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Essays 18 September 2021, 19:45

author: Marek Jura

10 Ambitious Games That Were Boring!

Some games can be called masterpieces, others – complete flops. Most of them are more or less solid propositions occupying mediocre territory. Here, we look at games that go both ways – are at the same time ambitious, but boring.

Table of Contents

What Remains of Edith Finch

Release date: 2017

Developer: Giant Sparrow

What makes the game special: Magical, nostalgic tone of the story

What makes it boring: Poor controls and artificially prolonged gameplay

I spent a good few dozen minutes on the swing from the picture. I was about to turn the game off when it turned out that in order to make things move, you have to perfectly, exactly hit the spot. What Remains of Edith Finch is full of situations like that.Although the game doesn't seem that long overall, it often gets boring, at times when we have to work hard to advance the story due to clumsy controls.

The story moves very slowly. If What Remains of Edith Finch was as "short" as a movie, you could probably count that as an advantage. As a game, however, it starts to get a little boring towards the end. Especially that some stages seem to be created just to artificially stretch the game, and thus unnecessarily break the rhythm and destroy immersion.

The story itself, however, if void of unnecessary longueur and gameplay quirks, could easily serve as the basis for a good novel. By the way, What Remains of Edith Finch is in fact a nostalgic piece of great literature wrapped in a video game wrapping. Does it work best in this form? I have a lot of doubts about that. But at least it managed to (almost) break through into the mainstream; if it donned a film or literary guise, this might have proved much more difficult.

  1. What Remains of Edith Finch in our encyclopedia

Stories similar to the one told in What Remains of Edith Finch can be also found in Dreams. But you might as well come across classic racers, dark platformers or action games. Never before has any production given so much opportunity for its development to the players themselves. But from the point of view of someone who doesn't create, but only plays, digging through piles of mediocre content in search of the best pieces can simply get boring. As is the fact that many of the dreams are too short-lived and don't give you a sense of satisfaction after you pass them. It's a shame, because this project could completely change the face of electronic entertainment.

Death Stranding

Release date: 2019

Developer: Kojima Productions

What makes the game special: some of Kojima's ideas

What makes it boring: some other Kojima's ideas

Kojima can either be loved or hated. Everyone who has struggled with the effects of his crazy ideas in Metal Gear Solid over the years knows this. However, in the case of the stealth series, the iconic creator didn't allow himself to fully let his imagination run wild. He only did this in the still-recent Death Stranding, rupturing the gaming world into those who loved it and those who couldn't get through the first hour of gameplay.

Using human fetuses to avoid threats from ethereal beings sounds really bizarre. And that's just one of the crazy ideas Kojima managed to incorporate into the gameplay. Some of them are really great and bring a breath of fresh air to the gaming universe. Others, unfortunately, seem implemented without order nor plan. At least for most of the time we spend in the world of Death Stranding. A lot is explained at the end, but it really takes a lot of patience to get to the finale.

You may also find some of the missions tedious. The game is not short – sometimes it takes many hours spent traversing a beautiful, but empty map to complete a single chapter. Death Stranding is definitely not a game for everyone. In spite of an original plot and many original ideas, it tires with a multitude of eccentricities and dilution of the main plot. Especially considering the fact that it's not as challenging as, say, Metal Gear Solid. The boss fights are more of a formality and an excuse to pull the story along and introduce some bells and whistles. Sometimes, it's a shame that Kojima didn't come up with a way to simply wrap up the duller moments more promptly. Death Stranding would actually be more like a movie then, the interactive form of which the game was supposed to take, according to the previews.

  1. Death Stranding in our encyclopedia

Red Dead Redemption 2 is undoubtedly the best western sandbox ever. But some players, especially those who don't enjoy the atmosphere alone, may become bored with the lengthy travels in both the main and side quests. The missions also become repetitive over time. Not that RDR2 lacks original quest ideas. They just don't all offer the same, high quality. So let's assume that people might find the game boring because of this. Surely, someone like that will be found. I think.

Marek Jura

Marek Jura

In 2016, he graduated in philology at UAM. Since then, he has been reviewing prose, poetry, movies, series, and video games for GRYOnline.pl. He took his first steps in the journalism industry as a newsman in a local tabloid. He ran his own company - he designed, created, tested, and sold board games. He published several short stories and is also preparing his debut volume of poetry. Trains martial arts. A feminist, vegan, fan of pineapple on pizza, cat lover, dislikes Bethesda and Amazon, likes Lovecraft, Agents of SHIELD, P:T, Beksiński, Hollow Knight, performance, abstract art, game mods and dumplings.

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