Community Interesting Bad Games

TheVectronic

The Wondering Scribe
Oct 31, 2018
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Puerto Rico
Now for something completely different. This thread will focus on the good side of bad videogames.

- Have you played a game that was in desperate need of polish, but had novel ideas that can be used for other games?
- What bad game would've benefited from releasing much later for big fixing?
- Any guilty pleasures?
- What bad game can be revamped into a much better game?

All of these & more! Submit away!
 
OP
TheVectronic

TheVectronic

The Wondering Scribe
Oct 31, 2018
206
395
63
Puerto Rico
Perfection...
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I'll start with guilty pleasures. Both Kane and Lynch games have been rightly criticized for many things, but I still played through them more than once because I found the way the characters worked fascinating. With better gameplay, I'm sure they would have been received a lot better too.
I've not played Kane & Lynch yet I own both games. I'm always down to exploring games that can bring something new to the table. This sounds exactly what I'm looking for.
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Basically every indie/small studio RPG ever.

ELEX was one of my GOTY last year, but damn, isn't it buggy as hell. This year, I've got Pathfinder Kingmaker, the devs were applying a hotfix almost every day at launch.
I haven't heard of any of these games before. ELEX's description is rather intriguing. Might look into that myself. As for Pathfinder, I'm not too keen on the Isometric RPGs, but it must suck seeing it bug ridden as it was a crowdfunded game.
 
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Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
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I wouldnt say any of these are bad games, just potential to be great.

Elex - already been mentioned

Seven The days long gone- has a lot of potential, I believe it was done by some ex CD Projekt developers

Precursors was super ambitious - Sci-Fi RPG where you have a few open worlds to do quests, get your own spaceship, fight in space, board spacestations etc...

Viking: Battle for Asgard - guilty pleasure game
 

Kurt Russell

SUPREME OVERLORD OF EVIL
Sep 6, 2018
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Mar del Plata
I wouldnt say any of these are bad games, just potential to be great.

Elex - already been mentioned

Seven The days long gone- has a lot of potential, I believe it was done by some ex CD Projekt developers

Precursors was super ambitious - Sci-Fi RPG where you have a few open worlds to do quests, get your own spaceship, fight in space, board spacestations etc...

Viking: Battle for Asgard - guilty pleasure game
Thanks for reminding me about Precursors! I got it when they released it on Steam but almost immediately forgot to play it because there were some big releases that week.
 
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Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
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Thanks for reminding me about Precursors! I got it when they released it on Steam but almost immediately forgot to play it because there were some big releases that week.
No problem, I believe it is done by the boiling point road to hell developers. Just know there is Elex AA quality and then there is precursors AA quality.
Interesting games come out of Russia though, like that game vivisector.
 

KenOD

MetaMember
Oct 25, 2018
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The easy answer for me is Bionic Commando, the 3D game as most enjoyed the grappling/swinging, it just got let down by some sub par third person shooting and hilariously bad story telling.

Dark Void, a game of two good ideas in a jetpack to fly in and having stages designed to move vertically. Alas it took way to learn to really learn the flying, combat wasn't really that good, and stages weren't designed well enough to make use of the jetpack well enough, and the enemies were just mindless fodder rather than making you get to enjoy the combat by forcing you to make use of the jetpack in interesting ways.
I know a game could make use of a jetpack, I know a game could create some strong levels built around this (Titanfall 2 team perhaps), but right now all I really have is Tribes, Anthem which I doubt will keep me around due to that style of game, and Dark Void.

Finally Odama. It's pinball RTS. It's fun, but it's got issues that kept it from being more than just "that's a fun idea".
 

Madventure

The Angel of Deaf
Nov 17, 2018
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I kind of want to say Two Worlds II, at least for me I found it engaging enough to keep playing through and than I get all the way to the end and...

The last boss battle completely ignores everything about your character, it doesn't matter if you're a guy with a bow, a dude with a shield or an amazing mage whatever. You're just shooting a gigantic ass crossbow at a dragon and dodging fireballs in a circle.

Not to mention they've been putting out new game DLC for it after like what 6?+ years and tried putting in Microtransactions and removing console cheatcodes from the PC version of the game. That was hilarious. I'd say that at least qualifies as interesting
 

Kurt Russell

SUPREME OVERLORD OF EVIL
Sep 6, 2018
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Mar del Plata
No problem, I believe it is done by the boiling point road to hell developers. Just know there is Elex AA quality and then there is precursors AA quality.
Interesting games come out of Russia though, like that game vivisector.
Yup! They made Precursors and Xenus 2 (Boiling Point 2) I didn't like Xenus 2 as much as I liked the first one, but I am cautiously optimistic for Precursors, since the idea is amazing.
 
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Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
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www.pixiv.net
Yeah I'll say Kane & Lynch 2, it's not super bad but the shooting is incredibly mediocre, but the story and setting are kind of fascinating.

I still haven't played Deadly Premonition, last time I tried to run the game it felt like it was running in 30fps even though the counter says 60.
 
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lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
30,370
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Well that, and reboot your PC every time before you play it (no, seriously), and hope that you aren't one of the people it's broken for despite all that.

It's a shame, it's a very unique game.
yeah, that's true ... i wish they'd at least do a proper remaster or something :(
 
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Maxi

MetaMember
Nov 12, 2018
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One of mine I played farrrrrrrrrrrrr too much of which I think is always know to be an awful game but I couldn't help myself is Driv3r.

Not sure why it grabbed me the way it did but I spent hours messing around with that game knowing all the while it was bad.
 

MegaApple

Just another Video Game Enthusiast
Sep 20, 2018
1,445
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I'm guessing this also includes "mediocre" games as well.

Evergrace is an OK-not good PS2 RPG by FROMSOFT back when they were a little AA developer. What's interesting is their soundtrack, which can be the most painful thing you've ever heard or an utter brilliance depending on who you ask.

An example :
 
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TubaZef

MetaMember
Dec 19, 2018
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Daikatana had plenty of interesting ideas. I enjoy games that try to integrate the save system on it somehow and having an item to save was something I enjoyed, the item was usually hidden so you had another reason to explore and look for secret areas. The AI partners was ahead of it's time and the weapons were very fun to use. Some more polish and a better level design (first levels are pretty bad IMO) could have saved that game.

Deadly Premonition
No one can honestly argue that it's a good game. But it's charming as all hell with a pretty weird and crazy story to boot.
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I disagree, I think it's a good game. Yes, it is technically full of flaws but I think that's part of the charm. It feels like the team used all of their time and budget on what really mattered to them.

IMO if you write about, develop or is just very enthusiastic about games, you can learn a lot from playing bad games.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,277
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I finally sorted out my nvidia drivers on my pc after a rebuild and upgrade so i was going through some of my steam library testing things out, saw this thread and have a suggestion. Confession time first, Eurojank and it's ilk are some of my most fondly remembered games and i see that term as in no way, shape or form as an insult. Too ambitious for their own good? Getting <70% in reviews? A string of patches that eventually make the game stable enough to play? Sign me up!

All the ones i was going to mention are here: Deadly Premonition, The Precursors, Xenu-2, Daikatana, Boiling Point (Damn, some of the changelog entries were hysterical) and Elex come to mind.

History Lesson: Bad Rats gained it's infamy back in the day when you couldn't remove games from your Steam library and gifting bad games was an excellent prank to play on people. I still have 3 copies in my gifting inventory... hmmm, there may be a *Mystery* giveaway soon.

Anyway, i want to suggest "Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry" which had a very rocky launch but if you like Two World II, Risen 2/3 and Ass Creed: Black Flag then this is worth a go. It's very ambitious and creaking under it's own weight ready to shit-the-hammock at any point but you explore islands, get a ship and crew together, set-up trade routes, look for treasure and seek revenge on a scurvy dog. I've had very few crashes etc and have over 50 hours in it. Think Reality Bytes, Topware, Pirhana bytes etc. If you want Risen 2: Dark Waters with customisable ships and more open worldliness then Vendetta is the Cabin Boy for you.

Steam Page:
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,506
5,542
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Toronto
Aliens vs Predator 2010
-Huge step down in all but graphics from the 1998 version from the same company. Even the sound was bad by comparison.

If you're talking jank, that's a whole other realm - DNF, Two World 2, Redline: 2066, Deadly Premonition, Precursors, and White Gold: Xenus 2
Precursors was just too broken at the time, and couldnt get a playable framerate, so it's one I couldnt even complete. That said I see, under the lack of optimization, a good fun game. I seek that kind of thing out from time to time
 
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Alexandros

Every game should be turn based
Nov 4, 2018
2,670
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Does Gothic 3 count? It was a horrible mess, it still kinda is, but with a lot of community mods the trademark role-playing prowess of Piranha Bytes could finally shine through.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,277
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Yeah, the thing i've noticed with a lot of these games is that maybe they don't belong here anymore as they've had patches and fan patches and mods over the years that have helped polish the experiences to be closer to how the games should have released.

You gain brozouf.
 

suiko

saviour of worlds
Nov 12, 2018
307
650
93
I wouldn't call two world II a bad game, I know people are pretty divided on that, but divisive games really aren't bad, they are just not for everybody, but not like any game is,

Gothic 3 could count, but it's not an interesting bad game though

I tried to think long and hard what's an interesting bad game was, the one I want to play, but it's so baaaad, yeah, Deadly Premonitions is up there.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,543
2,608
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Drakengard.
Melee combat is junk, mounted combat is not much better, it looks absolutely horrendous even for its time, it's filled with weird dialogue and jumps the shark more than once, especially in the endings.

But it's also such interesting characters that you pretty much never see in videogames or almost ever. It gets FUCKING WEIRD.
A child murderer turning to cannibalism to metaphorically get back the kids she lost?
A guy that could not defend his family because he was too busy wanking in the forest and that really "likes" children?
Yeah, they're the good guys.

And they meet pretty gruesome endings.
But that's only the beginning, and it gets worse and worse with every game, if you play Nier and Nier Automata you can see how much of a fuck up every action taken ends up being.
 

Hero Prinny

Junior Member
Dec 14, 2018
45
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Prototype doesn't seem to be a popular game and definitely got the shorter end of the stick cause it came out around the same time as infamous 1 but not only do I still think Prototype 1 (haven't played the second) is better than Infamous 1, its genuinely a good game. yea, visually its pretty ugly, and the story is straight up dumb but its fucking FUN going around with insanely op powers killing monsters and the military who both got it out for you. I wish we'd get a 3rd game, I still plan on eventually installing the second one for some more fun.
 
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Eriugam

Premium Title
Nov 6, 2018
143
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United Kingdom
One of mine I played farrrrrrrrrrrrr too much of which I think is always know to be an awful game but I couldn't help myself is Driv3r.

Not sure why it grabbed me the way it did but I spent hours messing around with that game knowing all the while it was bad.
I played that game when I was much younger and only had a couple of others games at the time. Did you drive around, trying to find hidden areas? Where those Timmy guys would be?