It gets worse later (spoilers)

[Shoggoth2588]

Inspired by the thread "It gets better later" that apparently died earlier this week, many of us are going to (and indeed have) stop playing a game before finishing it as opposed to slogging through a game with a slow beginning. Sometimes we pick up a more interesting game, other times however it's because we get to one of those sections. What's worse though is when one of those sections stretches out into the remainder of the game. Basically what I want to know here is, have you played a game that seemed really promising only to get to a really annoying section. You think, "Man that was annoying, I hope I don't see that again" only to be blind-sided by the fact that most of what you have to do now IS that.

Most recently for me was with Uncharted. I've only just played through Uncharted and I've enjoyed it. The puzzles are really simple but the gun-play is somewhat satisfying, and the platforming is also pretty fun too! I also really like being rewarded for exploring...even if half of the time I explore, I fall to my death...what I wasn't expecting though were the zombies. Close to the end of the Adventure, Nathan Drake discovers that El Dorado is cursed. He then finds out first hand that the curse manifests as fast-running zombies which kill you in 2 hits. The gun-play was already somewhat unforgiving but when you throw in running slap-zombies, it just seemed unfair. I made it through the game but it just wasn't nearly as fun from then on for me...

San Andreas was another game that had a lot of promise and was a lot of fun for me. I loved GTA 3 and Vice City but when I got to San Andreas I ended up stuck. Most recently it was the freaking Train mission but when I was younger I couldn't pass a mandatory racing mission. Rockstar, I don't mind driving in GTA but if I wanted to race I would have bought your dedicated racing games.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'll go with Skyrim off the bat. It didn't get terrible or annoying, well except for grinding abilities. It just never got any better and just kinda dragged on until I lost interest. Also, the fast travel system totally breaks the game. I get that the map is big and full of monsters, but its an open-world monster killing game. To be able to skip the traveling and monsters really took me out of the experience. I'm sure I would have loved traveling with Lydia much more if the temptation to skip it wasn't there. Yes yes, temptation, didn't have to, blah blah blah. My bad, technically. I just wish the Fast Travel wasn't there, and that the game wasn't so status quo. I mean I got to level 70 without ever going to the Grey Beards and getting the Fus shout. Because there was never a pressing need to and I had other shit to do.

Another game would be Alien: Isolation. Loved it as the start, but oh man does the game go down hill once the Alien is introduced. I especially hated the controls, the Alien AI, the Working Joes and the absolutely bugged out the ass version Steam sold me. Ever play a game where the QTEs and on screen instructions are blank?! Well let me tell you, its not that fun. And the whole Alien AI learns as you progress just made the game a whole new level of awful.

Example of what I mean by blank:
[link]http://i.imgur.com/M8e0G2E.jpg[/link]
[link]http://i.imgur.com/5hwkMHR.jpg[/link]
[link]http://i.imgur.com/zfbTTpN.jpg[/link]

Trust me, not that fun.

Others I'd say are Borderlands 2, when after awhile you just backtrack to other places and kill the same enemies over and over again. Really lost steam after 10+ hours that one. Wasteland 2 was dangerously unpolished, but after the first few missions the glitches really start to shine through. Some were even game breaking I heard, though I never encountered a main-story breaking one. Ran into a few where an NPC would just no trigger, even after I got the Macguffin for him.

The Void simply made it too easy to reach a failure state with the travel system requiring colors to move and attack and heal and save the naked ladies, and color harvesting only happened once a month and you'd lose more color traveling between gardens than you ever made harvesting(Its...complicated.) But I will say visually an amazing game. Should really see about downloading an Easy mode for that...

Others would be Evil Genius. The first island was doable until you had to steal, what, 100k in a week without alerting the nations of the world to your devious-ness? And I just couldn't do it! My minions kept dying and my Heat kept rising. Ended up losing my entire base to enemy spies and some named jackass.
Killing Floor simply got too repetitive, really. Also kept getting booted from games for daring, apparently, to play the Commando class.

Few others I'm missing I'm sure...

 

[Mister K]

You know what? I'll go with Final Fantasy 13. At the beginning of it I did not understand what was actually happening and all characters except for Sazh looked either repulsive or uninteresting. I thought that after I play a bit I'll learn something that will make me like both story and characters. I found lack of flexibility in class system quite restricting, but I thought that when I'll unlock all classes for all characters it will get better.

I was wrong on both accounts. It all, ALL OF IT, became even worse (except for Sazh, he desrved better game).

 

[Zhukov]

Every Bethesda game.

I start out all excited to explore. Gleefully planning out how I'm going to build my character.

And for a while it's pretty fun.

Then I just hit a brick wall of motivation. Each cave of bandits just bleeds into the next. I hit the level cap and realise that no matter how many points I put into whatever, the gameplay hasn't expanded beyond what it was three hours in. Looting becomes an automatic process of growing a pile of money and consumables that I never actually need. The story grinds to a halt somewhere between Forgettable Character #113 and Forgettable Character #114.

Then I stop.

Afterwards, all I can remember is the boredom, not the hours of adequate but unremarkable enjoyment that proceeded it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Mass Effect 3

And no, I'm not talking about that "later". It's when Kai Leng shows up, and the game tries with all its might to prove just how much of a badass he is and how I should totally be intimidated by him. And then I realize this twerp is going to be the secondary villian/muscle for the remainder of the game... Fuck.

 

[theSovietConnection]

As much as I hate to be "that guy" who bashes on a game a forum views as great, I have to say Half-Life 2.

I'll admit, a lot of what my problem with it is probably comes down to the fact that I played it after playing Bioshock. I noticed how everyone here at the time (bear in mind this was going on 2-3 years ago) talked about how great HL2 was because it told it's story through it's environment, amd various other things. Having played through Bioshock, I thought "Oh, well this game was really good at it, so surely this other game must also be good at it."

Instead, I ended up finding myself rather disappointed at most every turn. I ended up quiting the game just outside Ravenholm. For me, the controls were slightly above average (don't even get me started on the vehicle portions), and I didn't really find the characters all that, well, engaging.

Please bear in mind, I know full well this is a product of generational differences. I have no doubt I probably would have enjoyed HL2 back in it's day, but for noe, and for me, it's just one of those games that got worse as I went on.

 

[EmperorZinyak]

Fear: Perseus Mandate completely loses steam after chapter 3. The first few chapters are kind of exciting, with 3-way battles between you, Armacham, and the Replicas. The levels are fairly wide open, and there are some cool encounters. However, things get way worse once you reach Interval 3 and the Replicas are deactivated. It's just an endless slog in the same underground environment. Plus, enemy variety gets completely thrown out the window when the Nightcrawlers start showing up and replacing the Replicas. The Nightcrawlers only have 3 variations, whereas the Replicas have... a lot more. Every fight is the same, every corridor is the same, and every enemy is the same. I felt like I was making no progress at all.

 

[mad825]

.....Fahrenheit aka indigo prophecy...Easy one I know.

The game starts off pretty grounded with a quite a few QTEs and quite a few mini hub areas as well and some good character interactions/dialogue, switching between the killer and two police officers investigating the murder Also, yeah, the sex scenes....Yeah..it's creepy and I find it embarrassing just to watch it alone.

Somewhere in the middle the protagonist dies and comes back but with supernatural power, there's a power struggle going on within some underworld, this guy is the one because he was exposed to a plot device element as a child in area 51 where his mum and dad were working/living which causes him to be like this. It's also mostly QTEs at this point...

It's like it starts off to be the X-files but then becomes a budget version of the Matrix mixed with ancient greek myths regarding the underworld mixed with generic Americana tropes.

 

[communist gamer]

Bioshock och gods Bioshock.

At first its fun, you run around colecting superpowers and trying not to die a horrible horrible death, yet at the 3rd or 4th location you find out that nothing really changes. The new splicers do not add much to the gameplay (they are preaty much the same), you can ignore the big dadies after a while and the story just becomes boring. The only reason that i put 3 hours into the game were the text logs, but how long can you hear about "it's all gone to shit" or "this evil experiment is awesome" or "a randome speach from a randome dude". The game has nothing to interest the player in after the 2nd hour because you have seen it all, and you still have like 3-4 hours of gameplay left

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Not a stand alone game, but the Mass Effect franchise showed a frightening amount of deterioration as it progressed. I actually wonder if ME3 wasn't meant as some comedy parody.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Assassin's Creed. The only case of me starting off thinking a game was amazing and finishing it and hating it (and hating myself for forcing myself to finish it). First three areas I'm really enjoying myself. Next three it's getting a bit monotonous but I'm still doing all the sidequests. Last three I'm hating it and rushing through as quickly as possible. Then the final area. What a big steaming pile of garbage. I've heard later games in the series are better, but it was such a crappy experience I just can't be bothered.

Bioshock. I started losing interest after a few hours but I pressed on, using tonics to pump up my wrench damage which was actually quite fun. Then the big plot twist which I loved. Unfortunately that's the peak. And there's still a couple of hours to go. What a slog that final section was. We lose the two interesting characters (Atlas and Ryan) and instead are stuck with the remarkably boring Fontaine. Spend a bit of time faffing about, predictable final showdown, the end. That game really ended with a whimper.

 

[Evonisia]

Grant Theft Auto V is a rather unfortunate case of this, which is probably why it was even more of a disappointment to me. The first seven or so hours are rather good, and you can admire all the visuals and the better-than-GTA IV driving. It closes off with the build up to and the execution of the first Heist.

Then Trevor gets introduced and the game just falls apart very quickly. Trevor and Michael's so-called relationship is my biggest problem with the whole game because of how inconsistent it is. The driving gets tedious as so many missions just have you driving while somebody talks to you. The FIB get introduced and I shouldn't even have to explain why they are the worst thing in the game (fuck plot stoppers, they are worse than Pa Kent in Man of Steel). The very limited track lists on all of the radio stations begins to get tedious. Franklin gets relegated to the background and becomes even more of a whiner. The missions get overlong and tedious. The story becomes just a series of sub-plots that never amount to anything. The already somewhat crappy shooting begins to get more frustrating. Seen one gorgeous view of Los Santos at night? Seen 'em all. Let's culminate that with a somewhat shitty final mission (at least on Deathwish) with a really shitty ending.

They were so desperate to add as much as they could to GTA V that they forgot to make it something truly special. Instead it's just a bloated mess that doesn't even have Saints Row IV's excuse of being awesome to back it up.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Prototype.

Well, actually it falls into both camps of "it gets better later" and "it gets worse later."

Only about 1/3 of prototype is actually really fun. The first 1/3 of the game kind of drags because you don't have very many powers, and the last 1/3 of the game isn't very fun to play because of the ridiculous amount of military presence. Once you're 2/3 through the game most of the map is military controlled and you get attack helicopters getting sent after you every 10 feet. Just trying to do the missions becomes a chore because you have to do a constant dance of running from helicopters and eating people in order to get back to full health to start the mission, but then getting attacked 2 feet from the mission start point.

The middle 1/3 of the game is one of the most fun parts of any game I've ever played though, and is totally worth the price of the game for that middle part.

 

[raeior]

My candidate would be Brütal Legend. I liked the idea and the beginning is really cool. Then they introduce the stage battles. They are fun at the beginning but sooner or later they are just tedious. Mainly because controlling your guys is so hard. In the end you just smash your army into the enemy and hope that your guys win. I played through it because I still liked the setting and characters but it was quite straining at times.

 

[TT Kairen]

Mass Effect 3

And no, I'm not talking about that "later". It's when Kai Leng shows up, and the game tries with all its might to prove just how much of a badass he is and how I should totally be intimidated by him. And then I realize this twerp is going to be the secondary villian/muscle for the remainder of the game... Fuck.

Damn right. In the books he was a badass, but then the game came along and shit the bed. He just turned into an annoying tryhard who always talked up how much better he was than you despite only coming out on top in situations where he had assistance and an overwhelming environmental advantage.

 

[Catfood220]

Most recently for me was with Uncharted. I've only just played through Uncharted and I've enjoyed it. The puzzles are really simple but the gun-play is somewhat satisfying, and the platforming is also pretty fun too! I also really like being rewarded for exploring...even if half of the time I explore, I fall to my death...what I wasn't expecting though were the zombies. Close to the end of the Adventure, Nathan Drake discovers that El Dorado is cursed. He then finds out first hand that the curse manifests as fast-running zombies which kill you in 2 hits. The gun-play was already somewhat unforgiving but when you throw in running slap-zombies, it just seemed unfair. I made it through the game but it just wasn't nearly as fun from then on for me...

I quite liked the zombie bit in that game, it added some frantic panicky shooting action to the game which I wasn't that impressed with. I suppose that is my own fault for playing 2 first. It was the water vehicle sections and the areas with almost endless swarms of enemies, it just killed the flow of the game for me. The second game is lots of fun though, you should play that.

For me, it is one that I always bring up, L.A. Noir. It starts out ok with the Traffic missions and then gets better with he Murder mission. Then it takes a big down hill drop in quality with the final mission of the Murder bit where it has you drive around looking for locations you haven't visited as the game doesn't encourage exploration at all. It eventually tells you were to go but its a pain in the arse none the less. The Vice missions are entertaining for as long as they last and then because of some bullshit you get to do the Arson missions which are so boring you wish for the game to end. The it does end with the worst final mission where the main character thinks that a flame thrower is a better weapon to use than the gun you were using. Its all so unsatisfying.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Honestly, I'm coming up blank. Usually, if I play through a whole game, it's because I enjoy it throughout. I tend not to finish games if I stop enjoying them.

I'll say Oblivion simply because the game punishes you for getting to higher levels. I think that Skyrim hit the perfect balance for enemy leveling balance. Oblivion turned every enemy into a huge damage sponge. Not only that, a normal bandit should never have glass armor. Maybe a bandit chief, but certainly not his regular grunts. Same goes for the marauders. Them wearing daedric armor is really just bullshit. It takes away from the unique items of the game when you can find a god like weapon on every single enemy starting at level 25.

I hesitated to say that though since I use an overhaul mod that fixes this issue completely.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I haven't even played through Dante's Inferno yet, and I can already tell it's going downhill fast. The first few hours I thought were actually really fun, and the fact that your ranged attack costs nothing adds a dash of flexibility and variety to the combat. But right when I got out of Lust, which consists of one corridor puzzle segment, one tower puzzle segment, one elevator segment and one boss fight (takes about half an hour at most to complete), I realized the game had blown its load. I haven't played the game since I got stuck on a segment in Greed where you're assaulted by a small group of damage sponge enemies that yield no health on death.

 

[Adamantium93]

Mass Effect 3

And no, I'm not talking about that "later". It's when Kai Leng shows up, and the game tries with all its might to prove just how much of a badass he is and how I should totally be intimidated by him. And then I realize this twerp is going to be the secondary villian/muscle for the remainder of the game... Fuck.

Completely agree. I've played ME1 and 2 multiple times but I've only beat 3 once because I can never muster the motivation to keep playing after the half-way point.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

My candidate would be Brütal Legend. I liked the idea and the beginning is really cool. Then they introduce the stage battles. They are fun at the beginning but sooner or later they are just tedious. Mainly because controlling your guys is so hard. In the end you just smash your army into the enemy and hope that your guys win. I played through it because I still liked the setting and characters but it was quite straining at times.

The most fun I had with Brutal Legend was the first hour or two, when you had a relatively expansive landscape to drive around through and a few dozen metal-tracks to jam out with. I'm not against a heavy metal SRPG or 4X or Strategy game in general but I don't want it sprung on me in the middle of what was demonstrated to be a 3D brawler.

---

I'm going to say Sonic Lost Worlds now that I'm at the last world. First off, the game plays a lot more like a recent Super Mario game (a weird cross of New Super Mario Bros, Mario Galaxy, and 3D World). I'm not down on that to be honest, I've had quite a bit of fun with the game...then Frozen Factory Zone 2 happened. It wasn't bad but it was like someone made a Super Monkey Ball level and snuck it into the final game. Then there were a handful of other zones that were annoyingly difficult but what really gets me is Volcano Zone 3. I haven't beaten it yet and while I like the idea of it being a number of boss rematches after certain points of the level (really wish VZ1 thought to include a level with THAT boss rush), the problem comes from how weird the boss fights are. The first one in VZ3 is easy to figure out, the second one isn't technically a boss fight (it's like flipping the level in Super Mario Bros: you just need to get PAST Bowser) then the third one is a straight-up rehash of the Bowser fight from Galaxy 2...only they didn't want whats-his-name to die too quickly and ended up making a really, REALLY annoyingly hard boss. Stupid platforming, gravity, and fight...I'm so close to the end that I'm going to soldier through to the end but damn if it didn't get annoyingly difficult.