Games you felt were harshly judged...

[Nomanslander]

Recently, I just beat Bioshock 2, and from my memories of when the game was released, a lot of people didn't exactly have positive things to say.

Yahtzee went so far as to call it one of his top 5 worse games of that year, and there was a general sense of disapproval. Even contempt.

Personally, I had a chance to really enjoy the game, and even though it did feel tacked on a bit(which was primary complaint about the game at the time), I felt like it was a worthy sequel. I thought the story and gameplay were still top notch, even going so far as being better - in parts - than the original.

When it came to gameplay, there's no denying it was way better than the original in ever ways. But as for story, I feel the problem with BS2 was that it had a rocky start. The story really didn't catch on until it got to the third act, and by that point, a lot of players would have probably lost interest. Considering both BS1 and BS2 third acts, BS2 was far superior as it brought the story full circle, while BS1 spent the entire time building up the confrontation between Jack and Fontaine, which was boring. BS1 story was a lot more cerebral, but focused a bit much on the twist (there's not much replay value in building up suspense when you know what the reveal is), whereas BS2 was way more sentimental and rewarding at the end.

Overall, the first game was better, but, somehow that categorized the second one as crap.

So, right now, I sorta feel sorry that everyone is going to consider it the forgetten Meg Griffin middle child of the series as we get closer to Bioshock: Infinite's release.

Anyways, what games would you people consider to be in this category?

 

[Pink Gregory]

I enjoyed Bioshock 2 as well; but honestly it's a direct sequel where it wasn't needed. Those never shine.

 

[King Billi]

Harshly judged? Aren't they all?

Alot of people almost seem to enjoy being disappointed, most even seem to go out of their way to hate things. The best one can hope for these days is just to be a minor letdown, if they're lucky.

In any case I'll second Bioshock 2 as I honestly can't fathom how that game has gotten such a bad rap? I've listened to people trying to explain it to me and still just can't get it..?

Oh well In the end I suppose "your" opinion truly is the only one that counts.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Devil May Cry 4. It got a lot of hate for Nero replacing Dante as the main character and for Dante's part basically being Nero's in reverse, but I didn't mind going through the same areas again (especially after the scene with Dante in the board game room) and it's still incredibly fun to beat up demons and not have to do quick time events.

Unless you count Nero's instant rev as a QTE, in which case I'd say it's more like Gears of War reloading, except a lot harder to do consistently.

 

[Rumpsteak]

Hunted: The demons forge. It wasn't particularly good but it wasn't bad. It was a decidedly average game that I've seen get a lot of hate that I don't feel it deserves.

 

[Racecarlock]

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/yxz8yd/saints-row-2-review

In this review there are probably more than 10 comparisons to GTA IV, and said comparisons are used to knock points off of the review score of the game. If they wanted to make a comparison video, they should have made a comparison video. As it stands, the score is horribly biased.

 

[Janus Vesta]

Hitman Absolution was unfairly judged in my opinion. a LOT of people write it off completely just because it isn't exactly like Blood Money, which is a real shame. Absolution is a great game. Though I was also infuriated by certain websites claiming it wasn't a 'real' Hitman game and that Blood Money was the definitive Hitman experience, mostly because they ignored all of Blood Money's faults and all of Absolution's positives.

I also thought Hitman Contracts was the best game, so there's that.

I think Sleeping Dogs was compared a bit too closely to GTA and Saint's Row, considering it's a very down to earth game focused on melee combat it seemed odd that people ignored how good the fighting was and focused on haw mediocre the shooting was.

 

[Ultress]

Tales of Legendia got some deserved flak from the way you learned spells and random encounters. However I think it gets a lot of undeserved hate because it had to follow Tales of Symphonia. Which is sort of like having Rush be the opening band then being followed up by Cage the Elephant. Both are quite good in their own right but it's such a jarring change of tone that it leaves some people frustrated. Are their some legitimate criticisms,yes I just mentioned them a few sentences ago but it's far from the worst Tales game.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I enjoyed Bioshock 2 as well; but honestly it's a direct sequel where it wasn't needed. Those never shine.

I liked it enough to play through it once but I knew if I was playing a good guy I would have hated it (words can't describe how much I hated escorting Little Sisters).

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Harshly judged? Aren't they all?

Excellent point!

---

When people talk about Zelda 2: Adventures of Link they talk about how it's the worst Nintendo Zelda title but what they never talk about is how satisfying it is to actually beat the thing. It's a pain in the ass with some really annoying sections but on the whole, it's really satisfying to beat the Thunderbird, Dark Link and, make it to those end credits. Ninja Gaiden is critically beloved but I haven't beaten that one yet...It's an excellent game but I'm just pointing out that I haven't beaten that one whereas I've beaten Zelda 2.

As for more recent titles...I've got nothing. I loved ME3 but the main brunt of the criticisms levied against it are focused on the ending which is just one big coffee stain over what I think is the happy medium between 1 and 2. Would have liked Mako exploration sections though...

 

[Tanis]

God Hand

The game got reviewed so harshly yet...it's one of my favorite games for the PS2.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Well, you knew somebody was going to bring it up...

Mass Effect 3.

No, not because everything before the ending was perfect, it certainly wasn't. I've said before that I have other problems with Mass Effect 3 that I consider far more important than the ending. The ending is a judgement call, and even if you don't agree with what call they made, it was their call to make and no-one else's. The bugs on the other hand, were not a judgement call. They just mean that the game wasn't play-tested properly, and for a title as huge as ME3 to not bother to polish your product properly before you ship it has no excuse.

Anyway, although I had my fair share of gripes about the ending, I was never half as furious as many of my fellow fans seemed to be, even before the extended cut. As for the rest of the game, what weaknesses it had (and it did have them) were completely forgotten beneath its strengths.

 

[Guffe]

Tales of Symphonia, second game, Dawn of a New World, or something like that (for the Wii)

I think it was mainly beaten for not being as good as the first one, but c'mon, who ever thought it would top that game?
The first one was bloody awesome and I think standing on it's own, the second game, it was a fun, interesting game. The only thing that was a lot better in the first one was the story otherwise I think they were pretty equal.

 

[Frozengale]

Fable III
I don't understand all the hate. It's an okay game at worst. I just think people hate on it because it doesn't live up to their wild expectations fueled by Molyneux's rampant enthusiasm. I personally had a good time with it, and thought it was decent.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Any MMO, most harshly by their own "fans". These games are expected to provide hundreds if not thousands of hours of entertainment, and are viciously pilloried if they become repetitive or boring at any point during that process. They're set up for failure from the get-go. They'll be saddled with derisive nicknames and from the moment the forums open there will be bloviations about the game's imminent demise. It's exhausting.

After that, any mega-popular AAA franchise. You can rest assured unless it launches in near flawless condition it will be the recipient of a vicious score bombing that is seldom merited. Then there will be a big circle jerk of angry gamers insisting "the fans have spoken!", and the mythology that the game is rubbish will be writ into popular opinion, despite the fact it's almost always perfectly serviceable.

 

[Mr_Terrific]

Medal of Honor Warfighter. I thought the game was painfully mediocre but is it really worse than Homefront? Sure...EA did a major...EA with the review copies and door breaching does not deserve it's own mini game, but seriously, it's not as bad as Homefront. Of course, simply being better than another shitty game probably won't win it any awards, but the game's metascore is a joke and the reviews for it are even worse. The same tired tropes in MoHW are in every CoD but you never see any of that mentioned in CoD reviews.

I'm one of those weirdos that played Bioshock 2 before playing Bioshock, so I KNOW it's a better game in every way aside from the narrative. Seriously, vast vast vast improvement over the first game which really only had the story as the main draw. Switching between plasmids and weapons. Awful. That ludicrously long hacking mini game. Terrible. Research cam? Bad idea. All of that stuff got better in the second game and you play as a Bigdaddy. How is that not better? The only thing missing from Bioshock 2 is the Irrational Games logo on the box.

Uncharted 3 is a better game than 95% of all games released this generation but since it's not better than UC2, it's shit. I don't understand the logic behind that. I get that some people don't like Uncharted. I even get the why part of them not liking it but the quality is still there. It's still one of the most polished games this gen. It still has likeable characters and oustanding voice acting. It still has an under appreciated multiplayer that....even innovated with it's maps? I think the main problem is how there's a group of people out there that believe UC2 was sent down from Heaven by God and has no faults. Those people are full of shit. UC2 is not that much better than UC3.

Halo Reach...had an epic campaign that didn't end with a shooting gallery of the same 2 enemy types and a quicktime event. Yeah...Swat sucks. The game still has trouble with human faces. Yes Kat's death was ridiculous since in the main game, she repeatedly takes fuel rod shots to the face. And yeah...still no Chief. But forget about that. It had great characters. A fantastic story that for the first time in 3 games really filled in the gaps in the story. The multiplayer was as solid as ever. As I eluded to earlier, the campaign IS better than Halo 4's, which everyone seemingly loves for some reason (probably the epic first half and boobed out Cortanna). Reach has a ton of haters and I honestly don't understand why.

 

[Ishal]

Any MMO, most harshly by their own "fans". These games are expected to provide hundreds if not thousands of hours of entertainment, and are viciously pilloried if they become repetitive or boring at any point during that process. They're set up for failure from the get-go. They'll be saddled with derisive nicknames and from the moment the forums open there will be bloviations about the game's imminent demise. It's exhausting.

After that, any mega-popular AAA franchise. You can rest assured unless it launches in near flawless condition it will be the recipient of a vicious score bombing that is seldom merited. Then there will be a big circle jerk of angry gamers insisting "the fans have spoken!", and the mythology that the game is rubbish will be writ into popular opinion, despite the fact it's almost always perfectly serviceable.

This. So much this.

I've never seen so much rage generated to something as inconsequential. If I were a psychiatrist I could do my doctorate on it and publish Grenth knows how many papers on it. But it also has made me turn back toward single player games, and what was waiting for me?

Dark Souls, and my old Nintendo 64

OT: Honestly, since I was one of them (tho not truly one of them since I barely ever went on the forums, and thus retain my soul and innocence, or so I'm told)some bioware fans have become unbelievable. I can say that Bioware games have been, and probably forever will be met with the same harsh bile and putrid contempt that any recent MMO has been met with. I don't know what the take away lesson is in all of this, but I'd venture a guess that it goes something like this. If you happen to be an artist and create something that is able to garner so much love and admiration from fans, be prepared for the consequences (deserved or otherwise) should you wrong or slight them in any way. The wrath will be terrible indeed.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Honestly, since I was one of them (tho not truly one of them since I barely ever went on the forums, and thus retain my soul and innocence, or so I'm told)some bioware fans have become unbelievable. I can say that Bioware games have been, and probably forever will be met with the same harsh bile and putrid contempt that any recent MMO has been met with. I don't know what the take away lesson is in all of this, but I'd venture a guess that it goes something like this. If you happen to be an artist and create something that is able to garner so much love and admiration from fans, be prepared for the consequences (deserved or otherwise) should you wrong or slight them in any way. The wrath will be terrible indeed.

Bioware became a perfect storm for fan fallout. They achieved the rarely seen trifecta of:

1. High expectations from previous successes not met.
2. Rather abrupt decline in quality standards.
3. Purchase by EA/shady business practices.

So people are coming at them from every angle. Some are outraged fans who remember the glory days of Bioware and are venting their hurt feelings at losing the goose that laid the golden eggs. Some are life-long EA detractors who have identified yet another of that publisher's many disasters and are piling on. Some are industry watchdogs who hate things like day one DLC and are looking to take the lash to anyone who offends their sensibilities. And some are just sharks who love controversy and smell blood in the water.

Now, the easiest way to deflect criticism is success, so if Bioware wants the dogs off, they just need to release a really awesome game. Maybe DA3 will be that game. Or maybe this really is Origin 2.0, and it'll be hilarious junk and Spoony will do an awesome retrospective on it in a decade. Time will tell.

 

[PoweD]

Hitman Absolution was unfairly judged in my opinion. a LOT of people write it off completely just because it isn't exactly like Blood Money, which is a real shame. Absolution is a great game. Though I was also infuriated by certain websites claiming it wasn't a 'real' Hitman game and that Blood Money was the definitive Hitman experience, mostly because they ignored all of Blood Money's faults and all of Absolution's positives.

I also thought Hitman Contracts was the best game, so there's that.

I loved Absolution, but honestly it's not a Hitman game.Agent 47 is sometimes so out of character it makes me think that its another clone called Agent 49 and the real one died in Requiem.

Mind telling me what Blood Money got wrong actually?
Apart from story being terrible, i don't see any issues with it.