The Most Disappointing Game You've Ever Played

[Crispy]

Topic. I know it can be a tough choice because there have been so many truly awful games over the years, and everyone's definition of disappointment can be different, but there's got to be one that sticks out in your mind.

If you had to name one game, from any platform, that you would say turned out to be the biggest let down you can think of in the entire history of your gaming career, which one would it be?

For me it might actually be Diablo III. While I never held D1 and 2 in the same esteem that many others did, actually having regarded the original as an affront to true RPG's and thereby somewhat disliking it for that reason, it certainly grew on me the more I played it. D2 lacked that original atmospheric charm but was still quite fun to play. The last one turned out to be such incredibly worthless shit IMO that I honestly found myself wanting to get my money back for it, which I never normally make an issue over after purchasing any of my games (caveat emptor).

What about yours?

 

[Konjad]

Oblivion. Because I truly expected it to be Morrowind 2 and it was Day 1 Collector's Edition purchase for me. Since that day I do no longer buy without getting to know the product by reading reviews, opinions and so on.

 

[Stabwound]

Diablo 3 easily.

 

[Gerrard]

Probably Spore.

 

[Jasede]

D3 (I expected a sequel to Diablo 2. The game would have been better if it had a different name.), Valkyrie Chronicles (i expected a strategy game; I got a walk in the park.), Final Fantasy 7 (All that hype...), Beyond Good and Evil (I don't see it), Ultima 9 (...), MM IX (Oh god.)

 

[potatojohn]

BioShock.

 

[Crispy]

Probably Spore.

Interesting choice. Care to elaborate? I found the game to be fascinating, albeit flawed. I actually never played it myself, but observed someone else as they progressed through it. Was it all the hype?

 

[hoverdog]

One? Hard to choose, but probably Neverwinter Nights. I thought it would be a Baldur's Gate successor - how wrong I was. And then with no internet (=no access to permaservers or modbase), I was cut off from 99% of the game's content. The OC and terribul graphics made me really, really sad.

other disappointments:

Oblivion (after Morrowind)
Might&Magic IX (after earlier iterations)
Warlords 4
Heroes of Might and Magic VI
Dreamfall
Settlers 3
Age of Empires 3
Elemental
Majesty 2
Vogelgames starting with Avadon
Eschalon

 

[Turjan]

Oblivion. Because I truly expected it to be Morrowind 2 and it was Day 1 Collector's Edition purchase for me. Since that day I do no longer buy without getting to know the product by reading reviews, opinions and so on.

Ditto.

 

[Cassidy]

There aren't many, because I rarely go blindly for one. Of course, it is one of the extra benefits of not being a steamtard as well.



There is only one game I was genuinely greatly disappointed with. After finishing The Longest Journey, reading some comments on how its sequel is not as good, I wondered "none of the comments says it's a huge pile of turd without and redeeming quality"... and what a mistake I made...

Dreamfall

I had hopes it would at the very least have a decent story. It had a shitty plot full of nonsense and with only growing cliffhangers never solved, no puzzles, almost no gameplay... it was like the prototype for Heavy Rain. Good thing it tanked, saving the Adventure genre from a terrible decline back then.

 

[Gerrard]

Probably Spore.

Interesting choice. Care to elaborate? I found the game to be fascinating, albeit flawed. I actually never played it myself, but observed someone else as they progressed through it. Was it all the hype?

Even without the hype, it's just a collection of 5 minigames, each with the depth of some $0.99 iOS game (if not less). Even if they delivered on things like creature design actually mattering (as opposed to stats being the only thing that matters), it would still be lacking in gameplay elements.

 

[codexian reject]

Assuming we are not talking here about the worst, or the most hated game... Arcanum

Refugees from Black Isles were making a new RPG ? I've bought it blindly.
I didn't enjoy a single minute of it and abandoned after Black Mountain Mines out of pure boredom.

Few years later, seeing how still nothing came close to PS:T and Fallout, I've figured my expectations could had been unrealistic when it was released and I gave it a second chance.
I've abandoned it once again, after Tarant this time. This game tried to do almost everything I expect from the genre right, but it also failed at almost everything.
Boring characters, writing, level design, broken and tedious gameplay. There are few nice touches here and there, like newspapers, but the most of game content is simply not interesting.

I don't hate on the game. I have a lot of respect for what it tried to be. It was also my biggest gaming disappointment ever, no doubt.

 

[Pelvis Knot]

These three:

Heroes of Might and Magic 4
Neverwinter Nights
Dragon Age

 

[Renegen]

Bioshock, Oblivion are what comes to mind.

 

[L'ennui]

Warcraft III.

I had been a huge fan of the 1st and 2nd games. Heck, the game manuals were probably my favorite bedtime reading material back then. I loved the lore, the universe, everything, and I had had so much fun playing W2 with friends.

The hype had been tremendous, and during the game's long development cycle it was initially hinted that the gameplay would be much transformed, more tactical, following limited parties of warriors on missions, sort of like Bungie's Myth series, only in beautiful (back then) 3D and with Warcraft's universe to back it up. I bought every magazine that I could find that detailed the new gameplay, drank in every promise.

At last, the game was released upon the world, and it was not like Myth. Ok, I would have been fine if it had just reverted to W2-ish gameplay, but it hadn't. The focus was now on hero units and low numbers of accompagnying fodder. Well, I had played Warlords Battlecry, and that did the whole Hero-centric RTS thing about a thousand times better by allowing actual variety in hero types and a constant progression from one game to the next. So gameplay was nothing too impressive, but hey, it's Warcraft... at least I can enjoy the setting, right? Wrong.

The Horde was now a roving band of green hippies, B-movie samurais and noble savages(tm) instead of some mongolian horde (hurr) from hell, the Alliance was a bunch of pathologically megalomaniacal and inept egotists squabbling instead of once proud nations forced to band together to avoid complete genocide of the human race (and elves, and dwarves), the main character was an emo teenager with a big sword going through his puberty crisis and filled with adolescent revolt. There were pandas.

Heh, at least the cinematics were nice.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Either Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect 2. They're the two games that finally got me to stop being interested in Bioware at all.

Dragon Age: Origins, whatever its flaws was a reasonably good game and had some interesting moments before you built up your guys to be able to steamroll every encounter. Dragon Age 2 had derpy teleporting backstabs, a huge focus on romance, recycled dungeons, no non-human main characters + pre-determined protagonist (and it still managed to have a retarded story), etc. I loathe this fucking game and I'd had hopes that it would be some sort of development on DA:O, not more of a consolization of the game.

Mass Effect 2 turned a shooter/RPG hybrid (which unlike most people, is a concept I'm not actually against) into a bad shooter with no real RPG mechanics (level up with predetermined XPs for main missions/side missions and gain powerful new abilities like... incendiary ammo ) and presented a boring story that was primarily comprised of sidequests ("Gather all the dudes.") to boot. I just... blah.

Excuse me, I feel dirty.

 

[Morgoth]

From recent memory: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3 and Starcraft 2.

 

[evdk]

Dungeon Master 2. And I was so looking forward to it

 

[Brinko]

Overlord 2. I don't know how but every time I tried to play that game it found new ways to piss me off. From the lack of weapon and armor customization to the lack of a dungeon to grind out minion essence to the stupid fucking story, everything in that game felt like such a departure from everything that made the first great. It still baffles me to this day how much they fucked up such a simple system by just throwing dumb features at the wall and looking to see what stuck. But I guess that could be said for a lot of games that will probably get mentioned here.

 

[DAT]

BROS, I'D HAVE TO GO WITH PLANESCAPE: TORMENT. I WAS EXPECTING A GOOD GAME LIKE YOU BROS SAID IT WAS, BUT ALL I GOT WAS A VISUAL NOVEL WITHOUT THE VISUALS.

ONE OUTTA TEN. WOULDN'T PLAY AGAIN.
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FALLOUT 3, YOU FUCKS.

 

[DalekFlay]

Oblivion. Because I truly expected it to be Morrowind 2 and it was Day 1 Collector's Edition purchase for me. Since that day I do no longer buy without getting to know the product by reading reviews, opinions and so on.

This exactly.

Fallout 3 not so much because Oblivion softened the blow and it's not like I expected it to be iso-fucking-metric when I started playing it.

 

[Metro]

Can't think of any off the top of my head. I was greatly anticipating Civilization 5 as Civ has been one of my all-time favorite series but I waited to see extensive game play, saw it was a turkey, and never bought or played it. But I guess I'm never really disappointed because I scrutinize games to death before I buy/play them.

 

[potatojohn]

Oblivion. Because I truly expected it to be Morrowind 2 and it was Day 1 Collector's Edition purchase for me. Since that day I do no longer buy without getting to know the product by reading reviews, opinions and so on.

I remember seeing the very first promo screenshot released for Oblivion. It was a ruin with that guard in golden armor with shitloads of bloom and bright green grass. I was like 'what the fuck?' and lost all hope.

 

[Crispy]

You lost all hope for the game based on a single screenshot?

 

[suejak]

Fallout 3, easily.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Usually sequels to good games, or long hyped games that fail to deliver spectacularly.

NWN 1, Fallout 3, Half-life 2 and Oblivion come to mind instantly.