The Most Disappointing Game You've Ever Played

[Minttunator]

I never understood what is supposed to be so bad about Ultima 8. It may be a fair bit different from the other Ultimas, but it's a good game.

I think it's mainly the platforming (especially before the patch), the mindless combat, the lack of character development, the unfinished subplots, the fiddly magic system, the boring and monotonous dungeons, and the ungodly amount of bugs.

Spoony's U8 review is also worth watching (I think it's amusing even if you don't agree with him):


That said, I have to admit I also liked it back in the day - but that might well have been because it was one of my first RPGs. I especially loved the soundtrack, the desolate atmosphere, and the feeling of being alone in an alien world - I think U8 did that really well. Still, I'm not sure "good" is the word I'd use to describe it.

 

[Spectacle]

The magic systems are the best part of U8. It feels like you're actually learning and doing magic instead of just clicking "cast spell".

 

[Gord]

the monsters are not level scaled

The monsters themselves not, but the spawn points use leveled lists - encounter a rat at lvl 1, at level 30 it might be a daedra.

 

[sea]

Probably Fable. Yeah, I know, Molyneux, etc. but it sounded so cool. Open world RPG, plant a tree and it'll grow over time, etc. Instead I got a run on the linear corridor game filled with button mashing hack'n'slash and world interactivity via farting on people.

I assumed some of the features would be overhyped whatever, but such a huge reversal in concept from what was hyped to what was delivered is mindboggling.

I dunno, they never really promised a "true" open world game and the "plant a seed" example was used to illustrate reactivity, it wasn't a literal example of what would be in the game. I think people felt betrayed because the original comments by Molyneux were misleading, but he was very much using flowery language as he is want to do, rather than speaking completely literally.

Still a completely underwhelming game though. It's actually surprising how "small" the entire world is. There's like a grand total of 30-40 small zones and that's it, nothing else.

 

[sea]

I rolled a Breton, a knight-esque character. Not sure how i ended up in Morrowind, but i'll think of that later. The world was very.. well, gray. Very unappealing, divided between gray ground and strange, pale-yellow buildings. How depressing and melancholic.

Morrowind has an inspired world design (i.e. structures in towns made of massive hollowed-out insect shells) but the actual art assets are not that great. Early 2000s 3D graphics and all. Everyone knows this. What it makes up for is in the actual art direction and attention to detail (like different factions using different colour schemes and symbols to represent themselves, even on their clothing), and how that integrates with the lore of the game.

And wait, what? My character... when he walks, jesus christ he walks with his legs wide open as if he was a cowboy that shat himself or something. M-maybe this torrented version is glitchy? Whatever, lets not be a graphics whore.

You should have known after Oblivion that Bethesda's animators are fucking horrible.

I'm sure the storyline is going to blow me away! Lets join, uh... the Fighters Guild. Because i'm a knight, right? And within a single minute i was already issued a quest to kill a few rats. Pfft, i'm a FUCKING KNIGHT BITCH i can destroy rats anytime i want! My mighty Breton warrior, clad in heavy armor, stormed down the street off to the place infested with rats.

They're giant rats, and probably disease-ridden at that. Go get your "mighty" level 1 warrior to fight a few attack dogs, tell me how that goes. Giant rats can be dangerous. Ever played Planescape: Torment?

"Begone, foul beasts!" - he exclaimed, as... wait jesus they hit pretty hard wait why am i missing i'm pointing right at the fucking rat jesus my sword is going through him what the fuck what the fuck wait I'M GOING TO DIE HOLY SHIT! I managed to finish off two of them, but with the heavy wounds (somehow those fucking rats pierced my armor? How the fuck?) i had to retreat. Were those vorpal rats or something? By the nine fucking divines, i should rest a bit until my wounds are better...

Morrowind's combat does kinda suck, however, at least it's heavily stat-driven. Don't think of it as a real-time action-RPG hack-and-slash game like Oblivion, because that's not really what it is. In terms of stat-driven combat systems, Morrowind's is actually pretty solid due to the sheer number of options you have in terms of equipment and magic.

Whoa, big surprise! Resting doesnt help. Your wounds are permanent. VORPAL RATS NIGGA! THE BITES NEVER HEAL! Well then time to get SERIOUS. Time to use A HEALING SPELL! (Actually, a healing ring i think) Anyways, with my deadly rat-bites healed i kicked down the door, swords blazing. TIME TO DIE YOU FILTHY BEAST except that he absolutely kicked my ass. I swinged the sword but nothing happened, the sword just going through the fucking rat! This is the worst fucking combat system i ever saw, wow. And the rat killed me. I loaded the game, offended as fuck, and decided to just leave (still wounded). Wait... my magicka doesnt regenerate? Magic use is permanent too? WHAT? Oh god. Maybe at least it regenerates if i rest? OH WAIT, RESTING IS A CRIME NIGGA! WELCOME TO MORROWIND WHERE A NICE TIME IS FORBIDDEN BY FUCKING LAW. I should have closed the game then. But i didnt. It gets better right?

You mean standing around in the middle of a dusty, dirty street doesn't magically heal all your wounds when you're beaten to within an inch of your life? Color me surprised, it's like you almost need to be healed using magic or medicine or something. The thought of it!

decided to leave fighting for a while, maybe i should level up a bit before i try fighting rats (??). Maybe i shuold talk to some people and level up with speechcraft? Maybe i should just talk around and see if i can learn a bit of the lore. But for every guard i talked, or place i entered... i was shunned and called an "Outsidah". Hell, why did i roll a fucking Breton? Now this Dark Elves will treat me like shit. And not like anyone said anything interesting, either, it was just the usual "Ask About: ___" conversation topic. Damn, i was promised good writing!

The conversation system used has nothing to do with whether the writing is good or not. And when people say Morrowind has good writing, they are referring to the game's lore and detail, not EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING characters with full branching dialogue trees. Yes, that means you have to read books, study the game world and its history, and pay attention to things. The horror.

Maybe i'm on the wrong city. Maybe i should explore the world! Which obviously is a terrible idea since i cant even fight a house-rat, imagine whatever monstruosity i'll find out there in the wilderness. But lets try it out anyways!

Surprisingly, fighting giant man-eating rats is more difficult than fighting tiny little bugs and maggots and crabs. Which you should have been fighting because they're widely available to fight right outside Balmora, which you made clear you visited, but whatever...

So, embarrassed with his defeat, the Breton Knight left the city in shame, but positive that there are better adventures ahead. So i walked and walked... through gray wastelands. They never seemed to end - the world was terribly bland, just a single color all over the screen. Am i playing The Void? And i'm not even going to mention the endless rain of these pterodactyl-things, Cliff Riders or something? Oh my god... swinging my sword seemed like forever, woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh until finally i hit it for something. Why is my character so blind? Did i accidentally pick "Wimpy Faggot" as birthsign by mistake? Shit. Maybe i should just quit this horrible game.

Maybe you shouldn't march your level 1 warrior off into deeper more difficult areas of the game where you clearly aren't able to fight the enemies properly. Oh right, you started with Oblivion, where no matter where you go enemies are level-scaled, so those rats magically turn into dremora. My mistake, that system makes much more sense.

And there i was, now a beautiful and mysterious Dark Elf lass with a knack for stealth. Certainly, rolling as a Dark Elf will at least get me some better treatment among my fellow Dunmer. Right? WRONG! They still call me AN OUTSIDAH. Couldnt they just change the fucking text? Were they that lazy to include a simple check to see your race and change the text? Its seriously five seconds of coding. Ugh. Maybe its because i came from a ship, so they automatically assume i'm OUTSIDAH. How do they know anwyays?

I'm not sure if you're illiterate given how much you've written, but NPCs actually do address your race and gender. But yeah, everyone knows that "outsider" isn't a gender-neutral term, that works well when you have a limited budget for things like voice-acting...

Its definitely not written on my forehead. Bah fuck it, i need to finish some guild quests before i can advance in the main quest, so lets join.. uh... THE THIEVES GUILD! But how? The Thieves Guild, as the name says, is probably an unknown organization of pickpockets and shadowy figures, never seen, never heard. How can i even contact them? To thrive right under the nose of the guards, they must be well-hidden... Perhaps the local tavern knows more. So, the Dunmer lass enters the bar... there's a khajiit literally a few feet next to a FUCKING GUARD. Her first line (i'm not kidding) is an invitation to the THIEVES GUILD. YEAH, THE SECRET ORGANIZATION OF MUGGERS. I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SECRET? Why didnt the Khajiit even say, you know, HI? She had to go straight to the quest? Why didnt i at least have to, you know, talk to her and convince her that i'm trustworthy? They just accept random people like that? And the Guards do nothing?

Remember what I said about lore? Both the Thieves Guild and Morag Tong are effectively legally-approved guilds which provide stealing/espionage and assassination services respectively. They can operate openly and to a degree above/within the law. As for the individual guard, either he's turning a blind eye or maybe he's on the take. Or maybe it's an excuse for shitty AI, but either way there is a story reason for it, which you would have been able to figure out if you had paid attention to things like conversations with NPCs and the hundreds of books in the game world.

So, apparently i had to steal something from a chest inside a merchant's store. I went over there, except that the merchant stood on the same place 24/7 staring towards the chest - there was literally nothing i could do to distract him like in, you know, Thief: The Dark Project or any other stealth game. Are they even trying? I couldnt steal the damn thing with him staring me down like that. (Apparently, according to the wiki, i'm supposed to stealth and clip through a pole or something and steal it unseen. Oh, that's great.)

Yep, stealth sucks in Morrowind. You know what else it sucks in? Oblivion and Skyrim. Herp derp, crouching = invisible. Herp derp, bucket on head = invisible. Herp derp, grab physics object and run around corner = invisible.

I gave up with the Thieves Guild altogether, tired of the Guards swarming around me before i even touched the chest's lock. Fucking rude guards and their rude conversation topics. Fuck this! I'm leaving town, to explore. (Again). And so i did, until i found an assassin with a really cool armor, who... obviously tried to murder me. ME, OUT OF ALL PEOPLE! I tried to run away, but he chased me. Why is he doing this? I just started the game, what did i do wrong? There's no chance i can defeat a professional assassin in close combat.. how am i supposed to survive!? OH I HAVE AN IDEA! THE GUARDS!! I ran back to the city with a spunky, daring smirk as the poor assassin chased me down right into my trap. There, i'm inside the city walls! GUARDS, I'M BEING ATTACKED! HELP ME! The guards just stood there and watched as i was mercilessly pummeled to death. Because killing you is not a crime, everyone knows that! (Resting is illegal, though.)

Everyone agrees that that assassin is really bad design. It was added to start the Tribunal expansion, and the developers expected players to be a high level when they're attacked. There are mods out there to disable that or add a level limit to when he appears. I mean, you played Oblivion "heavily modded" and felt it was the greatest game ever, so surely you don't have a problem playing Morrowind modded too, right?

To this day, i still hold the firm belief that Morrowind is a bad game and everyone knows it - they just pretend its a good game - like in a meme - to lure idiots like me to try it out. It was a joke all along eh, you smartasses?

The joke's on you. All on you.

 

[Magellan]

Morrowind. I know a lot of people are going to hate me for this but w/e

I rolled a Breton, a knight-esque character. Not sure how i ended up in Morrowind, but i'll think of that later. The world was very.. well, gray. Very unappealing, divided between gray ground and strange, pale-yellow buildings. How depressing and melancholic.

I actually thought Morrowind's world had a unique look and flavor. Wouldn't gray and unappealing describe Oblivion more?

 

[Magellan]

I remember begging my parents to get it for me, thinking how badass it'd be judging from the box art and that I'd found some relatively unknown gem. So anyone who knows this piece of shit can imagine a kid's dreadful surprise once he got home and popped it in.

Oh wow, this is a blast from the past. And yeah, it sucked. This came out around the same time as Legend of Zelda. I remember being in a toy store, trying to decide between the two games, and yep...... I picked Deadly Towers. Uggghhhhh.

 

[Magellan]

One has to look hard to find a game series that has 19 years of history, 19 years of a story, told in chapters, building up to a climax and resolution. Even today. And then to find one and have it completely fucking ruined by corporate greed, incompetence and stupidity?

Very good point! Ultima IX was indeed a massive BETRAYAL!!! as Spoony puts it - good thing we don't have to worry about that kind of history repeating with modern franchises because they'll die off long before they reach that point. I don't think we'll be raging over Dragon Age 9 some 15 years from now.

8 was more of a let-down though (coming after the brilliant 4, 5, 6, and 7). 9 was an awful betrayal, no doubt...... but coming after 8 my hopes weren't that high.

 

[skacky]

Warcraft 3 was quite the disappointment. The storyline was shitty, the game super slow compared to W2 and it relied too heavily on the heroes. The modding capabilities were great though and I spent a lot of time playing some hilarious user maps on Battle.net.
Oblivion of course, and yes, Fallout 3. I had hopes since Emil Pagliarulo was the mastermind but the result is quite shitty. I don't like NV much either.

 

[AlexOfSpades]

In my defense, Fallout 1, Deus Ex and VtM:B are still one of my favorite games of all time, so dont think i'm a casual retard. Morrowind's world is certainly unique, i'll give them that, and much more original than Oblivion's average forests. But the colors used were depressing - there are no strong colors in the game, ever noticed? And i know some people love the combat system, but after Deus Ex i actually expected an action-RPG. You know, where my swings actually hit, and the skill decides the speed of the animation and the damage?

I'll eventually mod it out (at least the animations) and i promise i'll try my best to like it. Maybe its because i had such high expectations, i ended up only seeing the flaws. Maybe the game's actually bad and i'm falling for the meme again. (Goddamn)

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

fag

 

[AlexOfSpades]

no u

 

[Crispy]

You're off to a great start at rpgcodex.net, kid. Keep it up.

 

[Hirato]

Fallout 3 is the biggest disappointment I've ever played. It's also by far the absolute worst and I wish Bethesda unending pain and misery for unleashing it upon the world.
The reasons for it have already been discussed to death, here and beyond.




Instead I'd rather talk about the game I'd put second, Dragon Quest 8.

Spoiler

I and felipepepe were talking on Steam one night and the conversation steered to said game, He referred to it as a "The Quintessential JRPG" and I set off to play it, I don't remember any other details.
But I'll tell you its reputation is well deserved, it's everything you love, and more so, everything you hate about JRPGs.


I quite liked it at first, the story was relatively low-key (at the time), the soudntrack was pleasant and the art was nice to look at; it was like something straight out of DragonballZ - I was later informed Akira Toriyama worked on both.

Plot wise, the game starts to fall apart the moment you start to catch up to Dhoulmagus, thanks to the wondrous effects of cutscene paralysis, each of the mcguffins are killed one after the other - The first is a mere few hours in, the head of the abbey in which you pick up Angelo. His death could have been easily prevented, and the boss confronted there - of course, the party is weak at that point and would've likely been defeated, but a less passive role in the scene would've been greatly appreciated.

It goes on and on like this for a bit, I forgot how it happened, but you eventually corner Dhoulmagus in some "evil shrine" near the mid-game and easily beat him to a pulp. At this point Jessica picks up the sceptre (which is a mcGuffin that was stolen by Dhoulmagus at the start and has a big evil sealed within), and is possessed by the big bad and continues his quest. Considering how obvious it is that this sceptre is full of bad juju, and if you consider for a moment that Jessica is the party's wizard, she should know WAY better.

Eventually the party tracks Jessica down and snaps her out of it, then a dog picks up a completely unattended sceptre and continues the quest as a flying hound of doom, and this is where the really stupid shit starts - leaving that sceptre unattended like that is barely the tip of the ice berg.
The party heads past the northern intersection and goes to the snowy regions, and we encounter an old lady who lives as a hermit. She has a son and he lives further up north in a town.

Of course, he's out in a cave collecting herbs, and he got trapped there, chased by blood hungry wolves (which are controlled by the evil dog), of course upon learning this, it's blindingly obvious that his MOTHER is the next mcGuffin, but your only choice is to take him back home, you can't just jump to his mother's and safe her life, But NOOOOOO, that'd be the smart thing to do!
So of course, he gets kidnapped by the big bad as a hostage the moment you let him out of your sight.
The granny on the other hand has a warded cave behind her home, where she hides out until you and the evil dog arrives with the hostage, she is then killed after a valiant effort that manages to save her son - both would've been alive if we'd gotten more active participation in the cutscene. In her dying moments, she gives you THE ULTIMATE KEY THAT CAN OPEN ANY LOCK.

Following a tonne of banal, complete waste of time questing to retrieve a mcGuffin that lets us fly on the worldmap, we go to the aid (sic) of the final living mcguffin that inhibits the big bad's complete resurrection. We win for a change, then Marcelo (Angelo's half-brother) bursts onto the scene and has us all arrested and thrown in a deep underground jail, predictably we don't have the option to resist, and he ends up with the staff.
And here we are, In a jail cell, deep underground, with all our equipment, INCLUDING THE AFOREMENTIONED ULTIMATE KEY THAT CAN OPEN ANY LOCK.
I couldn't use said key, so I just quit, the plot has turned into a complete trainwreck and I couldn't tolerate it any more.


The gameplay also needs some discussing.
It uses standard JRPG fare overworld random encounters, from the get go I thought the encounter rate is ridiculously high.
I played Final Fantasy X-2 after, so let me put it this way, FFX-2 in turbo mode, with a lure bracer equipped in the calm lands, will result in fewer encounters every 5 minutes than DQ8. It never changes either, FF at least has the decency to vary it from area to area to help set the mood.

To make it worse, the monster repelling items have a very short duration and the monster repelling spell is quite expensive.
And to make it even worse, one of the first abilities Yangus learns is "Whistle," which lets you initiate an encounter anywhere (provided the area has them) at any time for free.


And exploration. The game pretty much discourages it IMO. You have a huge open world to run around in, and lots of loot all over, unfortunately a lot of the chests are locked, and your movement speed is rather slow, combined with the high encounter rate, you'll only serve to bore yourself.
Though a plot milestone, you'll get keys to counter this, and once you reach the eastern continent, there's an easy to miss "cat mansion" in which you can obtain a bell that lets you ride sabertooth tigers. The much improved movement speed makes it almost pleasant to explore again.
There's not much point running off on your own to do shit, unless you just want to have landmarks marked for the "zoom" spell.

Also the soundtrack, it has far too little variety, the overworld theme is the same everywhere, and the battle theme never changes outside of bosses. Both unforgivable sins considering how much time you're required to spend in both areas.

I was pretty disappointed with it overall, but all in all, I suppose I got what was advertised: The Quintessential JRPG.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Morrowind is mediocre, but the guy went from Oblivion to Morrowind and thinks Morrowind is the lesser game?

Jesus fucking christ, we are all doomed.

His post is obvious trolling, which becomes apparent as soon as he mentions the combat. This can only be trolling.

The combat description seems to be the typical early game experience of a noob, so I don't think so. Did you seriously not have trouble with the rats in Balmora? It's a tiny, dark room and you're swarmed by three or four of the fuckers. I did pretty good in that cave near Seyda Neen, against actual humanoid opponents, and those rats still forced me to run out of the room before I got stunlocked to death.

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, I guess I explored a bit and did other quests before the rat one, so I was at least level 3 or 4 when I killed them.

 

[DalekFlay]

In my defense, Fallout 1, Deus Ex and VtM:B are still one of my favorite games of all time, so dont think i'm a casual retard. Morrowind's world is certainly unique, i'll give them that, and much more original than Oblivion's average forests. But the colors used were depressing - there are no strong colors in the game, ever noticed? And i know some people love the combat system, but after Deus Ex i actually expected an action-RPG. You know, where my swings actually hit, and the skill decides the speed of the animation and the damage?

I'm ignoring all your other inane bullshit, but one question: why is a depressing setting a bad thing? Morrowind has a very "dirty, waning frontier" mood to it, yes. That is one of the reasons I love it.

 

[Pope Amole II]

In my defense, Fallout 1

But the colors used were depressing

Defense adjourned.

 

[Severian Silk]

Star Wolves 2

In the sequel the developers tried to transition over to an open world Elite-like format. And failed.

Homeworld 2

The story was derp. And the multiplayer was bugged (desyncs).

Gothic 3

To be fair, I was warned beforehand. And I played it anyway.

Any MMO

It's simply not possible for these games to live up to the hype.

WipeOut XL

The game felt cheap and gimmicky. And the soundtrack sucked.

 

[Coriolanus]

Most disappointing game ever: Neverwinter Nights. And that, after enormous hype and 10/10 score in gaming magazines. I swore never to believe this shit again.

Warcraft 3 was quite the disappointment. The storyline was shitty, the game super slow compared to W2 and it relied too heavily on the heroes. The modding capabilities were great though and I spent a lot of time playing some hilarious user maps on Battle.net.
Oblivion of course, and yes, Fallout 3. I had hopes since Emil Pagliarulo was the mastermind but the result is quite shitty. I don't like NV much either.

I actually loved what they did with WC3, being a fan of WC2 as well. Campaigns were fun. Blizzard was at its peak. And yeah, custom maps... those were the best. The birthplace of what is now the most popular game on Steam.

I wasn't really disappointed with Oblivion and FO3, they were just mediocre games - I didn't expect anything stellar in the first place. Oblivion also had mods that turned it from 3/5 into a 4/5.

 

[Turjan]

But the colors used were depressing - there are no strong colors in the game, ever noticed?

Some of the flowers are quite colorful. There are areas that are quite lush in the vanilla game, like that small valley that shortcuts the road from Seyda Neen to Balmora from the Ascadian Isles west of Pelagiad to Rethan Manor on the Odai. Of course, the shitty engine didn't allow for too many models, but the attempt at creating some nice contrast is recognizable.

Well, I guess I explored a bit and did other quests before the rat one, so I was at least level 3 or 4 when I killed them.

I agree, taking the silt strider from Seyda Neen to Balmora at the start of the game is bad advice. It's better to just head out on foot.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I dunno, they never really promised a "true" open world game and the "plant a seed" example was used to illustrate reactivity, it wasn't a literal example of what would be in the game. I think people felt betrayed because the original comments by Molyneux were misleading, but he was very much using flowery language as he is want to do, rather than speaking completely literally.

No, but as I recall, he did say things about being able to go places, rather than having a series of rooms. You couldn't even jump over waist high fences and the whole thing was a series of corridors.

The growing tree was presented as being an actual thing in the game, at least early on in articles and game media. Later, they said it had to be cut. Regardless, there was nothing approaching that level of interactivity or illustrating the passing of time in the game. You could fart on people and occasionally your avatar would change to be an older version of itself. Joy.

 

[Coriolanus]

Molyneux is a huge douche, he did a talk once at the college where I studied and came across as an ultra-pretentious guy who thought of himself as the world's creative genius.

Populous and DK were great games, but since B&W his name became eponymous with a huge walking disappointment.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

For me it was Lionheart, hands down. Setting had so much potential if used right, but instead we got banal shit boring game with incredibly sucky combat. Argh.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Molyneux is a huge douche, he did a talk once at the college where I studied and came across as an ultra-pretentious guy who thought of himself as the world's creative genius.

Populous and DK were great games, but since B&W his name became eponymous with a huge walking disappointment.