10 Phenomenal Games With AWFUL Stories

2011 was an excellent time for first-person shooters. Call of Duty tied up the Modern Warfare trilogy, Crysis 2 gave players a slick sci-fi experience, and Battlefield 3 delivered another fantastic take on military action. The thing is, while Battlefield 3 was a stellar title with some incredible shooting mechanics, destructible environments, and addictive online play, the story was a real letdown. 

Battlefield was a series that set itself apart from the onslaught of military shooter slop found around the early to late 2000s, thanks to the distinct flair of the Bad Company campaigns. So, it was pretty jarring when this game delivered a bland, generic single-player story full of cliches and devoid of any personality. 

The story revolved around two main protagonists, Henry Blackburn, a U.S. Marine and a Spetsnaz CPU called Dimitri Mayakovsky. What followed was a checklist of uninspired tropes, including evil Russians, insurgents, weapons of mass destruction, and lots of hackneyed genre dialogue. It's like DICE were playing military fantasy bingo, which was a shame, given there were some clear standout missions to enjoy.

There's no denying the campaign had some pulse-pounding set pieces, like the thrilling jet fighter sequence in "Going Hunting." But guiding you through all of those epic moments was a story you could barely get invested in.