30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[Chaos Incarnate]

 

Let me be as frank and clear as I can: I liked Mass Effect 3. It had a lot to live up too as a sequel to one of my favorite games. It's just that for all the things it managed to pull off wonderfully, there's so much that makes me scratch my head and wonder what the hell Bioware was even thinking.

 

Well, most of the core conflicts in the game were executed commendably, such as the conclusion to the Genophage arc and war between the Geth and Quarians. The combat is just as fun as ever, adding a big burst of adrenaline to firefights with how serious the threats you're fighting are. Not to mention a share of moments that hammer all the right emotions home, due to coming to know and love these characters across the whole entire trilogy. It's just a shame about some of the inexcusable crap scattered throughout. 

• Auto-Dialogue to a point of where the player doesn't really feel like Commander Shepard is a character whose personality and actions feel like their own anymore. (This is noticeably apparent in the Renegade playthrough I'm doing right now.)
• Why the fuck is nearly every character I spent a whole entire game recruiting not available for my squad in THE FINAL GAME OF THE TRILOGY? All the relationships built up, and barely anyone has a reasonable excuse as to why they can't join Shepard on The Normandy. Don't forget you're probably boned if you romanced anyone in Mass Effect 2 that wasn't Tali or Garrus.
• Sheer pandering to be made accessible for new players. Now, this is a double edged sword. You want more people to buy and become staunch fans of your IP, sure, tweak a few elements here and there. Make the plot a tad easier to follow, by all means. Add some new characters to represent someone going through a new experience, go ahead. But really, going THAT mainstream by hiring an untrained IGN employee to voice act for one of your characters, and screw over+have them replace the ones we've grown accustomed to? I would have gladly taken Emily Wong over 'Battle Tits" any day, thanks.
• The endings. I'm grateful toward The Extended Cut, but the fact that such a rushed original conclusion where most of the writing team was locked out from participating in the first place is unacceptable. How could the developers have expected their core audience to be satisfied by an ending with zero closure that didn't even show us how our actions played out, or even affect the choices we've been making the whole entire trilogy? Just atrocious.

 

So again, I still gladly replay The Mass Effect Trilogy over and over to this day, and The Extended Cut has eased my anger a bit. But seriously, the game deserved much more development time than it actually ended up getting, and here's hoping that Bioware stays true to their word and takes their fans' criticism to heart when developing the next Mass Effect title.

[Kuzu]

Ok, time to play catchup:

 

 

Day 12: Favorite "Next Gen" Experience

 

 

 

This one was pretty difficult because I had trouble figuring out what counted as a next gen experience for me, but I'd have to say playing the Nintendo DS for the first time. It was 2004, and the concept of a touch screen was so damn alien to me. My first real game for it was Sonic Rush, and using the stylus for the special stages was like "This is so amazing, why haven't I had this before". 

 

But moving on

 

 

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

 

 

Now imagine having heard about a game for so long; the critics loved it, the gamers loved it and you think "Well gee, maybe I'll like it too" And then you actually play it....and realize its really fucking boring.

 

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, Uncharted is a perfectly functional game, and there's nothing really wrong with it. It just bored the fuck out of me while playing it. The main thing that turned me off was how repetitive the gameplay was(transverse area, shoot mooks, transverse another area, solve a puzzle, MOAR MOOKS) and just how cliche'd the story felt. Yea, adventure archaeologist in search of hidden treasure and has to fight pirates along the way, been there.

 

The sad part is that I really wanted to like this game too after hearing so much about it, but I couldn't bring myself to give a shit. To this day, I still haven't finished it. I might get around to doing so over the Summer, but as it stands, its not really a must for me. I heard the sequels(Well...the second one anyway) were better, so maybe I'll give it a second glace. 

[Phantomime]

Alright, time to do some catching up. Starting with favorite boss, I'll be gradually adding in the days I missed along with the question of the day. 

 

RECAP 1: Favorite Boss: Jergingha (Massive W101 spoilers follow)

 

 

 

Okay, let's make something incredibly clear. All of The Wonderful 101's boss fights are FUCKING AWESOME. I could have picked pretty much any of them. That said, this boss has such a great feeling of scale and pure awesomeness that I can't really pick anything else. 

 

 

This is a giant robot made from a Moon-sized space station. He's a big guy. You are also in a giant robot. Your giant robot is made out of a city. You fight each other in space. That's all I really have to say. The atmosphere is awesome, the music is awesome, the scale is awesome, and the QTE at the end is awesome. 

 

I really don't have much else I can say, but I just really want you to buy and play through this game to experience it for yourself. This finale isn't something I want to ruin for you.

 

(On a side note, this was my other pick for Favorite Game)

 

 

Most Disappointing Game: Paper Mario: Stic-FUCK THIS GAME FUCK THIS GAME FUCK THIS GAME

 

 

OH YEAH. THERE WAS A FOURTH PAPER MARIO GAME. AND IT WAS SUCH A MINDBLOWINGLY FUCKING SHITTY ABOMINATION OF A "GAME" THAT I BLOCKED IT OUT OF MY MEMORY.

 

I've made so many posts about how I love the Paper Mario games, and how this thing just shits all over the series. 

 

It's got awful writing (when they even fucking bothered to put in dialogue), and they made Bowser a mute. It's got forgettable music. It's gameplay is just shitty inventory management. The boss difficulty is artificial, requiring you to know what sticker beats each boss before you fight it, and if you do know what the weakness is, the bosses are piss easy. There is no heart or inspiration in any of the worlds. Even the more arts-and-crafts-ish artstyle ended up being less charming than what the other games had. There are no redeeming qualities. Please spit on this game whenever you see a copy. 

 

I'd say "Fuck this game" or something, but that wouldn't adequately express my emotions. No, this is closer to how I feel.

 

 

[Jimbo]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

*sigh*

 

 

 

What makes Sonic Generations the most disappointing game to me is how big of a letdown it was after all of the hype it received. The first trailer for the game really piqued my interest. Two Sonics? A world that looked like Green Hill Zone? This looked like it could turn into something good. Then came this video:

 

 

Seeing Modern Sonic in Green Hill Zone was one of the single greatest things ever. Hype level? Through the roof. There wasn't much game play to see yet, but from what was shown as of this time, there was no doubt that this game had the potential to dethrone Sonic 3 and Knuckles as the king of Sonic games.

 

But Sonic Generations never lived up to the hype it received. This isn't to say it was a bad game, because it wasn't. It was absolutely fantastic. But it felt like something was.. missing. There are a few things that immediately come to mind when I think of where they missed:

 

- Level Reveal. I know that the levels were all leaked during the timed demo, but I really did not like the fact that they officially revealed the levels before the game released. Half the fun of blindly playing a game is to discover the levels for yourself. This isn't as big of a deal because all of the levels were from past Sonic games anyway, but I still don't like it.

 

- Length. 18 acts total, with 9 for Classic Sonic and 9 for Modern Sonic. The game could be completed within 7 hours, and 100% completed within 15 hours. Even Colors, which is considered to be one of the shortest Sonic games, had over 25 stages.

 

- Level Choice. While leaving out fan favorites such as Hydrocity or Ice Cap, they opted to put in three city levels. While City Escape and Crisis City make sense, they could have really replaced Speed Highway with another level (Sky Deck or Lost World, perhaps?)

 

- Final Boss: IT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT.  The Time Eater was just.. ugh. If they had ended the game at Egg Dragoon and called it the final boss, I would have been happy. But instead, we get to deal with this pile of shit that we call the final boss. I think it took me longer to beat the final boss than it did to finish the first three levels. And trying to get the achievement by not getting hit by the boss? Forget about it.

 

I have trouble playing Sonic Generations now because when I try to play it now, I can only think of what it could have been. It's not a bad game by any means, but it could have been so much better than what it was.

 

There are a few other things I might add tomorrow morning, because there are a lot of reasons why this game disappointed me. I'm just too tired to list all of them and the ones listed are the first ones that came to me.

[Silencer226]

I'm probably gonna have to go with inFAMOUS Second Son as one of my most disappointing games. It started off with a lot of promise but the game itself fell really short of my expectations. It's predecessors felt more fun to me. I enjoyed looking at the pretty graphics and whatnot, but it was really short and came off as "hey this is a taste of wht the ps4 can do for about $60". I didn't care much for the characters, the powers were meh to ok. I wish I had spent my money on something else, I've gotten more enjoyment out of some indie games on ps plus than Second Son.

[Kaabiitorori]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

While there will always be incredible and memorable experiences found in video games, sometimes there are times where you may hit a game that doesn't live to expectations. Games where they don't deliver the promised experience due to certain flaws on its design and therefore may leave players disappointed during their experience.

 

For this particular question, I could have gone for a past game such as Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Other M, Paper Mario Sticker Star, or even the infamous Sonic The Hedgehog (2006); instead, I am going to take only a step back to last year and take a look at a game that while it was universally acclaimed by the media it left me disappointed as a fan of the series it belongs to. I am talking about...

 

 

BioShock Infinite

 

Alright guys! Before I start elaborating my post, I want to leave very clear that I DO like this like for reasons that I will later explain down below. The BioShock series is considered one of my favourites featured in the past generation for giving the first person shooter genre a very unique twist not only on its gameplay elements by featuring traditional shooting with elemental powers in combat but also for its deep narrative, memorable characters and ground-breaking settings combined with horror elements all featured in the mysterious underwater city of Rapture. After enjoying the first two games in the series, I expected BioShock Infinite not only to carry every single element that made its prequels so incredible to play but also surpass such expectations. And to tell you the truth, they were almost there...

 

In terms of settings, story and characters, Ken Levine left an impressive job (if not the most impressive yet) with BioShock Infinite's overall narrative. The city of Columbia had a really unique appeal, showing a bright image of perfect city to live yet with a mysterious and shocking scheme behind ready for the player to unveil throughout the game; much like Rapture in the previous games, Columbia was filled with immense amount of detail while portraying a very clear and effective art direction, resulting in a visually captivating experience. The characters are memorable as well, from the main protagonist Booker DeWitt and his companion Elizabeth, the antagonist Comstock, to the mysterious Robert and Rosalind Lutece, all playing their respective roles really well and serving as another important asset in BioShock Infinite's overall narrative; the role of Elizabeth, in fact, is the most noteworthy, establishing an emotional bond between her and the player as the player him or herself progresses through the game. The story, in fact, is not only the best in the series but also one of the greatest in recent video game history. All in all, I can say hands down that BioShock Infinite's narrative is one of the best I've ever experienced.

 

So why do I list this game as my most disappointing? Because while the overall narrative was ground-breaking, the gameplay on the other hand didn't meet my expectation. Gameplay is what matters the most to me in any video game, and if a game lacks on this important aspect it falls apart regardless of how amazing the graphics are or how well thought the story is.

 

The basic gameplay elements of previous BioShock games are present in Infinite, which are traditional shooting with a good range of weapons to get and casting powers with Vigors (the equivalent of BioShock's Plasmids) blended with the interaction of the mysterious city of Columbia and its hostile atmosphere, the search of collectables (ie. Voxaphones, the equivalent of BioShock's Audio Logs) and the many secrets to discover. These two elements are also combined with several newly introduced ones such as the Sky-Line travelling or Elizabeth's role in combat. However, the combat elements suffer from several flaws that lead to become monotonous and predictable. In BioShock 1 & 2, you battled against random hordes of Splicers scattered all across Rapture, and in most cases, these could come from different points of the area and attack you from different spots (even from behind you), making the player being in constant alert of enemies. In BioShock Infinite, they decided to throw ridiculously big hordes of enemies in open areas of the map, and all of these will always come in front of you. And because there are loads of these big and open areas, you end up predicting when you will engage into combat; it doesn't help the fact there are areas with tears ready to be opened and be engaged in battle (which I will explain shortly after). 

 

Elizabeth, who I praised on the narrative department, falls apart gameplay wise by providing bland and limited support to the player. Being a character known to be such a force of nature for her Tear-opening powers as seen on the story, her role on the gameplay is reduced to ridiculous levels. While in battle, she can scavenge the area for supplies such as ammo, health kits and Salts (the equivalent of BioShock's EVE), as well as money. She doesn't attack any single freakin' enemy at all, instead she just runs around and scavenges items. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to receive a little bit of support while in battle, but aside from receiving such support inconsistently (sometimes you don't receive the specific element you need to be replenished the most) she doesn't help Booker on actually attacking the enemies. It's mind-boggling how Elizabeth, who's known to hold incredible powers, doesn't use them in battle! Well, I gotta correct myself: she does use her powers, but only to open tears that leads to boxes with items, weapons, environmental features or automated defense units. That's just it. Why doesn't Elizabeth uses her powers to full potential or even combine them with Booker's Vigors to wipe enemies off? The strangest thing though is that there is gameplay footage of this game shown during its development where Elizabeth used her powers to defeat enemies. Why did they scrap the idea off the game? I guess we will never know.

 

The exploration of Columbia entices the players to interact with the many elements and details of the city, but unlike BioShock's Rapture, Infinite's Columbia feels more lineal not only in progression but in exploration too. The game contains a lot of collectibles such as Infusions which grants you permanent upgrades in your health, Salts and shield meters, Gears for passive abilities and Voxaphones to listen different character's testimonies and know more about Columbia's inhabitants. While Rapture allowed you to backtrack at any time in order to collect Audio Logs or rescue Little Sisters, Columbia locks you up at different points in the story. Elizabeth warns you in those moments, stating that once they step into whatever next area they will go, they cannot go back later on in the game. Backtracking is reduced due to this inconvenience so players are forced to make sure they collect every single item in one full playthrough. Not only that, but the game is shorter to beat in comparison to its prequels.

 

In conclusion, BioShock Infinite is a mind-blowing game on the story department, but a disappointing experience on the overall gameplay. The really appealing aspects of the series are not only the breathtaking setting as well as the captivating narrative but also the joyous feel of engaging the hostile atmosphere of the city with a well thought combat system. Unfortunately, Infinite doesn't make justice on the latter aspect and instead offers an experience seen from a typical run-of-the-mill generic shooter, which is not what I expected for a BioShock game. Thing is I'd still recommend this game as the excellent narrative is definitely worth checking out; it's just the gameplay what doesn't live up to expectations though. =(

[Dejimon11]

Most disappointing game.

You know this is a though one its because there's so many disappointing games soooo instead of posting one I'm going to post several in no particular order.

1) Sonic and all stars racing transformed- Oh c'mon you all saw this one coming I've been complaining about this game for months. I was expecting the best kart racer ever since I've seen some positive reviews and my friends told me it was amazing. After playing it I enjoyed it at first then I started noticing somethings.

•the physics are terrible. Not the control but when colliding with other cars it feels like a bumper kart especially in battle mode

•it's to hard. I like a challenge but this game is just insane the AI is unfair in S rank mode it'll make mario kart Wii ashamed I'm not saying to many items that screw me over but this is a game that screams rubber band AI. No matter what I do they just keep coming back or are somehow ahead of me drift level 3, multi roll, use of items you name it the game is really unfair unless your playing online and the AI is less annoying

• world tour- oh my god this is where I started to give up on this game. In the first game in order to unlock stuff you get SEGA miles that you earn everytime your in a race you know simple stuff but in this game you have to go through world tour to unlock everybody and the last mods. This is just boring as hell and it doesn't help I have to do everything on S-rank to the point where it feels like a chore(still haven't unlocked Gum or Thunderhead). I wouldn't mind this if there was another option like the coins you collect can help you purchase characters in addition to the slot machine.

Not only that I think the wow factor of your car being a boat then a plane and then a car again just died off and the game got boring after a while which is odd

2) new super mario bros Wii. I excited a mario platformer with 4 players in it that's cool. So I got it and when I got to world 5 I just got bored with it. I still had fun but not as much as I wanted

3) new super mario bros U/New super Luigi U- yeah when I first got my Wii U it came with these two games. I got to world 1-1 then I just stopped playing it just bored me. It's so bland and that's odd cause I was trying to be very optimistic with this game since so many people were bashing it. I'm up to the sky world in mario and sparking waters with Luigi as of now. I just have no motivation to play it. My friend keep telling me to play it but I can't

4) Super Paper Mario- ok I'm chosing a lot of mario games right now aren't I? I got this around the same time I got thousand year door which was when chuggaconroy was doing his LP of it granted I didn't see much of it just the first 2 parts. After I beat thousand year door I went on to this game and got bored. There was way to much text and explanation. It tries to be a platformer and RPG at the sametime and it just doesn't work. I'm only on the first world this town where I have to talk to the mayor. I played it a couple months ago and still felt bored. Can somebody anybody please give me a reason why I should continue playing? I heard it gets better but urgh it's just exposition and that navi wanna be just annoys me. Maybe one day but not anytime soon. And if anybody is wondering where sticker star is I've never played it

5) Rayman Legends- oh finally something that isn't mario. I had high expectations for this game. Origins was great, jungle run was a good time waster and the demo I played back in 2012 was awesome. I heard great things about this game so when I borrowed my friends copy I was sad. It's a good game but those Murphy levels man what was the point of them rather than to show off the gamepad? Maybe I would have a problem with it if the globlox AI was so slow and very picky on where to go. If your ever going to 100% this game you need friends that will make the Murphy stages much tolerable. This pains me to say how disappointed I am with this game. It's so promising, the game is visually pleasing, it's very charming and has personality and the music levels rock but it felt lack luster in terms of main story content and the back to origins levels werepointless. I wish the devs spent the time they had making original levels rather than doing that then again I can't really blame them since it was going to be a Wii U launch title(or launch window) but then the game got delayed for several months doesn't help that this game was hyped up to be the biggest Rayman game ever. I hope the next Rayman game will be better

Other games that I'm disappointed in

1) shadow the hedgehog

2) gran torismo 4(so much hate)

3) spongebob square pants revenge of the Flying Dutchman

4) NBA live

5) GTA liberty city stories

6) Fifa

I'm sorry if I'm not as descriptive as I wanted to be for this 30 days

[The Deleter]

Day 13: Most disappointing game

 

 

I don't know what happened.

 

When E3 rolled around, and this game was revealed, I was hyped beyond belief. I loved Mario 3D Land, so when I heard that there would be a sequel on the Wii U with multiple playable characters, bigger stages, and 4-player multiplayer, I was hooked. I even went down to a Best Buy 60 miles from here with my sibs just to get a first taste of the game with them. And, whaddayaknow, I loved it!

 

The internet was so downtrodden with the "rehash" attitude, I felt like the only one who was actually looking forwards to this game. Then more of the game was revealed, and everyone started to ease up on the game. I was pleased, but something about the newfound praise was getting to me. While I saw it as good, I wouldn't have said it was that good. Still, if people actually knew what they were talking about, I thought, then that just means that I'll enjoy it even more!

 

Then the game released. I had to wait for it as a Christmas gift, as I didn't have the funds. Instead of increasing my hype from the suspense, though, I found myself not caring for it as much. Perhaps it was from almost knowing that one of us would get the game eventually, but I still tried to remain hyped.

 

Then I played it. I don't know what it is, but I couldn't enjoy this game like I enjoyed 3D land. Pretty much all stages from Land I can play and have a blast in, but for World, the only stages I genuinely have fun in are the Plessie stages and the ones I played in the demo. The stages just feel so... lifeless and shallow. Definitely not filled with the creativity that everyone was talking about when it was released.

 

I'm really sad that I couldn't find a way to enjoy it, even with multiplayer, and am currently leaving it in the back of my game library so that the memories can be wiped clean and begin anew, but as a sequel to my favorite Mario game, I'm going to have to label this game as the most disappointing game I've played. Even moreso than Lost World. Please don't hurt me...

 

Day 13: Complete

[JayRaR]

13 huh? What an ominous number to choose to talk about this topic.

 

So my Most Disappointing Game would have to be...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had such high hopes for this game. I thought Twilight Princess was disappointing when I first finished it but after replaying it a few times I grew to enjoy it despite the lackluster story, very slow exposition, and easy difficulty. It may have been Ocarina of Time 2, but I did like what the game brought to the table with its amazing dungeons, fun items, great bow controls, and admittedly the graphics. So cue my anticipation for the next game...

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dYgrMz_XBI

 

 

Aside from the weird Wind Waker/Twilight Princess hybrid art style, I was pretty hyped for this game. Seeing Link riding Epona, Majora's Mask, the King of Red Lions, and Wolf Link made me think that Nintendo would attempt to add all the great parts from each predecessor and incorporate them into the new game. Having the scope of adventure akin to Ocarina of Time, having the multidinous sidequests with a rich array of side characters like Majora, having a huge sense of exploration like Wind Waker, and maybe have amazing dungeon design like Twilight Princess. Oh boy...was I wrong...

 

Admittedly I haven't really followed any news after seeing that video so I wouldn't spoil too much on this game. On the events before the release, I'd seen mainly good reviews but with some negative ones in there. Being the naive person I was back then, I thought that the new Zelda would never amount to become terrible game. Man...

 

So I got the game. I played through the opening. Pretty slow I thought, but not as bad as Twilight Princess. Once I got Link's traditional garb, the game started going downhill for me. After the 1st dungeon, I grew to despise the graphics. This wasn't an issue with the Wind Waker, but it was so glaringly irritating in the forest section.

 

The motion controls were NOT 1:1, so I cursed at the screen whenever the game did something I didn't want it to do. Especially against those damn Moblins with the electric powered swords. Ugh. I hated every time the game would shoehorn motion controls at me: flying the bird, swimming, the harp, etc. 

 

You know for as vast as the sky can be, Skyward Sword can really make it seem like a fricken bird cage. There's not much to see, and not much to visit. The "islands" are super small and mainly consist of treasure chests to open and never a place to return to ever again. I was disappointed that you couldn't at least fly the...Loftwing was it?...to Hyrule. There wasn't anything to do with the huge pelican except as a means of transport. No Loftwing Racing or that event that happened in the beginning of the game. Seriously?

 

The dungeons were mainly a bore. Not much stood out to me except for the Sandship. The bosses were mainly forgettable too, with one in particular with such a horrible design. It was the Sandship boss, which is one of the most unimaginative Zelda bosses I've ever seen. It hits hard, but still the design is just so, so terrible. I did like the Ghirahim fights, but the latter ones did get tiring after a while. I loved the final duel with him however. I hate the Imprisoned. I hated the fact that you had to fight him not twice but THREE TIMES?! What the hell man? And he looks goofier in each rematch. Probably the only boss I liked in design and to fight against was Koloktos. Man his fight was so damn fun, if only for a little while though.

 

I hated the fact that the game reused the same 3 regions over and over again. I also hated this section of the game:

 

 

 

Seriously, fuck that section. However, I did like the sneaking section in the Eldin Volcano. Maybe because it was a nice change of pace from the usual go to a dungeon, fight shit, fight miniboss, get cool new item, do some puzzles, fight boss, repeat.

 

And the story...urgh. I won't go too much on this but it is such a dry and uninteresting plot. I did like Link having Zelda as a potential love interest with Groose and his gang being like his rivals. But after the first 2 hours or so, everyone in Skyloft is forgotten. After leaving Skyloft, it's just a quest to save Zelda. Groose does appear several more times in the story and matures, but I feel at that point he was largely irrelevant and served as a reformed new buddy to help you beat a boss. I hated how the game kept changing the objectives, from finding a bunch of stones, to finding a bunch of flames, to finding a bunch of song lyrics. I mean, seriously game? Then the encounters with Ghirahim while, although creepy, doesn't really amount to much and is ultimately a henchman serving his master, notGanondorf...err...I mean Demise. Seriously, Demise just came out of nowhere and spouting such bullcrap about cursing Link and Zelda and how his influence will torment the next generation and blah blah blah. The twist at the end with the old lady being Impa was nice though.

 

Probably my only favorite part were the Silent Realm sections, which felt fun with some tension thrown in there for a great experience. Even then, this is a game I sure as hell won't be replaying ever again. When the Credits rolled, a sighed in relief. Not that I kicked Demise's ass and restored peace to Hyrule or whatever but for the realization that I will never play this shit biscuit game again.

 

Mainly, my thoughts on this game is similar to MatthewMatosis' review. He gives some nice critiques and explains his problems on the games he reviews much clearer than I can.

 

This game has tinted my views on the Zelda franchise as of late. I rented a Link Between Worlds expecting an okay game with barely any plot, a lackluster overworld, shallow characters, and some kind of rehashing experience and sure enough, I expected it. It was like playing a Link to the Past in 3D, which amounts to a game I've played before with some new items and a dumbed down difficulty. I won't be expecting much from the new Zelda on Wii U, hopefully I'm wrong on that.

 

Some runner-ups include: Shadow of the Colossus and Final Fantasy X.

 

 

[Goldenlink64]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

Remember how Resident Evil 5 ended? ...me neither because I didn't play the game outside the demo, but apparently it involves something on the lines of somebody getting a bunch of rockets to the face and falling into a volcano or something completely ridiculous like that.

 

So I figure, okay Resi, you had your "action phase" so how about a return to Survival Horror now?

 

 

I can barely even muster up the strength to make it through watching this trailer. Chris is riding on a bigass tank and lugging around some big assault rifle, taking cover, and meanwhile Leon's doing... this.

I really didn't like this. I mean it's cool for an action game but.... Capcom... what the hell are you doing?

 

Maybe I was just a little quick to judge. After all, the trailer had a few promising elements. The new virus outbreak seemed reminiscent of Resident Evil 2's set up and the whole Jake being chased was similar to RE3's Nemesis so it might be decent. Hell, I wasn't even allowed to say the game looked terrible or was going to be bad. "It was going to be great!", people kept saying this is the series' "evolution". Right...

 

So I waited until a playable demo. And... my heart just broke. The camera was bloody awful, the karate chops were over powered, the gunplay sucked, all the characters control awkwardly. The game lends itself to mechanics to a cover shooters (a genre I absolutely LOTHE unless it's specially designed like Gears of War), and the worst part of all. It just wasn't fun to play anymore.

 

This game is so unfun to play, I can't even finish a goddamn demo for my favorite series of all time...

 

Even though you may not believe this, I hate the fact that I HAVE to hate this game! In an era when developers are piss scared to take a tiptoe outside of the proverbial box, it's actually nice to see something with a hint of originality.

 

But this is NOT the way to do it! This should have been called Gears of Zombie, why slap "Resident Evil" on this?! I respect the idea, but common guys, you're better than this!!

 

"Resident Evil 6" does a lot of really cool things. I really like the sliding and rolling you can do like in the gif I posted. But the problem is that they're good for a THIRD PERSON SHOOTER. Resident Evil isn't Gears of War with zombies, let alone an awkward clumsy clone of it and Call of Duty meshed together. It's Survivor Horror, I want to conserve my ammo for later, examine the environment for info and potential items that actually HELP me and I want to pace myself as I carefully walk/run through potentially hostile corridors.

 

This could've been a new IP (or why not call it Operation Raccoon City 2?) and with enough development, it would've been a decently fun third person shooter with a few interesting mechanics. But slapping "Resident Evil" on this was just wrong and damaged the franchise so much. I hope we get a true Resident Evil game again that wins me over with subtly and sheer brilliant level design like the old ones did, not explosions and "flashy" Michael Bay-esque set pieces.

 

Oh and don't get me started on the story either, especially Ada's story. Up until this point, I honestly enjoyed each and every single Resident Evil's story. If people ever complained about RE being overly convoluted, badly written or whatever the complaint is I keep hearing but completely disagree with, this game is everything that people THOUGHT was wrong with the old Resident Evil stories in a real actual game.

 

Ugh, I'm going to have to end the post here, everything about this game just depresses me. Even just typing this is making me depressed. I just want my favorite franchise to go back to being good again. :/

 

Previously on Day 12:

Next time on Day 14:

[DemonShad716]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

 

I'm sure everyone here knows where I'm going with this. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was obviously disappointing due to the disaster it came out to be. This game could have had potential if it wasn't so rushed to meet the Christmas deadline.. If anyone here has seen Game Grumps play this, you would understand. When I first saw this game's trailer, I thought this was going to be a really great game as it was Sonic's first step onto the Xbox 360. I happened to get the game for free from a long distance friend, and he simply told me he didn't like it. So I tried it out; didn't have any glitches until a few levels after, then it got worse. This was pretty much my reaction. 

 

I did manage to beat it after 6 hours, but it was tough with all the glitches trolling you.

[Sean]

Jesus fucking christ.

Where the fuck do I even start? For one, I was really excited about this game. Okami with touchscreen controls? Sign me up! Except once I boarded the hype train, I realized pretty fast once I started playing that said train was heading straight into a fucking ravine and I couldn't get off.

Instead of a vast open world which I could explore at my leisure, I instead got to revisit numerous locations from the first game, except this time they're blocked off by inexplicable invisible walls and various "changes to the landscape" in order to explain away which areas the developers decided not to put back in. And in lieu of a fluid entertaining battle system that made creative use of your powers, it's replaced with one that's clunky and obnoxious as shit, and each boss was a gimmicky mini-game in which you played Simon Says just to expose its weakspot for a few seconds. Rather than an engaging story with characters that I care about, I got a mess of a fan fiction that pulled every god damn anime trope known to man. Also, continuity? What's that? Nah let's just retcon a bunch of stupid shit such as revealing a bigger evil who was controlling Yami the entire time, completely fucking up Ammy and Susano's battle with Orochi, making Amaterasu and Shiranui two separate characters, and adding a fucking whale to the Chinese fucking zodiac.

Not only do I fucking hate this game, but it convinced me in one fell swoop that Capcom should never make another Okami game ever again. Nobody who worked on this demonstrated any understanding of what made the first so good. It's complete, unadulterated garbage that is a hilarious mockery of the original it claims to be a sequel to, but rather is a shadowy, pale imitation. Is there any incentive to play Okamiden rather than the original game? Absolutely fucking not. The fact that most people think this is a good game is enough to give me ulcers. Keep away at all costs.

[Your Vest Friend]

I wonder if Japan liked this more than we did.

 

Nope, absolutely not. In fact, it probably did worse than the average Sonic game does there.

[azoo]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

(geez another late night one that I wrote half asleep)

 

 

I don't think I've seen a single review that takes the words out of my mouth quite like this one.

 

I already knew it wasn't going to be anything remotely like the bear and bird I learned to grow lots of admiration for, but Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts destroyed any expectations I could've had. It was missing almost all elements you expect from a Banjo game, and whatever charm was there was in so little amount. The humor was self-deprecating, constantly breaking the fourth wall, and honestly sarcastically written almost to a point of being insulting (I guess because the writers didn't even want the fans to play it). 

 

The levels are empty and voided of nearly anything, the art style has been tampered with (although that's somewhat tolerable). The entire game is structured on tedious vehicle based gameplay that had a building system that took ages to work through. 

 

It's totally uninspired garbage from top to bottom, and practically a testament of Microsoft's crappy management of a once great company. I hate that I have to dislike it though, because I wish I had a good reason. I just don't, even though denial when I first got it led me to think I did. 

 

//////////////

 

Day 13 Has Been Wiped Clean

[Sonictrainer]

 

Day 13 - Most Disappointing Game

 

 

Ok, so this was supposed to be Super Smash Bros, but with Playstation Game Characters. The roster had some of my favorites and some surprises (I did not expect Spike to get in). They even got creative with the stages, with universes colliding in each one. So when the game came out and they had demos, I decided to try it out.

 

I started out with Parappa the Rapper...

 

I'm kicking, punching, and blocking….

 

….

 

…what am I supposed to do? How do I win?

 

I see that the characters are dropping orbs and powering the super gauge…there's no score to tell me how I'm doing….I am completely lost at how I'm supposed to play this game.

 

I haven't played the real game yet, but from what I got from the demo, I was disappointed.

[Nepenthe]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

I need to stop doing these so late in the morning. Eventually I'm going to screw up and forget a day. But yes, my most disappointing game?

Super Mario Galaxy 2.

 

And the thing is, there's nothing overtly wrong with the game. It's as technically impressive and solid as the first one was, so I'd be hard-pressed to call it a bad game on those merits. But indeed, its sheer similarities to the original Galaxy was exactly what was wrong with it. People were super-hyped for a second Galaxy game, Yoshi was finally back, and I had nothing else to play for a minute. But the longer I went on through this game, the more I felt like I had just put down $60 for an expansion pack (again, a good expansion pack, but an expansion pack nonetheless), so much so that it baffles me that anyone can actually forge a severe preference between the two. Revisited level themes, a major lack of Yoshi than I expected, the same bosses, Rosalina was gone. It felt like the bare minimum for a sequel.

 

I suppose at that point, I had expected major Mario games to be really special, once-in-a-generation experiences, and the lack of time between the two didn't dull my appreciation for the original into nostalgia and thus longing for more of the same or better, nor did it even bother to temper my expectations that Galaxy 2 needed to reinvent the platforming wheel as other Mario games had. That, compounded with the massive hype and praise regardless, as well as the decidedly cold and charmless map that made the experience feel that much more cobbled together from lost ideas, and this game ended up exhausting me. And the main Mario series hasn't recovered those good graces since. I have literally lost actual desire to play Mario platformers, a feeling that's comparable to when Pixar shoved out fucking Cars 2. Galaxy 2 was a demarcation line between the appearances of Nintendo's production: what felt like artistic craftsmanship immediately turned into mass production based on chasing down lightning strikes.

[SuperLink]

Day 13 - Most Disappointing Game...............

 

And I was doing so well without mentioning Sonic too..

 

Sonic Lost World

 

 

Look at this shit! The beautiful colour, vibrancy, and cartoony-platforming style that I adore in games, plus a parkour mechanic I've been wanting to see in Sonic since forever. The PR guys over at SEGA were having such a wonderful time with this one, pointing out all the things they'd taken onboard and "fixed" that would make not just fans, but gamers in general happy. All those hyperbolic previews on big game sites saying shit like "this game looks so promising Sonic is saved"

 

And then when it came out.. and ugh. Not only was it disappointing, it didn't fricking work in the way it was supposed to. You can't explore, not really, the controls are awkward and taught fucking awfully, the tutorial system barely even exists, the tubey/sphery level design is absolutely unnecessary in all aspects besides mimicking Mario since it doesn't even do what would have been amazing to do, give Sonic (a momentum based character) some amazing momentum based stage progression techniques. How did they make so many god-awful design choices? How did they fail on so many basic levels? This is one game where the hype really got to me, and I really, truly felt let down.  Sonic 06 I had time to get used to the idea of it being shit before playing it, FFXIII I was never really mega excited for, same with Paper Mario: Sticker Star, maybe my instincts saved me from getting my hopes up for those.

 

But Sonic Lost World.. my hopes were so high, and they got shot down and fell so far the moment I played it on launch. My smile of hope turned to annoyance and frustration. I actually quit playing the game for months after the second world because of how gosh-darn upset I was, my disappointment and anger was genuinely getting in the way of my gaming experience, so I stopped playing and that makes it the first Sonic game I've ever left for over a month before finishing.

 

And eventually I did actually play, finish, and.. enjoy it. I enjoy Sonic Lost World, I think it's fun to replay and I think it has the workings of some good game mechanics, but boy oh boy if it isn't littered with design mistakes, and that "enjoyment" of SLW is something I could only get after "adapting" my expectations after how upset I was, and the only way to actually enjoy it is to completely ignore one thing SEGA said you could do, explore. Just playing each stage to the end, just running forward, is the best way to enjoy SLW. Going back, you know, actually entertaining that promise of "exploring" makes it a stupidly tedious experience.

 

I want to finish by saying that, unlike the other titles I mentioned just above, Sonic Lost World takes the cake. Those games didn't come after years of "rebuilding" a series, and it's probably my own fault for getting my hopes so high for Lost World after Colours and Generations completely outdid my expectations, but SLW was my first, real experience of the dreaded """Sonic Cycle""" at play. My trust in the Sonic series is practically shattered because of Sonic Lost World, I highly doubt I will ever buy a Sonic game on launch again unless it has very positive reviews before launch. No manner of "looking good" is good enough for me now when it comes to Sonic, because Lost World taught me that I shouldn't fucking get really excited for Sonic games, I'll just end up wasting my money and upsetting myself. And I'm fed up of that. I'm fed up of being sceptical being a "natural" part of Sonic game hype. I'm fed up of every Sonic launch-hype being surrounded by that "will it even be good tho" stigma. It shouldn't have to have that in the first place.

 

Fans should have a right to be able to expect good things from the series they love, rather than collectively hope it'll be good.

[Kamicciolo]

Day 13 - Most Disappointing "It's almost as bad as knowing that Ninjashark still exists in this world" Game

 

I'm gonna go for a two for one with this day, and say both New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. 2. Now just to be clear I don't find them to be actual bad games, but there's clearly more that coulda been done with them.

 

Both games share the same basic graphical style and aesthetic as the original New Super Mario Bros. for one (retroactively making that look worse as well, when it was rather neat on its own), and the levels of the game are just rather forgetable in general. There's not really any levels that stand out or leave a lasting impression. They're all just rather dull....

 

There's also the issue I personally have in the first game bring back the Koopalings and the second game keeping them around. I really don't like the Koopalings at all, so to see them return and be made a big deal of was hardly something I could get excited for...

 

And finally, both games had a severe lack of Wario in them. NSMBWii could have easily featured him as one of the playables (after SM64DS and all), buuuuuuuut noooooooo~. The excuse for not including him is pure bullshit too, with Miyamoto saying they'd need to "program a way for him to fart". Then NSMB2 comes along, with this big focus on gold and coins and everything, and the greediest character in the entire franchise is a no-show? That woulda been the perfect opportunity to have him as a villain for a change. Even a bonus boss woulda been better than the Final Boss reskinned. It's an outrage I says!!! >8V

[Carbo]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

I could list a lot of games in this category because there are games I find a lot worse. But the keyword here is disappointment, and considering the way I anticipate things I can usually strike a balance within my hype and expectations. But Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney is a real exception to that.

It's impossible for me to delve into my disappointment without going into heavy detail with the story, and since the game isn't out yet in America I'm not going to do that disservice. But to give some context to my disappointment, the game was announced at a time when Ace Attorney games were a dying breed in the west, and the borderline guarantee of eventually getting this particular game considering Layton is a massive franchise in the west meant that this one was mostly secured. AA5 hadn't been announced yet and even if it was there was no guarantee that it would be any more likely to show up than this game. Besides, the game was to be penned by Shu Takumi, which means I could probably anticipate this game a lot more than the eventual AA5.

But then I remembered that Shu Takumi also penned AA4 which had an absolutely mediocre story to hold it all together, and that turned out being the case for this game as well. For being a crossover, PLvsAA has very little "Ace Attorney" when it comes to the game's general set up of story, and is almost entirely built around a Layton-esque frame of reference. This eventually raises the Ace Attorney Investigations problem of having every individual case in this game be be vaguely tied together to a greater plot, except compared to that game it doesn't even bother to hide it and turns it into a full focus. The problem by having that kind of set up is that it makes each chapter feel less like a series of isolated and unpredictable incidents, robs any semblance of "chance" and if you're not even invested in the story that becomes a complete tedium to slog through.

The key story in and of itself revolves around a girl with annoying PTSD-esque moments and a city which actually plays up magic as a legitimately real thing where a "storyteller" also writes what will happen to the town as the omnipresent overseer. This setup alone makes simple cases more contrived than they are worth by bringing up otherworldly elements that don't make a lick of sense. You know how people keep joking about that one time Edgeworth "updated" the autopsy report in the first game? That exact thing happens in this game, except in every fucking case at least once, and it comes up in the most obtuse moments possible sometimes to a complete lack of effect and sometimes doesn't even change anything after two testimonies or so. Worse yet, this time it isn't autopsy reports, this time it's "magic".

But it easily goes into full-on bullshit territory when the game's obligatory big twist is revealed in the late game that comes completely out of nowhere with zero foreshadowing and makes no sense in the narrative, only obfuscating more of the plot, creating a bigger blur and causing at least 10 plot holes in the process. As far as late game twists go, this is almost equally as bad as MGS2, but that game had the benefit of hindsight and was only derided on account of a subversion of expectation right at the start of the game reaching critical mass. This does not.

Even from a game play perspective this game isn't really that much to write home about. Layton's segments feel more phoned in than ever with him effectively "replacing" the investigation parts, and the puzzles aren't really that intuitive this time around. As per your usual Layton fare this is more lack-of-context puzzles being shoved into the mix that kind of feel like they exacerbate the plot progress, and ideally considering the nature of this being a crossover, there should be a lot more "crossover" in the actual game play concepts, such as Phoenix butting in and objecting on a puzzle in order to point out an issue with how it's done, doing puzzles to gain evidence or Layton solving a puzzle in the middle of a court case. There is only one time in the entire game anything clever is done with this kind of potential team up, and it's only in the late game which is never explored again. The result is that for a large majority of the game you just feel like you're playing two completely different games.

If there is one new gimmick I like it's the multiple witness cross-examination mechanic, which was a big reason why I wanted to get all the non-Wright parts over with. But this is easily a game which let me down in the final hour and I can't bother humoring it more. The writing mostly salvages it but it's still built around a premise that's hard for me to get invested in when few of the supporting cast are remotely memorable and those that are memorable are mostly based around archetypes established in the previous games. I remember a common criticism with AA5 was that cases ended up being too contrived, but this one easily eclipses that in every conceivable way and doesn't really have the consistent story to back itself up with, and for that I have absolutely no desire to revisit this game anytime soon.

[Tornado]

Gran Turismo 5 was pretty bad when it first released, being an incredibly slapdash affair considering the development time, not really doing anything much better than GT4, and falling short in a shocking amount of ways. But after two years, it was developed into a relatively competent, albeit wholly unexceptional game.

So imagine my surprise when, after a truncated 6 month hype train for GT6, when that game released it was even worse than GT5 was at launch. Slightly better physics let down by new bugs that undermine them. Many, many problems carried over unchanged. An even poorer framerate despite worse graphics. A lot of game functionality removed, including some that had been added to GT5 as paid DLC. And barely any actual content improvements, making you wonder exactly what they spent the two years actually doing. The entire thing comes off as a blatant cash grab on PS3 holdouts, and a truly sad potential end (considering the game's awful sales performance) to a former genre defining series.

[Sami]

Day 14 - Favorite Story

The Last of Us

I honestly don't know where to begin here.

The Last of Us is a story about Joel and Ellie - two survivors in a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by an outbreak of Cordyceps. Cordyceps is a sac fungi known to exist in real life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8, but luckily only infects insects. What The Last of Us presents, though, is a world in which a mutation of the virus becomes capable of infecting humans, spreading through the air, and by using its host as a vehicle to infect others.

From the very beginning of the game you'll see the fall of humanity as we know it, turned from the civilized society we live in today to a survivor's world, where only the strongest survive and the merciful are preyed on. You see people ruthlessly murdered on the sides of streets for the possibility of owning valuables such as food and supplies. It's dark and grim, but Naughty Dog's handling of it is mature and realistic. It reflects the (unfortunately) very real societies torn apart by war, famine, or other extreme conditions.

Where the truly story shines, though, is with its characters. The world, as compelling as it is on its own, serves its purpose best as a setting for Joel and Ellie to be introduced and developed. You play the game mostly through Joel's perspective, with Ellie as your constant companion from nearly the beginning of the game. For several reasons (one of which being an upcoming day, ohoho), I don't want to go into too much detail about the characters themselves, but there's a lot I want to say about them.

When Joel and Ellie first meet, they are both apprehensive towards the idea of travelling together. Joel is a cold-hearted smuggler, not interested in "babysitting a little girl", and more occupied by making his living and surviving with as little interaction with others as possible. Ellie would rather stay with the woman who raised her, Marlene, then go out of the quarantine zone with a cold and distant stranger.

Nonetheless, Marlene insists that Ellie has to be smuggled out of the quarantine zone and into the hands of the Fireflies, a resistance group working on finding a cure to the outbreak. Joel reluctantly agrees to smuggle her out of the city in exchange for the guns he'd had stolen from him, and the two, along with Joel's partner Tess, make their way out of the city and begin their journey.

As they travel the length of nearly the entire United States together, you see their relationship slowly evolve and grow all the way up until the end of the game, and it truly is a beautiful thing to see. I really, really want to talk about specific scenes and moments that affected me, but I want to keep things broad and nonspecific for the sake of spoilers.

I will say that reviewing some of the ending scenes literally brought me to the verge of tears in the past few days, and really makes me want to experience the whole thing again. There are so many beautiful and impactful moments that its hard to talk about everything I love without ruining the surprise for someone.

Some say that The Last of Us is a good movie but a bad game, and I truly could not disagree more. It's a game that utilizes its medium exceptionally well by allowing the player to truly feel the world for themselves and places themselves into the characters' shoes. There are a wealth of moments that would not have had the same impact they did had you not been holding the controller in your hands and controlling the action yourself.

I very earnestly believe that The Last of Us is more than deserving of all of the praise it's gotten over the past year. There's a vast amount of optional content to read and listen to (similar to Metroid Prime), the setting is wonderfully realized through both gameplay and story (living in a world where supplies are limited is brilliantly well integrated into the game's crafting system, as well as the combat itself), and everything flows organically by utilizing player control at just the right times.

The Last of Us is the peak of video game storytelling to this day.

[Willsy]

Day 14: Favourite Story

I'm not really sure what to put for this, as I don't really have a favourite story. I'll just put a couple of my favourites:

Sonic Unleashed

I think I'm alone when I say that I think Unleashed is my favourite story out of any Sonic game. The plot was simple but cool, Eggman using the power of the Chaos Emeralds to break Earth apart and unleashing the embodiment of evil upon the world was actually a brilliant premise to the story. And that CGI intro was one of the best intros to a video game that I've ever seen. The whole planet sized jigsaw puzzle thing was a fun plot point too. And then there's the ending. Oh my god, the ending. It was surprisingly emotional when Chip throws Sonic back to the surface and you just see him getting sealed inside the planet. Then there's the part just before the credits where Sonic can hear Chip's voice inside his head giving him encouragement. As annoying as Chip was earlier on in the game, his and Sonic's friendship really did make the story that much stronger, especially the cutscene where they're in Adabat at sunset.

Overall, I would love another story like Unleashed's.

Honourable mention goes to Batman Arkham City. I felt that the storytelling in that game was brilliant, with Bruce Wayne being thrown into the newly formed Arkham City and having to fight for survival. I won't go into to much detail though as this is a game I wouldn't want to spoil for anyone, but the story and character development throughout are really spot on.

[Arcade Racer CC14]

My favorite story is...

The World Ends With You (DS)

Despite only experiencing this game as late as last year, its plot has really stuck with me ever since completing it. I think what makes it so fantastic are the characters. Everyone has a distinct personality, but is still likeable in some way, with their own issues to overcome and unexpected twists at every turn relating to them. As a result, you can't help but root for them and hope that they'll all turn out okay in the end. I especially felt for Beat's struggle to keep his sister safe from the Reapers. You can tell that even though he's a moron, he's got a good heart and wouldn't hesitate to put his life on the line for others. That makes him a character that you can really identify with. Other threads such as Shiki's identity crisis, Neku learning to be more social, and so on grabbed me just as much and I strongly suggest playing the game just to see the full tale. It's truly a story of several very different people coming together and forming friendships despite the fact that it could all end for them in a second. It's one of those games that caused a big smile to form on my face when I finished it. Never did I expect a S-E plot to grab me this much after first being exposed to the lovable goofiness of the Kingdom Hearts plots, but that's just how amazing this game is. Now WHURZ MAH SIQUEL?

Honorable Mention:

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)

If you pay attention to me at all, you'd know that Bowser is my absolute favorite video game character and the mere concept of pretty much an entire RPG dedicated to him excited me VERY much. And that's why I love this game's plot so much. It's a bonkers day in the life of everyone's favorite Koopa King and I can't get enough of it. From his awesomely egotistical personality to his complete lack of understanding what's REALLY going on for the whole game, this adventure never failed to make me laugh every time his gruffness was on screen. I also really like the ending, as it pulls the typical "heroes win, yay" trope of Mario stories, but also gives some rather cute resolution for Bowser himself. Seeing him get a happy ending for once really made me smile. This plot really embodies what I love the most about Mario RPGs: Seeing the characters be themselves without the pretense of a structured level-based game to limit them. All hail the King of Awesome.

[Jin.]

Day 14

RE-USE

 

 

Now you may be thinking "JIN! DIS IS AN MMO! WE ALL KNO DAT MMOS DUNT HAV GUD STORY". And you'd be right. By itself, this story isn't that great. But that's not what I mean. The Guild Wars series loves it's lore so damn much. You can learn so mch it through the smallest details like a random bookstand in Divinity's Reach! Another plus are the three great novels, but even if you haven't read them, the game still has tidbits of info for you to find out about it.

[RustyRick]

Day 14: Best game story?



I was initially hesitant to play BioShock, given that from my own experience I tend to not play FPS games much because I had the mentality that they all amount to a mindless 'kill everything in sight as you make your way to the final boss' kind of mentality and that they have very little going in terms of a actual deep story.

Boy was I in for a litteral 'Shock' when I played BS1 and got immersed in it's setting immediately. The random banter the enemies make when you are in their vicinity alerts you to their presence, but it also gives you some insight on how paranoid or delusional, heck even desperate they sound as they try to survive in the ever-declining former-paradise city. The enemies all have personality to them, and it kind of tries to subtly play with your emotions all throughout the game, you'll have to survive and that it's essentially kill or be killed and that there's barely any NPC in the whole game who you can trust, given that their sanity is slipping away further and further as they also try to survive.

But it's also very nice that you'll only know more about the setting, the history and the background of these characters if you go out of your way to explore not only for powerups, but also for the diary's that have audio recordings of these characters, giving you some insight on what their lives were like before the war erupted, and it even clues you in on the unfortunate demises of a few of the NPC's who you never actually converse with directly, with a diary close to their corpses. Such little touches make BioShock a really memorable experience for me, and one I sometimes keep coming back for to replay the game over and over.