Game news GTA, The Medium, eFootball… The biggest disappointments of 2021
It is certain, the year 2021 will have offered us very good titles, but also much less brilliant games, which were sometimes frankly disappointing. Today, it is on these apps that we are going to focus. Between GTA Trilogy The Definitive Edition, Destruction AllStars or The Medium, discover our complete list. And we start right away with the first game, which made a lot of noise.
GTA Trilogy The Definitive Edition
As we know, the release of a GTA is always an event, both fun and media. But in the case of Grand Theft Auto Trilogy The Definitive Edition, it’s clearly the second point that has taken over, and not for the right reasons. As a reminder, this is a “plus plus remaster” of the first three episodes in 3D of the series, ie GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas. Basically, the basic games’ skeleton remains the same but Rockstar Games has put a lick of paint on the graphics, lighting, and character design. The catch is that this transformation brought a lot of problems, not to mention the bugs. The artistic dimension thus loses in homogeneity – with some big mistakes of taste – to which are added gameplay problems. In short, we expected more for such cult titles.
AllStars Destruction
As you probably know, PlayStation built its hegemony during the PS4 era thanks to an extremely powerful catalog of exclusives, with an almost irreproachable media image, carried by an unfailing technical and narrative mastery. But the “problem” with this model of success is that every new exclusive game is expected around the corner, even if it isn’t brimming with ambition. This is kind of what happened to Destruction AllStars, which more or less paid for the impeccable reputation of PlayStation. But the title of the studio Lucid Games also has its faults. In addition to a rather solid gameplay, it is especially the game modes that disappointed us during the release. “A formula where you just have to run into your opponents to score points” summarizes our test. Perhaps the updates have been of benefit to him.
Sand
There are games that capture attention from their first images. Which encapsulate, in no time at all, a promise that seems unprecedented. The open-world exploration game Sable definitely falls into this category. With its formula inspired by Zelda Breath of the Wild and its truly particular artistic direction, which directly refers to the work of the artist Moebius, more than one player has been seduced by this title like no other. But it is clear thatyou don’t just need pretty plastic to make a good game. Because whoever says formula à la Breath of the Wild says vast expanses to cover, and the movements as well as the technical approximations of Sable pull him down. We think especially of the aerocycle, your main means of locomotion, which often gets stuck in the background. A pretty good app.
The Medium
With its notable gain in power, the new generation of consoles has brought with it new possibilities for developers. On the Sony side, it was Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart which acted as the spearhead with almost imperceptible transitions between two dimensions, made possible thanks to the custom SSD of the PlayStation 5. And on the other side, at Microsoft, it was up to The Medium to do the same. The concept of the title, devised by the talented Bloober Team (Layers of Fear, Blair Witch) was to display two alternate realities at the same time, all in an old-school horror game, with stationary cameras. Sadly, on the sidelines of an interesting central idea, the software lacks a lot of things, especially in terms of rhythm, atmosphere and production. Too bad for a fairly innovative title.
Balan wonderland
Obviously, a platform game published by Square Enix with two of the creators of the famous Sonic (Yuji Naka and Naoto Ōshima) at the helm, it attracts attention and raises many expectations. The fact is that despite his nice CV, Balan Wonderworld does not do much right. The title is billed as a “3D action platformer game with a musical twist”, notably based on a lot of costumes that give players various abilities, Super Mario Odyssey style. The thing is, these techniques are movements generally offered by default in games of the genre (ground attack, higher jump). With even some characters who do not jump at all. Add to that a poor gameplay, imprecise and a level design that lacks inventiveness. We still retain the colorful visuals.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
For a long time, beyond the role-playing game on the table, the Dungeons & Dragons license has made the heyday of the video game world. We especially remember the excellent Baldur’s Gate, with a third episode currently in early access. Dark Alliance, for its part, is trying to bring an action-RPG dimension to all of this, and players have been impatiently awaiting it. But the result does not live up to the fame of the series : in particular in question, the heavy gameplay, in spite of several playable characters. Added to this is a whole slew of various problems, “a difficulty system lacking consistency, artificial intelligence to pick up, slowdowns and some graphics bugs” as our test of the game asserts. Even the multiplayer suffers the blow. . We hope the updates have done it justice.
Even though it suffers each year from the comparison with the unmistakable FIFA, the PES license (now called eFootball) has always offered quality episodes over the years, with a few gameplay differences that have made it stand out from the competition. . For the first time in 2021, the famous football game goes free-to-play, for better or for worse. Indeed, aside from a simple and solid gameplay and a rather poor content which promises to be enriched as and when, it is mainly the bugs that have hurt eFootball 2022. As soon as it was released, social networks were invaded with close-ups, each more eccentric than the next, with players like Ronaldo or Messi who shoot improbable heads. Or players who behave very irrational in the middle of a game. The title should improve in the future.
