Games That Promised To Change Everything But Changed Absolutely Nothing

When a new video game is announced, developers and publishers often make big promises, which can create unrealistically high expectations for fans. While they usually manage to deliver a good game that meets those expectations, sometimes things don’t quite work out as planned.

It’s become common for game companies to announce a new title with huge promises, claiming it will revolutionize the industry. Unfortunately, the finished game often doesn’t live up to the excitement. The following ten games are examples of this – it’s a shame, because many of them are actually decent, but their initial hype created unrealistic expectations and damaged their reputations before anyone could even play them.

Daikatana

A Promise That Was Not Fulfilled

In the 1990s, id Software, led by John Romero and John Carmack, was the powerhouse of PC gaming, largely due to the groundbreaking first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. However, Romero left id Software in 1996 to join Ion Storm and develop Daikatana, a science fiction shooter centered around a complex time-travel story.

Before its release, Daikatana generated a lot of excitement, fueled by a memorable (and sometimes controversial) advertising campaign. However, when the game finally launched in 2000, it was widely criticized by both players and reviewers. Issues with the graphics, uninteresting weapons, a convoluted story, and poor enemy behavior led to disappointment. What many expected to be the next Doom ultimately failed to live up to the hype.

Black & White

An Extremely Ambitious Project

Leading up to the release of Black & White, Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios heavily promoted it as a huge, ambitious god game, drawing inspiration from classics like Populous and Dungeon Keeper. Players at the time were understandably excited – the concept of a simulation where you played a god guiding the development of humanity was genuinely innovative for that era.

Luckily, Black & White turned out to be a well-received game with positive reviews, though it didn’t quite live up to the hype its creator promised. In fact, many modern gamers aren’t even familiar with it.

Fable

Undelivered Promises Were Its Ruination

Following the success of Black & White, Peter Molyneux started developing Fable, a role-playing game designed specifically for the original Xbox. Even now, experienced players remember the exciting things promised before the game came out – like planting an acorn that would grow into a real tree, or the idea that you could do anything you wanted within the game world.

When Fable was released in 2004, players discovered that many of the features originally promised weren’t included in the game. Despite this, Fable is actually an enjoyable, creative, and original RPG, but it didn’t live up to the extremely high expectations many players had, leading to disappointment. However, some of those more ambitious concepts were later developed further in games like Fable 2.

Haze

The Infamous “Halo Killer” That Never Achieved Its Goal

During the mid-2000s, PlayStation and Xbox were closely matched competitors, but Sony began to fall behind in one key area: online multiplayer first-person shooter games. This was largely because the Xbox had the hugely popular Halo franchise, which dominated that generation of gaming.

Both Ubisoft and Free Radical Design tried to compete with the popular Halo franchise with their new first-person shooter, Haze, which was released exclusively on the PlayStation 3. Early reports suggested it could be a major hit, leading many to label it the “Halo Killer.” However, this ultimately backfired. The hype created extremely high expectations, and when the game launched, players found Haze to be a fairly standard FPS that didn’t measure up to Halo 3, which had come out the previous year.

Spore

A Whimsical Little Game That Didn’t Have The Impact Most People Expected

Will Wright, the creator of iconic games like SimCity and The Sims, truly revolutionized the gaming world. So, it’s no surprise that when he and Maxis announced Spore – a hugely ambitious new game where players could design a life form and guide its evolution over millions of years – gamers everywhere were incredibly excited.

Despite a lot of anticipation, the 2008 release of Spore on PC didn’t quite live up to expectations. While the game is still fun, creative, and full of personality, its core gameplay became repetitive and boring after a short time. However, its character creation tools remain popular, and people still use them to design unique and imaginative creatures.

Brink

Another Original FPS With A Unique Twist

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, first-person shooter (FPS) games with online multiplayer were incredibly popular, and many new game developers wanted to create their own successful titles. Splash Damage, a studio known for working on franchises like Doom, Wolfenstein, and Halo, was developing an original FPS game called Brink.

I remember when Brink first came out – the art style was so unique, and the way characters moved, almost like parkour, really grabbed my attention! Everyone was so hyped, but sadly, the game just didn’t quite deliver on all that promise. It’s actually a pretty good game with a lot going for it, but it was plagued by technical issues and some ideas that didn’t quite work. Plus, the multiplayer was a letdown. It never really found a dedicated community, and now it feels like most people have forgotten about it, which is a shame.

Watch Dogs

The Biggest Example Of How Deceiving Game Trailers Can Be

It might seem strange now, but the first Watch Dogs was a huge hit when it was shown at E3 2012. It looked incredible for the time, with graphics far better than most console games, and the idea of an open-world game like GTA where you could hack and control things had a lot of promise.

When Watch Dogs was finally released after two years, players were disappointed to find it didn’t look anything like the original, highly praised trailer. The hacking features, while present, felt limited and didn’t significantly improve the gameplay. It turned out Ubisoft had used enhanced footage from a powerful PC to create the promotional trailer, so the final game was never intended to look that good.

The Order: 1886

A Beautiful PlayStation 4 Exclusive That Nobody Remembers

Early in its lifespan, the PlayStation 4 didn’t have many games you could only play on that system. That’s why the announcement of The Order: 1886 caused such excitement. Made by Ready at Dawn – the team known for the God of War games on the PSP – it promised a visually stunning, steampunk-style third-person shooter where players would control monster hunters battling vampires and werewolves.

Many PlayStation 4 players were disappointed with The Order: 1886 when it was released in 2015. While the game was visually stunning and really showed off what the PS4 could do, the gameplay itself was too basic and easy, and the story was quite short, taking most players only about 7 hours to complete.

No Man’s Sky

What Started Off As A Huge Disappointment Went Through An Incredible Redemption Arc

No Man’s Sky has an incredible comeback story – arguably the most impressive in gaming history. When it was first shown at E3 in 2014, it was promoted as a massive, practically limitless game where players could explore countless galaxies, each filled with unique plants, creatures, and resources. This bold idea immediately excited gamers, and many pre-ordered or bought the game as soon as it was released.

When No Man’s Sky first launched, it didn’t live up to the hype for many players because of technical issues, repetitive gameplay, and a lack of things to do. But the developers, Hello Games, have worked hard to fix and expand the game with numerous free updates over the years. Now, No Man’s Sky is much better than many expected and has gained a large and dedicated community.

Anthem

BioWare’s Sci-Fi RPG Could Have Been Much Better

When Electronic Arts first showed off BioWare’s new game, Anthem, at E3 2017, it immediately grabbed the attention of gamers. It was an open-world role-playing game where players used powerful, flying suits called Javelins. The gameplay footage was so impressive that many people jokingly referred to it as an Iron Man game.

Released in early 2019, Anthem looked great and was fun to fly around in, but it didn’t become popular because it was an online, constantly-updated shooter focused on collecting loot, rather than the single-player, story-driven sci-fi game many players wanted. Because it didn’t sell well, EA stopped working on updates for the game in 2021.

2025-12-16 14:36