Games you want to really love but... just can't.

[aozgolo]

Has there ever been a game that when you first heard about it, read the synopsis, saw a video, had a friend tell you about, it just ticked all the right boxes? It did that thing in just that way that you knew deep down it was made just for someone like you to come along and sing it's praises? Then you get it and... no matter how many times you try to get into it, try to enjoy it, try to see past some glaring flaw or baffling design choice to really fall in love with it... you just can't! It doesn't even have to be a BAD game, you just realize it's ultimately... not your thing no matter how much you wish it was.

I want to know which games those were for you!

 

[aozgolo]

I have 2 off the top of my head:

Agarest: Generations of War - It's a tactical turn-based JRPG! It's a story that spans multiple generations! It's got dating sim elements that actually influence the story! It's got a medieval fantasy world full of monsters! It's got a (semi) mature plot full of political intrigue! It's got waifus! I mean geez, this game couldn't have been better marketed to someone like me. I couldn't wait to try it, and when it finally got ported to PC, I jumped on it, day one, including all it's unneccesary DLC! The problem is... the combat... oh the combat... is SO UTTERLY BORING and confusing in the worst kind of way. You don't have interesting backgrounds to look at, you don't have fun skills to use, you don't have height maps, what you do have is the most backwards asinine combo system where battle placement has little to do with tactical maneuvering and more to do with positioning your guys in the right spot to trigger a multiple combo. The fights are long, uninteresting, and dull, and to make matters worse the map gives you hundreds of these boring super long fights that aren't even plot related in-between the actual story. Geez Agarest, you had the formula right but you wasted it on such subpar gameplay!

Divinity: Dragon Commander - Okay... wait wait wait, we have a chance for redemption here. It's another game all about strategy, political intrigue, and waifus... we got this! Dragon Commander looked awesome, combining the political strategy of Democracy with the turn based campaign map of Total War, and the RTS aspects of Command and Conquer... with a dash of sexy fantasy girls, interesting NPCs to talk to, and a fun fantasy world to explore, coupled with some interesting gimmicks (like controlling a dragon on the battle map). It looked awesome! It wasn't... it's not terrible, it's not bad, it's not full of glaring bugs or bad design choices per se, it just isn't by any measure good or memorable. Every gameplay aspect of the game feels stripped and bare, even with upgrade trees and multiple units it never rises to the point of feeling interesting or dynamic. It does so many different things at once but never once does a single thing great. There's nothing to stand out really except that this one of the only games to mix all these things into one, it's such a shame it didn't do it that good.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Witcher 2.

I love everything about this game...except the gameplay.

I hate the combat, I hate the magic system, I hate the menus, I hate meditation, and I just can't be bothered to play it because it's just too goddamn long for me to put up with these problems.

I have friends so absolutely love this game and keep trying to get me to play it, and Witcher 3, but I just don't want to.

The worst part is that I REALLY want to support the developer, because CD Projekt is awesome.

 

[Saelune]

Does Pokemon Sun count? I never -want- to be unhappy with a Pokemon game, but even with all its faults I still played through and ultimately enjoyed X, but Sun...I just cant.

Baldur's Gate and Fallout 1 are two others. I like DnD, and I like Bethesda's Fallout. I like Neverwinter Nights, but I just cant get into those two games. Baldur's gate is 2nd Edition DnD, which honestly, sucks. Too much of 3.5 makes it hard to take that backwards step.

Fallout 1 is just too strategy for me I think, and that time limit stresses me out. I keep thinking of trying again but...eh...

 

[aozgolo]

Witcher 2.

I love everything about this game...except the gameplay.

I hate the combat, I hate the magic system, I hate the menus, I hate meditation, and I just can't be bothered to play it because it's just too goddamn long for me to put up with these problems.

I have friends so absolutely love this game and keep trying to get me to play it, and Witcher 3, but I just don't want to.

The worst part is that I REALLY want to support the developer, because CD Projekt is awesome.

Admittedly I had the same exact problem, I tried to play Witcher 1 and 2 so many times, I had heard of it's fantastic story, mature plot, great characters, awesome choice & consequence, but the combat felt very alien and lackluster to me. I wasn't willing to adapt so much to get familiar with it. I managed to get past the prologue in both games but kept floundering and losing interest not long into the first chapter.

The Witcher 3 however has made me a lifelong fan and I love that it finally gave me access to this incredible series in a way that is enjoyable. I definitely agree with the sentiment that it improves on the previous games a lot, and even if you didn't enjoy those you might enjoy the third one. There is admittedly some narrative continuity between the three games as is prone to happen when you keep the same main character, but the plot itself is self contained and it does a great job of giving you enough information to follow along with the story and lore and pre-established relationships without beating you over the head with exposition.

Does Pokemon Sun count? I never -want- to be unhappy with a Pokemon game, but even with all its faults I still played through and ultimately enjoyed X, but Sun...I just cant.

Baldur's Gate and Fallout 1 are two others. I like DnD, and I like Bethesda's Fallout. I like Neverwinter Nights, but I just cant get into those two games. Baldur's gate is 2nd Edition DnD, which honestly, sucks. Too much of 3.5 makes it hard to take that backwards step.

Fallout 1 is just too strategy for me I think, and that time limit stresses me out. I keep thinking of trying again but...eh...

Baldur's Gate was my first experience with the D&D ruleset and it actually works very well in the confines of that game at least (I think it's 2.5 technically) but I can understand it being hard to go backwards. I would suggest instead trying Pillars of Eternity as it's ruleset is built from the ground up with the game in mind.

You could also try Fallout 2 instead of 1, it's only loosely connected to the first one in terms of plot (you are a descendant of the first game's protagonist) but it's the exact same gameplay with some minor improvements, The main thing is it doesn't have a time limit (not exactly, there is a technical memory limit but it's so unreachable you might as well forget it's there).

 

[Saelune]

Does Pokemon Sun count? I never -want- to be unhappy with a Pokemon game, but even with all its faults I still played through and ultimately enjoyed X, but Sun...I just cant.

Baldur's Gate and Fallout 1 are two others. I like DnD, and I like Bethesda's Fallout. I like Neverwinter Nights, but I just cant get into those two games. Baldur's gate is 2nd Edition DnD, which honestly, sucks. Too much of 3.5 makes it hard to take that backwards step.

Fallout 1 is just too strategy for me I think, and that time limit stresses me out. I keep thinking of trying again but...eh...

Baldur's Gate was my first experience with the D&D ruleset and it actually works very well in the confines of that game at least (I think it's 2.5 technically) but I can understand it being hard to go backwards. I would suggest instead trying Pillars of Eternity as it's ruleset is built from the ground up with the game in mind.

You could also try Fallout 2 instead of 1, it's only loosely connected to the first one in terms of plot (you are a descendant of the first game's protagonist) but it's the exact same gameplay with some minor improvements, The main thing is it doesn't have a time limit (not exactly, there is a technical memory limit but it's so unreachable you might as well forget it's there).

Well for one I am used to every 2 points in an Ability providing a benefit, which apparently 2e doesnt. Plus the game is far more hardcore than later RPGs. If I knew what I was doing, I would value this, but well, this does create a wall for newbies. I think I need to get myself to just go with the flow. I have too much of a "Do it perfectly right" mindset that makes me fear every bad outcome.

Is Fallout 2 similar enough that if I get used to it I could go back to 1 eventually? Id like to beat both.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Borderlands 2. I know it should be fun, especially when played with the bros and booze. Run, jump, rocket, dakka dakka, punch pow, buttcheeks, snark, pony!
Should be all up ons that...and I find it so fucking boring. Just trekking back and forth between already established locations, gradually chipping away at the bullshit. Oh no, the bandit king Chrome Nuts just stole the proton compactor needed to open a door, better go shoot some dudes with hockey masks on! Oh no, the bandit lord Batty Silver just captured the impactor upton needed to close a door, better go shoot some dudes wearing hockey masks!

Divinity Original Sin...talk about pacing. Slower than a dead turtle soaking in frozen tar. Trapped in time, Star Trek style. Spent like 5mins fighting orks to get into a city only to have to talk to literally every single fucking person to figure out what to do next. Spend 5mins talking to this jackoff about something, 6mins talking to this ***** about hunting something, this one dude is like a waiter, and this other dude is a librarian, and then there are soldiers with 30+ line dialogue tree, and some dude fucking an ork chick and OH MY GOD! 2 hours later you eventually find like 3 skeletons in the sewers. Hope you had fun, because it'll be another hour before you fight anything else, because you have endless bullshit shit to talk about in a city.

Rage. Its basically Borderlands 2 with a slightly more interesting story. Oh, and I really like that little in-game card game. God I wish that'd be like an android app or something. I love playing it! But the rest is...just...meh.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Sonic the Hedgehog. Doesn't matter what iteration, from the Genesis originals to whatever the latest outing is. I've tried a number of them over the decades via rentals and friends' copies, and I just can't get into them. The games always feel too loose and "floaty" to me. I never feel like I'm in full control of Sonic, and the physics are often wonky. The level design is usually at odds with the the whole "gotta go fast" mantra of the series as well, often propelling you down narrow pathways straight into hazards before you can even react.

Actually, scratch that. There is ONE Sonic title I like, and that's the Sonic Utopia fan game. It's currently just a single stage demo, but I had a blast playing it. It admirably addresses my controls and physics gripes, and its open ended level design is tailor-made for high speed adventuring and exploration instead of herding me down damage alleys.

 

[aozgolo]

Well for one I am used to every 2 points in an Ability providing a benefit, which apparently 2e doesnt. Plus the game is far more hardcore than later RPGs. If I knew what I was doing, I would value this, but well, this does create a wall for newbies. I think I need to get myself to just go with the flow. I have too much of a "Do it perfectly right" mindset that makes me fear every bad outcome.

Is Fallout 2 similar enough that if I get used to it I could go back to 1 eventually? Id like to beat both.

I went into Baldur's Gate with no prior knowledge of the D&D ruleset, and while it is certainly a challenging game, it isn't unfair by any means. The biggest hurdle to entry most people have is adapting to the real-time-with-pause mechanic. The game is never meant to be played full real time, if you don't pause and issue commands frequently during combat, you won't have much success. Much of the D&D mechanics are done behind the scenes for you so luckily you don't have to focus too heavily on it. The game gives you all the info like how many turns a spell lasts, what the damage modifiers on weapons are, THAC0, and all that, but it's really up to the player how much of this they want to look at. Party composition is really the major part of the game, and a whole forum is dedicated to challenge runs of the game (usually solo)

Fallout 1 & 2 are EXTREMELY similar in gameplay, if you can play one, you can play the other. The differences aren't really in UI so much but in world design. There are some basic improvements like more control over your companions in FO2, but mostly FO1 is a smaller more concise story (still not tiny by any means) whereas FO2 gives you a much bigger world, more stuff to do, and just general variety to how you play the game.

 

[Zydrate]

Two MMO's come to mind; FFXIV and TESO both. I wanted to like them but they fought me every damn step of the way and largely I felt so goddamn bored with them. Every objective was some metaphorical mountain to climb.
I eventually made it to cap on FFXIV and got the MCH's neat unique outfit and then my entire subset of friends quit and I just stopped immediately.
With TESO, I made it to level 44 but am currently STILL stuck in Coldharbor because I can't figure out how to get to the other half of the map. All my quests are orange and the other side of the map is blocked my mountains or literal doors from the main town.

 

[Ryallen]

I've said the game for me a million times, and I'm actually getting tired of it, believe it or not. The Last of Us was the game that I wanted to love, but couldn't. Long story short, none of the characters were compelling or likable, everything was far too dark with little chance for any sort of levity, and it's really hard to get me to care about a relationship that I've seen a million times before. Gameplay was fine, even if it was just Uncharted with a rudimentary stealth system slapped on it. The Clickers were just another flavor of zombies, which I was and still am sick of. The voice acting was amazing, though. I will never deny that the people who voiced this game were good.

 

[Zhukov]

The Witcher 3.

It's well made and contains so much good stuff, but as a whole it just didn't work for me and the combat rapidly become an utter chore. Also, I can't stand Geralt as a protagonist. It's weird, I like him well enough, but I get no enjoyment from playing as him.

I like CDPR though. I'm eager to see what they do with Cyberpunk. I'm hoping that game will be to my opinion of CDPR what The Last of Us was to my opinion of Naughty Dog.

 

[Dalisclock]

Does Pokemon Sun count? I never -want- to be unhappy with a Pokemon game, but even with all its faults I still played through and ultimately enjoyed X, but Sun...I just cant.

Baldur's Gate and Fallout 1 are two others. I like DnD, and I like Bethesda's Fallout. I like Neverwinter Nights, but I just cant get into those two games. Baldur's gate is 2nd Edition DnD, which honestly, sucks. Too much of 3.5 makes it hard to take that backwards step.

Fallout 1 is just too strategy for me I think, and that time limit stresses me out. I keep thinking of trying again but...eh...

I played BG1 a long time ago(around the time it first came out) and don't remember liking it as much as a lot of people around me did. Maybe I'd feel differently now but I remember it being incredibly difficult because of the combat system.

Seriously, don't stress the Fallout 1 time limit. It's easy enough to find the water chip long before you ever come close to that time limit(and once you bring the water chip back you effectively don't have one) 100 days is more then enough time to do all the major quests(let alone just get the water chip back). I think the only time I actually hit the time limit was intentionally advancing the clock to the 100 day mark just to see what happens.

There are reasons to not like Fallout 1. The time limit isn't one of them.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Dragon Age Inquisition is my one of these.

I love the Dragon Age franchise; I have played all the games, read all the novels, got the art books and encyclopaedias, and have a map of Thedas on my wall, but Inquisition was a crushing disappointment for me. The story was bland and disjointed, the gameplay was dumbed down and parts of it just didn't work properly, and the overall experience was just painfully mediocre in every possible way. I played it the first time for 130 hours, constantly hoping that it would get better, only to be disappointed at every turn, then foolishly played it a second time, hoping I had simply made bad choices and missed the good parts, only to discover that there was just nothing there worth going back to. DAI pretty much killed whatever faith I had left in Bioware.

 

[Saelune]

Does Pokemon Sun count? I never -want- to be unhappy with a Pokemon game, but even with all its faults I still played through and ultimately enjoyed X, but Sun...I just cant.

Baldur's Gate and Fallout 1 are two others. I like DnD, and I like Bethesda's Fallout. I like Neverwinter Nights, but I just cant get into those two games. Baldur's gate is 2nd Edition DnD, which honestly, sucks. Too much of 3.5 makes it hard to take that backwards step.

Fallout 1 is just too strategy for me I think, and that time limit stresses me out. I keep thinking of trying again but...eh...

I played BG1 a long time ago(around the time it first came out) and don't remember liking it as much as a lot of people around me did. Maybe I'd feel differently now but I remember it being incredibly difficult because of the combat system.

Seriously, don't stress the Fallout 1 time limit. It's easy enough to find the water chip long before you ever come close to that time limit(and once you bring the water chip back you effectively don't have one) 100 days is more then enough time to do all the major quests(let alone just get the water chip back). I think the only time I actually hit the time limit was intentionally advancing the clock to the 100 day mark just to see what happens.

There are reasons to not like Fallout 1. The time limit isn't one of them.

I like, have actual anxiety disorders that make stuff like time limits really bother me. And I always worry where I will get far into a game and find myself stuck and unable to continue. Even if unlikely, FO1 has that as a built in feature.

Im the kind who worries about wasting even a single diamond in Minecraft. Sure there may be more than enough and a near infinite world to find them in but...what if somehow I mine them all out? Silly maybe, but its hard to shake.

 

[aozgolo]

I like, have actual anxiety disorders that make stuff like time limits really bother me. And I always worry where I will get far into a game and find myself stuck and unable to continue. Even if unlikely, FO1 has that as a built in feature.

Im the kind who worries about wasting even a single diamond in Minecraft. Sure there may be more than enough and a near infinite world to find them in but...what if somehow I mine them all out? Silly maybe, but its hard to shake.

I typically feel the same in many cases. There was a strategy game called King of Dragon Pass that everything about it looked fantastic except the whole game gave you a time limit of like 100 days or something like that, and it wasn't a short game either, it was one of those long marathon games that could take a long time to beat, but with a time limit... ugh.

I don't mind time limits in certain contexts, if it's like a single mission, or a game that is built on action or twitch gameplay. In RPGs or anything slow and turn based, it is almost unforgivable. I remember the hesitation and frustration of learning Suikoden II had time limits to recruit certain characters, luckily that doesn't prevent you from recruiting them, only how soon you can do it. It's also why I have a hard time getting into certain games like Civilization, knowing that eventually it will have to end, I like games that let me play indefinitely or at least go my own pace and decide when to complete it.

Harvest Moon games often gave me this problem, several of them have time limits where you have to achieve certain results in a certain time frame or get kicked out of the village. Luckily most of these let you continue playing endlessly after that time limit was up, but it was still quite frustrating, and in the case of Save the Homeland just totally ruined the game experience for me as you are only given 1 year, and the game ends regardless... just awful.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Dishonored

Everything from the world to the character designs felt so original and unique. And the gameplay felt smooth and overal satisfying. Yet something about it was just so lifeless and dull. I tried a couple of times to get into it, but I never made it past the three hour mark.

 

[Zhukov]

I like, have actual anxiety disorders that make stuff like time limits really bother me. And I always worry where I will get far into a game and find myself stuck and unable to continue. Even if unlikely, FO1 has that as a built in feature.

Im the kind who worries about wasting even a single diamond in Minecraft. Sure there may be more than enough and a near infinite world to find them in but...what if somehow I mine them all out? Silly maybe, but its hard to shake.

Have you ever played a Dead Rising game?

 

[Hawki]

Pretty sure I've seen this topic before. Anyway, I'll just make a list:

-Diablo II (because saying that D3 is your favorite Diablo game and D2 is your least favorite doesn't make life easy - especially since D2 is probably a better game than D1 at least, despite personal preferences)

-Metroid Prime (because after reading everything, it probably is a good game, but I just can't enjoy playing it - Samus feels like a walking tank, and I'm really not a fan of the scan mechanic)

-World of Warcraft (because I love the Warcraft universe, but gameplay-wise, I only enjoy the RTS games. It makes it hard to stay invested if I don't enjoy the main delivery mechanism for its lore)

 

[Saelune]

I like, have actual anxiety disorders that make stuff like time limits really bother me. And I always worry where I will get far into a game and find myself stuck and unable to continue. Even if unlikely, FO1 has that as a built in feature.

Im the kind who worries about wasting even a single diamond in Minecraft. Sure there may be more than enough and a near infinite world to find them in but...what if somehow I mine them all out? Silly maybe, but its hard to shake.

I typically feel the same in many cases. There was a strategy game called King of Dragon Pass that everything about it looked fantastic except the whole game gave you a time limit of like 100 days or something like that, and it wasn't a short game either, it was one of those long marathon games that could take a long time to beat, but with a time limit... ugh.

I don't mind time limits in certain contexts, if it's like a single mission, or a game that is built on action or twitch gameplay. In RPGs or anything slow and turn based, it is almost unforgivable. I remember the hesitation and frustration of learning Suikoden II had time limits to recruit certain characters, luckily that doesn't prevent you from recruiting them, only how soon you can do it. It's also why I have a hard time getting into certain games like Civilization, knowing that eventually it will have to end, I like games that let me play indefinitely or at least go my own pace and decide when to complete it.

Harvest Moon games often gave me this problem, several of them have time limits where you have to achieve certain results in a certain time frame or get kicked out of the village. Luckily most of these let you continue playing endlessly after that time limit was up, but it was still quite frustrating, and in the case of Save the Homeland just totally ruined the game experience for me as you are only given 1 year, and the game ends regardless... just awful.

Well, I like games like Civ cause its turn based, and its meant to be replayed. Its basically a board game.

Long games though really need to avoid screwing you over. It happened to me once in some weird Final Fantasy game, though it was more getting stuck in a loop than a time limit...though it had weapons that permanently degrade...bleh.

I like, have actual anxiety disorders that make stuff like time limits really bother me. And I always worry where I will get far into a game and find myself stuck and unable to continue. Even if unlikely, FO1 has that as a built in feature.

Im the kind who worries about wasting even a single diamond in Minecraft. Sure there may be more than enough and a near infinite world to find them in but...what if somehow I mine them all out? Silly maybe, but its hard to shake.

Have you ever played a Dead Rising game?

I love Dead Rising, but Dead Rising is made to be played over and over, and you keep some progress after you start over. If Fallout 1 had you start higher level every new game, Id probably be able to deal with the time limit, but then experimenting would also not be so discouraged. "I wonder if I can kill this Deathclaw?...Nope, ah well, New Game +" Its why I like Rogue Legacy too.