I love the rhythmic gameplay of Crypt of the Necrodancer. I was glued to my Switch once it released last February. With laser focus, I danced through its clever design and roguelike dungeons. Then I quit right after getting destroyed by the game’s titular boss.
I had spent days and hours learning enemies’ attacks, failing miserably, managing fleeting victories (to later be trounced), and enjoying my time. And yet, the effort to complete it is too much right now.
I haven’t been as good about finishing my games for the past few years with the 2015 rhythm, roguelike game being my latest victim. In Necrodancer‘s case, I was satisfied that I had finally made it past a certain point after trying so many times. I made that my goal. I then moved on to whatever game was next, and I’m ok with that.
I may actually go back and finish that someday. That’s a constant line I feed myself for all my unfinished games, and sometimes it’s a truth! Even if it takes me months, and in some cases, a couple of years. When I asked Kotaku readers a few weeks ago to give me the games they last abandoned, I got some interesting responses.
I’m always curious as to why I’m not finishing my games, and finding out same from others. As there are so many games out there seeking our attention, what are our personal standards for what’s a must-play to completion?
And so now, I turn the question to you: what’s the last game you abandoned, and why? Will you go back? Did you regret getting it?
Comments
42 responses to “What’s The Last Game You Abandoned?”
More like, what was the last game I didn’t abandon?
It’s so rare I finish anything. Rarely still that I complete anything.
*this*
PlayStation Plus (and I would assume Xbox Games for Gold) offer those “free” games each month and these days, I just don’t have the time to finish them. I wish Sony would offer a two tier system where there’s a cheaper tier with less games.
I wish Sony would just allow for cloud saves without making me pay, then I think I wouldn’t have Plus at all. I keep Gold because if I’m ever doing anything multiplayer it’s on my Xbox. I add the free games to my libraries then usually forget them instantly.
2 games, not so long ago and abandoned mostly due to circumstance.
Assassins Creed: Origins – I enjoyed what I played of the game, got to somewhere around the scene with the woman’s mummy being discovered and played a ton of side quest stuff. Abandoned because of the most stupid of reasons; I wanted a traditional Assassin’s Creed game with the treasure chest map, points of interest and the slowly removing all of the little nodes from the main map. Origin’s, whilst a pretty great game, wasn’t what I was after when I purchased it, I won’t be going back.
Nier: Automata – I kind of lost interest in it. I think at the time I picked it up, I thought I had more of a drive to dedicate time to an RPG but after a week on and off with it, I just stopped playing. I’ll likely go back to it at some point but at the moment, it sits on my pile of shame.
Fortnite, I pre-ordered that for the tower defense fun.
I did not want PUBG, If I wanted PUBG, I would have bought PUBG.
I also left, Persona 5 in the dust because of Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter World has been left behind due to Shoppe Keep 2, Frostpunk and Phoenix Point (Early access) rocking around
The Witness is the only game in the last few years that I’ve abandoned.
Red dead redemption. Purely because of open world of nothing to do, or at least doing the same random encounter….but on the other side of the map. I only regret not following through the story.
No – seriously go back and finish it. There are some seriously well craft stories – especially right near the end.
I’ll be re-playing it shortly and can’t wait to spend another 40 hours with Marsden.
I had a few people say that about red dead, that the open world was somewhat barren, I personally loved it but can see why people wouldn’t enjoy it. I hope that with RDR2 they fill it with a world brimming with things to do.
Fallout 4. Just found it a little too hard
Very recently I finally got around to trying Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure. The ‘unboxing’ move sounded interesting and I vaguely remembered it getting decent reviews back when it first released.
The ‘unbox’ move turned out to be interesting and sometimes very useful – if I screwed up a jump, then I could double/triple/quadruple/whatever-jump my way back to safety. Handy!
I was going through the snow level, completing various challenges, when I came across a thoroughly evil challenge. I was trying to climb a mountain, and I wasn’t allowed to use the ‘unbox’ move. So I was locked out of using the game’s signature move and I couldn’t easily recover after a screwed up jump. And then It happened. I fell off the path (again) and before I could respawn, I fell past a previous checkpoint.
“Reached new checkpoint!” the game helpfully said.
When I respawned I was so far behind where I’d gotten up to, I got incredibly salty and ragequit. I haven’t gone back to the game and probably never will.
I gave up on completing Metal Gear Solid V. It feels like the game should have ended on mission 31 and then most of the next 20 missions are just rehashes of older missions (Including story cutscenes you have already seen) only with some idiotic condition attached.
These kind of things should have been part of a challenge mode or something, not part of the main story.
Also I know you can do repeatable side ops to slowly progress the story as well but both of these options are terrible. I hate random repeatable missions in games.
Yeah MGSV smacks of a game that was both simultaneously unfinished, and also too long…
I went back to playing it last week & progressed my save abit more but only realized i abandoned it again while reading your comment, The whole episode style seems like it’s meant to make each mission seem like it’s own action movie but it’s like watching the same movie over & over, V is the game i thought i wanted when playing Snake eater but i see why the old linear style was better now. It’s tedious & repetitive, I found myself only getting excited when i found a new music tape.
Nioh was the last one. Waited months for a sale. Finally got it. Played for about 5 hours, got distracted and never went back. Just didn’t hook me like I thought it would
I’m currently playing it, I stopped playing the first week i got it, I picked up where i left off & am having fun, It’s a highly overated game i will never replay from the start, I’m close to finishing it & the dlc expansions don’t excite me at all which is a weird situation.. I may buy the dlc or wait for the Dark Souls remaster.
The Witcher games. Just can’t get into them, don’t know why, the setting never clicked for me. Also Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Just don’t really care for the setting.
I also have a habit of starting a campaign in a Total War game, battling to a certain point, and then losing interest and wandering off. Still haven’t completed a campaign in any of them.
I was going to say this. Glad I’m not the only one. Tried playing the Witcher 3 and just felt so overwhelmed with so much to do I put it down and haven’t gone back to it.
I finished the Witcher 2 maybe 4 times but i’ve tried twice to enjoy the Witcher 3 but find it a chore, It’s not the Witcher 2 but open world, The Witcher 3 feels like a re-imagining, I get to this big city & are tasked with tracking down all of Dandelion’s whores & it feels like Ubisoft busywork. I want to fight Kayrans, I must of killed 5 wraiths instead like they forgot to add any other type of monsters, I’m sure it’s a great game but i find it a chore.
It’s very rare for me not to finish a game I like. Last one was Just Cause 3, I liked the game and it was fun, not love it like 2, but still. It just felt too big and imposing, I tried to stick to the story but it still got to the point of being so repetitive and not feeling like I was getting anywhere after 20 hours that I was getting sick of it. Still want to go back and finish it one day though.
Nioh was my most recent game i gave up. I enjoyed it for a while but the repetitive areas and using the same weapons over and over kinda got old for me. I guess because I love the souls series i kinda hold souls like games to high standards.
The one game I abandoned so close to the end but am definitely persistent to finish is also the Witcher 3. The game is absolutely massive and due to that and wanting to do all quests, I tend to run out of time before uni starts back up.
Also, i don’t know if it’s just me but certain games i rush through when i should really rake my time. Horizon Zero Dawn was casualty of that mindset. Completed it but did no side quests and kinda just wasn’t playing for the satisfaction, but to just see the end of the game.
Horizon: Zero Dawn (Playing other things)
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (Playing other things)
Every Assassin’s Creed since Brotherhood (Boring)
Final Fantasy XV (garbage game)
The Last of Us (Boring)
FF Type 0 (didnt like it)
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (Playing other things)
Cuphead (Playing other things)
Countless others actually. I have no time and some games just arent worth it…
XCOM 2. Loved the first one and really enjoyed the start of this one. Then an enemy showed up that could magically teleport behind me, negating the benefits of the cover that I had so carefully positioned my guys behind. Lost a couple of my beloved XCOM dudes to the cheapest of enemies. Shut the game down immediately and haven’t played a single second of it since.
Remember that feeling and enemy all too well, if it’s the one I’m thinking of it’s not the only irritating trick up it’s sleeve either. That + the harsh timer turned me off 2 as well – although happy to report that having gone back for WotC I enjoyed it a lot more second time (not advocating you should do the same, just that I gave in to a moment of madness and was happily rewarded)!
Yeah, I hear WotC makes it a better game. Problem is that it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don’t want to touch it again, let alone reward them by buying their expensive DLC.
I hear you, I was mad at myself after impulse buying it! It makes it better for sure, but even then there are still too many ‘fake-tough’ moments for me to appreciate it as much as enemy unknown – i like being beaten (Divinity OS2 regularly kicking my ass right now), but not by BS.
Dunno, loads of people love it still & whilst i appreciated it more 2nd time I have no desire to go back, unlike EU which I played to death?
I guess it just really annoyed me because it’s a strategy game, and the entire thing (like the first game as well) is based around the cover system. You want to make sure that your guys end the turn in cover, that you’ve got them positioned to try and prevent the enemy from flanking you and potentially create opportunities to flank the enemy.
Then this crap comes along and throws it all out the window because it doesn’t matter how good you are or how well you set up and position your team – this thing just teleports behind you and wipes them out anyway and there’s no way to stop it. The game just completely undermines its own foundation.
I still liked XCOM 2 but it started to cross into the actually “unfair” territory. I mean the point of the game is that the enemy should, by default, have the upper hand, but if you screwed up it was usually your own fault. With too many new abilities for the enemy and a harsh timer XCOM 2 just felt a bit too mean.
The expansion DLC helps immensely, but don’t make the mistake of unchecking “rebalance other DLC”. I did that and everything was made infinitely more difficult with both Chosen and those special alien variants turning up every other mission – at the same time.
Dragonball FighterZ I guess
Dishonoured 2. I found the first game so engaging, but the second left me cold. I just didn’t care.
I will say Dishonoured 2 New game + where you choose powers from both trees and have enough points from the first play through is one of the most ridiculously overpowered and fun time I have had in a game recently.
Witcher 3. I love the world itself, the small attention to detail, but Geralt is a mopey twat who annoys the crap out of me and yeah I endure the previous two games with him as well hoping he would get better
Funny how so many people atruggled with Witcher 3 as opposed to 2? Doubly so when I loved 3, but the reasons given are the same as why I could never really get into 2 – we’re a funny lot! 😀
Currently playing through Divinity OS2, really loving it but it takes so so long (I am a very slow methodical/pedantic player anyway) I can see why many would give in before the end?
I finished Horizon ZD’s main quest but left most of the side quests for when the dlc drops – thing is that i now can’t be bothered to go back to it? I find that more with so many games out now, when I know dlc is coming it puts me off because if i like the game, i’ll probably want to buy it, but know I usually start again because it takes a while to re-learn all the controls/combat etc?
AC:Syndicate/FC4/Watchdogs – left all of those after approx 5-10 hours. Just feels like the same generic game with different skins/weapons now? Great game worlds but largely dull missions and stories.
Dynasty Warriors 9: One of those lunatic guilty pleasure type fans who’s been playing the series & spinoffs for years, this one just nope. Got about 4 hours in and dishwasher/hanging out washing hold more appeal.
MGS 5 is a good shout too, I’d even forgotten that I’d abandoned that one – loved some of the gameplay/guard trolling you could do, but duuuuull & repetitive otherwise.
BotW. Sunk a hundred odd hours into it before getting back to Splatoon, then they revealed how the DLC would have that Hero’s Path feature that would show you where you travelled for the last two hundred hours. But with zero interest in anything else it has to offer, a map feature wasn’t worth $30 to me while continuing on and risking losing any of that data kept me paralysed in place. “Maybe later”.
Only took me 9 years to get back to finishing Twilight Princess, how bad could it be…
Last game I abandoned was ZombiU. The game itself was fine, and was innovative, but I just couldn’t get into it for some reason. I tried multiple times and it just didn’t happen, so I gave up on it.
It’s actually very rare for me to abandon a game, I finish pretty much every game I start.
Ahhhh, I never got back to that! There was a signposted point-of-no-return near the end, and I was too indecisive on what I was going to take with me beyond it so never got around to continuing and finishing it. And then every time I thought about going back it was like “nah I’m too out of practise now, would need to spend some time learning how to play again” and did something else instead. Absolutely loved it though, one of my favourites and underappreciated gem of the launch lineup imo.
Horizon – Frozen Wilds. PLayed and loved the main game. Thought oh I could play some more of that and downloaded the expansion. Then came Monster Hunter and the rest is history. For now.
Subnautica for me. I’m all set up with a base at the Cove Tree around 900m down and have everything I need to progress the story to the finish. Just haven’t had a chance to finish it up due to other games grabbing my interest.
Far cry 4, I loved 3 and it was my first venture into the franchise but 4 just didn’t get me. It came across as just wanting to top the 3rd one, it had a crazy bad guy let’s make this one crazier. It just didn’t get me, I think I played 3 or 4 hours.
Meanwhile I am loving FC5.
Destiny. And caring.
Ha, realised I completely forgot about Mario Odyssey. Rather than just taking a break and not getting back to it, that one was more intentionally abandoned because I just got sick of its shit and the way it completely disrespected my time with how it punished exploration.
Monster Hunter. I even traded it in then rebrought it. Definitely got a fair way in, at least 40 hours. It’s a great game but overrated. I think I’ll get back into it. The rolling sucks.