10 Best "The Marketing Was A Lie" Video Game Reveals
Ten times those dirty, lying publishers screwed up in our favor, for once.
If you follow the video game industry at all then you are, unfortunately, very used to being lied to by early demos and marketing from publishers.
Despite major controversies caused by the blatant false advertising of games like Watch Dogs and Killzone 2, which showed off graphics and physics well beyond the capability of what consoles were capable of at the time, the practice remains. Marketing is, understandably, highly curated and, more often than not, as disappointing as it is misleading.
But sometimes a miracle happens. Sometimes a game's marketing is misleading in its favor. Whether this is intentional on the part of the developer as a way to surprise players with the unexpected, or just a happy accident thanks to a marketing team who didn't understand what it was they were selling, we get the occasional gift of a game that is so much more than what was promised.
While these situations can still cause occasional controversy, there's no doubt that the games on this list underpromised and overdelivered. Whether it was in regards to the story, atmosphere or core gameplay, here are ten of the BEST games that were marketed either on full-blown lies or a fundamental misunderstanding of the game's strengths.
10. The Last Of Us Part II
Naughty Dog's The Last Of Us Part II is an example of the marketing just fully lying. Not about its tone or gameplay elements, but about its story sequences.
In an effort to avoid any possible spoilers about the shocking twist at the start, what we got were scenes that never even appeared in the final game. Depending on your perspective, it was either the best or worst bait and switch since Metal Gear Solid 2 pulled something very similar with its own divisive twist.
While some fans were along for the unexpected ride that was The Last Of Us Part II, others who closely followed the marketing and had their expectations subverted were not so happy, feeling lied to by Naughty Dog and Sony, which was at least partially justifiable.
However, one thing the pre-release material didn't show off so well were the slew of new and improved mechanics, such as much more realistic and cautious enemy AI, friendly AI that was actually helpful, and the many tools available for Ellie's one-woman guerrilla war against the game's enemy factions.