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.
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
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
Fallout 4 is a great game.
Shadow the Hedgehog
Megaman X7
Looking back, I know why. I was just so happy to play as Shadow/3D Zero, I really didn’t care about the many faults these games have.
The first Deus Ex game I played was Deus Ex: Invisible War on the original Xbox, which I loved. It’s the first foray into cyberpunk for me and sparked a love of it I’ve had since. It was not well received, and considered a dumbed down version of the original game.
Still love it. The Arcology in Cairo was my favorite part.
RuneScape 😅
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.
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
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. 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.
Same and for me watch dogs 2 wasn’t as fun anymore.
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.
Battlefield 1, I liked its slower-paced combat and need for teamwork for things like ships and the heavy bomber (original, not the super heavy).
It was different than almost all contemporary shooters, and I really found that refreshing. It also had a strong art design and really looked the part for WW1, even if some of the weapons were prototypes or team weapons (which should have been cut, imo) or vehicles were tweaked for gameplay (understandable, the German tanks were extremely tippy, and the French tanks were slower IRL)
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.
None. I couldn’t care less about people hating the games I enjoy.
Path of Exile
Good fun game, but online communities are committing to min/max the fun out out of it. I like blowing up monsters, I don’t care about optimising my chaos-per-hour rate.
A lot of games like that end up min/maxed like that, it sucks even more when developers start exclusively catering to the min/maxers forcing everyone min/max or gtfo.
Yeah it bothers me when the community for a game is like “{skill} is TRASH never use it” and when you do some digging you find it’s like 2% less damage per second. Or it doesn’t work well in NG+7. Some people are really obsessive about this stuff.
Unfortunately the game is specifically designed to waste your time if you want to see everything it has to offer. So it’s not really the communities fault for pushing to maximize that time spent. Just a consequence of a deliberately slowed down system
But the point isn’t to see everything. The feeling of FOMO is what’s seems to drive people to madness. For a game that’s been developed for over a decade with multiple cycles of content release every year; I’m not surprised that people don’t get a chance to see everything. I see that as a positive and not a negative.
Other games do similar things. I play a lot of Dead Cells and can’t get beyond 4BC. Most people will never get to end game content to see all bosses or unlock all items. Who cares. As long as the game is fun.
My first play through of PoE was with no guides. I made it up as I went along. Had a terrible “build”. I enjoyed taking weeks to get through the campaign slowly and reading all the lore. Every league I played, I got deeper and deeper into the content…learning to make tons of currency, getting a character to lvl 100, etc. It has been great playing it off and on. The game is fun without experiencing “everything”. But if I ever engaged with the online community, all I would hear is “I’ve played 3000 hours and this game is shit”.
Red Steel, actually. I’ll admit to having fun memories of it from when the Wii launched.
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 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.
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.
My kids played this co-op and loved it
Seemed like a pretty solid coop game to me!
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.
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
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 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!
