Games you didn't like... but finished anyway

[xyrafhoan]

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It seriously did not live up to the little something special the first two games had, and a lot of that had to do with the LACK OF RESOLUTION IN *MAIN* PLOTS, LET ALONE SUBPLOTS. Also the music seriously did not live up to the legacy of the series either, being a total phone-in by Sakuraba with maybe 2 good songs, tops. Coupled with tons of permanently missable djinn and other items, and absurdly easy gameplay that barely rose beyond "mash attack" with no rush command... there was just so much about this game that was a disappointment. The only real redeeming features here are cool summons during battle (not that you need them...) and some solid puzzle dungeons. The bones for a great RPG are here, just the music and writing left a LOT to be desired.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Brutal Legend. I'm a huge fan of Tim Schafer's games (still am), so when Brutal Legend was announced, I couldn't wait to play it. I obviously shouldn't have raised my expectations so high; somewhere around the middle of the game, I simply gave up. Despite it's great introduction, unique setting, and witty humor (things one can expect from all of Schafer's games), the game quickly becomes a tedious exercise in novelty abuse, and was ultimately disappointing.

I wasn't even going to finish the game until a friend of mine, despite my warnings, asked if he could borrow it from me. So before I lent it to him, I took a few days to complete the game; I ignored every side mission I could and sped through the story mission like a bat out of hell. The very instant the end credits started playing, I ejected the disc and gave it to my friend; he ended up being just as disappointed as me.

Soundtrack was nice though...

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Indigo Prophecy, but that's only because it pulled a switch towards the last 1/3rd. Fuck did it suck, and I didn't stop, I just rode the thing down to see just how bad it would get. Fucking Matrix Terminator Aliens, n'uff said.

 

[Antwerp Caveman]

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam (all achievements, 90. Hours of boredom and sorrow)
Oblivion
Prototype
Halo 2 (barely bothered with 3 anymore)
Force Unleashed 2 (that game made that actor even more emo than Smallville, and seriously, only 3 different levels?)

 

[blackdwarf]

fable 3. the game was just so badm amd the whole time the bad illusion of choice. serioulsy i felt offended when i finished it.

 

[Simon Pettersson]

Call of duty Black Ops bought it because of a friend. Played the single player to the end not fun at all I liked Modern warfare and Modern warfare 2. But this was just the same thing...

 

[Hemlet]

I have two games like this for me: Bioshock 2 and Quest 64. Bioshock 2 was just...I don't even know where to begin with it. There was exactly one point in that entire game where I was even remotely interested in what was happening, and the fights were more annoying than they were challenging.

As for Quest 64...well the entire game is flat out awful. The "storyline" may as well not exist, the towns and cities are convoluted as all hell (and rendered completely unnecessary by the fact that there's exactly 3 worthwhile buildings in every town, with literally every side area being a waste of time), the level design is atrocious, and combat ranges from boring to frustrating without ever reaching a reasonable challenge.

Spoiler: Quest 64 Rant Ahoy

The biggest problem with Quest 64 (out of all of its problems mind), is the completely batshit crazy difficulty curve. If you were to draw out the difficulty curve for this game, it would look like the line on a heart monitor of someone who just injected adrenaline directly into their eyeballs. To elaborate: the first actual dungeon you reach in Quest 64 will completely stonewall you without any warning or reason. You can make it up to the dungeon with little to no effort, but when you step into that dungeon you will be greeted with exactly how unforgiving the game can actually be by being 2-shotted by a kung-fu rat thing and a puppet.

To reliably make any headway in Quest 64, you have to grind like a ************ on all the boring as hell normal enemies out in the overworld just so you have a chance of making it to the boss of the ridiculously strong dungeon enemies so you can die there instead. The best part? Quest's EXP and leveling system is the very definition of how NOT TO MAKE AN EXP AND LEVELING SYSTEM. How do you get extra HP? You gain HP EXP by letting things beat the tar out of you until your HP levels up and you get 1 whole extra hit point. ONE FUCKING HIT POINT. Same goes for how you get more magic, and how you increase the power of the four elements you use to attack.

Even though two of those four elements are completely worthless since Water gives you the almighty healing spell and Wind almost never misses and eventually reaches a point where it does more damage than most other spells anyway with half the MP cost. AND GOD FORBID THAT YOU HAVE THE BALLS TO TRY AND TAKE ON THE LAST SECTION OF THE GAME WITHOUT HAVING GRINDED YOUR ASS UP TO MAXIMUM STATS. I swear the only reason I ever finished it was because it was a gift from my grandma and I didn't want her to think she'd gotten me a bad present.

 

[floppylobster]

Why don't I just name all the games I finished because I was enjoying them and enjoying them the whole way through? It's going to be a lot shorter list.

But if I was going to mention some controversial ones I grinded my through 'because I paid for it and/or it was highly acclaimed and I kept waiting for it to get better' that would be -

- Final Fantasy VII
- Gears of War
- Mass Effect (but I ended up kind of enjoying it and liking the sequel a lot)
- World of Goo
- Twilight Princess
- Donkey Kong 64

These are games I played to the end (there are others but I've long since sold them so forgotten).

I'm a very old cynical gamer though so don't take any of my dislikes personally if you love the game. Some of my favourites are on your lists.

(These days there's a growing list of games I saved myself some agony by just giving up within 20 minutes or so).

 

[Deadyawn]

Assassin's creed really tried my paience. It was difficult but I managed to bludgeon my way to the end. It's not that I didn't like the game it's just that after a certain point it becomes a chore to play. I wanted to know what happened plot wise so I didn't fall behind. Course, at the end of the game they throw any plausibilty right out the goddamn window but oh well.

 

[PurePareidolia]

Dragon Age origins was the only one I really disliked but finished anyway - anything else and they usually sprung terribleness on me near the end - like the cel-shaded Prince of Persia.

I just didn't care about anything or anyone in Dragon Age, and the gameplay was boring as hell. Morrigan was cool though - she shared my ambivalence to the other saps I was forced to travel with

 

[HeOfMalice]

God of War. (HD)

I kept hearing it was one of the great Playstation exclusives, and so I figured I had to keep playing and it would get better. I wasn't impressed at all. I guess it's just no my type of game. Why people care about the main character I will never understand. He slaughters his family and betrays a God all because he's just messed up in the head. Horrible story, and the gameplay was so damn repetitive.

Pfft, you think GoW1 was bad? Granted, I too, have always been confused as to why anyone gives a fuck about Kratos but I've come to grips with the fact that I will never know. But GoW1 has shit on GoW3's story.

Spoiler: As to not ruin anyone's potential experience..

The end of God of War 3 has such a Disney "If you believe in yourself" spin to it, I broke my controller in a shameful fit of "How could they do this" rage.

OT: Super Meat Boy.
I didn't hate the game to start but it made me hate it after awhile.
So I beat it to show that I was the superior being.
Take that, asshole.

 

[ghostrider9876]

Rage. Sooooooooooooo boring. Almost completely devoid of plot, and what little was there was mostly ripped off from Fallout 3. And 95% of the game felt like you were being an errand boy for the various NPCs and not really ACCOMPLISHING anything. It goes back to there being no plot; none of the missions felt like progress. The guns were entertaining enough, but the rest of the game was so repetitive and dull that I only slogged through it because (1) I'd already gotten some distance in before I realized it would never get any better and (2)I wanted to give a completely honest review. Still, it won me a Review of the Month contest and an Amazon gift card, so at least I got something positive from the experience. And THANK GOD I was smart enough to Redbox it.

Also Prince of Persia 2008. Not only was it repetitive and too easy, not only was the significant majority of it a massive fetch-quest, and not only did you have to fight the same four annoying bosses over and over with the same damn tactics for every fight...but, icing on the cake, Nolan North as the main character annoyed me. Nathan Drake works extremely well in Uncharted, but North essentially played the same personality in PoP and Nathan Drake DID NOT FEEL RIGHT in the Prince of Persia setting.

 

[Frybird]

Indigo Prophecy, but that's only because it pulled a switch towards the last 1/3rd. Fuck did it suck, and I didn't stop, I just rode the thing down to see just how bad it would get. Fucking Matrix Terminator Aliens, n'uff said.

My thoughts exactly, the Twist was so awful that it not only dragged the whole game down, it amplified all the "not-so-great" parts before it. The only good thing i remember from this game nowadays are the first few minutes (aka "The Demo Level") and the one where playable protagonists meet and you have to play both sides even though they are "opponents" of sorts.

Other than that, as mentioned before, Enter the Matrix. I was hyped for the game and the upcoming sequels and despite the game ranging from dull mediocre to downright awful (with graphics to match...they couldn't even make objects round!?!) i forced myself to like the game.
And despite eventually realizing how awful the game was, i did the same with Matrix: Path of Neo.

And i did play through both Halo:Reach and Modern Warfare 2 without really "loving" them, or liking them all that much, but i can't deny that i had a bit of fun with each of them, so no real harm.

...Also, since i now played every Halo Game for at least an hour without being a fan of the series, can i finally have a Halo Space Combat Shooter that expands on that one level of Reach?
It'd be only fair, Bungie...

 

[SarcasmoPope]

THREE CHEERS FOR BRINK -_-
One of the worst games I've ever played, except for Discovery Channel's Battle For The Pacific, but I only borrowed it from a friend because of how shit I heard it was. I heard from a friend before Brink was released that it was a GOTY contender. A claim he now denies he ever said.
Fuck you Splash Damage.

 

[elcamino41383]

Prototype. The game started off pretty nicely but quickly got VERY boring for me. I'm still a bit pissed they felt the need to make another one.

 

[robert01]

To be honest most games I play I enjoy, and if I don't enjoy a game I don't finish it plain and simple. I'm not the kind of person that devotes my time to doing something that I don't want to do, but their has been games that I haven enjoyed but was glad they ended, like Dungeon Siege 3.

 

[Kevo32A]

Modern Warfare three and Castlevania Lords of Shadow.

MW3 because I felt invested in it on account of having played the first two and I actually was interested in seeing it through. Problem is the gameplay difference is negligible and the story is one of the worst I have ever played. I failed the ending sequence five times because I didn't want to do what it was asking me to do before i finally just got it over and done with.

Castlevania: LoS because i was really into Castlevania and had convinced myself that it was related to Castlevania in any way. It's really, really not. Just the odd reference and the names of the characters.

What I wouldn't give to see a proper metroidvania style game with the full weight of the PS3 technology behind it.