Octopus Overlords

Got thinking about this as I was playing the D&D Dark Alliance game from a couple years back. Nearly everything about this game is simply terrible, from the AI to the janky movement, to the underwhelming gear, to the hilariously bad physics. There are very, very few redeeming factors…yet I beat it when it came out and still revisit it once or twice a year. I can’t even really tell you why, other than it’s a chance to play as the heroes from the Drizzt series and run through some mindless zombie, goblin, and troll killing. It’s not good whatsoever, but I still have fun with it.

The Thief reboot is another one that comes to mind. It’s awful, but I still like playing it for some weird reason. I’ve finished it twice, and am kinda itching to give it yet another go. No idea why.

Any games on your “awful but I love them” list?

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Two Worlds
Blade of Darkness

Ooooh. I'll second 'Dark Messiah of Might and Magic'. Ended up beating that one and enjoying it.

I'll add -
Shop Titans/Shop Heroes
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
Governor of Poker 3
Puzzle Quest Galactrix

Spent way too much time in those, despite their problems.

All the Bethesda games?

Too soon?

TheMix wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 12:30 pm All the Bethesda games?

Too soon?

Actually, I'd agree, as long as I can exclude Morrowind from the 'terrible' conditional.

I'd say Hearthstone. On its face it's by no means "terrible". It has a fantastic, simplified design that makes it super accessible (some game mechanics and boneheaded interface decisions aside). It's been around for ten years and is still in active development. It's a really fun counterpart to the WoW/Blizzard universe.

But there are multiple client issues and inefficiencies that have never been addressed, especially on mobile. Genuine power creep is out of control. Balance is always an issue, making top tier meta decks frustrating to play against. (But this is kind of a universal CCG problem.) The free-to-play experience is pretty poor... I mean you can have a ton of fun, but some meta decks will forever be inaccessible unless you grind for days and get lucky with your pulls. As with most Blizzard titles, the monetization is abhorrent, as well as chance-based, unnecessarily mimicking the predatory real-world CCG model, except it's digital so cards have no resale value. It's inexcusable that you have to look some card effects up online because of the drive for a streamlined interface, yet they had no problem introducing ultra-rare cosmetic variants that obscure card text. Improvements have been made along the way but other things have gotten worse.

Yet I play it religiously because it's there, it's accessible, and still very popular. It's easy to hop on for a game or two while I eat or multitask. Even though there are arguably quite better digital CCGs on the market that are more respectful of users' time and pockets.

I'm not seeing anything particularly terrible at the top of my play time list. Gladius is a somewhat unknown strategy game set in the 40k universe that I have over 500 hours in.

Gladius. 700+ hours. Reviews are better than I expected. Ignore this one

Oh, there's one.
X-com: Chimera Squad. Over 200 hours with 36/40 achievements, recent reviews are "mixed".

Surviving the Aftermath. 200+ hrs, recent reviews are "mixed".

Battleborn. 200+ hours, all solo (it's a multi-player game, so...bots). Reviews were "mixed".

If I remember more I'll come back to the thread.

I didn't love it, but I played through and enjoyed Daikatana.

Not many of the games I have a lot of time with would actually qualify as bad. If I feel that they are genuinely terrible, I probably didn't spend much time with them. I have better games to play. But there are some that are just... not great.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel might qualify.
Strange Brigade (not terrible, but pretty limited)
Mordhau

Fortnite Battle Royale?

Will Rock : Sabre Interactive's first game in 2003, if i remember correctly - a C-level attempt at a Serious Sam style game, but lacking the imagination and the serious over-the-top-ness, with waaaay too much re-use of enemy models. also it plays Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" during the title screen so that is forever burned into my brain. still, i played through it three times (twice on 'Hard' difficulty), so there is *enough* fun factor there for me...

oh yeah and you can totally win the final fight by it's not available for digital download (and never has been) but you can find the ISO on archive.org

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/will_rock

I remember Will Rock having a fairly large fanbase back on Gone Gold. It was a "one of these days" game that never quite happened.

New World: Aeternum

That was more a joke for Skiny, as I don't think it qualifies as "terrible." But I think I'm definitely in the minority as to my feelings towards it.

Star Drive II 100+ hours. Less than 2k reviews, mixed.

Oh, this one for sure!
Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade. 75 hours, 12.5k reviews, mixed.

Or maybe:

Evolved: Stage 2. 65 hours, 9k reviews, mixed.

Jaymann wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:06 am
Two Worlds

Forsooth, tis a terrible game that has had thy curious! Errant knave thy am, have also played the second.

I remember enough of it to chuckle.

ImLawBoy wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2024 12:02 pm I didn't love it, but I played through and enjoyed Daikatana.

So you made John Romero your bitch?

Rumpy wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2024 7:19 pm

Jaymann wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:06 am
Two Worlds

Forsooth, tis a terrible game that has had thy curious! Errant knave thy am, have also played the second.

aside: this was the first title that made my refurbished (by Microsoft) Xbox 360 console freeze. i took it as a sign it was going to die sooner than later and traded it in at Best Buy for a $100 GC

and then i was without an Xbox for some years, so i never got back to it...

i also had a number of DOS games in the late 80s that were truly not great, but i put hours into them because those were the games i had...

hitbyambulance wrote: Tue Oct 29, 2024 1:11 am

Rumpy wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2024 7:19 pm

Jaymann wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 2:06 am
Two Worlds

Forsooth, tis a terrible game that has had thy curious! Errant knave thy am, have also played the second.

aside: this was the first title that made my refurbished (by Microsoft) Xbox 360 console freeze. i took it as a sign it was going to die sooner than later and traded it in at Best Buy for a $100 GC

and then i was without an Xbox for some years, so i never got back to it...

Well, you didn't miss much. Those horses were something else. I'm surprised they managed to make a sequel that vastly improved, including the dialogue.

hitbyambulance wrote: Tue Oct 29, 2024 1:23 am i also had a number of DOS games in the late 80s that were truly not great, but i put hours into them because those were the games i had...

Oh yeah, but mine were on that Atari 800 (and Atari DOS, as they were on 5 1/4 floppies)

Star General. I love everything about this imperfect gem. The Panzer General gameplay, the planet hopping invasion mechanic, the chill saxophone soundtrack, and the different ship models for each race. Unfortunately, the game gets a bit too tedious to be a true classic. The campaigns could also use a little work. But the random maps are everything you could want in a turned based wargame.

For me two games come to mind from my childhood.

Willow for the NES. It was a Zelda clone that I'm sure if I played today would be less than enjoyable but I loved it back then.



And Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday on the Genesis. It was a weird mix of a game with space combat and early 4x style land combat. I'm sure if I played it today it would be way too wonky. But I played the hell out of it in 1990.