what is your worst rpg game ever played?

[Keyrock]

Jade Empire is the only RPG I have ever played that I never finished.  I just loathed it from the first ten minutes, and gave up after four or five hours.

 

Jade Empire is awesome. 

 

On a serious note, I can definitely see why some people hate that game.  I love the game dearly, part of that is no doubt my irrational torrid love affair with Wuxia.  I'd saw my own leg off* for a Wuxia RPG with top notch controls and combat system.

 

 

* blatant lie

Edited February 18, 2014 by Keyrock

[kirottu]

Everything in Jade Empire was just too simplistic. Not combat, AI, choices nor setting had any depth in them. It was like beautiful beach with only ankle deep water. No matter how far you go it's still only ankle deep.

[Keyrock]

Everything in Jade Empire was just too simplistic. Not combat, AI, choices nor setting had any depth in them. It was like beautiful beach with only ankle deep water. No matter how far you go it's still only ankle deep.

Sure, but ankle deep in Wuxia is still better than fully immersed in most other settings for me.

[HoonDing]

Only interesting part of JE was turning Imoen evil.

[Keyrock]

I liked the pre-color coded system of smile for Open Palm and Grrr expression (aka Old School Lara Croft weapons drawn expression) for Closed Fist dialogue option.  It was disappointing how early on they go out of their way to beat into your head that Closed Fist wasn't necessarily "evil", when in practice Closed Fist was very much evil.

[HoonDing]

The evil options were definitely more fun and over-the-top than in KOTOR.

[Amentep]

I loved JE. It is probably my favorite Bioware game (most people will stop reading here).

 

That said I can objectively admit that it has its flaws - and a lot of them. Most characters end up the same, lots of railroading, Open Palm / Closed Fist not really being implemented correctly by their definition.

 

And yet...I love the setting. I like the ideas behind it. I liked the characters. I liked the cut scenes. Would love to see a revisit to the setting, one that really makes a 4 axis Palm / Fist path (there really should be Good Palm, Evil Palm, Good Fist, Evil Fist), and that differentiates the characters a bit more so that you don't end up the same (instead of having 4 styles at any one time, I'd argue that players should be able to pick if their character is a Hand to Hand, weapon, magic or transformation specialist and make those paths viable instead of everyone is a jack of all trades)

[Keyrock]

They weren't even trying to be subtle with Closed Fist.  Most of the Closed Fist options were basically MUAHAHAHAHA! *tie damsel to railroad tracks* *twirl mustache*

 

Yet I still love the game.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Keyrock

[Azure79]

I guess my most disappointing RPG would be Lionheart. I thought it'd be something like Icewind Dale since I saw the Black Isle Logo, but it wasn't. I did enjoy the first chapter, meeting famous people in an alternate history, but the game quickly turned too simplistic and boring. I never finished it. 

 

I like Jade Empire for what it is but it never felt like a wuxia game. To me it was more of a western fantasy game with an eastern aesthetic. I do not mean that as a bad thing. I would actually like to see the setting expanded upon, where the Jade Empire is forced to deal with other nations across the sea (the country where Sir Roderick came from perhaps) , in some kind of eastern-western fantasy imperial RPG game. 

Edited February 18, 2014 by Azure79

[Oerwinde]

I would have liked to see Reflexive take what they learned from Lionheart and make another RPG. Lionheart had potential, and the main flaws in the game stemmed from misunderstanding their audience.

[Agremont]

I'm not sure it counts as an RPG, but Crusaders of Might & Magic was pretty awful.

[Keyrock]

I'm not sure it counts as an RPG, but Crusaders of Might & Magic was pretty awful.

I certainly wouldn't call it an RPG, and yes, it was bloody awful.

[AGX-17]

I'm not sure it counts as an RPG, but Crusaders of Might & Magic was pretty awful.

Ohhh, I forgot about Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. And Arx Fatalis. Those were pretty bad. Sound in terms of gameplay concept, horribly executed. At the very least Oblivion, for all its flaws and depth-free combat, didn't have realtime classic grid-style inventory management in a game with real-time first person combat.

Edited February 18, 2014 by AGX-17

[Keyrock]

I kinda liked Arx Fatalis.  I'm not a big fan of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, but it at least had the redeeming value of the hilarious awesomeness that was the Kick of Doom. 

[Wrath of Dagon]

Jade Empire started off badly with an info dump about the world I don't care about yet, I think they turned a lot of people off right there. After that Tien's Landing was pretty great, some of Bio's best. Then you get to Imperial City, and it's mostly filler and KOTOR retreads. Also the game was apparently cut short, there's a world map but only two cities to travel to, and really no reason to even return to the first one! Combat was slick, and I actually did have to think about tactics in the boss fights. Overall a pretty great game, in spite of flaws and apparently being rushed.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Wrath of Dagon

[Guest Slinky]

 

I'm not sure it counts as an RPG, but Crusaders of Might & Magic was pretty awful.

Ohhh, I forgot about Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. And Arx Fatalis. Those were pretty bad. Sound in terms of gameplay concept, horribly executed. At the very least Oblivion, for all its flaws and depth-free combat, didn't have realtime classic grid-style inventory management in a game with real-time first person combat.

 

 

Trolling saruman.avi

[Gizmo]

 

I'm not sure it counts as an RPG, but Crusaders of Might & Magic was pretty awful.

Ohhh, I forgot about Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. And Arx Fatalis. Those were pretty bad. Sound in terms of gameplay concept, horribly executed. At the very least Oblivion, for all its flaws and depth-free combat, didn't have realtime classic grid-style inventory management in a game with real-time first person combat.

 

Arx was a top notch RPG with few peers IMO. The game had great art (for its system requirements), and great rule mechanics, conversation, the spell system is unmatched to this day; the undead were actually scary; the stats & skills actually did their job. The spell selection included undocumented spells that the player goes deduce and then use; the secret passages were actually functional and not arbitrary... I could go on... but I'll stop with the note that the banker in town even sold shares in the mine, that you could sell back to him! incredible!

 

*Hell... you could get the bards drunk, and they'd play their tunes drunk & off key. 

(And curiously, Arx also had the most credible 'jump' in FPS games that I've played)

Edited February 19, 2014 by Gizmo

[Keyrock]

 

 

I'm not sure it counts as an RPG, but Crusaders of Might & Magic was pretty awful.

Ohhh, I forgot about Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. And Arx Fatalis. Those were pretty bad. Sound in terms of gameplay concept, horribly executed. At the very least Oblivion, for all its flaws and depth-free combat, didn't have realtime classic grid-style inventory management in a game with real-time first person combat.

 

Arx was a top notch RPG with few peers IMO. The game had great art (for its system requirements), and great rule mechanics, conversation, the spell system is unmatched to this day; the undead were actually scary; the stats & skills actually did their job. The spell selection included undocumented spells that the player goes deduce and then use; the secret passages were actually functional and not arbitrary... I could go on... but I'll stop with the note that the banker in town even sold shares in the mine, that you could sell back to him! incredible!

 

*Hell... you could get the bards drunk, and they'd play their tunes drunk & off key. 

(And curiously, Arx also had the most credible 'jump' in FPS games that I've played)

 

The concept was terrific, but in practice it was terrible.  Arx Fatalis is one game that's just begging for a touch screen.

[HoonDing]

Arx Fatalis was like Morrowind, only with even worse combat and it crashed every five minutes instead of every half-hour.

 

On the upside, it had hot snake-ladies.

[nikolokolus]

@LadyCrimson

 

I assume you've seen Noah "Spoony" Antwiler's Ultima retrospective (on youtube or his site)? If not, it's a nice catharsis for having had to endure such a crappy ending to a pretty great series.

 

Oh yeah, worst game nominee.

 

Ultima 9 or Might and Magic 9. Equally awful for different reasons, but both wrapped up two beloved series with a resounding fart.

Edited February 19, 2014 by nikolokolus

[Noviere]

For all my hate of Neverwinter Nights, at least I was able to complete it that one time. Though I had two or three failed attempts that made it to Act 2 before boring me to tears. 

I think I often misremember NWN because I had so much fun with the toolset, player-made stuff, and even some online DMing. But the official campaign was absolutely awful. I remember one area near the end that was a huge map, with levers in each of the corners that you had to pull... with boring filler combat happening every few feet it seemed. I couldn't understand why they had included an entire area that served no purpose other than to delay the end of the game by 20 minutes. The entire campaign felt like a bad student project, and I don't remember anything else about it.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Noviere

[Malcador]

The worst one for me is probably Fallout 3. It was not awful but just became a slog to get through, fighting zombies in tunnels and trudging through that dull landscape.

[AwesomeOcelot]

Jade Empire is so light on the RPG elements it's hard to criticize it as an RPG, same with Fable. It has an incredibly stupid camera, which I believe from youtube videos Dragon Age 2 has something similar. The balance was way off, with some styles being far more powerful than others, some with massive burst damage and no dodge delay. I think the dialogue from NPCs was deliberately mundane apart from one character voiced by John Cleese, the companions, and very few others, it's like a world where spirits eat the personality and charisma right out of the populace. The antagonists are boring, as in many BioWare games, just mindless villains for a lot of the game. It's a terrible RPG, but by far not the worst Action Adventure I've ever played.

[Gizmo]

 

The concept was terrific, but in practice it was terrible.  Arx Fatalis is one game that's just begging for a touch screen.

 

I didn't think so... but then touch screens are not  a positive feature for me; for one thing the level of control goes down, and for another a keyboard & mouse (aside from offering superior control); are a LOT cheaper to replace if they get messed up with finger oils/dirt/cheetoes cruft, and the like.

 

Arx Fatalis was like Morrowind, only with even worse combat and it crashed every five minutes instead of every half-hour.

That never happened for me. The only issue I can recall, is that later versions of DirectX had an emergent issue with some textures appearing as full white; most noticeably the giant mice. This was fixed with a later patch.

 

My only qualm with Arx is that the conditions by which shani gets killed are either very unclear or they are bugged.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Gizmo

[Keyrock]

 

 

The concept was terrific, but in practice it was terrible.  Arx Fatalis is one game that's just begging for a touch screen.

 

I didn't think so... but then touch screens are not  a positive feature for me; for one thing the level of control goes down, and for another a keyboard & mouse (aside from offering superior control); are a LOT cheaper to replace if they get messed up with finger oils/dirt/cheetoes cruft, and the like.

Well, the touchscreen would mostly be beneficial for spellcasting.  Trying to draw the spell symbols with a mouse or trackball was an exercise in frustration for me.  It would have been infinitely easier with a touchscreen.  Ideally, you'd have a touchscreen along with a mouse and keyboard.