There may be one or two of you who followed my salivating obsession leading up to the release of the PS2 survival horror game,
Rule of Rose. Flynn DeMarco from
GayGamer and I (then at Kotaku) would paint each other's toenails in giddy Victorian slumber parties, and talk about nothing but the newest screenshots and disturbing trailers. By all rights, the game should have been amazing: a lesbian
Lord of the Flies, written by Nabokov, produced by Jules Verne, and directed by David Lynch, all aboard a vintage airship crewed by Lewis Carroll's nightmare menagerie. How could you possibly go wrong?!
Yeah, well. I'm still wondering. This quote from
a review by Nick Vlamakis puts it nicely:
...Nothing bad to say about the story and nothing good to say about the gameplay.
Hit the jump to find out why I was even mulling this over last night.
Yes indeed, the game that was looking to be the greatest survival horror experience since Silent Hill was nearly impossible to play without gritting your teeth into powder. Hit detection, aiming, dodging, and the rest of the combat was just useless, as was most of the item-finding and application, as if no actual game design had been done. It was a tragedy, a completely wasted game.
I was reminded of this, my bitter memories rising like gorge from my fermenting guts, when I stumbled on this Something Awful forums thread about the episodic disappointment of the gaming life. From "Games that sounded good, and then disappointed you":
Black & White. A god game where you can get your own creature whose AMAZING AI can actively learn how to blah blah blah. Bought a new video card and the game on release day. Wow, I'm dumb.
A familiar feeling, yes? As gamers we are innately childlike, our eyes sparkling with mad glee at fresh screenshots and salty hype. In the secret fastnesses of our hearts, we cradle the downy softness of trust and optimism, no matter what foul vitriol we vent in forums and comment threads.
So every time we are smacked over the nose with mediocrity, it leaves a welt. Over and over we allow ourselves to be lifted up, only to be swatted back down.
So now is the time on Destructoid when Eliza polls the audience: what were your biggest gaming disappointments, droogs? And similarly, what games lived up to their hype?
Games that sounded good, and then disappointed you [SomethingAwful Forums]
Contest:
Greatest surprise, because it made me realize how much I enjoyed story telling limited by the stiff acting of sprites and turn based strategy.
Greatest disappointment, because there's a point where the game does an insanity check, and stops you from making forward progress if you haven't PowerLeveled your character or prayed to the proper combinations of Gods to be lucky enough to go farther (That sequence that starts with that solo fight and eventually puts you on the roof of a castle to complete a further more impossible fight) GAWD I LOVE/HATE THAT GAME!!!! I just want to play more of the story . . . :(
And from the SA forums: Master of Orion III!!!! Such a long wait... all for nothing.
Sphinx & the Mummy I think was my greatest surprise. I borrowed it from a library once, and it looks like some crappy kid's game, but it is a rock solid adventure game.
I don't play every game under the sun, but the two games that 100% live up to the hype recently to me have been RE4 and Bioshock.
Or how about Quest 64, when you desperately wanted an action RPG on the 64?
I actually want to play Rule of Rose (and may do so soon) just cause I'm interested in how far they push things. I understand one level is like a complete metaphor for child molestation. Creepy.
But yeah, gameplay sucks
It was the first time I waited for a game and bought it at full price.
Then I played it for about a month and realized it just wasn't as fun. The way they made ALL of the drops either ingredient materials or synth boards instead of weapons and armor made grinding boring. The weapons themselves were (at least at the time) all plasma based which meant no katanas, frying pans, etc. THEN they had the balls to time lock one or two of the planets/Levels + weapons + armor + clothes online which were already done and sitting on the disk in a likely attempt to string along longer subsriptions (everyone knew they were on the disc because they were accessible through the single player mode). I was pissed after the initial shine wore off and I began to see the light.
As far as surprises, I'll have to think of that. I usually keep up with games in the news well enough to not be surprised anymore.
Games that lived up to the hype for me in recent memory were, Bioshock, Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2, and a bunch of other games that I'm forgetting.
How about a game that has some flaws, but is still much better than the derision it recieved? Siren (aka Forbidden Siren I actually think it's the second best survival horror game ever, after SH2. It is definitely more weird and creepy. The voiceovers are rough to be sure, but I think it adds to the strangeness. I'm planning on some day importing a UK PS2 just so I can play Siren 2.
And every ___ of Mana game since Seiken Densetsu 3 has left me disappointed. I fear that this trend will continue too.
Other definite hits: Killer 7, P.N.03, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves, Ocarina of Time, Advance Wars, Luminous Arc, Etrian Odyssey, Street Fighter Alpha 2 (arcade), Street Fighter 2X Turbo Revival, Jet Grind Radio, Eternal Darkness, Beyond Good and Evil, Custom Robo
Miserable failures: MGS: The Twin Snakes, Odin Sphere, FFIII (DS - slow-ass battles), X-Men Legends, Super Swing Golf
The game is gorgeous. I absolutely love every nook and cranny of the game.
The gameplay, while different from other FPS, still feels like a typical FPS to me. I'm not saying its a horrible game, and it is definitely worth picking up, but I was much more disappointed in it than I had hoped I'd be.
I bought two copies of the game the day it came out so I could send a copy to a friend in another state and we could play together. My god, it's as if they where unaware of what made PSO so much fun. Death was no longer an amusing setback, it ruined the whole team's score and resulted in a worse reward after completing the area. So if you were new to the game (or the HORIBBLE lag got to you), you were cursed out and kicked, while everyone else started the area over again. It was a better idea to clear areas yourself, completely ruining the "taking on waves of monsters as a team" aspect that kept me playing PSO for 2000+ hours.
I can't even play the offline mode as the lack of the clothes and weapons available online (I have the PS2 version, so no fun for me) make it not even remotely fun. Last time I buy a Sega game.
Great article Eliza
Fallout Tactics. That's not Fallout. Let's hope for Fallout3...
Master of Orion III. Is the only game where you can win without doing anything. Seriously.
Neverwinter Nights. I want Baldur's Gate style back. If I've wanted a hack-and-slash dungeon I've would stay with Rogue Master or something like that.
Any X-com post "Terror from the deep". Badly. I mean... how can they even use the name? And then here it comes UFO: After-whatever to crash any last hope.
Never had an Xbox so I never had the chance to play it. So, when I finally got a 360 I decided I had to check out one of the most hyped games of all time. Popped it in, played about 80% of the way though it and I just couldn't finish it. It was so boring and repetitive. It was your standard ho-hum run-of-the-mill FPS, only on a console, so it controlled like ass. I mean, it was alright, but after the years of hype I'd heard/read about, it fell so short that I just ended up finding the whole experience highly disappointing.
Never played Halo 2 because the original was such a let down, and I'm probably the only gamer on the planet who couldn't give a rats ass about Halo 3.
There is no end to how pitiful it was compared to MGS.I'm not gonna start listing but I'll definetly mention one thing, Raiden is almost as pathetic as the storyline was.
Almost.
Also: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I miss fearing my characters doom. In fact, I didn't even keep a healer on my time. It was so pathetic, after spending hours upon hours on Final Fantasy Tactics, just perfecting my team.
I guess if it was my first foray into FPS shooters, it'd be the bees knees, but alas I've had much tighter and better FPSes to fall back on, and it's a limp dick in my opinion... very disappointed with that one.
And on a certain level, Zelda: Twilight Princess.
I think I spoiled it for myself by playing Okami as much though. Every time I turn into a wolf in zelda i just roll my eyes and sigh loudly, because link in wolf form controls like utter ass.
I think the only time I swung my axe was when the one dwarf rushed me right at the beginning so as to teach me to swing the axe (Who knows why there were different types of weapons?). The hardest part of the puzzles was getting to them. Half the minion types were totally worthless, and no post-final-boss save? No sandbox mode after all that (a relative term -- The game was much too short, imho.) work? What gives?
I spent so many nights playing the N64 version with one of my friends while in university, even though the game had been out for about 5 years. So when they announced a Gamecube version, we were thrilled. It is the first game I ever preordered. On the day it came out, I went with said friend to pick it up at Toys 'R Us. We started playing and almost puked. The two drivers mechanic was idiotic and so were their special items. And you couldn't jump anymore when you slid. I think the worst "addition" was that the guy in the back would carry his item in his hand, so you could no longer protect yourself from some of the attacks or bitch because that turtle shell hit you from the side.
I was already an adult with a real job back then, and I still sent a detailed email to Nintendo telling them my disappointment. The good part of this story is that I somehow managed to return the game on the same day.