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Most disappointing story of 2015?

S

Spring-Loaded

Member
BiggNife said:
Origins' story is miles better than anything in the Rocksteady Arkhams, imo.

I'm not sure if Knight beats out City for worst, because City's story was horrible, but I thought Knight's was pretty bad.
Beyond the Arkham Knight reveal, which was insanely telegraphed, there's oracle basically just being used as a damsel in distress, all of that nonsense with Joker Disease, the way they completely squandered the Hush setup from City, etc. Just a mess.
Click to expand...
Hush .
in his introduction in the comics was a crap villain, and was better served in their appearance in Knight

AK reveal was poor, but had potential had all the focus not been put on the reveal itself.

I don't like fridged characters, but
everyone in AK got kidnapped at some point, and Oracle was fridged in the Killing Joke which became canon for some reason despite being a standalone story

Here's my assessment of the AK story (the one part that mattered):

The way I took it was

  • Batman cured the Titan disease in Arkham City, but whatever turned Joker into the Joker was still in his blood (and in the infected people)
  • The Ace chemicals that made the Joker turns people's skin white, their hair green, and it seemingly warps the mind or drives people crazy somehow. Those "joker infected" started going crazy, and Batman knew he'd soon follow
  • Through the power of suggestion, the Joker infected started to adopt characteristics of the Joker as they started going insane.
  • Having obsessed over and studied the Joker for so long, after knowing him so well and having as powerful a mind as he does, Batman had what was essentially Joker's consciousness formed within his subconscious.
  • After being exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin at Ace Chemicals, Batman's greatest fear was brought to the surface: possibly becoming the Joker. Coupled with the "Joker disease," and this consciousness of the Joker that Batman himself formed in his own mind, this is a real possibility.
  • After being exposed to more toxin, this Joker consciousness starts to further take hold. At the end of the game, Batman is exposed to the point Joker's consciousness comes to the forefront of Batman's mind — when you see the Joker strapped to the gurney, that is essentially the Joker.
  • Scarecrow thinks his toxin isn't working enough, so he injects more toxin, but since Joker has taken over, the toxin then brings out the Joker's deepest fears: being forgotten, and being locked away forever by Batman.
  • The first part of the final sequence where you play as the Joker getting out into Gotham is him taking control. The part where he sees his all but empty funeral, here's the radio broadcast that dismisses him and is pursued by Batman is his deepest fear becoming reality.
  • When you paly as Batman and lock Joker away in the Arkham Asylum within Batman's mind, that's him regaining control. Physically, the toxin may be making him frightened, but he's overcome what he's truly afraid of, so it has no affect on him.

Don't know what becomes of Batman considering he found no real cure for the "Joker disease," and he only managed to defeat the Joker consciousness in his mind. I suspect he becomes further unhinged to some degree and maybe suffers some damage from the disease, but still fights crime.
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Origins and Knight have better stories than Asylum and City considering there's actually stories in those games, not just hodgepodge of events barely strung together (or in Asylum's case, just a whole lot of nothing at all, teased as if it's all building up to something). I can totally see how someone would be unsatisfied with AK's story, but it virtually can't be disappointing compared to City's and Asylum's.
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
I can't put enough exclamation marks after Fallout 4, so I won't even try.
Skyrim had better quests.

MGSV obviously for it's missing story as well.
 
L

Lord of Ostia

Member
Hikami said:
Danganronpa Another Episode
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Seriously? What was bad about Another Episode? I thought the friendship between Komaru and Toko was exceptionally well portrayed, probably the most genuine and believable friendship in the whole entire series. The plot was over the top, but it is always over the top, that doesn't make it bad. I thought it tied the events of DR 1 and 2 together quite nicely.
 
M

MikeDown

Banned
Star Citizen as they continually fail to get their shit together to actually make a game.
Close 2nd with MGS:V as Konami actually succeeded at making a solid game, even though the story is unfinished.

Can't really say Halo or Fallout cause I didn't expect much from them to begin with.
 
M

MechaX

Member
The thing about Xenoblade Chronicles X's story in my opinion is that it's just... there, really. And it sucks that a lot of what is front-line and center is trope-y shit like Lin and Tatsu. I've seen a hell of a lot better even from this same team, and it definitely does some shit where I was like "uh... wut"

... But MGSV is just... next level in terms of disappointment. MGSV was bad, sure, but when considering not only the issue with Kojima/Konami, but also MGSV's role in the entire multi-decade franchise, it's just tragic. MGSV's story just gets more stupid the more you think about it.

Arkham Knight started off decent, but it was game over once
the first in game mention of Jason Todd came up. At that point, I was literally just like "Oh fucking hell, this is going to just be a Red Hood situation."
 
B

BiggNife

Member
Spring-Loaded said:
Hush .
in his introduction in the comics was a crap villain, and was better served in their appearance in Knight

AK reveal was poor, but had potential had all the focus not been put on the reveal itself.

I don't like fridged characters, but
everyone in AK got kidnapped at some point, and Oracle was fridged in the Killing Joke which became canon for some reason despite being a standalone story

Here's my assessment of the AK story (the one part that mattered):


Origins and Knight have better stories than Asylum and City considering there's actually stories in those games, not just hodgepodge of events barely strung together (or in Asylum's case, just a whole lot of nothing at all, teased as if it's all building up to something). I can totally see how someone would be unsatisfied with AK's story, but it virtually can't be disappointing compared to City's and Asylum's.
Click to expand...

I understand your arguments, but I still think AK's story as a whole is terrible. To your points:

I'm not the world's biggest Hush fan either, but they still could've done a lot more than just a cutscene and a QTE. Considering Dini helped with writing the Arkham games and Heart of Hush is basically the only Hush story I like, I was expecting more.

I don't think Killing Joke being canon (which is something Moore explicitly regrets writing) excuses the fact that Oracle being captured and fake-killed was a cheap plot device that reduced a complex, likeable character into a simple damsel. Also, like the Knight reveal, Barbara's capture was also telegraphed to all hell considering they mention a dozen times that she's not supposed to be in the city.

I know they try to explain why Joker Disease is possible but it still seems ridiculous to me and you need to make some guesses/assumptions for it to make sense. And truthfully, as much as I love Hamill Joker, I was really hoping they would stop using Joker as a crutch with this game. They didn't.

I can see someone being okay with it after City considering Knight has an actual beginning, middle and end with a proper conclusion, but that doesn't make it good by any stretch.
 
S

Spring-Loaded

Member
BiggNife said:
I understand your arguments, but I still think AK's story as a whole is terrible. To your points:

I'm not the world's biggest Hush fan either, but they still could've done a lot more than just a cutscene and a QTE. Considering Dini helped with writing the Arkham games and Heart of Hush is basically the only Hush story I like, I was expecting more.

I don't think Killing Joke being canon excuses the fact that Oracle being captured and fake-killed was a cheap plot device that reduced a complex, likeable character into a simple damsel. Also, like the Knight reveal, Barbara capture was also telegraphed to all hell considering they mention a dozen times that she's not supposed to be in the city.

I know they try to explain why Joker Disease is possible but it still seems ridiculous to me and you need to make some guesses/assumptions for it to make sense. And truthfully, as much as I love Hamill Joker, I was really hoping they would stop using Joker as a crutch with this game. They didn't.

I can see someone being okay with it after City considering Knight has an actual beginning, middle and end with a proper conclusion, but that doesn't make it good by any stretch.
Click to expand...

Sure, I agree overall. I just don't think it can be disappointing when considering the past stories by Rocksteady. It's a step up from City and Aslyum in too many ways for it to really be disappointing, or any more so than Asylum was.
 
M

Matty77

Member
MGSV:TPP was my game of the year and what I voted no.1 in the GOTY thread.

So it's with a dissapointed heart that I not unsurprisingly have to vote it 1 in this thread also, great game but one of the biggest fails of a story ever, not just this year.
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
Fallout 4. The games narrative actively discouraged me from deviating from it. As a mother, why the fuck would i care about any of the other bullshit going on when i am looking for my fucking baby.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
Spring-Loaded said:
Sure, I agree overall. I just don't think it can be disappointing when considering the past stories by Rocksteady. It's a step up from City and Aslyum in too many ways for it to really be disappointing, or any more so than Asylum was.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I guess I was just way more optimistic about Knight's story because I was excited to see a Batman game with Scarecrow as the lead villain and the Knight seemed like a cool concept when he was first introduced. They had some really neat ideas that were completely squandered.
 
I

InsaneTiger

Member
Fallout 4, just so bad. I literally don't care about anybody in that nor has the game given me any motivation to care about the Commonwealth. Just bad writing.
 
M

Malus

Member
Xenoblade X. I don't know if the story/writing is really that much worse than the original's (a lot of cool stuff does happen), but it lost a lot in terms of polish and production value. The dub is also a good deal worse than the original imo. It feels like they spent 90% of the cutscene budget on 5% of the cutscenes. There are problems with sound mixing, music transitions, using stock animations during cinematics, and a clear lack of effort/time going into voicing for some of the minor characters. This leaves the game feeling cheap and hard to take seriously. Some of the main characters are really one-note too, though maybe doing some later Affinity missions will help change my perspective on that.

It does make up for this somewhat with generally improved sidequests, though. X just lacks that big, driving force of a main story that the original had.
 
L

Lys Skygge

Member
First half of MGSV was pretty amazing. It just fell apart towards the end :(. With that said, I overall enjoyed MGSVs story, it was just a bit disappointing.

Halo 5 to me was weak from beginning to end. Just awful.
 
S

Sumio Mondo

Member
MGSV, I guess. I was also disappointed by Fatal Frame V's storyline. Felt generic and formulaic when put against previous games. I enjoyed the individual ghosts storylines but the core storyline was really just "eh" and forgettable, whereas to me previous games, Fatal Frame 3 especially, has great narrative that drew me in.
 
A

Azzanadra

Member
While the side stories (e.g Bloody Baron) were done well, I felt the main story in The Witcher 3 was bleh, especially after the the first two games which were excellent in that regard. I felt that The Witcher 3, while not to the same extent of Bethesda games and Dragon Age: Inquistion, fell victim to the "open-world" syndrome, in that it sacrificed its story for a bigger world. There's even proof that a lot was cut, things like Iorveth's character and a lot more quests for the Wild Hunt. This hurts me more than MGSV or Fallout because I trusted CDPR with the story, they could have fucked up everything but the story would have still been good.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Azzanadra said:
While the side stories (e.g Bloody Baron) were done well, I felt the main story in The Witcher 3 was bleh, especially after the the first two games which were excellent in that regard. I felt that The Witcher 3, while not to the same extent of Bethesda games and Dragon Age: Inquistion, fell victim to the "open-world" syndrome, in that it sacrificed its story for a bigger world. There's even proof that a lot was cut, things like Iorveth's character and a lot more quests for the Wild Hunt. This hurts me more than MGSV or Fallout because I trusted CDPR with the story, they could have fucked up everything but the story would have still been good.
Click to expand...

I do like the story in The Witcher 3 but I agree it's executed better in the first two entries. That said, every game goes through cuts and changes so I'm not sure what you mean by that.

For me the most disappointing story comes from MGS V. I never played the previous games and fans recommended me to at least read up on all the events that happened in the series. Turned out to be for naught. The introduction was terrible but had at least some story content tied to it. Everything else just felt barebones...gameplay without context.

Fallout 4 was also rather disappointing (not that I had any hopes in the first place) and the finale of Life is Strange also underdelivered big time. And Dying Light too.
 
F

Fate/Cipher

Member
MGSV, after Chapter 1. I was expecting something much bigger after exacting revenge on Skull Face, especially so with the Chapter 2 teaser found at the end of the first set of credits. The atmosphere at Mother Base post-Episode 31 is great, but it never really leads anywhere. Missions 43, 45, and 46 are awesome on their own, but having to power through repeated missions and side ops just to get to those points really takes the flow out of the game. Felt rushed, and with Kojima's comments about his next game being a complete one, there's no doubt that it was.
 
J

J_Viper

Member
Halo 5 by far.

Sure, MGSV was a letdown, but at least there were individual strands of narrative that were at least interesting.

Halo 5 has literally nothing. NOTHING.
 
E

EmSeta

Member
MGSV, no doubt. Kojima had a final chance to tie it all together in a beautiful final chapter, but failed miserably, instead adding a whole new slew of nonsensical plot points without dealing with the old ones.

The gameplay was good though.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
MGSV and Life is Strange both suffer from the same issues. Really great pieces of story, but plenty of disappointing moments as well. Maybe not the worst technically, but it hurts them more because of it.
 
G

Gator86

Member
I'd say FO4, MGSV, and Arkham Knight. Each story was basically trash. Probably MGS takes the crown for wasting so much time to achieve literally nothing of value. No one takes more time to say less than Kojima and V was astoundingly bad even by his standards. Some part of my soul is still stuck on that jeep ride with Skullface.
 
R

RespectThySole

Member
I'll also add Halo 5, Arkham Knight and Life is Strange(still decent though) to my previous post of MGSV. I'd say Fallout 4, but we really shouldn't have expected something competent from Bethesda.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Morat said:
Starcraft 2 Legacy of the Void I personally found the plot to be so bad, so sub- Saturday morning cartoon- as to be actually embarrassing to play through.
Click to expand...

That wasn't surprising after the massive shift they took in Wings of Liberty though. I'm glad I didn't feel like I was let down because they had already shown they weren't interested in telling a story I thought was good.
 
Z

Zocano

Member
Currently for me it's Witcher 3.

Hated the direction they took The Wild Hunt and all of the other story arcs in the game just feel super rushed. Came off the game feeling pretty disappointed because of it.
 
G

GamerJM

Banned
I didn't play MGS5 or Fallout or any of those AAA games and didn't plan to, so IDK. For me I'm guessing it'll be Xenoblade X from what I've heard of that but I'm not too far in yet.

Undertale had a great story but it still disappointed me the way everyone hyped it up.
 
S

silva1991

Member
MGSV vs Xenoblade X

hard to choose, but I'm going with XCX.

I never cared that much about MGS story and Xenoblade(Wii) was a masterpiece and had a great story and characters unlike XCX aka teh single player MMO.
 
R

RevolverRoden

Member
Can someone explain to me why MGSV's story is considered awful? I mean its not what we expected in regards to "the missing link" but as a standalone story its fine, not really any better or worse than the rest of the series.
 
B

Berserker976

Member
RevolverRoden said:
Can someone explain to me why MGSV's story is considered awful? I mean its not what we expected in regards to "the missing link" but as a standalone story its fine, not really any better or worse than the rest of the series.
Click to expand...

There are some spectacular breakdowns in the spoiler threads, if you feel like wading through a million posts.
 
I

Imperfected

Member
RevolverRoden said:
Can someone explain to me why MGSV's story is considered awful? I mean its not what we expected in regards to "the missing link" but as a standalone story its fine, not really any better or worse than the rest of the series.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind, "disappointing" represents the difference between expectation and reality, not necessarily absolute quality.

There are certainly games with worse stories than MGSV this year, but most of those games people went into with extremely low expectations for any number of reasons. (And even the other major contender, Fallout 4, probably only had expectations any higher than "hot garbage" because people wrongly assumed Bethesda's team would have taken notes from New Vegas.)
 
C

Choomp

Banned
Don't want to ruin anything for you, but the last episode of LiS is really underwhelming. I wouldn't assign that word to the rest of the game at all, however, first 4 episodes are amazing.
 
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