Submitted 1 day ago by NONE_dc@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
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.
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
I loved enter the matrix. It was lowkey more fun with the cheats though
Enter the Matrix was dope. Fuck the haters.
Final Fantasy 8. I loved it but apparently I was in the minority.
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 also loved FF8. I’d be more interested in a remake of that one than 7 tbh.
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.
It still feels fresh.
I still love it.
Super Mario Sunshine. I thought it was just hard as a kid. Come to learn it’s fucking broken.
Personally the movement mechanics and the tropical overworld were amazing in this game.
While the water jetpack may seem like a gimmick, I thought it really changed the platforming in a good way.
Additionally, I’m a sucker for a good overworld and the amount of things you can unlock or discover in delphino plaza turns it into its own sort of level.
There is definitely some jank and padding (blue coins) in the game, but it holds up better than Mario 64 in my opinion (just due to the camera issues IN Mario 64).
Camera issues in Mario 64 are fixed by playing the decomp / homebrew versions that have free camera control. It’s how I first played and 100%d it.
Wait, people hate it? I still do nostalgia playthroughs occasionally, one of my favs for GC.
There were so many issues
The whole thing just felt rushed. Like there was another third of the game that they didn’t get to make.
I’ve just learned about it right now. I loved it but I thought that it was a skill issue, I’m not a great player overall.
E.T.
Yes really. I played it all the time as a kid and didn’t think it was any more difficult or abstract than the rest of the 2600’s catalogue. Granted, we kept the manual, which made a huge difference in understanding and enjoying its bizarre logic, but still. I had no idea it was so hated until at least a decade later.
it was actually way ahead of its time, for a game. One small bug (the workaround for which was in the manual) ruined its reputation. But I genuinely think it was a good game.
Also written in 6 weeks by one guy. Freaking impressive
What was the bug and workaround? :)
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
Dark Souls 2
Destiny 2.
Started playing the first game day one but stopped for several years. Picked up 2 when I found out it was ftp right after beyond light came out and bought all the dlcs available until after lightfall. I was at work and a customer asked what games I play. Said D2 and someone else said “why would you do that to yourself?” I thought hard about that for awhile and realized all I do is grind and don’t really have that much fun with it. It was more like a second job. And lightfall was a garbage dlc. That was also a major contributer to me quitting.
My biggest issue with Destiny 2 is that I paid $60 for it and then it soon went free to play and I had absolutely nothing to show for that $60 I paid
Even TF2 gave special cosmetics and stuff to existing players when it went F2P ages ago. It’s a standard practice at this point. I sunk 12k hours into D2 until I quit it for good this past fall, and looking back I swear I just notice more and more red flags like this that I hadn’t thought too much about.
I was excited to start again right as beyond light dropped, but it was confusing as hell as a new player because they sunset the starting campaign. Weird to have to research how to play a game.
I started with Shadowkeep and I got sucked in hard for 5 years. The first year or two I heard these sorts of negative comments here and there, mostly from long-term players, but didn’t think much of it.
Fast forward to this past year, and Revenant is what made me say fuck it and drop the game entirely. I was already sick of the state of the game, powercreep to hell and back, pvp in the dumpster, nonexistent loot, etc etc. But jesus that season was eye-opening.
I was also a major completionist - near max triumph score, never missed a day 1 raid from DSC onwards til unfortunate scheduling fucked our SE run, every GM soloed to that point, shit like that. Missing that one single season and a couple shitty little time-limited events was enough to feel like I’d fallen behind, and that was it. Booted up the game once since to check out Heresy, activity was the same shit as always, loot was dogshit, so I checked out right away.
And that’s just the gameplay gripes. Bungie as a studio is toxic as fuck in so many ways and I can never in good conscience support them again.
It took a few years but I finally understand what people were telling me way back when I started.
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.
Yoshi’s Story. Yeah it’s short, and level unlocking is weird as all outdoors, but people really hating on it for being too easy? Bro, it’s a YOSHI game. That’s a quarter of the appeal! It’s a game you can get younger kids involved in, or you can play after a hard day when you want to turn your brain off partially.
Plus almost everything in that game is adorable. And 64 bit sprite art is goated
Its the context and expectations. The last “Yoshi” game was a mainline Super Mario World 2, and people expected similar scope and challenge but in 64 bits. Super Mario 64 had primed people for crazy genetlrational leaps. Yoshi’s Story was a fine game, but it wasnt SMW3 by a longshot.
Exactly this. Yoshi’s Story was a follow up to Yoshi’s Island, often considered one of the greatest 2d platformers of all time. I spent weeks if not months completing Yoshi’s Island. Then when Yoshi’s Story came out, I rented it and completed it over the weekend.
I dunno, Yoshi’s Island can get pretty hard…
I loved Yoshi’s Story as a kid. Never knew there was hate for it for a long time.
I loved it but I was sad I completed it before the rental period was up.
Every game that ever gets released when you check gaming forums within the first month of a game’s release lol /s
Im joking. I get the sentiment that a finished product should be fully complete and inspected by a QA team before release. But still, the fuckin extreme hatred ill see for the game and its studio, regardless of the company’s history, is soooooo fuckin wild. And almost everytime when I get to the point of buying the game, ill check the steam reviews and it’ll be mostly positive after like one patch release.
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.
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. Plus, it was really beautiful and emersive. Exploring the map was super fun.
I am willing to bet that people who chose the female main character enjoyed this game more.
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 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.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
People only ever talk about Final Fantasy Tactics and dismiss any of the other games. However, going by the original release, Tactics Advance is by far my favorite. It’s my favorit GBA game and at least in my Top 25 JRPGs, despite having played almost nothing else for the past 20 years. I like many of the things the game gets critiziced for.
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.
I really enjoyed Mass Effect: Andromeda.
A lot of people didn’t like Assassins Creed Odyssey, but I loved it. Only AC I’ve played since 2.
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.
For me it was war thunder. Seen this game advertised on youtube a while ago, and about year ago i decided to just install it and see what this game is. Firstly i liked it. It was fun game to play. After some time of playing this game, i wanted to see videos of this game on youtube, and thats where i found a lot of criticizm for this game. Only after hitting about 60 hours of total playtime, i started understanding the hate for this game myself. I did not played war thunder ever since. For context, the main reason for hate to this game is that it is too grindy, and it will take hundreds of hours to reach top tier, even with premium account.
Sonic Adventure 1. I love the hub worlds and how the stories of the different characters intertwine in the shared areas. And I love the variety of characters and being able to freely choose which one to advance (unlike Sonic Adventure 2…)
Indigo Prophecy
Played it when it originally released in the US and I loved it as a pre-teen who had no fucking idea what was happening in the story.
Too human. I loved it so much I don’t know why people hate it
Mine was final fantasy 12. I played that game so hard, really enjoyed it and if was released in the time of trophies I would have platinumed it. Even did the grinding for Gilgamesh to spawn for a sword or something. But I was hated at the time.
Now everyone is saying it was one of the best and I was proved right all along.
Sure the story was star wars and the main character wasn’t, but the combat system was really fun, way better than 13.
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex Some YouTube analysis about it really broke the magic for me
Thief 3. I had never played a Thief game before and thought it was great. Apparently, fans of the first two games were disappointed with it at first. I think the criticism didn't last long, though. Everyone now seems to agree that it was good.
How old were you when you played Sonic Unleashed? I thoroughly played and enjoyed Sonic Adventure 2 for the Gamecube when I was in middle school, but revisiting it as an adult, it was to hard to envision how I ever enjoyed the way that game controls. However, even though my muscle memory was totally gone, since all the levels I knew from SA2 were remixed, Sonic Generations was good even as an adult.
I don’t let other people influence my tastes.
I make my own opinions
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
flamingos@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Fallout 3. The criticism is absolutely fair*, but it was the first RPG I ever played and I’m still very fond of it.
* I never got the ‘metros are hard to navigate’ criticism, I never had that issues. Most of them are pretty linear.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
So, I’m an ardent ‘New Vegas is the best 3D Fallout game’ person.
But… Fallout 3 is not a bad game.
It is fun, it is enjoyable. It has solid game mechanics, it has a good number of well written characters and questlines, it is fun to just explore and find crazy shit.
It has flaws, yes.
But it is far from bad.
It just isn’t as good as New Vegas, which imo, basically just did everything FO3 did, but better, had a better overall storyline, refined and improved on all the gameplay mechanics, added in new gameplay features/elements.
BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 1 day ago
i dont think new vegas had better exploration. fo3 is still pretty unmatched in that. so many unmarked gems in fo3
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 23 hours ago
It also had some big gameplay departures from 1 & 2. I’m not talking about being an FPS (although no longer having to worry about accuracy was pretty significant) but the fact that putting on different clothing magically made you more intelligent, and that it was a lot easier to do everything.
In FO3 you can pick all the locks, hack all the computers, pass all the conversation checks, and take on hordes of enemies all by yourself. In FO1+2 you had to pick the couple of things you were good at and not be able to do the other things until your next run.
Paranomaly@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Not going to lie, I like it quite a bit more than New Vegas. I understand several criticisms that people have, but 3 was by far the better experience for me.
Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 12 hours ago
Same here. NV was pretty boring to me while FO3 was actually fun.
LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 1 day ago
A lot of the metros look copy and pasted; whole hallways, rooms, so it gets a little confusing.
flamingos@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Oh for sure, Fallout 3 Geoguesser would be hard. Idk, I just never had a problem navigating them, even if they were a bit samey.
Zidane@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
FO3 is my favorite Fallout (haven’t played 4 or 76 yet).
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Have you played 1, 2, or New Vegas?
TheHotze@lemmy.world 1 day ago
To be fair, Fallout 3 is a bit more of a mixed bag of good and bad features.
criss_cross@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Fallout 3 for me works well as a sandbox and less as a narrative driven RPG. I had a lot of fun with it but I know if you went in expecting it to be something it’s not (like the first 2 fallout games) you’re gonna be disappointed.
Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I loved FO3. And coming from Bethesda, I was expecting a sandbox.
Actually, do people hate FO3? I thought it was well liked, even amongst New Vegas fanatics.
catalyst@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Guess that’s me too. I loved Fallout 3 and wasn’t really aware of a lot of hate for it.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I lived in D.C. when I played it. Between that and it being the first of its kind in the series, none of the others come remotely close for me.