I am not a Tomachirgic exegete, but those are the games that disappointed him, and he probably didn’t even expect anything from HZD to begin with.
Thanks! I don’t do early access, but I do add game recommendations to my wish list to check out later, by which time I’ve forgotten why I added it!
Tom likes to put a “header” image of a game that he feels people will expect (or dread) to see in the list, but isn’t really there.
I entirely agree with Torment but I fail to understand why Andromeda was somehow left off this list.
This describe my process to a T!
I so wish Steam let you put notes on a game in your wishlist. At least then I’d know why I added something, rather than forcing me to scratch my head a year later and ask myself why I added a particular game.
I don’t think Tom expected Andromeda would be good prior to launch anyway.
Yup. No disappointments when you have no expectations. ;)
I guess I got exactly what I expected in this regard, so wasn’t disappointed. The tedious and unmemorable NPCs were a bit disappointing though.
My list of most disappointing games of would be:
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Endless Space 2
After Civilization 6, I thought I set my expectations for strategy games sufficiently low, but somehow ES2 cruised under that low bar. Mostly by repeating all of Civ 6’s mistakes, but in space. -
Stellaris: Utopia
I have no idea why I thought Utopia would make Stellaris anything more that the vacuous hole it was at launch. But I did, and it didn’t. -
Thimbleweed Park
Thimbleweed Park was billed as a return to the adventure games of the early nineties, so I really set myself up for disappointment here. But I could have never predicted how mean-spirited in character and aggressively obtuse this game was. -
Hidden Folks
Why did I buy a glorified Where’s Wally? I don’t know. Why did I think a glorified Where’s Wally? would intrigue me, when Where Wally? didn’t interest me as a child? I don’t know. -
Horizon Zero Dawn
This game is perfectly fine. It’s a serviceable open world game. It has some good bits, and some bad bits and a whole load of other bits. But in an age of Witcher 3s and Breath of the Wilds, being perfectly fine is extremely disappointing.
This is one of the games that somehow ended up on my Steam wishlist. During the last sale at Thanksgiving I was saying to myself: Why would I want a game version of Where’s Waldo? Why is this on my wishlist?
I also have Hidden Folks on my wishlist, someone must have recommended it at some point! Or Steam is just wishlisting it for everyone! D:
Top 5 Disappointing for myself are:
- Agents of Mayhem - I did finish the main story and absolutely hated the generic world they created that resets after a certain amount of time. I understand they want you to grind to level up characters, but its not fun overall. A few good moments (KPOP) don’t make this a good game.
- Battlefront 2 - So much disappointment in the progression system and card crap, I don’t even have 10 hours played total, and I have owned it since launch. It does look good and moment to moment game play is fun, but knowing the grind needed to get good cards is demoralizing. NO HOPE HERE.
- Dawn of War III - Bought at release and played some multiplayer, some co-op and two or three of the bland campaign tutorial missions, afterward I uninstalled. I mean units using cover was Relic’s claim to fame since COH, and they remove it! WTF! Worst Relic Game Ever.
- SPAZ2 - Too much neon, combat that makes no sense, I do like the space map takeover stuff. I should give it another try I guess, maybe I am just not playing it right. The first game was just so much better.
- Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 - Eh… its not great, I am still putzing around in it, but the first 2 games were so focused , linear and short, that’s what made them special and why I finished them both. Too much open world filler and grind in this, why do I need 10 different sniper rifles, why does my silencer degrade? It could have been such a great game if they would have cut some of the filler.
It got glowing reviews from multiple sources on release. I think RPS even put it in their games of the year list. But I sure hope you like finding little things in a big picture, if you’re going to try it…
I figure it will be bundle fodder at some point. :)
Hahah. That’s a great description of the combat after just playing the first tutorial battle. WTF is going on?
The only big disappointment I had this year (that comes to mind now) is The Long Journey Home. The trailer was awesome, and I understand what the devs were going for, but it just didn’t click for me at all, which is sad.
SPAZ 2 was a bit of a disappointment as well, but I didn’t expect all that much. Anyway, gameplay-wise, it’s far less inspired than I thought it would be.
Oh, add The Long Dark for me as another disappointment. The freeform survival sandbox is great, but the much-touted story campaign is garbage.
My top three (don’t think I can scrounge up more proper disappointments than that).
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Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is easily the most disappointing game of the year for me. On the side of expectations, never has a game been talked up like that by so many people so enthusiastically. What we got was this barren wasteland of a world, filled with carboard cutouts. The main activity are these mediocre physics puzzles that wouldn’t be fit to include in a $5 indie puzzler. Alternatively you can engage in some of the worst melee combat I’ve seen this decade, or trudge back and forth in said barren wasteland using traversal mechanisms that are intentionally tedious and limited. I just don’t get it, and probably never will.
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Destiny 2 is an interesting case since I was really into it for a few weeks, did basically everything there was to do, and got the full complement of three characters to almost max level. So in one sense it delivered more entertainment than most games ever will. But it didn’t deliver what I actually wanted, since the repeatable endgame wasn’t there at all. This had been the major draw for me, since some friends really got into doing the Destiny 1 raids. Doesn’t help that Bungie has then spent a couple of months driving the game into the ground. (I bought the season pass + PS plus for this; haven’t actually logged in to Destiny 2 for 2.5 months).
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Hollow Knight was just a garden variety dissapointment. I love 2d metroidvania as a genre, and Hollow Knight had a very vocal fanbase. But the platforming just doesn’t feel great, the lore wasn’t doing anything for me, and the overall pace was absolutely glacial.
The lore / pace / platforming (once you figure out the jumping) are just a few of the things I really like about Hollow Knight. :)
I imagine Breath of the Wild must be pretty unpleasant if you don’t find the world wonderful. Austin Walker wrote something about how BotW is similar to Far Cry 2, in that it is actively antagonist to the player.
Bungie/Activision really messed up here. This clearly is a game with a repeatable endgame. I should know, since I specifically didn’t buy the game because I don’t want that! What the hell happened?
Oh no, I was about to get this after all the praise dumped on it.
I should have put this on my list. I don’t own it, and that in itself is a massive disappointment. I’m the biggest Dawn of War fanboy, how did Relic make a DoW game I don’t even want to try? (And what’s with the sneaky edit lordkosc?)
??? I didn’t want to double post, and wasn’t sure I was going to list my top 5, but I went back and did. :p
You monster! ;)