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The Order 1886

The only exclusive on this list and the only one I really enjoyed, but I simply couldn’t overlook its flaws. The Order 1886 is absolutely gorgeous, there are no two ways about it, a visual master piece; however, that’s as far as the Order 1886 goes in terms of greatness. Its pitfalls are many. From its 4 to 5 hour-long campaign, sub-par gameplay and uninteresting quick time events held the game back from being something brilliant. The story and characters we’re great, but it felt to fleeting and things were over far too soon making you wonder where your £50 went.

The Order was simply a year too late; if it was a launch title, it might have been forgiven for its brief campaign and made for a great tech demo showing off what your new shiny PlayStation can do. I was hoping for something more substantial a branching story line built on decisions and QTEs that are dynamic and not instant fail sections. Until Dawn is a good example on how to do QTEs and hopefully developer Ready at Dawn can build on this new IP and deliver something truly remarkable in the future.

Battlefield Hardline” received pretty mediocre grades by the games media (73-75% via Gamerankings.com for example)

Battlefield Hardline

BF: Hardline could have been Battlefield Robocop but, never mind. Enter Battlefield Hardline, a game that lets you be the most cliché cop of all time ‘Mendoza’ cue a crap TV style story and it’s not the good crap like ‘America’s Wildest Police Videos with John Bunnell, more like a rubbish CIS episode. The campaign was dull, generic and tiresome, all they needed to do was replace Mendoza with Alex Murphy and things could have been a lot better. Visceral games even had a Dead Space Easter-egg which might as well alluded to the game they’d rather be making.

The multi-player wasn’t much better either, a reskin of Battlefield with SWAT vans instead of tanks. The levels were uninspired, and there weren’t any shoot-outs in Somerfield’s Hot Fuzz style or pulling off a heist in Mini Coopers harking to the classic film The Italian Job. The multiplayer simply lacked creative ideas for a cops vs robber’s game. It was mundane, generic and could have been so much better. As John Bunnell says, “You have the power, you can make a difference. Keep the peace!” Visceral should have gotten him on board.

“Mortal Kombat X” is far from the worst MK title to date, but it´s also far from flawless (the iOS game is by far the worst version of the game though).

Mortal Kombat X

FINISH HIM and I did in 3 – 1/2 hours in one of the most underwhelming campaigns I’ve played. After the success of MK9 I expected something similar but that wasn’t the case, and it just got worse. Fan favourites ended up being dropped from the roster in turn for new and uninteresting faces. Some classic characters even appeared in the game and could be fought throughout the campaign, but they weren’t playable, almost as if a big red DLC flag was being waved in your face, oddly these characters (Syndel, Baraka and Rain) haven’t been released as of yet. Fans (including myself) were also disappointed to see Jade, Smoke, Nightwolf, Sheeva, Noob Saibot, Striker, Kabal, Scarlet, Shang Tsung, Cyrax and Sector absent from the roster. Some made the case that they were dead, which is ridiculous because half the cast appears in the game under the influence of Quan Chi’s power.

It gets worse. Multiplayer had region locked servers on PS4 so I was unable to beat the crap out of my American pals. DLC also reared its ugly head having Goro as a day one DLC, a one-time fee to unlock all Krypt collectables for those who can’t be arsed to play the game and easy fatalities could be bought for a short fee. Mortal Kombat X did have some enjoyable moments though X-Ray moves, and the graphic FATALITIES are always fun to pull off, but the novelty wears thin after a while. Mortal Kombat X simply failed to live up to its predecessor.

Even though Turtle Rock Studios Co-OP FPS game “Evolve” is less than a year-old, the game is already dying.

Evolve

Evolve is a perfect example of a free to play game dressed up in AAA clothing, with its lack of variety, repetitive cat and mouse gameplay and sloppy DLC practices, Evolve left me feeling like I had regressed into a chimp. On paper Evolve seemed like a good idea, Man vs Beast, the hunter becomes the hunted, but in action, it became a running simulator and was one of the dullest online experiences I’ve ever played. Evolve has no variety at all, despite having 12 maps, they all looked the same. The characters were interesting but had no story for them to be developed further. In a few hours Evolve showed you all it had to offer, which wasn’t anything memorable. Evolve should have been brilliant but its execution was just sloppy. Not only that, Evolve even had DLC announced before the game was ever shown to the public eye, the warning signs were there, but I didn’t pay attention. I expected better from the creators of Left for Dead.

“Assassin´s Creed Syndicate” didn´t quite turn out the way that I had hoped for.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has just been released, and with the failure of Unity stuck in its side like a rusty hidden blade. One would have hoped that Ubisoft would have learned from their previous mistakes and delivered the penultimate Assassin’s Creed experience. Well, unfortunately for us, DeJa vu is more prevalent than ever and there are countless bugs and technical issues which Ubisoft promised would not be the case with Syndicate, I came across Invisible characters, floating NPC’s and the AI lacks the intelligent bit.

The same old tired game-play mechanics are at play once again, with little to no innovation to spice up the struggling series. Aesthetically Victorian London looks great and there are interesting characters, but it isn’t good enough. After previewing the game at an event I came away with high hopes just to have them crushed in the dust. It’s not a return to form or re-establishing faith in the franchise, expect to see its folly presented as GIFs on your Twitter feed.

AAA games are supposed to wow and amaze the people who play them, presenting fun and interesting experiences. When paying anything from £40 to £50 it’s not wrong to expect a polished and entertaining experience, but when you’re just getting a few hours of content, DLC thrusted into your face day one and bugs and issues that simply shouldn’t be there, it begs the question are things going to get better or worse?

“Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5” is most definitely (with no doubt whatsoever) one of THE worst Tony Hawk games to date.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5

Well, this could earn both the utter rubbish and disappointing title of the year, but honestly who expected this game to be any good in the first place? Skateboard games are rubbish and its only fun when people fall off and smash their face on a railing, then roll around in agony while their friend films it on their phone while their injured pro wannabe picks up their front teeth. I’m amazed that Tony Hawk let his name be put on this face plant of a game. Buggy, butt ugly and bordering the lines of Parody (I’ve seen people compare this to Goat Simulator) even Spyro the Dragon had better skateboarding than this. Carrying a price tag of £50 on release, it almost seems like a bad joke, and one would have to wonder what kind of madness would let you part with such money unless you sweat gold coins or had a few too many face plants yourself. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is an utter travesty of a game; it’s so terrible that it makes Atari’s E.T look like the Holy Grail.

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

Sharn Daniels
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @SharnOfTheDEAD