The biggest disappointments in your personal gaming history

[Ivan]

Dead Space 3 was depressing. DS2 is one of the finest TPS.

 

[CyberWhale]

Oblivion
Wizardry 8 (last time I bought a game on the recommendation of the Codex)
Batman: Arkham Knight
Bioshock Infinite
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dead Space 3
Game of Thrones RPG (I lied when I said Wizardry 8 was the last time I bought a game on recommendation of the Codex. This was actually the last time, and it was overwhelmingly shit)

I've played plenty of other shit games of course, but the ones on this list were games I expected to be better than what I actually got.

You've forgotten to mention Tyranny.

 

[Lurker King]

Another major disappoinment that my brain decided to bury long ago. Probably my first major one come to think of it.

This thread is the reason why Freud coined the term “Oedipus Schaffer complex”

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Oblivion
Wizardry 8 (last time I bought a game on the recommendation of the Codex)
Batman: Arkham Knight
Bioshock Infinite
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dead Space 3
Game of Thrones RPG (I lied when I said Wizardry 8 was the last time I bought a game on recommendation of the Codex. This was actually the last time, and it was overwhelmingly shit)

I've played plenty of other shit games of course, but the ones on this list were games I expected to be better than what I actually got.

You've forgotten to mention Tyranny.

It wasn't a disappointment to me. To you, maybe, but this was my list. I completed Tyranny twice, once as Disfavoured (but betraying Ashe right at the end), second as siding with the local factions, and will play it again in a year's time for a Chorus playthrough.

 

[Ivan]

 

[Telengard]

Pacman (not like the arcade)
Ikari Warriors (really not like the arcade AND had a note inside the box detailing how the back of the box had incorrect info)
Betrayal at Antara (usual reasons)
Twilight 2000 (really liked the pnp, computer version sucks)
Telengard (my first crpg - sooo repetitive and simplistic, almost dropped crpgs)
some game by Ubi that I spend my first wages on, but never got to play due to an epic, multi-year series of copy protection issues

As for the usual crew of games mentioned here, I managed to duck those. No special achievement on my part though. Didn't like Redguard or Morrowhinge, so never even looked at Oblivious or Failout 3. And never had any interest in the IE games, so never got into the hype for Pillars of an Eternity of Trash Combat.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Telengard (my first crpg - sooo repetitive and simplistic, almost dropped crpgs)

Telengard


In before I start posting about how disappointed I was with Dungeon Master.

 

[Telengard]

Telengard (my first crpg - sooo repetitive and simplistic, almost dropped crpgs)

Telengard


In before I start posting about how disappointed I was with Dungeon Master.

Like your first sexual experience, your first rpg may not be a good one, but it's still your first.

 

[Invictus]

I have to say that as one of ny favorite games ever says "hope is the first step on the road to disappointment"
I never have high hopes for things I cannot somehow influence or control... that is just they way I am
That way of they turn shitty I just shrug and whatever it was it had no investment for me
If it turns out to be good then it is a great surprise, I basically try to keep my expectations under control
Now based on that my top 3 gaming disappointments would be

1) Diablo
I dislike clickfest game and going level after level just clicking away, chugging potions, horading loot and rinsing and doing it again... they say Hell is a place where the same action yields the same results for eternity; that is Diablo for me.
When I finished it I only felt relief over not having that shit in my life

2) Ultima 8 & 9
Coming after possibly the best Ultima game ever this made these 2 pieces of shit even worse. Garriot was always trying to push forward and writing engine from scrach every new Ultima but when he decided to get pseudo action RPG and Tomb Ridery then exactly is when his company jumped the shark. I can still recall Spoony's reaction to "Whats a paladin"

3) Invisible War
Some people hate Thief 3 but in all honestly it was all there still; Garret, trick arrows, sneaking around, hell they even took out the sword to make sure you had to be sneaky about the game
But Invisible War was the very definition of dumbing down, changing the "one ammo fits all" miniscule cardboard levels, stupid story...
They took away everything that made first game special

Neverwinter Nights yeah was kind of meh but the user created custom modules and the online mods really made up for it so I never hated it, Oblivion was such a different game than Morrowind that I never even considered them to belong to the same universe so somehow it never affected me as much, plus some quests like "whodunit" or the painting are still some of the best in TES games so I maybe didnt mind as much... plus those gamer poop youtube videos are hilarious

Maybe my biggest disappointments were games that never materialized like another game set on the Dark Spyre or Summoning setting (would love to see those 2 on GOG) or a properly ported Dungeon Master for PC

 

[Zetor]

Considering that 'disappointment' means 'I expected this game to be much better than it turned out to be' and I never expected games like FO3 to be any good:

- Deus Ex IW: no explanation necessary
- Hex - Shards of Fate: The KS hyped it to be basically a better version of Shandalar, with a multiplayer option too. Turned out to be yet another f2p money-drain ccg with banal "PvE" that wasn't even implemented until 2 years post-launch.
- Septerra Core: I was super turbo hyped for this game for whatever reason (mostly because I haven't played any jrpgs to that point), but it's pretty much crap.
- Might&Magic X Legacy: Just mediocre, felt like a waste of time after the first hour or so of gameplay.

and some obligatory edginess (I'm serious, though):
- Dark Queen of Krynn: High-level 1st ed ad&d is dumb, and the 'story' / writing was brain-meltingly bad even considering the low bar of Dragonlance to begin with.

 

[the_shadow]

Quite a few...

Assassin's Creed: Repetitive uninspiring gameplay with a story that tries to be clever, but just ends up being stupid. I was expecting something more along the lines of Hitman.

Ultima 8: I initially couldn't stand this game, but it's grown on me. Nevertheless, it's still a huge disappointment coming off of Serpent Isle (one of my top 10 games).

Beyond Good and Evil: Another one which wasn't what the reviews had me expecting. The gameplay was meh and the whole setting felt like a big interactive cartoon for kids.

Bioshock: Hyped up as being the spiritual successor of System Shock 2, and failed.

Crysis: Might have been a good game, but it glitched up on me and I never went back to it.

Neverwinter Nights: I expected so much after Baldur's Gate 2, but gone was the insane amount of optional content and engrossing narrative. And the blocky 3D was just ugly compared to the artwork in BG2. The expansion scenarios redeemed this somewhat.

Resident Evil 2: I'm a fan of the Silent Hill series, and I was told the Resident Evil series was somewhat similar. I have no idea why Resident Evil was popular back in the day, when it was just a bunch of jump scares and zombies trying to eat you.

Silent Hill 4: Pales in comparison to SH1-3.

Doom 3: It started out OK, but then it just goes on, and on, and on, and on...

 

[Ivan]

Resident Evil 2: I'm a fan of the Silent Hill series, and I was told the Resident Evil series was somewhat similar. I have no idea why Resident Evil was popular back in the day, when it was just a bunch of jump scares and zombies trying to eat you.

it's amazing how preconceived expectations can sully an experience. and more astounding when those are met/exceeded: Deus Ex, Fallout, Gothic 2.

Crysis' first half is excellent. It's probably for the best you didn't experience it's lesser second-half

 

[skacky]

I never played console games much since the only console I had was a PS1, but I remember being rather disappointed with Spyro sequels.

The first Spyro will always have a special place in my heart because of how great and dream-like it is. Not only does it still control really well, but the level design and environments are just top-notch. Interconnected, sprawling, with a few secrets to find and challenging but fair platforming. I appreciate them even more today now that I have actual level design knowledge and experience than when I was younger. Every level is memorable, be it because of their layout and/or their theme. I especially love levels such as Ice Cavern or Dark Passage. The technology was pretty damn impressive for a console game too, with very clever LOD-tech that allowed the game to display huge levels without having to use fogging effects to mask draw distance or stuff like that. Even the splendid skies were actual models instead of flat skybox textures. This game is just a straight collectathon platformer with no bullshit.

And then Spyro 2 was released and introduced a few mini-games and it also came with far more linear levels, sometimes requiring you to wait for NPCs to open doors or other shit to progress. Yeah the new abilities like swimming were cool, but still I felt this was rather decline-worthy. The artstyle was still great but nowhere near as dream-like and awesome as the first. I wasn't too disappointed when I played it for the first time, in fact I loved it, but playing it nowadays feels like a slap on the wrist. But the worst offender is Spyro 3, but fucking far. I was disappointed even back then, but holy cow this game is pure decline. The mini-games from 2 are back with a vengeance and a huge majority of them are atrocious, the new playable characters are just downright horrible (especially Agent 9 with the absolutely unplayable first-person segments, I swear this is what torture feels like, and Bentley who is slower than a snail), the NPCs are annoying as fuck and level progression is more linear because some of them are locked until you get a certain number of eggs, unlike the other games where you could access any level in a world in the order you liked. The music distribution is also lazy and all over the place. The levels are for the most part less linear and a bit more memorable than 2's, but what I mentioned earlier is inexcusable. Crash Bandicoot Warped also introduced decline gimmick levels but nowhere near the staggering scale of Spyro 3. Bleh!

 

[Lady_Error]

Like your first sexual experience, your first rpg may not be a good one, but it's still your first.

Mine were Wizardry 7 and Eye of the Beholder 2.

 

[octavius]

Like your first sexual experience, your first rpg may not be a good one, but it's still your first.

Mine were Wizardry 7

That's a big one to break your CRPG cherry on.

 

[anvi]

I didn't like RPGs that much when I was younger. I preferred Adventure Games and action stuff. The first I played was The Hobbit for the ZX Spectrum some time in the mid to late 80s but I didn't play it for more than 10 minutes. It just seemed tedious and I wasn't interested, and there were lots of other games I was more interested in. Then there was another game a bit later which was probably the first real graphical RPG I played but I can't remember the name of it It looked like Champions of Krynn but was more modern and had nicer graphics. It was just a demo from a cover disk but I played it over and over, fascinated by exploring in first person and trying to open all the doors. And then a little later I got Eye of the Beholder 2 and I was so hooked. I played it to death, I have completed that game 3 times but also played it many more times just to explore the first couple of dungeons. A year or so later I got Heimdall which was interesting but I never played it very long for some reason. I also goofed around with Hillsfar, Lands of Lore, Stonekeep, Anvil of Dawn, and some other shit around that time, Wizardry 8 etc, but I wasn't interested, although I got Eye of the Beholder 3 at some point and really enjoyed it despite the terrible load times, and I think I completed it once. Then I got EverQuest and became seriously hooked, it was all I played for about 4 years straight and I became a super RPG geek in that time.

After I quit EQ I started hunting down all the RPGs I had missed and playing them all thoroughly. Pool of Radiance, Ultima Underworld, Baldurs Gate 2, Icewind Dale 1 and 2, Betrayal At Krondor, Summoner, Arkanum, Kotor, Vampire Masquerade, Gothic 2 and 3, Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, M&M 6/7/8, Planescape, FFT, etc..etc.. Good times.

 

[Lady_Error]

Like your first sexual experience, your first rpg may not be a good one, but it's still your first.

Mine were Wizardry 7

That's a big one to break your CRPG cherry on.

I've been waiting for a game like that ever since. Too bad the only true Wizardry 7 clone has been taking 20 years to complete.

 

[DeepOcean]

NWN 2 OC - Game had shit combat, looked awful with a terrible engine, generic as fuck copy paste Forgotten Realms, story complete nonsense of the worst kind. Only saving graces are MotB and SoZ.

Dungeon Siege 3 - The first two Dungeon Siege games aren't exactly brillant but Dungeon Siege 3 kills the only good part of the series, the ability to have a huge number of followers because of consoles. Game became yet another linear console hack and slash.

Alpha Protocol - Great ideas ruined by sloppy gameplay, not exactly unplayable shit but was a disappointment.

Elemental: War of Magic - Had high hopes for this game on a time there was a really long drought on 4X games and was a disaster on all fronts, never trusted Stardock again.

Biocock Infinite Faggotry - You know the gaming industry is full of faggots and cucks when the only thing they can do is to masturbate for virtual waifu when pretty much every single gameplay mechanic was dumbdown to Call of Duty levels.

Master of Orion 3 - Well, this disaster became a huge fuck you to the fans of the series, while it is playble with alot of mods, it still manages to be worse than the two previous ones.

HoMM 6 and 7 - After HoMM 5, that was a decent game for the HoMM franchise, I tought Ubisoft would learn something, instead they gave those two projects towards all kinds of low rent B studios they keep in rotation to make shovelware.

Game of Thrones RPG - Learned not to trust any recommendation from the codex. This game is pure garbage.

Fallout 3 - I knew Oblivion was retarded and while I was pissed off that they turned the franchise on a shooter, little I was prepared to witness the depths of retardation Bethesda would achieve.

Dragon Age 2 - Dragon Age for all its evils it was still a playable game, that would change with Dragon Age 2 where Bioware descended all the way down on the abyss.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Well, you're right about Bioshock Infinite (ridiculously overrated) and Game of Thrones RPG (horrible, just horrible).

 

[Avonaeon]

Figured I'd necro this instead of making a new one, since the same thought popped into my head today.

In no particular order:

Oblivion
Probably the first game I was super hyped for. Got it on release, and the game just did not want to run on my machine. Must've tried a thousand different things, but I eventually found out it was because I was lacking Pixel Shader 2.0 and I ended up buying a friend's old machine that barely ran it. It was a pretty big let down after all the trouble I went through.

Fallout 3
The first 2 are 2 of my favorite games, and the teaser trailer and the concept art for the game had me hyped to the max, but the writing and level design was really disappointing to me. Had I put two and two together, it wouldn't have been that surprising that this is what we got. The amount of invisible walls and the randomness of the world really annoyed me. Nowadays I don't care about graphics as much, but back then I was also really disappointed the environment didn't cast shadows.

RAGE
One of the few games I had pre-ordered, since it was a new id game, but the game just didn't work for me. I had a Radeon HD5450 at the time I think, and the driver support for it was so incredibly bad (Corrupted and flickering textures everywhere), I ended up swearing off AMD for a long time. I think I tried every patch and new driver for 9 months before I finally gave up on it.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge
I remember thinking "hell yeah ex-fallout (The good ones) devs making a new game", but man, was it a let down. I remember the story being quite braindead, although these days I find that quite funny and it looks better in screenshots than I remember it, so maybe I should give it another spin.

Brink
I don't know what the hell I expected (The parkour looked cool at the time I guess), but this game was BROKEN on release. A multiplayer title, but so buggy, that players could easily glitch themselves into being invisible. I think it died pretty soon after.

Takedown: Red Sabre
A kickstarter game touted as a spiritual successor to Rainbow Six and SWAT 4, but this game came nowhere close to those. I remember the AI being the biggest disappointment of all. Hard to believe it would be almost 10 years before we actually got some tactical shooters that came close SWAT 4 and Rainbow Six (Zero Hour and Ground Branch). Ready or Not was another disappointment which brings me to:

Ready or Not
Unfortunately I got suckered into being hyped for this. It showed some promise during early access, but it felt really barebones on release. No multiple missions per level (teased during early access), no planning, lame "story" despite being touted as something special, and it ran, and still runs, like ass.

Underworld Ascendant
Backed the kickstarter and some of the early stuff seemed really promising, but the actual game was absolutely horrible and incredibly cut back. I was also really disappointed with the "soundtrack" the kickstarter promised as being "extended", but I think it barely clocks 25 mins. Probably the most ripped off I've felt.

Pillars of Eternity
Backed the kickstarter and was very excited to play it, but ended up really disliking it in the end. Found it boring and grindy.

Frontiers
Another kickstarter game. I really liked the premise and some of the design that was outlined in the update posts, which grew more and more sparse. Then suddenly the game released and it was so incredibly barebones, it barely counts as a game. Almost nothing remained of the original intent.

 

[Fargus]

lol nice thread to vent

Troika going bankrupt..................
PoE boring trash BG2 wannabe.
Dragon Age franchise after the first game.
Oblivion. TES franchise was outsourced to special ED gamedev class.
BiS going bankrupt. Van Buren never being made.
Bethesda buying Fallout franchise. Only one good thing came out of it and it's New Vegas.
Bethesda buying Arkane and destroying it.
Bethesda almost bankrupting Human Head and destroying Prey 2 and Rune 2. Destroying HH as well years later.
Playing through Kingdoms of Amalur. One of the worst pieces of shit in gaming history.
AoD - point and click game for tryhards with story "teleports".
Deus Ex franchise after the first game.
FEAR franchise after the first game.
Square Enix urinating on Thief corpse.
Square Enix urinating on Deus Ex corpse.
Square Enix urinating on LoK.
Square Enix existing.
Expecting Piranha Bytes to make something as good as Gothic 2.
KikePunk2077 overhyped garbage from pshek scammers.
Shadowrun Returds - original campaign.
Saint's Row franchise after SR 1-2.
Hitman Absolution.
Gothic 3 gameplay, quests and dialogue.
Aliens Colonial Marines.
Duke Nukem Forever.
Randy Pichford existing.
NWN1 OC. Just terrible.
Fallout 1 after replaying it 15 years later.
HL2 EP3 and Return to Raveholm being cancelled.
RPG genre being hijacked by troons.
Kickstarter RPG renaissance.
Russian games industry.

Years and years of disappointment until i stopped giving a fuck.

 

[Ezekiel]

MGS4 might be the one that turned me into a cynical asshole.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Starfield. Goddamn it, Todd.

 

[Ryzer]

Russian games industry.

More like the lack of it.

 

[Necrensha]

Oblivion was certainly the first moment of dissonance between what everybody else was raving about and what I was actually seeing.

Dragon Age 2 got me permabanned from a certain old forum, everybody loved it besides me.

I woke up at 4 AM just so I could play Diablo 3 on release without the servers shitting themselves. My monk simply stood there and auto attacked Diablo to death, the healing aura was stronger than all of it's attacks. I was completely speechless ''That's it???'' was all I could I say as Diablo exploded and the game ended, what a load of garbage.

Gothic 3 felt like an unfinished single player mmo, what the fuck were they thinking?

Kingdom Hearts 3 which they spent 13 fucking years setting up with the most nonsensical plot ever put in a videogame, only to finally come out and... 95% of the game is unrelated filler. And then they rush every single plot point in the last 40 minutes AND have the balls to end with the main villain being just a misguided good guy all along who gets to go to Keyblade Heaven with his buddy. Half of the game is dedicated to Nomura complaining about Versus XIII being canceled, who the hell approved of this??

Final Fantasy 7 Remake was the last straw, there is nothing from my childhood left to destroy. Fucking janitor ghosts and multiverse nonsense and timetraveling and bullshit.