Player imposed limitations

[Bebopin]

Most of us can name a few games that were reviewed by critics and did well in sales but, left us underwhelmed and wondering what others enjoyed so much. When this happens some flame the fans, other flame the developers and a small minority actually do some self reflection and decide that it was us and not the game. The attitude of "it just wasn't for me". That attitude may hold for games that are both linear in narrative and gameplay.

But what about games that gave you a lot of choice. You could tailor the experience with the game's systems to how you wanted to approach the game's objectives. A player's self-imposed limitations, whether discreet or acknowledged, can ruin such games. A player's desire to play a game from a similar genre as another that he/she likes in the exact same way limits him/her. A player's inability to use the systems effectively to tailor the game to their play style limits him/her. A player's refusal to adapt using the systems available limits him/her.

What are some games that you felt that you didn't give a fair shot? That you quit before you tried to experiment with the games systems? That you pigeon-holed? That you can point to and say my own limitations prevented me from experiencing that game?

For me, Fallout 3. I tried to play the game as too much of an action/shooter when I should have slowed down and reveled in the atmosphere and moral/ethical ambiguities.

[Deleted]

I was thinking about Fallout 3 when reading your post. I tried twice to get into it, especially after having 2 friends praise it highly but i just couldn't enjoy it. I felt there was too much walking and not enough action and i personally thought the graphics were Meh. I know there was a good story there somewhere but i just had no motivation to carry on. On the other hand, Borderlands was a game i enjoyed yet is extremely similiar to the Fallout3 gameplay. Maybe it was the less serious approach to the whole game that made it enjoyable, i don't even know to be honest. Ultimately what i think i'm saying is, the fact i disliked the look and way the game played, i missed out on one hell of a story line. (if there was 1?)

[Hunty]

Fallout 3, Skyrim and Oblivion.
All three played for like an hour because people keep telling me they are the best games ever, and I dont see any enjoyment in them at all. Never understood the games either. Figured it wasnt for me, like you said :P

[Poppincaps]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I liked the game, but I just didn't feel like doing all those side quests, and it killed the game for me.

[Skippy88]

Fallout 3 is a good one for me. I played for a couple of hours, got totally lost, died lots of time and ended up quitting. That game gave me too much freedom. Especially when I killed a guy in one of the citys and I had every resident in the city after me. Assassin's Creed even though I ended up finishing it I played as an FPS mostly which it wasn't at all what I was looking for.

[Farabee]

I didn't really give Witcher 2 a fair shot, it just seemed like Generic Fantasy Action RPG #928023 to me.

Same with Metro 2033. The premise seemed interesting but I just couldn't connect with the Russian flavor, also just felt like it took way too many bullets to kill anything.

[Kathandira]

Only game i own that i didn't play all the way through was one of the guilty gears. i played it for maybe an hour and decided the game was just terrible. Otherwise i've beaten all the games i own, even if i didn't like them lol.

[Hunty]

Fallout 3 is a good one for me. I played for a couple of hours, got totally lost, died lots of time and ended up quitting. That game gave me too much freedom. Especially when I killed a guy in one of the citys and I had every resident in the city after me. Assassin's Creed even though I ended up finishing it I played as an FPS mostly which it wasn't at all what I was looking for.

Just out of curiosity, how do you play AC as a FPS game? The series is like my favourite one ever :3

[Deleted]

Like others have said in this thread already, I'm going to have to put fallout in there, but fallout new vegas for me. Now this is a bit strange, I played fallout 3 on the Xbox for quite a while and thoroughly enjoyed it, so when I came to purchase New Vegas on steam, I knew what to expect, but somehow I just didn't give it the same chance as I had fallout 3. To this day I can't put my finger on what it was about New Vegas that put me off like it did, I just never "felt" the same about it as I did fallout 3, I do feel like I missed out on quite a bit, but whenever I start that game up I can never find the will to play it for very long.

[Deleted]

TBH the problem with f3 was that it was nothing like the games before.
IDK why would I ruin game for myself, but well, remember I did not ever liked WW2 CoD series, because you were forced to play communists.

[Deleted]

I kept having trouble getting into Mass Effect ... /flameon

I'm a scifi buff and fantasy nerd, hell - I'm even getting into horror recently (not zombies) but even though Mass Effect is supposed to make me geekgasm out the whazoo it's an off putting game for me. I get about 5 hours in and ... nothing

I should really give it another go. I think I owe it to the game's general accolades to try. I'm thinking the OP is probably right in that I tried to play it like something it wasn't.

[Lollis]

Mass Effect was just boring.

Oblivion and to a lesser extent Skyrim. Oblivion was an ok game, but it wasn't as great as everyone always said it was. It was buggy and unattractive, people said it was amazing despite of many obvious flaws. Skyrim is a superior game to Oblivion but it still suffers from a few small niggles, and again it isn't as graphically attractive as it should have been for the quality of hardware that we have especially as it is promoted as a triple a title.

[Detheavn]

I loved Fallout 1 and 2 and although 3 was quite different, I had no problems getting massively addicted to it.
Oblivion and Skyrim on the other hand ... All my friends regard those as some of the best games ever ... I just can't warm up to them for some reason, even though gameplay wise they don't really differ much from F3

[Rhodair]

For me it was Morrowind. I actually sold the game back 4 times yet it kept catching my eye at the used game store. The 5th time owning it I lent the game to my friend for a month and seeing his level 17 character motivated me enough to overcome the learning curve. I was constantly lost and could never keep quests straight. The PC version had a quest log, but I was all about Xbox in those days as I was a kid and had no hope of building/buying a true gaming PC. The Xbox version was horrible and froze every couple hours (save often!) My friend even had some saves randomly get corrupted.

I was also frustrated because I wanted to use almost all magic which wasn't supported yet in Elder Scrolls. The only fast way to regen your Magicka was sleeping, potions (ain't happening just starting out,) or you could pick The Atronach birthsign, summon a caster minion, and go hostile with it to absorb 50% of its damaging spells into you for mana.

[Orodoth]

Fallout 3 for me as well (it was the first Fallout game I tried, a co-worker filled me in on details, and loaned me the game for a spin) I'm sitting here looking New Vegas, wanting to install it... and yet I don't. Another was Lord of the Rings Online. I'm a HUGE LOTR geek... and yet I barely made it to level 10 (I can thank WoW for that one). I want the nostalgia of old WoW, with mechanics that are engaging. Just isn't gonna happen for me picking up another MMORPG right now. I gave Mass Effect about 3 hours of my time, and put it down ( I was expecting a more Halo-like shooter). Dead Island... ugh. I was truly upset by my expectations of that game, and what it really was (I was expecting game play somewhere in the ballpark of Left 4 Dead)

Almost ruined (PC)Battlefield 3 for myself. Here I am thinking I'm gonna be playing a more tactical, thinking man's gun battle... and its nothing more than a rapid action twitch shooter. Sure, some degree of tactics must be employed, but still. I adjusted my game play, watched a few "play better by using these tips" videos, and voilà, my game play improved dramatically, and so did my enjoyment of the game.

[Amat]

Skyrim is the big one for me, I played Oblivion and never really got into it, but I played Skyrim because it looked promising, and i was assured repeatedly by friends that it was the best thing ever.

Now, on paper most of Skyrim is pretty good, I liked the specialisation system, and the gameplay was pretty good, but the main storyline wasn't very good and far, far too short for a game so "big". I think the problem there was that the world around you seemed to scale to your level rather than requiring you to be a certain level to advance (again, in theory is a nice idea), I'd have happily played some of the sidequests and faction stuff if it was a means to finishing the main story, but it not being necessary to advance made it lose it's appeal completely for me.

Edit: some typos and clarificaiton.

[Deleted]

i can't get into baldurs gate 2, even though i loved neverwinter nights and expansions so much.

[Ferocity]

For me it was Evil Islands I, II. It was mostly about sneaking/stealthing behind enemies (at least in first half of game) or you die in 1 second, meanwhile I wanted more action (but, tbh, game promised to be rich on action on start). It so bored me to death, that I cheated it and brute-forced just to see the ending and never touch again.

After that I started to thoroughly read reviews/previews before buying any game.

[pallymcbeal]

Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. I actually finished Fallout 3 and thought that the story was pretty meh and short, did all of the DLC and side quests that I bumped across. I wanted to be a stealthy assassin type with a silenced pistol but I got disappointed by the lack of weapon upgrades. The pistol was basically the only silent weapon and it was pretty weak for one shotting some enemies (never made the dart gun as I haven't stumbled upon the zone where the schematic was). After I got the silent running perk, the Chinese stealth armor and some Chinese sword I went on a new path, a melee assassin. Then the game became boring again because there was no threat - no one could see me and I just one shot everything, there was no challenge.

After that I tried Fallout: New Vegas. From the start the game just felt exactly the same as Fallout 3 - I just didn't feel like using all of the same weapons and going through all of the perks again.

I should mention that I am really not into FPS, that may be why I didn't appreciate the Fallout world. On the other hand I did very much enjoy Borderlands, might be because of the talent system and the abilities that came with it. Also very much enjoyed the Elder Scrolls games, I do love my fantasy.

[Blueobelisk]

Honestly, Max Payne 3. I got it because it was beginning of summer and I felt I needed a cool new game for PS3 and Max Payne 3 was from Rockstar and got some good reviews and was about shooting people in the face.

I played it and, having never played a Max Payne game before, let alone many other PS3 games, I started on normal and found myself struggling by. By the end of chapter 5 (out of 14 chapters) I was just flat out stuck and it was hard for me to pass this point, it was so frustrating that I would have cheated if I could have. I ended up switching to easy mode and had a much easier time, but I felt like I missed out on the hard mode fun and bonuses (which wasn't too much better to me) and I completed the game but meh...Didn't have as much fun as I thought.