Have you ever spent months waiting for a game, to finally get your hands on it and realise that it just wasn’t worth it? Or was there ever a title you played that was so buggy, with a story so awful and gameplay so bad that it has been one of the worst you’ve played? This is exactly what we’ll be talking about in our new series: disappointing video games.
We all know what it’s like when you finally get your hands on that game you’ve been waiting an eternity for or one that has so much hype around it, only to find that all the excitement was wasted on something terrible. Following on from our easter eggs series, over the coming month we here at 1001-Up.com will be telling you about some of the most disappointing releases we’ve played. Last week Kevin selected The Last Story as his choice and next up is Phil.
About the game
My choice is possibly one that most people won’t agree with. BioShock Infinite is the latest in the series from developer Irrational Games, taking us from the deep-sea city of Rapture into the clouds and to the floating urban Columbia. Since the announcement of the game I was extremely excited after thoroughly enjoying BioShock and its sequel; not even the delayed release date put me off.
The reveal of the game’s box art was the beginning of the disappointment as it was too generic and didn’t really incorporate anything specific about the hugely promising new gameplay, involving sky-lines and a lady with supernatural abilities. I’ve spoken more about this had in my recent hideous gaming box art article.
How did it disappoint?
For me it was entirely the gameplay that suffered in BioShock Infinite, as it felt like it was targeted at the Call of Duty crowd. The title’s storyline was up to the usual standard we’ve come to expect from the series as were the characters and to some degree the setting, but everything else in-between felt tacked-on and far too generic. I found the combat to be more of an arena style with strafe-and-shoot gun play surrounded by a static world with nonreactive NPCs.
What I miss the most from the previous BioShock games were the combat choices plasmids provided and their wide range of abilities and effects. Most of the time in the original a strategy was required to take down Big Daddies that could either be guns blazing or the more passive approach of using the environment against them. I remember using the Security Bullseye plasmid to fool devices into attacking them for me, or simply employing another Big Daddy to battle for me using Hypnotise. The vigors in Infinite appear to have lost all strategic elements in favour of a dumbed-down system of click for a targeted attack or click-and-hold to set a proximity trap. There was little deviation from this design apart from Charge and some defensive vigors.
It seems to me that the creative fuel behind plasmids was directed to weapons instead simply to appeal more to shoot-em-up fans by making the gun play more interesting. It’s almost as if the developer couldn’t be bothered to make using them worthwhile causing vigors to became boring quickly. If there is any strategy in the combat it comes from Elisabeth’s ability to open Tears, but because these are in specific places and don’t provide much of an advantage they are easily ignored by more experienced first-person shooter players who are fine without.
I also noticed that we don’t have any direct replacement for the Big Daddies and Little Sisters which left me wondering if the Songbird is supposed to be just that, and ultimately it doesn’t cut it. In BioShock, outside of combat we had the moral choice of whether to harvest the Little Sisters or not for their ADAM, a currency used for acquiring more plasmids. Without these aspects Infinite feels simple and uninspiring leaving only a good-looking shooting gallery and little to remember it by. As generic as Booker DeWitt may be, he had some interesting traits but Elisabeth was my favourite character in the game followed closely by the Luteces.
Don’t let me sound like I’m saying Bioshock: Infinite was a bad game because it wasn’t according to critics across the world; but for me it was hugely disappointing. I’m itching to go back and play BioShock again to remind myself of what it could have been like, but thanks the above flaws I can’t see myself replaying Infinite any time soon.
So, there you have Phil‘s choice for most disappointing video game. Do you agree or have you played a title that’s even worse? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and look out for the following post in this series next week.
1001-Up.com 
Why do people compare every FPS to Call of Duty? I never knew I could throw fireballs at people in Call of Duty.
Bioshock Infinite is actually one of my all time favorite games. I loved every second I spent in it.
I would say the entire Final Fantasy Series are some of the worst games I’ve ever played in my life followed by Grand Theft Auto and Battlefield
To answer your first question you have to ask why CoD is considered to be the benchmark for FPS games at all? It gives the genre a bad reputation. You cannot drive tanks or fly aircraft in Call of Duty but it’s still compared directly to Battlefield, it’s the way the world works and the majority of people will accept the comparison as valid.
I also enjoyed Bioshock Infinite to a degree, it had enough money and development time invested into it to make sure of that. However I don’t agree that it could be shown as an improvement to the original Bioshock which I discuss in my post above.
At the same time you don’t enjoy Final Fantasy or GTA and Battlefield which is fair and again is the way the world works, but what are your reasons for this? You’ll find that once revealed, people will happily pick them apart. But overall you are entitled to your opinion.
You’re entitled to yours too. I’m just saying comparing Bioshock Infinite to Call of Duty is rediculous since they’re nothing alike.
To tell you why I don’t like any of those games would take too much time. I’ll just say that I hate them all equally. Final Fantasy being the worst of the bunch.
They are more alike than the original Bioshock game are and that’s my problem, it’s a downward trend.
There are some positives to the Bioshock: Infinite story as mentioned in the comments below but other than that it disappointed me.
Actually they’re nothing alike. Just because you fight more enemies doesn’t mean it’s a COD clone. I think you’re letting nostalgia from the first game cloud your judgement here. I love all three Bioshock games. Part 2 being my least favorite.
The story in Infinite, although a bit too far-fetched at times, didn’t disappoint at all, especially in terms of the spectacular deliverance of it and the entire game world (the first steps taken in Columbia, with that song playing the back, for me were one of the most memorable moments I have ever experienced playing). However, I totally agree that the gameplay component, with all of its hasty streamling performed in favor of giving it more action zest (yeah, I guess you could actually say somewhat in the vein of CoD), according to words of the developers themselves intended to reduce the chances of the gameplay stalling the story flow, resulted in an ultimate gameplay debacle. But I feel like the authors actually redeemed themselves a little with the second part of Burial at Sea, as that slower-paced sneaking approach felt much more at place.
Thanks for the comment! I’ll have to check out Burial at Sea as I really enjoyed the DLC packs for the previous games. I think you’ve summed up the gameplay well based on the developers own words.
While I found the gameplay enjoyable enough, my main gripe with the game was the awful ending. I’m still planning on playing the first two games at some point.
Definitely go and play the originals if you haven’t although I preferred Bioshock to Bioshock 2 as well.
I agree that Infinite was disappointing.
I greatly enjoyed the first two games of the series, but this one left me pretty cold, even if I liked the major plot twist.
Besides your great comments about the gameplay, I would also add that the story development was too thin. On the first two Bioshock games I felt we were always discovering something new and relevant about Rapture as we progressed through each segment.
However, on Infinite I felt that – occasionally – we would go from one place to the next without uncovering anything considerable. In other words, the plot’s progression was not constant. Consequently, I felt like I was shooting baddies for the sake of shooting baddies. There was no reward until the plot significantly unravelled towards the end of the game.