited for Vampyr a while ago, and still intend to get it eventually, but have been waiting for a big sale first due to hearing all the disappointing reactions to it not being as promising as it looked.