Top 10 Biggest Disappointments In Gaming

The Last of Us Part 2 is considered by many to be one of the most significant gaming masterpieces of all time. Its story is brutal and realistic, heartbreaking and crushing, and it featured a death that sent shockwaves and vibrations throughout the gaming community that came up in some very ugly ways with some players. We could talk all day on the review bombing, and general xenophobia that came pre and post release of this game, but we’ve only got time to talk about the widely felt disappointment of Joel's death. The gaming world was split in two, some people believing that Joel should never have been killed off, and that his death was unnecessary or undeserved. Others, (myself included) felt like his death was necessary for the progression of the Last of Us story, but felt the sting just as strong. No matter what side of the fence you were on, everybody felt the same disappointment and heartbreak of seeing Joel go, and that is something worth group hugging about.

Oh Kickstarter, you have given us a handful of gems that were community supported and filled with love... You’ve also given us a truckload of crap that was community supported and felt borderline like a scam; Speaking of which, my Kickstarter for a new Elder Scrolls game is linked below, we just need enough to get me return flights and accommodation to Hawaii and then I promise I’ll start making the game. Back in 2013, a Kickstarter was announced by one of the Mega Man alumni who was developing a Mega Man spiritual successor after CAPCOM had been silent on the much loved franchise. The project was funded so unbelievably quickly, and players were ready for a new Mega Man-style experience. After constant delays, the game was released in 2016, and it was, for lack of a better word... poopy. Weird graphics, a noticeable amount of bugs, stuttering and lag issues on modern hardware, this game flopped and the public tore it apart. It lacked any of the charm the Mega Man series had and the planned ports for 3DS and PS Vita were axed before you could say “HUH HUH HUH HUH, say hello to my cute bombs”.

As the 10th highest selling game on the PlayStation 1, Metal Gear Solid 1 was an absolute mammoth for action gameplay and masterful mature storytelling. Solid Snake very quickly became a beloved PlayStation hero. The anticipation for Metal Gear Solid 2 on the PS2 was palpable, and we were all incredibly excited to jump back into the shoes of Solid Snake with the trailers and gameplay reveals showing some epic moments of Snake’s 2nd adventure. After putting the disc in the console, the player enjoyed a 2 hour prologue as Snake, otherwise known as the Tanker mission. The thrilling gameplay introduced the new mechanics that came with the PS2 hardware, and after this prologue wrapped up we jumped 2 years in time for the main campaign, the Plant mission. This is where the player learned the well kept secret of MGS2, a secret that would never be able to be kept in today’s leak heavy climate, Snake was NOT the protagonist of the second game. Revisiting this game many years later, it’s far more digestible and enjoyable and is easily among the best Metal Gear games, but upon release it was far harder to enjoy. The new protagonist Raidan was much less ‘tough’ than Snake, he was fresh to real combat, and kinda ‘whiney’. He was a tough pill to swallow when players expected to be playing as the far cooler Solid Snake, and this surprise reveal was not received well at all, some players feeling as though it would have been far easier to enjoy if they hadn’t been deceived.

One of the biggest console launches came in 2020 with the PS5. Launching side by side with the Xbox Series X and S, it’s clear to see which consumers were more excited for as the PS5 sold 10 million units more than the X and S combined by 2023. Unfortunately, the PS5 also suffered one of the biggest supply issues we’ve ever seen in a console, with availability still not being perfect 3 years later, and Sony claiming we should be able to walk into stores and find a PS5 relatively easily by the end of this year (possibly 2024). The console launched in the throes of the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 which both bumped up consumer demand with a good chunk of people stuck at home, but also bumped up labor challenges and distribution complications with the majority of the workforce being affected. The biggest problem was with the availability of semiconductors and chips, both of which were needed for the PS5. The global lack of supply as well as the Suez canal blockage of 2021 made it impossible to keep up with the stock demand and it has affected the console availability to this day… and Xbox still couldn’t beat them.

Coming off the back of the original trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda was highly anticipated. Even though the ending of the third game wasn’t loved across the board, the first three games still stand strong in people’s minds. Andromeda had some big shoes to fill. Did they fill them? Hell no. Mass Effect: Andromeda launched to universal hate with bland gameplay from a weak engine, weird facial animations, and a lackluster story. Mass Effect: Andromeda was one of the more significant let downs in the last 20 years of gaming.

The mini consoles saw popularity beginning in 2016 with the NES Classic Edition launching. A mini replica NES console + controllers that came preloaded with 30 games including Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Excitebike, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros 1-3, Mega Man, Kirby, Pac-Man, Contra and back to back bangers. The following year saw the release of the Super NES classic edition which mimicked the success of the first with a replica mini console + controllers and games like Donkey Kong Country, Earthbound, Final Fantasy 6, A Link to the Past, Star Fox and Yoshi’s Island. The following year came the mammoth, the highly anticipated PlayStation Classic, with that sleek PS1 design and those original controllers, this mini console blew us away with entries like Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash … and Mr Driller? All jokes aside, the console did feature a handful of significant entries like FF7 and Resident Evil, but was widely criticized for missing some major entries in place of some really weird choices, especially after the previous two consoles nailed their titles... Seriously, who the hell was asking for Cool Boarders 2? The console opted for the original controllers over the dualshock option, had multiple frame rate issues, and cost a whopping $100. This one might have killed the mini consoles forever.

Sonic was a legend of the 2D platforming world. The success of the franchise and character was palpable in the 90’s, but with the 3D adaptations coming about in the early 2000’s, the fast footed creature was losing his footing. With semi successful 2D games keeping the Sonic name alive and well on handheld consoles, players still had high hopes for the next generation of consoles when “Sonic The Hedgehog” was announced for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game was an absolute pile of dookie, and has been many times over referred to as one of the worst games of all time. The story was so unbelievably weird, but most players would never find out because the game made it as difficult as possible to play. The camera was impossible to work, the glitches were endless and the load times were the complete opposite of Sonic... SLOW! This game was bad, and that’s without even mentioning ‘the kiss’.

The Star Wars battlefront series has been beloved the world over since its original entries on the PS2, and the generally well received 2015 entry, “Star Wars Battlefront”. The promotional material for Star Wars Battlefront II was strong, and the world was getting keen for another Battlefront adventure. Sadly, due to corporate greed and mismanagement, the game would release unready and with a very sketchy loot box system. The infamy of their loot boxes and microtransactions are a point of reference for gamers trying to point at “what not to do”, and the drama was so bad that the Belgium gaming commission had to get involved. The game fought hard to stay alive, but in 2020 it received its last update and the final nail was placed firmly in its coffin.

Do we even need to talk about what happened here? Possibly one of the biggest game release disappointments of the 2000’s, Cyberpunk 2077 had a wildly overhyped marketing mission, with gameplay and story elements being released and teased all throughout development, and Keanu Reeves stopping in to build the hype even further. CD Projekt Red were the kings of development off the back of their wildly successful Witcher 3, and Keanu Reeves was the king of the internet! All of these pieces were combined to make an amazing open world FPS. The game upon release… yeesh. Cyberpunk released as such a buggy mess that it was pulled from sales for previous gen players, and even those who were able to play it were not getting a great experience. It was buggy beyond belief, and the story and gameplay were not strong enough for people to see what the game might become. It was a lackluster world that was expected to be breathtaking, and players were left bitterly disappointed. Keanu Reeves gave a half hearted performance, and Cyberpunk was torn apart by gamers and critics alike.

Sean Murray is a DAMN LIAR!! Nah, he’s alright. When No Man’s Sky was announced, we all looked at this game and thought “this is too good to be true”, but Murray was in the middle of a self sabotage world tour where he told publications, and news outlets, and tv studios, time and time again that it was all true, and why wouldn’t we believe him? He was the head developer! The game released to massive worldwide criticism, not only because the game did not match the visuals and gameplay we’d seen previously, but because there were seemingly a LOT of missing elements that Sean Murray had gone on record saying there would be. The biggest and most egregious was the lie that the game was multiplayer. Even with the clear absence of servers and multiplayer options, we still couldn’t believe a game developer would lie so blatantly. It took two players meeting at the same location for people to finally agree that No Man’s Sky and the team behind it were THE WORST. It is possible that Murray believed those lies would become truths before release, but all players got to see was over-promising and embellishing to build hype for a game that would release NOTHING like the expected game. The game has had a major turn around since then BUT I’M NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT THAT. Shame on you, No Man’s Sky… I love you.