Current Events > ITT: Trailers that made games seem much more awesome than they were

(+) Yeah! (+)

As someone who enjoyed it enough, Watch Dogs

Dead Island ended up being so tonally different from its reveal trailer.

Spore
Multiversus
Brink
The Order 1886

There's a pretty funny video where it compares the Starcraft cinematic trailers to the gameplay, but I can't find it.
https://youtu.be/M_XwzBMTJaM

I know this isn't what you were looking for but the era in PS3/360 where everything was a cinematic trailer and often it was created strictly for the trailer and wasn't even in game cinematics so it was completely not representative of the game.

It's not that it was even better, it was just not the game at all. Dragon Age Origins did this and the trailer almost turned me off. The actual in game stuff was way better. Not sure why studios were so into that at the time.

Vampire Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyQhuZnXNK4

Killzone 2 reveal trailer, AKA the reason trailers require the "Not actual gameplay footage" subtitle now:

https://youtu.be/b-4HNmuEAKg?si=Txk7Bk-m0ORLx2Cn

There was a great FFXIII trailer in Japanese, but the English version swapped out the Japanese song for Leona Lewis and it made it kinda funny. It's a good example though because XIII's promos were way better than the game. The descendant was probably Xenosaga 2:
https://youtu.be/caU10Ma9E0g

The very first Japanese-language TGS KH Days trailer.

https://youtu.be/W95EmLiFqCY?si=3WkRzVMdpmAPfUnh

This one. I think it was the first.

I think Brutal Legend advertised as a sort of beat 'em up game but it was really a real time strategy game.

I feel that describes a lot of Squeenix games from 2008 till 2018

KH Series
FF13 sorta
FF13 Versus/ 15
Nier

They have top tier trailers but the actual game is a crapshoot.

The only games that was hyped and delivered for the most is the Remake series, and I guess Tactics

the trailers for both Death Strandings (unfortunately, both games ended up being bad).

the Metal Gear Solid V trailers (good game, but disappointing in a lot of ways).

Breath of the Wild

https://youtu.be/zw47_q9wbBE?si=RGSiA4NBsAdp_E9b

Of course its a great game, but this trailer really made it look like the story would be very involved and have twists and turns. It looked like youd be spending a lot of time with these other characters and the player would be activity participating in some crazy events. But no, you can almost say there is no story, all the cutscenes are optional flashbacks, they show things that happened before the actual events of the game. And the player spends 99% of the time by themselves.

Cyberpunk

I think it lived up to the hype, but I understand many people were bothered by the lack of cutscenes for MGSV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhseWPWYPBA

Project X Zone just shows a bunch of cool characters doing flashy combos and kinda glosses over the fact that it's the most bland, nothing strategy game ever made.

I'll never forgive Microsoft for canceling Scale bound.
Game never got released, but every trailer and bit of gameplay looked fantastic.

Evolician posted...

Breath of the Wild

https://youtu.be/zw47_q9wbBE?si=RGSiA4NBsAdp_E9b

Of course its a great game, but this trailer really made it look like the story would be very involved and have twists and turns. It looked like youd be spending a lot of time with these other characters and the player would be activity participating in some crazy events. But no, you can almost say there is no story, all the cutscenes are optional flashbacks, they show things that happened before the actual events of the game. And the player spends 99% of the time by themselves.

Was gonna mention this, yeah. A similar example I know is Xenoblade X with its JPN story trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I16IarGHHg

Made the game seem like it would be a sad game filled with action and betrayal. And well...it's kinda right, just toward the very end. But most of the game is a bunch of dull-directed scenes of people standing around and talking. It's still a fantastic game, but an action-packed story it certainly ain't, lol.

https://youtu.be/L31RA_C4978?si=fBzbeKIXsQvEwa0d

The actual Sonic CD isn't nearly as adrenaline pumped as that commercial made it look

BlueAnnihilator posted...

The actual Sonic CD isn't nearly as adrenaline pumped as that commercial made it look

Seeing the gradual decline of its praise over the years was interesting to see. I had it and a Sega CD as kid, and the game wasn't really that amazing. The elusiveness and OST really elevated its reputation.

The Witcher 3

Turbam posted...

As someone who enjoyed it enough, Watch Dogs

This was the first thing that came to mind.

Dead Island

Evolician posted...

Breath of the Wild

https://youtu.be/zw47_q9wbBE?si=RGSiA4NBsAdp_E9b

Of course its a great game, but this trailer really made it look like the story would be very involved and have twists and turns. It looked like youd be spending a lot of time with these other characters and the player would be activity participating in some crazy events. But no, you can almost say there is no story, all the cutscenes are optional flashbacks, they show things that happened before the actual events of the game. And the player spends 99% of the time by themselves.

Then they did it again for TotK!

Hayame_Zero posted...

Seeing the gradual decline of its praise over the years was interesting to see. I had it and a Sega CD as kid, and the game wasn't really that amazing. The elusiveness and OST really elevated its reputation.

yeah it's always wild going back and hearing people call CD one of the best sonic games, easily the worst of the classics and i'd put it comfortably below many later 2D and 3D games too