(gentle music) - [Presebter] Some video games just don't quite come together. A bad game is a bad game,
but we love video games here at Gameranx and to be
honest, we strongly believe that sometimes a bad game can
still have a teeny tiny kernel of value or something
interesting, you know, at least one cool thing
worth talking about. So here are some examples
of what the majority considers bad games that
actually had a cool idea or two within them. Starting off with number
ten, let's talk about Anthem. The flying. I mean, I know it's a cliche at this point but it really is the closest
any video game has ever really gotten to the feeling of being Iron Man. They really miss an opportunity by not making the map
more open in our opinion. The flight mechanics are the only reason why we're actually desperately hoping that the IP doesn't totally get abandoned. Maybe they just turned
it into something cooler 'cause I know it's easy to rag on Anthem now that it's dead and buried. We didn't like it. It was light on content. It had all the bad live service stuff that nobody really asked for and it just kind of felt unfinished. But weirdly enough few games have managed to really capture the feeling of flying in a big metal suit
of armor like Anthem did. (gun shooting) In reality, it's not actually
a major part of the game. The only reason you're flying an anthem is from getting to point A to point B. It's not integrated with
the combat very well but that doesn't really
matter because the artists and the animators really
pulled out all the stops to at the very least make the
flying feel satisfying in a way that almost no other game has
really managed to capture. It's kind of wild how flight feels like such an integral part of the game and an
afterthought at the same time. It's clearly the best part
of Anthem, but it seems like BioWare didn't quite
understand what worked about their own game, what
they had going for it. Anthem was not good but there was some
potential here and there. You know, it's possible they
could have made a good sequel if they had doubled down on just flying around and
shooting stuff and a good story but we don't think
that's ever gonna happen. (gun shooting) Next over at number nine,
let's talk about for Spoken. This is a game that has a
whole litany of problems. The open world is dull,
the story is goofy, the dialogue on the whole
can be pretty awkward. - Be honest with me, is this
place always this matter? Did I bring this storm with me? - [Presenter] But if there's
one thing that does work about for Spoken it is kind of the combat. It gets old fast of course because of the constantly reused enemies but where everything else in
the game is mediocre at best the entire magic system is
pretty innovative and fun. Once you've got all the powers unlocked, they actually tried
something different here. The problem there though is that you have to get through most of the game before you get
all four magic types unlocked and all the locomotion stuff,
which is just way too long for a game as dull as for
spoken is out of the gate. For people that do manage
to actually stick with it, they'll find a combat system
with a fair amount of depth and flare that takes some
legitimate skill to master and it does actually look pretty cool when you chain everything together. It's got moments of good stuff. - That's it. - [Presenter] Clearly the combat
is what the designers spent the majority of their time working on because it's clearly
not the mission design or the open world stuff which gets pretty tiring
after the first few hours but for Spoken, if we're talking about a third person action combat game that's centered completely around magic, it is fairly creative. It's unfortunate that
the rest of the game just kind of dragged it down. Next over at number eight,
it took way too long for the Nintendo we to get
an actual proper first person shooter, you know, with the wand and the motion controls and stuff. But the first one we got was Redsteel and it was an ambitious game,
but unfortunately not the best and it got some pretty bad reviews. But if all Red Steel had was
some first person shooting, then there wouldn't be much to talk about. But what actually makes the
game interesting is how it uses motion controls for a whole
bunch of unique actions like how you can shoot
the gun out of enemy hands and then have them surrender. There's also first person
combat that was quite impressive at the time, even if the
game was overall a bit slow and awkward to control. (action music) Later switch games like Metro Prime 3 and that Golden Eye and the Conduit proved to be
much more polished experiences. And then, oh, there was Redsteel too which was a much better
game than the first overall so we'll say that, but there's something to the original game that remains unique. They really tried to
make it feel immersive in a way other we shooters didn't which gave the game some
of its best features. It's still not exactly good but there's some cool ideas
here with the motion controls even if the execution wasn't that great. Next over at number seven,
there's no way around it man. Resident Evil 6 was a mess and it's kind of the black sheep of the
franchise and that's a franchise with quite a few black sheeps, trust me. But this is not from a lack of ambition. If anything, it's
because Capcom was almost too ambitious here. Four campaigns with cross
multiplayer support each with their own characters who have all their own weapons and abilities. It's maybe the ultimate example of 7th Generation Console Game Excess. It's maximalist design at its
most bloated and over the top. - They're gonna be all over
us without alarm going on. - [Presenter] Now because
of the shotgun approach to game design, it means that certain parts
of the game are pretty bad. Like, the constant cut
scenes and on rail segments that take control of the way from the player, some dull and boring segments and
then the story is mixed. Don't get me started on that, but the other parts are
actually pretty good. Like, the actually quite
impressive combat system. Now going into Resident Evil 6, most people expected it to play just like Resident Evil 4 and 5, and for the most part it does but with a lot of added
twists, like the way they built on that formula is
actually pretty impressive if you look back. (gun shooting) There's a quick shot button
for shooting enemies instantly at point blank range. There's a dodge button, a
dive, a roll, you can aim on the ground and chain together combos. Leon can go guns, Akimbo for some reason. When you throw all these moves
together, the game starts to feel closer to a character action game than Resident Evil. And using all these tools
can be so satisfying once you actually
understand how it all works. For people playing the game
for the first time though that usually takes a while
because the game does nothing to encourage you to really
try and use all this stuff to its maximum potential. There's no denying that certain
parts of Resident Evil 6 can be really just an unfun slog. It's still one of the
weakest entries, but the way they took Resident Evil 4
and Resident Evil 5 gameplay like the way that combat felt and made it more action heavy
was kind of impressive. (gentle music) Next, over at number six, the 2008 reboot of Alone in the Dark has
got to be one of the most inexplicable games ever. It's a mess, you know, a hundred percent, but it's a very interesting mess. One that you couldn't
help but look at like. The game has so many odd
choices for its gameplay. From the bizarre inventory system to the weirdly complex car controls. (suspenseful music) Alone in the Dark is a game that feels like an evolutionary
dead end for video games. There are so many unique
mechanics that just disappeared with this game. Now some people may praise
the impressive physics simulations and the fire
effects, but at least now that stuff has been done
better in other games in 2023. The one feature that remains
almost exclusive to this game I think is legitimately
awesome is the DVD style menus. On the main screen, you can scroll through every major moment in the story and start the game from any point even
before beating the game. If you want, you can just skip to the end and there's
nothing stopping you. Some people might accuse the game of including this feature because
of the persistent freezing and all the technical bugs, but hey, that's probably at least part of it. The game does freeze a lot for no reason. I'm not trying to say like
the game is good here folks, it's very busted. You know, there's no
denying that, but many games have chapter selects,
but this one is different and it gives you a lot
more control and freedom regarding where you are in this story. It's a feature that when played
around with could be present in way more games and made pretty fun, especially story-driven games where it's probably not
all that hard to implement, but we don't know, we're just arm sharing. So let's move on. Over at number five. The PS3 Xbox 360 era was flooded with generic third person shooters with some desperate gimmicks
to get people in the door. And you know, they were
charming, but a lot of them were just forgettable bad. However, Mind Jack had
a pretty cool gimmick. In it, you can hack into pretty
much anything in the arena and have it fight for you. That doesn't just mean that
like they turn on their allies you actually can control
them directly, which is pretty fun when you
hijack something powerful. (gun shooting) While you're controlling the drone your character continues to act as an AI and while
they're not the brightest, they tend to protect themselves all right. So it's usually better to
start hijacking stuff as much as possible because the game
lets you go hog wild with it. Go jump in that thing. Don't worry about your main character. The AI's got it covered, it's
a legitimately cool mechanic, but like a lot of these games there's just not much
else going on behind that. The story is nonsense. The graphics were rough then,
the gameplay isn't so hot and the shooting unfortunately
was kind of weak. It's just not very fun to play. But the whole mechanics of making enemies work for you is fun. It's been done in other games before but it's normally a lot more limited than what you'd get here. It's hardly a great game but they were onto a good idea with that. Next, over at number four,
let's talk about Hydrophobia. This 2010 action game has
exactly one memorable thing about it, but it's a doozy. I'm talking about the
water effects of course which still look pretty
impressive even now. That's this level of physics simulation for liquid just isn't
something you normally see in games that's not
either heavily scripted or totally pre-made. Well, the water effects you see here are actually the real deal. So opening a door and watching the water come
flooding in is really dang cool. You gotta admit - Go gate run. - [Presenter] For the rest of
the game well is barely there with some weak shooting and
unresponsive platforming but the water effects really
buoy the whole experience. It's not a great game to play really but it is cool because they
really did manage to do some impressive procedural things with this water that I
don't think I've ever seen in another game since then. Like, stuff like this feels
truly next gen in a way. Pure polygon counts never will. And while we're not saying that
Hydrophobia is some triumph in game design the water is pretty sweet. I'd just like to see some of
these effects in a better game. Now over at number three another seemingly generic
third person shooter from 2010 Dark Void, it's
claimed to fame was the jet pack. It's sort of like Anthem if the actual flying
didn't feel quite as good but you could actually fight enemies. This is a really impressive
feature of the game. So during certain missions
you can freely transition from dog fighting with your jet pack to hovering over a battlefield and then landing for some
third person shooting. This is all done seamlessly
and it feels really good to do. - I guess I could just bash
him over the head with it. (gun shooting) - [Presenter] If that was the entire game that'd probably be better
remembered, but it isn't. You know, most of the
game is really just boring old third person shooter
stuff from that time period. You never really get a
chance to cut loose at but when you do, it
can feel kind of short. I don't know if this is a game let down by the hardware of the era or either the design
team's limited imagination. I don't know but Dark Void is a game that
could have been really great because they were onto something with that seamless dog fighting stuff. Now down to number two,
let's talk about Never Dead. Here's the thing with this game it's central mechanic sucks. It's so incredibly annoying
to be running around and suddenly explode
into a bunch of pieces. Now you have to awkwardly roll
around to reattach your limbs before you get permanently killed because you're like a zombie guy. It's annoying though. It's tedious and dumb
and poorly implemented. It's like the game is custom
built to be as annoying as possible to the player. It's almost hostile how random and frustrating this
whole thing can feel it. It's terrible. But in theory, it is a really cool idea. I mean, the basic premise is that it's an action game where you play as a protagonist that's immortal. They cannot be killed, but they can lose all their body parts
until they're just ahead. And if a certain enemy
manages to suck your head up then it's game over. In the meantime, you have
to detach certain body parts to solve puzzles and get around barriers which is a fun idea that's
been done a little bit here and there and better in a couple of games. But being able to take off body
parts and use them as tools and being immortal are really
interesting ideas on paper. It's a fantastic idea that could have made for a great game and it
occasionally does feel pretty clever but unfortunately it's
mostly just annoying. (gun shooting) - Anyone seen a left leg line around? - [Presenter] Now down to number one, let's talk Bionic Commando from 2009. This is the one with the, some
people call it the Hotdog Arm and the more Dreadlocked Spencer. This is pre-Spider-Man, Sunset Overdrive. Just the grappling mechanics and fighting super high
up were really fun. The story was awful. Don't get me started with that twist. There was an ever present
fog that limited your freedom but still we played the hell out of it. - Relay Station 21 has been
activated in sector echo niner. Do we have a signal over? (gun shooting) - [Presenter] Like we weren't kidding about the late 2000s, early
2010s having a ton of generic but kind of charming third
person shooters with a gimmick and Bionic Commando seemed like
an odd choice for a reboot. But you know, the one
thing they really nailed is that swinging mechanic. In this game, you've got the bionic arm that can grapple onto things. You can either pull yourself up or swing around like Spider-Man if
Spider-Man had like a machine gun and was like a soldier man,
it's just so much fun to swing around these perilous environments while blasting at bad guys. There really is the recipe
for something awesome here. Unfortunately, like so many
other games on this list there's a good central
mechanic, but the rest of the game doesn't live up to it. At least here you do get
to swing around a bit. It's just that the game is painfully short and extremely linear with
a frankly terrible story. The soundtrack is pretty good at least and the swinging stays fun
throughout the entire game. (tense music) The bionic arm from Bionic
Commando is fantastic as an idea. We just wish it was at a better game but those are some cool
ideas in bad games. We got one extra one for
you that we couldn't fit into the top ten. It's 50 Cent Blood On The Sand. In this game, it's 50 cent and he really wants a crystal skull that someone paid him for some reason. Look, the game is dumb as hell
and the developers know it and they embrace it. There's no other explanation for this. The swear button, a button
with only one purpose it makes 50 cent say the bad words. You can even unlock more
vulgar swear packs using money you earn in the game. I complain. But you know, these days it'd
probably be DLC or something. The only way to truly play this iconic and ironic masterpiece is
to spam the swear button constantly press it more
than you're pressing the shoot button. It's utterly stupid and
pointless, but it is so funny. - Don't we need to team up on this? I can boost you up. Let's move. Let's go. - [Presenter] Anyway,
those are some good ideas and some kind of
unfortunately bad video games. This could really be an endless series. So we'd love to hear you guys
in the comments just like do you have any other games
that you really didn't like? But there was one really cool idea in it. There's so much out there, so
let us know in the comments. But if you like this video and you like what we do every day we're just chatting about games. Clicking the like button
helps us very much. Thank you for being here. But we'll see you guys next time.
