The Most Disappointing Game You've Ever Played

[Johannes]

Hmm. Supreme Commander and Starcraft 2 maybe... Though with them I had already read comments saying they were shit, so I didn't really expect anything when I actually got around to trying them.

Don't really remember a case where I'd been all pumped up for a game and it'd let me down only once I started them up.

 

[felipepepe]

Diablo III - I was trying to have low expectations, but it ended up so shitty I didn't even beat the game on Nightmare...
Spore - So much potential, so many wrong decisions...
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - I was expecting Dark Omen 2...
Dynasty Warriors 6 - One of my favorite series never survived the new-gen decline...
Sacred 2 - How can a game feel so horrible?
GTA IV - Turned GTA into just a boring movie.

 

[HanoverF]

Far Cry 2: Almost every design decision they made was the wrong one. Enjoyed the hell out of the first one (sans mutants).
KotOR 2: Enjoyed the story for the most part, was able to overlook the horrid Bioware combat, but then that ending (or lack of one) wtf was that. Yeah, rushed launch, whatever, still doesn't excuse it.

Diablo 3 wasn't really that disappointing since I thought the writing was on the wall it would be kinda crap. Didn't buy into the 'Unicorns and Rainbows' art style people were bitching about, but kind of expected it to be a highly polished turd. Turns out it wasn't even very polished, but that didn't cause much disappointment.

 

[bussinrounds]

Def Oblivion, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

 

[sser]

Empire: Total War. Paid full price for it. Even pre-ordered it, I think.

The game was so devastatingly bad that I not only swore off Creative Assembly, but also gaming journalism as a whole who, at the time, was sucking E:TW's dick like it was the best strategy game ever.

 

[Machocruz]

Oblivion - No guild rank prerequisites? Where is all the store inventory? Great, another high level security chest with a spoon. Wow, you mean I get to choose from 3 dungeon types? No levitation? are you mad?!

Fallout 3 - Lack of branching quests and variables that effect quest path, every solution is to kill something, perks every level

Invisible War - Original was brilliant, this is not.

Diablo 3 - slow movement speed, ridiculous color palette, slick menus that don't fit the theme or age, no Uelmen, armor looks like shit.

Any Rainbow Six after Raven Shield, any Ghost Recon after the first.

 

[bussinrounds]

Any Rainbow Six after Raven Shield, any Ghost Recon after the first.

Yea, those too. And I forgot about Pro Evolution Soccer 6 also.

 

[Malakal]

The Witcher 2. Was very very disappointed in it. Had difficulties finishing the tutorial.

 

[MaskedMan]

Oblivion, Far Cry 2, Lionheart, Dreamfall, Deus Ex IW, Saints Row the Third... SRTT is the only one of these that's actually a good game,I was just really looking forward to it and I feel it compares so poorly to SR2; less activities (and missing cops ), less missions, crappier radio, smaller city, THQ DLC treadmill. Underwhelming.

 

[LivingOne]

First games that come to mind are Dragon Age 2,Oblivion,Dmc 2 and 4,Twitcher 1.At least by the time NWN and IW already showed me how disappointments work so I was ready.

 

[Carrion]

And I forgot about Pro Evolution Soccer 6 also.

There was nothing wrong with PES 6. It fixed the minor exploits of PES 5, improved game balance and had many other small improvements here and there. PES 2008 sucked, though.

I can think of many minor disappointments but not really any big ones. I rarely make blind purchases and usually roughly know what to expect from a game. If a sequel to a good game is going to be a total trainwreck (DX: Invisible War, Fallout 3, OFP: Dragon Rising, Oblivion) you can usually see it from a mile away and lower your expectations or just avoid it. I guess if I'd have to mention one game, it would be KOTOR 2. It was better than the first one for sure, and it was pretty close to what I expected it to be (the ending included), but the only thing it did well was the writing, and even that became kind of jarring at some point. Even though I love MCA, he does have some mannerisms that become sort of irritating. For example, does anyone really say "it is of no consequence" instead of "it doesn't matter", even in the Star Wars universe? Well, the characters in KOTOR2 do, so many times that it's impossible to not notice it. Then there's the echo thing that also gets repeated way too much and also some other things I can't remember right now. The writing is still good overall, but there are just way too many other things that drag the game down. In many ways it's actually worse than the first KOTOR, including level design (boring grey corridors that go on forever), combat (it's almost impossible to die), pacing (the tutorial takes like five hours and there's way too much boring combat in most areas) and the pointless jumping from one character to another. And even though I knew that the ending was rushed, I didn't expect the game to leave every single plot thread hanging in the air. That's a pretty bad flaw when the story is the only reason to play the entire game in the first place because everything else is so broken.

 

[ohWOW]

Oblivion.
After that Fallout 3 wasn't a really big surprise, really.

Also, HoMM5.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

If I had to pick one I'd say Fallout Tactics. Squad level TB tactical game in the Fallout universe sounded like my wet dream and something that can't possibly be fucked up. Well, they somehow managed. I never even finished that game despite giving it something like a dozen chances. Way too shallow on not even remotely "tactical" enough for a tactical game. The untasteful lore rape didn't help too.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - I was expecting Dark Omen 2...

Good pick. That game was so disappointing I forgot about it almost instantly after its release. And now I remember I was too waiting for the Dark Omen's successor.

 

[octavius]

Lords of Midnight: The Citadel - I loved the original turn based Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's Revenge, and after having waited years for the sequel - Eye of the Moon - instead we got the real time clusterfuck that was The Citadel.

Splinter Cell - expecting something like Thief 1 and 2 using modern hi-tech gadgery, I instead got the most railroaded game ever with behind-the-ass-camera view.

Half-Life 2 - it felt like one never ending cut scene before there finally was some action. Instead of the open levels with multiple paths/solutions where you are the hunter (like Deus Ex) the game was mostly rail roaded pop-a-mole game play (after a while I could anticipate excactly where enemies would pop up), with Adventure game solutions to many of the levels. You couldn't really do anything clever with the promising physics engine since the "clever" things were all scripted like an Adventure game.

Games like Deus Ex: Invisible War and Oblivion I didn't have much faith in, so they didn't disappoint me.
And HoMM 5 I was pleasantly surprised by. Certainly the character development and skill system was much better than HoMM 3, although the VA was cringeworthy and the 3D added nothing of value.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Baldur's Gate - 93 called it wants its cRPG back.
Baldur's Gate 2 - 93 called it wants its cRPG back.
NWN -
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - campaign was very nice and actors were really well chosen, but the fighting mechanics and AI really bored me and I stopped playing it two days after finishing both campaigns.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Yeah, NWN would probably be my second pick What an absolute trainwreck that was considering the hype, the expectations and the stellar reviews. It's a game that single handedly assured my that retail crpgs are doomed and that I should stick to strategy as a favourite genre.

 

[Spectacle]

Oblivion for sure. It's not the worst game I've played by any means, but after Morrowind I though that if they could just iron out some of the issues from Morrowind but otherwise stick to the same gameplay, Oblivion would be the perfect game. Instead they removed everything that was interesting from morrowind and left a game that defined the concept of "bland".

 

[Gregz]

Easily Diablo III.

 

[ChristofferC]

Black & White - The hype was huge (and I fell for it). The game was banal shit boring.
Neverwinter Nights - BG II was awesome. NWN was banal shit boring.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

oblivion, failout, the republic, spore, simcity societies, lionheart, world of warcraft, black & white, neverwinter nights, supreme commander, deus ex 2 (which, by the way, doesn't exist), warhammer mark of chaos, the first splinter cell (because it played "like a laser game". fpses had still so much to unlearn...), doom 3, halo, the whole ufo afterdicks series, gun metal, warhammer 40k fire warrior...
then some years ago i suddenly stopped caring at all.
it's still shit, but at least my hope is not being dragged through the mud.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Fallout 1.

Sure, it's a good game, but I played it after a couple of intense playthroughs of its sequel and, while atmospherically and thematically F1 is millions time better than F2, the latter just improved that "open world, multiple solutions" formula way too much so the original came to me as a short and sorta linear game.

Avadon - never expected that Vogel, the guy who persevered through it for fucking 15 years, will suddenly throw a towel and say "fuck it, I'm just gonna grab easy biotard money". It was disgustingly lazy, rehashy and uninspired.

HoM&M V - once again, VI is much worse than V, but at the time of the VI I already stopped giving a damn. With V it was a completely different story - the story, the creature design and the gameplay were excruciatingly bland & simplified and even the music wasn't that good.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Arcanum

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Fallout 1.

Sure, it's a good game, but I played it after a couple of intense playthroughs of its sequel and, while atmospherically and thematically F1 is millions time better than F2, the latter just improved that "open world, multiple solutions" formula way too much so the original came to me as a short and sorta linear game.

It improved it so much that making another such a game became impossible due how much resources it requires (everything is shit).

 

[suejak]

Arcanum

I'm replaying this game currently, and damn, it sure is janky. The thieves guarding the bridge out of the first town won't even offer to let you help them if you've agreed to help the constable, who is the first NPC you see when you come into the town x-|

Hilarious that I put up with so much of this awful shit to enjoy the game 10+ years ago.

 

[RPGMaster]

DOOM: Awesome
DOOM II: Awesome
DOOM III: What the hell?