Submitted 20 hours 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.
I spent a lot of time playing Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts alone and online with friends. A lot of people I’ve talked to view it negatively and are surprised when I say it was one of my favorite 360 titles. It’s one of the main reasons I want to try out Xbox 360 emulation.
I’m in the same block built boat as you. I always vehemently defend this game since finding out the general gaming public don’t like it.
The way I see it, more engines for us!
For me it was the original Modern Warfare 3. I played that campaign a lot as a kid, but didn’t have internet back then so no multiplayer and no one to discuss the game with. The story is dumbed down compared to the first two games but it was pure fun and cinematic, every mission was memorable to me.
Like I didn’t even know what the stock exchange was back then, I just thought it was awesome traveling through city ruins fighting invaders.
Also the survival mode was super fun too.
The first Call of Duty game I played was Ghosts, and it may have coloured my perception of what the series is about. Bombastic popcorn munching action that goes in one ear and straight out of the other. I was like “eeeeh it’s okay”. After playing some older ones I was like “well I’m sure it was groundbreaking at the time”. (Hm. Did I ever finish MW2? And I think I put Black Ops 2 on hold after the first mission. Loved Advanced Warfare tho!)
I hated ghosts but also enjoyed the bots that learned from actual players so they would behave like how players online would.
I cannot believe (actually I can since bots can’t monetize) that the idea of playing against bots where they would get smarter was never used again
I made a post not all that long ago about Lords of the Fallen after discovering it myself, only to find that nobody else seemed to like it as much as I did.
It’s not as good as a Fromsoft game, or Lies of P, but, to me anyway, it’s like the 2nd best soulslike that isn’t a Fromsoft game. The major disappointments are minimal enemy variety, and the story is just kinda shit. The highlights are the combat and build variety, and unique aspects like tying item descriptions to your actual skills so you can’t read some descriptions unless you invest in “knowledge” of it. It just sucks that you don’t really get much from it because, again, the story is kinda shit.
King’s Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity. Even as a kid, I felt like it was a very strange gore-and-action focus shift for the King’s Quest series. Only as an adult did I hear the story of executive meddling that lead to the complete tone and gameplay shift.
Might & Magic VIII. The ending was underwhelming in comparison to previous parts, yes, but gameplay is exactly the same.
Come on, M&M8 was as awesome as the rest of them.
I’m sure there are lots of examples for me, but I guess one that comes to mind is 007: The World Is Not Enough for PS1.
Reading/hearing about it as an adult, it’s seen as not only a poor comparison to Goldeneye, but also a poor comparison to the N64 version of the same game.
Back in the day, though, I didn’t know any better and I loved it. I expect most people have games like that.
Ultima IX: Ascension (1999)
I genuinely enjoyed the game. Fans of the series claim that it destroyed the franchise. Perhaps they’re right, but the franchise was pretty fucked up to begin with.
Jaws on the NES. I absolutely loved that game, but I found out many years later that it was hated.
Dying Light 2. I honestly have no idea why so many people prefer the original.
Literally every MMORPG targeted at an oldschool/hardcore/PvP oriented audience. Without fail the related comments and reviews will be littered by people angrily ranting on how these games are outdated and should change to be more casual
And inversely, games like RuneScape that changed to be more casual, which pissed off all of the tryhard players.
Aero the Acrobat for GBA.
Cheap Sonic ripoff? I loved that game. Spent many childhood hours and AA batteries playing it and learning every corner of every level.
My partner LOVES that game!
Diablo 4. I mean, I know it is easy, but I felt the version of Halo I played was way easy and it has a good reputation.
I’m a die hard Diablo 1-2 fan (thousands of hours in D2) and I liked D3 well enough but maybe put in 250 hours… skipped D4 entirely and I have zero regrets hahaha
I wouldn’t day D4 is a good game but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. I stopped playing right after VoH came out, and the direction that expansion was taking the game didn’t interest me, but it was a fun time overall. Not a very deep game though and endgame was basically non-existent since everything falls over at that point.
Soldier of Fortune: Payback
I already knew some of the writing was bad, and the cutscenes/animations were fever dream-esque. Despite that I really enjoyed the feel of the combat, and how destructible enemies’ bodies are in the game.
I’ll be honest. I was curious and looked up reviews of the game, and saw mostly negative-looking videos. But I chose not to watch them because I didn’t want to ruin my enjoyment of the game. I know the game is bad. But I still like it. I will say though that it’s mostly because of nostalgia.
There are some objectively bad things about SOF Payback though: regular human bosses that are bullet sponges for whatever reason and the pc port of the game being unplayable.
If you can get it cheap or p2p it, totally worth it. Not worth $10 on GoG though imo.
I never played the others. I play with my friend overseas every Monday. He chooses the games. He may have chosen it because it is cooperative, online and not PvP. IDK.
But we also play, Aliens, Grimm Dawn, all of the borderlands games, like literally ALL of them including Tiny Tina’s Wonderland. Two is my favorite.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
This is an oldie, but Lords of the Realm II. I loved the first two, but had trouble with the third and ended up giving up, assuming it was a me problem.
Nope, the community pretty much unanimously hates it. It’s not a terrible game per se, it’s just very different from the first two, throwing out everything most people liked about the predecessors and not exactly succeeding at the new mechanics.
I’ve decided to build my own take on the best parts of all three, we’ll see if I ever finish it.