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.
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Final Fantasy 8. I loved it but apparently I was in the minority.
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.
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.
I also loved FF8. I’d be more interested in a remake of that one than 7 tbh.
Another FF8 enjoyer here! My husband and I got married on Halloween, so for the reception, I was Rinoa and he was Squall!
10/10 fantastic game!
I still love it.
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.
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.
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
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 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
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.
All 5 of the dues ex games were good. And Ill die on that hill
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.
To me it was the 2014 Thief. I never had any proper experience with the previous games of the series, only tried Thief 3 back when my PC could barely run it, so the low fps made me give up. My short time with new Thief wasn’t bad, though I didn’t finish the game as it was on my xbox1 and I never really sat down to play anything to completion on it. Online it’s all “Thief is shit, it’s a shit game” etc. Maybe I didn’t get to the shit part, I completed maybe 4 missions?, but while it wasn’t amazing, it felt like a decent stealth game and had me more interested in continuing than Styx Master of Shadows
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.
Oh Yeah, I would love to see a Remake with some of the Cut Content. That the last DLCs are bundled into a book is the biggest bullshit. I would love to Team up with Ardyn and beat Bahamut like the alternative ending in the book.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
what console version of Sonic unleashed did you play? i have heard that the wii version is probably the best because, despite the motion control gooberness, it cuts out maybe tons of annoying open world busywork and overly long levels due to the Wii not having enough storage space or whatever
The PS2 version, which i think is kinda the same as the Wii version. It was my first PS2 game ever too.
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex Some YouTube analysis about it really broke the magic for me
