Games you didn't like but thought had potential

[The Wykydtron]

Yeah I have to say Skyrim. Why did they bother with a dialogue system again? Literally just the Continue Quest Button 99% of the time.

I have to hold all open world type games up to Fallout: New Vegas. I know I would have loved Skyrim if I didn't play NV beforehand. New Vegas actually has a good story and interesting locations and huge RP potential with the dialogue trees with entertaining side quests along with the open world.

Skyrim was just a fucking mess.

 

[Nazulu]

Exactly the reason why Super Smash Brothers Brawl disappoints me so. For nearly 3 years I kept on looking for new information on Brawl and it looked like it was going to be a dream come true. I mean, I played Melee for 7 years non stop, and I thought Brawl would last even longer with all the new content that had been added.

Who wouldn't be excited when hearing about the map editor, amazing super moves, big adventure mode, stamps and stats, big boss fights, new moves and strategy's, online modes, finally a game with Mario vs Sonic, and of course even more characters, challenges, items and levels? How could you go wrong with all this?

This should've of been the greatest game ever, but somehow they screwed the game play with clunky movements that made it difficult to combo, random tripping, and some really poor level designs. Actually, I feel the game wasn't finished and some really important things were rushed.

 

[Sacman]

This might stir some shit up, but... Skyrim!

Bethesdas model of, "creating a wide open world and throwing the player in to create their own story", to me, is severely out-dated - this isn't 2002.

They NEED to start hiring good writers and learn how to weave together a good narrative and story to go along with the world they create.

- zero character development
- garbage story


Far Cry 3 is a PERFECT example of this executed perfectly. [yes, i realize they are totally different games, but they share similarities]

Yeah, this... but it eally goes for pretty much anything Bathesda makes... sure they're great at creating an interesting world, for the players to explore, but there's absolutely nothing keeping the player there... there's only crawling through a bunch of samey looking dungeons for a couple hours, wrestling with the frustrating game mechanics that are suposed to make the worlds more "Immersive"... which is another big problem I have with the game... they have this backwards ass design philosiphy, where they put on a pedestal a lot of pointless crap that only hinders the player experience in the universe, and gets in the wa of the actual fun stuff, Like: Not being able to fast travel while loaded down, shops only having a limited amount of money, shops only being open during certain hours, only being able to trade with certain people... I swear to god, I felt more like a traveling merchant than a goddamned slayer of dragons...<.<

OT: Alpha Protocol... I mean it had a lot going for it, in terms of ideas... and every single one was squandered... interesting dialogue system was confusing and misleading, combat was severely unbalanced and broken, story became a confusing cluster fuck by the end, it's pretentions to organic problem solving and character building are broken by the increasingly linear level design and stupid fucking boss fights... though one thing I really liked and I thought was done well, was the moral choice system... the way it stresed grey morality with no right or wrong answers, only the consiquences efecting the people around you, fuggin briliant at some points... but than it's Obsidian, it seems to be the only thing they do well...<.<

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I realize I'm going to probably get some flack for this, but I'm going to say 2012's Syndicate. Yes, I know it is an unforgivable sin for them to take a beloved strategy game and turn it into a fairly brainless FPS. But after playing other games that came out at the end of the year (Dishonored, Far Cry 3, XCOM), I can only wonder if they allowed this game to cook for a bit longer, worked on the story elements, gave the main lead some depth of character, expanded on the mental hacking ideas, turn down the goddamn bloom lighting, how much better it would have been. No, it probably wouldn't have been as good as the original, but at least it would've had SOMETHING.

You know what, I absolutely agree.

I remember that before release many people (including me) thought this game was going to be 'Deus Ex HR, but as a bad guy'. The marketing and press seemed to hint at that at least, if I remember things right. It probably still wouldn't have been as good as the original, but I took some solace in the idea that if they were going to reboot the franchise as an fps, then that would've been a good direction to take it in. Previous outings from Starbreeze Studios (Escape From Butcher Bay & The Darkness) showed that they're quite capable of creating a semi-open fps with sidequests and arguably interesting settings with actual characters. And hey, I'm a sucker for cyberpunk anyway.

And then the game came out. I played it. I was wrong. While not really bad from a gameplay standpoint, nothing about it really stood out and I felt bored playing it. A pity, because it felt like the dev put in a decent effort creating the setting, putting emphasis on the dichotomy between the wealthy technological haves and the poor not-haves, and the wars between the various megacorps. And then the game ends up not really doing anything interesting with it.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

Far Cry 2.
I could never play more than half an hour of the campaign before giving up to mess with the map editor.
I wanted to play it because it had a lot of promise, but the game feels so broken and boring.

Far Cry 3 is what 2 should have been.

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

Hitman Absolution. I really wanted to enjoy it, because the controls and gameplay were the best the series has offered yet, but I never felt like a hitman. There were no choices for outfitting my character, and the guys recognizing the same costume broke me from the fantasy of being a true assassin.

I want a game were I feel like an assassin. The Hitman series is a great concept, but spends too much time on farce and silly plot, rather than making me feel like a talented and deadly killer.

 

[LordDPS]

For me, Kingdom Hearts. The story and characters have potential but the finished project felt stupid and too abstract to take seriously. It had blatent and out of place fan service, Sora didn't react to anything ever with anything other then "gee wilikers i hope i can save Riku, Riku is important to me. Kairi who?" And the later games pretty much forced you to play the god awful spin offs so you can try to understand the bloated mess the story and mythology had become.

 

[Fasckira]

Theres quite a few games I've come across that I didn't like but thought could be great with a few changes .... but that could easily be a case of the game just not being right for me but great for others. Its a relatively fine line I guess between personal taste and actual game points to nitpick.

 

[SkullKing]

Hellgate London.

That game had so much potential, So many good ideas.

Interestingly enough the game is a LOT better if you play it in 3rd person instead of the default first person, because than it becomes more about situational awareness and choosing your targets, much closer to diablo, instead of being an FPS where having a good aim does not matter.

 

[MasterBrief]

RE Operation Raccoon City, Dead Island

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

The first Far Cry. Amazing graphics for its time, non-linear, almost sandbox-style level design, clever AI and lots of tactical options.

The things that killed it:
- unfair AI which notices you if you as much as break wind within a mile of their position. I'll never get tired of saying that once I was shot from outside the game's draw distance
- Ham-handed, boring and half-assed story with an absolutely detestable main character

I couldn't care less about the story, just make the damn game play fair. It is to this day the hardest non-platformer game I've ever played. Fuck that game.

 

[Zeema]

LA Noire they really just needed to fix some stuff like gameplay. i was so bored midway thru vice and onwards