Most disappointing game of 2024?

[Night FM]

While its possible this game may get better in future updates, the lack of proper A-Life compared to previous titles was a big let-down from the get-go. Even that, I could live with if the game had more action, but in its current state, you get a huge but mostly empty map to explore, with encounters outside of story missions usually just being a few bandits or mutants at best. And even many story missions, such as the SIRCAA missions, are mainly comprised of walking, with only a few sparse firefights to interrupt the tedium.

The first substantial mission for me didn't come until after the Monolith invasion, where you have to acquire an emitter from the Sphere. There were a substantial number of enemies to fight, and it was the first major firefight I encountered which felt relatively challenging (and I'm playing on veteran difficulty. Then I attempted the Zalyssia defense mission and encountered bugs that prevent the mission from being completed properly, and am now debating uninstalling the game and waiting for updates before I play it any further, since an $80 game shouldn't be a beta test.

Honestly, I wish the developers had skimped on the graphics and put more effort into the core gameplay, such as making the A-Life work and having enemy encounters be more frequent and more substantial. There are huge, well-designed bases in this game which could have provided the opportunity for memorable firefights like in previous titles, but wind up being virtually empty. With the high system requirements, you'd think you'd be able to include a more advanced A-Life than what was available in a game from 2007, and the fact that games like Death Stranding and Elden Ring have noticeably lower system requirements, but IMO end up looking better than this game shows that you don't need the highest-end graphics to make a game that looks good.

Overall, I feel like the game sold out to graphics and left core features unfinished. I'm happy that some players are still getting enjoyment out of this game, but compared to what could be, and what we should expect from the publisher, I'm very disappointed, and am tempted to say that, in its current state, this is the worst game I've played this year. I'm more than happy to revise my opinion once the game gets fixed with future updates, and am hoping that the developer is willing to properly do so.

[Nite69]

I disagree, this is one of the better games I played this year they put alot of attention to detail from the original in it

[Cyrano]

I uninstalled after six hours. I won't say it's the biggest disappointment this year - there have been far worse titles - but it's by far the most disappointing game I bought and couldn't get refunded. If they'd sold it as early access for $40 whatever, but I bought a game for today, not two years from now.

Meanwhile I'm re-playing the original trilogy and it's amazing how much better ye olde Shadow of Chernobyl is even with its dated graphics and loltastic ballistics model.

[bshock]

Outside of the frustrating AI, I think it's a top tier game. I understand some being disappointed but to say it's the worst game of the year would lead me to believe one didn't play many other games.

[Night FM]

Originally posted by Nite69:

I disagree, this is one of the better games I played this year they put alot of attention to detail from the original in it

I would say the plot is probably one of the better parts of the game.

Sadly, the core mechanics seem broken. Namely that you have massive bases to explore, which could provide the opportunity for great firefights, but instead they're virtually empty. And you cross vast stretches of land and only occasionally encounter a few mutants or bandits at most, making most of the game feel like a walking simulator.

As an example, I remember the plant from the original SoC, which was a bandit base that provided some great firefights. In this game, it's completely empty except for a specific story mission, and even then only a small portion of the base has enemies to fight. There's so much wasted potential.

[Night FM]

Originally posted by bshock:

Outside of the frustrating AI, I think it's a top tier game. I understand some being disappointed but to say it's the worst game of the year would lead me to believe one didn't play many other games.

I'll admit I didn't play many others. I'm sure that there are others which are objectively worse, but for a AAA title, it's a huge disappointment. It feels more like someone's half-baked SoC mod than a AAA game.

For comparison, some AAA titles I've played recently are Armored Core 6 and Elden Ring.

[andressergio]

the game is great and it'll be fixed soon like many others

[Night FM]

Originally posted by andressergio:

the game is great and it'll be fixed soon like many others

I'm curious if you've played the original games. I've played SoC from 2007, and sadly, gameplay-wise, it seems inferior to what I remember, and many others are saying similar things.

And even assuming this game wasn't a Stalker game, the emptiness of the maps is a pretty noticeable flaw. Given the size of the maps, they should have at least 2X-3X the random enemy encounters than they currently do.

Once that's fixed, I'll be willing to change my opinion. Even the bugs that others are reporting don't bother me much, but I don't want most of my gameplay to involve traveling around empty maps.

[OGPG]

That would be Concord, Dragonage: Failgard and Star Wars: Outlaws.

[Cryptic]

That would be veil guard and Star wars outlaws

[Brock Samson]

I was hugely disappointed but still played it through. Its worth that at least even with the jank and lack of polish/balance. Mods will make this game worth playing but I dont think any amount of work can make their new A - life worth dealing with. The world is dead and empty . it just spawns enemies around you randomly. so lame.

[Grace & Perfection]

Originally posted by OGPG:

That would be Concord, Dragonage: Failgard and Star Wars: Outlaws.

I'm so glad veilguard failed they ripped the heart out of that series and its failure is well deserved.

[Night FM]

Originally posted by Brock Samson:

I was hugely disappointed but still played it through. Its worth that at least even with the jank and lack of polish/balance. Mods will make this game worth playing but I dont think any amount of work can make their new A - life worth dealing with. The world is dead and empty . it just spawns enemies around you randomly. so lame.

I could even forgive the lack of a proper A-Life if enemy encounters were more frequent and more varied. I've explored more than 50% of the games areas, and most of the buildings are empty, and 80% of my random encounters have been with packs of bandits wielding low-tier gear.

Other than that, I think I had 1 random encounter with Mercenaries, but that was it. The fact that you have huge maps and massive structures, and nothing to fill them with other than occasionally encountering 3 bandits or a pack of mutant dogs is very disappointing.

[Grace & Perfection]

Originally posted by Night FM:

Originally posted by Brock Samson:

I was hugely disappointed but still played it through. Its worth that at least even with the jank and lack of polish/balance. Mods will make this game worth playing but I dont think any amount of work can make their new A - life worth dealing with. The world is dead and empty . it just spawns enemies around you randomly. so lame.

I could even forgive the lack of a proper A-Life if enemy encounters were more frequent and more varied. I've explored more than 50% of the games areas, and most of the buildings are empty, and 80% of my random encounters have been with packs of bandits wielding low-tier gear.

Unofficial Fallout 76 sequel?

[samayo.i]

bruh

[dthchm]

yep, i don't know who came up with the "worst goty/ most disappointing game" idea...
i mean, after about 2 days worth of gameplay hours (about 44 or so), my moment of "WHOA", was,
when (i don't know how to do these spoiler-alert-black-things, so) i was doing a side mission for Zalissya, i came back for the base, stopped for a second, to eat, you know, and one of the guards turned to me, and said: >nice shot for the kills of"[...]"<
and first, i thought it was some sort of weird talk between guards, but no, there were no other npc around, or at least not closer than ~15-20m, so i was thinking, damn.
when i was close to the "town's" border, i sniped down 3 enemies from about ~90m, and all of them were headshots.
i mean... how the hell did they make this happen ingame????! (that after about 1hr the shots, i came back to town, and got a compliment from an npc????? i was like "HUH? wtf"
.
besides, there are a lot of stuff, that actually gives reason for the game being 160gb... eg the graphics (like nice animations, extra "reality" of weapons -of jamming, or how the bullets moving in them, or in the magazines...).
.
so sure, there are bugs (eg being stealthy is very difficult, sometimes they notice you from very far, or through walls, even if you walk slowly/crouching, or with the sounds of communications), and things that are missing (like nvg, or binoc.)
.
BUT its important to mention:
the game was just released, kinda (i mean what, its been two weeks?).
also, is there ANY video game, that has NO BUGS in it, even after years of their release?
.
all in all, the only thing that i am actually really not happy about, is the fact that the price is high (for me at least). but i want to say, that the game absolutely worth it!