Games you like starting, but hate finishing

[Hugh Wright]

I recently re installed Sid Miers Colonisation again after looking through my Steam library and started a game, I then got 60 odd turns in and reset the game (after remembering/ relearning how to play), next time i get further through, but reset again. Same goes for the Pokemon series, Mount and Blade, and to a lesser extent games like Fallout 3 or Skyrim (which I've completed many times but enjoy the start of the game more that the later parts)
What games do you like the beginning but not the end?

 

[repeating integers]

For some unfathomable reason, I keep finding myself starting the first Mass Effect, playing a 3-hour sitting, then never touching that character again.

It's a shame, because ME1 has a brilliant conclusion. Guess the Citadel part just bogs me down.

 

[Wullie]

Definitely Skyrim and Fallout. It's impossible to "finish them" realistically, there's too many other games and stuff to do to devote so much time to doing every quest so it tends to get to a point where I have to just decide to stop. I always finish the main campaigns at some point and from then it's basically pick an arbitary point where to knock it on the head and play something else.

I find that quite frustrating because I'm someone who likes to play one game until I've completed it to a point where I'm satisfied and then move on to something else, but with these, it always feels like I'm walking away from it slightly unfinished.

 

[nightingale]

Risen. I like the first half of the game, with the island and camps and everything, but I cannot not move past that at all.

 

[Anathrax]

Kingdom Hearts 2, the beginning is meh, the middle parts are awesome and so are the ending parts but they make me so sad to transfer from the colourful worlds and varying character to the dark sensation of the world that never was and that feeling that the game is coming to an end.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

I tried playing the first Far Cry a few times but always gave up when the beasties (forget what they're called in-game) showed up.

Also, any GTA game. Despite logging hundreds of hours into each one, I don't think I've actually beaten any of them. For Vice City and San Andreas, it was always the flying sections that would make me give up. For GTA4, well, less said about that game the better.

 

[DoPo]

Spore - I really like the game but with that said, I usually play it up to the Civilisation stage and then leave it off. I think I've played a total of an hour of the galactic stage across many playthroughs. I guess what I like the most is my creatures taking over the planet and I can usually play from start till that point in one sitting easily. The galactic stage starts to drag on a bit.

Heroes 3 - I've played countless games there but the end bit is just SO FRUSTRATING. The beginning is interesting - you scrounging up resources and trying not to get wiped out, the middle part is also interesting - building up an army and making some strategic decisions, the end is just boring - either you get wiped out easily or you can wipe out everything that moves but then spend several months chasing after random heroes and defending your cities.

 

[Robot Bunny]

All RPG because I find they always but a lot of effort in to the starts and I love playing as different races and classes but also Total war games because it is so much funny being the under dog rather than the all powerful master of the earth. As one it is harder, so you have to put more effort in to being able to win and dominate and two not so much with Shogun but in the past they were all so different so it is fun to master them.

 

[krazykidd]

Legend of dragoon . It's a good game mine you . It just drags out way to long . I usually get bored at the begining of disc 4 ( remember when games had mutiple discs?) . I stopped playing 30 hours in 3 times , before finally giving it a super push on my 4th playthrough and finishing the game .

 

[Bostur]

In all the Civilization games I found the first part the most fun, until about 1000 AD.

Alpha Centauri is almost the opposite, it gets more fun towards the end. AC doesn't have as much of a landrush stage. There is plenty of land but it all sucks until technology makes it possible to exploit it.

 

[Pink Gregory]

In all the Civilization games I found the first part the most fun, until about 1000 AD.

My thoughts exactly. Then again I suppose that negates the tactical aspect of the game, but to be honest that's always been a bit lacking.

To be honest I think I've only once played a game of Civ to completion. And I LOVE Civ...

 

[Esotera]

Halo Reach campaign...the earlier missions feel awesome, and are way less depressing than the last two or three.

I also don't think I've ever completed Pokemon all the way through. Or most games really, I find in general that most endings suck.

 

[Bostur]

In all the Civilization games I found the first part the most fun, until about 1000 AD.

My thoughts exactly. Then again I suppose that negates the tactical aspect of the game, but to be honest that's always been a bit lacking.

To be honest I think I've only once played a game of Civ to completion. And I LOVE Civ...

To be fair to Civilization the _strategic_ aspect improves in the later game, especially after 1900 when there is a lot of unit dynamics to take into account. It feels a lot more like a traditional strategy game than an economic game.

(Yes I know the creators of Civ5 talked about making it more 'tactical', which makes me facepalm when considering the scale)

They always used the "One more turn" slogan for the series. I often think "Just one more game", because when a game is finally over I get to the fun bit of starting all over again.
There is a certain excitement when I get 1 warrior, 1 settler and a huge unexplored map. It's almost like opening presents for christmas.

 

[Hargrimm]

In all the Civilization games I found the first part the most fun, until about 1000 AD.

My thoughts exactly. Then again I suppose that negates the tactical aspect of the game, but to be honest that's always been a bit lacking.

To be honest I think I've only once played a game of Civ to completion. And I LOVE Civ...

To be fair to Civilization the _strategic_ aspect improves in the later game, especially after 1900 when there is a lot of unit dynamics to take into account. It feels a lot more like a traditional strategy game than an economic game.

(Yes I know the creators of Civ5 talked about making it more 'tactical', which makes me facepalm when considering the scale)

They always used the "One more turn" slogan for the series. I often think "Just one more game", because when a game is finally over I get to the fun bit of starting all over again.
There is a certain excitement when I get 1 warrior, 1 settler and a huge unexplored map. It's almost like opening presents for christmas.

That's how I feel about most strategy games. The beginning of most (grand)strategy/4X games, where you have to carve out your little niche in the grand, open world is the most interesting.
Then in the mid-game you get big enough to take on the heavyweights in big, epic battles that decide the fate of entire nations.
This is followed by the "mop-up" phase, where you simply pump out gigantic armies with your superior economy and crush every enemy under your boots. *yawn*.

 

[Theminimanx]

Fallout New Vegas. When you start the game, there's this big open world to explore. But when you reach the end, you've finished all the quests, and although you want to keep playing, you don't know what to do.
Though I'd love some ideas on what to do after finishing all the quests.

 

[Rariow]

Any of the Jedi Knight games. There's always a point when you get too bogged down in fighting enemy Jedi which, whilst fun, provides a lot less opportunity for messing around than slaughtering Stormtroopers by the hundred. In fact, if I remember correctly, there was all of five Stormtroopers in the last level of Academy, and something like 30 Reborn.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Great character creator with lots of wonderful options, wonderfully put together first part of the game... but there's a point when you need to level a lot to be able to continue the main quest, and you get all of about six sidequests, so you're eventually forced to wander around the world map trying to find random encounters. The part of the game after that is also fantastic, but it's too much of a pain to get there. (That said, if you're a fan of Baldur's Gate and early Fallout-style RPGs, try this one out. One of the best sadly obscures examples of the genre. Goes for $5.99 on GoG)

Morrowind. Every time I go in wide-eyed and expecting to live an amazing experience... then I remember how the combat is and go away crying like a little girl.

As much as this is going to cast a shadow on my "hardcore gamer cred", even if such a thing actually existed and/or mattered, The Sims. Always intend to come in and get my Sims to greatness, and three hours later the entirety of my family is passing out because I force them to grind skills rather than sleep and eat. Then, when I get into a routine that works I realize I'm doing what I do in real life in fake life, and realize I might as well go grind cooking skills for myself.

The opposite to what we're discussing applies to both KotOR games. I find the part on Taris in the first one to be incredibly boring, there's next to no plot going on, you're just fighting the same generic mooks over and over, and the stuff that happens on it becomes almost completely irrelevant. Same with Peragus and Telos in the second: Peragus has way too much combat, Telos has way too much plot that becomes ultimately irrelevant followed by another section of way too much combat. That said, once you get past those bits, both games are stelar, even with KotOR II being as unfinished as it is.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Anything that takes a long time. RPGs and grand strategy, I'm looking at you.