The Biggest Video Game Disappointments Of 2017

The Biggest Video Game Disappointments Of 2017

KOTAKU.COM

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This year, some things were unexpectedly good. But a lot of things sucked, too. Let’s put all those sucky things into a big list.

Kirk Hamilton

 

This year, some things were unexpectedly good. But a lot of things sucked, too. Let’s put all those sucky things into a big list.

As we do every year at Kotaku, it’s time to take a look back on the highs and lows of the last 12 months. Today, we’ll focus on the lows. (See: the biggest disappointments of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.) We posted the best surprises or 2017 yesterday, so now it’s time for sadness! Unexpected dismay! Busted, buggy games!

The Best Video Game Surprises Of 2017

This year, a lot of things sucked. But a lot of things were also unexpectedly good! Let’s celebrate …

With input from the rest of Kotaku’s staff, here are the biggest video game disappointments of 2017.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a big ol’ mess.

In retrospect, it probably should’ve been a warning sign that, in the months leading up to Mass Effect Andromeda, so many of us kept forgetting there was a new Mass Effect game coming out. When it finally did come out, Andromeda was a let-down. A well intentioned game with an interesting narrative setup, it appeared to have been rushed through development because, as it turned out,it was indeed rushed through development. Bugs and weird animations can be smoothed out in a patch. Half-baked storytelling and dull, filler missions are harder to fix, particularly when the studio responsible for the game is all but closed, there’s no single-player DLC coming, and the Mass Effect series itself has been put on ice for the time being.

The Nintendo Switch lacks basic features.

The Switch is a nifty console, and it had a hell of a first year overall. It also launched with a stripped-down operating system not just lacking Nintendo’s trademark charm; it’s also lacking crucial features. Most egregious of those is the fact that nine months later you still can’t backup your saves, and breaking your Switch still means you might lose all your progress. But there’s also the lack of any sort of Virtual Console, or the fact that online chat runs through a phone app. Nintendo’s new console is easy to like, but it’d be even easier to like if it wasn’t still missing such basic stuff.

Loot Boxes and microtransactions are everywhere.

You know what people don’t like? Being constantly tempted to pay extra in a game they just paid full price for. You know what they really don’t like? Being tempted to pay extra for a randomized loot box in a game they just paid full price for. You know what they really, really don’t like? Being tempted to pay extra for a randomized loot box that gives competitive advantages in a multiplayer game they just paid for. You know what they really, really, really… okay, you get it. Fall of 2017 was when loot box madness took over the world of video games. Each month there was a new controversy, be it over NBA2K18, Shadow of War, Destiny 2 or of course, Star Wars: Battlefront II. Here’s a wild idea: If video game publishers need to find new ways to make extra money off of their customers, they should probably figure out a way to do it that doesn’t use psychological casino tricks to exploit the people most excited about their games.

4K gaming still isn’t all that impressive.

Last year, the PS4 Pro failed to set our eyeballs on fire with its promise of higher-resolution HDR gaming. This year, Microsoft’s overhyped Xbox One X showed up with four stables of additional horsepower and, yet again, failed to blow us away. Sure, a 4K HDR TV looks better than a 1080p TV. But it’s nothing like the leap from standard definition to HD screens 10 years ago. Meanwhile the Nintendo Switch had one of the best years a console’s ever had, all while running games at 720p in handheld mode and occasionally sub-1080p docked. For all the noisy hype leading up to their release, both the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X already feel much like 4K TVs themselves: just something to get when the good-enough thing you already have breaks and/or it’s on sale. Whee.

 

EA shuts down Visceral and cancels their big Star Wars game.

It’s easy to blame Bad Guy EA for shutting Dead Space studio Visceral Games and cancelling their in-development single-player Star Wars game. But once you’ve read the full story, a more nuanced tale unfolds. If “Ragtag” wasn’t exactly doomed from the start, it was certainly doomed from pretty early on. That was for a variety of reasons, which makes it hard to say how things could have worked out differently. But none of that makes it any less disappointing that we’ll never get to play an Amy Hennig-directed “Star Wars Uncharted” game about a space heist gone wrong. Speaking of the Star Wars video game curse...

Star Wars Battlefront II, in general.

...yeah, Battlefront II. EA, DICE, and EA’s new Motive studio had a clear mandate after 2015’s popular but flawed return to the massive multiplayer battles of Battlefront. EA announced the sequel would have a single-player story, and that there would be no season pass: instead players would get new maps and other stuff for free throughout the game’s lifespan. There was a catch, of course, and that catch wound up tarnishing the game’s legacy for all time. Battlefront II’s onerous loot box system infuriated gamers across the internet, to the point that aggrieved fan feedback prompted EA to temporarily remove all microtransactions from their game. It’s still not clear what that’ll look like when it returns, and until it does, it’ll hang over Battlefront II like a lightsaber of Damocles. The game may be fun enough in the short term, but the sour taste of its initial design lingers.

 

Disney unceremoniously kills Marvel Heroes.

Marvel Heroes never really reached the potential that the “Marvel Diablo” elevator pitch promised, but that doesn’t mean it deserved to go out like it did. Plenty of people still really liked the game, and after its port to consoles earlier this year, some had even recently made substantial in-game purchases. But one day in November, Disneyended their relationship with Marvel Heroes studio Gazillion Entertainment, effectively killing the game. It was also the end for Gazillion itself, as the studiolaid off its entire staff on Thanksgiving Eve. Since then we learned that Gazillion had been having trouble for a while, which which is why employees received no PTO or unpaid vacation time after they lost their jobs. Just a mess from top to bottom.

Funny how many EA things were included in this list. Kinda makes ya go ..Hummmmmmm.

Yeah and how many games DISNEY closed down...Hmmmm