DS writes: "Despite a few missed opportunities to really build on the great games it’s inspired by, Atomic Heart surprised me, with a remarkably inventive world that brings to life (the tears apart) the weirdest, wildest visions of Soviet propaganda. This is a game that’s been through over half a decade of development hell, and come out the other side as one of the best first-person shooters this generation."
Dylan from Twinfinite: "Like godrays emanating from the heavens, we’ve often placed a video game we really, really want atop a pedestal and waited patiently for it to release… only to be kicked in the crown jewels like the foolish suckers we truly are. Yes, there’s nothing worse than having your hopes dashed by promise and potential. I mean, we’ve all been there, right?"
I'm not sure CTR or Layers of Fear were so much disappointing as expected level of quality based on what we saw from trailers and demos over the last two years and that those all made the games look just as bad as they were at release.
In the case of Rumble, I think that tracks if focusing on where the IP has come since its mini-renaissance. Just look at how it's done since re-appearing on Sony's e3:
-Remastered Crash N' Sane Trilogy
-Remastered Crash Team Racing
-Finally gets a full-fledged sequel in Crash 4
To have that kind of quality run with Toys for Bob at the helm, it's somewhat disappointing to see that dip. This coming from someone who still enjoys Rumble to some extent. It *threatens* being a genuinely good game too, but I'm not confident on a final verdict yet.
***This coming from someone who still enjoys Rumble to some extent.***
How do you expect anyone to take you seriously with statements like this? ;)
-"How do you expect anyone to take you seriously with statements like this? ;)"
:'(
For real though, it has some legitimately fun ideas baked in. The way it incorporates mayhem fits the Crash formula way more than it initially lets on.
Atomic Heart was unique for me in that it had the best art direction of the year yet at the same time had some of the worst writing and gameplay I've ever seen. In the end I couldn't drag myself through to finish it,. The awful jumping puzzles, open world with endlessly respawning enemies and clunky combat were too much of an obstacle for me. Shame cos i really wanted to see more of the game world.
I was also drawn in by the art style of the game butbthe combat was so "meh" that I couldn't bring myself to continue on. Thanks to Game Pass I dodged another bullet.
I've just finished the spectacular Metro series after being bored sh*tless by Hogwarts and now I'm on Atomic Heart... this game has been a struggle to finish, boring gunplay and enemies, another big empty world, to many jumping sections on a game that doesn't do jumping well, boring weapons and dulled down Bioshock powers, etc... runs well though, I get a smooth locked 60 at 4K with everything set to max.
All 3 Metro games are just amazing. One of my all time favourite series. Fantastic atmosphere.
I agree if Atomic Heart was linear game like the beginning all the way it would have been great, but the open world was terrible, and i remember the last jump puzzle, it had abit f glitch where you had to jump just right or you fell...and it was a pain, after a few times i thought im just not enjoying this and turned it off.
Yes! The linear approach just serves that game so much better. And the art style was pretty fascinating, I think.
Lot of Disappointing games has been released over the past 20 years but I will Not mention any of them . some cry baby might start whining about it.
I will say I'm getting Tired of Open World games now.
Why do you care if someone might get upset, and mention that they don’t agree with the lots of disappointing games that you’ve played in the past 20 years? It’s your opinion. Share it. Not everyone will agree with you, and that’s okay.
I personally found Hogwarts Legacy to be a BIG disappointment this year. Why? Well, apart from the studio absolutely nailing the “Look” of Hogwarts (inside the castle, along with other outdoor areas such as Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest and a few other locations) the actual WORLD design, in it being open world did not do the gameplay and main story any favors.
HL, I believe would’ve benefited greatly from a more linear game, set within the confines of the castle, classrooms, common rooms, with your fellow classmates, experiences a unique story told with those walls, that at the right story beats would take you outside the castle, to specific locations beyond the Hogwarts grounds. And with this type of focus & balance, a stronger narrative for not just the main story, but even side story’s could be offered to the player, their character and the players classmates of their choosing (if that’s an option within the story structure at the time) and with this, the player would not have to grind/be locked out from their next quest/story point. Now here comes that grind😭😂
Hogwarts Legacy was clearly an ambitious game, that in ways, the studio did a marvelous job at capturing the heart and soul of the books and films, honoring the lore and making fans feel like they’re in Hogwarts like we’ve only dreamed of, and to that, I give them much thanks!!👏🏼 However, the story (specifically main story) was rather uninteresting and boring at most moments. How they did weave certain things in there, I appreciate. But overall, a bland and lifeless main story. The strongest part of the game for me, storyline wise was building that friendship with Sebastian Sallows and Ominis Gaunt, seeing how your friendship with them grew, changed and the choices you made, by what Sebastian and Ominis would ask of you tested you, but also showed a different side of each of them you might not have expected. Two well written characters with meaningful backgrounds, that helped you better understand them, who they currently are, why they think, believe, behave this way, and are their motives for fighting this so strongly really the best thing to do.
I would have been happier with more mandatory classes. The game ended up feeling like I'm the one kid that go do whatever whenever while the other classmates were, ya know, in class. Especially weird since you play as a kid that is four full years behind the others and are constantly told you will need to study harder catch up. So of course you spend your time docking off and still somehow chosen oneing you way through everything effortlessly.
got-dam
Exactly. Thank you for bringing that up, because those are important points. More mandatory classes would’ve been appreciated, not just for learning spells, but just for more character development within the story, which could’ve benefited not just our character and the characters in our respected house, but also from students/friends from the other houses that you only meet a select few times.
Yeah, a definite disconnect within what the story tried to portray in terms of you being behind and yet being at Hogwarts, a school where you know the students are actually in class. I hated going off exploring the world for this and that and wanted to be in class. Had the team just gone linear, and maybe been ambitious within that aspect of story & game design they could’ve really knocked it outta the park and been much more consistent.
I understand that expectations are a very personal thing. But, I do feel that in order to feel disappointed by the releases of Minecraft Legends, Crash Team Rumble, Layers of Fear and Atomic Hearts you need to have very unfounded expectations for them. Because they delivered more or less what was promised and expected.
Now, titles like The Last of Us PC and Redfall I can understand. Nobody expected Sony to release such a broken mess of a port, especially of one of their most important franchises. And Redfall had some marks of disappointment in the promotion material, but again no one expected that the game would just be the huge mess that it ended up being.
Well said. And especially a port from Sony of one of their most beloved games of all time! And from a franchise that they know is highly respected with 2 successful games. I mean, The Last of Us, which released back in 2013, how that game shocked and impacted the gaming industry was special. And for the PC port of The PS5 version to be released in the state that it did, absolutely unacceptable. A slap in the face to gamers.
And as you said, expectations being a very personal thing, I couldn’t agree more. I don’t overhype games nowadays like I used to. I keep my expectations in check, while being understandably excited (depending on the studio) and just hope/have faith they’ll deliver a great game. And it’s rare (although it happens) that Sony’s studios deliver a dud.
Shame about atomic heart. I still havent played it but it seemed to have everything it needed to succeed. Looked good, story seemed interesting.
Damn. I'll still give it a shot but that's disappointing. I was actually curious about it. It was pretty hyped then it just disappeared so it's about what I assumed.
I got pretty far into the second area of Redfall and I felt also like I was one of the very few who lasted that long (especially solo). I really wish that game was so much better than it turned out. Such a waste of potential.
You see what I mean about Burial Point? It's annoying how you spot the seedling of a cool concept (warring factional interests) but see no semblance of continuity in its execution.
Yes, this is a very late response.
"one of the best first-person shooters this generation"
Another review said it was a GOTY contender - what gives with the mixed reviews? Please tell me it's not political.