| Title | The most overrated games of 2014 |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Features |
| When | January 13, 2015 |
Overrated is a loaded term. It looks good in a headline. It's often used for no purpose other than to goad a reaction. But that doesn't mean it isn't useful..
Read the full articleDid you mean to use a Dragon Age 2 image for DA:I? Just curious if it was an intentional comment of some sort.
Elite: Dangerous is "immersive"? I thought immersive was one of those dirty words.
Great list! For me, the two most overrated games I played were Bethesda's The Evil Within and Wolfenstein: The New Order. While the latter is more successful at refreshing the source material, Starbreeze's Riddick formula, than Mikami's tired stab at survival horror, both feel severely compromised by their engine choice, id tech 5. TEW and Wolfy are choc-filled with little annoyances that really detract from the play experience. I’m genuinely surprised by the reaction to both titles.
I do so enjoy reading your thoughts and top 10 lists, even though I eschew the yearly format of adulation/critique.
Two thoughts: Hearthstone works as a simplified CCG and having played a few in the past, I do enjoy it as a casual experience. The downside is the proliferation of netdecks. Plump down over 100$, disenchant for dust and build one netdeck to rack up gold until you can build another netdeck and repeat process. Great money maker for Blizzard though.
I'm ashamed to have bought into Inquisition a week after its release, forced myself to enjoy it and only liked the game's discussion on religion/faith more than the gameplay or characters. You want Inquisition summed up in two words? Crystal skulls. Have fun on your easter egg hunt.
I'm not sure I would include Destiny in the overrated section, more disappointing is where it lands for me.
Interesting list, although as usual I haven't played most of the games. In fact, I've only played Banner Saga and I like that one a lot. It should be said, though, that my expectations weren't particularly high, and I only just bought it a few weeks ago, and have yet to finish it, so I'll reserve final judgement until I do. I do like the battles, though, so maybe we'll just end up disagreeing on that one.
Anyway, I was wondering if you (Tom) have played Endless Legend? I ask because several people have mentioned that game in the corresponding thread on the forums, and although I personally like it, I do see a lot of the problems that are mentioned in that thread (as well as the thread for the game itself).
"I’m convinced Forza fans are Forza fans mostly out of a sense of loyalty to the Xbox. See also, Halo."
Well now you've done it Tom.
Bang on about DA:I, the only reason I want to complete it is so I can get it off my hard drive. Bioware copied Skyrim in all the wrong ways. Shallow and shoddy.
I rather enjoyed the Banner Saga though. Looking forward to part 2.
I liked Banner Saga, but I agree that it should be on this list. The tactical battles could have/ should have been much more engaging.
Troll bait. Move along people. I feel ashamed to have increased this website's traffic by 1
Destiny is the greatest Skinner Box ever made!
Not sure if it's dirty , but Elite isn't going to appeal to you unless you like grindy , simy , type games with no story except what you make up yourself. It is pretty and shooting ships is fun. It does for outer space what Gone Home did for spooky houses, .they make them boring and kinda sad.
Agreed. This list is terrible. Many of the games on this list have a high rating and good sales for a reason. They're actually good games.
Yes, high sales and ratings can never be disagreed with!
It's on his top ten list and he recommends it instead of Beyond Earth on this very list. So I would say yes.
DA:I is a complete pushover 95% of the time on harder difficulties, too. Certainly on hard, probably on Nightmare as well. And this is without even attempting to engage with the tactical mode, which I found clunky and unproductive. As an action RPG it's kind of mildly entertaining in a "things look real purty" way but it has very little depth. It's particularly disappointing since Dragon Age: Origins had some of the best tactical combat in a mainstream RPG in the last decade or so. But hey, at least it's not as soulkillingly boring and drawn out as in Dragon Age II!
Unlike you I really like the story and characters, but I'm not particularly impressed with its attempt to be Skyrim. A lot of the open world stuff feels like unnecessary padding so far, and I really don't need my RPGs to be 100+ hours long. Especially if huge chunks of that time are spent squishing unthreatening enemies and finding collectibles.
I think I'll probably end up considering it a good game, but man, a lot of people seem way more impressed with it than I'd consider warranted. Especially given the legacy of Origins, which I still think is a better game in almost every sense except graphics.
Could you ennumerate on those issues, for Wolfenstein, at least? I've heard plenty of caveats as far as Evil Within, and I'm honestly not convinced that I would enjoy it anyway, but I've pretty much beaten Wolfenstein and I really didn't have any issues with the engine (unlike in Rage). The design of the final boss, on the other hand...
I experienced frequent texture pop-in and I found the framerate, especially when transitioning to an interior, to be pretty inconsistent (on the PC at launch).Textures still look atrocious up close.
A big problem I have is that I just hate how id tech 5 looks and plays. For an engine that was designed to display an open-world at 60 frames a second, the levels felt like a series of inter-connected boxes with terrible pre-baked lighting and zero interactive elements. Having to pick up every piece of ammo is tedious. Cutscenes constantly interrupt the gameplay which I found to be jarring. It felt like a less well-realized version of the Metro games, sans the sense of place.
Good and overrated aren't mutually exclusive states.
None of the games on the list are actively bad.
I had big issues with texture pop-in on Rage (like, all of the textures, any time they'd been off screen) but not with Wolfenstein. Also no real framerate issues. But that's PC for you. The slightest variation in hardware can make a big impact.
