ITT: games that had a cool concept but just weren't that good.

[Dtrain323i]

My vote is Darkest of Days. You travelled through time to save certain people in famous battles through history. It was a cool idea since you could do stuff like use a full auto rifle at the Battle of Antietam. But the graphics were awful and the controls sucked.

[Mission Difficult]

My vote is Darkest of Days. You travelled through time to save certain people in famous battles through history. It was a cool idea since you could do stuff like use a full auto rifle at the Battle of Antietam. But the graphics were awful and the controls sucked.

It was also really short.

[CaffeinePowered]

Deus Ex: Invisible War


You took one of the most awesome first person shooters ever, and made a sequel.

Do you build on your success and make improvements?


Well fuck no, you ruin that son of a bitch....

1) Make all implants passive, no longer will the player have to think tactically about when and how to spend bio-energy, we'll do it for you!
2) Completely remove skill point based character progression, thus removing player choice in specialization
3) Remove the grid based inventory system, want to carry a military grade rocket launcher, assault rifle, and grenade launcher? No problem!
4) Remove ammo, never reload (for serious)
5) Make the game like half the length of the original
6) Focus development on the limited resources of an Xbox, there-by gimping the shit out of the PC version

[chronomaster]

Deus Ex: Invisible War


You took one of the most awesome first person shooters ever, and made a sequel.

Do you build on your success and make improvements?


Well fuck no, you ruin that son of a bitch....

1) Make all implants passive, no longer will the player have to think tactically about when and how to spend bio-energy, we'll do it for you!
2) Completely remove skill point based character progression, thus removing player choice in specialization
3) Remove the grid based inventory system, want to carry a military grade rocket launcher, assault rifle, and grenade launcher? No problem!
4) Remove ammo, never reload (for serious)
5) Make the game like half the length of the original
6) Focus development on the limited resources of an Xbox, there-by gimping the shit out of the PC version

I'm also going to have to play sequel-itis on another game that lost something on execution: Ogre Battle.

March of the Black Queen was fantastic. The atmosphere of it all was very much from the golden age of RPGs. The game felt like you were playing on a chessboard. The maps were vast and had secrets packed in every corner. The army system was straightforward yet engrossing. The Tarot concept gave the game a great spin.

Then OB64 ruined everything. The music sucked. The maps were cramped and linear. It added a concept of fatigue which didn't play out well. It took out the Tarot system in favor of elemental signs for each unit. The game felt less war-like and more like some character driven plot, instead of balancing the two. There were some good concepts in there, like positioning (which was kinda superfluous as it took nothing to turn around instantly) and the army system was revamped accordingly, but it felt like they dropped too much of Tactics Ogre into what is uniquely Ogre Battle.

Another nice tidbit: Yasumi Matsuno, the designer of the game, went on to design two fantastic games you might have heard of; Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. He did not design OB64.

[CaffeinePowered]

Another nice tidbit: Yasumi Matsuno, the designer of the game, went on to design two one fantastic games you might have heard of; Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. He did not design OB64.

ftfy


Also Iron Storm

[Duck, Duck, Goose]

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/fracture/

[chronomaster]

Shattered Galaxy

This one is kind of arguable, but nowadays I would say it isn't very good.

[Eschatos]

Far Cry 2:  Could have been STALKER with vehicles in Africa, ended up being a mediocre shooter. 

Mercenaries 2: Could have been way better than GTA, failed hardcore.

[Spore]

Do I really have to say?

[Vongore]

My vote is Darkest of Days. You travelled through time to save certain people in famous battles through history. It was a cool idea since you could do stuff like use a full auto rifle at the Battle of Antietam. But the graphics were awful and the controls sucked.

Go play Time Commando

[Didzo]

Do I really have to say?

Spore.

I said it.

[beep beep diglett]

spore got ruined by ea, still hoping will wright gets off his ass and makes the original with his new studio