Your top 10 'Major Disappointment' games or: 'I want my money back!'

This list was suggested over at General RPG, but since I couldn't come up with ten CRPGs I disliked sooo much, I thought we might as well expand the list to a 'Top Ten List of Games you Hated Most'.

Since I must leave for work now, I'll post my reply later (as usual).

It's a lot harder to think of ten games I absolutely hated, since I wouldn't have bought them if I hadn't hoped they'd be good, but I can think of a few major diappointments:

Lionheart--god what happened with this game? It had so much potential.

Black & White--a game that fit in absolutely no genre. and tried to do too many things half-heartedly. Could have been great but ended up boring.

Neverwinter Nights--I really disliked the look and feel of this game--the camara in particular, and the chore it became to loot the thousands of chests and deal with inventory.Disliked the wheel interface, too, though it worked in ToEE.
I liked SoU and actually finished it, but HotU was just way too uber for me.

Etherlords--a turnbased strategy card game--ran lousy on my computer, and the races/factions, while pretty imaginative, seemed poorly balanced.


I know there's lots worse games out there, these were just a few I wish I hadn't spent the money on.

Let's see, one most people loved, but which I deleted after 2 days was Darklands. Just didn't like the setting. PoR2 of course is on the list. DL should be there, especially as a BIG disappointment, rather than a hate, as must be 2 games with the number 9, Ultima and M&M!! Well, that's a start and I'm sure someone will remember another loser I can agree with!!!!

Okay, I changed the thread title to better reflect the subject.
Reply later! Ta-ta.

Oblivion - Fairly decent game but definitely did not live up to the hype.

Divine Divinity - Very interesting game but crashed randomly very often. Checked the forums and found out that it was not my system but a virtually unsquashable bug inherent in the game. *sigh*

I can't think of game I bought that I would really hate. Oblivion was quite dissapointing. The first impression was stunning but it very quickly went off. Other than that I can't really think of any huge dissapointment, probably because I by usually 4-5 games per year which makes me choose really carefully.

Ultima 8 and 9 by a mile. Coming after 2 of the greatest games of all time - and they were complete rubbish. Dungeon Lords was another big disappointment and also Realms of Arkaniahadows over Riva - the series just kept on getting worse after the first one. Haven't played M&M9 but I am sure that if I did I would be equally disappointed.

Now let me think... which ten games made me regret the waste of money?

1) NWN (CRPG, PC, 2002): I tried to play it twice (once back then, once this year), and couldn't get past chapter two. I found the game inherently boring, it lacked atmosphere, and NPCs were hardly memorable.

2) Tao Feng (fighting game, XBox, 2003): The game had the looks and interesting characters, but a) too few of the latter, and b) it just didn't keep what trailers and previews had promised. Controls/collision were obscure, difficulty was too high; in short, I managed to reach the story mode end boss once with the first character I picked, and then lost interest.

3) Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior (shooter, PC, 2003): The horror! Even thinking of this game hurts. Nice idea, horrible models, sound effects, animations…. the list goes on and on. Don't buy this game. Ever. If it comes free with a video card, throw it away.

4) Angst - Rahz's Revenge (shooter, PC, 1996): This must be the worst game ever, and I bought it. I played the first level, failed when trying to differentiate between enemy sprites and walls, laughed, cried, didn't find the exit, unsinstalled it and gave it to my brother (who was just as incredulous).

5) Quake 3 Arena (shooter, PC, 1999): I didn't like the set of goofy-looking characters, although it was nice to meet so many old acquaintances. Single player was too short, levels were too small. being severely disappointed didn't prevent me from playing it time and time again, but it wasn't the game I had hoped for.

6) Battle Arena Toshinden 3 (fighting game, PSX, 1997): horrible controls and muppet-like character graphics ruined the game for me. But hey, what did I expect? I hadn't liked the predecessors and still bought it.

7) In Extremis (shooter, PC, 1993): I expected something like 'Doom' and was treated to boredom in green and orange with an Alien-esque design. The game wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good, either, and played straight after Doom it was a real stinker.

8) Rise of the Robots (fighting game, Sega Genesis, 1994): This game had the looks, but unfortunately not the gameplay to match. Horrible controls, collision/clipping issues… too bad, beacuse I wanted to like that game, and just couldn't.

9) Cyberstorm 2: Corp Wars (RTS/RBT, PC, 1998): The first Cyberstorm was great, the second one… *shakes head* I just can't understand how one can make two games on the same engine and with the same graphics and sounds which turn out to be so different. Not only did No. 2 completely ditch the wonderful home base, subtly nuanced mission descriptions and reward system of the predecessor for intransparent building options, it also suffered from difficulty-itis. No matter whether I played it real time or turn based - after a few seconds or two turns at the most, enemies swarmed all over my premises and tore into my HERCs. Even at lowest difficulty setting and turn based I didn't last longer than a few minutes… not even on a lowly 'collect ore' mission.

10) Witchaven 2 (shooter, PC, 1996): While the first Witchaven was a decent fantasy shooter, Witchaven 2 suffered from quite wobbly controls which rendered the game unplayable in certain places. Needless to say I was disappointed.


I know there are more games I disliked on my shelf, but this should suffice for now .

1- Lionheart: Half disappointed with this game. Barcelona parts are good and gives you enough freedom. But, other parts of the game reeks of bad Diablo clone. They had released lots of alternative history about this game before it was released, but in game you find nothing of it.

2- Mistmare: This game tought me not to expect too much from a small company. I tried so hard to love this game, but it is totally a disaster.

3- Oblivion: Again, i expect too much from it. To take me away from this world like Morrowind. But, alas, it has no spirit.

4- Harbinger: I think devs of this game would be good politicians. Lots of promises (Fallout in a spaceship, bah), result terrible Diablo clone.

5- Restricted Area: Do not swell your game to much, it can explode. Again, another Fallout promise, Diablo result.

6- Dungeon Lords: Bradley came with a lot of promise, gaming sites had proclaimed this as the Best RPG before it has released. It is like devs just started to develop DL and bored with it at some time in development. No furnishing in a cathedral? One of the devs said they did not set furnitures to the game because they demand lots of system requirements. Ahh, be gone.

7- Hellgate London: Would be disappointment. Open cinematics are very well, alright. But, it is only 'cinematics'. Did you see the ingame videos? Your avatar does not walk, he flies on the ground. I hope they will change it until the release.

8-9-10- Reserved: for games like Gothic 3, Sacred, Titan Quest. These games are very good and some of them are classics for me. But, i do not like this approach: buy the game, patch later, play another time. We gamers are not betatesters, so find yourself some. This approach cripples PC gaming i am afraid.

Jaz, the OC of NWN was CRAP!! HOWEVER, Hordes was great and many of the mods were superb. Don't judge the game by the OC, PLEASE!! For example, our online group has been playing the Sands of Fate trilogy over a couple of years now, (along with a few other fantastic mods whose names I can't quickly remember) and they were WELL worth the price of admission!!

Corwin, just how am I supposed to judge a game then? By the additional value it offers (or might offer, in the case of future addons) - that I didn't ask for in the first place?
When I spend money on a game, I expect to be entertained straight out of the box. I hadn't bought NWN to play MP games, nor did I buy it to mod or play mods, nor could I foresee that it there would be nice addons later on. I bought the game for what I thought was a fun single-player game, and it wasn't, so I was disappointed. When I spend money on a game, I expect instant gratification. I do not wish to rely on fan-made mods to get something out of a game - for me personally, modability is not a criterion at all.

Seems like Oblivion is pretty much in most of the lists above. Of course, dissapointment is directly related to expectations so that's probably why.

Whoo, tough one. Here's a list of games that either (a) I never managed to get more than barely started with, or (b) that left me feeling distinctly disappointed after finishing. In no particular order. Not all of these are RPG's though.

* Baldur's Gate II with Shadows of Amn. I've tried getting started on this about three times, and always lost interest after putzing around Calimshan a bit. So sue me.

* Sacred. Played for a half-dozen hours with two or three different characters, and totally failed to see the point of continuing. Besides, it kept crashing.

* Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Lost interest in Innsmouth. Might be going back for another try though.

* Deus Ex II. 'Nuff said.

* NWN OC and Shadows of Undrentide. Made it through, left with a distinct "So that was it, then?" feeling. Liked HoTU, though, and found SCoC and DoD were pleasant enough. Loved Pig Farmer.

* DOOM 3. Crawling through tunnels and having things go BOO! at you is fun enough... for a while. But it gets old fast...

* Myth 3: The Wolf Age. I absolutely loved Myth 1 and 2, but gave up on 3 after that really, really frustrating dungeon crawl type thing where a single mistake would force a restart due to attrition.

* Oblivion. There's a Finnish saying: "Many cakes are pretty to look at, but sawdust inside." That's Oblivion.

* Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Got bored and never got past the first couple of missions. Nice music. Perhaps I'll give it another shot one of these days. Liked San Andreas well enough, though.

* Devastation. Can you spell "lame?"

That's all I can think of at the time. Gothic 3 is close to being on the list, but I can't honestly include a game that hooked me for tens of hours, no matter what its deficiencies and no matter what my expectations were.

I do have a list, but fortunately for me I've managed to forget all the names on it, and I do not want to bring any of them back into memory. Good riddance I say!

I would never cry "I want my money back", but a game which was actually painful to play was "TechnoMage". Sheesh, horrible game.
Oh, I absolutely hate Ultima IX, but I had some fun when I played it and so I'd say I don't have a right to demand my money back. There are even really bad games which are useful as bad examples (I'm a hobby gamedesigner). For instance, I love to bash Deus Ex: Invisible Wars and Thief: Deadly Shadows, because they're good demonstrations of bad design choices.

Jaz, I TOTALLY understand your PoV re NWN, but I didn't buy it primarily for the OC, but so I could play with friends online, which is what I've been doing since the game came out!! Guess it has to do with purpose. I bought NWN 2 for the same reason, but so far, I'm enjoying its OC much more than the original!!

Fun topic, Jaz!

Don't know if I can come up with 10, but I'll see how far I go. No explanations now since I should be working, but I'll come back and edit later.
#1: Might and Magic 9 (an insult to the series, they completely forgot what made MM6 and MM7 so darn good)
#2: Morrowind (so much to do and absolutely no reason to do any of it, what a letdown)
#3: Deadlock (glowing review in CGW failed to emphasize the single player AI was horrible terrible and downright lousy)
#4: Wizards and Warriors (bugs, bugs, and so much potential unrealized)
#5: Alpha Centauri (could have been good on its own merits, but couldn't hold up to the Sid Meier / Microprose pedigree)
#6: Black and White (sorta like W&W, there's bits and pieces of a great game in here, but it just fails to get off the ground)

(Will agree with Sammy that Arcanum didn't pan out due to balancing issues. I think I put too many hours into it to add it to this list, though.)

Gokyabgu said:

5- Restricted Area: Do not swell your game to much, it can explode. Again, another Fallout promise, Diablo result.

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Click to expand...

How could I forget this one? Started out loving it and by two hours in I was ready to find the devs and attack them with the sharp edge of the cd. Terrible, terrible game, and a blatant rip-off of Fallout concepts crossed with a blatant rip-off of Diablo game mechanics.

Also forgot Might & Magic 9-an insult to the series and I wasn't overly thrilled with Heroes IV, though it was nowhere near as cheesy and I did enjoy parts of it.
@dteowner
Wizards and Warriors was a lot of fun for me, but I have to admit I gave up after the Vampire Ring bug--ii just disabled the game.

When it comes to RPG's I'm exceptionally forgiving so even though there are games that have been less than what I had hoped for I can usually find mitigating circumstances that allow me to enjoy the game nevertheless. However, I have to agree with Jaz regarding NWN ... and with Corwin as well

I don't do online games for the simple reason that they all suffer from the same game breaking flaw: The human aspect. This is a topic for another discussion so left me just say that EVERY single multiplayer game I've ever played has at some point been ruined by the other players either by exploiting weaknesses/bugs in the game or by their utter lack of any understanding of "team play". Anyway, I actually rather liked the first chapter of the original campaign (in Neverwinter with the plague and all) so when I reached chapter 2 I was dismayed to see how glaringly disjointed the module system was. It felt like I had started the wrong game, so different was each chapter from the previous one. Even though there was certain parts that was pretty good (like the subplot involving the ghost town and the 2 brothers) the whole campaign just went downhill. So yes, I was pretty disappointed with NWN.

I don't regret buying it though because I've enjoyed playing both of the expansion packs and there was never anything wrong with the engine in the first place. I like huge epic stories so I never really got into the whole user made mods (perhaps that was a mistake on my part).

Well, as I said I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to RPG's (in every shade and colour) so I can't really think of game from that genre that I regret buying, but there are other genres, so here is a few out of the top of my head:

1) Doom3. At some point I remember saying to myself (I know it is odd talking to oneself but hey, I never claimed to right in the head to begin with ): "If something pokes me in the back when I turn this corner I'm going to unistall the game". I turned the corner and 2 minutes later the game was no longer on my HD.

2) Broken Sword 3: The Boring Dragon ... erm ... The Sleeping Dragon. "Hey we got a new 3D engine that allows George to push crates around so let's build a game around crate pushing". Boring puzzles, boring and frustrating stealth sequences (why on earth the put stealth elements into an adventure game I'll never understand) and a pretty weak story made Broken Sword 3 ... well, broken.

3) The Longest Journey 2: Dreamfall. Okay, I can forgive the utterly pointless and exceptionally poorly designed fighting sequences in the game. I can even forgive the timed/stealth sequences though I don't like either ... but to spend 10-15 hours being sucked into an engaging and interesting story/setting with interesting characters and dozens of subplots, only to have the game stop without tying even ONE loose end, let alone the main plot, is just totally unacceptable. I felt ripped off. I usally take pride in being able to enjoy something for what it is. I can enjoy Shakespearean and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies side by side because what one offers in dialogue, the other offers in action. Heck I wasn't even disappointed with Deus Ex 2 because I knew it was a mere shadow of the original before I bought it. But with Dreamfall I felt cheated for the first time in a very long time. It was not a matter of Funcom running out of time/money before they could finish the story properly. It was intentional to make the biggest cliff hanger "ending" I've ever seen yet they utterly failed to mention that fact anywhere.

I'm sure there are others but the above mentioned are some of the worst I can think of right now.

Ultima IX Dragon Edition.

Best experience with that game was being able to take that huge box that wouldn't fit on a normal shelf and drop kick it out the window!

Honorable Mention: Cybergenic Ranger....ugh..what a crapfest!