Much like Extinction, Attack on Titan 2 fell victim to its own marketing. Fans of the massively popular and creepy manga were ecstatic to hear about the sequel in development, positive that whatever changes the game would bring would only elevate what the previous game had brought to the table. While Extinction can be forgiven for being a new IP, Attack on Titan 2, however, was already established and the sequel has been considered mediocre at best unless you were a diehard fan. The titans are awful, lumpy looking creatures, the plot is drawn out and tiresome, it seems only the combat was mildly improved but still felt boring. You would think in a series about giant naked humanoids and using grappling hooks and swords to slaughter them it would be a little more interesting and intense, but Attack on Titan 2 is far too niche of a game for its own good.
We have had some fairly terrifying horror games before, but nothing promised quite the experience Agony had in store for us. Dropped helplessly into the pits of hell, surrounded by the darkness, screams of terror and pain, demons and foul creatures devouring those they find. This was terror on a new level with gorgeous graphics and unsightly, terrible abominations. What we got instead was a very short game relatively barren of anything scary or of much consequence, and the idea of edgy and truly horrifying terror was replaced with some basic, vaguely sexual content and reused textures for the environment. The anticipation for Agony was incredibly high, but as soon as we got our hands on it we were horrified, but not in the way they had intended.
Metal Gear Survive is something of a victim of its name. This was to be the first big entry into Metal Gear post-Kojima which means people were already going into it dead set on the idea of not liking it – which also meant the studio had more to prove. Add to that the bland gameplay and generic survival tropes and what we got was mediocre at best. It isn’t necessarily unplayable, but given that the studio felt it was perfectly reasonable to continue the Metal Gear series without the mind behind it, we would have expected the game to offer at least some facsimile of the long-standing series, yet here we are. Ironically enough, had the game not carried the Metal Gear name it quite possibly would have been far better received.
Despite becoming favorable upon release by many fans of the genre, State of Decay 2 launched with several severe bugs and problems that greatly hindered its potential success. Not only had we hoped for a great successor to the previous game, Xbox has been starving for a solid exclusive title and State of Decay 2 looked like it could take up that mantle. Upon launch, however, the game felt bland and generic, content was repetitive, and serious bugs plagued the game constantly. What we had hoped would be a feather in the cap to get Xbox back on track fell flat, yet on the bright side there are a number of fans willing to overlook these faults and continue to fiercely defend the game.
