10 Awesome Recent Video Games That Didn’t Deserve To Bomb
Days Gone is one of the best PlayStation exclusives.
Transcript
00:00 Crafting a piece of art and releasing it into the world takes guts, and video games are
00:03 such a big time investment for developers and publishers that if it doesn't meet expectations
00:08 that can be devastating, both personally for those that poured their heart and soul into
00:12 it, but also from a financial standpoint.
00:14 The industry is constantly moving and there are times where video games might not get
00:18 a second chance, no matter how badly they deserve it.
00:21 I'm Sci for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 awesome recent video games that didn't
00:25 deserve to bomb.
00:27 10.
00:28 Guardians of the Galaxy Considering how the Marvel Cinematic Universe
00:31 has been one of the most valuable entertainment properties of the last decade, you'd think
00:35 we would have had more high-budget video game tie-ins or adaptations.
00:38 Still, even though they wouldn't be using the actors' likenesses, there was some excitement
00:42 when Square Enix started working on several Marvel products.
00:45 Square claimed that, even though the game came in at number two on release, only behind
00:49 FIFA, Guardians of the Galaxy had undershot sales expectations, which is a shame and sadly
00:54 a common situation with the company's Western releases.
00:57 There's a couple of reasons why this might be that include a marketing campaign and presence
01:00 that was perhaps a little too overbearing, and the fact that it was coming not all that
01:04 long off the back of Marvel's Avengers.
01:06 That game also undersold Square Enix's projections and the critical reaction to Avengers was
01:10 a lot more divisive.
01:11 It's a shame because Guardians doesn't have nearly the amount of issues that Avengers
01:15 had with its grinding games-as-a-service approach, and was a more streamlined affair geared towards
01:19 a good linear campaign.
01:21 Despite the lack of big-screen actors, Guardians' characters were all well-written and identifiable,
01:25 a goofy but human story amid high-octane combat.
01:29 9.
01:30 The House of the Dead Remake
01:32 If you're of a certain vintage like me, you may well have fond memories of visiting
01:36 the arcade and not being able to resist popping your pocket money into a House of the Dead
01:40 cabinet.
01:41 Instead of pitching a new title, developer Megapixel Studio instead opted to remake the
01:44 original game, which has been notoriously locked on old PCs and Sega Satans for decades.
01:49 The House of the Dead Remake is a pretty faithful return to the 25-year-old game that offers
01:54 the kind of ridiculous co-op zombie-blasting fun you'd expect, along with some new options
01:58 to give it some extra replayability, all in a bright and bold new art style.
02:02 Criticisms of its awkward controls are fair, but many thought the game was short and outdated,
02:06 which considering it's a remake of an arcade title from the late 90s begs the question,
02:11 what were you expecting?
02:12 Considering Megapixel are set to remake fan-favourite The House of the Dead 2 next, hopefully the
02:16 legitimate control and tech issues are something they can address moving forward.
02:20 That being said, for a new studio to handle a beloved game so respectfully is always nice
02:25 to see, and House of the Dead Remake isn't anything more than it needs to be.
02:29 8.
02:30 Aliens - Fireteam Elite
02:32 In this lobby, nobody can hear you scream, because the playerbase have moved on.
02:36 Aliens - Fireteam Elite actually sold reasonably well at first, being the best-selling game
02:40 in the UK on its release week in August 2021 and hitting about 15,000 concurrent players
02:45 at launch.
02:46 But since, the developers Cold Iron Studios failed to maintain the momentum and now barely
02:50 200 people play the game, only 9 months from its release.
02:53 Cold Iron's roadmap for content unfortunately doesn't seem to be taking the game's criticisms
02:57 into account.
02:58 Adding more weapons and cosmetics is fine, but most players would rather the studio fine-tune
03:01 the AI, construct more story missions or, what should be standard for a multiplayer
03:05 experience in 2022, add cross-play.
03:08 Fireteam Elite is fundamentally a fun game, an action-packed team-based shooter that retains
03:12 the Alien tone and scare factor, with enemies that can come out of anywhere and break down
03:16 your defences.
03:17 The game's multiple classes are all rewarding in their own right, and so is the challenge
03:20 card feature, which offers bigger prizes for a tougher experience.
03:24 And if you're a fan of the franchise, the game handles the lore of the series tremendously
03:28 well.
03:29 Whilst its general audience moved on quickly, Aliens - Fireteam Elite is still a blast to
03:32 play if you can rally up some friends.
03:34 7.
03:35 Resident Evil 3 Remake
03:37 Whilst it wasn't quite as faithful an adaptation as Resident Evil 2 Remake, Jill's fight
03:41 to escape Raccoon City was another visual triumph for the RE Engine.
03:45 Additionally, it revitalised several dormant Rezi characters.
03:48 Valentine herself hadn't been seen for 11 years by this stage, and it reinvented the
03:52 sometimes boring, sometimes sexist Carlos into a boundary-respecting lovable Himbo.
03:57 The gameplay basics are as strong as the former remake, but with a relaxed sense of horror
04:01 and a slight increase in the action, much like the original RE3.
04:04 Jill has an incredibly satisfying dodge move that allows her to roll out of the way of
04:08 incoming attacks and pop off a few shots in return.
04:11 Whilst criticisms were made regarding its length, most don't seem to realise that
04:14 the true joy of Rezi 3, like many of the series' oldest titles, is in its replayability, honing
04:19 your skills to beat your best time and additional difficulty settings.
04:23 Landing just one year after the award-winning Mr X meme-creating classic that was Resident
04:28 Evil 2 Remake, it had a tough act to follow.
04:31 Audiences were pretty satisfied with what they'd already experienced and didn't
04:34 turn out for its follow-up, which of course arrived in early 2020 at the start of the
04:37 pandemic.
04:38 But not many people were all that keen to play a game about a virus, for obvious reasons.
04:43 6.
04:44 Titanfall 2
04:46 Most people agreed that the original Titanfall was an awesome concept that largely delivered,
04:50 so when a sequel was revealed, most were optimistic.
04:53 The multiplayer portion of Titanfall 2 did so much right, including the most important
04:57 thing of all - listening to your audience.
04:59 The progression system was more robust than the first game, gameplay was less chaotic
05:03 and allowed players to make worthwhile decisions on the fly, and maps were deeper and more
05:07 interesting.
05:08 Additionally, Titanfall 2, unlike the original, shipped with a campaign.
05:11 It wasn't anything mind-blowing and got some pretty mixed reactions, but the fact
05:15 that it was there at all was nice.
05:16 Even if the story was just fine, the gameplay was fun enough that the campaign was worth
05:20 experiencing.
05:21 EA have said since the release that they're happy with the positive reaction that Titanfall
05:25 2 garnered.
05:26 That's good to hear, because it's pretty much on them that the game didn't sell as
05:28 well as it could've and should've, only moving about 10 million copies in its first
05:32 year.
05:33 EA decided to launch Titanfall 2 a week after Battlefield 1 and a week before Call of Duty
05:38 Infinite Warfare, both hotly anticipated releases from franchises with far bigger pedigrees.
05:44 Titanfall, a scrappy underdog of the FPS genre, was always going to get overlooked by players
05:48 who would've put their main squeeze first.
05:51 5.
05:52 Metroid - Samus Returns
05:53 At E3 2017, Nintendo announced that Metroid was to return in a big way, with both the
05:59 still-upcoming Metroid Prime 4 and the extra-added surprise of Metroid 2 Return of Samus getting
06:05 a 3DS remake that September.
06:07 Rebranded as Metroid - Samus Returns, it took the most disappointing and dated game
06:11 in the franchise and brought it to life again using the 3DS's wonderful visuals.
06:15 The game rides the fine line of faithfulness and freshness that Titular Hero now equipped
06:19 with a new counter-attack which only adds to the game's overall fluidity.
06:22 Finally, Metroid 2, once trapped on Game Boy, was now flying free.
06:26 Despite all this, the sales for Samus Returns were not all that promising for a major Nintendo
06:30 IP, especially one returning after such a long absence.
06:33 Perhaps due to the waning interest in the 3DS, Samus Returns never topped any charts,
06:37 landing at number 8 in the UK and number 3 in Japan in its first week.
06:41 Thankfully, the announcement of Metroid Dread not only bumped those sales up, but the Nintendo
06:45 Switch entry swooped in to more than make up for the loss in sales.
06:48 Hopefully this secures Mercury Steam's value in Nintendo's eyes, but even with the success
06:52 of Dread, we shouldn't forget the beautiful simplicity of Metroid - Samus Returns.
06:57 4.
06:58 Days Gone
06:59 Sony's biggest power move in recent years has been its exclusives, and whilst we all
07:03 rightfully sing the praises of Spider-Man and Horizon, it's Days Gone that deserves
07:07 more love than it gets.
07:09 Upon release, critics were unimpressed, stamping pretty middling review scores on the game
07:12 and complaining about its lacklustre story and repetitive missions.
07:16 The public seemed to disagree, however, giving the game much higher numbers than the average
07:19 Metacritic score.
07:20 It's possible that critical expectation was too high, as most who played the game pushed
07:24 back at the idea that Days Gone World was boring and just because it hadn't reinvented
07:28 the wheel doesn't mean that it wasn't worthwhile.
07:31 Similarly, just because its narrative wasn't as expertly delivered as The Last of Us doesn't
07:35 mean that the game deserves total admonishment.
07:37 If nothing else, and maybe this is controversial, but speaking on that comparison, Days Gone
07:41 has some much more engaging combat encounters than The Last of Us.
07:44 Unexpected zombie run-ins that turn into huge showdowns or escape attempts are always tense
07:48 and satisfying.
07:50 Technical blips at launch were also quickly ironed out, which means that this beautiful
07:53 open world now runs smoothly.
07:55 Despite its review scores, Days Gone sold pretty well indeed, so fingers crossed that
07:58 this isn't the last we see of Sony's post-apocalyptic survival adventure.
08:03 3.
08:04 The Wonderful 101
08:06 Whilst we all love to see our favourite franchises and characters return, there's something
08:09 special about new IPs, and they deserve all the chances they can get to succeed.
08:14 After all, if we don't let artists create something new, then the industry stagnates.
08:18 Not only was The Wonderful 101 a new property from Platinum Games, but its innovative gameplay
08:22 idea was fresh and instantly engaging.
08:25 An isometric action game, players control a horde of superheroes and navigate stages
08:29 to save citizens and solve puzzles by morphing their horde's shape as it grows.
08:33 Nintendo pushed The Wonderful 101 as hard as they could in marketing, but the game sold
08:37 poorly even by Wii U standards.
08:40 For example, its first week placement in the UK gaming charts was at the disappointing
08:43 and forgettable spot of 22.
08:46 This stings even more because it was an example of a game that used the system's advantages
08:49 incredibly well.
08:51 On a happier note, The Wonderful 101 got a second lease on life when Platinum Games launched
08:55 a Kickstarter campaign for a Nintendo Switch port that had all of its targets smashed in
08:59 hours.
09:00 This further demonstrated the love that the game had garnered amongst those who played
09:03 it, and the curiosity it prompted from those who hadn't.
09:06 2.
09:07 Batman - The Telltale Series
09:10 One of the most shocking video game falls from grace was the September 2018 reveal that
09:14 Telltale Games was firing 90% of its staff and closing its doors.
09:19 It seemed inconceivable, a juggernaut of storybook narrative games that only seemed to be getting
09:24 bigger and bigger, suddenly going bust.
09:26 Apparently, in 2018, the bubble had quite simply burst.
09:30 In the ensuing chaos, internal reports were revealed that out of all of the company's
09:34 IP-based releases, only the first season of The Walking Dead and Minecraft had turned
09:38 a profit.
09:39 The studio's efforts with Batman were reported to have completely tanked.
09:43 This was as big a surprise as the studio closing.
09:46 You'd think anything with the Caped Crusader would have sold like hotcakes, especially
09:50 high quality games from a well-respected studio.
09:53 Batman - The Telltale Series now has a bittersweet taste, knowing the damage it did to Telltale,
09:58 but it remains a really fun look at the world's greatest detective, superbly played by Troy
10:02 Baker.
10:03 The story takes some interesting liberties, but it's pretty engaging throughout.
10:06 Additionally, the upgraded engine allowed Telltale to really give the game a perfect
10:09 comic book aesthetic.
10:11 The sequel is so-so, but Batman - The Telltale Series should be remembered for its quality,
10:15 and not for being the anchor that sank the ship.
10:18 1.
10:19 Fallout 76 The idea of an online Fallout game is the
10:23 stuff that dreams are made of.
10:25 Upon release, Fallout 76 had far too many issues to be coming from such a beloved studio
10:30 and franchise that had, at the time, a pretty good track record.
10:33 Bugs and technical problems were a big contributing factor to its downfall, but many lamented
10:38 how empty its open world felt.
10:40 As such, it became the lowest scoring entry in the series.
10:43 Whilst some stayed to review bomb the poor thing, most gamers moved on.
10:47 The fans that stuck with Fallout 76, however, have since experienced a different game.
10:51 Updates, and most prominently the free 2016 Wastelanders expansion, fixed a lot of the
10:56 game's initial complaints.
10:57 The world is now populated with NPCs, and the quest system has been reworked entirely.
11:01 The expansion even added a new tutorial quest to help onboard new players better.
11:06 As with the main game, Wastelanders was similarly review bombed, which belays the fact that
11:10 many players thought that it was the turning point the game needed.
11:13 Despite being a four year old title, thousands of gamers still can currently play Fallout
11:16 76, building together, completing quests together, and having a wonderful time, despite the hate
11:21 that the game gets.
11:22 With apparently five more years left on its roadmap, Fallout 76 is going to be around
11:26 a lot longer than most people thought.
11:29 And that's the list!
11:30 Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below, and whilst you're
11:34 down there, let us know of any video games that you've played that apparently bombed
11:37 on release, whether that's review scores or sales, that you didn't think deserved
11:41 the treatment they got.
11:42 Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit the notification
11:46 bell.
11:47 I've been Si from WhatCulture, and have a good week!