If Wanted Dead is of any indication, I don't think history has been too harsh on Devils Third too.
In an action game production values (not strictly graphics but animations, level design and input feedback) are fundamental, and Wanted Dead was really lacking in that department.
Appreciating low budget, janky, interesting-in-theory action games is an acquired taste, but again why should you learn to appreciate them? Don't waste your time
This.
When I spend 60,70, 80 Eurodollars I expect not only the bare minimum but something actually good, don't need a contrarian or "hip" internet guy telling me what is or isn't good or, that a game is "misunderstood", I'm the buyer, I'm the gonna be the one judging that.
Just from the games shown in the video :
MGS rising revengeace is actually GOOD, it's got a stellar soundtrack, good animations, good gameplay mechanics , memorable characters good "production values®" but most importantly, it's a joy to play.
Gears of war...it's not a 9.4 (IGN score) for me, but, it's also not a bad game, sure, it's very simplistic gameplay wise and it may indeed score a couple of points more for the "production values ®" but, a bad game it is not.
As for God hand...I get what clover was trying to do but, between the "create your own combo" , inexistent and drab looking levels/ level design and the super wacky, hit or miss Japanese humor, well, the game just wasn't for me - does it mean that it's a 5 out of 10 game like IGN said ? No, but it wasn't because of the lack of production values, just that the game might not be everyone's cup of tea.
There's also no way that you could me with a straight face that something like Slitterhead is actually good or misunderstood, game plays like a PS2 game (and a very mediocre one at that), janky animations, janky combat, janky mechanics, janky...You'd have to pay me to play it, not the other way around.
When it comes to Wanted dead now... I must have about 55 hours invested and i still won't say that it's a "good" or "misunderstood" game and would NEVER recommend it to anyone, and it's not because it doesn't have the "production values ®" of something like a Sony first party game, it's just that it's buggy, repetitive, ridiculous in all the wrong ways ("GrEnAaaaDeeEee !"
) and so undercooked that it just hurts, again, money that should have been spent in honing the gameplay and/or refining the whole experience was spent on... music track licensing and that fucking Maserati logo, also: Terribad voice acting, Terribad level design, Terribad bosses, terribad progression... everything about the game is bad - if you have any standards that is.
Same exact thing about Devil's 3rd, while itagaki might have had some good ideas and intentions about it, the whole execution and also - yes - "production values®" were complete and other shit, There's just no fun playing an action game that constantly dips down to the lower 30s, tears like a motherfucker, has a janky camera system and the weapons implementation and shooting feeling is completely an absolutely cack.
Sometimes, bad/mediocre games are just that, bad and/or mediocre and there's no need for internet contrarians to be telling us otherwise while - at the same time - trying to look/sound cool by showing how "different" or better they are compared to the "unwashed masses®".
I get that some.of these games have their..."charm" (heck, I like Suda51's output) but to say that they're actually good or misunderstood is factually incorrect.
