If there has been one defining feature of this generation of consoles so far, its hype. Even before the hardware hit the shelves, both consoles had been endlessly talked up and down by their respective companies (with Nintendo being the anomalous exception).

A few months into the new generation and all we had to show for it was a few meagre releases and a lot of unfulfilled potential. But it was OK, because Watchdogs was on the horizon. After smashing it at E3, Watchdog’s hype-machine reached unparalleled levels of bullshit and sucked everybody in (including me).

After a deafening fanfare, what we got was a distinctly average and gimmicky sandbox game with an asshole for a protagonist. But it was OK, because Destiny was coming out soon. I mean, ‘next-gen’ doesn’t simply mean shiner graphics and 60fps. It means genuine developments and innovations in gameplay too, and Destiny’s ever growing universe in which thousands of players unite in the face of a powerful foe was hyped up to fit the bill, and I, being the gullible fool I am, was as sucked in as anybody.

Once again, the dreaded hype machine presented us with a golden egg, which turned out to be a yellow balloon full of tears. So instead of a revolutionary console MMO, we got another Halo game but with all the grandeur sucked out of it, only to be replaced with pure, unadulterated grind.

It’s hard to stay passionate about games when they so often disappoint. I sat there, willing myself to persevere with Destiny when I realised I was giving up hope. First Watchdogs, then Destiny. If this pattern continues, then all this generation will be remembered for is a series of vapid, expensive let-downs.

Step forward, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. It’s safe to say that in recent years, games based on Tolkien’s epic fantasy novels haven’t been great, with the mediocre The Lord of the Rings: War in the North topping the list.

Shadow of Mordor was a game that nobody paid attention to. When Destiny was bouncing around like a hyper eight-year-old in front of his disinterested school friends, Shadow of Mordor was in the corner quietly getting on with its own business.

There was no deafening fanfare for Shadow of Mordor. To be honest, as a huge fan of the source material, I had already written it off. Then, a few days before it’s US release, reviews started leaking out. Reviews that said things like ‘9/10′. Suddenly, everybody was talking about it. The kid in the corner was suddenly pushed into the spotlight.

Monolith and Warner Bros. did the smart thing and let the game create its own hype. Shadow of Mordor is a tight, highly enjoyable game that features an amalgamation of several tried and tested mechanics, such as the Arkham series’ combat and Assassin’s Creed‘s stealth based around climbing and athleticism, but with its own original flourish in the form of its touted ‘Nemesis’ system.

It isn’t a perfect game and it has its faults, but the key thing is that it had nothing to live up to. Where as Ubisoft and Activision ridiculously touted their games to the point where they could never have lived up to their expectations, Shadow of Mordor got a fair, untainted analysis.

Which leads me to the point that triple A publishers have made hype something to fear. Shadow of Mordor didn’t need hype because the publisher was clearly confident of its quality. Perhaps Watchdogs was painfully over-hyped because Ubisoft weren’t so confident. They had to tank as many pre-orders as possible before everybody realised it was dull and unimaginative.

Obviously this is just my own opinion, and I know Destiny in particular has attracted a zealous fan base, I’m simply suggesting that the ridiculous resources that were put into its hype hints at a lack of confidence with the game itself.

When the hype machine rolls into town with all its superlatives for the latest ‘best game ever’, maybe its safest to keep your wallet/purse/sack of booty in your pocket until the game has been given a sound, critical going over.

However, that’s only from the perspective of a consumer. From a publisher’s perspective, both Watchdogs, which was the fastest ever selling new IP in the UK, and Destiny, which had the most successful gaming franchise launch of all time, have been resounding successes. This isn’t because of their undeniable quality, as we all know that both received mixed critical reception, this is because of the hype machine. We were all duped.

© 2014, zero1gaming.com. All rights reserved. On republishing this article your must provide a link to this original post