Buying a video game at full price means trusting that it will be worth, oftentimes, the great expense, which has left some Redditors with serious regret at times as a result. After all, while some games can garner serious excitement from a user base with great trailers and gameplay, it is always good to remember that those are meant to make a game look as flattering as possible. With the recent release of The Callisto Protocol resulting in mixed reviews and disappointment from some fans, it's a timely reminder that sometimes it's better to wait and see how a game's release pans out before paying full price.
However, sometimes it can be impossible to predict which games will end up having poor launches, with Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 76 just two recent examples where fans ended up being let down by a buggy, unplayable product despite a hefty price tag. Everyone has games they didn't gel with and ended up feeling buyer's remorse towards, but Redditors have particularly compelling reasons for regretting paying the full cost for these titles.
Watch Dogs: Legion (2020)
Ubisoft's Watch Dogs series divides gamers, with some seeing it as another example of Ubisoft's cookie-cutter approach to making story-based open-world games and some seeing it as one of the most creative and interesting franchises they've produced. Redditor AllInHarry has a unique reason for regretting their purchase of Watch Dogs: Legion, however.
They warn others to not "buy a game just cos you think it’ll be cool driving round a city in the country you live in." Lively open-world games often thrive as a result of their rich settings and that's especially true when it's a chance for the player to see their own home represented in video game form. However, buying a game at full price is assuming that it will provide many hours of entertainment and that means players are unlikely to get their money's worth out of a game's setting alone.
The Outer Worlds (2019)
Given it's an expansive science-fiction RPG that received favorable reviews from critics, The Outer Worlds seems to justify its initial price tag of $59.99 but not everyone found it to be worth the cost. Redditor Giorggio360 was swayed to pay full price by the good reviews and a promising start but comments that they've "never seen a game so frontloaded."
After a beginning that lives up to expectations, they found the game's formula to "wear thin" over time, as the planets, enemies, and even jokes get repetitive. Although The Outer Worlds is full of side quests to take on, it's less the amount of content and more the lack of variety that makes it feel less than a $60 dollar product for some players. It stands as proof that sometimes good reviews don't always mean a game is worth the cost.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Along with good reviews, one of the things that might tempt potential players to pay full price for a game is when it's part of a series that they've already enjoyed previous entries of. While that's usually a smart way to make decisions, Redditor Henchman4Hire was disappointed to find Spider-Man 3 on PlayStation 2 did not live up to their fond memories of Spider-Man 2 because it "was made for the PlayStation 3."
Porting to a lower-spec console can be done right, as the best ports for the Nintendo Switch have shown, but Spider-Man 3 happens to be one of the worst examples. Not only was it stripped back in scale from the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 versions but the graphics were so poor they didn't even live up to Spider-Man 2 on PS2. A good port might have been worth full price but this wasn't one.
Battlefield 2042 (2021)
Whilst Battlefield 2042 received mixed reviews from critics for how it took the massive FPS franchise in a new purely-multiplayer direction in 2021, the response from players was overwhelmingly negative. Technical issues and frustrating new mechanics made Redditors like Inefficacy feel they didn't get the AAA game experience they paid for, leaving them feeling "like such an idiot."
After the pre-release marketing for Battlefield 2042 built up hype with its promise of top-notch combat in a futuristic setting and prompted many to eagerly pay full price, it turned out to be one of the most disappointing live-service games of all time. The one thing the game did succeed in doing was uniting players around a sense of buyer's remorse, with over 150,000 players signing a petition asking for their money back (via Kotaku).
Thief (2014)
The original Thief video game series was hugely important to establishing the stealth game genre and many maintained fond associations with the title when a series revival was announced. Redditor cabalavatar is one person that wished they'd been more skeptical, however, as that crucial stealth element was undermined by a lack of polish and enemies that "spot you in areas where they shouldn't be able to."
When there are so many great stealth games out there, paying full price for a game that doesn't even deliver on the fundamental elements that make stealth games fun, the thrill of finding clever ways to sneak around enemies, is almost never worth it. Add in the fact that the game's story doesn't top 15 hours when many $60 games run for twice that or more and it's no surprise some regretted their purchase.
Gotham Knights (2022)
Gotham Knights came at the perfect time for a lot of fans as the seven-year absence of the Batman: Arkham series left many of them eager to get their hands on a new action RPG in the same vein. For Redditor SweetPuffDaddy it simply didn't deliver on that promise as they "played maybe 6 hours before uninstalling it."
Unfortunately, Gotham Knights was a tale of missed opportunities, as fans of the characters didn't feel it expanded on them enough, and fans of the Batman: Arkham series gameplay found the mechanics awkward and underwhelming. Although it's perhaps unfair to compare Gotham Knights to the fan-favorite Batman series, it set the standard in a lot of players' minds for what a $70 Batman RPG should look like, and that lead to inevitable disappointment.
Fallout 76 (2018)
Fallout 76 had the ambition to match its hefty price tag. As a fully multiplayer open-world game in the Fallout universe, it promised to be everything fans had wanted from Bethesda and more. Redditor arealdoctor25 sums up the feelings of the player base with the comment "what a load of trash at launch that game was."
Bethesda fans are used to a certain amount of bugs at launch but Fallout 76's issues went far beyond that and it was borderline unplayable for some. Some also disliked Fallout 76's contributions to Fallout lore, which didn't help. What makes paying full price for Fallout 76 particularly regrettable is that it's actually become a much better game over time. It now frequently goes on sale and is a far superior product to the one that appeared at launch.
Biomutant (2021)
With its mix of gritty, open-world RPG gameplay and goofy animal characters, Biomutant likely got plenty of players to open up their wallets simply through sheer curiosity value. Redditor Nomadic_View regrets that they "bought it on launch day" and, though they emphasize it's "not the worst game ever" complain that it's ruined by repetitiveness.
When there are some video game series without a bad entry, it's a bold choice to go for an ambitious title from a relatively unknown studio like Biomutant and even braver to pay full price. Biomutant can't be faulted for ambition either, with critics praising its unique atmosphere and interesting ideas, but execution let it down. Repetitive combat and puzzles might not be the biggest annoyance but players expect better from a full-price game.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood (2021)
Sometimes the only draw a game needs to get players to pay full price\ is a limited market and that's why some ended up thoroughly regretting their purchase of Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood. Redditor TheSneakySneaks explains that they "bought it for $70 when I first got my ps5 and I hated every moment of the 45 minutes I played."
There are now tons of games on PS5 to sink hours into but that wasn't always the case and it's no surprise players were less judicious when searching for games for the console when it was still relatively new. With its story of an exiled eco-terrorist werewolf, Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood looked intriguing too but actually playing the game exposed its poor combat, shallow characters, and weak story that would have been disappointing even in a game half its price.
Rocket League (2015)
Rocket League is the world's biggest vehicular soccer video game and it's been winning over fans with its fun-filled but competitive online gameplay since its launch. Many would consider the game more than worth the price they paid but Redditor not_an_mistake is not one of them, as they explain that they bought it "3 days before it went to free to play."
Given it's now considered one of the best free-to-play games out there, it would be difficult to argue that Rocket League disappoints on a gameplay level. However, paying $20 for the privilege of being able to play a title for just three additional days is a deal that no one would willingly accept. For every player that ends up getting a great deal when a game goes free-to-play, there are inevitably some that get a bad one as a result.
Source:gamerant.com