Readers reveal the games they’ve always tried to enjoy but could never get on with, including classics like Persona 5 and Metal Gear Solid 5.
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was inspired by reader Ishi and covered every kind of game, from the obscure to the famous. Why was it you didn’t connect with the game and was it because the game was different to what you expected or was there a problem with the difficultly, story or other elements?
In the end most of the games mentioned were famous ones, including multiple nods to all-time classics such as Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and The Witcher 3.
Bad attitude
Dare I say it? Dare I admit that I don’t like GTA 5 or any of the previous games?
Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one in the world that not only doesn’t like it but isn’t playing GTA Online constantly. But I couldn’t imagine any worse way to spend my time. For a start I hated the story mode. All of the characters are horrible people but the game just seems to want you to like them in some sort of laddish rogue kind of a way. Which for a character like Trevor is a pretty creepy way to carry on.
The lack of female characters is absolutely a problem, and just one of a million ways that makes the game feels like it was designed by 15-year-old boys. It’s not even as if the combat or driving is any good. It’s mediocre at best and considering the amount of time and effort spent on the game that seems almost impossible.
To give things a fair shake I also gave GTA Online a try but found it completely unappealing. All the gameplay is the same and everyone in the game seems to want to pretend to be a wannabe gangster/psychopath. I just don’t like the series’ attitude I guess, and I very much doubt I’ll even try the sixth game when it comes out.
Conan
Love is not real
Surely I can’t be the only one? The only one who tried and tried and then tried some more to love Zelda: Breath Of The Wild? I bought the game when it first came out on the Wii U but just couldn’t get into it. Purchased again with my new Switch and again bailed after about 20 hours.
Stupidly, I tried again when there wasn’t much to play. This time I put about 50 hours into it, killed two divine beasts but couldn’t love the game like I have other games. I can admire the work that went into it but just couldn’t enjoy it for a variety of reasons. Shrines became hard to find, weapons kept breaking, and random battles where I felt underpowered. Best game ever? Nowhere near for me.
Is it just me?!
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Prey for better
I don’t want to join the pile on for Bethesda at the moment but I couldn’t get into Prey. It seemed like the perfect game for me: a serious sci-fi adventure with Metroidvania elements and a horror tinge. It sounds like a game specifically designed for me!
Unfortunately the reality was very different. The whole thing is just so boring… The pacing is slow, the aliens aren’t scary, and once you get to the bigger ones they’re so overpowered that they completely overshadow all the exploration and puzzle-solving.
All the ingredients are there for a great game but they’re all in the wrong proportions and haven’t been mixed well. Such as shame as I loved Dishonored by the same people.
Paulie
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No movement
I really couldn’t get on with Octopath Traveler, despite it seeming to be exactly the sort of thing I’d love and me looking forward to it as soon as it was announced. I used to play tons of Japanese role-playing games on my SNES, even going to the trouble and expense of importing them, but Octopath Traveler didn’t move me at all.
The graphics were great, if a bit dark, but I hate the story and all the characters. The attempts at ye olde/regional accents was dreadful and despite coming back to it multiple times I just gave up in the end. I was not entertained.
Matlier
Different complaints
Metal Gear Solid 5 would be my vote. I’d only played the previous games a little bit but didn’t like them, with the long cut scenes and everything. When the fifth one came around though I was interested as the cut scenes were much less evident and it was getting good reviews as an innovative open world game.
The reality, I found, was a really boring, unfocused game with a really bizarre mechanic (lifting the enemy soldiers off by balloon at the centre of it which never stopped being silly). I appreciate the freedom you were given, and the stealth mechanics are solid, but it just never engaged me.
And while the story may not be as in your face as previous games I still found it silly and distracting. I guess Metal Gear just isn’t for me.
Purple Ranger
Too much game
I have to say that for me it’s Divinity: Original Sin 2. I get why it’s so well praised but for me it’s just too overwhelming. I don’t like to think of myself as a casual gamer but at some point all the different systems and characters and the huge game world just felt too much hard work to get my head round.
Hats off to whoever manages to play this in split-screen co-op but I felt my head splitting with a migraine just trying to a grip of it.
Cranston
Personal time investment
The game that comes to mind for me for this is Persona 5. I’d never played a Persona game before but the universal acclaim for the game meant that when the Royal version came round I decided to take a chance on it and… hated it.
The combat is terrible, it doesn’t seem any different in basic terms than games I was playing on the SNES and the writing for the characters is terrible. For what is presumably a big budget game the script feels like it’s been copy and pasted from Google Translate, with really weird phrases and endless waffle that seems far too literal a translation of the Japanese original.
I did like the artwork and soundtrack but that’s not enough for me. Especially as I haven’t even mentioned the biggest problem: the fact that it goes on forever! And it takes ages to get going as well, the whole thing seems to assume you’ve got 10 hours a day to devote to playing it and I can assure you I have not.
It hasn’t put me off Japanese role-players in general but it has put me off the Persona series. Life is too short.
Grantz
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The small print
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