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00:00 "What about the game, Duke? Was it any good?"
00:03 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at 10 games that built up hype
00:09 just to deflate us. Consider these a lesson in not letting marketing sway you so easily.
00:15 "And you have to grab those because they may never come again."
00:17 Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays and
00:22 ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:25 Evolve
00:27 "Warning number one when spotting an underwhelming product,
00:34 pre-orders are put up before anything is ever shown."
00:37 That is exactly what happened with Evolve when it was first announced. Publisher 2K put out ads for
00:43 the game before it was ever fully revealed, before anyone had an idea on what this was.
00:48 Surely this push for grabbing cash now means a great product later down the road, right?
00:53 Well, maybe for the critics that gave it positive reviews at launch.
00:57 Although what players found was a game that quickly got stale after a couple of hours.
01:02 Those who stuck with it longer than that found even more flaws in the game's balance, specifically.
01:08 Either hunters brought down the monster within minutes, or the monster had to sweat and make
01:12 miraculous plays to win the game. Regardless, winning a game never felt good, and it felt more
01:18 like a sigh of relief. Even a push to free-to-play didn't save Evolve, and since then, developer
01:24 Turtle Rock Studios has struggled regaining trust and interest from players.
01:28 Dead Island
01:32 In the history of video game trailers, Dead Island frequently comes up as one of the best.
01:41 It paints a tragic story about a family going on vacation days before a zombie outbreak occurs.
01:47 Yeah, and the game was also nothing about that. What we got from Dead Island was not a
01:51 heartbreaking narrative-driven action game, but a mindless series of fetch quests with
01:56 RPG and crafting mechanics. Oh, Todd left his six-pack at his hut, can you go grab that?
02:01 Stephanie left her hair curler at the lighthouse, think you can swipe that before the zombies get
02:06 you? Honestly, we're surprised this didn't cause developer Techland or publisher Deep
02:10 Silver to close down. Had it been released in today's age, it most likely would have.
02:18 Suicide Squad - Kill the Justice League
02:21 We're not quite sure who was hyped for this game, but with the amount of marketing Warner
02:31 Brothers Interactive was pushing with new trailers and behind-the-scenes videos,
02:35 there was enough hype to get this on our list. Suicide Squad - Kill the Justice League does
02:40 have bright spots here and there, but most of the time, prepare for absolute tediousness.
02:47 "Give me one reason why we should go out into that shitshow."
02:51 The mission structure is abysmal in how it is copy-pasted for the entire campaign,
02:56 the UI looks like an Excel spreadsheet vomited on our screens, and the way the Justice League
03:01 goes out is severely underwhelming. At this point, we have to wonder if the effort in making Suicide
03:07 Squad a thing in pop culture today is even worth the effort anymore. "We are all losers." "The
03:13 shark's right." Mighty No. 9 "Hey, you, look at the screen. Let me ask you a question. Do you like
03:19 awesome things that are awesome?" Following a mass exodus of developers from Japanese studios like
03:25 Konami and Capcom, many were eager to see what was next for these creators. Koji Igarashi left
03:31 Konami to make Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Shinji Mikami left Capcom to start up Platinum
03:37 Games with former Capcom cohort Hideki Kamiya, before leaving to go start Tango Gameworks.
03:42 And what did famed Mega Man designer Kaiji Inafune leave Capcom to go do? Mighty No. 9,
03:48 which looked stellar when we got early looks at concept art. We did get a Mega Man successor in
03:53 the end, but it was nothing like we wanted. Explosions that looked like pepperoni pizzas,
03:58 voice acting almost worse than Mega Man 8, "We at Cherry Dime are doing all we can to help fix
04:06 the situation." and a series of marketing incidents that insulted those who backed the game caused it
04:12 to become one of the biggest blunders of 2016. It even caused some to discuss whether spiritual
04:18 successors were ever going to be a good idea. That's how bad this game was. But hey, it's better
04:23 than nothing. "Even if it's not perfect, it's better than nothing. At least that's my opinion."
04:29 Duke Nukem Forever "He's so cool." "Yeah, I thought he'd be taller." It's hard to believe
04:35 anyone would be excited about Duke Nukem Forever, given it spent a decade and a half in development
04:41 hell. We were glad to see the king return to his throne, but Forever was not what we had in mind
04:45 for him. The gunplay felt archaic, the boss fights were boring, the jokes weren't funny, "Power on,
04:51 now it's time to kick some ass." and the controls made Duke feel clunky to move around. In other
04:57 words, it learned nothing from Duke Nukem 3D and decided to just follow the trends. Yes, Gearbox,
05:04 because everyone wanted Duke to man a turret or play with an RC truck. That's exactly what we
05:09 wanted in a Duke Nukem game. "Sorry, Duke. Looks like they're shutting us down for the night."
05:15 Aliens Colonial Marines "I'm feeling good, Captain. But I'm worried about 2-3." "That's good,
05:22 because I'm sending you in to catch up with Rhino 2-1." Speaking of Gearbox software,
05:27 the company has never fully recovered from this train wreck of a game. Many were hyped because
05:31 this was the studio behind Borderlands 2 making a game based on Alien. A reasonable excuse to get
05:37 excited to be fair, but when the game came out, oof. Major oof. We never thought it was possible
05:44 to turn the xenomorphs into the least scariest thing ever made. It wasn't uncommon for one of
05:49 them to glitch into the floor or other objects or even just run around in circles and run away
05:54 from fights. And most of this was simply because the code had one typo. Fixing this typo would
06:01 make the xenomorphs behave as intended, but even then, the gunplay is garbage, the story is boring,
06:07 and the visuals made it look like so many other games that were on the market at the time.
06:11 Those games were better than this. It came out better.
06:14 The Day Before "We've saved people from the outside before,
06:23 but we practically pulled you back from the brink of death." We're not quite sure how developer
06:28 Fantastic tricked so many people into thinking it was delivering a promising experience.
06:33 An online extraction shooter with zombies? How many of those games do we have? Like 700? 1000?
06:39 Regardless, many bought in, for whatever reason, and boy did they get what they paid for.
06:51 After years of delays and possible plagiarism in marketing,
06:55 Fantastic delivered a game that ran about as well as a paper shredder chewing through bottles of
07:00 glue. Inconsistent frame rates, buggy character models, frequent pop-ins, a city with absolutely
07:06 nothing to do in it, and it all chalked up to a game worse than anything that came out in 2023.
07:12 The Day Before generated virtually nothing in revenue. Fantastic closed four days after the
07:18 game launched, and the game was delisted without notice until after the fact.
07:24 Anthem
07:25 What was the big reason behind Anthem's hype? We have to wonder. It was first announced with
07:36 nothing more than concept art and talks about how amazing the story was going to be. Whatever
07:41 gameplay was shown was heavily fabricated with overt cinematic moments and unrealistic
07:45 comps between players, and all the gaming press could talk about was how great the flying is.
07:52 Super Mario 64 had flying way back in 1996. What did Anthem bring to the table 23 years later?
07:58 Mundane shooting, bland environments, a forgettable story, a painful grind to reach the end game,
08:05 and for many, a game that bricked consoles and PCs. Worth it? I hope so.
08:10 Marvel's Avengers
08:21 This should have been such a comically easy win for Square Enix. What you had was one of the
08:27 biggest Japanese companies in gaming publishing a Marvel game. The money was there, and developer
08:33 Crystal Dynamics was coming off the success of the Tomb Raider reboot, but Square Enix had to go
08:38 and order their studio to make Marvel's Avengers a live service game littered with power levels,
08:43 grinding for loot and experience, and a combat system that is nothing but constant button
08:48 mashing as you wait for cooldowns on powers. And the more it was shown during marketing,
08:53 the worse it looked. Sure enough, the skepticism became completely justified. No one wants to play
08:59 a game where the Avengers are spending more time opening chests than they are fighting baddies.
09:03 Square Enix would lose more than 60 million dollars and would sell off Crystal Dynamics
09:09 to Embracer Group in 2022, along with the Tomb Raider IP. Marvel's Avengers shut down
09:15 in September 2023, and it will not be missed. The Order 1886
09:22 Ah, finally, the first big release to show why we all bought PlayStation 4s in the first place,
09:31 right? Right? Knack certainly wasn't cutting it, but The Order 1886 looked so good, you guys.
09:37 Right? Right? Well, what happens when you get people hyped over trailers that are mostly
09:43 composed of cutscenes? You get the reception to The Order 1886. So many folks were upset that
09:48 their cutscene-heavy shooter was only a few hours long and nothing more than shooting galleries
09:53 and quick-time events. And to make matters worse, the whole game ends just when things are about to
09:59 get good. Kind of shows what you should expect when gameplay isn't shown off too much. That was
10:04 a hard listen for many of us. Which hyped game do you feel soiled your experience the most? Did it
10:12 make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe to Mojo Plays for
10:24 more great videos every day.
10:26 [Music]