We love to talk about those games that amaze, that show us how good things can be. Personally I prefer it that way, it’s much nicer to see people praise than see people attack. However we really should point out the games that others should be avoiding. I know it’s not nice to point and laugh, or even hurl rotten fruit, but we’ve all encountered a few games that actually need this kind of treatment. Oh and please note this isn’t a slur against developers, sometimes they’re just put into impossible situations that pretty much force a terrible game to emerge.
So what awful experiences have I had? Well I’ve been fairly lucky in general, I’ve never played a game that made my eyes burn with the experience, although I’m reliably informed that Terminator Salvation is pretty much at that level of awfulness. The most disappointing experience I can recall is Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, mostly because I’d purchased it as a co-op experience.
For a start they somehow managed to make the implementation of split screen bad, a feat I wasn’t actually aware was possible. I can’t recall what it was that actually made me dislike it, I don’t think I was even really sure when I was playing it, but there was something that just seemed to be fairly off about the whole experience. Coupled with that, they committed one of the worst sins in co-op in my opinion.
Is it really that hard to take a squad based game and add co-op? I mean you already have the story, the single player character already has a partner and you’re already adding co-op. Is it that difficult to tie it all together? No, instead GRAW simply has the missions from the single player as levels. No stitching together, no attempt at creating a coherent experience. You can’t even play one mission after another! Once you’ve completed a mission you go back out to the mission select. It’s just so infuriating, it makes me want to scream.
So there you have it, the worst time I’ve ever spent with something that was supposed to be a form of entertainment. I could go on about how the controls felt clumsy, the tutorial was lacking in depth, the squad command unwieldy and the single player seeming to under perform, but I think you’ve had enough of me. Have you had a game that actively made you sad for the developer?