Good games with bad gameplay

[Yaramaki]

So what are some games you enjoyed that are generally be seen as good by gamers but quite frankly have terrible or clunky gameplay. I'll start with the first two that came to my mind when i tought about creating a topic for it. Offcourse i should include Deadly premonition but i've already talked way too much about that game in previous topics i'll just mention it briefly.

Heavy Rain -> Great game, great story likeable characters but when i think back off it the controls are quite terrible and the gameplay is as boring as going to church on sunday. Bad example i know like who on earth still does that 😞

Mass Effect 1 -> the entire trilogy are classics imo but the first game hasn't aged very well, while everithing else about the game is still top notch the controls are just clunky and a pain to use by todays standards. Driving around the Moka is probably the biggest pain in the ass, well i'm sure you know what i mean if you played the original game. I think they finally fixed it with the trilogy.

Right surely i know more like alpha protocol and the first nier game just to name a few but i can't remember much about those games anymore so i'll leave some for the rest of you guys/gals as i'm kinda curious what you can come up with! 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Yaramaki

[Justin11]

I played Mass Effect III, and was great. I don't know about the trilogy, and I don't know about the first edition. Since you condemned the first edition, I wouldn't try getting it, let it not be waste of funds for me. 

The one I'll point as being below par is 'FIFA series game, especially from 2014 to date. I am a born football lover, FIFA ought to impress me, but that's opposite at the moment. The name 'FIFA entices, but the gameplay is poorly made, which is disappointing. 

[Withywarlock]

I've a feeling this may be a thread I'll come back to every now and again, so for the time being I'll nominate The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind as my first choice. I don't quite get the story, and I'll admit I find all of its side content vastly more intriguing than its main plot, but there is an incredible game there... underneath the guff that remained with the series from its inception.

My main problem with it is that it's not as good as Gothic, and that's painful to say when I don't like Gothic very much (nor its fanbase, but they don't like me so we're golden). Just about everything Gothic does, which came out at around the same time (but was not as well distributed, marketed nor did it have TES' name value), this game does worse. Its combat is incomprehensible without a wiki (then again what RPG's truly is?); its stealth is undercooked; and related to that point is the weak character interactions where simply clicking through dialogue options without a care plops things into your journal, with every NPC knowing just about every piece of information you've ever inquired about.

Things I do like are usually overshadowed by other problems. The game requires you read your journal for quest information, which is helpful and comprehensive... but it's poorly organised, and sometimes directions can be obscure to downright incorrect. You also have to navigate the open world with its dire render distance, hoping you come across roadsigns that lead you to somewhere you want to be and preferably out of the way of cliff racers. Some places such as Vivec are technical powerhouses for their time I'm sure, but impractical and take an age to navigate. And the final criticism off the top of my head is how the factions interact with each other negatively... but that's all they do. There's none that appear to get on or synergise. Houses, Guilds and 'Guilds' want you to choose your allegiances very carefully, usually before you join up and take time to perform their quests.

These criticisms, lengthy as they are, are not particularly bothersome. I enjoy the game greatly because the whole is vastly superior to the sum of its parts, whereas Gothic is the opposite: it's truly amazing how all the common sense aspects of Gothic's design made such a spectacularly OK game when its at its best.

[Kane99]

I feel like I answered this before, but it may have been a completely different topic. Even though I didn't play it, Deadly Premonition comes to mind. It's a game with a weird and wacky story, but horrible gameplay. 

I saw a let's play of the whole game, and I heard the people playing complain about the stiff and awkward controls. But the story and characters made up for those problems. 

[kingpotato]

Skyrim...yes I said it 

Well I mean by today's standard its obviusly bad, but back in 2011-2012 it was mind blowing

[Yaramaki]

18 hours ago, Justin11 said:

I played Mass Effect III, and was great. I don't know about the trilogy, and I don't know about the first edition. Since you condemned the first edition, I wouldn't try getting it, let it not be waste of funds for me. 

Yowzers, Every gamer owe it to themselves to experience the original mass effect trilogy atleast once. It's just the first game controls haven't really aged well by todays standard but they fixed some of it with the trilogy remaster atleast from what i can remember.

 

7 hours ago, kingpotato said:

Skyrim...yes I said it 

Well I mean by today's standard its obviusly bad, but back in 2011-2012 it was mind blowing

You think so? Don't really see anything wrong with skyrim it's gameplay well maybe the ps3/360 or switch version, may be dated but with the recent update for current gen consoles it looks and plays better then ever.

[Withywarlock]

8 hours ago, kingpotato said:

Skyrim...yes I said it 

Well I mean by today's standard its obviusly bad, but back in 2011-2012 it was mind blowing

I wouldn't go as far as to say it was mind-blowing unless one's experience with the spectrum of RPGs at the time was fairly limited, from lesser-appreciated games like Dark Messiah of Might & Magic to the hugely popular Fable 2. What Skyrim did accomplish was streamlining the more cumbersome RPG elements of older games (for better or for worse) and made combat somewhat more dynamic with dual-wielding (including spells), experimental build encouragement, and Shouts.

I would still say the gameplay is weak but that works in its favour as a turn-off-your-brain sandbox, which I think is its only qualifier as being a good game.

[Yaramaki]

Well a few more recent games that came to my mind that fit the bill perfectly. Obviously i could list a buch of older games but it's in my oppinion  disrespectful to slam on a 20+ year old game say that it's dated. 

Vampyr -> Wait did anybody ever played this game? It's a game by dotnod of life is strange fame, released in 2018. Obviously you play as a newly-turned vampire doctor called jonathan morgan. It's a fairly unique game in the aspect you get stronger and level up faster if you kill npc's. For a vampire game that takes place in 1918 london it has everithing going for it, good dialogue, varied open world, likeable characters, that you get to know more and more over the course of the game (well unless you kill them). The only downside to the game is that is gameplay is just monotonous and boring, just not very fun to play. Should you play it well that's up to you, if you like a game with a great story with greatly written dialogue and characters and a strong emphasis on good vs evil (entire disctricts of london can go to shit if you kill to many people ) then yes by all means try it out. The good things outweight the mediocre gameplay.

Shenmue III -> Dare i toke a dumb on shenmue III, ah fuck it hate me afterwards all you want. Obviously i've been meaning to write about this game in another thread but i may aswell do it here. I remember like it was yesterday Saturday 19th of may 2001, my mom drove me to the nearest game store and i could pick up a video game for my 15th birthday, offcourse i already made up my mind and got shenmue, she must have been extremly generous that day because i also got Wwf royal rumble that day. 

First things first the first shenmue is one of my favourite games of all time and made me fall in love with japanese culture and history in general and made me want to study the japanese language a few years later, it's also one of the reasons i started collecting japanese region games because i find them more interesting to own and usually have much better box art well retro games did, now it doesen't really matter because they all have the same box art anyway.. But i'm getting way off from the original subject. Offcourse i played shenmue 2 a few years later but on the og xbox instead of the dreamcast and while hong kong does not have the same charm as a small villiage in rural japan or yokohama harbour. It was a great albeit sometimes frustrating experience.

Fast Forward E3 2015 on sony's e3 show Yu suzuki came up on stage announcing a kickstarter campaign for shenmue III, offcourse my mind was blown and i always said i woulden't mind paying 1000 bucks for a third game and i just did that because when Yu suzuki asks for money to create a game that is what you do, give him your money. Yu suzuki is a developer i put on the same height as Shigeru Miyamoto maybe just a slight bit higher because i favoured sega instead of nintendo. 

Now let's finally get around talking maybe i should just delete all the above since i went on a nostalgia trip. Right let me put on my rose tinted glasses for this one, Shenmue III is one of these rare games that makes you feel like you are in this case 1980 ies china and that is where it's strength lies, the atmosphere alongside likeable characters and the fact you can talk to just about anybody. The story is great and some side activities are fairly interesting to do but offcourse it woulden't be a shenmue game that it would be frustrating at times and this is where some questionable design choices come into play, you are always strapped for cash in the first part of game you are either forced to gamble for money or cut wood in a mediocre mini game. Choice is up to you, you can also pick flowers and sell them if you can gather a full set but i can't really remember if i ever got around to do that. I gambled my way trough the game for most part lol.

Offcourse the forklift come back once you reach Niaowu and the game starts opening up more and more. But in the end it doesen't matter all that much, Shenmue III is a game that should have come out in 2005 maybe then it would be seen as a classic. But in 2018 we're expecting a little more then what is delivered. Offcourse you could always say that it kept faithfull to it's predecessors but even the most die hard shenmue fan has to admit the outdated gameplay and some design would have been okay in 2005 but not in 2018. Needless to say the impossible to do right and beyond borderline frustrating qte's also makes a return. 

Just to sum it up shenmue III does everithing right bar the gameplay which boring, outdated and if i'm being honest with myself it's just not a fun game to play.

[Empire]

I'd agree with Mass Effect 1. Some people say 2 was a step down from 1 in its combat, but I totally disagree. 2 is uninspired but functional at worst. 1 just feels clunky and sloppy, and I love ME1. I hate Kotor's style of combat. I don't know if it's fair to call it bad but I much prefer something fully turn based or a proper action game. I enjoyed talking to the ship mates and the twist is pretty great although I didn't get to experience it first hand

[Heatman]

Brutal Legends is the very first game that comes to mind when I think about good games with bad gameplay or gameplay that wasn't what's promised. The game was originally advertised as an action adventure video game but when it came out, the gameplay was involved more of real time strategy elements. 

[Kane99]

14 hours ago, Yaramaki said:

Well a few more recent games that came to my mind that fit the bill perfectly. Obviously i could list a buch of older games but it's in my oppinion  disrespectful to slam on a 20+ year old game say that it's dated. 

Vampyr -> Wait did anybody ever played this game? It's a game by dotnod of life is strange fame, released in 2018. Obviously you play as a newly-turned vampire doctor called jonathan morgan. It's a fairly unique game in the aspect you get stronger and level up faster if you kill npc's. For a vampire game that takes place in 1918 london it has everithing going for it, good dialogue, varied open world, likeable characters, that you get to know more and more over the course of the game (well unless you kill them). The only downside to the game is that is gameplay is just monotonous and boring, just not very fun to play. Should you play it well that's up to you, if you like a game with a great story with greatly written dialogue and characters and a strong emphasis on good vs evil (entire disctricts of london can go to shit if you kill to many people ) then yes by all means try it out. The good things outweight the mediocre gameplay.

Shenmue III -> Dare i toke a dumb on shenmue III, ah fuck it hate me afterwards all you want. Obviously i've been meaning to write about this game in another thread but i may aswell do it here. I remember like it was yesterday Saturday 19th of may 2001, my mom drove me to the nearest game store and i could pick up a video game for my 15th birthday, offcourse i already made up my mind and got shenmue, she must have been extremly generous that day because i also got Wwf royal rumble that day. 

First things first the first shenmue is one of my favourite games of all time and made me fall in love with japanese culture and history in general and made me want to study the japanese language a few years later, it's also one of the reasons i started collecting japanese region games because i find them more interesting to own and usually have much better box art well retro games did, now it doesen't really matter because they all have the same box art anyway.. But i'm getting way off from the original subject. Offcourse i played shenmue 2 a few years later but on the og xbox instead of the dreamcast and while hong kong does not have the same charm as a small villiage in rural japan or yokohama harbour. It was a great albeit sometimes frustrating experience.

Fast Forward E3 2015 on sony's e3 show Yu suzuki came up on stage announcing a kickstarter campaign for shenmue III, offcourse my mind was blown and i always said i woulden't mind paying 1000 bucks for a third game and i just did that because when Yu suzuki asks for money to create a game that is what you do, give him your money. Yu suzuki is a developer i put on the same height as Shigeru Miyamoto maybe just a slight bit higher because i favoured sega instead of nintendo. 

Now let's finally get around talking maybe i should just delete all the above since i went on a nostalgia trip. Right let me put on my rose tinted glasses for this one, Shenmue III is one of these rare games that makes you feel like you are in this case 1980 ies china and that is where it's strength lies, the atmosphere alongside likeable characters and the fact you can talk to just about anybody. The story is great and some side activities are fairly interesting to do but offcourse it woulden't be a shenmue game that it would be frustrating at times and this is where some questionable design choices come into play, you are always strapped for cash in the first part of game you are either forced to gamble for money or cut wood in a mediocre mini game. Choice is up to you, you can also pick flowers and sell them if you can gather a full set but i can't really remember if i ever got around to do that. I gambled my way trough the game for most part lol.

Offcourse the forklift come back once you reach Niaowu and the game starts opening up more and more. But in the end it doesen't matter all that much, Shenmue III is a game that should have come out in 2005 maybe then it would be seen as a classic. But in 2018 we're expecting a little more then what is delivered. Offcourse you could always say that it kept faithfull to it's predecessors but even the most die hard shenmue fan has to admit the outdated gameplay and some design would have been okay in 2005 but not in 2018. Needless to say the impossible to do right and beyond borderline frustrating qte's also makes a return. 

Just to sum it up shenmue III does everithing right bar the gameplay which boring, outdated and if i'm being honest with myself it's just not a fun game to play.

I tried to play shenmue 1 and I couldn't get into it. Controls felt stiff and slow. I'm not used to playing games like that anymore, because it feels like a chore. Or maybe I'm just not into those types of games. 

I might just watch a playthrough of it. I'm too lazy to play it. Lol. 

[killamch89]

On 7/11/2022 at 8:07 PM, kingpotato said:

Skyrim...yes I said it 

Well I mean by today's standard its obviusly bad, but back in 2011-2012 it was mind blowing

Skyrim is pretty clunky and full of bugs that can be fixed with modding but still...It is lacking gameplay wise especially compared to Oblivion where you could make your own spells. That being said, I still love Skyrim to death.

[Heatman]

On 7/15/2022 at 9:27 PM, killamch89 said:

Skyrim is pretty clunky and full of bugs that can be fixed with modding but still...It is lacking gameplay wise especially compared to Oblivion where you could make your own spells. That being said, I still love Skyrim to death.

Seriously, the bugs was just the major downside to Skyrim. Oblivion was a flawless in a very big way compared to Skyrim but it doesn't change the fact that it's still enjoyable no matter its challenges. I would I give up on playing Skyrim too easily or early, I don't think that's ever going to happen. 

[Justin11]

- Alpha Protocol. 

- Brutal Legend. 

- Killer 7. 

This are few games I've played in the past were their gameplay is so bad. I can't fancy my hands wasting it on those games, they're gameplay was so mediocre. 

[Clasher]

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes: it has many great reviews and people do think it's a really good game, though they could be right but for me I feel the game play of this video game doesn't befit it and just made it a really wacky game though I still played it till the end anyways.