[paul1275]

Myst - End of Ages

Seems like a rushed and unpolished end to a great saga. Felt and looked like elements from the ill fated 'Uru Online' were thrown together. Love it or hate it, Myst was one of those titles that deserved a better swan song.

In Memorium / Missing

Great idea! Some absolutely chilling moments (including getting an email to my hotmail account from the game's killer at 4am). Horrible, horrible ending. Such an anti-climax to one of the most original games in decades.

The Experiment / Experience 112

Again, same guys who made 'In Memoriam'. Great premise, great ideas. Terrible ending. Didn't help that you needed the processing power of Nasa to run the game

Lost

Loved the show, the finale made me cry like a baby. The game felt... Lacking in the same intrigue that the show had.

[rottford]

Sam and Max: Season 1. As a kid/teen, I loved loved loved the original comics and Hit the Road. The humor in the Telltale games doesn't seem the same as the original comics and game, and I barely let out a chuckle on a couple occasions. Of course, I never played Season 2, so maybe things changed...

[Toops144]

I loved the two Syberias.

They were magical experiences that played on a multitude of different levels: the traditional story-telling techniques of Jules Verne within a framework of modern day dilemmas. What I mean by the latter is that Sokal had blended the tradition of storytelling from an era that were far less 'aware' of the world around them (compared to what know today), with the modern and high flying Kate Walker.

The use of Kate didn't so much as represent modern society but the modern woman in an age where they have overcome a great deal, and technology rules over all else as a means by which we now get our information. By contrast women at the time of Verne were largely marginalised and the majority of people dreamed of adventures brought about by the seemingly unknown, a desire lost in today's modern society.

This is merely skimming on the underlying messages within the game, but those messages I found to be extremely powerful within a solid game with beautiful graphics (at the time), great voice acting (except Oscar) and memorable soundtrack.

Oh and the use of automatons was genius on so many levels for not only were they a parody of our modern lives (our over reliance on mobile phones and computers for example), they represented how most of us view 'the olden days'; as archaic and obsolete when in reality there's very little difference. The only difference is that in Syberia automatons were created in order to supplement human desire from the events that occured with the young Hans and his sister, whilst technology today destroys any emotional attachments.

It should make one realise that we will always harbour these desires however much we are now obsessed with our immediate lives, in that we are so concerned with bills, relationships (in Kate's case though i will say no more), material things, pay days, and so forth we have lost focus on what really matters - finding the true source of one's happiness.

Anyway Syberia I&II were great in my view.

[Fantasysci5]

The game that let me down the most was definetely "Dark Fall: Lost Souls".

I was looking forward to it so much, and since I loved his previous games, I couldn't wait to play it, but the whole tone changed and made me less of a fan of the series.

Other games that left me really disappointed were Myst 4, Syberia, and Darkness Within, on the top of my head.

[orient]

My biggest disappointments: Still life 2 and Broken Sword: The Angel of Death.

As a relative newcomer to the genre, Still Life 2 was my first time anticipating an adventure game sequel that wasn't out already. The moment the first cut-scene ended in the Still Life 2 demo, I knew this wasn't the sequel I'd been waiting for.

Originally Posted by Ascovel

Still Life 1 (I don't believe the sequel can be any worse)

Well imagine the first game crossed with a SAW movie, in dark, ugly 3D and an inventory with limited spaces. And cheap animation that completely skips certain actions that they didn't have time to finish or even bother to attempt. The first game at least felt like it was made by professionals. The sequel, not so much.

As for Broken Sword: The Angel of Death, I spent a good two weeks trying to get the stupid thing to work because it doesn't support quad core processors After a whole lot of time and effort, I got it to work (no thanks to Sumo Digital or THQ)...and it pretty much sucked. There were a few redeeming moments thanks to George, but overall it's a very poor adventure game that drags down the Broken Sword name.

[marenka]

mata hari.. i expected more when i heard of that game, but it's not even a game you just walk and talk ,walk and talk again&again.

[UPtimist]

Originally Posted by booB

I'll say Syberia as well. I kept seeing it mentioned in the same breath as The Longest Journey, so I was expecting an interesting narrative with colorful characters and a well-fleshed-out game world. The reality is that the game is cold, emotionless, and technical, with poor dialogue and wooden voice-acting. The puzzles are kind of interesting, but the plot suffers from too much pointless dawdling.

I kinda liked the coldness in the first game. I thought it fit the post-glory world it was set in (of course, like all Sokal games, it still needed interactivity). In #2 it just went overboard though. #1 had interesting locales, but #2 was just snow and the story wasn't anything interesting either. Just the same thing from start to beginning. #1 on the other hand I felt had a nice shift and a nice minimalistic story.

I only felt that the second one was a disappointment, the sort-of-flaws that kinda felt nice in the first game just were absolutely dull in the second.

Have to add Memento Mori too. An OK game, sure, but it could've easily been so much better.

[Twizman]

I suppose Beneath A Steel Sky but I wasn't that disappointed.

Here is a critique that sums up my thoughts:

The game has no interesting characters. Nearly all of them are there just to be a part of a puzzle or to provide you with clues. Nobody has a distinct speech style; nobody has a strong personality. The dialogues are dull and very cold, with nothing resembling emotions in them; and I mean the lines themselves, not the voice acting. The protagonist of the game has no personality, no own judgment, no interesting thoughts to share; he is dumb and unappealing, and controlling him is really boring. He never reacts to what is happening around him. He is never excited, or scared, or angry, although he certainly should be. He is indifferent to everything. Characters would die in front of his eyes, and in the next moment he would exchange another silly joke with his irritating side-kick Joey. This coldness of the character goes so far that at some point I thought that maybe he was a robot and there was a plot twist coming ahead, but nothing like that was ever explained. We have to accept the fact that the protagonist is just an uninteresting human being without emotions.

I thought it was funny

[colpet]

Myst 4 (Revelation) was a disappointment for me. The first part, in Tomahna, was good, but once Serenia started I thought it was a mish-mash. Many of the puzzles were times or relied on dexterity, which is just the antithesis of what I want in a Myst game.

[skurken]

King's Quest 6.

After all the hype, here and on other sites I finally played it and was disappointed to find out it was just another game with all the (well, most of the) flaws and sillyness of a typical Sierra game. Matter of taste I suppose

Oh and the Longest Journey! Not a bad game at all but I was expecting much more after all the online-love.

[smulan]

Disappointment means expectations failed. In that case...

Myst 4
Syberia 2
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Tex Murphy UAKM

[Fantasysci5]

Originally Posted by colpet

Myst 4 (Revelation) was a disappointment for me.

I'm glad I'm not the only person out there who didn't like it. You always think you're the only one until you make a thread like this. After all that I heard about the story, I was really looking forward to it, but that

Spoiler:

one of the brothers gets redeemed and the other didn't really rubbed me the wrong way. They were BOTH to blame! lol

I haven't even finished it.

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by Intense Degree

Definitely agree on the Longest Journey.

Having seen so many people rave about it I have tried to play it 3 or 4 times, but have just got bored and left it about an hour in.

Also Shivers 2 was a let down. I realise that i'm probably in a tiny minority here but I loved Shivers. The atmosphere was great, but completely missing from the silly sequal.

Sorry you didn't like TLJ. I loved it.

And Shivers was awesome. Shivers 2, however, kind of lost the thread for me. Points for effort, but over all, it tried too hard and fell short. shame. On paper it sounds like exactly the right plan.

Oh, and for my money, Myst V was the biggest disappointment. It had a lot of good stuff in it, but it felt half finished.

[DustyShinigami]

Another two for me:

Runaway: A Road Adventure and Secret Files: Tunguska

Both had the same problems - great graphics, but shitty voice acting, uninteresting characters and stories, and questionable puzzles.

[orient]

Originally Posted by Gazzoid

Another two for me:

Runaway: A Road Adventure and Secret Files: Tunguska

Both had the same problems - great graphics, but shitty voice acting, uninteresting characters and stories, and questionable puzzles.

I'll second these two games, for the same reasons. But for what it's worth, I enjoyed Tunguska far more than Runaway. The Secret Files games have their flaws, but A Road Adventure offended me at every turn with hilariously bad design choices.

[booB]

Did people really dislike TLJ enough to rate it the *most* disappointing game???

Really... I've only ever heard one valid criticism of the game, and that's the lack of interactivity as you get to later chapters. All other criticisms I've ever heard about TLJ are simply matters of personal taste.

I'm curious to know what so many people here disliked about it, to rate it as one of their biggest disappointments.

[pizzo]

Just like many of our friends here, my biggest disappointment is Still Life 2. I expected something like Still Life 1 but with better graphics, and that I would have lots of questions answered about the first game. Well, I don't know if the questios were really answered because I could not play SF 2 for too long: too boring. One of the most awfull adventure game ever made.

Another disappointment is Next Life. What could have been a really good idea for a game was ruined with lots of stupid and irritating mini-games. One of them was almost impossible, in the dream of the car accident.

And, finally, The Experiment. Could not play. I don´t understand. How turning lights on/off and cracking passwords all the time could be enjoyable? This does not make this game innovative, this makes the game boring like hell.

[GarageGothic]

Originally Posted by booB

Did people really dislike TLJ enough to rate it the *most* disappointing game???

Perhaps because so many adventure gamers hail it as the second coming? Disappointment isn't about quality as much as it is about expectations. If you've read tons of posts by people sharing fond memories of a game that, granted, was excellent for its time - and then play it only to discover that it's not all that special and maybe even somewhat tedious, of course you're gonna be disappointed. Even more so if you've spent a lot of effort and money to track down a boxed edition on e-Bay.

Rose tinted glasses aside, another important factor could be that - and I mean no disrespect - adventure gamers aren't the most discerning of audiences. With the decline of the genre during the late 90's and early 2000's it's understandable that you learn to make due with what's being offered, but deluding yourself that a game is great because it's slightly above a baseline of mediocrity didn't really help advance the genre.
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but one of my personal lows as a professional reviewer was when I awarded Still Life an 8.5/10 score simply because it was one of the better adventures of its time and I expected that it would satisfy fans of the genre, even though my personal opinion based on its utter failure as a detective story (and more importantly as a detective game) was closer to a 7 or even 6.5/10.

[terhardp]

A few adventure titles comes to mind:

Memento Mori

I've heard quite a few ravings about this game, but I've totally forgot what it was about. Story was pretty dull for me, except the ending. Also the puzzles were not so great.

Mata Hari

It has a few aces in the sleeve, but my main impression is: booring.

Paradise

I shouldn't judge this one, considering the fact I've never really finished it. I didn't liked the dialogs and the gameplay.

The Moment of Silence

I'm a big movie Sci-Fi fan (old school), but so far I haven't played the game of this theme which impressed me much (no, I didn't played "Blade Runner" and other "classic" adventures yet). The story was pretty interesting, but the game environments were rather dull and uninspiring. Also, I remember pretty bad voice acting.

LOST: Via Domus

I was a big fan of the series; I've watched it several times, though I'm very dissapointed with the finale and generally with the tone of the show since Season 3. This game, apart from the voice acting, is a huge dissapointment, including the graphic engine.

Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island

Still haven't finished this. I was attracted with the recognizable graphic, but the expected humor and charm, in Monkey Island style, is simply not there. Also the voices of some of the characters just don't fit the picture.

Dark Fall: Lights Out

Nowhere as good as Boakes' other works; though I still haven't played the first DF game (I must try to install it on my old 15'' laptop; I just can't stand the looks of it on my 22'' widescreen).

Outside the genre, I remember "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness or something" and "Commandos: Strike Force" as the biggest dissapointment without the doubt.

[KasiaD]

I have been only dissapointed in sequels usually, because only then I have some kind of idea about what the game is going to be about and expectations are higher. So here it is:
- Dreamfall - sequences like the troll cave are a pain,

- Still Life 2 - bad game, i only played because of the 1 installment. If I knew that this was a Saw-like horror i would have never wasted my time on it,

IT is not a good idea in my opinion when game creators change a successful formula and sort of cheat fans into buying a second part of a game. Unless of course the continuation is different but better than the original, like Gabriel Knight series or Sam and Max.