Was 2014 A Terrible Year For Gamers?

Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Dragon Age III: Inquisition, and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor are only a few of the incredible games to come out this year, however, this year hasn’t been the best for gamers. Prominent companies released unfinished products, disappointing games were stocked on the shelves of our favorite stores and, of course, there was #Gamergate. While we’ll remember 2014 for a few great game releases and announcements, the negatives outweigh the positives.

This year we saw a surge of releases from Ubisoft, especially games based on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. With fans having high hopes to play as a Templar in Assassin’s Creed Rogue and Assassin’s Creed Unity being the first true next-generation Assassin’s Creed title, fans were delivered a poor and glitch-ridden product. Assassin’s Creed Rogue, although it allowed us to play as a Templar, copied most of the mechanics of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, with inferior results. Seeing Shay Cormac evolve from a dedicated Assassin to a reformed Templar was an adequate experience, but it didn’t play differently from the Assassin’s point-of-view. The exception was an Assassin's hunting side-mission that was repeated over and over throughout the game. Finally, seeing the war from the other side was more shallow than enlightening. At least it was playable though with only minor issues happening such as graphical hiccups during cutscenes.

Assassin’s Creed Unity has remained on the minds of gamers since it was released in November and not for positive reasons. When released, Ubisoft was faced with a lot of criticism from consumers about Unity’s poor performance. Videos, images and GIFs came to saturate every video game website with players experiencing humorous animation errors, vexing game-breaking issues and massive drops in the frame-rate. While Ubisoft has attempted to fix these issues with continuous patches, the issues remain. However, Ubisoft has delivered with an increase of NPCs on screen.

Of course Assassin’s Creed Unity wasn’t alone when it came to upsetting issues that continue to annoy gamers. When Halo: The Master Chief Collection was finally released players were hoping to relive the glory days of Halo multiplayer, and then sadly they were disappointed. Server issues and matchmaking plagues continuously disrupted online matches, preventing anyone from logging into a public competitive match. Shockingly these issues are still present despite a stream of patches promising eager fans that the issues have been resolved. Ubisoft and 343 Industries have attempted to regain the trust of fans by presenting purchasers with free content such as Halo: ODST Remastered and the Dead Kings DLC, but it doesn’t excuse  these notoriously large companies. Perhaps in 2015 they’ll learn, but for now Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Assassin’s Creed Unity can join Battlefield 4 and SimCity on the list of ‘Most Horrible Game Launches Ever’.

Topping most people’s list of disappointments is Bungie’s acclaimed title Destiny. While receiving a consistent stream of positive reviews, the game never delivered what was promised. The scope never amounted to what Bungie promised, and the repetitive grinding for resources and similar quest layouts created an endless cycle of upsetting collecting of resources. This coupled with a lack of story and poor finale ensured that Destiny remained less of a revolutionary game and more of a standard run-and-gun experience. Perhaps they’ll deliver on DLC because paying for the actual game wasn’t enough.

Earlier in the year Ubisoft released another title that promised a lot more than it delivered: the hacking open-world game Watch Dogs. Promising a living, open-world filled with content to explore, Ubisoft only delivered half of what they promised with lackluster results. While the world of Chicago is full of content to explore, most of it never leaves the player with a satisfying conclusion. The world itself feels dry and uneventful, especially when compared to Skyrim or Los Santos. The most alluring attribute of Watch Dogs, hacking into the ctOS, is entertaining at first, but it eventually becomes nothing more than a novelty as the game progresses.

The star of Watch Dogs, Aiden Pearce, is a forgettable character with anger issues. He never attempts to evolve into someone relatable or likable, and the cast Aiden surrounds himself with is just as dull. Ultimately, when reaching the end, you’ll wonder if joining this renegade vigilante was worth the time and money invested.

2014 didn’t only have original IPs that disappointed but a resurrected franchise that failed to capture the experience of its original games. After returning from its ten year hiatus, Thief made a dreary comeback. At first fans were delighted to see their favorite series on new hardware, but unfortunately it didn’t . Garrett lacks the agility and finesse that you would expect an expert thief to have. Combined with uninspiring levels and a dull story, Thief is a poor version of the clearly superior Dishonored.

We cannot discuss 2014 without discussing Gamergate. It started with allegations that a female game developer, Zoe Quinn, had an unprofessional relationship with Nathan Grayson, a journalist for Kotaku. Following the allegations were thousands of heated debates on journalist integrity, sexual harassment and feminism within the gaming community. Things became more problematic when it caught the eye of mass media when a series of death, rape and bomb threats were brought to light.

2014 saw a lot of ups and downs for the game industry, and sadly, they were mostly downs. Broken games continue to annoy fans, original IPs left us disappointed and controversial topics continue to haunt 2014 for gamers. We’ve seen the release of some massively popular games throughout the year that have delivered incredible experiences, but the sour taste left by so many of these disappointments and issues have left 2014 a terrible year to be a gamer.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
Twitter | YouTube | Facebook