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

[balladbird]

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!

Oh my gosh, I feel you here! I own agarest wars and the sequel, I like the generations concept, that the fanservice is somewhat muted, and that there is a fair amount of lore and interesting characters abound, but those games are the very definition of unfun, for me... Like, I struggle to think of any game I've ever encountered that is as aggressively unfun to play through as the Agarest games... maybe Spec Ops: The line... but that was kind of the point of it.

When you first see the combat system, it doesn't seem bad... just kinda mediocre, but combine the increasing need to overkill enemies as the game progresses with sudden spikes in enemy endurance each generation, and you eventually have a slog to try to grind through.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

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.

I had a similar first impression of the game.

I bought it, played a couple of hours, got to the first "real" plot mission, and then just kind of got bored and quit because I had other stuff to play.

Tried it again about a year and a half later, started playing from the start, got probably 75%-80% into the game...quit again.

I even liked the game the second time around, once I stopped really caring about which ending I got and just had fun, but for some reason it just couldn't hold my interest until the end.

I guess I just didn't find the bad guys to be compelling, and therefore didn't really care all that much about killing them, even though the point at which I stopped was supposedly the "best part" of the game.

 

[stroopwafel]

I guess I just didn't find the bad guys to be compelling, and therefore didn't really care all that much about killing them, even though the point at which I stopped was supposedly the "best part" of the game.

I absolutely loved Dishonered, but what is memorable about the game are not so much the characters but rather the setting, Dunwall. It felt frighteningly authentic like it could have existed in some parallel universe. It's such an immersive and intriguing place that exploring it became the most enjoyable thing in the game with characters all feeling like part of a bigger chain; like true products of their environment rather than being standout themselves. Which in it's turn again enhanced the setting. The gameplay as well I found really enjoyable. A good mix of stealth and offensive abilities. One of the better games of last generation in my opinion.

The sequel however is phenomenal. Some of the best level design since the original Dark Souls. It basically improves upon everything that made the original so great with Karnaca feeling even more authentic. Can't disagree with the quality of the visuals and art direction. Recently got the artbook for Dishonered 2 and the concept art for this game is unreal and the final game stays more true to these original designs than any game I've ever seen. It's like the actual concept art made it into the final game. Dishonered 2 also got rid of the hub design if that put you off.

Anyways a game I personally wanted to really enjoy but didn't was the original Deus ex. I absolutely loved Human Revolution but just couldn't get used to the outdated design of the original. Something about old games that if you didn't play them when they originally came out they become just too much of a chore to play.

Also The Last of US. It's a game I enjoyed but wish felt more excitement for. The game has great atmosphere with the city being taken back by nature and the gameplay is pretty good as well but I just didn't really like the characters. Like with Joel I was always like ''ok I know you suffered now stop being a douche''. Ellie had her moments but in general she was pretty annoying as well. The Last of Us feels like a great game in the company of a miserable shit and an annoying brat. Also during the 'winter' segment the game slows down to a crawl and almost made me give up. I guess I just don't like any characters Naughty Dog come up with since I had the same thing with Uncharted.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

For me its the Dragon Quest series. I played through the first one on the NES about...3 or 4 years ago and I had fun with the (admittedly) basic gameplay. I like how the combat system has remained largely the same since the 1980's (not counting X I guess, which seems to be an MMO). Other than the first title, I've played DQVIII on the PS2 (I made it...a bit of the way. I still have a horse instead of a girl-companion), DQVII (I've visited enough islands to see the pattern but I like this game! The problem is Pokemon Sun/Moon came out and now my 3DS is (once again) relegated to Pokemon duty for 23.5 hours a day (the other .5 hour going towards free Badge Arcade)), then there was DQIX which I remember liking but which I'm pretty sure I only played for about 6 hours which was probably just a hair's-breadth past the prologue. I don't dislike the Dragon Quest games that I've played, I honestly DO enjoy this gameplay and the stories seem interesting to me but they have the current Legend of Zelda problem: they take forever to get started. I engage, I get a tiny-bit bored, a faster-paced game catches my attention and I wind up dropping DQ# indefinitely.

Another genre that I want to like but can't get into are 3D platformers. The last one I really got into was Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario 3D Land but what got me through those games is how, while they're 3D Mario platformers, they're structured in a level-based and thoroughly 2D sort of way. Games like Banjo-Kazooie, Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, they appeal to me from the outset but the scale of them winds up putting me off for the most part. Another aspect (and this is mainly a sin of DK64's) is mandatory 100% completion if you want to see late-game content. I guess I just feel overwhelmed by these huge levels but after I walk around for a few minutes I feel like...I dunno, I just don't feel capable of finishing the thing then I retreat to something more familiar.

 

[Zydrate]

Morrowind. Everyone harps on and on about how it's their favorite and I just don't get how.

I mean, I get why it's appealing at first, with a unique world, open-ended quest design, countless things to do, but that combat. What the hell is that combat?

Even for an older title, what is that combat? No impact. Hardly any response. I know it's skill based and slightly random, and that's fine, but the developers really need to make it feel more like you were making an impact.

I have yet to find a mod that really helps with this either. It's just one of those games I really want to play, but I feel like I get bored after a couple hours at best.

Morrowind has a soft spot in my soul as I played it as a young teen and it helped spark massive levels of imagination and creativity. Morrowind helped me become the writer I am today.
And yet; It has not aged well. Mods can help make the graphics bearable but the animation is incredibly dated and it's hard for me to go back to it these days.

(Also you can alleviate the combat issue by doing basic town questing around Seyda Neen and Balmora, get a few thousand gold and just train a weapon skill with a trainer (Short blade master is right there in Balmora for example), once you get weapon skills above 50 it gets a lot better).

 

[Zydrate]

Borderlands (series):
I'm not a huge FPS fan, but I do enjoy RPG and arcade-ish shooters.

But nothing about the BL series could drag me into it for very long...O well.

I only ever 'beat' the first one, I don't think I ever managed to beat any others. Pre-Sequel itself was a spike in difficulty, I'm full of purple code-key-chest gear but I can't seem to poke my head out without dieing and all my enemies (level is mid 20's) take a hundred bullets to kill.
If I ever meet someone to play with me I'll reinstall it but otherwise...

 

[darkcalling]

Dark Souls (the whole series + Bloodborne), easily. I love dark fantasy settings and creepy creatures to kill but between a clunky combat system, little to no explanation of what half of anything means, nearly no real story, winding maps that are way too easy to get lost in,. All these things and more just dragged the game down and I never got very far. Ended up watching Let's Plays on YouTube and I can see why some people like them but they are clearly not for me.

 

[Potjeslatinist]

Divinity: Dragon Commander[...] 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.

In my opinion, this is very typical of Larian Studios. They prefer to cram their game with features rather than making them interesting. I refer primarly to my own candidate in this topic: Divinity: Original Sin. I've got this mate who's over at my place every week and he's been harping on this game for months now, claiming I'd love it if I gave it enough time, so I've made several honest attempts to get into it and the game tries its damndest to keep me out of its fanbase. The two greatest annoyances have already been mentioned at length here on the Escapist, I guess:

1) you get jerked around for hours before you see any serious action.
2) you have to spend these hours suffering some of the most over-indulgent writing I've ever seen in a game. That wizard guy you meet who likes to morph into a cat, constantly saying crap like "By my whiskers!" Yeah we get it already, you like to be a cat. Goddamn. These million interjections by your own party members. Please just shut up for two seconds, please!

The game is just really full of itself, while the setting is bland and derivative. I can't stand it. Apparently there's some awesome gameplay in there, but count me out anyway.