What Makes a Bad Video Game

Recently I had the chance to play a video game on my PlayStation 4 console. The reviews for the game indicated that it fell well short of expectations yet I decided I wanted to play it for myself. The largest number of comments indicated that the game could be played in 4 hours and that made it too expensive. As I could borrow the game for free and I wanted a short game, I disregarded the reviews and started playing.

The more I played, the more I realized that the game fell short in more ways than just length-of-play. The characters need to be likeable and you want them to succeed. That didn't happen. At first I thought I could like the main character but as the game progressed I found him to be too self-centered and arrogant. Had the game lasted much longer than the 4 hours, I probably would not have finished it simply because I didn't like the main character. Knowing it was a short game, I pushed through the pain to complete it.

The main character isn't the only one I didn't like. Pretty much all of them were cold and unlikable except for one. Unfortunately he didn't have enough screen time to make up for everyone else. I would have liked to do a lot more with him in the game.

Another problem with the game is that it contained enough surprises and reveals that once you played through the game, you were done. Sometimes a short game can be enjoyable if you can play it over and over. An example is that my oldest son really enjoyed playing the relatively short Until Dawn over and over. 

One would think that spectacular graphics help create a great video game. In the case of this one, it had great graphics but that wasn't enough to make up for the other faults. I have also played a number of really great games with less than stellar graphics.

You may be wondering the title of this really bad video game and I will politely decline to give it. There are already a number of horrible reviews for the game and so one more won't make much of a difference. However I know how much work goes into a video game and don't want to belittle the development team any more than has already been done. It also underscores the importance of looking at reviews before buying a very expensive game.