Nemesis should've been SO much better.
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00:00 Video games get hyped to the moon and back, and as a result there are many out there,
00:04 ranging from the outright awful to the pretty good, that don't manage to fully capitalise
00:09 on their lofty concepts.
00:10 Whether it's mechanics that aren't taken far enough, a story that begs to be fleshed
00:14 out, or simply ambitions that aren't supported by technology actually available, all of the
00:20 following games fail to hit the mark.
00:23 With that in mind then, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 more video games that ruined
00:27 their own potential.
00:28 Number 10 - Deus Ex Invisible War Even if you've not played the original Deus
00:34 Ex, you're probably aware of its status as one of the most influential and acclaimed
00:38 PC games ever made.
00:40 Well, this sequel promised even more choice than the original game, along with superior
00:45 visuals and a continuation of the original game's plot, albeit with a new protagonist.
00:50 Now while it would be unfair to call Invisible War a "bad game" because it absolutely
00:55 isn't, but there's a reason why most people forget that it even exists, and that's because
01:00 it never feels like anything more than a cheap imitation of the original.
01:04 Yes, the emergent gameplay is satisfying on occasion, but the game is hampered by hilariously
01:09 awful AI, scaled back customisation elements despite the game promising more freedom, a
01:14 dubious universal ammo system, smaller levels, and an overwhelming feeling that basically
01:20 everything was dumbed down in order to appeal to a wider playerbase.
01:24 In trying to rake in more sales though, Iron Storm ironically alienated those who made the
01:28 original such a success, and had those very fans soon enough returning to the vastly superior
01:33 original.
01:34 Despite decent sales, the franchise evidently stopped being a priority after Invisible War
01:39 as the next game, Human Revolution, took another 8 years to reach gamers.
01:43 Number 9 - Back 4 Blood Back 4 Blood was supposed to be the successor
01:47 to Left 4 Dead, but in the end, it kinda just settled for scooping up its table scraps.
01:52 The most recent game from Turtle Rock, this multiplayer shooter wore its inspirations
01:56 on its sleeve.
01:57 Here you played as one of four characters fighting back against hordes of the undead
02:01 and special infected in order to get from safe room to safe room.
02:05 And on paper, it has everything that made Left 4 Dead so damn addictive, but in practice,
02:11 things were just a little bit off.
02:13 The attention to detail just wasn't there this time around, and as such the combat wasn't
02:18 as impactful or as fluid as it could have been, weapon handling didn't feel satisfying,
02:23 while the difficulty balance often made runs feel unfair and joyless.
02:27 Throw on top of this strange character progression systems in Back 4 Blood, while not a completely
02:32 terrible game by any means, failed to take the torch from its zombie predecessor.
02:37 Number 8 - Red Steel Red Steel was by far one of the most hyped launch
02:41 titles for the Nintendo Wii, with the company promising that the unique motion controls
02:45 for both gameplay and sword fighting would pretty much revolutionise how we play games.
02:50 However, the game meant to be the ultimate advertisement for the Wiimote, well, wasn't.
02:55 Yes, in addition to some disappointingly drab graphics, laughably poor voice acting and
03:00 duff enemy AI, Red Steel's motion controls were inconsistent and clunky at best, making
03:06 even moving around a chore, while the sword fighting lacked the finesse and satisfying
03:10 feel that had been promised.
03:12 In addition to this, the game doesn't even have the courtesy to be a short blast, it's
03:16 around 8-10 hours long, but given how exhaustingly tedious the majority of the action is, it's
03:21 likely that many never even made it to the finish line.
03:24 In 2010, Ubisoft Paris did release a vastly superior sequel though, which essentially
03:28 played how the original should have.
03:31 Number 7 - GTA Online Rockstar promised that GTA Online would be
03:35 a significant expansion of GTA 4's solid deathmatch style, allowing San Andreas to
03:41 become their playground, introducing levelling up, missions and best of all, cooperative
03:45 heists to net awesome booty.
03:48 Even ignoring the massive server issues which plagued GTA Online upon launch, it just felt
03:52 incredibly piecemeal for the longest time, and still kinda does.
03:56 The missions were insanely repetitive for one, enough that there wasn't much incentive
04:00 to keep playing to increase your rank.
04:02 And then there's the heists, the most hyped up part of GTA Online, which were delayed
04:07 repeatedly until finally releasing in March a whole 17 months after the game first launched,
04:13 by which time most players had just lost patience with Rockstar and moved on to other games.
04:18 Oh and while the heists were initially promoted with huge A-Play cops and robbers type gameplay,
04:24 this was ultimately scaled back to just 4 players, further compounding the crushing
04:27 disappointment that a lot of gamers felt.
04:30 Throw in additions that made the use of microtransaction shark cards virtually necessary to keep playing,
04:35 and the whole thing still has drawbacks to this day.
04:38 Yeah, you can have a lot of fun in GTA Online, but there's always the sense that this thing
04:43 just could have been more.
04:47 Spore was built up to be the god game to end all god games, allowing the player to nurture
04:51 an organism from the most basic essence of life, to building an entire civilisation in
04:56 the far reaches of space.
04:58 And who wouldn't want to play that?
05:00 Well as it turned out, Spore was so empty and down on its promises that it's hard
05:04 to believe that it wasn't made by Peter Molyneux.
05:07 The final game was essentially 4 loosely connected and incredibly short minigames and a half
05:12 decent space sim, which had clearly been dumbed down to appeal to a wider playerbase, but
05:17 in turn resulted in a game that wasn't really worth playing for more than a few hours.
05:22 In addition, a lot of the previously advertised features were cut from the final product,
05:26 yet despite all of this, the game somehow scooped a mind-boggling 84 on Metacritic,
05:31 which was incredibly disconnected from the player consensus.
05:35 Number 5 - The Dark Pictures Anthology
05:38 For a time, everyone thought that Supermassive Games were going to lead a revolution for
05:41 interactive movie-like video games.
05:44 Their PlayStation Horror exclusive, Until Dawn, grabbed the attention of fans around
05:48 the world as being a tight charismatic love letter to the genre.
05:51 People loved it, I loved it, and we all eagerly awaited what the developers would do next.
05:56 And that project was even more ambitious.
05:59 An anthology series featuring shorter standalone games of the same quality as Until Dawn, each
06:04 bringing a new cast of characters, utilising a different horror subgenre and tweaking the
06:09 gameplay with new gimmicks.
06:11 On paper, The Dark Pictures Anthology sounded awesome, but the tight turnaround of the releases
06:16 and their shorter experimental nature didn't quite mesh.
06:21 At the time of recording, 3 of the 8 planned installments have released, and none have
06:26 quite made the impact of Until Dawn.
06:28 Now they've not been bad games, some like House of Ashes have been particularly enjoyable,
06:34 but others like Man of Medan failed to leave much of an impression at all.
06:38 Whether the series is struggling under the pressure of the turnaround or what, The Dark
06:41 Pictures Anthology has not yet earned its spot as being Until Dawn's true successor.
06:46 Let's just hope then that the upcoming The Quarry can do that instead.
06:50 Number 4 - Brink
06:52 Brink was sold as a revolutionary first-person shooter with a heavy focus on parkour movement
06:57 mechanics taking place on the unique setting of a giant floating city known as The Ark.
07:02 An impressive marketing campaign did a terrific job selling it as the next big shooter at
07:07 the time.
07:08 And to be fair, Brink wasn't a bad game by any means, but rather a decidedly average
07:12 one and one that didn't appear to maintain the attention of most gamers for more than
07:16 a week or so.
07:17 Yes, the smart player movement system was fun, yet not as innovative as advertised.
07:23 And when the rest of the game felt so ordinary, it ultimately couldn't do all that much
07:27 to impress.
07:28 The AI was also a huge problem.
07:30 Enemies put up a courageous fight while any bots on your team were more of a hindrance
07:34 than a help.
07:35 And there just wasn't enough to the game outside of its gimmick to distinguish it from
07:39 anything else at the time.
07:41 Without more depth and more personality, Brink was always destined to be quickly forgotten.
07:45 Number 3 - Final Fantasy XIII The first Final Fantasy game on the PS3 was
07:50 always going to get a ton of people excited.
07:53 And from the fluid gameplay and gorgeous graphics shown off pre-release, there was no reason
07:57 not to expect a major return to form after several underwhelming entries.
08:02 Square Enix just seemed to lose their enthusiasm for the series after Final Fantasy X.
08:06 And because XIII is yet another hilarious overwrought, often incomprehensible story
08:11 featuring inane, unlikable characters, they didn't seem to get the passion back with
08:16 this one.
08:17 Yes, the game looks lovely and the combat still holds up pretty well, but a massive
08:21 chunk of the title is essentially one long linear corridor which feels completely at
08:26 odds with everything the Final Fantasy franchise has ever been about.
08:30 As such, XIII is one of the few Final Fantasy titles to be a one and done, in that there's
08:34 very little incentive to return to it once you've done your self-imposed duty as a
08:38 fan by steamrolling through it one time.
08:41 2.
08:42 Resident Evil 3 Remake Resident Evil was riding high again following
08:46 the double whammy of Resident Evil 7 and the remake of 2.
08:50 The stink of 6 was well and truly gone, and fans had no reason to doubt that the remake
08:55 of Resident Evil 3 was going to continue that winning streak.
08:58 But while nowhere near the complete disaster of some games in the series, Resident Evil
09:03 3 did underwhelm in a big way.
09:05 That's because it felt more like an expansion of the second game than a full release in
09:09 its own right.
09:10 An already incredibly short game, the remake feels even leaner, cutting out certain elements
09:16 and speeding through its own campaign without giving anything the chance to breathe.
09:20 And if there was one Resi game that could have been expanded on, it was 3.
09:25 Seeing more of Raccoon City in the midst of chaos could have been amazing, as could have
09:29 a next-gen version of Nemesis stalking you through the streets.
09:32 And these potential expansion points weren't just wishful thinking on the part of fans,
09:37 as Resi 2 changed and bolstered so so much, including Mr. X, that fans were expecting
09:42 Resi 3 to do the same.
09:44 Sadly, it just wasn't interested in doing that, and as such didn't live up to the
09:48 potential of what a remake could have been.
09:51 Number 1, Halo Infinite.
09:53 Halo Infinite has some of the most compelling gameplay in the entire franchise.
09:57 The way it plays, its art style, the whole presentation is a return to form.
10:01 The foundations are fit enough to support a truly incredible game.
10:06 The issue is, that's all the game currently is though, a foundation for something else.
10:12 Despite being delayed a whole year, Halo Infinite still feels unfinished in both its campaign
10:17 and multiplayer, with key modes not even being present at launch that you'd expect from
10:21 this series.
10:22 Infinite is a live service and you can tell Microsoft have used that as an excuse to deliver
10:27 a basic version of Halo that will hopefully be completed with time.
10:31 With an insulting grind in the multiplayer, basic matchmaking features being nowhere to
10:36 be seen, and an over-reliance on the storefront, Microsoft took the wrong lessons from other
10:41 free to play titles and put them in their marquee release.
10:44 And look, I'm sure that in a few years this will be one of the best Halo games on the
10:48 market, but right now, it's all just unfulfilled potential.
10:52 So that's our list, I wanted to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
10:55 That got really sour towards the end, I'm sorry for that.
10:57 Should have had maybe more jokes in there.
10:59 Either way though, let me know what you think about this list in the comments, and while
11:02 you're down there could you please give us a like, share, subscribe, and head over to
11:04 WhatCulture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
11:07 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see
11:10 you soon.
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