Okay games that could have been great

[SamuelT]

[...]

Honorable mention goes to Prototype. One of the most fun games I've played in a very long time, but unpolished controls, AI, and again a poor story all serve to take it down a notch.

Hey man. The AI was enough to put up a somewhat decent fight and be entertaining enough when murdered. ;P

But yeah, I agree. If the story was handled better, the controls were somewhat more refined and perhaps the graphics were a little more polished it would've been a great game, instead of a fun game.

 

[Stretch.]

The game Infernal comes to mind. The graphics were quite nice looking and the premise of using magic/kinetic powers in addition to standard weaponry was a good start, but the game lacked some polish. It never really explored the possibility of using these powers in creative ways (i.e. to manipulate enemies or the environment) and the cover system never really provided a good way to avoid enemy fire.

 

[reddfawks]

Folklore.

The gameplay was a LOT of fun at its core, but it still seemed so...Low-budget. Most "cutscenes" were non-voiced in an animated comic-book style, but they seemed poorly put together - the characters really only had a few poses each, and all they'd really do is slowly turn their head or have the camera pan around them. It would have looked amazing if they just used still drawings for the frames.

Also, the boss battles were great - almost Zelda-like, but I was annoyed that both characters had to fight the exact same bosses each level. Even if they didn't want to write more bosses, they could have had a better way to re-use bosses. (Example, the second world of the game is a war world with some steampunk style enemies and a gigantic robo spiderturtle as a boss both characters have to fight. Perhaps the first character you beat it with would fight the normal version, while the second one would get a cutscene as they arrive of the goblins(?) repairing the fallen boss, it stands up - though looking a little broken in some places, but all the while with some new big fucking guns, cue battle)

Wow, wall of text. Oh well...Spiderturtle! (Just wanted to write that again)

 

[Sexbad]

Rogue Trooper. It was a third person action game that allowed to tackle combat situations in nearly any way and encouraged creativity, sort of like Crysis did a few years later. The main problem was that the AI wasn't that great and often did silly things. Did you kill someone and then hide? They all group around the body looking for you, making them easy targets.

 

[Netrigan]

What's wrong with Prey? I loved that game. Few things did I not like about it.

To each their own (cop-out answer), but I just felt that it didn't deliver after the huuuuuuuuuuuge gestation period.

I kind of got bored with as well. The ability to walk on walls and ceilings was cool, but I never felt like the combat really lived up to that potential. The portals had a handful of serious cool moments though.

Felt like one of those games that showed you the coolest stuff in the early part of the game, gradually becoming more and more samey as it progressed.

 

[Netrigan]

I give a lot of average games a go, but of the most recent batch, the one that kind of stands out as a near-miss: Quantum Of Solace. Game was solid throughout, but if they had just figured out a way to present the story in a non-crap way and crafted a much more interesting stealth mechanic, and made the cover mechanic a lot smoother, the game could have been something special.

Instead it's just a bit of a mess of disjointed levels and twitchy combat. Why the hell can't I jump over the bit of cover I'm behind... like in every other cover-based combat game? Why aren't the levels a bit more wide-open letting me flank guards during the stealth sections? And having not seen either Casino Royale or QoS since they came out in the theaters, what the hell is happening in the story?

 

[Zhukov]

Mirror's Edge. Which is why they should make a sequel.

Verily.

That is to say, this.

If only the story hadn't been kinda crap. If only the level design hadn't been dropped on its head about halfway through. If only the developers hadn't felt the need to crowbar combat into the game at awkward moments.

Ah well.

 

[Watchmacallit]

Star Wars Battlefront 3...Oh wait, THEY DIDN'T RELEASE IT!

All honesty, Fallout New Vegas and Transformers: War for Cybertron.

 

[coenzyme]

The Fable games

 

[Vanaron]

If Kane and Lynch (the first one) had been done right, it could've been way better than Uncharted... Uncharted 2 even.

 

[DatCracker]

Dead Space 2.
It had tons of potential to create a loving character, since Isaac had already been unmasked, and they made him so generic.
Also, they repeated that freezer-like room like 8 frackin' times. What the hell.

 

[Palademon]

War for Cybertron
The Fable Sequels
Darksiders: I'd buy a sequel to this. The ending was badass, and they could improve the combat.

 

[revenge6000]

Title says it mostly, whether it be from rushing the release date, running out of money, or whatever, what are games youve played that you thought were okay, maybe good, but you know could have been so much more.

For me it has got to be Far Cry 2. Goddamn you could see the game dripping with potential. But because of a rush of the game, a lot of things they said would be in the game, weren't. All of the faction missions are some difference of "go here and kill this", it could have had actual relations and big guerrilla battles where you work with soldiers in one faction to take out the other, but instead went for you v. everyone else who you even look at.

So what is your game that could have been so much more?

I completely agree with you on Fary Cry 2. My former roommates still remember that game as the one where I constantly crashed the shit out of my car because I was looking at the in game map.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Killzone. If it hadn't been touted as a Halo Killer, if Sony had backed off and let Guerrilla actually polish the game up instead of rushing it, it would have been a fine game. Also, the lack of hype would have worked to its advantage, as not nearly as many people would waste the effort bitching about it.

 

[Twad]

Battlefront 2.. i liked it, but the AI is piss-poor, the space battles have no depth to them -at all-. They are empty and lifeless. And it could have been relatively simple to fix too..

Space Empires 5 - damn i want to love that game (and it to give some love back).. it got all the customisability i could wish for, a reasonably balanced game (with balance mod on), i can build huge fleets of 1000+ ships of countless builds and strategies if i feel like it and see them duke it out.. i must have wasted hundreds of hours on it. It was micromanagement hell/paradise.
But then i just got fed up with the execrable interface. The constant (and HUGE) lag whenever i move a fleet of more than 20 ships anywhere (on a PC that runs crysis no problem), the long.. interminable turns in early game (design everything takes a long while) and late game (where your empire is so big its a pain), the awkward fleet management system and the fact that once you get big enoug in that game, you just get exponentially powerfull and cant possibly lose.
And the multiplayer coponent is very weak too.

But it still got that little special place in my heart. I tried many other game like it but none satisfy me as SEV did in its nice moments.

 

[Stoic raptor]

Trespasser.

So much potential, but everything went so wrong. Time, money, restrictions, you name it.

Still was so influential. Imagine if it actually did what it was meant to do.