I’m talking about games that you still like but you had no idea were criticized so much.
The perfect example for me is Sonic Unleashed.
I admit that the game has its bad things, but I would have never imagined that it was so hated at the time… Although, that could be extended to the entire Sonic franchise, since for many years I was not aware at all of that “Sonic was never good”, “Sonic had a rough transition to 3D” nonsense.
Mass Effect: Andromeda - I knew 1 & 2 were held in high regard, but I hadn’t played them. Actually, I’d played about 10 minutes of one of them a couple years before and it just wasn’t what I was in the mood for at that time. So, I went into Andromeda without any expectations really and thought it was a perfectly fine game.
Just finishing about a new playthrough of Andromeda and I think it’s larger problem is that the good content doesn’t open up until a third of the way through the game. For the first third, you have very little to do except follow the Kett and the Angara storyline, and those are the absolute worst parts of the game.
It doesn’t actually get good until it opens up and you’re dealing with Outlaws, Collective, internal politics of the Nexus, the Krogan rebellion, etc… and your (admittedly pretty lame) companion quests. But at least it’s something more than just two new species that aren’t nearly as fleshed out or complete as what already existed.
By the time the game opens up and you can do more than just the main quest, you’re already friggin bored.
The original iteration of no mans sky. Absolutely lied a shit ton about what was in the game but I really enjoyed my initial time with it.
There was something about the infinite emptiness that struck an emotional chord with me. That’s gone now, for the better overall, but I’m glad I experienced it.
Unironically ET on the Atari 2600
Had a lot of fun as a kid, sure it wasn’t Pitfall or F1 Racing but it was one of the few adventures on the 2600 and it wasn’t terrible
I am one of the 10 people on earth who really enjoyed playing Starfield. The space combat seemed like a love letter to the old Wing Commander series, the art design was beautiful, there was a lot of fun content. I think i made it to NG7 before they took it off the free to play. When it’s on sale i can’t wait to grab it.
by comparison i hated The Outer Worlds which was the first ‘it’s like fallout in space!’ that was promised so i was tickled when Starfield actually was like fallout in space.
I really like it until I started having problems with what I think must have been save bloating, making it more and more difficult to save. Which in turn made me quite until a possible fix as I didn’t want to risk the save becoming unplayable.
Then I played other things and sort of forgot to check if it was fixed, but I still really liked the game.
I tried The Outer Worlds but couldn’t stand it.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Starfield. I just wish I didn’t spend half of my time trying to build the optimal bases for trading hubs. Apart from that, everything was good
The bases were interesting! Getting an interplanetary production system going took some figuring and i never got an inter-system network up. If the mod scene keeps going for it they sure have a lot to work with!
Oooo now you have me interested in Starfield by comparing it to Wing Commander, damn you.
I loved Outer Worlds. Rough around the edges, sure, but it wasn’t much different than playing Fallout 3 in terms of gameplay. Also the setting made for some great satire. My only real complaint was the small maps. High hopes for the sequel.
I enjoyed it for a while, but the whole ng+, while pretty cool, really killed it for me. My first playthrough I made bases, upgraded weapons, etc. Then I learned about all the cool perks you got from ng+ and did that. The problem is you lose all your bases and material farms. So you’re in this weird spot of having to bum rush all 10 universes to get the maximum benefit before actually setting up any significant settlements. I burned out quick. Also a bunch of the powers are underwhelming, and space travel is DOGSHIT. NMS, elite dangerous, hell even star citizen are space games. Starfield is NOT.
Deus Ex 2 - on PC.
There’s a lower budget game by Spiders called Technomancer that came out in 2016. It came up in my XBox game pass, so I played it before I read any reviews on it, and I honestly enjoyed the hell out of it.
I didn’t find the combat stilted. It felt quite fun to work between three different fighting styles. The storyline was interesting and (to me anyway) original. And the Universe was pretty fun to play around in.
I also quite enjoyed that one! Definitely a bit janky, but I had my fun for the price.
Holy shit someone else who played Technomancer and enjoyed it!
Very much so. I wish there was more in that world. The lore was really interesting to me. It’s not often you get a story set on Mars that actually has something unique about it.
Interestingly, the two example you shared (Sonic Unleashed and the whole Sonic franchise being bad) are likely a good example of “hanging with the bad crowd”. Unleashed is… not great, in my opinion, but the whole franchise? Please. We’re not talking Sonic06 level of horrible decisions.
Another view on this is, if you enjoy something, and people have to tell you it’s bad just so you know, it can’t be that bad. People enjoy different things, and seriously, the toxicity of large communities is the worst thing ever. At this point, even with what seems to be “unanimously loved”, you’ll be able to find a large enough group of people happy to tell you it’s shit.
With that said, some games are really, really bad. But these games usually don’t need to be pointed out for people to know.
edit: dang, that was full of typo.
Jumping on your last point, I was in a local Game store and a woman who clearly knew nothing about games was birthday shopping for her son, she asked the owner what if he thought Superman 64 would be a good gift.
To the man’s credit, in complete deadpan, he said “that game is absolutely terrible, it’s the worst game on the system”
“hanging with the bad crow"
That’s my favorite Sonic mission.
I remember some people in Reddit not being too happy with It Takes Two.
We loved it and look forward to playing Split Fiction when we find the time.
My kids played this co-op and loved it
Seemed like a pretty solid coop game to me!
Sonic Adventure 2
RuneScape 😅
Killzone. I really, really loved the story and level design, but everything was shit. Someone pointed it out to me and I suddenly seen everything wrong with the game hahha.
There was this one glitch where the first shot from the Helghast rifle was 100% accurate which I used and abused to absolutely destroy people in multiplayer games.
Mass Effect Andromeda. I plaid it well after launch after the initial “problems” were fixed, and I think it’s a good game. I just wish we’d get a sequel.
Dark Souls 2 was the first and only Soulslike game I played… Was a great experience and a good time killer during my summer break (when I still had one). Only later did I learn how poorly ppl thought of the game
they only hate on it because it wasn’t the exact same. DS2 is a great game but really should have been a stand alone title
Industria, I really really love it but it turns out it’s not particularly well reviewed. I’ve always wanted a game that felt like Simon Stålenhag’s paintings and that game is actually specifically inspired by his work.
“we have hl2 at home”
I’ve played half life but I don’t really like it, same with fallout and bioshock which are the other obvious comparisons
bioshock was fun. cant really blame you for not liking hl2 and fallout tho.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Bought of for 9€ and had a lot of fun with it. Sure, the story was not as good as the first one and it’s a lot shorter, but the new gameplay was great and it has a much better final boss than the first game.