20 Games I Wish I Loved

I thought I’d try something a little different for this post – in no particular order, I’ll go through twenty games I’ve played in my life that disappointed me in one way or another.

As a disclaimer, I don’t necessarily hate any of these games. I went into them expecting to love them, but I was underwhelmed by at least one of the aspects of the gameplay or story.

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Disco Elysium

Let’s start with the most baffling entry of all – I love detective games dearly, and “Disco Elysium” is apparently the best one of the lot. When I finally got around to playing it, and even on a second attempt a few months later, I just couldn’t get into it.

The dice mechanic is good on paper, but you can’t help but feel that the computer is against you whenever you try to accomplish the simplest of investigation techniques. Also, the fact that a “Game Over”, either from losing too much health or sanity, results in you needing to start all over is an absolute joke (you could save-scum to prevent this, but they should’ve really just added checkpoints or regular autosaves whenever you visit a new room!).

Maybe there’s a good story locked away under layers of frustrating game design, and maybe the characters would have won me over in the end, but my two playthroughs were cut short before I could lose my temper.

Bioshock

“Bioshock” is a game that oozes atmosphere, with a story and worldbuilding that are still cited as some of gaming’s very best. But my god is it boring.

The underwater setting was dreary and the graphics outdated, and the core mechanics to defeat enemies felt underdeveloped and unintuitive at times. I tried the sequel, and I watched a YouTube playthrough of “Bioshock: Infinite”, but neither hooked me.

Dead Island

I don’t mind a zombie game, and I quite like the sound of some island survival crafting, but it doesn’t come together in “Dead Island” in the way I wanted it to.

The missions were repetitive and the zombies / crafting uninspired, and I’m not holding out hope that the sequel will be any better.

Hotline Miami

I was really into “Hotline Miami” at first. The over-the-ceiling perspective and tight action were lots of fun, and the levels kept ramping up in difficulty.

I guess I must have gotten bored along the way, either due to the snail-paced gameplay additions or repetitive level design, as I dropped it at the halfway mark and never felt the urge to return.

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

Another case of a detective game failing to grip me, “The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark” was mediocre right from the get go.

It’s my own fault, really – I could tell the narrative, style and gameplay weren’t my thing, but I naïvely played it anyway hoping it would win me over.

No Man’s Sky

“No Man’s Sky” had a notoriously lacklustre launch that put many off the game, but I don’t even have that excuse – I played it after all of the huge updates!

Exploring the infinite galaxies and planets was fun at first, and there were some genuinely cool survival-crafting features to play with, but the lack of a concrete goal and the general repetitiveness of the procedurally generated worlds made me bored after a few hours.

Deep Rock Galactic

I’d heard many great things about “Deep Rock Galactic”, and even encouraged some of my friends to play it with me, but we never got into it.

The gameplay loop wasn’t as engaging as I’d hoped, and the class-based PvE style left me feeling like I was never properly equipped to deal with the situation and help my team out.

Resident Evil 4 (2005)

The original Resident Evil 4 was actually my first ever RE game, and I wasn’t into it at first. I think that’s fair enough, since it had been over a decade since release and some of the gameplay had aged poorly.

After playing the RE2 / 3 remakes I fell in love with the franchise and gave RE4 another go … but if anything it got even worse the second time. I haven’t played the remake yet, which is probably awesome, so time will tell if this entry wins me over.

Destiny 2

Some of my friends were really into “Destiny 2” a few years ago and invited me along, and since it was free I thought there’d be no harm in trying it out.

I was positive about it at first, but the endless grind for better loot and meaningless online events bored the life out of me time and time again.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One

I go into a bit more detail in my “Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One” review, but in summary – after playing the other Frogwares Sherlock games I was let down by their open world experiment.

None of the cases blew me away like in “Crimes & Punishments”, the open world felt relatively empty, the gunplay segments were tedious, and that ending was abysmal.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

I’ve played “Dragon Age: Inquisition” twice in my life – the first time (nearer to its release in 2014) I got a decent way into it but got fatigued, so about a year ago I decided to give it another try.

As is a recurring theme in this list, the gameplay elements felt outdated and generally boring, and the story didn’t hook me as much the second time around.

TUNIC

My dislike for “TUNIC” is pure pettiness, as otherwise it’s a fantastic game that deserves all of the critical praise it gets.

The Zelda-esque gameplay was fun, the graphics were cute, the old-school manual was endearing (… at first), but the horrendous difficulty and combat turned me off it straight away. I had to use the cheats to beat it, and even then it was a tough grind.

Dying Light

“Dying Light” has a sprawling open world, a variety of zombie enemies, some of the coolest parkour in gaming … even now I have no idea why it failed to resonate with me.

The mission design and story fell a little flat for me, and the gameplay loop got a little stale as the narrative went on. Maybe the sequel improves upon this game’s shortcomings, but I have no intention of checking it out.

Green Hell

I really loved “The Forest”, and “Green Hell” seemed like a tough-as-nails clone set in a vast jungle. On the whole, that assessment is mostly correct.

It ends up being too hard, too similar to other survival games, and the lack of a story to follow meant I lost all motivation to play it after a couple of hours.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

I love the Assassin’s Creed franchise, but “Valhalla” ended up being a bit of a disappointment. “Revelations” too, actually. And “Unity” to a certain extent. Oh, and definitely “Syndicate”. I might have a toxic relationship with this franchise …

Since “Origins” and “Odyssey” were two of my favourite AC games, “Valhalla” felt like a sure-fire winner. It was a shame, therefore, when it just kept going, and going, and going, and going, and–

Dishonoured

A sandbox stealth game with slick action and cool magical powers seemed like a guaranteed banger, but “Dishonoured” never got as good as I wanted it to.

A lot of the levels felt quite one-note and repetitive, and the minimal story on offer never resolved in a satisfying way.

Kerbal Space Program

My friend forced me to buy “Kerbal Space Program” years ago, but despite the coercion I was willing to give it a go.

There’s a good game buried deep here, but you’d have to spend hours learning the engineering lingo and gameplay elements. I’d rather use those hours on games I actually like.

Death Stranding

I got “Death Stranding” for free on Epic Games, so at the very least it was money well spent.

The cutscenes were cool, the story and acting were unlike anything I’d seen attempted in gaming, but the actual gameplay let me down. Consider that makes up 90% of most games, it’s no wonder I gave up after a couple of hours.

Fallout 4

I’ve been a big fan of a lot of Bethesda’s work, from “Skyrim” to “DOOM Eternal”, so “Fallout 4” seemed like a no-brainer back when it released.

The post-apocalyptic open world felt bland in comparison to almost every other RPG I’ve played, and the combat didn’t do it for me either.

Prey

I’ve saved one of the most painful for last.

“Prey” had the potential to be an all-timer – the combat and monsters were cool, the story and world design were unique, and the open-ended approach to gameplay was a breath of fresh air.

I genuinely can’t place my finger on why it didn’t hook me. Maybe it was the core gameplay? Or the upgrade system? Either way, I lost interest at some point and never returned. Of all the games in this list, “Prey” feels like the one that deserves a second chance.

Aaaand that’s my list! If I’ve learnt anything from this, it’s that I should avoid games that start with the letter “D” …

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