Games that you couldn't wait to quit

[WindKnight]

A couple come to mind.

Super Time Force. I always sit through intros at least the first time, and this one... well, it went on way too long, and was no where near as funny as it thought it was. By the time I got to the tutorial, I was soured on the game, and gave up pretty quickly

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Just... no. I tried to like it, but everything about it infuriated me compared to how much I'd loved Sands Of Time. I pushed myself past the first full boss fight then just gave up not long afterwards.

 

[Callate]

Not exactly the same thing, but the character of "Bubba" in Jagged Alliance 2 was the only one so obnoxious to have to listen to that I actively allowed him to get killed. I was perfectly ready to deal with any morale issues in my other mercenaries, just so I wouldn't have to hear him drawl "...H-whuh...? .......Y-Yes?" one more @#$%ing time.

And, actually, I don't think there was much by way of blowback on that one, so I think maybe the other mercs agreed with my assessment.

 

[Evonisia]

Got ninja'd in the first response D: Horrible, horrible intro to a story that failed to grip me despite the cutscene's unforgiving length. Literally set myself a save and quit, so I don't have to reacquaint myself with it if I ever give it a second chance.

Mass Effect, then. Maybe it's my fault for running as the sniper type person, but the shooting is horrible. He just cannot aim, it's even worse than Grand Theft Auto V's shooting: at least that game might one day consider aiming at an enemy. It makes Uncharted look like a good shooter.

When done with that nonsense, the voice acting bores me to tears and I never got invested in any of the characters. I reached this big city place where you enter a bar fight that is literally impossible because the AI dies instantly, I'm armed with a biscuit rifle against turrets and my health drops to nothing in less than a second on normal mode.

I'm sure it's the greatest universe for lore in gaming, but fuck me is it not engaging or remotely competent.

 

[J4D3N]

For me it was Assassins Creed III.

I'm not sure what it was exactly that caused it but for some reason I just didn't enjoy it at all.

I found myself rushing through the story in the end so that I can finish it and start on a new game (which happened to be Assassins Creed 4; Black Flag, which I thoroughly enjoyed!)

 

[Burgers2013]

Pretty sure all of mine have already been ninja'd:

FFXIII - I wanted to like it. I even played it for 20 hours because that's when it got good...I guess. I was actually excited by the new battle system. Thought it was interesting at first as the mechanics were (very) slowly revealed then...It felt like I was diving into a pool only to find out it's only 6" deep. I think not being able to A. Control multiple characters or B. Control positioning in a meaningful way (at least from what I figured out) really limited any interesting combat encounters in the game. Anyway, I got to the "good" part of the game, and was like: What, more grinding? No thanks. Then I quit. The characters were painful, the story was contrived/shallow, and ultimately it wasn't really memorable. I could've been playing Red Dead Redemption that whole time...

Assassin's Creed III - I also really wanted to like this game. I am one of those morons who LOVES the first one (although it gets brokenly easy after you learn the counter ability). Assassin's Creed 2 and 2.5 were also fun, and I was even really into the modern story-arch. Then this game happened. I found it boring and the story, which I was really excited about, managed to lose me within a few hours.

I wasn't into the main character. He seemed really out of place and at times working against his (and his tribe's) own self interest for reasons I didn't quite catch. I guess I wished the focus would have been more about the plight of the Native Americans vs the colonists rather than the Red Coats vs (pre)'Murca given the main character's background. Maybe I didn't get far enough in, but at 2/3rds through, I didn't really care about what they were fighting for in the past, and the present story missions were not well done. They clearly didn't work much on developing the mechanics for the modern era well. The levels felt really unrealistic/poorly designed/forced due to the limitations of the mechanics.

Dragon Age: Origins - I didn't like it. I started two different characters to try out different beginning sequences, thought the mechanics were clunky and the characters were bland. Nothing really grabbed me about it. It wasn't terrible, just unremarkable. I don't know why it didn't catch my attention like it seemed to with others, but I was done after like 3 hours.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Uh.
Skyward Sword. Seriously.

More to the core, fucking Bulletstorm. What a load of shit. This is a game I actually got more angry at because of how long it took to quit back to homescreen.

Witcher 3. Still trying to finish it, just so I can critique the story. (Which actually, isn't that good yet.) This is more because the gameplay feels like self mutilation without the scars.

Dead Space 2. Good way to ruin a game, by having a really uninteresting character and plot with one of the big conflicts being the ENTIRE PLOT ON THE FIRST FUCKING GAME. Not to mention having Isaac speak and do shit that makes no sense, even factoring in the psychosis, sucks ass. (I still enjoy Dead Space 1 and 3 though. Did just about everything better.)

 

[Fijiman]

Lost Planet. It started out fairly decently, but then I got to the third level and promptly wanted to murder whoever was in charge of level design for the game. The final boss is also a complete chore to defeat as they only give you like a minute to adjust to the super special mech they give you and you then have to wait for a two second window of opportunity to get a hit or two in before he resumes a plethora of ranged area attacks that can be a ***** to dodge repeatedly.

 

[Buckets]

Agree on Dark Souls, I hated the almost instadeath about every 10 feet. I know hardcore gamers love that shit but even set on the lowest setting I couldn't do it.

Yeah, especially considering there are no difficulty settings in DS.

Is hating on Dark Souls difficulty so popular novadays that even people who didn't play it jump on a bandwagon?

The rerelease had difficulty settings, doesn't mean I didn't try it.

 

[Mister K]

Agree on Dark Souls, I hated the almost instadeath about every 10 feet. I know hardcore gamers love that shit but even set on the lowest setting I couldn't do it.

Yeah, especially considering there are no difficulty settings in DS.

Is hating on Dark Souls difficulty so popular novadays that even people who didn't play it jump on a bandwagon?

The rerelease had difficulty settings, doesn't mean I didn't try it.

Ah yes, the "re-release". Which also came as a patch and introduced the Bonfire Sybaritic. We have dismissed this claim as an April Fools joke.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/dark-souls-2-patch-will-introduce-new-item-to-reduce-the-difficulty-for-newcomers/1100-6418680/

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I was hoping you could enlighten me about this. Metro 2033 is literally the only game in my Steam library with terrible framerates, no matter what I do. It's my understanding that the Redux version is better optimized, but you aren't the first person to lament some changes it made. When I look through the Steam forums, there's a lot of people complaining that they've been asked to buy the game twice, and some people didn't like that 2033 had been "Last Light-ified".

I guess what I'm asking is: What is it about the Redux versions that make them inferior to the original releases, so much so that you would play it on a 360 instead?

Ah ok, I am aware that there is awareness of the types of players that do not like some games that veer away from their comfort zone of any particular series, so i'm just going to confirm that this is not one of those cases.
There is no quick way to explain, Metro 2033 was a game that had a mode it claimed to be the true way experience the game, called "ranger mode." Usually these claims I dismiss as expected embelishments, but nevertheless played the game in said mode anyway. It was an intense stealth, survival horror, resource management experience with great AI and perfect balance, oppressive atmosphere and many russians (always a bonus). It was also HUDless, you could find any information you need by pressing buttons to move your body to show you this info. I found it to be a refeshing change of pace for the FPS genre and something that really felt...immersive, yes, that word that has been hijacked by marketing forever.
Now when Last light came out, the publisher THQ died and the IP bought by Deep Silver. Which I am fairly certain they took a business initative, they not only took out ranger mode to sell as DLC seperate but they turned the game to COD spunkegargleweewee with changes to control scheme, folling other soldiers through scripted sequences, no HUDless option, dumber AI, no oppressive atmosphere and slighlty less convincing russian accents. Even something as small as the reload button could not be changed back to its' original scheme (which was Rb or R1, it felt more appropriate for some reason I am yet to understand). This game sold better because i'm guessing word got around of the first game by then and marketing may have been more of a thing that occurred. Deep Silver saw this and evidently assumed that the original game must be remade to accomodate this profitable style, so the redux is pretty much that, with no option to choose otherwise. It's a pity because after feeling disappointed with Last light, I was hoping for a prettier version of Metro 2033 to play. But it just felt like COD in Russia with monsters. They even changed the music to cheerier tracks...this is not a game about joy! I pushed myself to like it, but it did not provide the intense immersion of the original. It became just another gamey game. It isn't bad, not at all. It still beats most FPSs out the water. But they made the wrong cynical changes. Oh well. *Shakes fist at capitalism gods*

 

[Chaos Isaac]

In what bizzaro universe did Dead Space 3 do everything better than 2?

3's enemy placement was way the fuck off with absolutely horrible weapons. The game was just interesting enough to play through (especially the little open space section above the planet). Once actually on the planet? Fuck that game. If I didn't get it digitally I would've snapped that disc into fucking nothing once the credits rolled.

Funnily enough, insanity first off. Sure, Isaac is no longer insane, at least for the most part, but did you ever do the co-op missions? I did.

The fun thing is, both players see different things. Clark's partner, who at this moment name escapes me, sees shitloads of toy soldiers, phantoms and shit, while you just see soda machines and monsters. Opening a door and walking into a room, your player partner will seem to go apeshit and just start firing shots everywhere, but know, he's shooting at the monsters in his mind. And it's awesome. And you know what happens? Clark helps him fight the psychosis. This is best experienced with a actual friend, going in blind, and talking to each other and trying to figure what the fuck is going on.

It's vastly more interesting then the Nicole thing in 2. And in the DLC, Isaac gets a moment like this where he sees weird shit and the other guy doesn't, and it's enjoyable. Seeing something different individually is something that makes all the Silent Hill 2 character's seem so weird. And works.

And, well, I don't know what your problem is, but I found the weapons and weapon system to be great. I could make a weapon to fit how I play perfectly, from a machine nail gun, with a electric bola launcher, or a shotgun with a railgun strapped to it. Or if I was really feelin' it, a fucking space hammer to wack dudes with.

So, yeah, the Bizarro Universe in which one is not angsty about the change of focus from action to horror. Because, like Resident Evil, it makes sense. Unless we're gonna change protagonist all the time, (Which to be honest, due to fans, doesn't happen much.) you can't keep the games scary, mainly because the characters like the players will acclimate and learn to fight the beast. Clark knows what necromorphs are, sure, he's still worried and afraid they'll fuck up everything, but they're not quite scary anymore. Like Chris/Leon/Jill/Claire/Barry who ever the hell in Resident Evil. They've dealt with this shit professionally for like ten years now, biohazards aren't just gonna cut it to being frightening for these characters.

Alternatively, I'll look at Silent Hill and just be like. This changes with every game, different characters, different problems. Same kinda source, but can frighten both the character and player in new ways. (Lookin' at you P.T. Good job on actually being unnerving and scary.)

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Penumbra and Amnesia. Both excellent in terms of atmosphere and story, but both had bullshit "insanity" mechanics (can't look at the enemies in Penumbra; can't stay in the darkness in Amnesia) that seemed designed to force tense situations instead of let them develop naturally. I don't like being pushed into making mistakes just so the game can punish me for them. I've heard that Fractional Games's new outing, Soma, has discarded those mechanics, so I'm looking forward to it.

Also: The Witcher. I struggled with the horrid controls up until the first "sex scene", realized the story and characters had zero appeal to make up for it, and quit the game permanently.

 

[pookie101]

Got ninja'd in the first response D: Horrible, horrible intro to a story that failed to grip me despite the cutscene's unforgiving length. Literally set myself a save and quit, so I don't have to reacquaint myself with it if I ever give it a second chance.

Mass Effect, then. Maybe it's my fault for running as the sniper type person, but the shooting is horrible. He just cannot aim, it's even worse than Grand Theft Auto V's shooting: at least that game might one day consider aiming at an enemy. It makes Uncharted look like a good shooter.

When done with that nonsense, the voice acting bores me to tears and I never got invested in any of the characters. I reached this big city place where you enter a bar fight that is literally impossible because the AI dies instantly, I'm armed with a biscuit rifle against turrets and my health drops to nothing in less than a second on normal mode.

I'm sure it's the greatest universe for lore in gaming, but fuck me is it not engaging or remotely competent.

with mass effect the accuracy is skill based so the scope sway is shocking to say the least and is more luck than anything until you max it out when its dead still especially with the marksman skill active i think it is

as for my contribution.
bioshock was a game i lasted to the middle where you are given a multi part fetch quest and it hit me.. im not actually enjoying this game. uninstalled it and never went back.

worst however was a game i got as part of a bundle pack.. towtruck simulator. i play alot of the boring for most people simulators so im used to horrible physics but that game.. no sound, and so hard to control. well lets just say i lasted 3 minutes from pressing play to uninstalling

honourable mention to train simulator 30 minutes driving around and trying to derail the train. uninstalled upon derailing not even that was interesting.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Suikoden. God damn, it was the most obvious of first attempts. I couldn't deal with aaaaaanything. Music was ok, combat was cool, but that was about it. The game pissed me off. Once a friend who know about the game told me it wasn't going to improve after being 7-8 hours in, I threw it off my Vita and bought Suikoden 2. And S2 is probably my fave RPG ever. So, it shows what improvements they made

 

[karkashan]

A couple come to mind.

Super Time Force. I always sit through intros at least the first time, and this one... well, it went on way too long, and was no where near as funny as it thought it was. By the time I got to the tutorial, I was soured on the game, and gave up pretty quickly

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Just... no. I tried to like it, but everything about it infuriated me compared to how much I'd loved Sands Of Time. I pushed myself past the first full boss fight then just gave up not long afterwards.

Agree so much on Warrior Within. Wasn't so much a difficulty curve in that game as a difficulty cliff you started at the bottom of.

praisegrima

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Snip

Thank you kindly for a very detailed and thought-out answer. When I was fidgeting with 2033 in the past in was on normal difficulty, now I'm determined to get it stable and play it ranger hud-less for stealth and horror maximization. I enjoyed Stalker (I'd rather type out this parenthetical explanation than type that game's real name anymore) so I can get into it. Weird that I see a lot of people considering Last Light an improvement, but I can definitely see your side of things. From the couple hours I played their mastery is atmosphere, and it seems like you get back what you put in. Maybe I'll pick up Redux on a Steam sale, If not for more pretty and a stable framerate. Thanks again for filling me in.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Snip

Thank you kindly for a very detailed and thought-out answer. When I was fidgeting with 2033 in the past in was on normal difficulty, now I'm determined to get it stable and play it ranger hud-less for stealth and horror maximization. I enjoyed Stalker (I'd rather type out this parenthetical explanation than type that game's real name anymore) so I can get into it. Weird that I see a lot of people considering Last Light an improvement, but I can definitely see your side of things. From the couple hours I played their mastery is atmosphere, and it seems like you get back what you put in. Maybe I'll pick up Redux on a Steam sale, If not for more pretty and a stable framerate. Thanks again for filling me in.

It is a unique issue really. Last light is still objectively an above average FPS with some great moments and scenes of apocalyptic beauty. Reviewers tend to aim to be objective so they couldn't really fault it either. It is a more casual target audience also, Only people who had the misfortune of playing 2033 on ranger mode (or hardcore ranger if you are...umm, hardcore) and loving it, end up having to compare the 2 experiences for the worse.
I imagine it is how DMC fans felt with that reboot.
Stalker is on my must play list, as the only alternative for such an experience. I have yet to scratch that particular itch. It sounds more complicated, so perhaps Metro 2033 will feel like a watered down version for you. Hopefully not. A word of advice though; it likes to autosave at points where you may sometimes not have enough gas-mask filters to get through the area. It is best to maintain some sense of haste when on the surface. I had to restart a chapter once, due to that. It was a slight annoyance. Oh and a chapter near the end did the same thing, in a far more sabotaging manner. That darn autosave. Don't let it out of your sight!
For now, all games are on hold currently, Phantom pain must be played till eye-poppage occurs.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Dragon Age 2 - dear lord what a grind. What an utterly dire and painful grind. On the back of the brilliance in DAO I forced myself through the entire thing, but my God it was dross from start to finish. I read all the "DA:2 is actually OK if you play it right" comments so bought it cheap for £% about 6 months ago. Quit after 5 hours, STILL just as awful.

Dragon Age Inquestition - A different type of grind, but still a tiresome, horrid grind which overall was a shit experience. I'd learned my lesson this time and quit after about 17 hours. What an utter butchery of a potentially amazing franchize.

The Witcher - It's actually a decent game, but it just got so boring in the swamp chapter, and the combat was so lacklustre that I couldn't be bothered.

MGS3 - Played it years ago to up to the Sorrow fight, quit, tried it again this past week, quit again. It's juts not fun. It's badly executed as you often can't see what's happening, and you get skanked way to often by quirky gameplay mechanics.

 

[conmag9]

Final Fantasy XIII. I can't recall precisely what sparked my drive to finish it so strongly, but I remember pushing through it at an excruciating pace and thoroughly disliking it. I don't mind JRPGs for the most part, but the concentrated anti-logic the characters displayed drove me up a wall. That it all more or less worked out infuriates me.

Curiously, despite being my least favorite of the series, it was the third one I actually managed to complete.

The one I actually couldn't wait to complete was Other M. In that I legitimately couldn't wait to stop, so I put down the controller and said "nope" after a while. The plot was bad, the voice and character butchery was awful, but what pissed me off the most was the missile switching view. Hate hate hate that. To date, it's the only game I've ever stopped playing deliberately. Others I loose interest gradually and latch onto something else, but that one was an actual decision.

I realize those are pretty cliche choices, but they're cliche for a reason, I think.