Discussion Games that hated playing/wasted money on/won't recommend to others?

[MegaApple]

Combining all the negative ideas into one, what games you played (and maybe finished) that you felt were

1. Very bad
2. Bland/mediocre/nothing interesting
3. Felt you wasted money/time into it
4. Wouldn't recommend it, even to your enemies

Anything from biggest AAAs to shovelwares. Not necessary that you've beaten them.

---

I've always taken games at their own merits and try to have little to no bias. And so I'm able to enjoy many games.
That said, Blades of Time is a painfully mediocre action game that I wish I never wasted my time on. It is the same hacking and slashing through same enemies and repetitive puzzles all over. Voice acting makes my ears bleed.

 

[NarohDethan]

Fear 3
Just Cause 3 and 4
Dead Rising Wii
Fortnite (heh)

They’re all pieces of shit

 

[Kurt Russell]

Duke Nukem Forever definitely fits that bill for me. Bought it at launch, beat it last year due to how much I disliked it. There are probably a few others that I don't remember, but that one was definitely a waste of time for me.

 

[fantomena]

I have tried Just Cause 4 every time it's been on Steam free weekend + when it was on Xbox game pass. I should like it, but I don't, it's really crap.

 

[Gevin]

Gris, extremely boring experience

 

[MegaApple]

Fear 3

Yup, forgot that one. Play it on my college friend's laptop, it was generic as hell.

Just Cause 3 and 4

Just Cause 4

Only played JC2, which was kinda nice but repetitive. Sounds like sequels didn't do much.

Duke Nukem Forever

I wish they somehow finished the 2001 version and shipped it. I remember watching that trailer on PC magazine CDs.

 

[gabbo]

Alien vs Predator 2010
Completely ruined the feeling of freedom that the 98 version provided and the sound was terrible

 

[beep boop]

Bloodstained ROTN comes to mind. It wasn't actively bad most of the time (just sometimes), but it didn't have anything to add to the genre. Just a mildly different flavor of the same thing we've already had a dozen games like. I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't that. Definitely felt like I wasted my money and time. Might as well have saved some money, replayed SOTN and enjoyed myself more.

Blossom Tales is another. I've seen plenty people praise this, but I felt cheated after having played a bit of it. Blossom Tales is to ALTTP what Super Mario Bros. Special is to Super Mario Bros.. Just do yourself a favor and play Minit if you've got an itch for a Zelda-like.

Quest of Dungeons. I played it for like twenty minutes. It's not very interesting. (Also, gotta love Nintendo for still not providing refunds. What a joke.)

I also have a lot of hot takes on most modern JRPGs that I've played, but I think that might just be a me thing.

 

[NarohDethan]

Only played JC2, which was kinda nice but repetitive. Sounds like sequels didn't do much.

Imagine the repetitiveness of 2, but with progression bars to arbitrarily lock you out of upgrades.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Animal Crossing on GameCube. I was a little hesitant, but I loved The Sims. So I bought it, played it for about three hours over two days, and thought the entire experience was horrible with nothing fun about any of the activities. I also like to play for extended periods of time so a game that's designed around only playing a bit every day and checking in (which is what a lot of GaaS do and people moan about but accept it with Animal Crossing) simply doesn't work for me. I get the appeal of decorating a space, but it helps when the rest of the game is actually entertaining. That's why The Sims works and Animal Crossing doesn't.

And for one more: Alan Wake. It's a prime example I give of a game I hate-beat. I quickly realized I didn't like anything about how the game flowed, the story, and the characters. I've never been into that method of surreal storytelling where it's like the character is in a living dream/nightmare. But this was on 360 during the achievements heyday so I think I played it on hard and pushed myself through it just so I could be done and have the achievements. And I bought it on release day. I hated every moment and by the time the ending story was being unveiled I let out an actual "Oh, fuck you" and just looked at the game in disgust.

 

[NarohDethan]

Animal Crossing

My problem with AC games is that eventually it becomes a chore to play them.

 

[MegaApple]

Alan Wake

I'm halfway done and can totally understand why you hated it.

I played it on hard

Here. AW has some really 2001 tier bad enemy placements and encounters, which has me putting down the game (despite me liking its story presentation). Playing on hard only increased that frustration.

 

[Kurt Russell]

Yup, forgot that one. Play it on my college friend's laptop, it was generic as hell.



Only played JC2, which was kinda nice but repetitive. Sounds like sequels didn't do much.


I wish they somehow finished the 2001 version and shipped it. I remember watching that trailer on PC magazine CDs.

Oh yes, the 2001 version was my dream. I'm one of the people who foolishly held on to the hope that the game might turn out good after all. Heck, I still have hope that the 2001 version will some day get a public release.

 

[uraizen]

Is beating the game a necessity? It's kind of hard to want to beat a game that I hate within a few hours, if that.

 

[Kurt Russell]

Is beating the game a necessity? It's kind of hard to want to beat a game that I hate within a few hours, if that.

I don't think so, at least I didn't get the idea that it was a nacessity from the OP.

 

[uraizen]

I don't think so, at least I didn't get the idea that it was a nacessity from the OP.

Good; I hate it when someone comes and is like "it doesn't get good until 20 hours in!" I wish I could say that's hyperbole, but I've been told that for RPGs before.

 

[NarohDethan]

Good; I hate it when someone comes and is like "it doesn't get good until 20 hours in!" I wish I could say that's hyperbole, but I've been told that for RPGs before.

My limit for ‘getting good’ is 2 hours. That’s why almost drop TLOU and probably will never play ir again because the intro is so bad.

 

[texhnolyze]

I very rarely made bad purchases because I always know what I want and what I will like.

However, there's this game that I still regret buying, which is Shadow of War, the sequel to Mordor. I played the first game and I hated it, and yet I was brought into hype for the sequel. I remember that the good regional pricing was one of the main factors that pushed me to buy it (besides the notion that it's supposed to be more RPG than its predecessor). I pushed through the 2nd chapter but I just couldn't take it anymore and dropped it later without finishing it.

 

[Wok]

The Elder Scrolls: Legends, because I have often grinded gold with daily quests, gems vs. AI, and the daily login rewards (you get a legendary card if you have a streak of 30 days) there, only to learn that the game is discontinued.

F2P games are the worst when it comes to respecting your time. I would never recommend a F2P game to a friend.

I am trying to get away from Gwent, Hearthstone, and Runeterra. I still connect daily to cycle through the daily quests, or for the daily rewards, but I avoid playing these games every day. I will do the daily quests every 3 days, I guess. Then try to progressively stop doing them at all.

I will likely avoid Artifact due to the obvious battle-pass business model which is going to be there.

 

[MegaApple]

Is beating the game a necessity? It's kind of hard to want to beat a game that I hate within a few hours, if that.

Nope, I'll edit it

Bloodstained ROTN comes to mind. It wasn't actively bad most of the time (just sometimes), but it didn't have anything to add to the genre. Just a mildly different flavor of the same thing we've already had a dozen games like. I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't that. Definitely felt like I wasted my money and time. Might as well have saved some money, replayed SOTN and enjoyed myself more.

Blossom Tales is another. I've seen plenty people praise this, but I felt cheated after having played a bit of it. Blossom Tales is to ALTTP what Super Mario Bros. Special is to Super Mario Bros.. Just do yourself a favor and play Minit if you've got an itch for a Zelda-like.

Quest of Dungeons. I played it for like twenty minutes. It's not very interesting. (Also, gotta love Nintendo for still not providing refunds. What a joke.)

I also have a lot of hot takes on most modern JRPGs that I've played, but I think that might just be a me thing.

Saving myself a lot of money here, esp if Bloodstained thing is true.

I'd actually like to hear your JRPG thoughts.

I very rarely made bad purchases because I always know what I want and what I will like.

However, there's this game that I still regret buying, which is Shadow of War, the sequel to Mordor. I played the first game and I hated it, and yet I was brought into hype for the sequel. I remember that the good regional pricing was one of the main factors that pushed me to buy it (besides the notion that it's supposed to be more RPG than its predecessor). I pushed through the 2nd chapter but I just couldn't take it anymore and dropped it later without finishing it.

This is one of the games I played non-stop for almost 2 days (never happened in my life) and after I reach chapter 4, I absolutely hated every minute I spent on it. This was before the rebalance patch of 2018 that removed the "lootboxes" and made grinding to bearable levels.

F2P games are the worst when it comes to respecting your time. I would never recommend a F2P game to a friend.

True words never spoken more true.
Honest question, is there even a good card video game?

 

[lashman]

so I think I played it on hard and pushed myself through it just so I could be done and have the achievements.

are you Derrick01?

 

[kio]

I believe I've got a few games that deserve a mention (in no particular order):

• Cosmic Star Heroine - It gets a decent amount of praise but it's so shallow and repetitive and the combat is so mediocre it hurts. Everything is based on combos but they all suck and lack any sense of power. The story and characters are also painfully bad.
• Graveyard Keeper - Not necessarily a bad game but my god the grind is unbearable. Everything is a chore, you have to grind the same activities for countless hours just to be able to unlock a new tool that will allow you to grind something else for countless hours again.
• The Last Remnant - Probably one the worst games I've ever played. Tried to get into it 4 times over the last 10 years and always bounce off after 2h. The combat makes no sense and the characters and story are so mind numbing mediocre.
• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy - I hope the only reason people think this is good it's because of nostalgia and general kid stupidity because this is one of the worst platformers I've ever played. There's nothing salvageable here.
• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale - Another grindy game but this time with an anime coat of paint...
• Invisible, Inc. - As a TBS and TRPG aficionado this one hurts the most, not because it's bad but because it's shallow and hollow. It's repetitive and eventually leads to nothing. You're expected to repeat the same scenarios ad-nauseam for what? to unlock another character with another basic ability and repeat everything again...

I've always taken games at their own merits and try to have little to no bias. And so I'm able to enjoy many games.
That said, Blades of Time is a painfully mediocre action game that I wish I never wasted my time on. It is the same hacking and slashing through same enemies and repetitive puzzles all over. Voice acting makes my ears bleed.

I remember playing that game back when GMG game you credit for achievements. If I'm not mistaken that one made me 3€.

 

[Prodigy]

Raven's Cry - I'm a sucker for pirate games, so I thought how bad can it be...Yeah it's really bad.
Two Worlds - Weirdly I didn't mind two worlds 2
Hellgate London

 

[Flips]

Life is Strange 2

Expected to love it as much as LiS1 and BtS but it was boring, had no charm at all and the worst offender in this whole mess: the little brother I wanted to push off a cliff 20 minutes in.

 

[texhnolyze]

Life is Strange 2

Expected to love it as much as LiS1 and BtS but it was boring, had no charm at all and the worst offender in this whole mess: the little brother I wanted to push off a cliff 20 minutes in.

Are you picking a fight with lashman ?

 

[Wok]

Honest question, is there even a good card video game?

Most two-player card games are fun for some time as you learn and master the mechanics.
Then they become bland and the F2P tricks are there to keep you playing.

As for single-player games, I like Gremlins Inc., Dream Quest, Slay the Spire, etc.

 

[Swenhir]

No Man's Sky.

I adore space sims, atmospheric exploration games and anything that has even a semblance of story woven into those elements. Yet despite installing mods and making the attempt twice, that game has thoroughly turned me off

First and foremost, the feeling of scale is non-existent. You can see as far as most FPS games and it never feels larger than a single map. The transition from ground to space is both much too quick and the lack of details coming in from space make the transition both jarring and the switch of systems transparent. The view distance is puny and the planet generation also fails to feel compelling. It clearly is random noise applied to a height map and the pattern is quickly obvious. They never manage to hide it, to decorate or intertwine it with more generation systems. It's naked and bare to the eye.

Second, the lighting and post-processing. To say that the game's lighting feels unnatural and fake would be an understatement. It's horrendous, not dynamic in the least and even the day-night cycle manages to feel unnatural. And I don't mean in an exotic, alien way. It just feels unnatural to the way light works. When the sun is out, an artificial filter is plastered on the screen like a permanent glare that only goes away once you climb in your ship. The color grading is also rather offensive. In short, it's a game whose atmosphere is inexistent.

Thirdly, the gameplay. Repetitive and awkward doesn't even begin to describe it. Constant suit system call-outs, incredibly awkward and unintuitive inventory system where abilities are slotted and repaired in the strangest ways. And most of all, some of the options you want or need are hidden away not in keybindings or options in the menu but in the quick action menu that you never learn about. Want to switch from 3rd to 1st? You have to go through a couple levels of those to find it.

Fourth, the narrative. Or rather, lack thereof. You find out words about a language, and at no point do have any semblance of a story thread over than "Oh, maybe it's a loop of some kind". It's non-existent as far as I can tell and the original ending, which I hope has been improved, doesn't show much promise that this game is intended to be a narrative journey.

I really wanted to like that game but the world feels fake, every moment spent looking at a planet's surface is irritating at some level and every motion you take triggers about half a dozen alarms about your impending doom to the sight of progress bars slowly depleting.

That game is not for me. It fails at depicting a beautiful world or even providing a sense of place at all. It's hollow and its sky is empty.

 

[ISee]

1. Anybody remember "Z"? The gaming press was hyped when it came out '96 and as a strategy fan I bought it day one. I hated it from the very first mission.

2. Quantum Break. No idea why this is being praised so much. Quiet the game after 4ish hours because I was bored af. Especially the game-play was underwhelming, the cut-scenes seemed interesting at first but didn't caught me either.

3. Dragon Age 2. I played Dragon Age as a CRPG, for the most part. It was clunky, but the "revolutionary" action oriented combat in the successor didn't stick with me at all. I also wasn't able to get over the idea that it wasn't a direct Awakening continuation and the lackluster, mirrored paste and copy dungeons did the rest. Play hated through it though, because I had hope for the story. I was naive.

4. FO76. I don't want to talk about it

5. Godus. FU @ peter molyneux

6. Warhammer Dawn of War 3: Everything needs Dota elements.

 

[lashman]

Life is Strange 2

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Persona 5

Metal Gear Solid (pretty much the entire franchise with the exception of Revengeance, just not my thing and 1-3 aged like a milk)

FInal Fantasy XIII (if being bland as hell wasn't enough, Vanille having an orgasm every time she opens her mouth is incredibly irritating)

Yakuza: Dead Souls (worst tps ever, worst aiming ever)

 

[ISee]

Persona 5

To quote a certain somebody:

 

[Swenhir]

To quote a certain somebody:

Okay, I have to ask : what's the deal with P5? I don't think it's my kind of game but last I checked it seemed to make fans of the series happy.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Okay, I have to ask : what's the deal with P5? I don't think it's my kind of game but last I checked it seemed to make fans of the series happy.

It simply feels stagnant, has the worst cast of characters and pretty shallow and inconsistent story. Great menus tho.

 

[Durante]

I very rarely made bad purchases because I always know what I want and what I will like.

However, there's this game that I still regret buying, which is Shadow of War, the sequel to Mordor. I played the first game and I hated it, and yet I was brought into hype for the sequel. I remember that the good regional pricing was one of the main factors that pushed me to buy it (besides the notion that it's supposed to be more RPG than its predecessor). I pushed through the 2nd chapter but I just couldn't take it anymore and dropped it later without finishing it.

I'm in the same boat regarding mostly buying what I know I will like, at least in the last decade.

One exception was Ni No Kuni 2. It's a really similar situation to what you posted about Mordor. I also didn't like the first NNK in the long run, but people told me 2 was much different and better. And it was on Steam which made me much more willing to give it a try.

The game has a lot going for it: beautiful art, good music, lots of content and systems, etc. But ultimately (and we're talking "ultimately" in the sense of a few hours here, not after I had my fill) I just found it painfully dull.

Okay, I have to ask : what's the deal with P5? I don't think it's my kind of game but last I checked it seemed to make fans of the series happy.

It probably makes fans happy because the issues I personally have with it are the same in 3 and 4: all of these games are significantly longer than what their gameplay and overall content variety justifies.

 

[NarohDethan]

Life is Strange 2

Expected to love it as much as LiS1 and BtS but it was boring, had no charm at all and the worst offender in this whole mess: the little brother I wanted to push off a cliff 20 minutes in.

Playing with fire arent we?

 

[Swenhir]

It simply feels stagnant, has the worst cast of characters and pretty shallow and inconsistent story. Great menus tho.

It probably makes fans happy because the issues I personally have with it are the same in 3 and 4: all of these games are significantly longer than what their gameplay and overall content variety justifies.

Thank you both for the answer! Given that in your case, Durante, I know you tend to enjoy JRPG, that is a big red flag for me.

 

[ISee]

Okay, I have to ask : what's the deal with P5? I don't think it's my kind of game but last I checked it seemed to make fans of the series happy.

I'm not a long time fan. Was my first persona game ever and I enjoyed it a lot.
Music, presentation, style, story, cast, battle system. I had nothing to complain about.
I took a deep dive into the world and never regreted it.

 

[Kandrick]

Thanks to the other thread for reminding me that shit shit exists.

Journey.

I don't ever regret buying games, i just shrug it off if i don't like something in the end, but journey is one of the games i'd have asked for a refund if i could.

 

[TheGreenArrow]

Life is Strange 2. Complete waste of money.

 

[MegaApple]

space sims, atmospheric exploration games and anything that has even a semblance of story woven into those elements.

Played a lot of Freelancer back in the day and I know what you mean.
NMS, I feel, is an elaborate survival-type game (Subnautica, The Forest etc.) rather than a proper Space Sim, so I think it is easy to get disappointed by it expecting the latter.

Anybody remember "Z"?

Played a bit of it few years back, kinda liked the idea but I can't imagine playing for long.

Dragon Age 2

It was one of the first western RPGs I played
Just my personal bias, I actually really like the combat of this game, felt more connected than top-down isometric RPGs. Felt more connected to the character. Inquisition refined it though.
Like how it handled choices in the first act, genuinely surprised at a few moments.
But yeah, it's very undercooked, even for the small scope they were going for.

 

[lashman]

Life is Strange 2. Complete waste of money.

 

[FunnyJay]

It just feels unnatural to the way light works. When the sun is out, an artificial filter is plastered on the screen like a permanent glare that only goes away once you climb in your ship.

But I thought they had to invent an entirely new periodic table with new elements so that the light could be rendered in different colors realistically...

 

[TheVectronic]

I rarely regret purchasing games, but the ones that I do was due to a failed promise that wasn't achieved.

One of the games was Found Horror Game 11.exe, it's a cheap game maker compilation horror game that has an interesting premise, implementing a fully fledged ARG between the community & the developer through Steam's discussion boards that's currently ongoing at the moment.

I played through it expecting an interesting puzzle solving horror mystery game, but I came out rather disappointed when half of the games crashed upon start up or were uninteresting to play through because the game design is so lackluster & rudimentary. I understand that they are listed as old games that never came to fruition by the developer in his early game developing days, but surely updating it to circumvent these problems would help immerse the player a lot better long after the ARG aspect has been gone.

It didn't help that upon booting each game up for the first time, the developer talks about the game & the development process extensively before it starts. I don't mind when a developer talks about the development process of a game, but I would like to play the game first & have that unlocked afterwards as a bonus if the player is interested in learning more about it.

I honestly don't mind that the developer is even making the game to begin with, it's a really interesting concept to tackle, but the execution isn't worth the price even if it's cheap. This would honestly be a much better experience if the game were free since it would eliminate a barrier of entry for an ARG & would allow people who are genuinely curious about it to pick it up without feeling ripped off afterwards.

There are far better horror games out there to play, so I'll list a few that are really good that you can play at the moment for free both on Steam & itch.io.

Rot by Michael Bonardi

Rot is a psychological horror story about obsession, rejection and self-hate

smashing-games.itch.io

We Don't Talk About It by Michael Bonardi

Art-horror game about how hard it can be to express yourself

smashing-games.itch.io

If anyone else has any more free horror games they want to add in, let me know & I'll add it into the list.

 

[kio]

1. Anybody remember "Z"? The gaming press was hyped when it came out '96 and as a strategy fan I bought it day one. I hated it from the very first mission.

Those are fighting words my good sir! It had it's flaws and the difficulty curve was a 90º steep climb but it was a wonderful game. After all these years I can still remember the grenadiers and light tank rushes. Fuck the last level though.

3. Dragon Age 2. I played Dragon Age as a CRPG, for the most part. It was clunky, but the "revolutionary" action oriented combat in the successor didn't stick with me at all. I also wasn't able to get over the idea that it wasn't a direct Awakening continuation and the lackluster, mirrored paste and copy dungeons did the rest. Play hated through it though, because I had hope for the story. I was naive.

The only thing it ever did right was introduce me to Florence + The Machine, other than that it's complete garbage. DA:O wasn't that great either...

 

[Swenhir]

But I thought they had to invent an entirely new periodic table with new elements so that the light could be rendered in different colors realistically...

I can appreciate the mind-breaking complexity of writing a renderer for a game of this complexity and scale, but what they ended up with hurts my eyeballs and sensibility. It's just wrong from an art perspective, from a physics perspective and I even disagree with it from a technical standpoint. Hell even the cloud's lighting at night is bloody wrong.

I find it hard to articulate properly other than the world felt fake, gamey and I quickly put it down.

 

[uraizen]

Ah, I finally thought of a game with absolutely no redeeming qualities.

YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z

Nothing was good about that game at all. No, wait, I take it back. The one redeeming quality was that it's short. I could not believe this was a thing when they released it. It makes DmC look godlike in comparison.

 

[FunnyJay]

I find it hard to articulate properly other than the world felt fake, gamey and I quickly put it down.

I was just reminded of their ludicrous claim during the development of the game.
I mean, it's a game. You can render the light however you want (as long as it's technically possible).

Everything before the launch of NMS was crazy claims from the devs, and weirdly high expectations from the players since the devs never started what you could or couldn't do... Fanning the flames of expectations.

 

[Swenhir]

I was just reminded of their ludicrous claim during the development of the game.
I mean, it's a game. You can render the light however you want (as long as it's technically possible).

Everything before the launch of NMS was crazy claims from the devs, and weirdly high expectations from the players since the devs never started what you could or couldn't do... Fanning the flames of expectations.

So that thing about the periodic table struck me as being probably a quote taken out of context or something that a journalist misunderstood. Perhaps it was a PBR material where they had to come up with a fancy thing or perhaps it was a dumb old loot table.

Nope.

The team programmed some of the physics for aesthetic reasons. For instance, Duncan insisted on permitting moons to orbit closer to their planets than Newtonian physics would allow. When he desired the possibility of green skies, the team had to redesign the periodic table to create atmospheric particles that would diffract light at just the right wavelength.

Surely, he's talking about something else. He has to be refering something that has a basis in the rendering technique for mie and rayleigh scattering, right? He's got to be meaning they had to come up with some sort of physical model for the atmospheric rendering and looked for data to feed it in order to achieve those colors, and had to come up with particles?

Nope. They shipped with a good old color look-up table for the sky, horizon, fog and clouds as far as I can tell.

This is a rabbit hole your comment sent me down into and I'm at the same time puzzled, mad and confused at what the hell even happened there.

 

[Anteater]

Some people just love bad shit and they deserve all of it

 

[texhnolyze]

I'm in the same boat regarding mostly buying what I know I will like, at least in the last decade.

One exception was Ni No Kuni 2. It's a really similar situation to what you posted about Mordor. I also didn't like the first NNK in the long run, but people told me 2 was much different and better. And it was on Steam which made me much more willing to give it a try.

The game has a lot going for it: beautiful art, good music, lots of content and systems, etc. But ultimately (and we're talking "ultimately" in the sense of a few hours here, not after I had my fill) I just found it painfully dull.

Ah yes, Ni No Kuni 2 is a good example as well.

While I adore the artstyle and the combat is good at first, everything becomes boring and repetitive after some point in early game. The whole game is basically built around a template, you visit a new town, learn its issues, fix the issue and do some side quests while you're at it. In the end, you'll get a new party member and you proceed to the next town. I kept playing, expecting some serious change later in the game, but my patient was not rewarded at all. It's a dull game indeed, but I don't actually hate it. It's just disappointing.