To me right now is the first Red Dead Redemption. Finally I’m able to play it, I’ve wait for over a decade. No spoilers, zero youtube gameplay videos, zero questions about the game to my friends. It gotta be me, and the game, it happened, and I think it sucks.
Maybe you thinking in “well, you shouldn’t play the second first”. I did not. My first Red Dead game was Red Dead Revolver, I was able to play it a few years ago when I could buy a PS2, but I couldn’t get a PS3 nor a Xbox 360 to play RDR1. It grinded my gears because we got the prequel in PC. When RDR1 came to PC it was so freaking expensive, yet today, I think it is expensive. I was able to buy the game some weeks ago while there was a Steam Sale, and well, I regreat it now.
I don’t like its exploration, its missions, its characters, its world, its secondary missions. its wanted system, and nothing but less important: has a lot of bugs.
That’s my experience in a few words.
What’s the game that you wanted to play but it was a total mess?
Starfield. I tried it on a more recent update and it was just boring. There was no point to exploring because outposts were useless and space combat was trivial. Just an overall boring game
I am so glad for game pass (at least before the price hike).
I tried Starfield and found it just so contrived and boring. To being made to touch and gather the weird space magic stuff in the asteroid to just suddenly being given a space ship to the inane combat and awful environments.
And this is someone coming from over 5,000 hours in F04 (and 2000 across Fallout titles, and God knows how much across Morrowwind, Skyrim, Oblivion etc). I am very much used to Bethesda jank.
But jeebus, Starfield is as compelling as wet toast. I read the synopsis of the game and was utterly relieved to have missed wasting countless hours in what has to be one of the worst written and developed games of the past 10 years.
That said it is clear Starfield was a huge pump and dump scheme by Zenimax to sell Bethesda to MS under the idea Starfield was gonna be the next Elder Scroll/fallout block buster. (not to mention populating stories about giving Sony an exclusive on Starfield to make MS jealous)
Little did they know they were buying pure Todd co
kepium that had been cut with a shit tone of sweet’n lowI played it out of morbid curiosity after everyone started talking how bad it was. I went in like “It can’t be THAT bad, can it?” - and indeed, it can. I’m still amazed that menus are fucking .swf files (Adobe Flash for those too young to recognize it)
It’s one of the least credible scifi settings I’ve ever seen. Also, despite the whole “multiverse” the main story tries to paint, it’s much closer to a time loop, given how nothing changes and effectively none of your actions are acknowledged by anyone. City NPCs won’t even react to your
dragon shoutsForce usetotally unique space magic, unless it hits them, then it’s just like being shot. Even Oblivion guards would tell you to holster your weapons, Starfield guards won’t even grunt if you shoot around like a maniac (but hit nobody)Starfield only reinforced my aversion to pre-ordering.
I had about $100 set aside to pre-order the deluxe edition of Starfield when orders went available, but around that same time, a similarly priced, new limited-time premium cosmetic pack was announced for Warframe, and they did one of those things where “and it’s out RIGHT NOW!” (we typically know at least a couple months in advance before something drops), so I, without hesitation, redirected those funds to the Warframe item and did not order Starfield.
Still one of the best decisions I’ve made. Starfield, even had it delivered on all its promises, was just not the game I was looking for. I pledged for a Star Citizen ship two months later.
spoiler
Those last couple sentences are like a short horror story.
Witcher 3. Absolutely hated the sluggish movement, only made it a few hours
Oh, I gave it about an hour before giving up. I expected more.
Would you recommend the other games in the series?
I haven’t played any of the others but was assured it was no problem. My real controversial opinion is that I didn’t think the voice acting was that great either
Oh no, they get worse the older they get.
It’s just an incredibly soulless game, towns are filled with cardboard cutout npcs, there’s generic guard, wandering peasant, blah blah blah
Fighting, even on Blood level, is trivial
“Searching” around with witcher senses is an absolutely pathetic mechanic
I’m not into “dark” games so I’ll just accept that this one isn’t for me
Same I’ve tried 3 times to get into it, but after a couple of hours I quit.
Elden Ring… I’m sorry I just didn’t enjoy It even after beating a few bosses
I think the closest to a disappointment is Skyrim, but it’s not the game’s fault. I was always looking forward to it. I love the non-linear role-play experience in a rich open world. I watched plenty of Let’s Plays. For some reason it took me a long time to get to it. But when I finally got to play it, I realized that the first-person 3D movement in this game made me dizzy and unwell to the point I couldn’t continue. I had this problem with some other games, too, but not to this extent. I might give it another try at some point. But maybe something like World of Anterra scratches that itch better.
An honorable mention is Planescape: Torment. I liked it, but having played Disco Elysium first, the writing and story in this game felt over-hyped.
I have the same nausea issue. Once you clear Skyrim’s tutorial level, you can switch to over the shoulder camera. But I didn’t know that on my first try. Ended up putting the game down & uninstalling it. Only came back to it years later after seeing some videos.
For what it’s worth, there are mods that let you skip the introduction entirely. “Live Another Life” used to be the go-to, but I think it’s been depreciated. Still would be a good starting point to search.
I didn’t want to do that at my first attempt for some reason (probably because it felt wrong/unauthentic to play Skyrim without first-person…). But after reading this, I tried it. It’s certainly a weird 3rd person perspective, yet I had so much more fun. So many many thanks for your suggestion!
Pretty sure you can go 3rd person as soon as your hands are untied, when you enter the first building after either the Imperial or Stormcloak soldier
Dang, I wish you had played the second one first. Still might not be your thing, but it was a much better story and much better gameplay.
I’m completely the other way. Loved the first one and can’t get to grips with RDR2. There’s too much stuff to do and not enough riding around gunning down bad guys
It’s set in the 1800s! Everyone’s a racist or sexist, so everyone’s a bad guy. Fire away!
I basically completely agree with this comment here https://lemmy.world/comment/22443131
One of the things that make me feel in alone in the RDR’s world is that you can’t interact with any NPC properly, like you does in Fallout 3 or Skyrim. The only times you talk with NPCs is in cinnematics, and is not like you can choose multiple options to interact. In RDR are the NPCs the ones who interact with you by challenging you to a duel, looking for help, ambusshing you, etc. I’m not aware, but I can bet that it’s the same in RDR2.
Yes, that detail is exactly the same in 2.
I wanted to play Cuphead because I really liked the concept and the aesthetic. I got it not knowing its reputation for being hard as absolute fuck. Played it for several days with increasing frustration, started watching walkthroughs, those didn’t help, still tried to stubbornly stick with it, and eventually got to the point where my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.
If it helps, ive felt this way about a few games throughout my life and after beating my head against them for a while i would gice up and take a break. However, when returning later, i found things weren’t quite as hard for me, and i was able to make progress.
Don’t [permanently] give up!
…Or do. Gaming doesn’t have to be that deep. There are plenty of other experiences to enjoy, anyway!
Yeah, I loved the concept, hated the gameplay. There’s a TV show that’s way better than playing the game.
Mewgenics. I just couldn’t squeeze any fun out of it. Wish there wasn’t 10 minutes of busy work every time I want to start a new run. Wish items were game-changing like in Isaac.
I am with you. I really want to like the game, but it just is not fun. I gave it 15 hrs.
Add to your list just how tedious all the bosses and mini bosses are. All of them act with maximum efficiency on every turn. Causes so many battles with them to drag on.
Robocraft 2. I loved the original, but they messed up its monetization really bad over time, when a sequel got announced i was expecting the game to return to its roots with a rewrite. Instead, it felt more of a downgrade compared to the original.
Til that there is a second one now. Loved the first one, especially before they removed tiers, kinda stopped playing about when they did that
Ho boy! Don’t buy RDR2 in that case. Worst (and last) full price game I’ve bought. Goddamn disappointing
Right know for me is Baldur’s Gates, it really don’t scratch my hitch. I have to play it in baby difficulty because I’m no tactician and I’m not a min maxer playing DnD so this game is really not for me
F5 and F8 for quicksave and quickload. As my son tells me: “Don’t tell me how to play my $60 game.”
Don’t worry about the difficulty level and just play for the story.
If that isn’t for you, then definitely throw in the towel. I am truly biased though as I have played D&D for a good deal of my life.
I like to go back to old games that were well regarded in their time but I missed. It’s neat to see what holds up and what doesn’t, but the biggest disappointment to me has to be Secret of Mana. So many people love that game, so I went in with high expectations. I instead found the combat way too simple when it even lets me play, far too often, it takes control away from your characters through annoying status effects. I could not stand it and dropped it fairly quick.
Donkey Kong country is like that for me. The platforming isn’t very satisfying. Music is great though.
Trials of Mana is a far better game than Secret of Mana in my opinion but the combat is a slog still. It’s especially bad being real time with move cool downs but what really kills me is the game pausing every time a magic spell is cast or opening the item wheel, which is constantly. Idk how anyone playing co-op could put up with that lol it’s so tedious already without adding 1 or 2 friends to the mix.
smash bros melee. i was sooooo hyped. but the game felt way too fast for me compared to n64 smash, and the litany of clone characters was a massive letdown.
Skulls and bones. Sailing in black flag is probably my favorite gaming experience ever. Ubisoft announced a sailing game right after. All they had to do was add some upgrade paths so people could set up their ships for different playstyles. Like 10 years later, the game finally came out. It’s the only game I’ve ever refunded. Everything about it was terrible.
I have a friend who defines his gaming existence by black flag. He’s bought it, multiple times on multiple consoles out of sheer love for the game.
Skull and bones came out, I expected that to define the next 6 months of my life. Not a peep. Mentioned it and he just shrugs and goes: they had something good, and ubisofted it (this is after they’ve lost all consumer goodwill). I can’t help but agree
Heavy Rain was one of those for me. I sometimes enjoy a cinematic game. Even if there aren’t any ‘choices that matter’ in it, it can be nice to just go through a cinematic interactive story game. But Heavy Rain fell into the same hole so many others do: bad interaction UI. I hate any game that gives you the option to say ‘I agree,’ ‘I disagree,’ and ‘What?’ but makes selecting ‘What?’ the option to fly off the handle because ‘What?’ is actually short for ‘What should I insert into your nostril, you filthy worm?’
Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The final smashes are all the same. I miss the final smashes of Super Smash Bros Brawl.
They nerfed the final smashes starting with smash 4 on the Wii U. They used to be an instant KO but now they’re just flashy regular moves.
Monster Hunter(World & Rise). I have played over 1k hours of Dark Souls 1&2 and my mate has 5k+ hours in the MH series. I gave it multiple tries but I can’t get into the combat mechanics. It feels too slow, while being pretty complex. And then there’s also quite some cutscenes, which is something that quickly turns my dumb brain off. :(
The hardest part for some people is getting through the story because MH games are notorious for “story? There’s a story here?” They try, but it’s never really that engaging. Definitely don’t try Wilds if you don’t like story stuff because that game they actually tried to push the story front an center. I really enjoyed it though, but I just love all Monster Hunter games lol
After the story (basically a long tutorial) it’s all just hunt hunt hunt hunt, there are no more cutscenes to worry about. If you can power through the story, or just chip away at it a little at a time, you might enjoy it more.
As for the combat, maybe you haven’t found the right weapon. Dual blades are really fast, the insect glaive is fairly fast and you can dart around in the air, sword and shield can be decently quick as well.
