We’ve all been there. A new game is announced, and the trailer looks AMAZING. You know better, but you just can’t help it. You’re getting pumped up in spite of yourself. But when the game finally comes out, it just doesn’t live up to the excitement. While we’re all getting better at avoiding this pre-release hype, these eight games definitely caught our attention with their great trailers.
Many thanks to soren7550 for starting the thread!
Don’t see the trailer that fooled you? Tell us what it is in the comments!
Silent Hill Homecoming
First mentioned by: Silentpony
The Silent Hill Homecoming trailer caught the interest of horror game fans in 2008. Unfortunately, the game didn’t live up to the promise the trailer showed. The plot was predictable, the music didn’t seem to fit the game, and worst of all, it didn’t feel like a Silent Hill game. It’s not so much that the game itself was bad, it’s just that it didn’t live up to the Silent Hill name.
Watch_Dogs
First mentioned by: Xeros
The announcement of Watch_Dogs was one of the highlights of E3 2012. Everyone was interested in this new game, and wanted to see how Ubisoft would approach a game about a city where anything could be hacked. But by the time the game launched, much of that interest had been squandered thanks to delays and reports that the game’s graphics and effects had been significantly downgraded from the original announcement. Although Watch_Dogs sold well, many people expressed disappointment in its gameplay as well.
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
First mentioned by: Zaltys
The initial cinematic trailer for Warhammer: Mark of Chaos teased players with thoughts of either fighting for the glory of the emperor, or crushing those who did. It was marketed as a “faithful translation” of the tabletop game to the computer, as well as having a “dynamic cooperative campaign mode.” Upon its release, many of the core mechanics of the tabletop game were missing, including formation movement rules and combat resolution systems, and the promised co-op campaign was left out entirely. The lack of depth and an extremely linear campaign rounded out a truly disappointing package.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
First mentioned by: Shoggoth2588
YOU CAN RIP A STAR DESTROYER OUT OF THE SKY! That’s what every Star Wars was shouting after seeing this trailer and then running off to pre-order Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. We couldn’t wait to get our hands on that much Force power. It’s a shame that the game turned out to be so mediocre, and that the actual Star Destroyer scene was actually one of the most tedious in the whole experience.
Advent Rising
First mentioned by: Neverhoodian
Released in 2005, Advent Rising was poised to be the Mass Effect of its time, long before the Bioware space RPG was even announced. It had a script by Orson Scott Card, plans for a trilogy, and even a comic book tie-in. Unfortunately, Advent Rising was a game that was hamstrung by its own ambition. It ended up as a fairly typical third-person shooter with a poorly told, boilerplate, predictable sci-fi story. The AI was poor, and there were a number of technical problems, including frame rate drops, scripted sequences that didn’t play, and outright crashes. It had little to recommend it, which may be why the trilogy was never completed.
Aliens: Colonial Marines
First mentioned by: FPLOON
Anyone who was moderately conscious knows the issues that Aliens: Colonial Marines had when it launched in 2013. Trailers (like the one above) evoked memories of the movies that we loved so much, and the gameplay demo only ratcheted up expectations. The disappointment after launch was quick to materialize. Graphics were significantly worse than in the demos that had been shown, and some parts of the demo seemed to not even exist in the game. The AI was atrociously bad, leading to some hilarious videos on the internet, and the gameplay was far from balanced. Although the DLC was a marked improvement over the base game, it was a case of too little, too late.
Hellgate London
First mentioned by: The Madman
When Hellgate London was announced by Flagship Studios in 2005, there was considerable excitement around the project. After all, a number of the people who worked on Diablo were on the development team, and the idea of a first-person, multiplayer RPG that combined science and magic to take on demons was instantly interesting. Unfortunately, the game was a buggy mess, with many problems (including crashing outright), and the gameplay was monotonous. Less than a year after it launched, sales of Hellgate London subscriptions were suspended, and the game was shut down soon after.
Dead Island
First mentioned by: soren7550
When this disturbing trailer hit the internet in 2011, it caused a huge wave of interest in Dead Island. It featured a young girl being transformed into a zombie, with the story being shown in a non-linear fashion. The game we got at release could never have hoped to live up to it, and it didn’t. Instead of a deep, emotional story, we were tossed onto an open-world island that had us running fetch quest after fetch quest, all in a world laden with technical issues. Inventory glitches, missing quest NPCS, and even disappearing save files plagued players, and any lingering excitement from the trailer was finally snuffed out.
