15 Over-Hyped Games That Failed Miserably On Release

There are a lot of games on the market. And most of the time, it’s easy to tell if the game is good by the gameplay trailer. However, there are...

By Toonacious

Published 3 years ago in Funny

Making a great game is no easy task. And when millions of dollars and the livelihoods of thousands hinge on maintaining positive public relations, it's no wonder marketing departments will go to great lengths to conceal a game's many flaws.

Let’s take a look at some of these hyped games that never lived up to the hype.

1
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) - The sci-fi epic set to elevate the RPG experience and meltdown gaming systems were served to the audience half-baked and full of glitches. It’s hard to believe that this game was made by the same guys who made The Witcher 3. It’s one of the most recent examples of over-committing and under-delivering, other than my relationship.

2
Star Citizen (2015) - The intergalactic hype train was meant to explore the universe slightly too slowly. Star Citizen was going to be the best-looking space adventure and was backed by countless players. Sadly, it was released in its alpha stage in 2015 and stayed there for the next six years. It’s not that new things weren’t introduced, but that the game served too much time in the oven.

3
No Man’s Sky (2016) - No Man’s Sky? More like no man should have ever tried this one at launch because it was a pile of trash. The game was literally the biggest lie in recent times other than Ubisoft’s trailers, but we’ll get to that later. The procedurally generated world of No Man’s Sky was meant to be a playground with countless things to explore and do. But it turned out to be just a walking simulator with unmotivated gameplay mechanics. The only thing this game was able to generate genuinely procedurally was dislikes and low scores.
4
Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014) - Let’s talk about Ubisoft and their bad habit of bullshot the gamers into thinking they are making a groundbreaking experience. Because what they are making is a game-breaking experience with glitches, bad performance, and uninspired storytelling. Unity isn’t half as bad once completely fixed, but at launch, it was a disaster. That glitchy eyeball and meshy face meme you’ve seen belong to Unity only.

5
Watch Dogs (2014) - Watch Dogs? More like watch yourself before you play this dawg cause this one is another Ubitrash. The GTA killer was meant to be a cohesive open-world experience set in Chicago. Sadly the game hit itself in the nuts when Ubisoft tricked everyone with a gameplay video that can never be replicated in the real game they released. Not only that, but countless graphical features were removed from the game, and there was a clear lack of freedom compared to Grand Theft Auto.
6
Duke Nukem Forever (2011) - Not going to lie, I preordered this one and regretted every second of it. Duke Nukem Forever took forever to be released, and it was probably a bad sign. But many gamers were super excited for another Duke Nukem game since it was being released after so many years. The game was a victim of development hell, which caused it to lose its vision in over 10 years of development.
7
Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) - This was the best Alien game concept back in 2013, and for a good reason. The gameplay trailer was pretty cool, but the entire game just turned out to be really bad. It wasn’t too bad. It was just meh, from gameplay to graphics to the aliens A.I. everything was meh. Luckily the Alien franchise bounced back with Alien Isolation.

8
Evolve (2015) - A game being made by the developers behind the original Left 4 Dead title, what could go wrong, right? Well, looking at Evolve, a lot could go wrong, especially if the game isn’t on par with everyone’s hopes. It was a truly interesting concept but was perished under subpar gameplay mechanics and lack of a loyal fan base. Performance and gameplay balance was another reason why this one never matched Left 4 Dead since that game was pretty straightforward co-op fun that was repeatable and easy to run.
9
Anthem (2019) - If Ubisoft can bullshot the audience, then so can EA. And they did it when they revealed the gameplay for Anthem. From the first impressions, the game looked like it will be a true next-gen experience, and players will explore vast flora and fauna while flying in a suit that resembles the Ironman. Sadly, the game was not even close to what was showcased. It lacked everything from the vastness to the graphical features and promised gameplay features.
10
The Order: 1886 (2015) - This single-player game was full-priced with barely 5 hours of game time, a good chunk of cutscenes. So it’s obvious that despite great visuals and an interesting setting, it failed to latch onto people.

11
Outriders (2021) - The latest example of a hype train crash landing is Outriders. Made by the same guys behind Bulletstorm, this was meant to be the ultimate Destiny killer. Sadly the game killed itself with a lack of proper story, bad characters, and been there done that level design.
12
The Avengers (2020) - When the game developers released the first trailer for this game, it quickly became the talk of the town. After all, it was the first time when Marvel’s comic book heroes were coming to life on such a scale. Sadly the game suffers from microtransactions, bad story, button-mashing gameplay, and uninspired level design.
13
Bomberman: Act Zero (2006) - Think about everything that made Bomberman great. Now take everything out except the camera angle, and that’s what this game was. Bomberman: Act Zero was riddled with long load times, bad collision detection, and forgettable levels and style.

14
APB: All Points Bulletin (2010) - Think about a GTA game converted into an MMO with many intractabilities. This is what APB was meant to be, but what it became was a half-assed multiplayer game with truly bad gameplay.
15
Mighty No. 9 (2016) - Created by the same guy behind MegaMan, Mighty No. 9 was set to be the perfect spiritual successor ever. But post-launch, it was noted to be a badly built MegaMan clone that doesn’t even stay true to the original game's art style, let alone the gameplay.