This past year saw the release of some truly impressive video games. From Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End to Overwatch and Titanfall 2, 2016 could very well go down as one of the best years in gaming. However, not every game lived up to the hype (can they ever?). As is the case every year, there were a number of games that deeply disappointed fans and left game developers scrambling to come up with solutions and excuses.
While the majority of the following fifteen offenders are by no means bad games, for a multitude of reasons, they failed to deliver on their initial promise and represent the biggest disappointments in gaming for 2016.
15. Dishonored 2
The original Dishonored was one of the biggest surprises of 2012; a stealth-action game featuring a unique Victorian steampunk aesthetic and smartly-designed levels focused on providing players with many choices in which to achieve their objective. Four years later, Dishonored 2 delivers much the same experience, but ultimately does little to advance the series forward. At the same time, it suffers from an overall lack of polish, especially in the PC version, which may well be one of the most poorly-optimized ports of the year.
The main problem with Dishonored 2 is that it feels more like an expansion to the original game than a full-fledged sequel. Although the game offers a brand new playable character in Emily Kaldwin, the daughter of original Dishonored protagonist Corvo Attano (who is also playable here), the game rushes through its opening chapter and makes the choice between playing as Emily and Corvo a permanent one, which wouldn’t be so bad if the two didn’t have considerably different abilities. That being said, Dishonored 2 is still a very good game overall and will likely please anyone who adored the original, but for a sequel to a game of the year contender — and one that took four years to make at that — it’s hard not to wish Dishonored 2 had more to say.
Bethesda