Great Games That Lose Their Way Near The End

Soldato
Joined
29 Mar 2007
Posts
4,481
Location
Swindon UK
Further to the Games That Frustrate thread, thought I would start a thread on the above. Essentially, have you ever played a game which, although thoroughly enjoyable, after a while you can't wait for it to end?

For me it has to be GTA SA. Great game, probably my all time favourite. However you can't deny that after doing the dog end of the Las Venturas missions it starts to drag a bit. Each time I've restarted SA, I've always told myself I'm going for >90% completion but lose interest at that point. A number of the side missions in SA pop up relatively near the end and it's almost a chore to go and do them. Maybe it's because the main story flags a bit, a lot of the principal characters are dead or not encountered again and the prospect of going back to finish the game in dreary, gang ridden Los Santos just makes you want to get it finished.

GTA IV didn't suffer to quite the same extent though I never did kill all those pigeons even on my second play through - and as for schmoozing Brucie, Jacob et al to get an extra 1% on the score, forget it.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2007
Posts
2,760
Location
Gibraltar
I suppose Crysis fits in with this for me.

Apart from the obvious graphical shenaigans, the game is pretty good, then it gets 2/3'rds into the way and a bit alien-y and icy and generally meh too...
 
Associate
Joined
22 Apr 2006
Posts
578
Location
Port Talbot
Agree with Halflife - stil remember just how annoying the alien levels were

Crysis also lost the plot towards end as did it's forerunner Farcry

and I guess Oblivion doesn't count as that never had a plot to begin with
 
Associate
Joined
25 Apr 2009
Posts
1,355
Location
Edinburgh
All the gta games I've played (2,3,SA & 4) I've lost interest in once the last island/area has been unlocked and have never actually completed them (almost did SA but I lost my save when my laptop went kaputt). Probably due to the fact that there is no new game play features introduced and most missions styles have been done by that stage. So by that point you're only playing the game to see how the story finishes (which by that point is usually fairly clear or you just don't care) or to do all those silly collection things/repetitive side missions which I mostly hate.
 
Associate
Joined
7 May 2006
Posts
1,130
Location
United Kingdom
GTA4 - i spent so long completing all the side missions and just living the city life that i got bored and never finished the main story.

Same for STALKER - i got to the final area, but couldn't be bothered to finish it, especially since so many other games had come out in the meanwhile.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Nov 2007
Posts
13,101
Location
Enfield
Far cry. The end levels are unnecessarily difficult and they even admitted they didnt put a lot of thought in because few would get that far.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Nov 2008
Posts
28,997
Quite a lot of games for me peak and trough, Dead Space started off well, and the last third of the game I enjoyed but during the middle I kept feeling that I wish it would end. Most games are too long for my tastes.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Apr 2006
Posts
17,955
Location
London
Ok, then lets oput it this way, it's something you can say about HL but not HL2. The game itself is extremely varied and saying it's repetivtive is something you can't lay on the door of HL2
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Sep 2005
Posts
20,164
Location
Middlesbrough
Ok, then lets oput it this way, it's something you can say about HL but not HL2. The game itself is extremely varied and saying it's repetivtive is something you can't lay on the door of HL2

I can't remember exactly now but I played up until the point where you are back in the city after travelling seemingly for ages on that coast roast. I just go so so so so bored and just uninstalled the thing. That's warrant enough for me to say that this game lost it's way towards the end.
 
Associate
Joined
23 Feb 2008
Posts
970
Edge of Chaos... Played til the 2nd last mission twice and didn't finish the game either time... Was annoying spending the whole game collecting the best weapons to then suddenly find that none of them are any use and you have to use some pathetic weak ones.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
25 Oct 2002
Posts
31,707
Location
Hampshire
Serious Sam suffers towards the end, it stops adding new things into the mix and has some stupid gimmick boss.

Best example I can think of is FEAR, it has some fantastic combat set pieces during the bulk of the game, but then descends into a bit of a farce, mixing ghost fights with some weird kind of laboratory thingy.

Quake fits the bill too, the fourth episode is substandard with some oversized, maze like levels complete with annoying spawn.

Tempted to say Vampire Bloodlines, undoubtedly a great game but the end sequences seem to be heavily combat oriented, leaving few opportunities to make use of 'softer' skills like hacking, persuasion etc.
 
Back
Top Bottom