Duke Nukem Forever
No list can talk about disappointments and yet not mention Duke Nukem Forever- it would be as if a gaping hole were left open in its existence. And so, here I am, telling you all how sourly disappointing DNF was- but of course, you must already know that. I knew in the back of my mind, before the game was released, that something that had been awaited for such a long time couldn’t possibly meat up with hype that had accumulated to unimaginable levels over the course of 13 years. But Duke Nukem Forever disappointmed me- and almost everyone else who played it- so much, I could never have even guessed. Everything was broken, there was not a single good thing in the entire game, other than a few shooting sections, which were few and far in between. Of course, Gearbox is fully taking over the franchise now, so I expect future installments to be better, but in the future, I’ll approach everything Duke Nukem with caution.
Crysis 2
After Crysis, which was a free flowing, masterful technical achievement, Crysis 2 seemed like a pale shadow. In its own rights, Crysis 2 is a great game with a really good story, and the visuals, if not compared with Crysis’ visuals, are excellent. But of course, since it is a sequel to the original Crysis, people will compare the two of them. And when they do, it doesn’t usually bode well for Crysis 2. In every aspect, Crysis 2 was an inferior game- smaller battlefields, a story that was much less engrossing (yet still good), a slow campaign that did not pick up pace for the first 4-5 hours, and visuals that were not nearly as good as what we saw in Crysis 1. It’s a testament to Crysis 1, I guess, that Crysis 2, despite being such a wonderful game, could not manage to be a patch on the original.
Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm was an awesome game, but it definitely wasn’t as awesome as we wanted it to be. Kicking baddies in their nuts and shooting them in their faces and killing them in creative, gruesome ways was fun, yeah, and the campaign was an absolute romp, but that was about it. The story was practically non existent, the characters were over the top and not very likable or memorable, the dialogue, too, was a bit too over the top, if a little funny at times, and other than the campaign, there was nothing at all to do in the game, no incentive for the players to return. It seemed as if People Can Fly and Epic were trying out a formula, testing the waters, and preparing the dish out the full thing later, but the the commercial response that Bulletstorm got, I don’t think there will be a “full thing” anytime soon, if ever.
Dragon Age II
Just like Crysis 2, Dragon Age II was a decent game in its own rights, but when compared to Dragon Age: Origins, it fell short greatly. It shed off a bit too much of the RPG elements, making the game a lot more action-y than we wanted, almost taking it into the button masher territory. The story lacked cohesion and any particular direction and the game lacked polish on the whole. Repeated environments, linear level design, a very small game world that had little room for exploration and tons of glitches ruined the experience, making it a huge disappointment for BioWare and Dragon Age fans.
