The Biggest Video Game Letdowns of the Past 5 Years

Publishers and developers, for the most part, are normally provided a certain amount of inherent goodwill when it comes to a new release.

We trust, however foolishly we may sometimes be, that a game is a finished product that meets the quality and expectations of both the gamer and the developer. Perhaps a healthy injection of skpeticisim is required. The gaming community is one of the most effectively vocal when it comes to calling out a developer on a bunk product. When corporate hyperbole and PR hype leading up to a release reaches such a zenith, sometimes the only direction the reception can go is down.

Here are some of the Biggest Letdowns in Gaming of the Past Five Years.

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Real World Letdown Equivalent: The final episode of Lost

Like your 'cool' uncle, Duke hasn't aged well.

What was once an appealing mix of crass humor, dick jokes, and flashy explosions has turned into an immature mess. Clunky controls, jokes that weren't even close to being funny, aging design, and long load times were just a few of the criticisms leveled at the Duke Nukem Forever. Tedious and boring, the game was repetitive before the close of the first chapter. The game was destined for the bargain bin and Duke should have stayed in our memories where he could have been cool forever.

Real world letdown equivalent: All of the Star Wars prequels

Hitman: Absolution, in what can only be assumed was an attempt to appeal to a larger audience, moved away from the open world format of previous titles and released a game that was far easier than previous Hitman titles. What we ended up with was a lazy Metal Gear Solid knock off. Levels felt claustrophobic and cramped, the 'do it any way you want' freedom of assassinating targets was replaced with a linear narrative which felt restrictive. Developers IO Interactive, stated prior to release that they were going to be making Absolution more accessible to casual gamers, but what they ended up with was a neutered Agent 47.

Real world letdown equivalent: Prometheus

Brink promised us so much.

When Bethesda announced they would be publishing a shooter that incorporated elements of free-running, parkour, and acrobatics, fans across genres were understandably interested. Developer Splash Damage even created the SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system that would predict a player's direction and automatically navigate around obstacles via flashy aerial hurdles and parkour inspired verticality.

This was the one area Brink shined, it was the rest of the game that was, well, bad. The game was essentially an unfinished title that was littered with technical shortcomings and a mediocre approach to everything that normally hampers a shooter. AI bots that players could use as allies would behave erratically and were essentially useless. Brink was a game that sold itself on innovation and ended up mired in below average gameplay.

Real world letdown equivalent: Casting Ben Affleck as new Batman

The Total War series is known for massively detailed and stunningly elaborate set pieces. Total War: Rome II got that bit right, but the rest of title's performance was akin to an over the jeans handy by a beautiful woman who sort of resents being there. Glitchy and buggy copies forced multiple reinstalls to combat the broken AI and bullish texture optimization. Again, the art for the game was a thing of beauty, when the game would load and allow you to enjoy it. Multiple patches were released hoping to combat some of the more pervasive bugs, but after the initial release the damage was already done. Rome II was a letdown that still managed to become a commercial success despite a critical reception among fans of the series.

Real world letdown equivalent: Paying to see anything starring Jaden Smith

Think of a Game of Thrones video game that is massive, well- written, well-acted, and fiercely loyal to the source material, now think of the exact opposite of that and that's the Game of Thrones video game we ended up with. The clumsy action RPG was released to capitalize on the series' massive success on HBO, and was immediately pegged as the opportunistic cash grab it was. Clumsy graphics, frequent screen tears, bugs, and a story that captured none of the scope and grandeur of the Fire and Ice series were what greeted gamers hoping for a legitimate adventure in Westeros.

Real world letdown equivalent: Attending a vegan Thanksgiving

A beloved series that promised many PC gamers an expansion of the franchise with a dynamic multiplayer feature was hamstrung by one of the worst releases ever executed. The fact that EA opted for a required online server connection for single-player game was met with confusion and general annoyance, but it's when those very servers were incapable of allowing players access to the games is when all of the shits hit all of the fans at the same time.

SimCity was always a single-player experience and EA's decision to move the entire thing online and be beholden to servers that were essentially broken left gamers with a useless title. Neither the multiplayer, nor the single player, could be enjoyed without an online connection and the game's constant DRM checks made those opening weeks a disaster for a title that also limited the size and area users were able to build their cities in. The server disaster mirrored the launch of Diablo III by Blizzard, but people could still play Diablo if they waited long enough. Not so much with SimCity.

Real world letdown equivalent: The Game's LAX

Homefront started off with a solid premise. North Korea somehow manages to get its shit together long enough to attack, cripple, and invade the United States and you are forced to fight a guerilla war against the occupation forces.

Who wouldn't want to indulge in a little Red Dawn, noble freedom fighter flavored power fantasy? As solid as the concept was, the execution was a terminally stiff first person shooter that failed to excite gamers. The ad campaign leading up to the release was more creative than the single player mode.

North Korea had recently sunk a warship and launched an artillery strike and the title was accused of being opportunistic against the backdrop of real world events. The game was plodding and the final product may have suffered due to the behind the scenes turmoil at THQ. THQ filed for bankruptcy in November of 2012 and Crytek now owns the rights to the franchise.

Real world letdown equivalent: Purchasing Promotheus on Blu-ray

Perhaps letdown is too gentle a label for Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game was in development purgatory for the better part of five years and the final product was such an ungainly, dated, broken mess, Gearbox and Sega are still pointing lawyers at one another over the final product. Suffering from wildly inconsistent AI bugs, visuals that look like they were developed for the first Xbox, and a narrative that veered out of the Aliens cannon.

Those unfortunate enough to play the title were rightly furious with the finished product. It failed to deliver the promised expansion of a universe fans were anxiously awaiting. The game was a bummer of the first order and the script was one of the most laughably basic in recent memory.

Real world letdown equivalent: Realizing those Beanie Babies still aren't worth shit

Aside from the title being ludicrously redundant, EA's most recent entry into the Medal of Honor series is almost certainly the last. Suffering from an almost molecular level of generic conventions, Warfighter was a massive letdown of the first order. The entire affair felt rushed, buggy, and generally shoddy.

Attempting to compete in a genre contains two of the most widely played and lucrative franchises, Warfighter didn't have an identitiy to compete with the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield. A below average release in terms of just about everything, the title has almost certainly killed the Medal of Honor franchise as as whole. Collateral damage is a bitch.