I dunno if I've been much more disappointed in a game than Dead Rising 2. I actively dislike just about every change they made from the original Dead Rising, which I've unfortunately played into oblivion. I might not even like the original now if I could still play it for the first time, but at least it was more arcade-y than Dead Rising 2. However, I know I like the story better than that of Dead Rising 2, which is presented with some of the worst characters I've seen in games. The only sequel that comes to mind as similarly disappointing is Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which has some of the worst storytelling I've seen in a game this year. I mean it when I say that the first half of Duke Nukem Forever has better storytelling than the first half of the new Assassin's Creed, even if DNF has a worse story to tell. ACR is one of the biggest non-events in gaming, which is tragic because it comes from one of my absolute favorite franchises. I can't even say that I'm really at all excited for Assassin's Creed III anymore, though I'm sure I will be if they announce some crazy nonsensical gameplay element.
OH RIGHT. Writing about ACR reminded me that Metal Gear Solid 4 came out and almost completely ruined my favorite franchise of all time. Between its absolutely boring gameplay and its nonsensically written cutscenes, the knife is finally put in the bird in the game's post-credits finale, where Kojima suddenly decides he has to completely ruin the mythology for anyone sane who had managed to bond with the fiction.
Man, fuck bringing Major Zero back and ruining Liquid Ocelot.
Perhaps the biggest crime is how boring the game really is, though; between its awful attempts at humor, its substandard stealth and action, and its now-pastiched characters, Metal Gear Solid 4 completely fails to entertain throughout most of Acts 1-3 (albeit parts of Act 2 & 3 are pretty awesome) and offers zero compelling gameplay throughout the rest. It's kind of sad, really, how jaded I became about Metal Gear Solid after MGS4; I almost out-and-out refused to play Peace Walker, which my roommate picked up this week in the MGS HD Collection. Watching him play that game almost makes me more upset at MGS4, as in Peace Walker the storytelling, gameplay, and reverence for the source material is all back. MGS4 now comes across as the outrage of a man spurned, and I guess I'm glad he got it out of his system, but guys, that game is kind of awful, and if I actually allow myself to think that its plot conclusions are where the series was headed all along, I really, really start to hate Metal Gear Solid.
Of course, not counting the laws of "worst ever/most disappointing" there are other sequels that managed to disappoint me, at least a little bit. I'll run through those a bit more quickly.
-BioShock 2: I feel like somehow they just completely dropped the ball on the gameplay, and everyone seems to agree that the storyline and world don't match up particularly well with the original BioShock. I'll probably give this another shot someday because I don't like myself very much.
-Dragon Age II: I actually like Dragon Age II better than its predecessor even if I know it's probably a worse game, but it's still not enough to get me to enjoy a Dragon Age game. I'd say better luck next time, but I honestly don't care anymore.
-Modern Warfare 2: As the follow-up to the only shooter that could take on BioShock the year it released, MW2 disappointed me due to its slightly lackluster campaign and its dull multiplayer maps. I still probably like it better than a lot of the games that came out in 2009, but I didn't find it the landmark most folks did.
-Uncharted 3: While my thoughts on the game have been extensively recorded, I'll say that while I actually like this game better than its predecessor, it's also less exciting in many ways. Basically, even if Uncharted 2 managed to seriously drop the ball a couple times throughout its campaign and Uncharted 3 didn't, Uncharted 3 just isn't as awesome at its core as Uncharted 2. But at least it didn't have blue dudes.
-Dead Space 2: In essence, I found that multiple scenarios were not fun or tense, the story was a non-event, and a few individual rooms are downright bad. Great game, though, even if it's not as good as Dead Space.
-Gears of War 3: GoW3 is probably a great game if you've finished the other Gears titles and understand the character relationships. I haven't (even though I do enjoy them,) and the game gives no context for the characters' actions within itself, so sometimes you're baffled as to why characters are behaving as they are. It's also probably better if you don't find the franchise's fascination with Mad World as funny as I do, as the game's most successful emotional moment totally plays that song alongside a montage of explosions, so I wound up laughing pretty hard. Unfortunately, the campaign gameplay is also finally beginning to show its age, and I'll just say I'm glad the Gears trilogy is over for now. Gotta up that multiplayer though, that is better than ever.
-Fallout: New Vegas: If you worked just a little better, I would be ALL UP IN YOU. Right now, though, I'm instead more tempted to go into Skyrim or Fallout 3.
-The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Okay, so this is not an actual complaint about the game, but why is version 2.1 not compatible with Kaspersky 2011? My brother lost the password and email he input for Kaspersky, so we can't get the free upgrade to 2012, and now I'm stuck not being able to play The Witcher 2. Big bummer.
-Resident Evil 5: The controls are not as good as those in Resident Evil 4, straight up. Also, the gameplay is less arcade-y, so most of the awesome factor has been taken out. However, it's also no longer scary because they wanted it to be an action game. Basically, most of the flavor is gone, and what's left is not very exciting. Also, why would you make a co-op game where one party member's name is literally not said by anyone but the protagonist for nearly two hours during the game's ending?
-DOOM 3: Okay, so I hadn't played the other two DOOM games when I first played DOOM 3, but now that I have...what the fuck, guys?
EDIT: Sorry to dump a blog post in the middle of your thread! I feel like I need images to help the pacing.
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