literature

Nukid101's Top 10 Disappointments Of 2014: 10 - 6

Deviation Actions

Nukid101's avatar
By
Published:
2.2K Views

Literature Text

Welcome everybody to the start of my series of countdowns for 2014. In the forthcoming weeks I will be looking back and celebrating the various films, TV shows and video games that I adored throughout 2014, but first we must take some time out to look back on the disappointments.

As the title states bluntly this list is not about the ‘worst’ of 2014 or necessarily my ‘least’ favourite. This list looks back on the things that failed to live up to my expectations and hope I once had for it, because I have no shame in admitting that I get excited and hopeful for future films, TV shows and games. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going into something with some genuine hope and optimism that it’ll be good.

What a person MUST do is go into with REALISTIC expectations and be prepared for it to fail those expectations, which I personally do...but even that does not save you from getting disappointed, and we are here to look at the 10 biggest letdowns. So without further ado here are my Top 10 Disappointments of 2014!




Nukid101’s Top 10 Disappointments of 2014: 10 -  6





10) Far Cry 4

Truth be told, I didn’t really dislike the first two entries on my list and I did get some enjoyment out of them, but they still make it on this list for failing to live up to their predecessors. The first of these two entries is the fairly recently released Far Cry 4.

Now I adored Far Cry 3, in spite of some certain issues. As often mentioned the games narrative was rather ‘Whitey Mighty’  and it suffered the same problem most sandbox games suffer from in that the pacing of the games story was all over the place. It was also somewhat repetitive despite its open world gameplay and really only had a limited amount of things you could do.

.......But playing Far Cry 4 has made really appreciated the story of Far Cry 3 even more, and it has reminded me why narrative in video games are incredibly important.

For all its faults the story of Far Cry 3 was both incredibly Meta about the very nature of video games AND engrossing on a more personal level. Ignoring all the Meta stuff for a second, what was the story of Far Cry 3? You’re a Middle Class American who has to become a warrior to avenge his dead brother and save his friends from slavery. That’s engaging. Those are motivations I can get behind and in retrospect it helped me overcome the sense of repetition in Far Cry 3 that ultimately ruined Far Cry 4.

You see because of the strong goal the game gives us at the start I think it made the repetition of doing the same missions over and over much more tolerable, because I truly felt like I was accomplishing something. When I took down a fort, I was also messing with the guys who have sold Jason’s friends and family into slavery. When I took control of a tower I was satisfied knowing that I was slowly winning the war against Vaas. The point is every little accomplishment in Far Cry 3 felt meaningful and seeing Jason go from privileged coward to a one man army was satisfying (even if the games was deliberately critiquing said pleasure...).

So then, why does Far Cry 4 fail to give that sense of satisfaction? Well to supposedly ‘fix’ some of Far Cry 3’s problems the story of Far Cry 4 is much less personable and is clearly more focused on the gameplay side of things, particularly exploring and riding Elephants, and I can’t deny this is all done well. Admittedly at this point all Ubisoft feel like they play the same but Kyrat is absolutely gorgeous to look at and riding elephants is all kinds of fun.

But the simple fact guys is that I just don’t care about anything that happens in this game.

Because the story is treated like such an afterthought I can’t bring myself to really care about anything I do in this game. Because I have little connection to either the allies or villains of Ajay I found it incredibly difficult to get remotely invested in the story surrounding Far Cry 4.

It really comes down to characters, and Far Cry 3 had an excellent cast. Obviously Vaas was awesome, but personally I was more interested in the journey of Jason Brody as he becomes more and more of a warrior, and his moments with his rescued friends were painfully realistic in how they reacted to their changed friend and heartbreaking seeing how the events of the game have broken them.

Far Cry 4 characters on the other hand...are problematic, to say the least. Ajay is essentially a blank slate, and it’s not even remotely justified as to why he should even side with the Golden Path, especially since both Amita and Sabal are both defined by their opposite ideological extremes which are just there for forced conflict. The rest of the cast is either amusing at best, uninteresting or outright annoying at worst.

The obvious exception is of course Pagan Min. It is indeed hard to not like Pagan Min, mostly due to Try Baker’s simply stunning performance....but even with Pagan Min they cocked it up I’m afraid by making him TOO likeable. It’s clear they wanted to recreate the same success they had with Vaas, and personally I don’t think they quite understood why Vaas worked in Far Cry 3.

There’s a reason why some people compared Vaas to The Joker, you know. The reason being that Vaas was as awesome and hilarious...as he was sadistic and terrifying. I think we can all agree that Vaas is the last person you’d want to be in a room with, and I honestly doubt many people were sad to actually kill him because the man DESERVED it. His likeability never got in the way of my conviction to end his reign of terror.

Pagan Min on the other hand...by the end of the game he’s possibly the most sympathetic character in the game, and I don’t think that was the right move to make. I never felt any gratification of fucking him over when I liberated forts because I – and Ajay - ultimately had little to no reason to want to stop him. Pagan Min was ultimately too likeable to hate and too much of a jaded attempt at making the character ‘Iconic’.

This is all very subjective mind you because I know many games don’t care about the story, which is fine. Far Cry 4 certainly appeals there and even improves in some areas, such as the more interesting area to explore and the aforementioned elephant riding. I’ll even admit to loving the games colourful design and I respect the somewhat less serious tone it sometimes tried to take.

For me though...well, when my favourite part of the game is the secret ending which you get by simply standing still at the start for 15 minutes, then I clearly didn’t care much for this game in general.



9) Archer Season 5

Again, didn’t dislike this entry overall, but it was a letdown.

Now I’ll confess I may have gone into this season with...unrealistic expectations because just as the series was airing I had binge-watched all 4 previous seasons of Archer, and...it was so much fun. I absolutely adore the first 4 seasons of Archer; it’s some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen on television and I still love it to death.

To make matter worse in the lead up to the seasons opening the creators were hyping the shit out of it, promising this season would ‘Change the show completely’ and the series would be going in a ‘bold new direction’, which got me excited. I tend to hate status-quo in stories and love shows that aren’t afraid to make drastic changes to the story.

So in other words I feel somewhat justified going into Archer season 5 with as much anticipation as I did, and I was truly very excited to watch this season. And when I finally started watching...

...It was not only the same as before, it was FILLER.

Filler is the only way to describe this season, because quite infuriatingly very little furthers the series ongoing stories or develops them in meaningful ways. I’m not joking that the seasons very last scene is the only massive change in status-quo for the series, because everything else IS restored to status-quo, and that was just annoying to me.

But hey a season dedicated to doing something different isn’t a bad idea and could lead to some great moments. Filler isn’t necessarily a bad thing – for example I’d regard Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu as the best season of that series – but the problem with Archer season 5 is that it...does very little new.

The set up is obviously different sure. They’re now drug dealers instead of secret agents, but the season barely uses this change in set up, and the escapades our characters get into are borderline the same as the past four seasons. For a season that was supposed to change the show drastically it had a very ‘been here before’ feel to it, and I think because of that the comedy just failed to deliver quite as well as before.

The comedies decline in quality is also likely due to the fact that most of the characters this season...felt more obnoxious than usual. I’m not 100% sure why; maybe because the previous seasons gave them moments where they weren’t just being massive douches to each other, something that was also lacking this season. They made me laugh sometimes sure, but I was upset by how often I just got annoyed with them.

Most especially Pam.

Oh Jesus Christ Pam what did they do to her?

She went from possibly being the shows biggest breakout character to its most intolerable. She was a great character whose douche moments came from a carefree attitude and a desire to just have fun in life...to an uncomfortably over-sexualized, infantilized, overgrown baby caricature of what she once was, who constantly threw hissy fits every time she didn’t get her way in the season and unapologetically got her friends into mortal danger several times.

Worst of all they portrayed her Cocaine addiction...by having her grow thinner, more beautiful and more confident in herself. Fucking hell Writers; I know you’re not a kids show but that’s a fucking unfortunate implication there, don’t you think?

Granted, the ending implies she might be trying to get over her addiction, which might be interesting. In fact most of the interesting stuff happens at the end. The rest is just...lesser filler to a great series and a severe drop in quality. Here’s hoping season 6 proves that this won’t become a trend.



8) Thief

Some would say it was foolish to ever expect anything from this game. It is after all a current gen instalment in an old classic video game series and previous attempts at revamping classic series are often shells of what their predecessors once were, but there are exceptions to the rule. Dues Ex: Human Revolution was a worthy successor to the original Deus Ex and X-Com: Enemy Unknown brought back the X-Com franchise with a game that was accessible without dumbing things down. Point is the new Thief game could’ve lived up to its predecessors standards if it was handled well.

It didn’t though.

To understand why the new Thief game didn’t work one has to understand why the first two games did. For starters one thing the original games are not praised for are their graphics, which by todays standards look like total piss. The first game in particular is so dated its jarring, but what’s great about both game is that said graphics didn’t matter, because what they lacked in aesthetic they made up for in spades with content.

The maps of the first two Thief games are simply overwhelming, and the freedom they offered the player to challenge missions is to this day rarely matched. These were games where you could play how you wanted with few restraints. You could try out several possible entrances and not take a single life, or you could go in sword blazing and chopping off every guards head off (though this was pretty damn difficult). Unlike modern gaming’s obsession with morality system you were never punished for who you did and didn’t kill and you could finish those levels how YOU wanted. They were open ended enough to allow that.

The new Thief game however is not. The levels are not only woefully smaller and allow less freedom to choose you own route, they’re annoyingly make it impossible to go back to certain parts of the map after reaching certain points. In other words all the joy of exploration is taken from the game, and due to these points it’s potentially feasible to just run to each point, alerting all guards who’ll only follow you to these points.

Another thing the game dumbs down is the main character Garratt. In the original games Garratt was a straight talking, unapologetic anti-hero who wryly commented on the things around him. He was by no means a great guy but if push came to shove would help out friends and occasionally stick it to the nobles who made lives for the poverty hell. The only reason he’s a Thief is because it’s a living to him and it’s his way of paying the bills. Point is he was a three dimensional character with a unique personality of his own.

In the new game however...he’s just another broody misery guts who only communicates through manly growls and has as much personality as a burnt waffle. His motivation for stealing is – word for word – ‘Because it’s what I do’. That’s generic and it’s lacking anything that made the original Garratt and fun and likeable protagonist.

Put both problems together and you’ve got a good idea about why this game doesn’t work. It’s ultimately not a horrible game, but it’s just so generic and safe. It’s stripped almost everything that made the original games so great and it’s a watered down shell of what this series once achieved.

Honestly, if you wanted a new Thief-like game, just get Dishonored.



7) Strider

Now this is one that I doubt many will agree with me on. Strider was quite well liked when it was released earlier this year, and I will say that there are several things to like about this game. There is certainly satisfaction being able to swing your sword as many times as you mash the button and the game maps does have a very Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night feel with its expansive areas to explore and secrets to discover.

Despite that though, I did not like this game

I’ve actually done a review of the game where I’ve gone into detail about why I didn’t like it, so here I’ll be brief. For starters the games range of enemies is incredibly underwhelming; it’s idea of expanding its arsenal through the game is to simply have the same generic soldiers...in a different coloured shirt. Outside of them and a few bug monsters the game offers little else and they all come incredibly tiresome, but Strider takes this recycling one step further.

The game recycles boss battles...more than once with some.

That’s...just lazy guys, and it’s a shame since one or two boss battles were legitimately great, but this feeling of recycling is felt throughout the game and the games only way to raise the stakes is to simply pile on MORE enemies on you at once, mooks AND boss battles.

This leads me to my other big complaint about the game, and that’s the games difficulty. You see due to the games Metroidvania design, it’s possible to have enemies surrounding on various levels, and almost all of these enemies have long distance weapons. Hiryu on the other barely has any long distance weapons and has to literally run up to each soldier to kill them, all the while having your health drain away by shots you usually can’t block.

...It may be presumptuous of me to say this considering I’m not working in the gaming industry, but fuck it. Strider is certainly difficult, but I don’t think it’s challenging. I would argue that this games difficulty it BROKEN and through bad design the game is damn unfair to the player. I’ll probably have my points shortened to being ‘You just weren’t gud at it!’ by some clever souls, but I stand by my point here.

Still a lot of people enjoyed Strider so I’ll take some comfort that others got enjoyment out of this one. For me though Strider simply didn’t work despite some promising parts to it.



6) Murdered: Soul Suspect

As someone who always wants to branch out and try new things, I like to keep an eye out on new stuff that isn’t just a sequel or part of some property, and it’s always a bit sad when it falls short on the promise it once had. Last year such a letdown was Remember Me, an intriguing Sci-Fi action game that unfortunately fell short due to problematic gameplay and even more problematic story. This year however such a game is Murdered: Soul Suspect.

Why does the game fail? Well interestingly enough for the exact opposite reasons as Strider. Where Strider was unfairly difficult...Murdered Sould Suspect has no difficulty to speak of.

The game is essentially a modern Point and Click adventure game, and as you are the Ghost of a Detective there is naturally a crime solving aspect to it. The problem however is that said crime solving is insultingly easy and lacks any real challenge. Worse it can be borderline insulting. For example once you’ve collected all of the evidence from a crime scene you are given a set of question that you must answer with the evidence collected. Sounds good? Well here’s just one example of the kind of questions they ask you:

Why was the Killer at the scene of a crime?...Because he was looking around here.

...Marvellous.

Of course if even questions like that were too much for you then you don’t have to worry because the game doesn’t punish you for it. On each go you get three chances to get it right, and if you get all three wrong you...just try again and again with three new chances. Not only that but the ghosts that are your only threat to you are laughably easily to get rid of, but even IF you somehow get caught by them...you just end up a bit back to where you were before. That’s just the game in a nutshell as it lacks anything resembling difficulty.

Now believe me I’m not someone who thinks a game is good solely by its difficulty and I might’ve tolerated this games lack of difficulty had the story and characters been good enough, but they’re...okay mostly. Some of the side quest stories are genuinely interesting, but most of the main story is passable at best and inconsistent at worse. Particularly inconsistent in how the ghost powers work and the rules behind them.

So sadly Murdered: Soul Suspect just doesn’t live up to its potential. If you wanna see this concept done right go try at the Blackwell series on Steam. They’re mighty fun and at times quite difficult.




And that’ll be for today everyone. Look out for part 2 where we look at my 5 biggest letdowns of 2014!
Comments36
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Some pretty good opinions Nukid. Can I guess that a certain Bungie related game is on the top five? XD