[Dara100]

Since I reasearch reviews of a a game I'm interested in I'm rarely disappointed in them. But back in the days when I didn't even have internet access Dinotopia came out. It had a gorgeous box with a picture from the included child's storybook of a character riding a wonderful pteradactyl and goodies inside like a deck of playing cards with dinosaurs on them. I didn't expect it to be an involved adventure game but thought it certainly would have characters from the book. What a disappointment! A tedious, simplistic story, some dinosaur eggs and tiny baby dinosaurs that looked like a child's drawing that had absolutely nothing to do with the book's story! The only saving grace was that it is such a beautiful set and I'm glad to have it in my collection.

[Dara100]

I just remembered a more recent one. Being a fan of the series "Lost" I read reviews of the game and thought it would be a kick to play, even if not the greatest adventure game. Having never had a problem with adventure games not playing because of a graphics card that was several years old, I was astonished to see that it wouldn't even load because it didn't pass their test! So now I have to wait until I build my next system to play it. Blah!

[Jadefalcon]

Dead Reefs. I know the reviews werent giving a great impression but the presentation was pretty bad and the game just doesn't seem inspiring, maybe I'll go back to it later though.

Still Life. A neat idea that seems to combine elements of the Prisoner and Lost, but so far its just not working. Graphically its not too bad, some of the character models are pretty nice.

[Boneho Chane]

Grim Fandango was a letdown no doubt. Good game, but nowhere near up to the level of praise it has.

The Longest Journey seemed amazing, but after I got it it just seemed alright and I didn't feel any need to finish it. Screenshots were very misleading. In fact I don't remember doing anything but running around everywhere with the occasionally unrealistic puzzle.

The Last Express was very, very hard to get into, almost entirely because of the animation. And then when I finally did get into it I managed to get stuck every 3 minutes. It gets pretty tiring running back and forth on a confusing train an entire game.

The Space Bar was probably one of the bigger disappointments. Even after receiving the game for free I still felt completely let down. It is flat out just a bad game. Poor humor, poor controls, poor graphics. For the first few minutes though it is very overwhelming and that is cool no doubt.

Sanitarium is the biggest let down I had in my adventure days. The demo shows off what appears to be one of the finest adventure games ever and for months I was incredibly excited for this, I'm just a killer for atmosphere. Well, for the first hour or so the game is just that. Amazing atmosphere, extremely haunting, very creepy. Then after Chapter 2, the whole changes atmosphere completely and honestly I was just embarrassed.

[jeld]

I´ve come across plenty of bad games during my adventuring years, but beeing let down or disappointet implies that you had some expectation going in. Im sure there´s been more games that have left me feeling disappointet, but the ones that first spring to mind is:

Indigo Prophecy - doubly disappointing because I had high hopes and the game actually started out pretty good. Then it stopped beeing an adventure game and became a long series of quick-time events and simon says exercises. And, from the gameplay videos I´ve seen, Heavy Rain looks like it´s going down the same road.

Monkey Island- the original. At the time I loved everything Lucasarts and I knew that everybody else loved the game to pieces, I just didn´t get it. The pirate life just wasn´t for me. Actually prefered the third one (never bothered with the fourth) over the original. Give me DOTT or an Indiana Jones instead.

Grim Fandango - Same thing. It was beautiful and I really got into it at first, but the controlls, the endless walking and the way it felt like it never would end. Never finished it.

Riven - Loved Myst when it came out, liked Myst 3 and 4 but Riven was just too much. Do something at one end of the island, walk across the island too see what happened, walk all the way back, change something else, walk back too see the result... Would have been okay with a clickable map or something, but please...

I did actually enjoy Dreamfall for what it was. Wouldn´t call it a great game or anything, but I played it just recently (bought it on Xbox live) and having heard all the complaints about it, my expectations weren´t that high. Would probably had felt different if I played it right after TLJ.

[jeld]

Oh, and Larry 3 - I loved the second one. One of my first adventure games. The third just wasn´t as fun for a 13-years old me.

[Gonzosports]

I am having a hard time thinking of biggest letdown to be honest, I continually critize TLJ on here because it has so many flaws, but as I've said, I actually do like it, and in the end, think its sheer ambition and realization of the gameworld make it a very good game.

The biggest letdown of all-time for me it's an adventure game, it's an RPG:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Yes, I played through it to the end, yes, I played it to odd ends of the night - but I consider Morrowind to be the best RPG of all-time for its story, the sandbox nature of the game, and overall the competing interests/factions/races of the game.

Oblivion is Morrowind dumbed down, more shiny graphics, much, much more style, and all the substance sucked out - and what's with the obvious ripping off of LOTR in most of the imagery?

[ggreen737]

Originally Posted by Gonzosports

I am having a hard time thinking of biggest letdown to be honest, I continually critize TLJ on here because it has so many flaws, but as I've said, I actually do like it, and in the end, think its sheer ambition and realization of the gameworld make it a very good game.

The biggest letdown of all-time for me it's an adventure game, it's an RPG:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Yes, I played through it to the end, yes, I played it to odd ends of the night - but I consider Morrowind to be the best RPG of all-time for its story, the sandbox nature of the game, and overall the competing interests/factions/races of the game.

Oblivion is Morrowind dumbed down, more shiny graphics, much, much more style, and all the substance sucked out - and what's with the obvious ripping off of LOTR in most of the imagery?

I agree TLJ had flaws, but it's just one of those games I think that you just love it despite that, or you don't at all.

Totally agree with you on Oblivion. I had such high expectations for that game, and all it turned out to be was a pretty pictures show, and a bunch of mostly boring sidequests, and I HATED going into the Oblvion gates....so repetative. I sunk about 250 hours into Morrowind over a 5 or 6 month period, even submitted my own island wizard house *which was gigantic and awesome* to the morrowind mod site. Morrowind is still the game I compare every large world RPG to today.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Boneho Chane

The Space Bar was probably one of the bigger disappointments. Even after receiving the game for free I still felt completely let down. It is flat out just a bad game. Poor humor, poor controls, poor graphics. For the first few minutes though it is very overwhelming and that is cool no doubt.

Oh what the heck... it's still one of my favorites and I don't give away adventure games anymore, unless the alternative is trashing them. (Byebye Polish Opsys!)

So, why not offer the unloved Space Bar for free here?

[misslilo]

I actually liked The Space Bar
And I'm grateful to have it in my collection

[KasiaD]

Among the games that I played, some turned out to be really really bad, and that is always a letdown for me...
But no name the most painful ones, which I didn't complete because playing was boring and utterly unpleasant:
Ankh 1 (didn't even try the next installments)
So Blonde
JAck Keane

On the other hand, a few years back, I was shocked to see that some companies do not follow the obvious 3rd person scheme and I did't complete:
Myst
Alida

Due to my being very spoiled, I tried and failed to finish many old games, reportedly masterpieces, where the graphics was too crude for me:
Monkey Island 1,
King's Quest 1 and 2.

Recently, to my distaste, a lot of casual games are being created. Such waste of potential

[SnorkleCat]

Hmm... I think Paradise was a huge shock to the system. I was expecting something so much better in every way... also I was disappointed with Murder On The Orient Express.

[Fantasysci5]

The new Director's Cut of "Dark Fall: Lights Out" was really disappointing for me. I am one of the biggest fans, yet this still wasn't all it was hyped up to be. There was hardly anything new, and I actually liked some of the puzzles from the original that he took out to put in easier ones in this one. All of the extras that came with it was worth it, though, especially since I'm such a big fan.

Also, I'm playing through "Darkness Within" right now, and I'm pretty disappointed. Yes, it does have me backing out of my chair in fear of what may come, but the story is dry and cliched, at least so far.

Sorry, I keep thinking of other games that really disappointed me. My most hated game too, was also one I was actually excited about. Rhem. When I read the box and it said "Myst and Riven fans rejoice!". I loved those games and how deep and complex the story was, and to find another game like tht thrilled me. I popped it in, and the graphics just turned me off. And if that wasn't bad enough, I read what other people had to say, and it really didn't have any story. That's what I love about the Myst games; I hate puzzles, but the stories were so interesting.

[theduramater]

Nibiru! It had a pretty good premise, I liked the graphics...but the SLIDER PUZZLES drove me CRAZY. Too much!

I actually liked playing phantasmagoria (when I was...about...13 years old???). But the second one was WEIRD.

I like Secret Files 1, but the whole alien thing was pretty odd. Apparently though, aliens is a pretty common theory about Tunguska. If I had known that, I would have been better prepared for the alien influence in the game.

[GreyFuss]

There have just been a couple that let me down after I was so excited for the release. I will just list the most recent...
Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper.

After the great experience I had with The Awakened and Arsene Lupin I was expecting a much better game from Jack the Ripper. IMO they took a step backwards with this one as it was way too easy (except for one good puzzle at the beginning) and way too short. Wasn't really much of a first person option as it was watching 3rd person cut scenes every 5 minutes. Big disappointment however I did like the way the tied up the ending.

[Erwin_Br]

Chalk up another one for Escape for Monkey Island. I was so looking forward to this game. I remember that the box art was already the first disappointment.

[ightenhill]

Dracula Origins for me .. Everyone seems to like it, but its just a repetative puzzle game with an annoying interface that becomes a horrible pixel hunt.. And as for no widescreen in 2008 WTH..

[Fantasysci5]

I just finished "Darkness Within", and yes, I must be one of the only people who didn't like this game. I love dark-themed games, I mean Dark Fall is one of my favorite games, if not the #1. But this game was just bad. A lot of the graphics were dark, the plot made no sense even at the end and I'm still left confused, and none of the characters were interesting enough to pull me in. The only thing, besides the British accents, that I liked about it was the use of putting "thoughts" together. I am so disappointed.

[J.H]

Nibiru is pretty much a very boring, bland, mundane rip off of Broken Sword.