- 19 hours ago
Nemesis should've been SO much better.
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00:00Video games get hyped to the moon and back, and as a result there are many out there,
00:04ranging from the outright awful to the pretty good, that don't manage to fully capitalize on
00:09their lofty concepts. Whether it's mechanics that aren't taken far enough, a story that begs to be
00:14fleshed out, or simply ambitions that aren't supported by technology actually available,
00:19all of the following games fail to hit the mark. With that in mind then, I'm Josh from
00:24whatculture.com, and these are 10 more video games that ruined their own potential.
00:2810. Deus Ex Invisible War
00:31Even if you've not played the original Deus Ex, you're probably aware of its status as one of
00:36the most influential and acclaimed PC games ever made. Well, this sequel promised even more choice
00:43than the original game, along with superior visuals and a continuation of the original game's plot,
00:48albeit with a new protagonist. Now, while it would be unfair to call Invisible War a bad game,
00:54because it absolutely isn't, but there's a reason why most people forget that it even exists,
00:59and that's because it never feels like anything more than a cheap imitation of the original. Yes,
01:04the emergent gameplay is satisfying on occasion, but the game is hampered by hilariously awful AI,
01:10scaled back customization elements despite the game promising more freedom, a dubious universal ammo
01:16system, smaller levels, and an overwhelming feeling that basically everything was dumbed down in order to
01:22appeal to a wider player base. In trying to rake in more sales though, Ion Storm ironically alienated
01:28those who made the original such a success, and had those very fans soon enough returning to the
01:32vastly superior original. Despite decent sales, the franchise evidently stopped being a priority
01:37after Invisible War, as the next game, Human Revolution, took another 8 years to reach gamers.
01:439. Back 4 Blood Back 4 Blood was supposed to be the successor to Left 4 Dead, but in the end,
01:49it kinda just settled for scooping up its table scraps. The most recent game from Turtle Rock,
01:54this multiplayer shooter wore its inspirations on its sleeve. Here, you played as one of four
01:59characters fighting back against hordes of the undead and special infected in order to get from safe
02:04room to safe room. And on paper, it has everything that made Left 4 Dead so damn addictive, but in
02:10practice, things were just a little bit off. The attention to detail just wasn't there this time
02:16around. And as such, the combat wasn't as impactful or as fluid as it could have been,
02:20weapon handling didn't feel satisfying, while the difficulty balance often made runs feel unfair
02:26and joyless. Throw on top of this, strange character progression systems in Back 4 Blood,
02:31while not a completely terrible game by any means, failed to take the torch from its zombie predecessor.
02:378. Red Steel Red Steel was by far one of the most hyped launch titles for the Nintendo Wii,
02:42with the company promising that the unique motion controls for both gameplay and sword fighting
02:47would pretty much revolutionise how we play games. However, the game meant to be the ultimate
02:52advertisement for the Wiimote, well, wasn't. Yes, in addition to some disappointingly drab graphics,
02:59laughably poor voice acting, and duff enemy AI, Red Steel's motion controls were inconsistent and
03:04clunky at best, making even moving around a chore, while the sword fighting lacked the finesse and
03:09satisfying feel that had been promised. In addition to this, the game doesn't even have the courtesy
03:14to be a short blast, it's around 8 to 10 hours long, but given how exhaustingly tedious the majority
03:20of the action is, it's likely that many never even made it to the finish line. In 2010, Ubisoft Paris
03:25did release a vastly superior sequel though, which essentially played how the original should have.
03:317. GTA Online
03:33Rockstar promised that GTA Online would be a significant expansion of GTA 4's solid deathmatch
03:39style, allowing San Andreas to become their playground, introducing levelling up, missions,
03:44and best of all, cooperative heists to net awesome booty. Even ignoring the massive server issues which
03:49plagued GTA Online upon launch, it just felt incredibly piecemeal for the longest time, and still
03:55kinda does. The missions were insanely repetitive for one, enough that there wasn't much incentive to
04:00keep playing to increase your rank. And then, there's the heists, the most hyped up part of
04:05GTA Online, which were delayed repeatedly until finally releasing in March, a whole 17 months
04:11after the game first launched. By which time, most players
04:15had a huge 8-player cops and robbers type gameplay, this was ultimately scaled back to just 4 players,
04:26further compounded
04:30the crushing disappointment that a lot of gamers felt. Throw in additions that made the use of
04:43microtransaction shark cards virtually necessary to keep playing, and the whole thing still has
04:48drawbacks to this day. Yeah, you can have a lot of fun in GTA Online, but there's always the sense
04:54that this thing just could've been more. Number 6, Spaw. Spaw was built up to be the god game to end
05:01all god games, allowing the player to nurture an organism from the most basic essence of life to
05:06building an entire civilization in the far reaches of space. And who wouldn't want to play that? Well,
05:12as it turned out, Spaw was so empty and down on its promises that it's hard to believe that it wasn't
05:18made by Peter Molyneux. The final game was essentially four loosely connected and incredibly
05:22short minigames and a half-decent space sim, which had clearly been dumbed down to appeal to a wider
05:28player base, but in turn resulted in a game that wasn't really worth playing for more than a few
05:33hours. In addition, a lot of the previously advertised features were cut from the final
05:37product, yet despite all of this, the game somehow scooped a mind-boggling 84 on Metacritic, which was
05:44incredibly disconnected from the player consensus. Number 5, The Dark Pictures Anthology. For a time,
05:50everyone thought that Supermassive Games were going to lead a revolution for interactive movie-like
05:55video games. Their PlayStation Horror exclusive, Until Dawn, grabbed the attention of fans around
06:00the world as being a tight, charismatic love letter to the genre. People loved it, I loved it, and we all
06:05eagerly awaited what the developers would do next. And that project was even more ambitious, an anthology
06:12series featuring shorter standalone games of the same quality as Until Dawn, each bringing a new
06:17cast of characters, utilizing a different horror subgenre, and tweaking the gameplay with new gimmicks.
06:23On paper, the Dark Pictures Anthology sounded awesome, but the tight turnaround of the releases
06:28and their shorter experimental nature didn't quite mesh. At the time of recording, three of the eight
06:35planned installments have released, and none have quite made the impact of Until Dawn. Now, they've not
06:41been bad games, some like House of Ashes have been particularly enjoyable, but others like Man of
06:46Medan failed to leave much of an impression at all. Whether the series is struggling under the pressure
06:52of the turnaround or what, the Dark Pictures Anthology has not yet earned its spot as being Until Dawn's true
06:58successor. Let's just hope then that the upcoming The Quarry can do that instead.
07:02Number 4, Brink. Brink was sold as a revolutionary first-person shooter with a heavy focus on parkour
07:08movement mechanics, taking place on the unique setting of a giant floating city known as the
07:13Ark. An impressive marketing campaign did a terrific job selling it as the next big shooter
07:18at the time. And to be fair, Brink wasn't a bad game by any means, but rather a decidedly average
07:24one, and one that didn't appear to maintain the attention of most gamers for more than a week or so.
07:29Yes, the smart player movement system was fun, yet not as innovative as advertised. And when the rest of the
07:35game felt so ordinary, it ultimately couldn't do all that much to impress. The AI was also a huge
07:41problem. Enemies put up a courageous fight while any bots on your team were more of a hindrance than
07:47a help. And there just wasn't enough to the game outside of its gimmick to distinguish it from
07:51anything else at the time. Without more depth and more personality, Brink was always destined to be
07:56quickly forgotten. Number 3, Final Fantasy XIII. The first Final Fantasy game on the PS3 was always going
08:03to get a ton of people excited. And from the fluid gameplay and gorgeous graphics shown off pre-release,
08:08there was no reason not to expect a major return to form after several underwhelming entries.
08:14Square Enix just seemed to lose their enthusiasm for the series after Final Fantasy X. And because
08:19XIII is yet another hilarious, overwrought, often incomprehensible story featuring inane,
08:25unlikable characters, they didn't seem to get the passion back with this one. Yes, the game looks
08:30lovely and the combat still holds up pretty well, but a massive chunk of the title is essentially
08:35one long linear corridor which feels completely at odds with everything the Final Fantasy franchise
08:40has ever been about. As such, XIII is one of the few Final Fantasy titles to be a one and done,
08:46in that there's very little incentive to return to it once you've done your self-imposed duty as a fan
08:50by steamrolling through it one time. Number 2, Resident Evil 3 Remake. Resident Evil was riding high
08:58again following the double whammy of Resident Evil 7 and the remake of 2. The stink of 6 was well and
09:04truly gone, and fans had no reason to doubt that the remake of Resi 3 was going to continue that
09:09winning streak. But while nowhere near the complete disaster of some games in the series, Resi 3 did
09:15underwhelm in a big way. That's because it felt more like an expansion of the second game than a full
09:21release in its own right. An already incredibly short game, the remake feels even leaner, cutting out
09:27certain elements and speeding through its own campaign without giving anything the chance to
09:31breathe. And if there was one Resi game that could have been expanded on, it was 3. Seeing more of
09:37Raccoon City in the midst of chaos could have been amazing, as could have a next-gen version of Nemesis
09:43stalking you through the streets. And these potential expansion points weren't just wishful thinking on
09:48the part of fans, as Resi 2 changed and bolstered so so much, including Mr. X, that fans were expecting
09:54Resi 3 to do the same. Sadly, it just wasn't interested in doing that, and as such didn't live
10:00up to the potential of what a remake could have been.
10:03Number 1, Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite has some of the most compelling gameplay in the
10:08entire franchise. The way it plays, its art style, the whole presentation is a return to form. The
10:13foundations are fit enough to support a truly incredible game. The issue is, that's all the game
10:20kinda currently is though. A foundation for something else. Despite being delayed a whole
10:25year, Halo Infinite still feels unfinished in both its campaign and multiplayer, with key modes not
10:30even being present at launch that you'd expect from this series. Infinite is a live service,
10:35and you can tell Microsoft have used that as an excuse to deliver a basic version of Halo that will
10:41hopefully be completed with time. With an insulting grind in the multiplayer, basic matchmaking features
10:47being nowhere to be seen, and an over-reliance on the storefront, Microsoft took the wrong lessons
10:52from other free-to-play titles and put them in their marquee release. And look, I'm sure that in
10:57a few years, this will be one of the best Halo games on the market, but right now, it's all just
11:02unfulfilled potential. So, that's our list. I wanted to know what you guys think down in the comments
11:07below. That got really sour towards the end, I'm sorry for that. I should've had maybe more jokes in
11:11there. Either way though, let me know what you think about this list in the comments, and while you're
11:14down there could you please give us a like, share, subscribe, and head over to whatculture.com for
11:17more lists and news like this every single day. Eve, if you don't though, I've been Josh,
11:21thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.
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