Battleborn
Gearbox’s attempt at a console first-person shooter/MOBA hybrid was stifled by the timing of its release, and its inferiority when stacked up against its competition. With Overwatch releasing just weeks after, and its beta having been so successful, Battleborn would have to pull out all the stops to come out on top.
Unfortunately, it failed to do so. Its lack of an expansive store during matches seemed confusing, and the confusion was only further deepened by its reliance on MOBA strategies. This left it difficult for newcomers to the genre to pick up and enjoy it from the get-go as much as Blizzard’s title allowed for. This, combined with its lackluster backstory, and underwhelming campaign, meant Battleborn lacked an identity, leaving Overwatch to become the dominant online shooter of May.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
We had a lot of hope for Mutants in Manhattan when we checked it out at GDC. Unfortunately, that small snippet of the game that we played seemed like it may have been a much larger chunk than we had originally thought. A short experience doesn’t necessarily mean a game is bad, however. Heck, take a look at Firewatch if you don’t believe us.
The issue that Mutants in Manhattan was its repetitiveness. In a game where combat is king of the roost, it’s important that you allow for and provide enough variation in combat to keep things interesting. With a small set of attacks, repetitive stages and all too samey enemies, Mutants in Manhattan got boring over the short amount of time we played it for. Looks like we’ll keep on waiting for a good Turtles game, then.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps
The Resident Evil series hasn’t had much luck with its third-person shooter/action spin-off games. Operation Raccoon City came and went with fans disappointed at the awful controls and even worse AI. Unfortunately, Umbrella Corps retread the exact same ground when it released earlier this month.
An inconsistent frame rate, choppy animations, and awkward cover mechanics are the order of the day here. To make things even worse, Umbrella Corps’ single-player campaign doesn’t feature a co-op mode, feels lazy and uninspired, and doesn’t reward players with XP. We’ll just keep playing the Resident Evil 7 demo then.
Homefront: The Revolution
It’s fair to say that Homefront: The Revolution had a pretty troubled development cycle. With a switch to different developers midway through and countless delays to its release date, Homefront had a lot going against it.
Though Homefront’s world was impressive in scope, what filled it was bland and repetitive. Sabotage missions became tedious and boring, stealth gameplay became less enjoyable once you had a powerful arsenal of weapons, and the whole game was plagued with frustrating bugs which took away from the experience. If you have the patience for bugs, you may find something salvageable here, but don’t expect much.
Mighty No. 9
When Mighty No. 9’s Kickstarter campaign began, fans of Mega Man had huge hopes for the return of the series. With one of the main people from the Mega Man team, Keiji Inafune, at the helm, this looked set to be modern-day Mega Man game that fans had been waiting for.
The result of an almost three-year wait since the game was successfully funded back in September 2013 was disappointment. Mighty No. 9 is not Mega Man. Its uninspired level design, lack of enemy complexity, and poor levels of presentation are a far-cry from the games that inspired it.
What games have disappointed you the most so far this year? Let us know in the comments below.
Published: Jul 1, 2016 08:02 pm