Your latest let down game

It's a crappy experience playing Remember Me, because you can clearly tell that a lot of soul went into it. The design and sci-fi aesthetic all looked really great and original, and the soundtrack, especially with how it reacted to your actions in combat, matched it perfectly. It's gameplay just let it down in such a way that parts of it weren't crappy enough to be remembered (a la Deadly Premonition), and it was instead doomed to an even worse fate; being perceived as mediocre. I would recommend it to anyone if its on sale and they want something fresh and original though.

@tyrrael I agree with BL2, I was pretty heavily into it until I realised four things:
A. Starting a new game to try out a new class, especially as someone who has already got a lvl 50+ character, just forces everyone into this annoying as hell tutorial slog, and it takes ages for loot to actually be all types of equipment.
B. UVH mode in SP is just ridiculous in certain scenarios. Heard that with 4 players its easy, single player is a nightmare. Also, no matter what equipment or loadout, especially in UVH, you just never really feel powerful, its bizarre.
C. Why is good loot (especially legendaries), such a chore to find? Why can't I buy good loot? That seems a good way to alleviate frustrations for those who hoard money instead (I know that shops sell high level loot occasionally, but its nowhere near consistent)
D. I realise that BL2 can be up to 4-players, but man are some environments just unnecessarily big. This is especially true if there just happens to be a quest giver and acceptor on the opposite side of a map from where you can teleport in, and there is a map-filling-worth amount of guys between you and it. Just makes it a slog.

Metal Gear Collection: Although I've only just started Snake Eater (going through the actual timeline of the story for these games) I think I've come to the conclusion that I only like Metal Gear Solid on PS1.

I'm glad someone else has the same issues with SR3 that I had. Although I wouldn't call it a let down. Just an average low brow game.

Max Payne 3 was awesome in the first few hours, but yeah after you were in Brazil's shanty town for a few hours it started getting weaker and weaker.

Dark Souls 2

Something about it is off. I need to play way more of it to see if it'll come around, but I'm just not feelin it.

I tried playing Mario and Luigi: Dream Team after putting it down last year and I just can't do it. The game spends too much time trying to be witty and not enough time being fun to play.

Killzone: Shadow Falls. I did not like it all, considering how much I liked 2 & 3

Thief for me. I was so pumped about that game and when it came out it fell flat on its face with very heavy technical issues, plots holes, and over unplayability stemming from these things. I enjoyed the actual game mechanics, but they were just placed in a game that was not well made.

@jasonr86: Man, you nuts. Oliver was great.

To answer the question Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z. Now, I didn't have very high expectations to begin with but somehow this game managed to sink lower than that. A wasted $60. Oh well.

@demoskinos:

"Hi, my name is Oliver. I'm a punk ass bitch that hem and haws over every single thing I say."

@jasonr86: He is also a 10 year old kid who has been swept away to a World that he is entirely unfamiliar with and his mother just died. Like, give the kid a break!

Burial At Sea. Some parts of that DLC reminded just how striking Bioshock Infinite looked a year ago. And still does apparently, because my jaw dropped several times playing it.

Sadly the jaw-dropping didn't transfer over to the story. Without going into specifics, it feels like Ken Levine responded to a lot of criticism regarding the story in the main game and tried to patch things over with the critics. The whole thing just came off as an apology letter or something. Really bummed how it turned out. Could have been great!

@demoskinos:

Boo-fucking-hoo!!

Don't have to look further than a week ago. Mercenary Kings. Man, I wanted to like that game so much...

The Guided Fate Paradox.

I love NIS games and the concept sounded great but the gameplay and story didn't do anything for me.

Titanfall for me. It's not that I found the game to be bad or anything, I actually really enjoyed the game at first. I just got burnt out of it I guess, I don't know. The game starts to get really repetitive after like 2 or 3 matches and I feel like playing something else. I've only got 10 hours played since release, and I was definitely planning on having more by now.

Same here. I feel like the initial matches are a lot of fun, but the game lacks the type of variety and depth to keep me interested.

I guess it depends on what you mean by letdown. In ways, Second Son and Tomb Raider are, while still good, the bigger letdowns of recent for me. I just bought Ryse (;didn't want to go full really, so my brother paid for half). I've heard it was a pretty mediocre to just 'fair' game, though I am going to be optimistic, perhaps it'll turn into the next letdown, I'll have to wait and see after the long install... I'm telling myself, as long as its better than Knack, then that's fine by me.

Knack to me, as far as the games I've played (and I've played most), is the worst new-gen title. It's not necessarily 'bad', but it's just extremely dull for the most part any which way you look at it, or I guess, I look at it. I do hope for a sequel though, one that brings the aspects into something better. I think what's there could be something great. If there more games on the consoles at the time, I probably wouldn't have finished Knack.

Anyways, you asked 'latest letdown', and those were it really. You could have asked what was the largest letdown in recent years, and the answer would have been different.

I liked Max Payne 3, and thought what it did from a gameplay perspective did it extremely well, the problem was there was too much of it and too little of anything else. The game basically consisted of shooting, and that's it. It made it hard to want to get through a second time, so I stopped on the boat mission on hard since it started boring me. If only it had more variety it could have been even greater.

The story didn't do much for me either. I thought the voice acting and most of the dialogue was great, but what they were saying when it came to story wasn't intriguing. I hope when or if they make another Max Payne, they put it back in New York. Those were my favorite moments of three. I remember back on the original reviews of Max Payne, at least on GameSpot, Greg Kasavin reviewed it and said that the game had a one trick pony, and really, three has it even more so.

Gameplay wise for what it did in terms of shooting, I was satisfied, and if a sequel came, do the same with improvements, but other than that, go back to Max Payne's roots. Oh, and while I wouldn't have put it on my list of favorites soundtracks of the year, I did like it quite a bit. Maybe this is contradictory, and perhaps not what others want, but I would have liked a more cinematic, intense soundtrack to it, similar to Minority Report actually.

Oh, and I agree about Brothers. I wasn't impressed. It had a few things I could relate to, but overall it was unimpressive. I actually felt similarly about Journey as well. They didn't do much for me. I can acknowledge their high qualities, but I didn't love them. Many people talked about Brothers as if it's something that lingers with you long after you play it, but for me that wasn't the case. There were other games in the year that made me feel certain ways.

Last of Us. I stopped about 3 hours into it because the combat was unbearable. Story and characters were amazing though. I also played it on normal

Knack . Love platformers , but this is as boring as they come .

Assassins Creed IV Black Flag: It's really repetitive gameplay with a lackluster "open-world." More like the same sea plot all over the place.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons this game does not deserve all the praise it gets

Wow, if ever I need a challenge of controlling my inner fanboy, I simply need to read this thread. So many games I love that you guys despise.

That said, Grid 2 was my latest let down. I still haven't quite gotten over the fact that Codemasters managed to turn a cult hit game about premium driving (a bit of a mix between sim and arcade) into a Dudebro, Youtube, 'Yo dawg, sick jump.' type game... We've got Dirt 2 and 3, we've got the craptastic Dirt Showdown and then came along Grid 2. Aspiring to find a wider audience, they mashed in all of the things I hated about Dirt 3, got rid of money and completely mucked up the driving model. The game, even now is like a fancy version of Mario Kart, where you gain speed by drifting. Seriously, atleast give me some green shells to shoot at the other cars or something because this game is GARBAGE. It cracked me up as well how fast Codemasters stopped responding to emails. I'd been doing coverage of the game on a Youtube channel and planned to do a series like I had done for the previous Grid title. I got hands on with different builds of the game, I gave them feedback and we had a pretty open conversation. Then 2-3 months went by, nothing. Finally 2 weeks before the game launched, I got an email with a review copy of the game, started playing it and emailed in things that needed to be addressed. Responses went back and forth and then the game came out for real. For the most part, old vets of the series were fairly harsh on it. Complaining about all of the same things I'd complained about and this was AFTER a year of us getting over the lack of cockpit view.

Emailed them back a handful of times, trying to find out when or where a patch was in development, was sent a few generic emails saying, 'We will have a patch out soon.' and that patch never came. A few bug fixes but no patch to fix wheel support, no fix to change the drifting mechanic and no fix for the fairly huge save bug glitch that is still in the game to this day. And then came the DLC... Cars... more cars... and more cars! None of the promised tracks (only a handful of routes), none of the liveries that they'd spoken of adding in as DLC later, just cars. Infact to this day there are now almost $70 in DLC for cars and routes (routes are modifications to an already existing track). And then finally to top it all off, to add insult to injury, to slap a bitch when they're down... they 'brought back' demolition derby mode for free. Ofcourse, with the new driving model, demolition derby basically made the full circuit into turning the game into a giant Mario Kart mess.

I wouldn't have been so angry, I wouldn't have been so disappointed or expected as much, but earlier builds of the game were better, they were working with a ton of old fans of the first game, stringing us along with what had made the first game great, but at the very last moment, pulling the string out and switching it with the monstrosity that we now have. I had to laugh when the game dropped by $20 at most retail stores, 3 weeks after launch and then recently was reminded of its existence because of PS+. I know fans of Dirt seem to enjoy the game alot, but the audience for Dirt and the original Grid have never overlapped much, so it's easy to see how many saw it as an act of betrayal. Here's hoping the future is brighter.

Other note-worthy let downs as of late, Infamous was a bit of a bummer being so short, though I still loved the hell out of that game and ofcourse Aliens CM. Worst game I've ever purchased.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Bought it on release when it came to PC, played it in one sitting, will never play it again. It was just kinda meh. There was no big resounding impact on me when playing it. The controls are crap, they just are and there is one moment in the entire game were the control scheme makes sense and makes you realize why they put it in. That one moment wasn't worth the price of admission.

Shadowrun also wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. It was ok but it just didn't grab me and the combat never felt very interesting. The setting and story were cool, but the combat, animations and presentation are so so.

There is some other game that I know I talked to my girlfriend about how much of a let down it was but I can't for the life of me remember what it is, meaning it must've been so much of a let down that I've struck it from memory.

Mark of the Ninja. A highly regarded game that looked cool and fun in every aspect. I should've loved this game. But after three hours, I'm really struggling to keep going. I don't care about the story, or the collectibles, or the leveling system. The gameplay is ok but it's not enough to keep my interest. When you're happy that the level is finished, so you can turn off the game, something is not clicking.

Was a little while ago, but Bayonetta really was a let down. I don't know what it was, but something just didn't grab me about that game's gampelay. I loved the craziness, but couldn't get past about the 5th level. Dead Space 3 was also a massive disappointment, but I had a feeling that was going to be bad from the very start.

Edit: Just remembered Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. That game was nice and everything, but it wasn't as good as the amount of praise would make you think. Also, the thing everyone got so excited about the controls just had zero impact on me. I just thought I'd bugged the game or my controls weren't working properly.

I tend to forget let-downs fairly fast. And generally games I don't like are games I knew I wouldn't like anyways.

Though I guess I thought Borderlands 2 was more shit than I expected to.

I feel like this never happens to me. Maybe I just don't allow myself to build up enough hype for a single game to be all that bummed out if I don't like it.

I think the last game I played that actually left me feeling disappointed was The Last of Us. Like... I could tell that the game was good, and it had all this love and care put into it, but I had zero fun actually playing it.

My latest letdown was Catherine. God damn those block puzzles suck and the controls make it even worse. I really wanted to like that game, but it was way too frustrating. I enjoyed the story parts of it though...

Bravely Default

At some point I just couldn't continue to do what the game wanted me to do anymore. If you played this game you know what I am talking about.

It's a real shame it went in the direction it did because the early parts of Bravely Default were really fun and customizing your characters with different classes and class abilities was extremely fun. There was so much potential in this game that was just wasted due to poor writing.

TESO. I know, I shouldn't have had high expectations but I wanted to believe. So I did. Now I don't.

I spent a little bit installing unit 13 because it was free on ps plus. I uninstalled it in about 5 minutes. That isn't that big of a deal because I still get a bunch of cool stuff on ps plus (lone survivor currently).

Bought threes! after hearing everyone talk about it. Played it for 10 minutes and got everything Im ever going to get from it. In my experience, those types of thin experiences where you do the same thing over and over again have to feature a really intense core concept that can keep my attention. Super Hexagon is a good example. Three's novelty wore off very quickly with me though.

Last big disappointment was GTAV. Story and characters were mediocre, and that's a huge part of why I play games like that. It's why I still think GTA 4 is amazing, even though it is no where near as mechanically sound.

No part of that game is supposed to be fun, including the gameplay. I, personally, think it's one of the most mechanically sound games ever, but it wasnt designed to be fun. It was designed to be brutal and concrete; to give a sense of impact to every move you make. I think they accomplished that.

And I thought I was the only one who didn't enjoy it. Story and characters seemed alright, but the sneeking/combat part of the game felt like something that has been done before a million times, just weaker. So that game is also my latest let-down.

I really enjoy all the games I play.

@narujoe93: Sure, but I would counter that a video game has to be fun for the player on some level, and I personally didn't get any of that from Last of Us.

That's a very limiting view point that you are entitled to have. Personally, I think a video game can be anything to anyone. To me, I don't always expect a fun time from video games, but that is something they offer me. They also offer me other things.

To me, good game doesn't always = fun game

@narujoe93: Would 'enjoyment' be a better word, then? I think its getting down to semantics here.

I recognize that it is a good game, and it has a lot to offer, I just didn't enjoy playing it as much a I had hoped.

I lost interest in the Swapper when the puzzles started taking too long for my dumb brain to handle

I got Tomb Raider 2013 when it was on sale recently, and I am just not feeling it. The series lost all identity in a shallow mish-mash of all the other superior titles it very generously cribs from. Also, I think the constant Lara abuse is not so much misogynistic, but a desperate selling point and cry for attention. I don't know, maybe this game just isn't for me …

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Your POV on BL2 so closely resembles mine that it could have been me who wrote this.

A) It's annoying how all the different types of guns didn't start to show up for me regularly for at least 20-30 hours. I didn't even see SMGs and rocket launchers in what seemed like forever.

B) I never felt like I was adequately equipped to handle the enemies the game was throwing at me. I always felt like I was just scraping by by the skin of my teeth. Also, I'm convinced there is no coding in this game that involves scaling the enemies to the number of people that are playing. I either hear people say that its too hard when playing SP (like I did), or too easy when playing MP, even you have just 1 more person.

C) This was never a problem in the first game. I have no idea why they changed it, nor how they could screw it up this bad. I got legendaries at regular intervals in the first game, and they were normally very good, if not great. I also regularly used the shops in the first BL. There was a good mix of drops from enemies, rewards for quests, and items for sale in the shops. The shops in BL2 are useless. I was still getting level 7 gear at level 20. By the time the shops updated, I was still only seeing high teen to low 20s gear when I was in the high 20s and low 30s.

D) I realized just how much I hated this game when I got to the area where you do the missions for Lilith. Having to go back and forth across that map a half dozen times was infuriating. I haven't played it in a long time, but if I remember correctly, you couldn't just run from one end to the other. You had to take certain paths, because it was multi-tiered level at different elevations which made it take even longer.

I can forgive a lot of things in a lot of games, even my favorite ones and not-so-favorite ones, but this has to be the brokenest-ass loot system in any game I've ever played. This coupled with the other glaring problems with the game make it an unforgivable mess that tarnishes the reputation of the first Borderlands, which is a game that I hold in the highest regards as one of my favorite games of all time.

In short, fuck Borderlands 2. Fuck it straight to hell.

Grand Theft Auto V: Mechanically, they have been releasing the same game since GTA III on the PS2. Same mission structures involving shootouts and car chases and the same terrible shooting--albeit marginally refined. Even the heists--which dare I say had promise--always devolved into protracted shootouts and/or car chases. The driving controls are fine but the shooting is and always has been barely functional in these games. The fact that there was no clean way to get out during the heists negated any fun that could have been had. Did every single one of these really have to end with me using their terrible lock on aiming to mowing down wave after wave of cops, SWAT, army, or PMC? Really?

From a story-line standpoint this game continues to trade on it's outlandish characters and sophomoric social satire through its exaggeration of American excess and vapidity to the furthest extremes. The difference is the jokes have finally gone stale. We get it, Americans are fat, stupid, lazy, greedy, fame hungry, and all on prozac and in therapy. It was cute the first six times you did it, but now what? It's time to come up with a new shtick

My mind is blown that I agree with your every word and yet I loved every GTA since GTA 2.

Then again, for the first time in 12 years, I got bored of a GTA game (that being V). Still havent beaten it, since release. But I think I attribute that to the fact that it's on a console. It just feels shitty, I wish the PC version would come out. I think I'd be all over it if I had a mouse to shoot and the game looked and ran nicely.

But yeah, I'm usually very critical of gameplay and game design so I agree with you, yet I'm still a sucker for the old GTA formula.

@tyrrael: It's a real shame what Gearbox did to the loot system in BL 2, because like you said, in the first game it worked perfectly. Almost everything else about the game is near perfect and better than 1 in almost every way, except for the part that all the fun completely hinges on. It works fine for the first playthrough, but once you're into the second and you realize that you've played for 50 hours and still haven't seen a single legendary, that seriously sucks. I still really enjoyed the game, played all of the DLCs and sank a lot of time into it, but the busted loot system and unbalanced difficulty in single player kept me from coming back often.

Anyway, my most recent disappointment is Mercenary Kings. I thought it sounded and looked great when it was first shown. Then they announced it for the PS4, so I held off on getting it on PC. Turns out it wasn't really worth the wait. Granted, I'm not real far yet, but seems kinda bland in terms of level design. I hate how bosses leave after so long, and sometimes enemies feel cheap. I'll stick with it a bit longer because the weapon stuff seems like it could get interesting, but overall this game feels like a great concept executed poorly.

Most recent is Battlefield 4, but nowhere near as disappointing as GTA V. Goddamn.

Spore ... taught me to never anticipate or get hyped for a game again.

-Had a Terrible 3 & 4 evolution stages. (Tribal & Civ I think they were called)

-Stage 5 was pretty awesome at for the first hour but completely underwhelming due to you getting this whole universe to explore, but it feeling completely lifeless.

-Being locked out of evolving your 'Spore' after the stage 2.

-I did like the 1st and 2ed Stage of the game it was by far the best.

Saints Row 4

I upgraded my PC and replayed SR: The Third in all its glory for 35 hours. Then I got an inkling that the graphics were improved in SRIV from the character creation submissions on Saintsrow.com. I was going to hold out like I did for SRIII for a full package deal and get all the DLC included but I just had to bite.

Shifting from SR:3 to SR:4 was a sea change and not in a good way. Night and day would be a good comparison quite literally.

The dynamic lightning coupled with rain showers were beautiful to behold as I was a gangster trying to take over a city. The perpetual darkness of the simulation as I tried to overthrow my alien overlord was just not evocative.

The premise for the two games are so completely different I would have rather Volition have given its sequel a different name.

Saint's Row IV. I am not sure what broke the game though. Either it was the game becoming something I didn't want out of it, or it bent so far backwards to be funny that it broke. I am not sure. I haven't even had motivation to finish it. Being a "superhero" in the Saint's Row universe was so goddamn boring. You can run fast and jump high, for no real apparent reason at all. I mean, it does literally adds nothing. It even have the added benefit of making the entire city seem like a completely pointless place. The whole pressing a button and aiming in a direction to run up walls and stuff people complain about in regards to the Assassin's Creed games are in full effect for me in this game. I just yawn, press forward and whatever else to run and hope to get to the destination at some point hopefully sooner rather than later. Just, no enjoyment at all.

Maybe I've grown bitter at that game over time. I should put it in and see if I still think it's garbage.

Remember Me: After the first cutscene ended, the one with the faux commercial, I was on board. Unfortunately, the combat leaves MUCH to be desired. There is a good game in there somewhere, but its convoluted combat just made me disappointed. I really do hope they make a sequel and make the combat better. The rewind memories stuff, I only tried one of them, was amazing.

Dragon's Dogma: Another game that had huge potential. The main problem for this game, for me, was that the combat and the difficulty don't match. It tried to be like Dark Souls without the strategic combat. All you do is swing your sword until you or it dies. There is a block, but it feels half assed.

After finishing Part 2 of the Bioshock DLC and seeing how everything comes full circle with the original, I figured I'd go back and play the original again. It's still an incredibly atmospheric game with a wonderful story but maaaan, I don't remember the combat being such a chore the first time I played through it.