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.
Ultima IX. I somehow never played the earlier installments despite being of the right age to have, and enjoyed the hell out of IX. In retrospect, the massive amounts of criticism were earned, I just came into it fresh and was enthralled by the world.
Enter the Matrix, I loved the slowmo effects and the fights, the first hallway scene felt like it was straight from the movie. Using the computer terminal to unlock stuff felt magical. Only later I learned that Path of Neo was supposed to be a better Matrix game while Enter the Matrix was universally panned. And I’ve played it too, but didn’t get as much enjoyment out of it, it just didn’t have as much soul
Enter the Matrix was dope. Fuck the haters.
I can’t think of any that I wasn’t fully aware of the criticism.
But I did play No Man’s Sky, Cyberpunk 2077, and Fallout 76 for hundreds of hours each right at launch and enjoyed every moment without significant issues, despite being fully aware of all the hate being thrown at them at the time.
Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Dragon Age 2.
I liked them both. Not as good as Deus Ex 1 or DA:O, but I enjoyed and finished playthroughs of both games.
I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 as well. It’s just that it’s an action movie to Origins’ House of the Dragon. It’s just different genres.
I enjoyed Outer Worlds. Tons of criticism online, but I liked it.
I had the opposite for this one, heard it was good and really didn’t like it when I gave it a try.
I enjoyed the hell out of that game. My only complaint was that the loot lacked variety, and it was a bit more on rails than what I think of as a proper open world RPG.
Agreed. I thought it was a competently made game, even if not groundbreaking or best in class for shooting. I think people’s expectations are often their biggest obstacle to enjoyment.
It still has a 9/10 on Steam despite all the flak it took. I think it’s a classic. To me it’s similar to the backlash to Fallout 4 from purists, which I also feel is a classic game
Me too, didn’t even know people thought it was a bad game until recently. Honestly I don’t get why, I wasn’t expecting anything different from what I got, there were definitely some dialogues that made me chuckle, and a lot of storylines were very tongue in cheek, and while gameplay was nothing to write home about neither is fallout and this was sold as “fallout in space”, and definitely delivered on that.
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex Some YouTube analysis about it really broke the magic for me
Final Fantasy XV. (I just played the Royal Edition with all DLCs, I don’t know how the Base Game was without the extra stuff) Man I love that game, I love the Characters, the Lore, the cinematics, the movie, the anime, the world, the gameplay. The Gameplay is soooo fucking fun, switching between Characters, switching between weapons with Noctis. The Animations are beautiful. I’m probably one of the only people on earth that is happy that we left the open World after a while and the game is more on rails. Because the Moment the Story is getting interesting, the pacing is way better.
Right there with you! I preordered it, played at launch, loved every bit of it, and love the expanded updates its gotten even more. Its like taking the world of Final Fantasy and turning it into an open, monster hunter life sim with the bros with a solid story on top of it all. People love to hate modern Final Fantasy imo rather than accept the newer directions just aren’t their cup of tea.
I’ve probably talked more about XV than any other supposedly bad game, so maybe I’ve developed some sort of Stockholm Syndrome. But for an objectively pretty bad game I enjoyed parts of it and it did elicit emotions out of me at times.
The game has many problems, but maybe the biggest is the huge overambitious “multi-media experience” they attempted. The game itself suffers because its content is spread so thin as it’s stretched out over a movie and a comic and the DLCs and I don’t remember what else. An anime? Even the Royal Edition still suffers for not integrating the DLCs, and it’s kind of awkward to have to stop playing at the appropriate times to go so the DLCs for the maximum impact. And even then the planned Lunafreya DLC would have added so much to the story, but they never got around to that as the game flopped (in large parts because crucial story elements were scheduled for fucking DLCs instead of included in the game!)
I do agree that the combat is fun, and they did have a really good vibe going with the bros and the road trip. There are some really nice heartfelt moments where the game shines. And the fishing minigame is absolute top drawer, one of the best in gaming. But ultimately I look at it as a huge pile of wasted potential.
Absolutely gorgeous music though, some really powerful leitmotif work like Sunset Waltz/Valse di Fantastica and Ardyns themes.
Two Worlds 1-2 There are tons of youtubers making joke videos about these games, but against all the jank I alway found them both enjoyable and even I dare say good games. The magic system in particular was amazing.
Harold Faltermeyer made some nice music for the game. Opala is still stuck in my head.
Finally, someone else who remembers these games! They weren’t as polished or impressive as others, but they were fun and had lots of challenges.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey apparently, according to reddit a few years ago, was looked at as being shitty I guess? Not the best one?
It’s the only one I played, and I played it 3 times with ~240 hours. Kassandra is my favorite character ever, in any video game. I loved the world, its beauty, the ships and sea, and shooting arrows through rocks as a demo god.
I’ve still not touched any other assassins game.
I am willing to bet that people who chose the female main character enjoyed this game more.
Odyssey was really good in a vacuum. Ive heard it described best as that it was a good action RPG set in Greece, but not a good Assassins Creed game. The main issue being that stealth was usually a huge focus in previous titles, but this one seemed to favor general combat and didnt even have the signature wrist blade until the DLC. Also a bunch of the story seemed to return pieces of previous lore, some setup in just the previous game that came out a year prior. Overall though I did enjoy the game!
Yeah I think you’re right with it being good in a vacuum. That makes complete sense because it was different than the other games.
I have panic disorder, so most games with combat overwhelm me as I’m just constantly afraid. I never got that with this game. Just give me a bow so i can stand hella far away and clear the area before entering it. Thats how I did stealth. I’d take an hour slowly picking off everyone from the fort. Plus, it was really beautiful and emersive. Exploring the map was super fun.
Final Fantasy 8. I loved it but apparently I was in the minority.
I also loved FF8. I’d be more interested in a remake of that one than 7 tbh.
FF8 has been going through a bit of a resurgence lately where it does seem to be getting a fair amount of praise. It used to get slated though.
It still feels fresh.
8 is a very solid game. The issue is that it was always compared to 7 and 9
Which is funny since I’ve played all three of those for the first time recently, and FF7 doesn’t hold up in comparison to 8 and 9. But I can see at the time how 8 could be seen poorly in comparison to 7 and 9.
I still love it.
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and cyberpunk 2077 (PC) not too long after release
Most games that dont scale into 100+ hours. I never reach that point anyway.
Kings quest 8. Universally panned as a “bad Kings quest game” and I agree, It’s a terrible entry to the kings quest series. But when you look at this quirky adventure game from a modern perspective you can see it was really ahead of it’s time. It has an unmatched vibe and atmosphere.
I rented Superman 64 as a kid, never knowing it was a universally hated game. We had fun with the weird multiplayer mode where you fly around in weird pod things. I remember flying through the rings too. The whole game makes zero sense in hindsight.
The game became that shitshow because Warner Bros execs got pissed that a “no-name” yuropeean company got the rights to make a licensed Superman game (because they were the only company that bothered to bid), so they did a lot of time-wasting requests to the developers.
https://www.retrojunk.com/a/C1CKNP9rjC/the-story-behind-superman-64
This. Check out the leaked beta on YouTube. It’s looks significantly better than the finished product
That looks fun.
I know right?? What a damn shame WB fucked Titus over like that
Might and Magic 6-8. Thought it’s the best game ever during my childhood. Turns out it was pretty bad. Still like it (nostalgy)
7 and 8 maybe, but I lived under the impression that 6 was critically acclaimed and also very popular.
