The world of video gaming has never been as vast as it is today. There’s a game out there for everyone and it’s become simply impossible to keep up with all the newest releases and updates. This sheer wealth doesn’t mean that every new game that comes out is a total home run, though. A larger amount of games will inevitably mean that the bar gets raised for all new releases that arrive on gaming platforms, and sadly some just can’t make the cut.
Some developers haven’t quite written off their love project as a total loss, however, and moved digital mountains to make their game fresh and slowly rerelease it the way it was meant to be. Let’s take a look at some of those games.
1. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
This was supposed to be a WoW killer at release, but the game was so bad the developers actually took it offline. After a few months of silence and hard work, the game was re-released under the moniker “A Realm Reborn”, and with its fourth expansion Endwalker coming up near the end of this year, the game is more popular than ever.
2. No Man’s Sky
When it comes to huge reworks, this game takes all the cakes. The hype level for this project before its release was impossible to achieve and sadly its release proved just that. Many people were disappointed, lots of refunds were issued and it seemed like this project was dead on arrival. The devs spent months almost rebuilding the game from the ground up, and it’s now one of the best open-world space sims money can buy.
3. Star Wars Battlefront 2
While the game in itself wasn’t bad when it was released, the big issue here was with its loot box system. Many countries deemed it illegal, and this forced EA to rework the entire cosmetic system in the game and for all their future games. If they didn’t, there was a high possibility of them not being able to sell their games in many European countries.
4. Middle Earth: Shadow of War
Despite the success of the first game, the developers still felt like they had to add pay-to-win microtransactions to the game’s launch. The community’s outrage led the developers to rebalance the entire gameplay so the microtransactions could be removed without ruining the game, and now the game is nothing short of amazing.
5. Diablo 3
Much like its predecessor, the vanilla Diablo 3 wasn’t a great game. It had all the things you’d expect from a Diablo sequel, but it added nothing fresh and new to the formula. And much like its predecessor, it took a huge expansion pack to bring the game up to the level people expect from a Blizzard game. The Reaper of Souls expansion turned a mediocre-at-best ARPG into one of the best at that time. With Diablo 4 coming up soon, we can’t help but wonder if this will be the one to break the mold and be good at launch.
6. Destiny
While Destiny has become a staple of the looter-shooter genre, the initial release of the game could only be described as “terribad”. It took developers, Bungie, over a year to finish the Taken King expansion, which finally turned Destiny into a good game that is still defining an entire genre to this day.
7. Cyberpunk 2077
While this game hasn’t really turned itself around yet, developers, CD Projekt Red, have a track record with their Witcher games that at least allow them the benefit of the doubt. The release version of Cyberpunk was a buggy, unplayable mess with lots of cut content. And while the game marketing boasted AI and immersion to rival GTA V, neither comes anywhere close to the latter game. We’re hoping they turn it around because, in sheer terms of potential, it has everything a good game needs.
8. Marvel’s Avengers
Marvel’s Avengers arrived with as much hype as it had issues. The game was unstable at best and borderline unplayable for many. While the gameplay in itself is currently still pretty barebones, the developers have managed to make the game a lot more enjoyable, with much new content on the horizon to deal with the blandness problem. Let’s hope the Spidey DLC will hit the spot.
