Games that could have been amazing but turned out to be just mediocre

[springheeljack]

For me there is nothing sadder than mediocrity. I would rather something be completely awful and repellent than something that is has glimmers of brilliance but fails to realize it. I also know that I am not alone in having felt that way before so I put it to you, Greg what's a game that you think could have been great but turned out to be mediocre instead?

 

[Xprimentyl]

Forza Franchise. I know it generally fires on all cylinders as the racing simulator it sets out to be, but just seems really anticlimactic when all of those subtle details shoehorned in to make the ultra-realistic experience amount to driving around in circles. Maybe it?s not fair to call it mediocre, because as a sim in the purest sense, not sure what else anyone should expect, but the most fun I personally got out of it was the paint job customization; after that, I couldn?t give two shits about actually racing.

And The Darkness II. After the The Darkness left the kinds of emotional scars and lasting impressions it did on me (I will always love you, Jenny!!!), I was literally frothing at the mouth when they announced the well-deserved sequel for a game I felt (and feel) was severely overlooked. When I finally got my hands on The Darkness II and was able to ?meh, ok? my way past their odd choice of the cel-shaded art style, I found it lacked pretty much all of the heart and character of the original and was simply left with yet another run-of-the-mill FPS with supernatural powers that tried pathetically to tug at my heartstrings now extra raw both from losing Jenny and from watching what could have been a STELLAR franchise burn out almost immediately under the weight of trying to be what everyone else was at the time.

 

[Yoshi178]

Uncharted. extremely linear and repetitive gameplay with a really predictable story.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Destiny.

Watch_Dogs.

Advent Rising.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I mean, Watch_Dogs still has a chance to get it right, depending on how well the sequel does. But Advent Rising is a particular sore spot with me. A fantastic story and the beginnings of an epic trilogy...basically, this game was going to be Mass Effect before Mass Effect was even a twinkle in Bioware's eye. But mediocre gameplay sunk it, and then the developer went under shortly after when the game didn't perform up to expectations.

It's a game that could've been great. SHOULD have been great. But it just wasn't.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Dragon Age Inquisition, and to a lesser extent, Dragon Age II. Yes, I said 'lesser' for DA II.

I liked Dragon Age II. I thought it had compelling characters, and I liked the idea that you weren't savior of the world or destined for greatness. You were just someone in the right place at the right time and you built yourself up from nothing. And while I did not care for the Mage vs. Templar thing that it kept ramming down my throat, I found the stuff going on in the background of the game to be very interesting. It's just that Hawke and her company didn't have time to stop and really thing about it because they were too busy just trying to stay alive. So yeah, I think II had a lot going for it. If they hadn't rushed it, I probably would have liked it even more than Origins.
What's truly sad was that we got to see the game II could have been when they released the two DLCs for it.

And then Inquisition came out, and it started out great. All the threads were coming together from the first two games, it really had a sense of building up a ragtag army against an impossibly stronger foe, and then Haven was attacked and the game just...lost it. It became too unfocused, too open. It didn't help that the story took a hard left turn about 90% into the game and suddenly became about the elves. The whole thing just came apart.
And, much like II, when Trespasser came out, I felt like it was glimpse as to what Inquisition should have been. Tighter story, more character banter while out on the road, and a feeling that your moving the story along with each activity you do, instead of just wandering around some vast open map while a giant rift threatens to swallow the world.

 

[Sonmi]

Spore is pretty much the poster child for that affliction.

Man, so much potential wasted...

 

[FalloutJack]

How has nobody mentioned Aliens: Colonial Marines, which could have lived to the potential they were fooling us with, but didn't?

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 could have been better.

I'm honestly not sure in some cases.

 

[CaitSeith]

Secret of the Stars. A mediocre SNES JRPG from Tecmo. IMO everything in that game was just one step short of being good and ended up as something pretty forgettable. The plot, the graphics, the combo mechanics, the characters, the music, etc...

Spoiler: This is what mediocrity looked like in the 90's

With all the good to amazing JRPGs in the SNES at the time, I expected something better.

 

[springheeljack]

One of my ones is Fable 3 and it still makes me shake my head in disappointment. It had so much going for it I thought the story was really good and I found the characters to be very interesting. I also really enjoyed the mid game twist. It's so rare in media to introduce lovecraftion elements. I also liked how your hero was voice acted and more fleshed out than your typical silent character. The problem with it was literally everything else. The technical aspects were fucking awful. The characters and environment were all washed out and lacked color which is terrible since the first two games were beautiful. There were also a lot of clipping and one of it's major new features the hand holding feature was literally broken. They also removed even more options to customize your character and made some of them (long hair) basically impossible to find. They also removed more content from the already threadbare relationship interaction. You can tell that the game was rushed and needed more time. I wish they could redo it but they probably never will.

Another one is Halo 3. Maybe it was the fault of the second one for ending the game on one of the biggest cliff hangers ever but it really failed to deliver. It was a really paint by numbers game which was a shame since Halo 2 did so much to improve on the first game in terms of plot alone. I loved the mix between the Master Chief and the Arbiter missions and how that kept the game from getting stale. Halo 3 on the other hand seemed and felt like more of a retread of the previous two games instead of it's own game. The game is itself is littered with callbacks to the first two and the Flood stopped being particularly interesting or challenging. Plus the Brutes looked awful.

That reminds me Halo Reach was disappointing as well because they completely ruined the plot of the first book and filled the game with a bunch of Spartans who you don't care about and die in predictable ways

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Two Worlds franchise - Picture this, you are somebody who had the time of your life playing Morrowind, but felt Oblivion left a bit of a sour taste, Two Worlds came right after and it claims to be Oblivion tenfold, and it shows, whereas Oblivion was kind of disappointing, Two Worlds is completely disappointing and it's only category it wins. Buggy, slow unimmersive, graphics that were dated even by the standards of the year it came out. For the life of me I can't imagine how it managed to spawn two sequels, one with continuous expansions that barely fixes anything from the original and another one slated to this year(!), I'm surprised not many people are talking bout it since a fanbase was formed to support it, but then again, same studio who did Raven's Cry, so I'm not surprised for the absence of hype

 

[Evonisia]

Well since I'm currently playing through it at the moment: "Mafia III".

All three of these games have a pretty basic story made engaging by a protagonist (and the odd other character), which motivates me to play them. The problem with Mafia III in particular is that it's a hodge-podge of everything in the gameplay - most commonly the early Saint's Row games.

I like the game goes out of its way to present racism of the 1960s as overtly as possible. A lot of the world building details are quite nice, such as cops not being as quick to respond to crimes in lower-income, black and Irish zones. I like that a game has taken up "Saints Row"'s old mantle of taking over the city, but literally all of the missions are variations of "go to installation on the map and murder the specific target". It's basically "Saints Row" without the actual campaign missions that the extra stuff was built around. SR saved itself from mediocrity by having enemies with personality, and teammates I actually care for, "Mafia III" can't say the same.

Oh and the gunplay and cover system are still shit and flow like rocks.

It feels even more padded than the second game, and nothing kills my enthusiasm for a game more than feeling the need to rush to the end because I'm getting bored but still wanna know what happens. It just makes me wanna go back "Gears of War 4" which actually knew what pacing is and spiced itself up constantly.

 

[Hawki]

"Would have, could have, should have" is always difficult, but I guess I can nominate:

-Command & Conquer: Tiberian Twilight

I'm more sympathetic to this game than most. From what I've gathered, it was stymied by originally going to be a different RTS game, and a short development time (in other words, EA screwed the pooch again). Thing is, I can see sparks of greatness in Tiberian Twilight's story. I could see its gameplay style working if it was fleshed out more. Instead, we get a story that tries, bless its heart, but just doesn't work that well, and gameplay that basically boils down to "out-spam the enemy." This is the game that effectively killed the Command & Conquer franchise, and boy is it a sad note to go out on.

-Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Okay, I'll be honest - this is a good game. A game that doesn't capture the magic of its predecessors, and enters the "most disappointing games of all time" for me, but to be fair, when I'm forced to wait a decade for the third installment, and when I'm of the opinion that Golden Sun didn't need a third installment, I guess I'm going to be harsh. That said, Dark Dawn is the weakest installment in the series for me, and I guess if I were to change it, it would be in the following ways:

-Cut out Blados and Chalis. They're a repeat of the Saturos/Menardi and Karst/Agito duos, and they don't generate any intimidation. Anyone with a brain cell knows that Arcanus is Alex, so just cut out the middle men and focus on him.

-Cut out the Shadow Clan stuff. It's a cliche I've seen in a million Golden Sun fanfictions, of a supposed 5th/6th element. Dark Dawn excels over its predecessors in one key area, and that's its worldbuilding, soing a post-Golden Sun event world. So focus on the world rather than throwing in such an element.

-No cliffhanger. NO CLIFFHANGERS!

-Halo 3: ODST

I thought of nominating Halo 4, but I don't see how that game could be saved. ODST however, is fundementally flawed with its New Mombassa concept. It's tedious, it's annoying, it's poorly done stealth combined with poorly done open world. If Bungie had focused on actual missions and kept a linear game, I feel it would have been much better. Focus on having ODSTs be different from Spartan-IIs, focus on individual levels, and whoila. You have a good game, not "explore a city you can barely see because it's so dark."

-Perfect Dark Zero

Heard this was rushed - maybe, maybe not. But I could see this being much better than it ended up being if the gunplay was improved, and if it had a tone more in keeping with the original. At the least, it did spawn the Rucka novels, which executed the Perfect Dark setting much better in my mind.

-Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

It's a given fact that this game was rushed to meet Sonic's 15th anniversary. I've played some of it, and while I don't think it's the worst thing ever, this game is fundementally flawed that people have spent hours dissecting. And what sucks is that looking at the game, I feel that this could have been a very solid entry. A return to the SA1 style of hubs + levels? Check. Three core characters with side characters with their different playstyles? Check. Enjoyable gameplay when it isn't glitching? Check. Make some adjustments to the story (e.g. cut out Elise, or make her a furry and/or capable character), and I could see this being a solid entry.

-Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

STH06 was flawed because of lack of development time. Sonic Chronicles is flawed because it's lazy. Like, really lazy. Like, "seriously BioWare, did you just copy-paste Archiverse material into the Segaverse seting, undermining the latter while not getting what worked in the former, coupled with some of the most generic music I've ever heard in a Sonic game? I could go on, but I refuse to put more effort into this than the developers did. Basically, Sonic Chronicles was ME3 before ME3 happened, coupled with just as atrocious an ending (yes BioWare, leave me with a cliffhanger that'll never be resolved, topped off with Sonic and Tails discussing the history of BioWare. Yep. That's what I wanted.)

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Dragon Age Inquisition, and to a lesser extent, Dragon Age II. Yes, I said 'lesser' for DA II.

I liked Dragon Age II. I thought it had compelling characters, and I liked the idea that you weren't savior of the world or destined for greatness. You were just someone in the right place at the right time and you built yourself up from nothing. And while I did not care for the Mage vs. Templar thing that it kept ramming down my throat, I found the stuff going on in the background of the game to be very interesting. It's just that Hawke and her company didn't have time to stop and really thing about it because they were too busy just trying to stay alive. So yeah, I think II had a lot going for it. If they hadn't rushed it, I probably would have liked it even more than Origins.
What's truly sad was that we got to see the game II could have been when they released the two DLCs for it.

And then Inquisition came out, and it started out great. All the threads were coming together from the first two games, it really had a sense of building up a ragtag army against an impossibly stronger foe, and then Haven was attacked and the game just...lost it. It became too unfocused, too open. It didn't help that the story took a hard left turn about 90% into the game and suddenly became about the elves. The whole thing just came apart.
And, much like II, when Trespasser came out, I felt like it was glimpse as to what Inquisition should have been. Tighter story, more character banter while out on the road, and a feeling that your moving the story along with each activity you do, instead of just wandering around some vast open map while a giant rift threatens to swallow the world.

Totally agree with this. Post DAO, the Dragon Age franchise has been a tale of potential wasted by executive meddling and poor design decisions.

 

[Dalisclock]

Spore is pretty much the poster child for that affliction.

Man, so much potential wasted...

First thing that came to my mind.

I actually picked it up again a year ago, trying to see if now that the hype was gone and I knew what I was getting into that I'd find some enjoyment in it I missed when it first came out.

I didn't even make it into space this time. All the issues the game has was compounded by the fact I knew that it doesn't get any better later on.

I read somewhere that a group of amateur programmers are making a game similar to spore but with the intention of doing it right this time. So far they've got some work done on the microbe phase in alpha, but not much else. If it goes anywhere, It's gonna take a long, long time.

 

[BrawlMan]

"Would have, could have, should have" is always difficult, but I guess I can nominate:



-Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

STH06 was flawed because of lack of development time. Sonic Chronicles is flawed because it's lazy. Like, really lazy. Like, "seriously BioWare, did you just copy-paste Archiverse material into the Segaverse seting, undermining the latter while not getting what worked in the former, coupled with some of the most generic music I've ever heard in a Sonic game? I could go on, but I refuse to put more effort into this than the developers did. Basically, Sonic Chronicles was ME3 before ME3 happened, coupled with just as atrocious an ending (yes BioWare, leave me with a cliffhanger that'll never be resolved, topped off with Sonic and Tails discussing the history of BioWare. Yep. That's what I wanted.)

That actually happened? I knew game had mixed to positive reviews, but never knew about the ending.

Devil May Cry 2 & DmC Reboot for different reasons. DMC2 wad made without Hideki Kamiya and his team's constent, because Capcom was afraid he would say no. DMC2 could have been better had effort been put in to it. Three weapons that only differ in damage and all have the same combos, brain dead enemies, Poor level designs with too much brown, and a near non-exsistant story. If rumors are believed to be true, DMC2 wasn't even supposed to be a DMC game, Capcom just decided to slap the DMC label at the last minute. The guy who directed 2, Hideaki Itsuno, learned from the mistakes made and we got DMC3. Sadly, this wouldn't last after 4.


The DmC reboot should have been it's own game. The reboot is different enough, and Capcom only decided to redo everything, because they were afraid to start a new franchise. I know they asked Ninja Theory to do a Devil May Cry game, but that's beside the point. DmC (2013) is better than most Western style Character-Action games (and better than DMC2), it's still has a lot of problems. The story is not good at all after Ninja Theory kept hyping up like it was going to be a game changer in "cinematic" storytelling, 30fps on consoles, the lack of a lock-on function, weak AI (though no where near as bad as DMC2), smaller enemy variety, pathetically easy bosses, and that whole demon/angels weapons don't work on the opposite palette swap color. Oh, and a shitty Devil Trigger.

DmC (2013) failed to make profit by barely interesting the casual/COD crowd, and alienating the hardcore fanbase. The game is a 5/10 if we're talking about the vanilla version (unless were talking about the PC version; which is a 7). The Definitive Edition, I surprisingly liked for the gameplay improvements and bumps it up to a respectable 8. It still begs the question though of why wasn't most of these features in the original version to begin with. Or once again, be game not called Devi May Cry. That's how the franchise started. Originally it was supposed to be RE4, but the concept was dropped for not being scary enough. Ironic, I know. Both iterations failed to make much of a profit. The casuals came and went, and not all of the dedicated fanbase went out to buy either version; even after Ninja Theory backpedaled on everything they said.


FEAR 3 is on my list for more or less making it a COD clone with regenerating health and bullet time in the mix.

 

[runic knight]

Well, someone else already mentioned a good one for me, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Sequel I was very excited about was somehow so boring and soulless to me that I never bothered to finish it. A shame because the universe and characters of the first two games are a personal favorite.

DA:Inquisition is another mentioned one. Same reasons others have given. Poorly handled plot, directionless and uninspiring open world, and thin characters. Not bad as a game, but, yeah, mediocre.

Tales of Zestiria. I was a big fan of Symphonia back on the GC, and I hoped to relive some of that enjoyment in the newer installment. Sadly, it lacked enough to push it over the hump to get me to stick with it. The characters seemed more hollow to me, the combat less enjoyable, and the lore didn't have me invested. I might give it another chance if I find some downtime, but largely ,I wrote it off as mediocre.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario U (and New Super Luigi U too I guess) were just more of the same after NSMB and NSMB-Wii which are a pair of good games but after the first two they just seemed kind of pointless, especially when you consider the backwards compatibility present in the Wii U and 3DS. I liked those games but at the end of the day they might as well just be level packs, especially after the excellent finale in NSMB-Wii.

I would also nominate Halo 2 and 4. Halo 2 was being advertised as a massive meat-lover deep dish but wound up being a bowl of BBQ pizza rolls. Sure, it was good but some of them were cold in the middle and shit, my metaphor has run away from me! Halo 2 came out in a time before patching and updates on consoles were really a thing and it absolutely needs fixing: some of the levels are cracked or broken and the Brutes were utterly spongy, even on easier difficulty settings (a problem that will follow the series, not just among Brutes). The plot was supposed to be more contained too if I recall correctly and if I remember correctly, The Gravemind was introduced but...that's about it: That's the reason there's Flood but we don't ever get a direct fight with it.

Halo 4 was needless: if they were going to introduce a new Spartan they should have done it in Halo 4 instead of 5 but everything about Halo 4 seemed designed to not piss off the fans. Covenant enemies have come back for some reason that was probably explained in supplemental material, the new enemies were really boring to fight and spongy to boot but the worst thing is how weak all of the weapons felt, even on the lowest difficulty. Halo 4 only really shone when you were in a vehicle but despite having a neat Mech the vehicles here just weren't as fun as what they gave us in Halo: Reach.

Halo 3 could have been a lot better too really...I feel like there was resolution when it came to The Gravemind but there was never a real fight with it.

If Microsoft wants me to buy a new Xbone they'll give me a Halo game focused entirely on vehicle combat but this is something I've been complaining about wanting since Reach blew my mind.

 

[Zhukov]

Doom 2016

Could have been balls-out, old-school shooter action with a big budget and modern tech. Ended up being a mind-numbing slog that makes you watch a repetitive execution animation every five seconds to survive. (And that's coming from someone who likes execution animations.)

MGSV: The Phantom Pain

There's a really solid and well made stealth/action hybrid game hiding under there somewhere. Sadly it gets smothered by constant commutes across a empty, boring open world and an overly repetitive gameplay loop that makes every mission feel the same. Fortunately Hideo Breathes-Through-Her-Skin Kojima's avalanche of shit dialogue was mostly contained to the optional cassette tape conversations, but enough of his writing got through to make the story shit as well.