Nemesis should've been SO much better.
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00:00Video games get hyped to the moon and back, and as a result there are many out there,
00:04ranging from the outright awful to the pretty good, that don't manage to fully capitalise on
00:09their lofty concepts. Whether it's mechanics that aren't taken far enough, a story that begs to be
00:14fleshed out, or simply ambitions that aren't supported by technology actually available,
00:19all of the following games fail to hit the mark. With that in mind then, I'm Josh from
00:24whatculture.com, and these are 10 more video games that ruined their own potential.
00:2810. Deus Ex Invisible War
00:31Even if you've not played the original Deus Ex, you're probably aware of its status as one of
00:36the most influential and acclaimed PC games ever made. Well, this sequel promised even more choice
00:43than the original game, along with superior visuals and a continuation of the original game's plot,
00:48albeit with a new protagonist. Now, while it would be unfair to call Invisible War a bad game,
00:54because it absolutely isn't, but there's a reason why most people forget that it even exists,
00:59and that's because it never feels like anything more than a cheap imitation of the original. Yes,
01:04the emergent gameplay is satisfying on occasion, but the game is hampered by hilariously awful AI,
01:10scaled back customisation elements despite the game promising more freedom, a dubious universal
01:16ammo system, smaller levels, and an overwhelming feeling that basically everything was dumbed down
01:21in order to appeal to a wider player base. In trying to rake in more sales though,
01:26Ion Storm ironically alienated those who made the original such a success, and had those very fans
01:31soon enough returning to the vastly superior original. Despite decent sales, the franchise
01:36evidently stopped being a priority after Invisible War, as the next game, Human Revolution,
01:40took another 8 years to reach gamers.
01:439. Back 4 Blood
01:45Back 4 Blood was supposed to be the successor to Left 4 Dead, but in the end,
01:49it kinda just settled for scooping up its table scraps. The most recent game from Turtle Rock,
01:54this multiplayer shooter wore its inspirations on its sleeve. Here you played as one of four
01:59characters fighting back against hordes of the undead and special infected in order to get from
02:04safe room to safe room. And on paper, it has everything that made Left 4 Dead so damn addictive,
02:09but in practice, things were just a little bit off. The attention to detail just wasn't there this
02:15time around. And as such, the combat wasn't as impactful or as fluid as it could have been,
02:20weapon handling didn't feel satisfying, while the difficulty balance often made runs feel unfair
02:26and joyless. Throw on top of this, strange character progression systems in Back 4 Blood,
02:31while not a completely terrible game by any means, failed to take the torch from its zombie predecessor.
02:378. Red Steel
02:38Red Steel was by far one of the most hyped launch titles for the Nintendo Wii, with the company promising
02:43that the unique motion controls for both gameplay and sword fighting would pretty much revolutionise
02:48how we play games. However, the game meant to be the ultimate advertisement for the Wiimote,
02:54well, it wasn't. Yes, in addition to some disappointingly drab graphics, laughably poor
02:59voice acting, and duff enemy AI, Red Steel's motion controls were inconsistent and clunky at best,
03:05making even moving around a chore, while the sword fighting lacked the finesse and satisfying
03:10feel that had been promised. In addition to this, the game doesn't even have the courtesy to be a
03:15short blast, it's around 8-10 hours long, but given how exhaustingly tedious the majority of the
03:20action is, it's likely that many never even made it to the finish line. In 2010, Ubisoft Paris did
03:26release a vastly superior sequel though, which essentially played how the original should have.
03:317. GTA Online
03:33Rockstar promised that GTA Online would be a significant expansion of GTA 4's solid deathmatch
03:39style, allowing San Andreas to become their playground, introducing levelling up, missions,
03:44and best of all, cooperative heists to net awesome booty. Even ignoring the massive server issues which
03:49plagued GTA Online upon launch, it just felt incredibly piecemeal for the longest time, and still
03:55kinda does. The missions were insanely repetitive for one, enough that there wasn't much incentive to
04:00keep playing to increase your rank. And then, there's the heists, the most hyped up part of
04:05GTA Online, which were delayed repeatedly until finally releasing in March a whole 17 months after
04:12the game first launched. By which time, most players had just lost patience with Rockstar and moved on
04:17to other games. Oh, and while the heists were initially promoted with huge 8-player cops and robbers
04:22type gameplay, this was ultimately scaled back to just 4 players, further compounding the crushing
04:27disappointment that a lot of gamers felt. Throw in additions that made the use of microtransaction
04:32shark cards virtually necessary to keep playing, and the whole thing still has drawbacks to this day.
04:38Yeah, you can have a lot of fun in GTA Online, but there's always the sense that this thing just could've been more.
04:44Number 6. Spore
04:46Spore was built up to be the god game to end all god games, allowing the player to nurture an organism
04:52from the most basic essence of life to building an entire civilization in the far reaches of space.
04:58And who wouldn't want to play that? Well, as it turned out, Spore was so empty and down on its promises
05:04that it's hard to believe that it wasn't made by Peter Molyneux. The final game was essentially four
05:09loosely connected and incredibly short minigames, and a half-decent space sim, which had clearly been
05:14dumbed down to appeal to a wider playbase, but in turn resulted in a game that wasn't really worth
05:20playing for more than a few hours. In addition, a lot of the previously advertised features were cut
05:25from the final product, yet despite all of this, the game somehow scooped a mind-boggling 84 on
05:31Metacritic, which was incredibly disconnected from the player consensus.
05:35Number 5. The Dark Pictures Anthology
05:37For a time, everyone thought that Supermassive Games were going to lead a revolution for interactive
05:42movie-like video games. Their PlayStation Horror exclusive, Until Dawn, grabbed the attention of fans
05:47around the world as being a tight, charismatic love letter to the genre. People loved it, I loved it,
05:53and we all eagerly awaited what the developers would do next. And that project was even more
05:58ambitious. An anthology series featuring shorter standalone games of the same quality as Until Dawn,
06:04each bringing a new cast of characters, utilising a different horror subgenre, and tweaking the
06:10gameplay with new gimmicks. On paper, the Dark Pictures Anthology sounded awesome, but the tight
06:15turnaround of the releases and their shorter experimental nature didn't quite mesh. At the
06:21time of recording, three of the eight planned installments have released, and none have quite
06:26made the impact of Until Dawn. Now, they've not been bad games, some like House of Ashes have been
06:32particularly enjoyable, but others like Man of Medan failed to leave much of an impression at all.
06:38Whether the series is struggling under the pressure of the turnaround or what, the Dark Pictures
06:42Anthology has not yet earned its spot as being Until Dawn's true successor. Let's just hope then
06:47that the upcoming The Quarry can do that instead. Number 4, Brink. Brink was sold as a revolutionary
06:54first-person shooter with a heavy focus on parkour movement mechanics, taking place on the unique
06:59setting of a giant floating city known as The Ark. An impressive marketing campaign did a terrific job
07:04selling it as the next big shooter at the time. And to be fair, Brink wasn't a bad game by any means,
07:10but rather a decidedly average one and one that didn't appear to maintain the attention of most
07:15gamers for more than a week or so. Yes, the smart player movement system was fun, yet not as innovative
07:21as advertised. And when the rest of the game felt so ordinary, it ultimately couldn't do all that
07:27much to impress. The AI was also a huge problem. Enemies put up a courageous fight while any bots on
07:33your team were more of a hindrance than a help. And there just wasn't enough to the game outside of
07:37its gimmick to distinguish it from anything else at the time. Without more depth and more personality,
07:42Brink was always destined to be quickly forgotten. Number 3, Final Fantasy XIII.
07:48The first Final Fantasy game on the PS3 was always going to get a ton of people excited. And from the
07:53fluid gameplay and gorgeous graphics shown off pre-release, there was no reason not to expect a
07:58major return to form after several underwhelming entries. Square Enix just seemed to lose their enthusiasm
08:04for the series after Final Fantasy X. And because XIII is yet another hilarious,
08:09overwrought, often incomprehensible story featuring inane, unlikeable characters,
08:14they didn't seem to get the passion back with this one. Yes, the game looks lovely and the combat still
08:19holds up pretty well, but a massive chunk of the title is essentially one long linear corridor which
08:25feels completely at odds with everything the Final Fantasy franchise has ever been about. As such,
08:30XIII is one of the few Final Fantasy titles to be a one and done, in that there's very little
08:35incentive to return to it once you've done your self-imposed duty as a fan by steamrolling through
08:40it one time. Number 2, Resident Evil 3 Remake. Resident Evil was riding high again following the
08:46double whammy of Resident Evil 7 and the remake of 2. The stink of 6 was well and truly gone,
08:53and fans had no reason to doubt that the remake of Resi 3 was going to continue that winning streak.
08:58But while nowhere near the complete disaster of some games in the series, Resi 3 did underwhelm in
09:04a big way. That's because it felt more like an expansion of the second game than a full release
09:09in its own right. An already incredibly short game, the remake feels even leaner,
09:14cutting out certain elements and speeding through its own campaign without giving anything the chance
09:19to breathe. And if there was one Resi game that could have been expanded on, it was 3. Seeing more of
09:25Raccoon City in the midst of chaos could have been amazing, as could have a next-gen version of
09:30Nemesis stalking you through the streets. And these potential expansion points weren't just wishful
09:35thinking on the part of fans, as Resi 2 changed and bolstered so so much, including Mr. X, that fans
09:41were expecting Resi 3 to do the same. Sadly, it just wasn't interested in doing that, and as such,
09:47didn't live up to the potential of what a remake could have been.
09:501. Halo Infinite Halo Infinite has some of the most compelling
09:55gameplay in the entire franchise. The way it plays, its art style, the whole presentation
10:00is a return to form. The foundations are fit enough to support a truly incredible game.
10:06The issue is, that's all the game kinda currently is though, a foundation for something else.
10:11Despite being delayed a whole year, Halo Infinite still feels unfinished in both its campaign and
10:17multiplayer, with key modes not even being present at launch that you'd expect from this series.
10:22Infinite is a live service, and you can tell Microsoft have used that as an excuse to deliver
10:27a basic version of Halo that will hopefully be completed with time.
10:31With an insulting grind in the multiplayer, basic matchmaking features being nowhere to be seen,
10:36and an over-reliance on the storefront, Microsoft took the wrong lessons from other free-to-play titles
10:42and put them in their marquee release. And look, I'm sure that in a few years, this will be one
10:46of the best Halo games on the market, but right now, it's all just unfulfilled potential.
10:52So, that's our list. I wanted to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
10:55That got really sour towards the end, I'm sorry for that.
10:57It should have had maybe more jokes in there.
10:59Either way though, let me know what you think about this list in the comments,
11:01and while you're down there could you please give us a like, share, subscribe,
11:03and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
11:07Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.