What a Flop! Games That Failed To Launch
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It’s a tough world being a games developer, but it’s even harder being an avid fan whose fate is filled with disappointment. The following compilation is a few of the games released in recent years that failed to deliver what the fans were expecting. From glitchy graphics to the most severely boring storyline, these are a few of the embarrassing moments for software developers.
Image via Unsplash
The Last Of Us: Part 1 (2023, PC)
There’s no doubt that The Last Of Us franchise has been a continued success, but they really did us dirty with the PC version.
In 2023, the PC version of this hit game finally became available but unfortunately, the excitement didn’t last too long. Despite the additional DLC expansion, it was the numerous technical issues that eventually plagued the gameplay. When played on High or Ultra, the graphics became so glitchy with the occasional quitting of the application due to the inconsistency with loading times.
Some Steam Deck users never even got around to playing the game, thanks to the unrealistic loading times. The number of negative reviews eventually got Naughty Dog’s attention, and it has since been made up for.
No Man’s Sky (2016)
The endless amount of hype definitely contrasted with the disappointment fans displayed on this one. Hello Games still has a lot of answers to provide for the result fans ultimately received.
The well-known gaming developer was perhaps slightly ambitious with this one, releasing a less feature-filled game than had been promised to eager fans. The game was missing certain features and didn’t have the expected storyline. Not only that, but the gameplay isn’t that interesting, and players are fairly limited, leaning towards an unfortunately repetitive experience.
Anthem (2019)
This was not the BioWare legendary RPG we were all expecting. While following well-known BioWare creations, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, Anthem did not have fans singing.
This shared-world action game was far from exciting and struggled on the ‘shared’ part, with technical glitches stopping many from joining their friends in the game. The storyline was vanilla at best, and fans definitely weren’t biting after the launch of this game.
Image via Electronic Arts
Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)
A throwback fail; this game was nowhere near as cool as it sounded. Aliens, military and water fighting had players excited to experience a world of xenomorphs, but the result was buggy, and not the cool kind.
The graphics were far from inspiring, the overall design of the game was really quite poor, and the much-anticipated game became much-hated by fans all over the world.
Mortal Kombat 1 (2023, Nintendo Switch)
This franchise received a remodel when NetherRealm Studios released Mortal Kombat 1, but Switch users won’t be as quick to scream their praise. PC, PlayStation, and Xbox users saw a completely different version of the game to Switch users, sparking quite an uproar and clouding NetherRealm Studios with complaints and unhappy customer backlash.
From severe visual issues to technical issues that were inexcusable, the lack of detail in the story was the cherry on top of the not-so-tasty cake for many. Characters were out of proportion and distorted, and there was no sign of the beautiful animation that many users were expecting. This is without even mentioning the loading times that had many ageing in their seats.
Conclusion
It’s a tough world being a games developer, but it’s even harder being an avid fan whose fate is to be filled with disappointment. These games were a few of the failures that we’ve seen in recent years as video game fans. The overwhelming theme seems to be over-promised features and under-achieving technical abilities.
Image via Warner Bros. Games
