8 Amazing Video Games With TERRIBLE Marketing

It's nothing short of a miracle that 2016's Doom reboot was a critical and commercial success considering how atrociously it was marketed by Bethesda.

For one, we didn't get to see that much of the single-player campaign at all, and what we did see showed off rather slow-paced combat encounters alongside the divisive inclusion of QTE-style melee kills.

Given that the final game had a ton of fun with the idea that the Doom Slayer is basically a boogeyman to the demonic forces he hunts down, it's baffling that the marketing barely touched on this at all.

Elsewhere there was a frustrating emphasis on the game's multiplayer suite, unaided by a poorly received open beta which caused many to assume the campaign would be similarly mediocre.

And to top it all off, Bethesda held back review copies until release day, which many took as a sign that the publisher simply had no confidence in the game at all.

So what a surprise it was, then, when strong reviews began to trickle in for Doom 2016 and word slowly spread that, counter to everything suggested by its marketing cycle, the game was actually bloody terrific.

Thankfully Bethesda approached both recent Doom follow-ups with considerably more promotional confidence.