"This game is nothing like the ads!"

[Palamon]

There are some games that have ads that are absolutely nothing like the actual game itself.

Some examples of this are Evony. Have people seen these ads? I've watched a couple Youtubers play this game after watching the ads and it's not as advertised at all, and the puzzles are barely a thing.

What are some games that are nothing at all like they're shown to be in the ads?

 

[gimmepie]

Weirdly enough, I actually can't think of an experience like this off the top of my head. It feels like there should have been something like this but I think games I've played have generally been pretty much as advertised.

 

[Cherrim]

I play a few mobile games where you can use ads for temporary power ups or you just get them every so often to interrupt your play. These games generally all suck but they're a bit of a guilty pleasure that I slip into sometimes and it's absolutely fascinating what kind of game ads you get.

Eurogamer had an article about the kinds of games who'll advertise one thing in their ads and then when you install it, it turns out to be something completely different and it sounds like the trends change over time. I know most of the game ads I see are for those weird like... pin pulling games? They advertise this weird game where you have to pull pins in a certain order to make sure whatever they're blocking off doesn't fall into lava or things happen in the correct order... and almost always the ad is actually for a basic match-three game. Another one is the um... Gardenscapes game? It cycles through different kinds of ads too and for a while they had a lot of super weird ones with the butler guy from the game just constantly getting in trouble and you'd have to select the right tool to help him but since ads where the "player" in the vid is infuriatingly bad at the game were all the rage, the guy would constantly be like burned and electrocuted and stuff. It was very weird and I'm certain the game wasn't like that at all.

I think I've only installed a game like this once or twice where the pitch (or sometimes even gameplay demo!) in the ad was intriguing enough of a gameplay loop for me to take a chance on the install and it turned out to just be a match-three or something similarly boring, but I honestly don't even remember what they would have been. Luckily most of these games that have a little demo are like... I'm satisfied by just playing the 15 seconds of it that was in the demo and I feel no need to play further.

One I'm utterly fascinated by but can't bring myself to install because I'd be SO disappointed if it turns out to be untrue is that... I think it's called Merge Mansion or something? All the ads for it are WILD. Like some girl's husband leaves her at the altar and she gets home to find out her little old grandma is getting arrested but not before grandma tells her about this magic mansion that has secrets in the walls or something. Every so often they make a new ad and it seems to further the "plot" a little more. I am so curious but I'd just be devastated if I installed it and all it was was a bad match-three game with no story. (Although at least that one is upfront about being a match-three.)

 

[AmberLB]

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright. Good game, but boy is it disappointing because none of the captivating drama from the trailer made it to the final game. The drama in the final game is...Hershel getting turned into a gold statue. I liked when it was actually VERSUS, when they were opposing each other. Not buddy buddy. It's the same problem the 2016 Ratchet and Clank has over the original game. All the believable and relatable character drama is gone. The best plot twist in the game, Captain Qwark turning out to be evil, is totally axed and he's just buddy buddy with Ratchet. I HATE IT

it also ruins the redemption arc that Qwark has after getting his just desserts.