Criminally Overrated Games

FIFA and NBA 2K** is definitely at the top of my list and pretty much any AAA game thats got micro trans.. I mean "surprise mechanics". 

Effin Snackworld.

Here are my picks:

Control - This game just never clicked for me. The gunplay never grabbed hold of me, I never really cared for the main character, and the enemies all felt like bullet sponges. It just felt like a chore to play, which was a shame because the story and setting were very unique and it's basically a AAA Metroidvania (my 3rd favorite genre behind Dark Souls-style games and Survival Horror). I was very, very surprised to see this snapping up a ton of GoTY awards last year and even more surprised to see it appearing on some best of Ps4/Xbone lists this year.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I feel I need to clarify that I don't think BOTW is a bad game, simply an overrated one. The gameplay, freedom, and polish in it are absurdly good (as Nintendo's big games almost always are). It basically takes the Ubisoft open world formula and perfects it. However, that's exactly why i found it to be overrated. It's basically a really, really, really good Ubisoft open world game. I eventually grew tired of the shrines and climbing towers to reveal the map and found that I really missed having full length dungeons to do. Is it a great game? Abso-freaking-lutely. Is it the best game of the last decade? No, it's not even the best game in its franchise.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War: While the other two I can at least kind of see how they got the praise they did these two make absolutely no sense to me at all. The visuals are muddled shades of brown, I've never thought the nemesis system was anything special, the quests are very repetitive, and the combat is a worse version of the combat from the Arkham series. And if you are a fan of LOTR the game's stories don't really respect the lore all that much. I remember Shadow of Mordor being nominated for a ton of GoTY awards when it came out and IIRC most of the negativity towards Shadow of War was due to how it had lootboxes that affected story progression. I'm trying to do my best to not just rag on these games because I do know they have a fanbase for a reason but I've yet to find any reason to even recommend them, let alone declare them some of the best games of their respective release years.

How dare you! Shadow of Mordor was great! Shadow of War... touche.  I think the draw of the nemesis system was the procedural nature of it and the stories that get created, at least that's how it was for me. If some random orc killed you, he gets a name, gets stronger, gets promoted and develops a backstory based on how he killed you or how your last interaction went. No one had the same experience when it comes to the "bosses" aside from obvious scripted ones.   As far as the coloring goes... wells its Mordor were you expecting trees, rainbows, and unicorns?  I swear I'm not salty about this one...

Agree on Breath of the Wild, it's a good game but not really a good Zelda game.  I honestly think this game only did as well as it did because it had "Zelda" in it's title.  I wouldn't call it a good Ubisoft open world game either because AC: Odyssey does it way better in my opinion.  Minus hiccups with NPCs and some clunky controls which isn't really a comparison since there only like 10 NPCs and there is less need for complex controls in BOTW.  The lack of dungeons really turned me off to it, as did the god awful weapon system.  I liked the direction they took with open world concept and the scale of the map.  They just need to make the map more interesting, and adding 4 giant mechs doesn't really do it.

As far games I think are highly overrated: Mario... like all Mario games.  He can jump... cool!  Maybe I just don't understand the appeal of platforming games.

Final Fantasy XIII has to be at the top of that list for me. It was nothing close to any of the Final Fantasy games and for some reason was highly touted by reviewers. Clearly they were paid off by Square Enix to give it good reviews. Game play was terrible. The fighting was too easy. I literally went through most of fights not even looking at the screen while playing. It was so bad that even my wife commented on how boring the fight scenes were that I was actually looking AT HER during them and talking instead of looking at the screen. Worst FF ever created. Hands down. Not even in competition with any other one.

It's hard to say overrated because there's always people who will come to defend their honor. And I think that's ok! Everyone has opinions about different games.

Not to say these are bad games by any stretch, but my two biggest "overrated" games:

Monster Hunter: World - Please! Put the great sword away and let me explain. Monster Hunter has had its following for awhile, and with Monster Hunter: World, the popularity really came out into the open and went mainstream in a way the others in the series hadn't. And I remember a time hearing everyone say "I can't stop playing! It's so good. I've been grinding away and LOVING IT!" With the high praise and ratings saying that this was the most accessible and most QoL improvements in the series, I was really expecting a better experience for myself than I got. It's just too much for me. The game is just boss fight, craft, boss fight again. With long periods of running around the map in between. I know this game is right for a lot of people, but I definitely don't get it. It feels very overrated.

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds: Please! Put the frying pan away and let me explain (see what I did there?). PUBG started out as a mod and then exploded in popularity. But even with the explosion of popularity, it never really stopped feeling like a mod to me. There was so much clunkiness to just about everything. The idea of a Battle Royale mode (at the time) was cool and shook things up from what multiplayer always had been. But this just never felt polished enough to be enjoyable for me. Now that we're a few years down the line, and everyone and their grandmother has released a Battle Royale mode, it's hard for me to ever want to get into PUBG. But I still see praise for it. I never had that much fun with it and always wanted it to be better.

theoneguy wrote:

How dare you! Shadow of Mordor was great! Shadow of War... touche.  I think the draw of the nemesis system was the procedural nature of it and the stories that get created, at least that's how it was for me. If some random orc killed you, he gets a name, gets stronger, gets promoted and develops a backstory based on how he killed you or how your last interaction went. No one had the same experience when it comes to the "bosses" aside from obvious scripted ones.   As far as the coloring goes... wells its Mordor were you expecting trees, rainbows, and unicorns?  I swear I'm not salty about this one...

Agree on Breath of the Wild, it's a good game but not really a good Zelda game.  I honestly think this game only did as well as it did because it had "Zelda" in it's title.  I wouldn't call it a good Ubisoft open world game either because AC: Odyssey does it way better in my opinion.  Minus hiccups with NPCs and some clunky controls which isn't really a comparison since there only like 10 NPCs and there is less need for complex controls in BOTW.  The lack of dungeons really turned me off to it, as did the god awful weapon system.  I liked the direction they took with open world concept and the scale of the map.  They just need to make the map more interesting, and adding 4 giant mechs doesn't really do it.

As far games I think are highly overrated: Mario... like all Mario games.  He can jump... cool!  Maybe I just don't understand the appeal of platforming games.

I feel like you are not accounting for technical skills and puzzle solving when it comes to Mario games.

For me I think it has to be GTA.... I have fun with them for a bit, but I can never get into their stories an missions.

xannash wrote:

Final Fantasy XIII has to be at the top of that list for me. It was nothing close to any of the Final Fantasy games and for some reason was highly touted by reviewers. Clearly they were paid off by Square Enix to give it good reviews. Game play was terrible. The fighting was too easy. I literally went through most of fights not even looking at the screen while playing. It was so bad that even my wife commented on how boring the fight scenes were that I was actually looking AT HER during them and talking instead of looking at the screen. Worst FF ever created. Hands down. Not even in competition with any other one.

It's funny because everyone I've talked to hated FFXIII, I have no idea how they got such good reviews! I couldn't get into it and actually just stopped playing it because it wasn't enjoyable.

For me, I think that any Call of Duty is super overrated. It's insane how many of them have been released now.

MadOwlx wrote:

It's hard to say overrated because there's always people who will come to defend their honor. And I think that's ok! Everyone has opinions about different games.

Not to say these are bad games by any stretch, but my two biggest "overrated" games:

Monster Hunter: World - Please! Put the great sword away and let me explain. Monster Hunter has had its following for awhile, and with Monster Hunter: World, the popularity really came out into the open and went mainstream in a way the others in the series hadn't. And I remember a time hearing everyone say "I can't stop playing! It's so good. I've been grinding away and LOVING IT!" With the high praise and ratings saying that this was the most accessible and most QoL improvements in the series, I was really expecting a better experience for myself than I got. It's just too much for me. The game is just boss fight, craft, boss fight again. With long periods of running around the map in between. I know this game is right for a lot of people, but I definitely don't get it. It feels very overrated.

I'm going to have to agree with you on Monster Hunter. I picked it up to play with my buddy because I had heard combat was similar to Dark Souls. I did really enjoy the combat and, while we did put about 30 hrs into it, I just got bored with the same loop (boss fight -> craft -> boss fight -> craft) over and over again. I get burned out fairly quickly on games that have a ton of grinding in them.

GTAV, the games to me never evolved other than graphics.... just my opinion.

Last of Us 2, I'm just taking this opportunity to express my anger towards this game.  I will keep it spoiler free but it has like 6-8 hrs of filler among an unsatisfying ending.

League of Legends.. sorry I think I just dislike MOBA's they are far to slow paced for my taste.

Someone has already said PUBG and MH:W so I'll chime in with some bait. Not a huge fan of the Souls series. Don't mind souls-like games but the OG is just "alright". It might just be the setting or art style as I enjoy Bloodborne, Code Vein, Remnants and The Surge.

That and Animal Crossing New Horizons. Loved it during the lockdown, but now my villagers are probably wondering when my body is going to float back on shore.

Overwatch and Rainbow 6 Seige. They both started well enough with unique characters and abilities and I clocked a fair amount of hours into both. As with most games I grew bored and moved on. When I came back, I couldn't even recognize the games.

OW you get yelled at if you aren't playing the current meta even if you are good with the off meta character. Would you rather me play a character I am good with or someone I suck with only because it is the current standard?

RSS, there are too many characters and too many gadgets and what not. I loved it at first, but there were counters to tricky operators and it was fun. Now it is way to confusing and busy. Plus I don't want to pay for all the other characters and seasons blah blah blah.

Oh and CoD too.

Halo.  Never got it.

lamocon wrote:

Someone has already said PUBG and MH:W so I'll chime in with some bait. Not a huge fan of the Souls series. Don't mind souls-like games but the OG is just "alright". It might just be the setting or art style as I enjoy Bloodborne, Code Vein, Remnants and The Surge.

That and Animal Crossing New Horizons. Loved it during the lockdown, but now my villagers are probably wondering when my body is going to float back on shore.

Not liking the Souls series is something I understand, despite being a massive fanboy for them. They're definitely niche games (albeit a very big niche).

That's funny that you mention Code Vein and The Surge - I thought both of those felt like store brand knock offs of Dark Souls and couldn't really get into them (I haven't played Remnants, though I've heard it's excellent). Meanwhile I think Bloodborne is the game of the gen and one of my 5 favorite games of all time.

I feel really bad saying it but I didn't like Red Dead Redemption 2. I get that it is "objectively" a masterpiece, but I found it overly long, meandering, and not an enjoyable gaming experience. I got bored after about 10 hours. The same happened to me during GTA 4 (I did finish 5 but never wanted to play it again).

Also, I can't stand the FIFA/Madden/NBA games. You're just paying for the same game every year. 

Hot take: The Witcher 3. It's a really cool setting and world, but the actual gameplay mechanics didn't do much for me.

The first, most obvious series that comes to mind would be Call of Duty. I don't think I really need to expand upon this one lol.

Dark Souls is another one, for me. I think the first game is an absolute masterpiece... but the way the gaming industry has since then pedestalized it is unreal. I found myself, years ago, doing it as well. So then I went back and played it again once they re-released it on the Switch and while it's still great.... we're definitely giving it waaaay too much credit. I also hate that any game with any level of difficulty is now compared to Dark Souls or has become the "Dark Souls of it's genre" ... 

Overwatch wouldn't be so overrated if a better game didn't also exist - for free. Paladins is, in my opinion, a better take on this sub-genre of shooter. They just don't have the Blizzard name behind them. 

Annnnnnd how can we forget about Fortnite? It may honestly be the most overrated game out there right now. I was super intrigued with the battle royale concept when it started gaining traction. I played PUBG and Fortnite and enjoyed the concept... but felt that both games still didn't do it right. Fortnite with it's stupid building mechanic is just not my thing. Nothing more lame than getting a good line on a guy, dropping your reticle on him and right before you pull the trigger: BOOM he's built a friggan barn. I think Fortnite would've been so much better without the stupid building mechanic. In fact, I find Realm Royale to be a "good" version of Fortnite, in all honesty. I have my gripes with RR too but I still prefer it to Fortnite. I cant stand Fortnite. 

Secret-Squirrel wrote:

GTAV, the games to me never evolved other than graphics.... just my opinion.

Last of Us 2, I'm just taking this opportunity to express my anger towards this game.  I will keep it spoiler free but it has like 6-8 hrs of filler among an unsatisfying ending.

League of Legends.. sorry I think I just dislike MOBA's they are far to slow paced for my taste.

I am about halfway through Last of Us 2 right now... Even if the ending is unsatisfying, for which I heard it is, I still probably am not putting it in the overrated category. The game play itself is just really fun, and on that alone I feel like it can't be overrated.

Treinosaurus wrote:

I am about halfway through Last of Us 2 right now... Even if the ending is unsatisfying, for which I heard it is, I still probably am not putting it in the overrated category. The game play itself is just really fun, and on that alone I feel like it can't be overrated.

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I hope you enjoy it.  Odds are I hyped it up in my head to much over the years of waiting.  But, when you finish you have to come back and let us know what you think.

Oh and also... literally EVERY Final Fantasy game... EVER. 

I loved a bunch of them and they're some of my fondest gaming memories growing up. I remember beating FF7 for the first time and being completely blown away by the entire journey. FFX was mindblowing the first time through... now I think it's 100% cringe but meh, times change. I still pop FF:Tactics in time to time and FF6 is a top 10 game of all time for me.

That said, the entire series has taken on some godlike role in the industry and we speak about Final Fantasy as if it's some magical untouchable series of perfection. It's not. They're good games, especially the older ones. I think they've started to milk the series a bit too much in the last decade or so, though. In fact, I think basically everything from FFX and on (except FF12, which I love) is borderline .... not good? 

.

FFX: It was cool when it initially released but going back now is hard. The story is not good and the characters are awful. The dialogue is painful to get through and everything is just so cringy. 

FFXI: Online... I really wish they wouldn't put the online entries into the mainline numbered series. They literally could've just called it "Final Fantasy Online" instead. Either way, this was not a good MMO.

FFXII: I really like this game. I love the battle system and pseudo-MMO style mechanics. The story is just alright but it's enough of a backdrop to keep things entertaining.

FFXIII: Trash. I don't even think I made it halfway, to be honest. Nothing clicked with me and I was bored out of my mind playing it.

FFXIV: Again... online game. It's actually a REALLY well done MMO too. I just don't think it belongs in the mainline numbered series.

FFXV: I haaaaaaaaate how we can't just have normalish looking characters anymore in a Final Fantasy game. The lame brothers look like models or a boy band and it makes literally zero sense. Why can't they just look like normal people if we're going to go with the "realistic" art style? While I appreciated the open-ness of the game... it still wasn't that interesting and never really clicked with me. This is another entry that I wasn't able to finish. 

dimforest wrote:

Oh and also... literally EVERY Final Fantasy game... EVER. 

I loved a bunch of them and they're some of my fondest gaming memories growing up. I remember beating FF7 for the first time and being completely blown away by the entire journey. FFX was mindblowing the first time through... now I think it's 100% cringe but meh, times change. I still pop FF:Tactics in time to time and FF6 is a top 10 game of all time for me.

That said, the entire series has taken on some godlike role in the industry and we speak about Final Fantasy as if it's some magical untouchable series of perfection. It's not. They're good games, especially the older ones. I think they've started to milk the series a bit too much in the last decade or so, though. In fact, I think basically everything from FFX and on (except FF12, which I love) is borderline .... not good? 

Oooh this is another series I forgot to mention. I never played any of them growing up due to having a Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast but my friends always raved about them. The first one I played was FFX when it was released for the Ps4. It was... OK. The story was fairly interesting but the gameplay wasn't any better than any of the JRPG's I played growing up.

After somewhat enjoying FFX I decided to give FFXV a shot. What a helter skelter mess. I really enjoyed the combat and exploration but the story made absolutely 0 sense and the whole package felt unfinished and disjointed. I picked up FF7 when it hit the Switch and just couldn't get into it (not due to age - I loved the Grandia 1/2 pack for switch as well as Suikoden 1/2 on my Vita). The story was good but the combat was so bland and boring. I ended up picking up the Remake of 7 due to needing something to do during lockdown and the hype. I really don't see how it was getting a ton of 10/10 reviews; The gameplay was fun, though not very challenging, the side quests were a little lazy, and the story was just as confusing as ever.

I always see FF games listed as the pinnacle of the JRPG genre but I really think that's due to them being the biggest budget JRPG's around. I think Grandia II, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and Skies of Arcadia are better than any FF game I've played. Hell, for modern JRPG's I enjoyed Dragon Quest XI and Ni No Kuni 1/2 way more than any of the new Final Fantasy games (and if you consider South Park: The Stick of Truth to be a JRPG due to turn based combat then I'll throw that in there too).

lamocon wrote:

Someone has already said PUBG and MH:W so I'll chime in with some bait. Not a huge fan of the Souls series. Don't mind souls-like games but the OG is just "alright". It might just be the setting or art style as I enjoy Bloodborne, Code Vein, Remnants and The Surge.

That and Animal Crossing New Horizons. Loved it during the lockdown, but now my villagers are probably wondering when my body is going to float back on shore.

Yeah, I'm sure my villagers have burnt down all of the buildings already.

The Last Of Us for me, after seeing all the praise and it seemed like the internet was basically calling it the best thing since sliced bread I played through it and wasn't a fan at all. Maybe I missed something but the story and game play for me were nothing revolutionary. 

Jburdick1213 wrote:

Oooh this is another series I forgot to mention. I never played any of them growing up due to having a Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast but my friends always raved about them. The first one I played was FFX when it was released for the Ps4. It was... OK. The story was fairly interesting but the gameplay wasn't any better than any of the JRPG's I played growing up.

After somewhat enjoying FFX I decided to give FFXV a shot. What a helter skelter mess. I really enjoyed the combat and exploration but the story made absolutely 0 sense and the whole package felt unfinished and disjointed. I picked up FF7 when it hit the Switch and just couldn't get into it (not due to age - I loved the Grandia 1/2 pack for switch as well as Suikoden 1/2 on my Vita). The story was good but the combat was so bland and boring. I ended up picking up the Remake of 7 due to needing something to do during lockdown and the hype. I really don't see how it was getting a ton of 10/10 reviews; The gameplay was fun, though not very challenging, the side quests were a little lazy, and the story was just as confusing as ever.

I always see FF games listed as the pinnacle of the JRPG genre but I really think that's due to them being the biggest budget JRPG's around. I think Grandia II, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and Skies of Arcadia are better than any FF game I've played. Hell, for modern JRPG's I enjoyed Dragon Quest XI and Ni No Kuni 1/2 way more than any of the new Final Fantasy games (and if you consider South Park: The Stick of Truth to be a JRPG due to turn based combat then I'll throw that in there too).

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I will say, FF6, 7, 8, and even 9 are absolutely fantastic games. With 6, 7, and 8 - very few games, especially at the time, could really build a world and tell a story quite like them. I definitely look back at those games in the middle of the series as being the pinnacle of Final Fantasy and some of the best JRPG's of all time. All of them were genre-defining at the time.

Also - I 10000% agree with you on Dragon Quest XI. I think that honestly might be my favorite JRPG of all time now. The more I played it, the more I loved and appreciated it. It hits on literally every level and aspect of the genre in a way that no other game has. It's such a refined and well-thought out experience. It's a shame it released in a time in which JRPGs no longer have the sway and interest that they used to have. It still garnered a ton of praise but if you could somehow have released that game a decade or two ago.... ooof.