Sometimes games have really awesome trailers and the gameplay matches exactly what you see, sort of like Vanquish or Bayonetta or Max Payne 3. Other times games have really awesome trailers and it turns out that the actual games are nothing like that.
With the above in mind, here at Gaming Blend we took it upon ourselves to find six of the most egregious instances where the trailers were really awesome and seemed to promise an equally awesome gameplay experience but the actual game turned out to be crap. So without further ado, here is a list of 6 trailers that were way better than the actual games.
The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic... this game with its massive budget had some of the coolest trailers around. The cinematic trailers for this game were always action packed, heartfelt and breathtaking... and the game itself was kind of just samey. It's hard to pick just one trailer from the many that were used to promote the game, but thankfully Gamer's Little Playground managed to compile all of the promotional cinematics into one video so you can see just how far removed the game is from the movie-quality cinematics that were used to promote the game. The biggest problem was that the cinematics are epic and the game itself was basically Knights of the Old Republic as an MMO with mediocre gameplay. Fans of the series still love the lore but the gameplay itself leaves a lot to be desired.
H.A.W.X. 2
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 is one of those games where the cinematics and the build-up were pretty slick but the actual game failed to deliver anything memorable. In fact, the gameplay is so forgettable that anytime someone sees the trailers for it they're reminded that the game was nothing like the trailers. In fact, you see that trailer above? Well the gameplay was a slow, ugly, boring mess compared to that. It came out during a time when Ace Combat ruled the skies but all it managed to do was make people want to forget the flight sim genre existed. H.A.W.X. 2 seemed to disappear rather quickly after gamers actually got a taste of the real gameplay.
RAGE
If you took the DNA of Borderlands, the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout and the destructive vehicular combat of Mad Max you would get id Software's id Tech 5-powered RAGE. Sounds like a winning formula for success right? The mainstream introduction of mega-textures and giant open worlds to explore right? Well, that's how the game came across in the trailers, like the one above, but the actual gameplay was nothing like it. It was a mundane, mostly corridor-focused shooter with preset vehicle combat scenes and a limited cache of uninteresting weapons and gadgets. While the trailers may go down in history as being pretty cool, the game will not.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Featuring the unforgettable music of Oscar Araujo and compelling voice acting from Patrick Stewart and Robery Carlyle, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 had all the makings of being a great sequel to a great game about vampire lore. To this day the game still has some of the best trailers I've ever seen. Yet the reason this game failed so badly was because the first game was written magnificently and it had a great build up with perfectly suitable trailers, and the second one seemed to follow suit hinting at a mature and well written story... but then the game completely dropped the ball. Rat stealth and lazy level design. That's the best way to sum up Lords of Shadow 2. Thankfully you can always watch that epic trailer above and feel pretend that the lackluster game doesn't exist.
Elder Scrolls Online
This game suffered from the same problem as The Old Republic: super awesome cinematics butt he gameplay was very much on the “meh” side of the equation by comparison. The cinematic trailers gave the impression that this was like The Lord of the Rings on a gritty form of steroids. The cinematics for Elder Scrolls Online are moving and gripping, but sadly the game itself is kind of a standard fare MMO. It's not bad but compared to the trailers most people were probably expecting something dynamic and fast paced... sorry but you'll have to check out a game like Blade & Soul or TERA Online if you want that kind of experience.
Dead Island
You want a perfect example of an awesome trailer that really doesn't represent the game in anyway other than sharing the same name and being about zombies? Look no further than the awesomely constructed but wholly non-representative cinematic trailer for Techland's Dead Island. The game's cinematic trailer went viral the day it went live and everyone was talking about it. So what about the game? Well, other than the glitches and how mediocre an experience it was, there was no where near as much talk about the game as there was about the cinematic trailer. In fact, the trailer managed to get the attention of Hollywood producers who wanted the rights to the film only hours after the trailer went live. Crazy, right? Now if only the game was as poignant and emotional as Axis Animation and Audiomotion Studios' cinematic trailer... then some other game would have been on this list.
