Even though 2012 has been filled with great games that were memorable, other games simply did not live to their hype and/or expectations. Below is the list of games that disappointed some of our writers the most.
Matt Rowles - Resident Evil 6
My most disappointing game of 2012 is without a doubt Resident Evil 6. Being a huge fan of the franchise since the first game, I preordered it as soon as I saw the announcement trailer. After playing Resident Evil Revelations on 3DS, which is a fantastic survival horror game, my excitement was reaching its peak. I then avoided as much coverage of the game as I could before finally playing it. But I wished I never had.
This game has so many problems from its three times too long campaign, awkward cover mechanics, terrible QTE's, and at times baffling game design. Playing this game made me sadder than I have ever felt playing a game as it was like watching someone you love die. I dream that the franchise will be on top again like it was with Resident Evil 4, but I've got a suspicion the worst is yet to come. I fear a reboot is the only thing that can save this once great franchise at this point. Please Capcom, do this series some justice next time.
Christopher Puenner - Inversion
Namco Bandai Games pushed out this third-person shooter in June proving once again that a great concept on paper doesn't always translate to a great game after production is all said and done. Gravity manipulation, destructible environments, and aliens sound like an amazing gaming experience but, unfortunately, the finished product presented a hollow shell of a game that was little more than a mediocre third-person shooter with camera issues. This would be understandable if it were a unique or difficult game to complete, but it's fairly simple and straightforward.
There are plenty of excellent third-person shooters to pull basic mechanics from such as Gears of War but instead of learning from its predecessors, Inversion decided to build itself up from the ground level. This lack of care and attention to detail leaves the game feeling outdated and incomplete. Shallow gameplay would be forgivable if the story had been much better but the plot was as small and flat as the walls you hide behind throughout the game. David Russel, the main character, is uninteresting and the cliché motivator of retrieving his missing child seems a misnomer most of the time.
Inversion is my most disappointing game of 2012 because it could have been much more than it was. Unrealized potential is a horrible thing to leave lying around but Saber Interactive decided to let the game go as it was. This goes without saying but don't play this game, ever.
Paul Lawford - Diablo III
This may come as a bit of a shock considering the huge sales of this title. However, Diablo III promised so much yet under delivered on so many things. It's hard for me to say that it was the worst game this year, but it was definitely the most disappointing game for me. There had been a plethora of hype about this game considering we had been waiting over ten years or so for one of Blizzard's trademark releases and they had so much time to get it right. However, from the day of launch, which was hindered by the well published "error 37" mishap, Diablo III has for me become repetitive and mundane to play. The fact I had to play the same game four times over to get a high level character made this honestly quite tiresome and unenjoyable.
I played with friends which was great and getting into groups was fun, but as we all drifted away from the game due to its repetitive play style, it didn't at any point make me want to revisit it. In fact I haven't logged in for a good five months. Topped by the fact that the auction house meant players could become considerably overpowered regardless of their skill level meant playing at top level was just a constant grind through the tiresome same maps with the only thing making it different was the possibility of a rare mob spawning and even then they were normally much too hard to kill on inferno mode meaning you were often dying even after spending valuable gold on the auction house. The trade skills became redundant with the fact you could buy better gear for cheaper on the auction house.
After buying the World of Warcraft annual pass, I'm glad I got this game for free or I would have felt cheated. I did have some fun playing through the campaign the first time. The graphics and dialogue at times were exceptional, but not when I heard them three times over again. After waiting for so long for a title that myself and millions of others had waited for, I think they could have done a far better job of balancing the game's mechanics to make a more rounded and well polished game. I'm sure Blizzard won't mind through... the game has sold over 10 million copies. We just have to hope that new content as talk of the incoming PVP modes will make gamers want to play a game that has possibly been untouched for sometime now.
Rick Wawrzyszuk - World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Now I had high hopes for this title. I’ve never been huge on the World of Warcraft universe, as well as the game itself. In the past I’d only played for a few months at a time before getting bored and dropping it for other games that sparked my interest. However for Mists of Pandaria and the time leading up to it, I figured I would give another chance to such a popular mogul of gaming. With the expansion into Pandaria, my excitement couldn’t be contained. I dove headfirst into Pandaria and instantly fell in love. The storytelling for the first zone was incredible, and for a game whose largest complaint is the repetitive gameplay, it seemed to break away.
It felt genuinely new and fresh, leading me to explore the first zone for everything it had to offer. Yet after the first zone I found myself in the same place I had been before. Mists of Pandaria simply fell off for me. After so much effort was put into the first zone, the following zone simply went back to beating the dead horse with typical game mechanics. Others told me I had to play through it even though it was horribly boring to get to better content hours upon hours later. However, I do this crazy thing called "playing games for fun". This game lost the magic it tried so hard to capture in the first zone. Perhaps in the future I’ll return, but until then I can’t bring myself to let a game turn into a grind in hope of a promiseland hours down the road.
Kyle Enz - Assassin's Creed 3
How this game has gotten a pass by so many people and sites baffles me. I haven't played a more bug filled game this year. From glitching through walls, animation in cutscenes not appearing, flat out not having the spoken words in sync with the characters mouths during the last forty-five minutes of the game, and the ending being a complete travesty on which this franchise was founded on, I walked away from Assassin's Creed III actually kind of hating the game. The story starts out strong enough, losing steam midway through, to finally just collapsing on itself in the final moments of the game. The scene shown during the credits only fueled my anger towards this game even more. How is it that as a community gamer's everywhere were outraged by the ending of Mass Effect 3, but hardly anyone seemed to take notice at the end of this game? At the end of the day, Assassin's Creed III could have used a few more months of polish, and a completely different ending.
Steve Smith - Assassin's Creed 3
Although I gave Assassin’s Creed 3 an 8 out of 10 when I reviewed it, I’m still putting it down as my most disappointing game of 2012 because of what it could have been. After five years of building the world and telling a unique story, if not always coherent, and nearly three years of development time, Assassin’s Creed 3 fell far short of the massive hype and expectations that surrounded it when it was released. The game shipped with a litany of bugs, some of which still haven’t been patched. The world, however sprawling, lacked enough content to want me coming back for more. The story, which was the culmination of all the games previous, was a major letdown and left me angered worse than Mass Effect 3. All of these factors add up to Assassin’s Creed 3 being my most disappointing game of 2012.
