What Games didnt Live up to the hype for you?

[Somnia]

Bioshock Infinite will always be my primary example. I really loved Bioshock 1 but 2 was one of my favorite games in that entire console generation. Infinite's collectors edition would be the first CE ever, I was convinced it was gonna change my god damn life. Needless to say it did, but not for the better. I won't get into everything because it's all been said a thousand times and I struggle to wanna rehash the same discourse for a game I avidly ribbed on for a decade, but it really missed the mark.

No Man's Sky is another obvious example. I was enthralled by it but had decided I would wait for a week or two after launch to see if it was anything it was cracked up to be. The night it launched I was with my buddy who was eagerly awaiting the game to unlock for him though, and in all of his excitement I impulse bought the game just hours before it came out.

As everyone knows it was buggy as all hell, ran like trash and had a vomit-inducing fov. That combined with the frequently-touted multiplayer being entirely absent, forced me to refund the game. Ended up getting a copy as a gift sometime later and honestly, I learned to enjoy its minimalist mechanics. The unique art style and soothing atmosphere really helped it be the perfect relaxation game. I slowly moved away from it as more and more content got added to it that sort of flew in the face of what made it appeal to me though. It's all great content but I appreciated its simplicity and it does a lot to force the newly-added complexities onto you whenever it can.

 

[Bakuma1997]

For me is Spec Ops: The Line, after everywhere Onlike it was praised as "The war crime simulator" i decided to give it a shot, especially since while i like my videogames normal, once in a while i like the formulas spun, so i decided to play it... and i ended up with a preachy mess

Spoiler: Spoilers for the six persons not spoiled for the game

Let's start with the begging of the game, i know it's the scene where you recieve the subtile warning to stop, but if you analize the situation, the Damned 33 didn't exactly started the conflict with cake and confetii, obviously if you get shot your first instinct is to shoot back, i expect to hear "But Walker staying made it worst" It did? Riggs plan at the end of the day was going to suceed weren't for Walker's "Heroism", i am not saying Walker did everything right, but makign Walker, and by extention the player responsible for the shitshow going on in Dubai is pretentious

From a narrative spectrum it's a tragedy, but in the context of player critique is like if the player was the guy carrying pizzas in this scene and somehow you being the mean one

"Well, the best way is not to play" some players and even the game's writer said so since you are going to do everything wrong... asking me to no play... a game... i PAID FOR!? a broken aesop like none
I got more to say, but to not fill the spoiler with a wall, so here are some complementary info of why Spec Ops tried to be an attack at a genre but while having valid points fails at some more and even coming up as contradictory

The Many Pretentious Failings of Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line is, from an artistic point of view, one of the most important games released in the last decade. A brutal no-holds-barred deconstruction of the generic Call of Duty/Medal of Hono…

dopefishblog.com

“The Shadow Line”, a “Spec Ops The Line” critique

“Spec Ops: The Line” is a title that came out in the slow-churning furnace of mid-summer, singled out as a point of reference in its ephemeral release period and greeted with a consensual, though m…

metavideogame.wordpress.com

 

[Ian Naxieas]

It makes me really sad to say this, but it'd have to be Nier: Automata. The first game was a very flawed gem, but won me over with it's tone, cast, plot and music. When NA was announced, it was a super surprise since Nier didn't exactly sell like hotcakes and was more of a cult hit than anything. I remember seeing some art with the green apocalypse vibe, which is totally my jam and then holy shit, Platinum is working on it too?! I don't remember too much from then to when the demo was released but I couldn't download it fast enough. The game felt really nice to play, the music was already vibing with me and the tone (especially at the end of the demo) really got it's hooks in me. I pre-ordered the game and consumed every bit of info and video and forum post that I could. I remember people getting out of bounds in the demo and being able to see a shitty version of the city by doing like punch cancelling and stuff. It was something new! Eventually the game came out...

I took a whole week off work to play it and got a large supply of weed to help immerse myself, like I did with the original. x) It finally unlocked and finished unpacking or whatever at like 2am and I played it till like 6. Went to bed, wake and bake and spent all day playing. It went like this all week and it wasn't long until I got the first ending. Got the second ending and finally the third.

Spoiler

I chose A2 to own 9S.

After that I went back to try and get all the side quests done. Got bored with that, so I set about collecting and upgrading all the weapons. Getting all the weapons was neat but grinding for upgrades lost me pretty quickly. Finally I beat up the golden bunny until I was max level, took on the optional bosses and just kinda... stopped. Everything was too easy now that I was max level and had a set of maxed weapons.

Picked up the game about 4 years later, got to the same point (except no bunny grinding) and I still ended up not finishing it fully. I like it, it's a good game! It hit me in the feels many times, the music is wonderful (mostly, some of the nonsense singing gets grating after awhile and it was driving my boyfriend nuts), the combat feels nice and there's lotsa weapon options, great voice acting and characters, thematically solid and the plot is mostly a winner, though some of the decisions were not needed or kinda dumb.

So what's wrong with it exactly? I don't really have anything to say other than I was expecting a life changing experience that would be a favorite game of all time. And what I got was a really good game. I don't think I've ever been so excited for a game before and since. Ultimately, I'd say NA is the better game in most aspects, but the original Nier resonated with me more. I think that probably has to do with the writing for Nier being more surprising for it's time. After Nier I expected NA to be dark and weird, and it was, but it wasn't something that took me by surprise again.

TL: DR - Expectations were unreasonably high and I got knocked down to reality.

 

[MasterEn]

It makes me really sad to say this, but it'd have to be Nier: Automata. The first game was a very flawed gem, but won me over with it's tone, cast, plot and music. When NA was announced, it was a super surprise since Nier didn't exactly sell like hotcakes and was more of a cult hit than anything. I remember seeing some art with the green apocalypse vibe, which is totally my jam and then holy shit, Platinum is working on it too?! I don't remember too much from then to when the demo was released but I couldn't download it fast enough. The game felt really nice to play, the music was already vibing with me and the tone (especially at the end of the demo) really got it's hooks in me. I pre-ordered the game and consumed every bit of info and video and forum post that I could. I remember people getting out of bounds in the demo and being able to see a shitty version of the city by doing like punch cancelling and stuff. It was something new! Eventually the game came out...

I took a whole week off work to play it and got a large supply of weed to help immerse myself, like I did with the original. x) It finally unlocked and finished unpacking or whatever at like 2am and I played it till like 6. Went to bed, wake and bake and spent all day playing. It went like this all week and it wasn't long until I got the first ending. Got the second ending and finally the third.

Spoiler

I chose A2 to own 9S.

After that I went back to try and get all the side quests done. Got bored with that, so I set about collecting and upgrading all the weapons. Getting all the weapons was neat but grinding for upgrades lost me pretty quickly. Finally I beat up the golden bunny until I was max level, took on the optional bosses and just kinda... stopped. Everything was too easy now that I was max level and had a set of maxed weapons.

Picked up the game about 4 years later, got to the same point (except no bunny grinding) and I still ended up not finishing it fully. I like it, it's a good game! It hit me in the feels many times, the music is wonderful (mostly, some of the nonsense singing gets grating after awhile and it was driving my boyfriend nuts), the combat feels nice and there's lotsa weapon options, great voice acting and characters, thematically solid and the plot is mostly a winner, though some of the decisions were not needed or kinda dumb.

So what's wrong with it exactly? I don't really have anything to say other than I was expecting a life changing experience that would be a favorite game of all time. And what I got was a really good game. I don't think I've ever been so excited for a game before and since. Ultimately, I'd say NA is the better game in most aspects, but the original Nier resonated with me more. I think that probably has to do with the writing for Nier being more surprising for it's time. After Nier I expected NA to be dark and weird, and it was, but it wasn't something that took me by surprise again.

TL: DR - Expectations were unreasonably high and I got knocked down to reality.

i think most people just draw fan art of 2b and probably don't know what game she comes from. i've never played the game, but i've collected fanart of her.

 

[Ian Naxieas]

i think most people just draw fan art of 2b and probably don't know what game she comes from. i've never played the game, but i've collected fanart of her.

Haha, yeah I'm sure there's a lot of fans of the character that don't know the game. x) And that's totally fine! Just speaks for the good character designs in the game. :> Lotsa examples of that I'm sure. I know Tifa has transcended just being a FF7 character. Or if you want to go further back, Lara Croft.

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

Diablo I & II: I get why they're liked, and I get that they were trailblazers. I just think Grim Dawn does it better and with less jank nowadays.
Call of Duty: I got a used Xbox 360 for Christmas and some old Call of Duty games. Finally I'd get to play what all my friends have been talking about.....why do they all play the fucking same? Why does the campaign make me wish I was watching an old action movie instead? Don't get me wrong, Black Ops II was a blast in local coop, but I didn't get much use out of them beyond that, so I traded most of them in.
Final Fantasy VII: Tried the OG version and just couldn't stick with it. It just seemed...off? I really can't point to anything in particular. I guess I just didn't grow up with it.
Mortal Kombat: X is the shit. The rest feel stiff as fuck to play. I can understand why the old games feel kind of awkward, but they got it right in X, then fucked it up again in 11. WHY?!

 

[MasterEn]

Haha, yeah I'm sure there's a lot of fans of the character that don't know the game. x) And that's totally fine! Just speaks for the good character designs in the game. :> Lotsa examples of that I'm sure. I know Tifa has transcended just being a FF7 character. Or if you want to go further back, Lara Croft.

yeah, i have quite a bit of fanart of tifa. i prefer aerith over her though. and lara would be a good replacement character for tifa in ff7.

Post automatically merged: Jan 17, 2025

Final Fantasy VII: Tried the OG version and just couldn't stick with it. It just seemed...off? I really can't point to anything in particular. I guess I just didn't grow up with it.

i technically grew up with it. i borrowed it from a friend for a few weekends. i only really remember the first disc, something about a mountain, one of the cutscenes having a close up on a detailed 3-d model of tifa with bounce physics. i remember saving just before that part and i made a separate main save to continue playing the game. tifa and a blonde chick get into a slap fight and i got to safer sephiroth at level 50, 15 levels below the recommend level and i did poorly on all of the side quests that i found. i think some of those might have been story quests. i don't know. i lost that fight and i only tried one more time to play it. stopped in the train graveyard.
you didn't miss much, if anything.