Most disappointing game?

Coot · #1 (**permalink**) 03-07-2004, 03:27 AM

I was very excited when I bought the game Star Trek: Generations by Microprose. I'm really taken with the whole Star Trek universe and from what I read about the game it would allow you to play as any of TNG crewmembers. I was thrilled!
After playing for a while all the fun was gone. You couldn't save while doing a mission, the missions were very lineair so you had to do them all over, again and again, until you finally succeeded, the graphics were not very great, the roleplaying was nonexistent...
Maybe other people appreciated the game more but I was so disappointed... Sometimes, whenever I'm in a bar and I have too much to drink, the emotional scar acts up again and I just have to talk about it. That's when other people grab their drinks and go sit somewhere else and the barkeep cuts me off.

Do you people have experiences like that with other games?

Stilgar · #2 (**permalink**) 03-08-2004, 07:09 PM

Black & White
I followed this game for more then a year. And was REALY excited. Had great visions on how great it must be. When it came out here, I imidiatly bought it. Only to get a major dissapointment. The first levels where very good. And the graphics look great. But after 3 levels or so, the game gets to crowded. My PC would slow down, and there where so many things you should look at, that you just couldnt play the game normaly.

Also the great creature AI was a dissapointment (for me that is)
But maybe my expectations where to high

Robnark · #3 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 03:25 PM

Temple of Elemental Evil - my god that game sucks. they took the rubbish (but now very, very cheap) pool of radiance thing, gave a few minutes thought about making it look a bit less brown, then put it out. did they not have playtesters? did they lose a page on a flipchart so they went straight from 'get rights to D&D label' to 'program the thing' missing out the whole 'give at least a few minutes thought to the game as a whole and what it will be like to play' stage.

It's just one of those games that makes me lose any faith that there are any in the industry who actually care what their games turn out like, as long as they get paid.

Ned Flanders · #4 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 04:13 PM

I second Robnark's comments completely.

Another disappointment was dungeon siege. It was simply moving in a straight line and bashing everything in your path. Quests were weak and non compelling. I would just get bored after a while. I'm still in chapter 4 on my first runthrough and usually play the game for a week every six months. eventually, I think I'll finish it. I'll probably be enough of a sucker to buy the aranna expansion. Can't knock it for the graphics and sound though, it's what keeps me coming back because I eventually want to see the entire game.

I hear they're making a second. I hope it adds a little something.

In the game's defense, since you had to walk through enormous maps, non linearity probably would have been painful. Could you imagine wandering all the way back through a map to go to a town to complete a quest. I suppose world map teleporters could've been made available.

HighLordDave · #5 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 05:41 PM

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor was a horrible game; buggy, poor gameplay, unintuitive interface and a simply bad engine.

Geryhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil was bad, but not as disappointing. I only paid $16 (USD) for it at Sam's Club and I didn't buy it new, so after reading a few reviews, I had decidedly low expectations.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was also disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the interface is good, graphics are excellent, it has a very authentic Star Wars feel to it, but the short play time (30 or so hours) was very disappointing given my expectations of Bioware and the fact that it cost $50 new.

Stilgar · #6 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by HighLordDave
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was also disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the interface is good, graphics are excellent, it has a very authentic Star Wars feel to it, but the short play time (30 or so hours) was very disappointing given my expectations of Bioware and the fact that it cost $50 new.

30hours, damn your quick, i did 43 to finish it.
But still very short gameplay, but you can play again as the other side (light/dark) but then you've seen all about the game there is.
I would have liked to see more classes/races. But still the great story was worth the money.

HighLordDave · #7 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 07:37 PM

The only side quests I didn't do were the Genoharadan quests and I think I finished the game in 32 hours, which for me isn't worth $50. Unlike BG2, the replay quotient is fairly low, so I think $1.56 per hour of gameplay is a pretty steep price.

I believe the original NWN campaign is about the same length (30-40 hours), but at least it came with the DM toolset and a multiplayer aspect. Bang for buck, KOTOR fell short for me.

fable · #8 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 07:57 PM

Lionheart. It was incredibly unbalanced, for skills, quests (some very hard ones right near your startout point, some easy ones much further away) and game development--the first half being goal-oriented, the second half a bad imitation of Diablo. And the quests themselves were often moronic, the kind in which people take into their deepest confidence some idiot they've never seen before, and ask him/her to do things they'd only pass on to a dear friend. Factor in as well that you couldn't run, could click more than a few feet away from your character's current position to direct movement, and couldn't do a ranged attack, magical or otherwise, except in realtime, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Aegis · #9 (**permalink**) 03-10-2004, 09:25 PM

Let's see...

Dungeon Siege: Alright, I'll come clean, I was asked to write the walkthrough for it's expansion for GB, and as I told Buck, I don't think my brain would live through it. I still have it, and I might still work on it, but it's nothing but point, click, and hack! Even the graphics and interface is barely enough to keep me interested. It lacks story, skill, and even decent combat! It's just hack this, and hack that! No point, what so ever.

SW:KotOR: I was waiting for this one for a long time, and was somewhat dissapointed, but that might have something to do with my high hopes of Bioware. I should've caught on after NWN was released that they were starting to slip. Too short, too linear, and to much hack and slash in between story. Though, the graphics and story are amazing.

Neverwinter Nights: Those of you who were around when it was first released may remember my much longer rant about this one. To sum up, I am not, and have never been a fan of this game. The interface is horrible, the engine outdated, the story weak, and the game play the same. To sum it up, it is sub par. The only joy I got out of NWN was playing on the Argyle server, and even that lost it's appeal to me. Even the expansions failed to interest. If it wasn't for GB's new rating system, my score to NWN would've been much lower, without the weighting.

Robnark · #10 (**permalink**) 03-11-2004, 03:47 PM

I'd pretty much agree on NWN, but the editor was a very good tool for making your own - decent - mods, and I loved Sou. as far as I'm concerned, the original game is more of a tech demo than an example of inspired RPG creation.

Aegis · #11 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 03:44 PM

I even have problems with the editor

It was presented to the community as an easy to learn and use tool to make your own modules, so that anyone could DM a session with their friends. That was far from the truth. In order to make anything half way decent, an extensive knowledge of scripting is required. It's not half as easy as was described, and even then, the limitations are still too great to make it as open as was promised.

Xandax · #12 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 04:11 PM

Star Wars: KotoR:

Had expected a roleplaying game, instead I got more action (read: Hack n' Slash) then roleplaying.
Roleplay Lite as I like to call it.
Besides I can only endorse the "to short" oppinion. I don't think I used 30 hours on it, possible around 24hours - maybe I'm just a more "hardcore" gamer then others (although I seriously doubt it) but it just didn't deliver what it said on the box or in reviews.
The plot was trivial, the puzzels non existant, the quests .... well how much can there be in a game this liniar. (Oh yeah - I can visit all these very liniar places independently)

Neverwinter Nights (Original campaign):

To much diablo and to far from what was "promised" during the 5 years of development. Hype sucked me in.
I've played NwN a lot, really a lot, but .... it should have been so much more. Luckily - I feel the expansions have made somewhat up for its shortcommings, and the multiplayer part can be truly magnificent. But still ..... it should have been so much more.

Black & White.

Again - Hype sucked me in. But quickly decided I wasn't going to play around with a tamagochi that would sit and mess around with its own stool. Nice graphics, innovative thoughts for a GOD game .... but such a dissapointment. I expected more from it. Way to "thin" for such a promising game.
Gave it up shortly after moving off first island when I found out my creature had forgotten everything.

Moonbiter · #13 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 09:00 AM

Ultima 8: The Avatar goes Donkey Kong.
Maaaaaaaaan, that sucked! After Ultima VII Serpent Isle set a whole new standard, Origin simply decided to destroy the entire concept they'd created. I still have it. Just as a reminder never to have too high expectations.

Pool Of Radiance: The Squashing of A Legend.
That... thing was so dire I almost sued.

Temple of Elemental Evil. D&D goes Diablo.

Every single Might & Magic since numer 6. Doom with swords and retarded monsters.

Chanak · #14 (**permalink**) 03-14-2004, 09:35 AM

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: What everyone else has said about this...I agree.

Black & White: Ugh, I played for a total of 12 hours, and never touched it again.

Star Wars Galaxies: After 8 months of online play, I have finally shelved this game. The graphics are eye candy, far surpassing even the daddy of all graphic greats, Morrowind. The skill points/skill tree character development is superb, one of the best I have seen in an RPG, again reminiscent of one the best RPGs ever made for the PC, Morrowind. Character development is only limited by your imagination, and the amount of skill points you have available for use. The Star Wars milieu is preserved faithfully enough by SOE, complete with squads of Stormtroopers and AT-STs roaming the wilds of Endor, and patrolling the streets and outskirts of Bestine, Tatooine. The weaponry, locales, and "look" of the movies is there, no doubt. Why have I shelved it? Content. Ever since launch, many SWG players who were there in beta have harbored the sneaking suspicion that they were continuing to play a beta. Content is added to the game riddled with bugs....only to see more content added on top of that riddled with bugs. Bugged content atop bugged content is the reason why I no longer play what had the potential of being the most fun game I have ever played on a PC.

dragon wench · #15 (**permalink**) 03-14-2004, 06:28 PM

I think I would have to say NWN, for all the reasons already stated. I have heard some good things about the expansions, but the original version does not really inspire me to try them out. I have tried playing NWN on numerous occasions, and it does have its moments, but I never make it beyond chapter three.

A good friend gave me the game in order to help me through a rough time, and for this I was very grateful as it did aid in distracting me... but after a while, following the wonderful experiences of SoA and PST, the game just fell completely flat.