Poll: The Most Disappointing RPG of All Time

[Humanophage]

Mass Effect 1.

Came expecting an RPG, got endless cutscenes and weird FPS lite combat. Basically took everything that was suspicious about KOTOR and dialed it up to 11. I understood back then that this was it for Bioware, which was tragic for me as I loved Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, was quite all right with NWN, and more or less like KOTOR despite its disturbing quirks.

 

[Crispy]

Ultima IX: Ascension

This was a doozie, yes. So was Descent to Undermountain.

 

[AlwaysBrotoMen]

There is no option -All of them

 

[Ivan]

Numanuma...I spent more than I care to admit on the physical version...

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Numenera is the onyl game on that list that stole money from its backers, so that one.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[Elttharion]

From that list PoE

 

[_V_]

NWN OC (At the time. With time other mods and improvements NWN became ok.)
KotOR
Dungeon Lords
M&M9
Dungeon Siege 3
Oblivion
FO3

 

[Darth Canoli]

What about games that looked like they were going to be awesome, but didn't get completed? Looking at you, Realms Beyond

Absolutely, it looked like it had everything to appeal to the grognards and even to a wider audience.
It should have been a hit and even launching an era where big studios would think about making good RPG, something which stopped after Wizardry 8.

Another disappointment was numenara.
I wasn't even following the actus back then but I heard about this one and was checking about it every 6 month or so.
It probably even made me come back to the codex.
We all know how it turned out...

M&M 9 of course, such a waste... Worst thing being in town navigation, making it unplayable for me.

M&M X as well, I feel like it was developed by a team which didn't really grasp what made the franchise great and didn't understand its evolution (from III and Xeen to M&M VI)

 

[Hace El Oso]

Mass Effect 1.

There was a pre-release official website, or the Mass Effect section of the BioWare site, that in true old-internet fashion painted an incredible picture of potential. I’ve always remembered it.
If only it were still around, the original RPG vision for Mass Effect could still be glimpsed.

 

[Kev Inkline]

We have already the thread for the steepest drop in quality in a sequel ... that being said, Invisible War was something I'll probably never get over, and it should be in the poll.

 

[octavius]

Bard's Tale 3.
Looked and sounded worse than the first two games, due to bugs the monsters had no special attacks, and the starter dungeon is the most boring of all BT dungeons. I could only enjoy it thanks to an UOP decades later.

Runner up: Might&Magic 3.
I could never get it to work on my Amiga; it would crash after the intro.
Years later I played it on my PC, and was disappointed that everything was so simplified and casual compared to MM2. Not a bad game, just a disappointment after my favourite TB blobber.

The first Dark Sun was also a disappointment the first time I played it, because it was not a Gold Box game. But I liked it when I gave it a second chance, even though the combat was a decline after the GB games.

By the time of Oblivion I had learnt about a thing called modding, so fixing the level scaling was easy.
And after that I had become wise enough not to jump on the hype train to Butthurtville.
Nowadays I expect anything to be crap, so I may be pleasantly surprised instead.

 

[Van-d-all]

F3 is rather obvious, but where's Wasteland 2?

 

[Dr Skeleton]

NWN 1.

 

[Alex]

Ultima IX: Ascension is possibly the one true answer to this question

Wasn't Ultima VIII basically a platformer game? Hard to be disappointed in IX when Garriot was already creatively barren.

Ultima 8 was bad, but it still had a really interesting world for you to explore. The jumping gameplay was an awful idea, but so was the real time combat in Ultima 7, but that game managed to be great despite that. After Ultima 8, if you were an optmist, you could still hope for a great game. Maybe they would make a game that took the best stuff Ultima 8 did and removed the flaws. Of course, that wasn't the case...

 

[d1r]

Nothing in my life disappointed me as hard as Oblivion and nothing ever will. It single-handedly transformed me from optimistic teenager eagerly awaiting the future of gaming to a jaded old fuck pining for the good old days.

And I thought Skyrim did that to you.

 

[Gandalf]

No mention of Gorasul. Dissapointed.

 

[Sibelius]

Voted Other

My vote goes to KCD2. Might seem like recency bias, but I can't remember an IP or game director doing such a complete 180 and I was totally gutted by it. Not just in the content of the game, but the effect it might have on the wider gaming culture. This is a comment from 21 Kiloton on The Archcast video on KCD2 being a minefield for content creators.

It is not a minefield and its also not complicated. Embracer hid all the wokeness in plain sight by using the tactic of "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer".Instead of concealing the woke crap they gave everyone a FULL copy a MONTH before launch, under condition that they signed an NDA. The NDA apparently stipulated that you could not reveal any game details or plot beyond a "certain point" eg, before the full man loving script came to fruition.

All the reviewers, especially the "anti-woke" reviewers then had to sit on the issue for a month, knowing damn well that KCD2 is super gay and ultra woke. They had all compromised themselves. I was curious why Warhorse had handed so many anti-woke reviewers copies so early but retrospectively it was obvious. They just wanted to bring them under the umbrella of an NDA. The access reviewers then had a choice:

1. Admit that KCD2 was super gay and entirely permeated by DEI and THEY HID IT
2. Let their cognitive dissonance do the heavy lifting and proclaim "its no biggy, its just OPTIONAL"

They all thought they were dealing with a good faith actor but they got mugged off by Plaion. This is why so many former "anti woke" reviewers are defending DEI in KCD2.The alternative is admitting that they covered it up prior to launch. This game turned the two main protagonists gay, there is a gypsy "diversity hub" and NPCs preaching to you about the patriarchy and how women are treated better under Islam. Anyone claiming this game has not gone woke is either willfully ignorant, lying or on the payroll. And maybe that is the genius of this entire PR operation. They tricked a bunch of "anti-woke" reviewers to come out batting for DEI.

Sorry for the wall of text but I needed to point out that the "consensus" largely involves compromised reviewers who want to stay on the gravy train. And if you check the access reviewers, and the number of people running Plaion drops on Twitch, we are talking about many hundreds of people on this gravy train. Love your work.

 

[JarlFrank]

Nothing in my life disappointed me as hard as Oblivion and nothing ever will. It single-handedly transformed me from optimistic teenager eagerly awaiting the future of gaming to a jaded old fuck pining for the good old days.

And I thought Skyrim did that to you.

Fallout 3 already did that!

 

[markec]

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, easy winner. I still remember all the promotional videos about Oblivion that created insane hype for the game. Everything about the game from AI, world design, combat, everything looked and sounded great. It felt like a perfect RPG where players could shape their own stories and world would react to them. As a Morrowind fan there was no game that I was as excited for as Oblivion. Then I played it and it was horrendous.

So 10/10 as a disappointment.


Dragon Age II, Origins was ok, so I wasnt that hyped for a sequel. Also all promotional videos and all information coming out didnt really inspire much confidence as it felt like a rushed project. End result still managed to be worse then expected.

5/10 as a disappointment.


Torment: Tides of Numenera, I was slightly optimistic about this game then I actually played it.

7/10 as a disappointment.


Divinity: Original Sin 2, hoped for some flaws of the first game to solved instead they added more issues. Still I did had fun with the game mostly due a lot of combat encounters being creative and fun.

4/10 as a disappointment.


Baldur's Gate 3, didnt play it.


Cyperpunk 2077, I liked Witcher 3 despite its faults and I hoped for a action game with light RPG elements and a good story and side missions. Yet even that they managed to fumble as writing is worse then in Witcher 3 and side content mostly bland. It does look great.

8/10 as a disappointment.


Pillars of Eternity, I backed the game and had high hopes for it to be a good BG2 spiritual successor and got a game thats worse then BG1.

8/10 as a disappointment.


Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, didnt play it.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, played it only a small amount of time not objective enough to give a score.


Gothic 3, this was a big disappointment rivaled only by Oblivion.

9/10 as a disappointment.


The Witcher 3, while the game has lot of flaws and is less focused then the previous games I still enjoyed my time with it.

1/10 as a disappointment.


Fallout 3, Starfield, cant really call them disappointment if I knew they will be garbage.

0/10 as a disappointment.

 

[thesecret1]

Voted Other

My vote goes to KCD2. Might seem like recency bias, but I can't remember an IP or game director doing such a complete 180 and I was totally gutted by it. Not just in the content of the game, but the effect it might have on the wider gaming culture. This is a comment from 21 Kiloton on The Archcast video on KCD2 being a minefield for content creators.

It is not a minefield and its also not complicated. Embracer hid all the wokeness in plain sight by using the tactic of "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer".Instead of concealing the woke crap they gave everyone a FULL copy a MONTH before launch, under condition that they signed an NDA. The NDA apparently stipulated that you could not reveal any game details or plot beyond a "certain point" eg, before the full man loving script came to fruition.

All the reviewers, especially the "anti-woke" reviewers then had to sit on the issue for a month, knowing damn well that KCD2 is super gay and ultra woke. They had all compromised themselves. I was curious why Warhorse had handed so many anti-woke reviewers copies so early but retrospectively it was obvious. They just wanted to bring them under the umbrella of an NDA. The access reviewers then had a choice:

1. Admit that KCD2 was super gay and entirely permeated by DEI and THEY HID IT
2. Let their cognitive dissonance do the heavy lifting and proclaim "its no biggy, its just OPTIONAL"

They all thought they were dealing with a good faith actor but they got mugged off by Plaion. This is why so many former "anti woke" reviewers are defending DEI in KCD2.The alternative is admitting that they covered it up prior to launch. This game turned the two main protagonists gay, there is a gypsy "diversity hub" and NPCs preaching to you about the patriarchy and how women are treated better under Islam. Anyone claiming this game has not gone woke is either willfully ignorant, lying or on the payroll. And maybe that is the genius of this entire PR operation. They tricked a bunch of "anti-woke" reviewers to come out batting for DEI.

Sorry for the wall of text but I needed to point out that the "consensus" largely involves compromised reviewers who want to stay on the gravy train. And if you check the access reviewers, and the number of people running Plaion drops on Twitch, we are talking about many hundreds of people on this gravy train. Love your work.

True, but KCD2 wasn't disappointment, but betrayal

 

[Iucounu]

Mass Effect 3.

Yes, because its decline was so unexpected (both the faggotry and the retarded ending). Nowadays I don't expect better from games, and so they can't disappoint as much.

 

[Zlaja]

I voted for Oblivion, Dragon Age 2, and Gothic 3. The unholy trinity of dying dreams and lost innocence.

 

[harhar!]

Nothing in my life disappointed me as hard as Oblivion and nothing ever will. It single-handedly transformed me from optimistic teenager eagerly awaiting the future of gaming to a jaded old fuck pining for the good old days.

This, except for it was Gothic 3. It was back in the days of printed magazines. Every week in 2006 I would go to the local kiosk and look through all gaming mags to see if they had any new info on Gothic 3. It was supposed to be the second coming of Christ, but it was ass. 2006 was a rough year for pc gaming.

 

[Bastardchops]

I got pretty hyped for Darkest Dungeon, and then found the RNG irritating.