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.
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.
Red Steel, actually. I’ll admit to having fun memories of it from when the Wii launched.
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.
None. I couldn’t care less about people hating the games I enjoy.
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.
Sonic Adventure 2
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
Deus Ex 2 - on PC.
Who told you this masterpiece of a game was bad?
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.
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”.
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.
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
Drakensang 1
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.
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.
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)
