There’s no denying that it’s been a great year for gaming, especially with the number of indie video games that have enjoyed colossal success (such as Journey, Dear Esther and so on), but like any year, it’s also had a glut of games that looked fantastic, had a world of promise, and then failed to meet that promise, totally letting us down in the process. These ten games, either the latest long-awaited entry in an acclaimed video game series, a reboot of a classic gaming franchise, or an original intellectual property, all had the potential to be among the best games of the year, but either owing to rushed developmental cycles or a simple lack of fresh ideas, they were among the most generic, misguided and outright disappointing video games of the year.
10. Lollipop Chainsaw
Suda 51 is a video game director who clearly revels in confounding player expectation in games like Killer 7 and Shadows of the Damned; thus, when we first heard about Lollipop Chainsaw, we similarly thought that it would subvert the relatively modest aspirations of the title on looks alone. It’s unquestionably his game best-focused on a Western audience, with a cheerleader protagonist named Julia Starling who spends the game doing away with hordes of zombies. It’s the sort of concept that appeals to the Grindhouse crowd above all else, and though we didn’t expect it to have much to it, Lollipop Chainsaw even managed to disappoint on our relatively simple expectations of what the title should deliver.
The pacing was all over the place, some of the mini-games were head-smackingly arbitrary, but above all else, it’s the combat that was a let down; it’s the most garden variety, hack n’ slash mulch we’ve seen a million times before without a single variation of its own. Also, while the first expectation was that the game was in fact a satire of all of those oversexed female protagonists in Japanese video games, the game’s commentary doesn’t work because it actually indulges in the same casual sexism as those games. Such a shame.
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17 Comments
Great List! I think I would put RE6 at #2 and Mass at 1. Leon and Ada’s campaign were pretty awesome and scary (at parts).
Mass Effect 3 — in the words of fans — made an ending SO BAD that it literally RUINED A SERIES. It is not even about Hype or what not– it was SOOO BAD it turned people off to the entire trilogy
Sleeping Dogs does not deserve to be on this list. Most people expected it to be crap because it originally came from the True Crime series.
I agree, it could’ve been a lot worse than what it turned out to be. My only gripe was the melee combat, it was decent but it could’ve been so much more seeing as how the game takes place in the birthplace of so many different martial arts. Instead of going the cliched route of just learning a new move her and there they should’ve given us the option to learn a totally different style of martial arts.
I was extremely disappointed with Assassin’s Creed III. It was such a let down for a game that had so much potential, I actually felt like I had missed something during my playthrough. It was such a mixed bag for me…the gameplay, locations and naval battles were fantastic but the narrative and ending were so poorly executed. It was the most disappointing game of 2012 in my opinion.
I think you should add a very much needed “Personal Opinion” to the title here. I actually enjoyed your number 4-2. People are overly critical of great games, and expect too much.
Mass Effect 3 wasn’t as big as a disappointment as you and others have made it out to be. You make a good point about how the ending was executed compared to the way we expected it, but I didn’t have a problem with it and it definitely didn’t deserve so many people going into a rage and demanding that it be changed. The only thing that really disappointed me about ME3 was that Bioware caved to that demand, they should’ve just stood by their product.
For JA fans
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action
Syndicate is truly an awful game. Glad to know I’m not alone in that regard.
It is always funny to see people go up in flames over ME3. It is like mass hysteria.
The ending is absolutely state-of-the-art, giving several options, very much like Deus Ex and other classics have done and how it is still done in many cases today. Frankly, games are by definition very linear, and they probably aught to be. Who would, for example, like to miss out on some 40 % of the gaming content because they made certain choices? No one would. We all want the full game experience.
Arguably, Bioware could have found a mechanism that connected certain outcomes with certain occurrences before, so that the program chose one of the three (or four) endings for you. I somehow doubt, however, that this would have made people happier. Because what many people are calling for requires a sort of sentient AI, developing your gaming experience for you while you go along. Short of divine intervention, I do not see this working for the near future.
I like the ending. It is absolutely in tone with the previous ME experience. The player is offered a very tough choice that may have some benefits, but that also requires sacrifice – very much like the Kayden/Ashley choice. In this game, salvation does not come easy. Live with it. It is a good life lesson, guys.
Since the final ‘choice’ of the game is whether you want to mutate all life against its will, or commit an act of genocide, or become a dictator god, your definition of ‘sacrifice’ is a little misguided.
Any story (be it a movie, a book, a game, whatever) that suggests all ideological conflicts can only be won by inflicting immoral war crimes upon our allies in order to ‘win’ is disgusting, and is not a ‘good life lesson’. It’s infantile moral relativity.
Are we talking semantics here or content?
In terms of game logic, the cost of inaction is clear: Annihilation of the galactic species and a new evolution (crucial upgrade in the extended cut!).
The alternatives have to be judged against that background. Do you choose to act taking into account those clear and word-defying consequences (side-stepping the semantic issue here)? Or do you choose not to act and have your inaction cause full-scale destruction. I do not see how such a question is infantile moral relativity.
It is actually a quality of the sci-fi genre to ask the biggest questions. And why not, its scope is galactic! To name one example:
+++SPOILER ALERT+++
“Cities in Flight” by James Blish has the universe end in a big collapse, and the main character of the book chooses to become a quasi-deity for the next cycle of the galaxy.
If that makes no sense, go ahead and read the book. Fabulous read!
I’m sorry and I now people probable say I’m insane but Skyrim was my big disappointment. It almost felt like an mmo. Then when you do the big thing like save the world or that part of it, it isn’t a big thing. I like getting the recognition of completing the quest and being the hero I didn’t get that in Skyrim. It was a big let down. Yes you can do a lot of quest but they get old too. I’m sorry but I do love a good hero game where you get the feel good feelings instead of being looked over.
I say that Assassin’s Creed 3 was a disappointment. In MY opinion, I was let down by the storytelling of AC3. I’m not saying that it is a bad game, just one that was disappointing to me…according to my opinion. The game had a wonderful setting and focused on an extremely satisfying combat mechanic while streamlining the free-running and game-world traversal to feel more fluid and graceful than previous AC games. Also, the naval missions were an awesome addition to the franchise.
However, and let me be clear, in MY opinion I think that the storytelling of Assassin’s Creed 3 missed the mark. The game was touted as a satisfying conclusion to the previous games and bringing closure to Desmond’s story while underlying the conflict between the Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood. The franchise has also been building toward an impending “doomsday” scenario by focusing on an overall conflict between mankind and the First Civilization. All of this buildup fell short of expectation and failed to offer a satisfying conclusion to Desmond’s story that we’ve been invested in for so long. I was disappointed by it and felt underwhelmed when the credits finally rolled.
Another point I want to address is the lack of character development of Connor, AC 3′s protagonist. His training was hinted at through exposition before flashing forward to a fully fledged Assassin. This was disappointing due to the focus on character development with Ezio and Altair. Throughout the game, we gradually learn about the two former assassins and we get to “grow” with them as they perfect their craft, hone their skills, gather equipment and leave their mark on an intriguing world of ideological conflict. AC 3 did not offer any character development in that sense. Yes, we learned about his childhood, his lineage and why he is angry with the Templars, but that’s it. There’s no character development or turning point for Connor to support the Assassin Brotherhood. It felt like the Brotherhood was simply a means to an end for Connor to enact vengeance. That is my opinion and I understand that others will disagree with me.
Finally, the high scores that games receive are based on the OPINIONS of game reviewers. Yes, they are good reviewers, but consumers still have the right to disagree with even the best reviewers in the world because it all boils down to personal opinion whether as a gamer, a professional critic or even someone writing an article on whatculture.com. Shaun Munro has the right to express his thoughts on what games were disappointing in his opinion. I don’t agree with all of his thoughts, but that’s fine because I can rely on my own opinion about what I enjoy in the games I play.
Posting things like, “And whoever says Assassin’s Creed 3 or Hitman Absolution is a disappointment- your wrong as soon as you mentioned it, in fact your whole life has been wrong. My game of the year- Assassin’s Creed 3 tied with Mass Effect 3 (both 9.5/10.0), and then 2nd is Far Cry 3(9.4/10.0) and then Dishonoured tied with Borderlands 2 (9.2/10.0). There you go, i said the honest, unbiased, unchanged, unopinionated and the very truthful truth that even i dont have judgement on- thats what is real,” shows that you are an biased and opinionated individual who bases said opinions and biases on a professional gaming critic’s opinion that handed out high scores to games you enjoyed.
For me, my favorite game of this year was Dishonored (9.5/10). I would give Assassin’s Creed 3 a 7/10 because I think it was a good game that fell short of its potential…the scores for these two games are my scores not a game critic’s.
Sleeping Dogs was great. Maybe a little underwhelming but it wasn’t a disappointment in the least.
Sleeping Dogs was ok, but it came along in the middle of a release drought, so gamers thought it was better than it actually was. Same old sandbox problem of: complete the game and become a ghost.
I was personally disappointed with Far Cry 3. Screenshots looked great, but the experience of actually playing it on the 360 was bad. I just got bored of it very quickly. A drop in/out co-op in campaign could have made it better.
I think the only game I really liked this year was Dishonored.
Tried Skyrim, but it just wasn’t my thing. Looked like it would be good if you were in to your fantasy games though.
AC3…bored after 20 mins
Hitman…bored
Black Ops 2…bored
Yeah, I get bored very easily.
I don’t agree that Mass Effect 3 was a disappointment. It was an amazing game until the last 10 minutes, the ending was bad but it doesn’t make the whole game bad. As much as I love Final Fantasy, XIII-2 was disappointing, worse the XIII. I found that the story was meant to be quite dark and emotional, but the dialogue just made it come across as quite child-like at times. I wanted to see Serah become this strong woman, like Lightning. But it never happened. And I thought Resident Evil 6 was a great experience to be honest, yeah it’s nothing like the originals but it was still great.
ME 3 and Sleeping dogs should be nowhere near this list…