Alright gang…it’s time to light this fire…This week on the ‘Axe we’ve tasked you with submitting Member BattleCries dealing with your MOST DISAPPOINTING GAMES OF ALL-TIME! Obviously, we all have those classically craptastic titles that we remember…The ones that had SO MUCH POTENTIAL, but fell flat on their faces only to leave us tearfully tossing our controllers in disappointment and shame.
So, we’re kicking things off with a BattleCry from WakingEveryGod who, despite his name, found the devil in Deus Ex: Invisible War. The game pretty much proved why the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” exists, but in the bad way rather than the good…Anyway, hit the jump and be sure to check out/comment on today’s MBC or share your own BattleCry with the masses over on this week’s Topic Starter Post!
WakingEveryGod says:
My battle cry goes out to the most bipolar developer in video game history, Ion Storm, and their supremely disappointing sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War.
I remember trying to sneak my way through the apartments at the beginning of the game, still excited I was playing the sequel to my favorite game ever, Deus Ex. I stalked my first target and readied my riot baton in an attempt to incapacitate him in a single blow. I expected a satisfying and well executed stealth takedown. Instead, all I did was take off a sliver of the newly implemented health bar and annoy the guard, who wasted no time shooting me in the face. That’s when I knew things had gone horribly, horribly wrong…
It was almost as if Warren Specter and Harvey Smith were trying to do everything in their power to ruin the legacy of Deus Ex. They took everything that made the original great and either overly streamlined it, or removed it completely. Obviously, as cited in the example above, the stealth aspect from the original was severely gimped by enemies who could hear the slightest movements and could only be one-shot killed by noisy weapons. It fostered a run and gun mentality, which is the complete antithesis to Deus Ex’s tactical philosophy.
Tiny levels/social areas, removal of the skill point system, a truly wretched UI, universal ammo, severely limited augmentation slots, bored sounding voice actors, and a story that fails to put you on the edge of your seat round out IW’s list of failures.
Granted, it was unreasonable to expect IW to surpass the ludicrously high bar set by its predecessor, but IW didn’t even resemble its overacheiving big brother. Streamlining a game can be beneficial (i.e. the absolutely fantastic Mass Effect 2), but there is a difference between that and dumbing down a game. IW may work well as a halfway decent FPS, but that’s simply unnacceptable for a game that’s supposed to be the sequel to DX.
/end rant. Anyways, that’s my vote for the most disappointing game of all time. Here’s hoping DX3 will, at the very least, be better than IW. Cheers!
END
Very well put…I understand/feel your pain…There’s nothing like being let down by a sequel to a game that you truly loved as it often leaves you shaking your head and left to wonder what could have been. Anyway, if you have any thoughts on today’s game feel free to sound off below. As always, you can also bring up ANYTHING you’d like (pertaining to gaming that is…) over on this week’s topics starter post where you can SUBMIT A NEW TOPIC:
SUBMIT YOUR MEMBER BATTLECRY IN THE COMMENTS SECTION HERE.
Be sure to check out EpicBattleAxe.com throughout the week as we unveil a new featured Member BattleCry each day! Now Cry Havoc and Let Your Voice Be Heard!!!
Later,
DK
Well put, it is so easy for a sequel to disappoint heavily. It is one thing for a game to be hyped and come up shot put it is a completely different situation when a game holds lineage with a ground breaking title such as Deus Ex. It is a tricky thing to balance game. With a sequel the architecture is already there. That is why it is so important for developers to listen to fans and build on the success of a predecessor. Not ignore fans in the hopes of reaching a wider audience.
@VaultDweler64:
Agreed. Too often you see developers make design choices that may be good for business, but not for the game itself. The dumbing down of a game often occurs when a developer wants to make a game that’s all things to all people, however this actually isn’t the case with IW.
Warren Specter and Harvey Smith (project director and lead developer, respectively) made all of those drastic design choices because they actually thought it’d make a better game. In recent interviews, they’ve both expressed regret over what IW ultimately became.
A lot of fans are still angry with them over it, but holding that grudge is pointless. They were just developers doing what they thought was best for their IP. Even if IW came out better, I still think we’d be moaning it wasn’t as good as DX.
DX3 is supposed to come out this year, so we’ll see if a studio with absolutely no affiliation to Ion Storm (R.I.P) can do better. According to the details released so far, it’s not looking good…
BTW @DK
I know the only reason you picked my battle cry was because I gave some love to ME2 toward the end ; ) I’m telling my copy how much I love it right now…
Wow, this battle cry enforces an awareness regarding opinions: everybody’s got one. I thought Deus Ex: Invisible War was one of the most memorable games from Xbox – top 10 for me. Although, I never played the original, thus giving me nothing which to gauge its hold to the series. Good cry.
My battlecry goes out to Far Cry 2. During the lead up to its release i read and watched everything related to the game. I was as excited as i had ever really been for a particular games release because everything that i saw sounded so promising. There was a huge, and i do mean huge, open world to explore and tackle however you pleased, all sorts of interesting game mechanics that i had never really in a game before. I preordered the game to get the bonus content because i wanted to have everything they were offering to enjoy the full experience of the game. To make a long story short i played through about 60% percent of the game and it froze on me. I figured maybe it was just my Xbox as ive had two die on me before. As a matter of fact my 2nd Xbox died on me the day before i got the game so i had to wait almost a month til i got my replacement. But i tried every trick i could think of to get the game to work but nothing helped. I went online and found out that everyone was having the same problem. Turns out the developer (name escaping me at the moment) shipped the game only allowing for 60% percent completion. I know that not every game is great and ive been disappointed by games that turned out not to be as exciting or awesome as i had hoped initially but to anticipate something for so long and to not be able to finish a game because the developer didnt bother to check to see that the retail version of the game could be played through to completion definately makes Far Cry 2 my most disappointing game ever. Theres nothing worse than shipping a crappy game except shipping a good game that isnt completely playable.
My battle cry goes out to the film and tv show to game adaptation, here`s why.
i saw recently that they where making a prison break game adaptation, and as a prison break fan i got excited. and when I saw that it was set on the prison from season 1 i got even more excited.
and then suddenly flashback to almost excactly 2 years ago. that was when i first put that piece of shit lost in my x box. and if you might remember it blew. the fealing of dissapointment, anger and all things horrible. it is this fealing when you the one second want to play this game your sure will be awesome and you feel excited. and then 20 seconds later your trying to forget this game ever where made.
this makes for a fealing that nothing can compare to, it is the worst fealing in the world and thats why it’s my battlecry.
PS:im from Norway so sorry for my bad english
Shaman Of Destructoin: out
@PlainShane:
I’ve talked to some who feel the same way you do, and they all say the same thing: “I never played the first one.”
I highly recommend you track down DX and give it a shot. I think you can download it cheap off of GOG or Steam. It’s going to be a huge visual downgrade, but if you can get past that I’m pretty sure you’ll see, at the very least, the superior design/gameplay elements.
To be clear, I never said IW was necessarily a bad game. I’d still play IW over, say, Modern Warfare 2. It’s just utterly disappointing in comparison to DX. IW turned out to be a FPS with light stealth/tactical elements.
DX was more than that. Sure, you play in a first person perspective, but that’s where the similarities between it and other first person games end. DX was an action/stealth/FPS/RPG/adventure/semi-sandbox game that pulled off all of those elements with equal proficiency. The bare bones version of this presented in IW is great in comparison to recent, skinny FPSes, but not a forward progression of the design philosophy established in DX.
MEH
@Walker Smith:
Your insight is truly enlightening…
Good Choice of the subject is very different with comparing to the other blog article subjects. Picture are suitable and explain very well point of view. Next time expect more from you best luck for the future.
I’d have to say Heavenly Sword on the PS3.
It looked stunning, had lots of talented actors top of the edge animation, hyped up to all hell with the making of releases and short animations.
It all boiled down to a god of war clone that you solved every puzzle by throwing straw hats! lol ><
Granted the game still had its individual elements but too few and far between sadly.
@Assisted Living Companies
I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. At least now I know where I can send off my grandmother because I don’t love her enough
My cry of havoc goes to Modern Warfail…eeh, Warfare 2. I was sooo looking forward to another great Call of Duty title, only to be pissed on by a short, not very exciting single player, and a horribly broken multiplayer. With as many bugs in multiplayer, killstreaks. It practically rewards campers for what they do, camp. So for a game that had bad camping, therefore making it even worse, all the hype surrounding it, just becoming sick of hearing about it. I can’t stand the game now. Not much left to say, game did not deliver. Spec ops was good for what it was, once you earn your stars, you’re done though. I haven’t played it since first month of release
I absolutely agree. Invisible War was a huge disappointment. The first Deus Ex is a phenomenal title, as well as, the primary reason why I got into PC gaming. Being mainly a console gamer before that, I was amazed that their was more then one way to approach a problem that didn’t involve the “guns-a-blazing” solution.
When Ion Storm decided to streamline the sequel in order to attract a larger target audience, I didn’t necessarily think that was a bad thing… to the contrary I thought Deus Ex having a larger fan base was a great way of establishing a franchise. Unfortunately, Ion Storm decided to ignore their fan base in order to appease a larger one they never had. The end result was Invisible War
I think was worst of the whole situation that followed was that the game critic community, the guys and gals who review games, openly criticized the fan base community for voicing negative opinions about Invisible War (Xplay’s Adam Sessler for example). It felt as the critics were dictating what we, as gamers, are suppose to like rather then letting us formulate our own opinions.
Invisible war wasn’t necessarily a horrible title, but I will argue that it is a stark contrast from the predecessor.
Was Invisible War a decent shooter? To a degree.
Was it a sequel to Deus Ex? Absolutely not.