10 Phenomenal Games With AWFUL Stories
These video games all played amazingly, but their stories let them down BIG TIME.
Crafting a game with an incredible story that plays well requires a boatload of talent and effort, but there are plenty of titles that have managed to achieve just that. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Bioshock, and Baldur's Gate 3 - these seminal efforts featured compelling gameplay and engrossing narratives, becoming critical and commercial hits in the process.
However, it's a delicate balancing act that often doesn't pay off. Sometimes, you end up with a game that plays great, but story-wise, leaves a heck of a lot to be desired.
The following 10 games are tragic examples, as they nailed the gameplay but dropped the ball on the story side - in some cases so badly that their reputations have taken a significant drubbing in the years since their release.
This isn't particularly fair, given that these games were let down in one department and were still incredibly fun to play, but it does make that sense of frustration even more prominent...
10. Mortal Kombat 1
Mortal Kombat is a series that often delivers on the gameplay and story fronts. Like Earthrealm and Outworld, these delicately balanced sides make up a wonderful world full of memorable characters and dense lore. That said, the continuity often gets messy, which is why Mortal Kombat 1's promise to reboot the series with a fresh timeline felt like a great call.
At least it was... until the game became yet another multiverse saga.
MK1 sees Liu Kang take over Raiden's role as Earthrealm's protector, using Kronika's Hourglass to rewrite the universe. The story starts out pretty well, with beloved characters getting their origin stories rewritten and reintroduced to players. It sometimes feels like a legacy character checklist, but it's mostly enjoyable, if a little familiar.
But then, things really go off the wagon when it introduces multiversal timeline elements.
The story soon devolves into a wacky set of what-ifs, with alternate versions of the iconic characters and a big evil plot from the villain - Shang Tsung - pulling in elements from across timelines. It almost feels like an episode of Rick & Morty or a fan-service Marvel movie. This direction leaves the campaign stinking like an attempt to capture the recent multiverse media craze, and less like a sincere attempt to reinterpret Mortal Kombat's lore for a new generation of players.