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.
Fallout 4. game was pretty decent but the pacing was weird. by pacing I mean the game seemed like it was set out in a way that you wouldn’t complete the game until you were many levels up from what I was, so many upgrades that took a lot of caps left unlockable, and by the time I felt I was really starting to get somewhere, the game ended with the Institute ending
That reminded me that Sonic Unleashed was the only game I ever got refunded.
I bought the game to play with my kids, expecting a colorful and fun Sonic game. I quickly realized it was quite different, much more violent than I expected. So I traded it for Sonic Colors, which was a bit more kid friendly.
The last actually ambitious Sonic game imo
On the topic of Sonic Unleashed, I played it as a kid on the Wii and actively disliked it because it just seemed sad and freaky to see Sonic effectively become mutated.
To give some idea, back then I had no internet so whatever games we had, I always gave a good go and I’d always play even the most mediocre of games.
We also had Sonic Colors and that game just felt the total opposite: very positive, lots of eye candy, arcadey, very much enjoyed it as a kid.
Some 20 years later and I’m speaking to a Sonic fan and they bring up how they’ve played every single game including Unleashed, and it was the only one they hated, which made me realise I’m not the only one.
To answer your question, I’d say Shrek for the Xbox - I did enjoy Shrek 2 more than the original game as a kid, but I also didn’t mind the original either.
Once I had internet, I saw plenty of references to the original game as the butt of jokes and an example of what games should not be, and honestly those criticisms were valid.
Watch Dogs 1. It was quite fun for me, but quite a lot of people expected it to create a spark like GTA 5 back in the day, so when it didn’t; they all criticized it to hell.
Same and for me watch dogs 2 wasn’t as fun anymore.
Same. I think “No Man’s Sky” syndrome turned people off, but I thought it was really innovative, and I liked the PC being broody and driven, but not dramatic.
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.
I was just really really disappointed with the controls on the Wii. The first one was so intuitive and they just went and changed it for no reason.
I have to admit, I never tried the Wii version of either game. Only PC and Xbox.
I tried the PC version the other day for the first time, to finally see what the real game looks like. Might be nostalgia, but I thought the Wii version is actually better. I should install a Wii emulator to properly compare them.
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.
The GBA game for Avatar: the Last Airbender. Tried to revisit it as an adult, couldn’t find any reviews for it online. Apparently it was so obviously shovelware thay nobody gave it the time of day.
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.
I don’t want to dissuade you, because Split Fiction is just as fun, game-play-wise, as It Takes Two.
But the story is not as good. And the characters are even more teeth-grindingly frustrating sometimes.
But still play it, it’s a lot of fun.
Cheers mate, appreciate the advice!
My kids played this co-op and loved it
Seemed like a pretty solid coop game to me!
Loved playing It Takes Two with my wife, such a great game I wished they made another one. The more couch coop games the better.
I remember some people in Reddit not being too happy with It Takes Two.
They’re just mad they don’t have any friends or a partner to play it with.
People don’t like it takes two? Was the book too over the top or what?
IIRC it was a minority, but the critique was gender stereotypes and misogyny.
They are entitled to their opinions, and I’m glad I read it after playing the game so it did not affect my experience.
for me I just… couldn’t stand either of the main characters and thought the reviving-their-dead-marriage arc was really trite. I didn’t believe these were people that “should” be together and around the time they dismembered that elephant (???) I was fully checked out.
The game was wonderful when we were actually playing, probably the most fun I’ve had in a coop puzzle game since Portal 2. I really wouldn’t need much in the way of story to convince me to keep playing, but there were so many goddamn cutscenes! I’m glad others enjoyed it more than me, and did enjoy a lot of the gameplay, but the characters really soured me on the game eventually.
I played it with a friend and never finished it. I like the idea behind the game a lot, but for me the game was just too easy. There wasn’t a real challenge at all. So i played it for the story. But the characters weren’t really likable either and the guy was pretty annoying. Then there was the part with her favourite plush toy. And i thought they try to get rid of it and then learn something. Nope, they just destroy that thing.
I think it’s a good game, but i would never finish or play it again. And from what i’ve seen, i think the same thing about split fiction
Digimon World 4.
Granted, I was a child when I played it, and I remember having a grand whole time.
Years later I found a few YouTubers shitting on it due to bugs, recycled assets, lack of digivolutions, shitty camera angles, spammy gameplay, etc etc.
I agree with all of these criticisms and in hindsight yea that game was really lazy. However, I still had a good time.
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.
Holy shit someone else who played Technomancer and enjoyed it!
I also quite enjoyed that one! Definitely a bit janky, but I had my fun for the price.
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.
call of duty world war 2. my favorite one (mostly cause its the only one im actually good at haha) but a lot of people hated it
COD Ghost. I loved the singleplayer storyline. Everyone hated the game for the storyline.
I’ll upvote for the honest answer, but that game is what made me quit CoD lol
The next few games were bad, so you didn’t miss out on anything
Is that the Call Of Doggy one? To be honest I’ve only actually finished COD4.
Yes
That game looked fine to me tbh. I think it might have been the point that their yearly release schedule had begun to saturate the brand as opposed to the games getting worse.
A lot of critics hated the dog calling and the story, and it is still included in list of worst sequels of all time. I will never understand why
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
I can understand someone complaining that it wasn’t Fallout 5, but I definitely think it deserved a higher Steam rating.
To be honest, I think it had a decent chance to be Fallout 5, but in space. Maybe if they doubled the number of companions (read: not followers) and put all the new ones in different factions. I honestly expected the lady who pulls you into the gang in the ocean city would be a follower with how fleshed out she was
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 felt that Starfield was good with the potential to be great (with enough added content, which they haven’t done yet, but here’s hoping).
The Outer Worlds, on the other hand, feels like it pretty much reached its limit. It’s a better game vanilla, since it has more content and far less empty space, but I don’t think that there’s any more they could really have done with it. Not quite great, but definitely worth playing.
And the “Fallout in space” line references the overall vibe of TOW, with '50s-'60s style culture and advertising. Starfield has Fallout’s mechanics, but it’s more of a Star Trek or Firefly aesthetic, depending on where you are.
Interestingly, the two example you shared (Sonur Unleashed and the whole Sonic franchise being bad) are likely a good example of “hanging with the bad crow”. 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.
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.
