There’s nothing worse than pinning all your hopes onto something, only for it be a colossal disappointment. This is just par for the course with video games, but what’s so especially aggravating about these ten is that deep down we know they all had the capacity to be great. The building blocks were there, but all were muddled with either poor gameplay, weak narratives and just a general lack of quality.
#10: âDuke Nukem Foreverâ (2011)
With a development cycle spanning nearly two decades, Duke Nukemâs big return should have been an epic, explosive video game for all the ages, but that was ultimately not the case. This should have been a return to form for the franchise, but sadly, the over-reliance of âold schoolâ gameplay design felt more outdated than refreshing.
#9: âMighty No.9â (2016)
Created to serve as a spiritual successor to the Mega-Man franchise, this project had all the right ingredients to a recipe for success. Add in the fact that crowd funding support from platforms such as âKickstarterâ was absolutely huge, and this throwback to an older gaming age had no excuse to disappoint. Well, it did, with nearly everything from washed out graphics to boring gameplay making it less than stellar.
#8: âThe Order: 1886â (2015)
The game was hyped up to show the graphical horsepower of the PS4, and while it is without a doubt a stunning sight to behold, the developers kind of forgot to make a good game to go with it. Most of the time, all the player is doing is watching long cutscenes, walking around or examining random objects. Even the boss fights are just boring quick-time events.
#7: âToo Humanâ (2008)
With huge hype due to its lengthy development time, developer Sillicon Knightsâ history of delivering quality games as well as an awesome premise involving a sci-fi inspired twist on Norse mythology, Too Human should have aced it. While it all looked good on paper, it proved to be less than compelling in execution, as the game was brought down by repetitive pacing and a rather awkward control scheme.
#6: âHellgate: Londonâ (2007)
A hack and slash RPG that tasked the player with fighting legions of demons in intense, dungeon crawling style gameplay reminiscent of the Diablo series. What could go wrong? Strangely enough, this game just couldnât recapture that same magic, with critics citing the gameplay as being repetitive and shallow. It didnât help either that online modes were prone to crashes and slowdown.
#5: âSteel Battalion: Heavy Armorâ (2012)
A highly ambitious, motion-control heavy experience about giant tanks from the developers of Dark Souls, what’s not to love? Using both the Xbox controller and Kinect peripheral, the creators wanted to simulate what it would be like to command a big hunk of destructive metal around a battlefield. All of this intriguing possibility completely falls apart once you jump into the gameplay since it just doesnât work. At all.
#4: âDaikatanaâ (2000)
Despite lending a hand in the creation of now iconic works in the FPS genre such as âDoomâ and âQuakeâ, John Romero’s Daikatana faced a number of production setback and as a result harmed the overall quality of the game, not to mention many aspects of the gameâs design such as cumbersome save states and awful A.I companions managed to bring the game down even further.
#3: âLairâ (2007)
Despite making the excellent Rogue Squadron in the past, Lair’s developers managed to create a product that had top notch graphics, story and sound design, but also gameplay that was beyond broken. Its forced motion controls that were unresponsive that even the simplest task became an infuriating chore.
#2: âSonic the Hedgehogâ (2006)
In the leadup to this gameâs release, Sega wanted to have the game out in time to celebrate the franchiseâs 15th Anniversary, but for some reason decided to split up the development team to have the other half work on Sonic & The Secret Rings for the Wii. The end result of this mismanagement was a game that just felt unfinished overall, with terrible controls, glitches galore and a terribly awkward âfurryâ inspired love story.
#1: âAliens: Colonial Marinesâ (2013)
The first handful of trailers showed us everything fans could have hoped from an Aliens game. Then we actually got to playing it. You can take your pick of where Colonial Marines messed up, as no aspect of game design was left untouched by painful execution. Boring storyline, tons of glitches as well as braindead enemy and partner A.I lead to an experience that will have you yelling in rage at your TV.