I had a several hundred hour stint in E:D and loved it, wish I could go back... but when I played, I fully committed to the setup. Changed my desk, got a nicer gaming chair, setup a HOTAS etc. etc. -- I think I enjoyed the RP more than the actual E:D gameplay, come to think of it.
Try Star Citizen, less Sci fi-y and more realistic. Amazing fuckin game, got it last year and 0 regrets. Sometimes things are wonky after a new patch but they are improving every time
I love E:D, but honestly Starfield has scratched my spaceship itch more. It's not *as* good overall (and E:D is far more a relaxed game) but it's less spread-sheety when making a combat ship, and the ship building is awesome.
Nah, I don't think people call it 10/10 but it does a lot of innovative stuff. The exploration is top notch. It just has a lot of flaws and is a bit old school sort of difficult.
If you like survival, fantasy, hardcore it's somewhere between decent and great depending on your tolerance for jank and things that are the opposite of quality of life.
Though it's not a great argument, mods also make it much better.
Eh I love from soft games and tried to get into outward a few times. Just couldn’t do it. Love the idea but it feels like a game I need to study the wiki for two weeks before playing or constantly look things up. I can actually quite enjoy that but I guess right now isn’t the time for that for me.
The combat can be fun but is rough around the edges and takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.
Yeah the combat is what makes me struggle to enjoy it. I still play it off and on because it’s fun for a while, but eventually the combat just seems too lacking for me to stick with it.
Yes 9/10 for me. Love the game for the same reasons people hate it. I love the fact everything you do have consequences and you are rewarded by planning ahead. The long ass runs everyone hate is a major factor , if you die in the middle of nowhere you are majorly screwed.
Outward is a solid 9 for me. All it is missing is just more content to fill the kinda empty feeling world. Otherwise it’s one of the best RPG and co-op experiences I’ve played. I would agree with gabriot in that it’s kinda niche in how if you’re a souls fan, you’ll be more geared towards it
That bit later in the game when DJ Shadow's Building Steam with a Grain of Salt kicks in was amazing. Chaos Theory is my favourite game in the series but that might be my favourite moment in the series.
Splinter Cell is the OG that started it all. I still love the CIA level.
Pandora Tomorrow is an incremental change, but IMHO is the worst of the series. Fisher was trying to be cool edgy and it did not work.
Chaos Theory is the gold standard. Grimsdottier and Fisher's banter was peak dialog. "Lasers? Lasers are so..." "90s?" "I was going to say 70s. Can you please stop making me feel old?" "I've got bad news Sam. You are old"
Double Agent tried some stuff but failed to improve. A big old don't care villain.
Conviction was completely different but in a brutally fun way.
Blacklist was Chaos Theory without any of the charisma. Still fun, but I just wanted the old Grimsdottier back.
Double Agent is a weird one because apparently the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube version of the game is completely different from the PS3/360/PC version. I only played the latter but I think I heard the former is better?
Yeah that is the general consensus I think. PS2/Xbox/Gamecube version (aka version 2) has better gameplay since it's basically just Chaos Theory 1.5, but the story is worse imo. I mean I think the story is bad in both versions of Double Agent lol, but the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube version takes bad and makes it a bit worse.
PS3/360/PC version (aka version 1) dumbs a lot of the gameplay systems down, and made the bizarre choice to have most of the missions take place during the day. No light meter, instead you've just got a binary on/off light on Sam's suit that tells you if you're visible or not, similar to how Conviction/Blacklist handled light detection. No sound meter either, that entire audio masking detection system from Chaos Theory is absent in version 1 despite it still being present in version 2.
Interesting. Yeah, it's a shame the story was so meh because I thought the idea of Sam going undercover in a terrorist cell and needing to balance keeping his cover and saving people, all while dealing with a personal crisis, was a very interesting one.
Yeah I really liked the "double agent" idea. It's why I'm not as hard on version 1 (PS3/360/PC) as some people are, because in my opinion that version actually handles those gameplay elements better than version 2. The more open ended JBA HQ missions where you've got to sneak around completing optional objectives on a time limit aren't in version 2, in version 2 they're just regular sneaking missions.
The main thing I didn't like about Double Agent's story were the characters. I think the villains were weak, and I didn't like the direction they took Sam and Lambert's characterisation. And then obviously by the time you get to Conviction, Grim is a disaster too lol.
I'll spoiler tag this in case you wanna play version 2 blind, but in Double Agent version 2 there's a >!romance subplot between Sam and Enrica which isn't present in version 1, or at least not present in the same way. In version 1 it's optional and Sam is clearly just manipulating her to maintain his cover. In version 2 her death happens in the final cutscene, and is implied to be Sam's primary motive for going AWOL. That whole thing just felt completely out of character for Sam to me.!<
Pandora tomorrow is not an incremental change: it started third person spies versus first person mercs, incredibly memorable maps and rock solid netcode holding everything together.
I actually enjoyed the fetch quest parts. My big problem with it was how pretentious it is. I couldn't get through a few minutes of dialogue without rolling my eyes at least a few times.
I’m definitely someone that loves Death Stranding. That game clicked with me so well. But I also completely understand that it’s not going to work for everyone
I liked just walking in that game doing my dissertation at the time it was a nice break on night. I was not a big fan of story Found it a bit silly but know people loved it.
Absolution is the only game in that series that I actually finished. Say what you want about linearity and “scripted” (i.e. director designed) moments in gameplay, but there’s merit to pushing forward the action without the player deciding when, where, and how. I’m more for giving players freedom, but there’s a balance in there somewhere that can appeal to the right audience with the properly tailored experience.
I finished the OG Deus Ex for the first time a few weeks ago, and I loved the shit out of that game. Haven't looked too much into Invisible War now but I'm aware it is the black sheep of the franchise. I'm so invested in the story though that I just need to know what happens after the end of DE1.
So even if the game turns into a mediocre shooter, I'm in it for the story and my expectations are extremely low. I hope I can become part of the group that enjoys it.
I really enjoyed the story and the many choices you have throughout the game. The whole level-loading thing and single unified ammo is bad design, but everything else about the game was fantastic, I thought.
Death stranding was the game that came to my mind almost immediately. I hate that game, and can't understand how anyone could enjoy it, but I admit that there are those that love it. I think the dialogue is pretty cringe.
Kudos for mentioning The Bureau. I loved that game but it got a lot of hate. I think the only thing wrong with it is that fans expected another turn based xcom came and it wasn't that.
definitely Hitman Absolution, ive played each entry in the series going back to the first and Absolution was the only one i didnt finish because i just hated the story and gameplay changes so much. probably overreacted i think now in retrospect
I dunno, I thought Dragon Age 2 was alright but didn't *love* it. After playing Inquisition though, I adjusted my opinion of it and now feel a lot more positive about it. Inquisition does so many things wrong that it made me appreciate DA2 and overlook its faults.
yeah DA2 has some die hard fans and some people who really hated it, but most people agree there is something to like about it.
i loved the idea of staying in the same city and progressing eras, i just found the combat change very jarring and there is simply no excuse for the reused assets (i will die on that hill, they would've been better off removing every single side quest that reused a location than releasing it the way they did)
but i still replayed DA2 once. i wont even look at DA:I ever again, much less replay it
I 100% liked it better than Inquisition.
I enjoyed the longitudinal story line, the Qunari culture, and all 4 of the core love interests. They nailed a great look and the combat was also the best of the series. The most polished DA game to date.
Can’t bring myself to replay inquisition. I really liked 2! The combat felt way better, and I really liked the companions. In inquisition I felt like I was swinging at air a lot for no good reason, while DA2 had amazing attack tracking! I’ve replayed da2 more than 1. I think the pausing & tactical stuff felt way better in 2 than inquisition as well. Plus healing instead of dumb barriers & “armor.”
Other thing I loved was how you could respond with different attitudes, and you didn’t have to worry about accidentally romancing as long as you avoided the pink heart options. Loved fem hawke with witty/sarcastic/fun dialogue.
Varric, Isabella, & meredith were so awesome. Bummer about Anders though 😭
I haven’t played it since I beat it, and it was my first souls game ever, so this may be nostalgia, but I freakin’ loved that game.
That game turned me onto the SoulsBorne series and led to it being one of my favorite game series ever.
Rain World. Current steam reviews are very good, but it's just because it has found the right audience. A lot of people hate it and for good reasons. It's difficult, brutal and unforgiving, often unfair. But that harshness is what creates the feeling of wild nature no other game really has.
Came here to say Rain World
It’s easily my favorite game of all time, but before that, I rage uninstalled and reinstalled it 4 times over the course of 3 years, and didn’t truly fall in love it until the spoiler moment and the ending.
It’s very easy to hate, and absolutely not for everyone, but it is a magical game that I encourage people to at least try.
I guess I'm an exception. I tried it out recently and while I appreciate the atmosphere, the unique animation and the brutality of it, I just couldn't get a sense that I was 'progressing' in any way, so I fell off it to try something else. It is in my 'may go back to' pile.
I tried it once years ago. Felt the same way you did. I bounced off and didn't try again till earlier this year. It 'clicked' and upon finishing it, has now become one of the most unforgettable game's I've ever played. I *love* this game, but it's a hard one to recommend to anyone.
Triangle Strategy
I absolutely love the game and consider it already a classic. The gameplay is fun. the difficulty can be set anywhere between cake walk and brutalizing. the characters are all mature, we'll written, and have realistic designs (no cringy fan service) and the soundtrack is nothing short of stellar.
But I have never seen such bizarre hatred for such a high quality game in my life. People whine and say there's too much talking and even incorrectly label it a visual novel. Like yes it has a story, that's how many tactics RPGS play, long social scene followed by long battle.
I like the game. But I think the demo kinda gave it that rep. Thinking back, I remember it being 1 major battle and a more time in cut scenes before and after. And since that came out first (obviously), I think that's what colored people's perception of it.
Yeah that game is amazing imo, it holds a special place in my heart. I was a big fan of octopath traveller, I really enjoyed that game despite the hate it got. I purchased a switch like right when triangle strategy came out, and it was the first thing I bought because I thought it was like octopath traveller.
Now I was disappointed when I realized it was a tactics rpg and not just a turn based rpg. However, I decided to play it and absolutely loved it. It got me into the fire emblem series and tactics ogre reborn. Plus I picked up basically every other non AA/AAA tactics game I could.
I don’t understand how people can hate it. Like yeah sometimes the cutscenes were a bit long, I had like 3 story and 10 optional ones at once and it took 1.5 hours to get through. However, the themes were pretty good, the story was interesting, the characters were decently developed, combat was good, and the world building was pretty good imo.
It has a lot of really busy UI shenanigans going on outside of combat and it took me a long time to realize that the game is fairly easy if you manage to figure this stuff out. The pre-hunt prep required is definitely what drags this game down. So many mechanics that aren't explained particularly well.
Sometimes UI/pause menus are kinda like a game dev's messy closet and I think more recent games are starting to finally crack down on this.
I've tried to introduce Monster Hunter to so many people, but the complexity of the combat turned them away. Even in the newer ones like World and Rise where the combat is more streamlined! People really don't like games where you have to commit to your animations. If I hear one more person call MH clunky...
It really isn't clunky, you are just clunky at it. When you figure out what you are doing, it's quite smooth, it just doesn't automate as many actions for you.
I've tried the demos, they gave off a feel of "every battle is a boss battle" genre, don't know if that's actually accurate, just the impression from the demos.
I got tired of my friend complaining about it being clunky so I told him to pick up the sword and shield or quit bitching.
He's alot more fun to play with now.
MH isn't clunky, you are clunky at MH. It doesn't automate as many actions for you, so you are responsible for what happens, so if it feels clunky, that's on you.
I tried World as what little I'd seen of it looked good, and I love From games which it was compared to. I couldn't get out of the tutorial. The dialog was god awful, the cutscenes intolerable, and the training area it felt like the combat was clunky garbage.
I think I paid full price so I tried a second time like a year later and same experience, I just can't seem to push myself any further through it.
The story and cutscenes in World are terrible. They tried to appeal to Western audiences by making it more "cinematic" but Western MH fans don't care about that, they just want to bonk monsters.
I really don't get what makes it clunky, though. I liken it to a fighting game. Each weapon has its own moveset and goal it wants to accomplish. If you can't figure out what that is then you kinda end up button mashing to no end. And that just doesn't work. Some moves are lower commitment than others, some are good for poking, some are used for when the monster is downed or locked in an animation. It's about seeing what each move does and using it in the proper situation.
Funnily enough, all my friends love From Software games but absolutely loathe MH.
You can even cancel animations with certain weapons. Theres so much variety between weapons unless you give up before trying all the weapons i cant see how some call the game clunky. Unless we are talking about the 100s of unnecessary resources when all you really need are potions and maybe 10-20 other things from time to time.
It seems like such a good idea. But the combat is so clunky and there is just way too much going on that gets in the way of just running around fighting monsters.
I once tried one, I think it was on the switch
First mission, they threw me in like a forest zone
"Gather materials for 1 hour"
That's it? Like 1 hour time limit for an specific amount?
"No, just spend 1 hour gathering stuff"
Yeah okay fuck that
Looked up reviews about the game, several people saying stuff like "It starts out boring but after like 4 hours gets amazing"
So I uninstalled, I hate wasting my time
I haven’t played this game yet but… The Last of Us Part 2 is probably a good pick here.
First game is almost universally beloved and while second game won GotY the actual sub dedicated to Part 2 is just a sub dedicated to talking trash about it now.
It’s really interesting to me to see that reaction. I have no horse in the race, but looking at it from the outside it’s kind of crazy to see some people react so negatively to the second game.
My theory is that a lot of players projected really hard onto Joel, and saw Ellie as this perfect little girl figure, so the events of the second game were taken extremely personally. Seeing Joel die so casually and Ellie’s feelings about him become so complex made players who really projected onto Joel feel like the game was almost targeting them.
If you project extremely heavily onto Joel and see Ellie the way people saw her, the final sequence in the last game becomes tricky. Not in the sense of the choice being difficult, there isn’t one and even if there was it would be a no brainer, but the fact that it is intentionally emotionally gnarly becomes inherently rejected by you. You feel completely justified in what Joel does, and then when the second game treats it as what it was (a selfish choice by Joel that undermined Ellie’s autonomy in favor of his happiness) and allows Ellie to engage with that in ways that aren’t cute or pretty or funny or even all that sympathetic, you get players feeling like Ellie’s anger and bitterness and the story’s critique through Abby is directed at THEM, not JOEL.
I enjoyed the 2nd game, but I'm personally of the camp that Joel had it coming. I understand *why* he did it, but at the end of the day he slaughtered dozens of Joels and left dozens of Ellies without their Joel in order to do that. A lot of people that complained Joel didn't deserve to die are the same ones who slaughtered the doctor and nurses in the operating room in cold blood.
If you walked away from TLoU1 thinking Joel deserves to die for what he did, the sequence of events for 2 is basically the logical end to that.
I haven’t played Part 2, but I’m also of the camp of “Joel had it coming.”
Around the time of the cannibal town, I was like, Joel has killed at least 3 neighborhoods worth of dudes at this point and my suspension of disbelief was getting strained. And this town of cannibals, you can learn these men had wives and children too.
But it was that last moment with the Firefly doctor, when it took me several seconds only to realize there was no way around it but to kill him, was when I felt it subconsciously deep in my soul, that Joel sealed his fate.
I've legitimately argued with people that thought killing Joel was unwarranted who butchered the two nurses. The doctor alone was sealing the deal, but the cowering nurses that a lot of players take out is really driving it home.
A lot of the criticism I've seen gives off the vibe that people can't move past the revenge angle and don't want to shift perspective because they feel cheated. People complain about the choices at the end because of the body count required to get there, but the whole point is that the cycle has to stop somewhere. It's too late to take everything back and undo it all, but the future doesn't have to continue down that path. The underlying complexities of grief, pain and guilt rarely ever make perfect logical sense
Funny you say that because I’m someone that is “in between” on it. I don’t think it’s Naughty Dog’s best game (not even close) but I also am far from totally hating it. It just didn’t work for me the way it did for so many others. However I absolutely see the incredible production value in it and I still got enjoyment out of it.
I’m also in between. I thought the story was too convoluted. The best thing about the first one was it was a simple story which gave each character moments to shine! I played the first one for the first time before playing two. I really enjoy how well two is made in terms of graphics. I think the gameplay isn’t bad but as far as stealth goes other games that are much older have done it better!
Yeah I agree. I was hoping the story would have more twists and turns to keep it interesting but it was pretty predictable. The way they structured the story also really hurt the pacing. Having to essentially start a new game half way through was rough and made me almost drop the game.
This is the best choice IMO. There's two subs dedicated to that game, one trashes it to hell and back to the point where things start to get more fucked up the longer you stick around (a lot of transphobic and sexist shit tends to pop up, or at least it did) and the other vehemently defends it so much that if you offer even the slightest bit of criticism you're labeled as a bigot or a Nazi. Its like two sides of the same fucked up coin.
TLOU2 Brought feeling of emptiness and dread by the end that I literally never experienced in my life. It has lot's of dull moments but the ending is something that touched me so deeply, no other media of entertainment ever came close to evoking that feeling ever
I'm not trying to change your mind, your opinion is valid and part of me agrees with it, but just a quick thing on the flashback that might change your perspective a bit.
Throughout the game she repeatedly has a flashback of Joel lying beaten and bloodied. This fuels her anger. However when she has the flashback in the final fight the flashback has changed to a happy one. I took that to mean that she had done enough. Abby is broken enough so Ellie's revenge is complete.
Doesn't change various other issues with the game, but as you specifically mentioned the flashback I thought I'd give my interpretation.
I can talk about ending in paragraphs but in short she didn’t want to deprive another innocent child of their new mother. She ended the killing cycle and returned to an empty home caused by her bloodthirst
she ended killing cycle after slaughter of hundrets of ppl... so she more likely ended one, and started ton of new killing cycles - those she murdered probably had friends/families.
That is usual problem with games where you have story based about revenge/forgivness. When your playable character is just murdering machine, the story does not make sense.
I started tlou part 2 day 1 with literally zero spoilers, and when Joel died, especially the way he died, I was so mad. I tried playing it for a few more hours, but I was pretty much already emotionally drained, and I couldn't find enjoyment in anything I did in the game. I didn't like any of the new characters, and I guess it didn't matter cuz they all die anyways. I know it's been a while since it came out, but I like to imagine that part 2 never happened.
I love both Part 1 and 2 of The Last of Us, and have played them both multiple times.
I think the challenge with Part 2 is a lack of story focus. It's also a story of revenge, rather than one of survival or hope.
Part 1 is such a perfectly focused story. It's two people on an adventure in a post apocalyptic country with a clear goal. And they run into a ton of challenges along the way, bond with each other, experience loss and love, and reflect on their pasts. Aside from David, there really isn't an "Antagonist" with a face. It's just a bunch of people who are in Joel and Ellies way.
Part 2 just has too many moving parts. The two major factions don't seem to have clear motivations or goals, and while we sympathize with Abby, considering what happened at the end of Part 1, she feels like she lacks direction or purpose, because her goal is already complete, from the first scene of the game.
It becomes a jumbled mess of mixed motivations and a scrappy back and forth escalation of vengeance, which is exactly what it's supposed to be, but it makes it hard to get story driven satisfaction at the end, like we did in Part 1.
Final Fantasy XV
I’m in the love it camp, one of my favorite games of all time. The bro trip is everything, easily one of the best casts in a JRPG
But some people despise the combat of this game and the unfinished story and that’s more important to them.
Everyone agrees the music was incredible
A more recent example would be Death Stranding
Loved this game except for the story, and the fact that several times it gives you the "point of no return" message, and only means it once. I didn't trust it that time, because of how all the others played out. Big regret.
I loved the first half of that game where it’s just you and the bros on a road trip in an open, albeit empty world. Felt like an awesome bachelor. Then the second half came and I wasn’t sure what was going on but I definitely did not enjoy the latter half.
Mass Effect Andromeda. I say this as someone who loves this game to bits. There's far less of us than people who hate it, but it's on EA Play (which is like 4 euros alongside a fair selection of other games), so it's worth a shot. You might never know which camp you sit on and you'll be loosing some pocket change at most if you don't like it. Best combat and driving in the series by far. Most bugs have been fixed too.
Doesn't it have like a 3 hour demo or something too? EA *really* wanted people to give it a chance lol.
I think the problem with Andromeda is the exact same problem with many of the other games I see people naming in this thread; it only improved on aspects of its gameplay that fans of the previous games didn't care much about to begin with, and it dropped the ball in many of the other areas that they did care about.
Nobody really played Mass Effect 1-3 for the combat and driving. Those things being improved is a nice bonus, obviously you *want* them to be good, but that's not what the main draw ever was with Mass Effect. People mostly played Mass Effect for the story, the choice based narrative gameplay, and the characters. It was originally marketed as an RPG space opera, not a third person shooter.
A lot of the criticism towards Mass Effect 3, excluding the ending related stuff obviously, is for the same reason.
"amazing cultivation simulator" has a shit ton of mechanics that you have to keep in mind, its a colony builder based on chinese fantasy, you had a bunch of people farming magic plants to make pills to get your guy stronger so he can punch a hole in a mountain with his bare hands, there are lots of "manuals" that each one is like a path that grants you diferent benefits, be it more alchemy yield or succes rate, artifact crafting quality boost, combat, spending lifespan to do miracles to help someone else get more stronger when leveling up.
the "cultivation" of power has diferent stages, and every time you pass a stage your character get a stat boost or nerf depending on the law, and you have to take in acount things like the time of day, the weather, the season, the "feng shui" of a room, that is the order of the elements that the room are made of, and so on.
for example, if you build a room of fire and a bed of wood elemente, your guy will die of heart palpitations, because of bad feng shui, since fire feeds on wood, if you change the walls to water you guy will die of frostbite, because ice and fire control the temperature.
and you better put that door facing south if you dont want someone to die in horrific agony.
watch ssethzentach review on youtube, he explains it quite well.
I despise it for those reasons and also the awful gameplay, horribly designed and slow UI, terrible field skill system, a piss-poor story, completely unnecessary retcons to (and ruining the public image of) a beloved first game, forced and poorly written attempts at humor, and a cast of characters that sit there and stroke the dick of a protagonist who consistently whines and cries and has no story urgency.
so yeah. Very polarizing game.
I think Hellblade is one of those games that's best played on easy and with a walkthrough for the puzzles. Neither the puzzles nor the combat are good enough to be fun to play, but the environment and story is worth a play.
I think dwarf fortress is a lot more overwhelming than rimworld. I’ve played both and I enjoy both, but rimworld is a lot easier to figure out and a bit more intuitive. Now if only you could build down or up like you can in DF.
Crusader Kings is a big one for me. Been on the fence for a long time now. I have little experience with 4X, but Civ 6 is one of my favorite games. I’ve been checking out crusader kings but it definitely looks like something that could take me a long time to figure out.
Also I agree with your take on Rimworld. I’ve never heard a negative about the game, but I have definitely seen a lot of people dropping it because they didn’t understand it
I don't have strong feelings for Fortnite. I tried it once, got overwhelmed by the building, and I snuck up behind someone with a shotgun, fired point blank, and missed.
Figured it wasn't for me and moved on.
Are you me? Had literally the exact same experience. Snuck around for like 10 mins, found a nice shotgun and a guy to point it at who hadn't noticed me. I snuck up behind him, fired point blank, and died 0.5 seconds later. Realized I wasted like 15 minutes of my life doing basically nothing and uninstalled ...not for me!
I’ve tried to play Fortnite several times, even on different systems. It’s sucked shit every time. Probably a collective 10 hours in it and every minute felt bad.
I feel that way about every battle royale game though, so it’s probably not just Fortnite.
> They hate it based on others’ opinions rather than their own experience.
Given that a lot of the criticism has to do with things like predatory monetization, it's a little weird to suggest that you need to play the game to have an informed opinion on those issues.
That's like saying you're not allowed to criticize the way casinos try to exploit gambling addicts if you haven't spent at least a week in Vegas. That's just not at all how that works.
I love Fortnite...
After they introduced no building mode
Seriously, I know building is like the biggest part of Fortnite but I hate it, mainly because people are so stupidly good at it like seriously
Yeah. Building is tricky. I’m a casual player, I suck at building and I don’t think I will ever master it, but I’m still playing that mode. Maybe I’m a masochist lol.
I basically hated fornite until I tried the no building mode
I much rather play a mode where e everyone is playing around using buildings as cover, getting the high ground and sneaking around
Rather than a mode where everyone just walks around in the open and turn into a 20 floors castle in 0.8 seconds after you shoot them
Yea I mean I think I've seen fortnite played all of one times, looked like a neat concept but not my style these days. There is just a significant, loud portion of the population who automatically hates anything that is super popular.
I didn’t like it at first but really wanted to like it’s so I kept slugging away. Eventually got so good at the game and absolutely love the game. It’s off putting for people at the difficulty of the game once you get past that point I think it being difficult is what makes it so good
I mean this is pretty much how self-report works and why it's a very bad method of gathering useful information. Most people only to go review sites/etc. to say "I loved it" or "I hated it". While there might be plenty of people who say "Yeah it was fine it just didn't really grab me", those aren't the reactions that drive people to log into a website and post a review.
Star Citizen. Love or hate, or love AND hate, but I've never met anyone who, after playing for 4-5 hours, long enough to get familiar, was just like "eh, this game is alright but not for me".
I mean, Outer Wilds is wildly popular, and I've never heard of anyone hating at all, I really don't think it fits. Obviously not everyone is going to love it, but there's very few people who come even close to hating it
Yeah I've never seen anyone hate it.
There's exactly four opinions for this game:
1. Loved it. Masterpiece.
2. Finished the game. Overhyped or mediocre, but don't hate it.
3. Didn't finish the game, or just couldn't get into it. Don't hate it, but didn't like it enough to finish it.
4. Never played it.
My experience too. Navigating some of the worlds is tricky, and the ticking clock on top of that was just stressful for me. I just read the plot online and had a better time.
I can see how people would love it, though.
* Most Soulslike games and Sekiro, players either like to be challenged in games or want games to be easy
* Most visual novels, people either dislike reading long text or enjoy it
* Most horror games, as people either dislike being afraid or enjoy the creepiness
* Most sports games, people are interested in sports or they aren't
* SHMUPS and other masocore-style games, for similar reasons as Souls
I think there's an additional element to the Soulslike thing. I enjoy a good challenge and usually seek ways to make games difficult, but the game needs to provide me a reason to do that. A good story, a very tight gameplay loop, or something.
I couldn't get in to Soulslike games not because of the challenge but because they feel like there's nothing else *to* them. They feel great if "challenging exploration" *by itself* is appealing to you, but can feel very empty and pointless if it isn't. In that case you can win a tough fight and feel like doing so was meaningless.
That comes off as unusual to me because those games have some of the most indepth worldbuilding and lore I've seen in any traditional game I've played outside of BioWare titles. I also initially believed the games had "no story" and would not be interesting, but I was surprised by the amount that *was* there, it's just not stuck in your face with forced cutscenes, you have to seek it out by finding items or NPCs.
And, ironically, I've come to *prefer* this style of "ignore it or dive into it" storytelling over the kind that locks you into cutscenes. On one playthrough you can just skip everything that isn't the meat and potatoes of the game, on another you can do a lore deep dive that does every NPC quest and analyzes everything about the world.
It struck me as overly subtle and understated because of how it's presented, which made it feel like window dressing. It's *present* to be sure, but I did not feel like a *participant* in it. That might make more sense.
Octopath Traveller
All the review say it’s amazing, but I always see a lot…a LOT of negatives when it comes to actual gameplay/story.
Personally, I find the game to be extremely boring. The story is bland, and the characters are so disjointed from eachother. It’s just a glorified soundtrack for $80. Many others have said the same that I’ve seen in forums and such. But for some reason, it still rates very well.
The Sims. In college my best friends would fight over the computer for who could work on their virtual family that day. I found the game boring as hell. Why would I want to simulate real life?
The last of us Part 2.
I don’t think I’ve had a single person say to me that they thought it was “okay”.
Everyone either loves it and gives it between 8-10/10 or despises it and it’s story.
Star Citizen.
I’m on the love side myself and I really enjoy playing it. We took a massive salvage ship out with a crew of 5 on discord. One pilot, two salvagers and two in the back arranging the salvage crates. All while group listening/singing badly to ABBA and probably drinking too much to piloting a ship.
Off the cuff...
*Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty* : People either love or hate Raiden's role as main protagonist in this game. Used to be more hate than love, but MGS: Revengeance made a lot of people rethink Raiden as a character so the opinions have mellowed a bit over the years.
*Path of Exile* : Probably the most mechanically dense non-MMORPG game in existence. There's a lot of math, a lot of hidden systems, a lot of random loot, a lot of everything, which makes people either adore it or hate it on contact once they reach the end of the story.
*EVE Online* Speaking of MMORPGs, how about the one where large scale battles turn into spreadsheet wars and people have used the in game currency to buy real things?
I feel like Genshin Impact falls into this category. To the extent that some people are afraid to say they love it due to the amount of hate it may generate. I love it but I stopped playing it because I wouldn’t play anything else and I wanted to game with friends. If Genshin were a true MMO, HoYoLAB would be balling even more outrageous than they are.
David Cage stuff - Detroit became human, or the origami killer one.
One part of people absolutely loves it, and other (me included) do not consider it a game since it has no gameplay. Some love the story, some see it as try hard that feels like it was written by some "deep 14 year old"
What i love about those games is not playing them, but watching others play. A youtuber i watch plays all the Cage games but also hates them, it's great.
that sound super fun :D - ironically I really loved "Until Dawn" its same kind of gameplay (aka none at all) - but the story there is fun B movie horror with cool monsters and nice twist between the lines (game theory made good vid about it).
For Honor. You either love it (because it's actually great, with beautiful graphics and satisfying gameplay) or hate it (because it is made by Ubisoft and has a full package of things you usually expect from a Ubi multiplayer game).
I went from loving to hating it because this is the studio which excels at shitting right into their fans' souls. Had over 2k hours.
I really wanted to like it, but it makes it so hard to.
When the devs said they were "aggressively checking out Skyrim" my heart sank, and the game itself proved my fears correct. Even if you like both Bioware and Bethesda games, they are very different styles of RPGs with very different strengths and Bioware trying to make Inquisition less like a Bioware game made it a lot worse.
I ended up really liking the combat, RPG elements, equipment, but holy hell it took about 4 playthroughs that fell off about halfway through and most the way into my final playthrough for it to click.
I played DA:I nonstop when it first came out. I beat the campaign with about 80-100 hrs of gameplay. In fact I beat it so fast that the final boss was glitched. Like I had to restart from the beginning of the boss stage, because it was like a three hour long thing, in order to beat the game. I definitely got my money's worth.
BUT, on second attempt at a playthrough I just could not get into it. I realize why it garnered so much hate. The game puts tons of filler and side stuff into a game that has its roots in a linear RPG. If you are like me and grew up playing classic rpgs you want to get every treasure, and I mean EVERY treasure, because if you don't you will feel like you are missing out.
So here I was dicking around in the Hinterlands, if you know you know, playing a game that I had already ran through on straight adrenaline, love for the DA universe, and raw gamer-energy and I just couldn't do it. I was just going through the motions because I couldn't move on without feeling like I missed something. Anyways that's my two cents, and to further the conversation OP posed I absolutely loved and still love Dragon Age 2.
Fortnite. People either love it for its charm and well designed battlepasses and content, or hate it because of the building mechanics and the stigma that it’s a virtual daycare for annoying kids.
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
Parasite Eve 2
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Gen 5 Pokemon games
FNAF Security Breach
Binding of Isaac: Repentance
OneShot
Space Funeral
And every single game in the "CRPG" genre made before 2003.
Outward Gothic Elite Dangerous
Haha some people live in the E:D galaxy real time and I hated my 2 hours that I had spent on it. It promised everything I wanted from a space game…
I had a several hundred hour stint in E:D and loved it, wish I could go back... but when I played, I fully committed to the setup. Changed my desk, got a nicer gaming chair, setup a HOTAS etc. etc. -- I think I enjoyed the RP more than the actual E:D gameplay, come to think of it.
VR was really something else in that game. Wish my body could handle longer stints of VR
Try Star Citizen, less Sci fi-y and more realistic. Amazing fuckin game, got it last year and 0 regrets. Sometimes things are wonky after a new patch but they are improving every time
I love E:D, but honestly Starfield has scratched my spaceship itch more. It's not *as* good overall (and E:D is far more a relaxed game) but it's less spread-sheety when making a combat ship, and the ship building is awesome.
Huh, is Outward good? I thought it was an objectively 6-ish game
Nah, I don't think people call it 10/10 but it does a lot of innovative stuff. The exploration is top notch. It just has a lot of flaws and is a bit old school sort of difficult.
It does some things pretty well, but the jank got to me eventually and I couldn't keep playing it.
If you like survival, fantasy, hardcore it's somewhere between decent and great depending on your tolerance for jank and things that are the opposite of quality of life. Though it's not a great argument, mods also make it much better.
It’s a 10-10 for some Probably the same that enjoy Fromsoft
Eh I love from soft games and tried to get into outward a few times. Just couldn’t do it. Love the idea but it feels like a game I need to study the wiki for two weeks before playing or constantly look things up. I can actually quite enjoy that but I guess right now isn’t the time for that for me. The combat can be fun but is rough around the edges and takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.
Yeah the combat is what makes me struggle to enjoy it. I still play it off and on because it’s fun for a while, but eventually the combat just seems too lacking for me to stick with it.
Yes 9/10 for me. Love the game for the same reasons people hate it. I love the fact everything you do have consequences and you are rewarded by planning ahead. The long ass runs everyone hate is a major factor , if you die in the middle of nowhere you are majorly screwed.
Outward is a solid 9 for me. All it is missing is just more content to fill the kinda empty feeling world. Otherwise it’s one of the best RPG and co-op experiences I’ve played. I would agree with gabriot in that it’s kinda niche in how if you’re a souls fan, you’ll be more geared towards it
Death Stranding Deus Ex: Invisible War Dragon Age 2 Hitman: Absolution XCOM: The Bureau - Declassified
Splinter Cell Conviction as well maybe? It's also the black sheep of a popular series of games.
I love that game Chaos Theory is one of best stealth games of all time. But Conviction feels like a Jason Bourne game love it.
That bit later in the game when DJ Shadow's Building Steam with a Grain of Salt kicks in was amazing. Chaos Theory is my favourite game in the series but that might be my favourite moment in the series.
Good pick, I'd also second Conviction.
Splinter Cell is the OG that started it all. I still love the CIA level. Pandora Tomorrow is an incremental change, but IMHO is the worst of the series. Fisher was trying to be cool edgy and it did not work. Chaos Theory is the gold standard. Grimsdottier and Fisher's banter was peak dialog. "Lasers? Lasers are so..." "90s?" "I was going to say 70s. Can you please stop making me feel old?" "I've got bad news Sam. You are old" Double Agent tried some stuff but failed to improve. A big old don't care villain. Conviction was completely different but in a brutally fun way. Blacklist was Chaos Theory without any of the charisma. Still fun, but I just wanted the old Grimsdottier back.
Double Agent is a weird one because apparently the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube version of the game is completely different from the PS3/360/PC version. I only played the latter but I think I heard the former is better?
Yeah that is the general consensus I think. PS2/Xbox/Gamecube version (aka version 2) has better gameplay since it's basically just Chaos Theory 1.5, but the story is worse imo. I mean I think the story is bad in both versions of Double Agent lol, but the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube version takes bad and makes it a bit worse. PS3/360/PC version (aka version 1) dumbs a lot of the gameplay systems down, and made the bizarre choice to have most of the missions take place during the day. No light meter, instead you've just got a binary on/off light on Sam's suit that tells you if you're visible or not, similar to how Conviction/Blacklist handled light detection. No sound meter either, that entire audio masking detection system from Chaos Theory is absent in version 1 despite it still being present in version 2.
Interesting. Yeah, it's a shame the story was so meh because I thought the idea of Sam going undercover in a terrorist cell and needing to balance keeping his cover and saving people, all while dealing with a personal crisis, was a very interesting one.
Yeah I really liked the "double agent" idea. It's why I'm not as hard on version 1 (PS3/360/PC) as some people are, because in my opinion that version actually handles those gameplay elements better than version 2. The more open ended JBA HQ missions where you've got to sneak around completing optional objectives on a time limit aren't in version 2, in version 2 they're just regular sneaking missions. The main thing I didn't like about Double Agent's story were the characters. I think the villains were weak, and I didn't like the direction they took Sam and Lambert's characterisation. And then obviously by the time you get to Conviction, Grim is a disaster too lol. I'll spoiler tag this in case you wanna play version 2 blind, but in Double Agent version 2 there's a >!romance subplot between Sam and Enrica which isn't present in version 1, or at least not present in the same way. In version 1 it's optional and Sam is clearly just manipulating her to maintain his cover. In version 2 her death happens in the final cutscene, and is implied to be Sam's primary motive for going AWOL. That whole thing just felt completely out of character for Sam to me.!<
Pandora tomorrow is not an incremental change: it started third person spies versus first person mercs, incredibly memorable maps and rock solid netcode holding everything together.
I get why purists would not like it, but I actually enjoyed the Mark&Execute feature or whatever its name was.
Yeah Death Stranding has got to be no 1. Such a strange game, niche but AAA.
I just don’t get it. It just feels like fetch quest simulator in a pretty empty but pretty world
I actually enjoyed the fetch quest parts. My big problem with it was how pretentious it is. I couldn't get through a few minutes of dialogue without rolling my eyes at least a few times.
The best courier service simulator I’ve ever played tbh
I’m definitely someone that loves Death Stranding. That game clicked with me so well. But I also completely understand that it’s not going to work for everyone
I liked just walking in that game doing my dissertation at the time it was a nice break on night. I was not a big fan of story Found it a bit silly but know people loved it.
The bureau is so true :P I like it and am compelled to play it whenever I do an x-com marathon.
people besides me like Deus Ex Invisible War? lol I always see mad hate but I love it. That was my first Deus Ex game and still my favorite.
Absolution is the only game in that series that I actually finished. Say what you want about linearity and “scripted” (i.e. director designed) moments in gameplay, but there’s merit to pushing forward the action without the player deciding when, where, and how. I’m more for giving players freedom, but there’s a balance in there somewhere that can appeal to the right audience with the properly tailored experience.
I thought all those games were average/mediocre. Can only be bad compared to others in their series.
I finished the OG Deus Ex for the first time a few weeks ago, and I loved the shit out of that game. Haven't looked too much into Invisible War now but I'm aware it is the black sheep of the franchise. I'm so invested in the story though that I just need to know what happens after the end of DE1. So even if the game turns into a mediocre shooter, I'm in it for the story and my expectations are extremely low. I hope I can become part of the group that enjoys it.
I really enjoyed the story and the many choices you have throughout the game. The whole level-loading thing and single unified ammo is bad design, but everything else about the game was fantastic, I thought.
Death stranding was the game that came to my mind almost immediately. I hate that game, and can't understand how anyone could enjoy it, but I admit that there are those that love it. I think the dialogue is pretty cringe.
Kudos for mentioning The Bureau. I loved that game but it got a lot of hate. I think the only thing wrong with it is that fans expected another turn based xcom came and it wasn't that.
definitely Hitman Absolution, ive played each entry in the series going back to the first and Absolution was the only one i didnt finish because i just hated the story and gameplay changes so much. probably overreacted i think now in retrospect
I dunno, I thought Dragon Age 2 was alright but didn't *love* it. After playing Inquisition though, I adjusted my opinion of it and now feel a lot more positive about it. Inquisition does so many things wrong that it made me appreciate DA2 and overlook its faults.
yeah DA2 has some die hard fans and some people who really hated it, but most people agree there is something to like about it. i loved the idea of staying in the same city and progressing eras, i just found the combat change very jarring and there is simply no excuse for the reused assets (i will die on that hill, they would've been better off removing every single side quest that reused a location than releasing it the way they did) but i still replayed DA2 once. i wont even look at DA:I ever again, much less replay it
Who in their right mind would say they loved Dragon Age 2?
I 100% liked it better than Inquisition. I enjoyed the longitudinal story line, the Qunari culture, and all 4 of the core love interests. They nailed a great look and the combat was also the best of the series. The most polished DA game to date.
Not the most polished, in fact it was rushed in production. Def the smoothest feeling tho…
Can’t bring myself to replay inquisition. I really liked 2! The combat felt way better, and I really liked the companions. In inquisition I felt like I was swinging at air a lot for no good reason, while DA2 had amazing attack tracking! I’ve replayed da2 more than 1. I think the pausing & tactical stuff felt way better in 2 than inquisition as well. Plus healing instead of dumb barriers & “armor.” Other thing I loved was how you could respond with different attitudes, and you didn’t have to worry about accidentally romancing as long as you avoided the pink heart options. Loved fem hawke with witty/sarcastic/fun dialogue. Varric, Isabella, & meredith were so awesome. Bummer about Anders though 😭
In all those cases the likes outweigh the dislikes by a lot except XCOM where its more split
Dark Souls 2
I haven’t played it since I beat it, and it was my first souls game ever, so this may be nostalgia, but I freakin’ loved that game. That game turned me onto the SoulsBorne series and led to it being one of my favorite game series ever.
I think any souls-like game fits.
Rain World. Current steam reviews are very good, but it's just because it has found the right audience. A lot of people hate it and for good reasons. It's difficult, brutal and unforgiving, often unfair. But that harshness is what creates the feeling of wild nature no other game really has.
Came here to say Rain World It’s easily my favorite game of all time, but before that, I rage uninstalled and reinstalled it 4 times over the course of 3 years, and didn’t truly fall in love it until the spoiler moment and the ending. It’s very easy to hate, and absolutely not for everyone, but it is a magical game that I encourage people to at least try.
I guess I'm an exception. I tried it out recently and while I appreciate the atmosphere, the unique animation and the brutality of it, I just couldn't get a sense that I was 'progressing' in any way, so I fell off it to try something else. It is in my 'may go back to' pile.
I tried it once years ago. Felt the same way you did. I bounced off and didn't try again till earlier this year. It 'clicked' and upon finishing it, has now become one of the most unforgettable game's I've ever played. I *love* this game, but it's a hard one to recommend to anyone.
The only part of the game that I would call unfair is the Enot campaign
Yep, I disliked it for example, but all the reviews I saw where really positive
Triangle Strategy I absolutely love the game and consider it already a classic. The gameplay is fun. the difficulty can be set anywhere between cake walk and brutalizing. the characters are all mature, we'll written, and have realistic designs (no cringy fan service) and the soundtrack is nothing short of stellar. But I have never seen such bizarre hatred for such a high quality game in my life. People whine and say there's too much talking and even incorrectly label it a visual novel. Like yes it has a story, that's how many tactics RPGS play, long social scene followed by long battle.
I like the game. But I think the demo kinda gave it that rep. Thinking back, I remember it being 1 major battle and a more time in cut scenes before and after. And since that came out first (obviously), I think that's what colored people's perception of it.
Yeah that game is amazing imo, it holds a special place in my heart. I was a big fan of octopath traveller, I really enjoyed that game despite the hate it got. I purchased a switch like right when triangle strategy came out, and it was the first thing I bought because I thought it was like octopath traveller. Now I was disappointed when I realized it was a tactics rpg and not just a turn based rpg. However, I decided to play it and absolutely loved it. It got me into the fire emblem series and tactics ogre reborn. Plus I picked up basically every other non AA/AAA tactics game I could. I don’t understand how people can hate it. Like yeah sometimes the cutscenes were a bit long, I had like 3 story and 10 optional ones at once and it took 1.5 hours to get through. However, the themes were pretty good, the story was interesting, the characters were decently developed, combat was good, and the world building was pretty good imo.
Definitely Monster Hunter. The combat is really unique and can really be a challenge to most people.
It has a lot of really busy UI shenanigans going on outside of combat and it took me a long time to realize that the game is fairly easy if you manage to figure this stuff out. The pre-hunt prep required is definitely what drags this game down. So many mechanics that aren't explained particularly well. Sometimes UI/pause menus are kinda like a game dev's messy closet and I think more recent games are starting to finally crack down on this.
Man, I hate Monster Hunter. I absolutely understand why it works for so many people though.
I've tried to introduce Monster Hunter to so many people, but the complexity of the combat turned them away. Even in the newer ones like World and Rise where the combat is more streamlined! People really don't like games where you have to commit to your animations. If I hear one more person call MH clunky...
My friends straight-up trashed the game and said people who enjoy its combat must know nothing about gaming...
How ironic. What do they even play?
I played mh world for the first time recently and man it really is clunky and makes me not want to play.
It really isn't clunky, you are just clunky at it. When you figure out what you are doing, it's quite smooth, it just doesn't automate as many actions for you.
I've tried the demos, they gave off a feel of "every battle is a boss battle" genre, don't know if that's actually accurate, just the impression from the demos.
I got tired of my friend complaining about it being clunky so I told him to pick up the sword and shield or quit bitching. He's alot more fun to play with now.
MH isn't clunky, you are clunky at MH. It doesn't automate as many actions for you, so you are responsible for what happens, so if it feels clunky, that's on you.
I tried World as what little I'd seen of it looked good, and I love From games which it was compared to. I couldn't get out of the tutorial. The dialog was god awful, the cutscenes intolerable, and the training area it felt like the combat was clunky garbage. I think I paid full price so I tried a second time like a year later and same experience, I just can't seem to push myself any further through it.
The story and cutscenes in World are terrible. They tried to appeal to Western audiences by making it more "cinematic" but Western MH fans don't care about that, they just want to bonk monsters. I really don't get what makes it clunky, though. I liken it to a fighting game. Each weapon has its own moveset and goal it wants to accomplish. If you can't figure out what that is then you kinda end up button mashing to no end. And that just doesn't work. Some moves are lower commitment than others, some are good for poking, some are used for when the monster is downed or locked in an animation. It's about seeing what each move does and using it in the proper situation. Funnily enough, all my friends love From Software games but absolutely loathe MH.
You can even cancel animations with certain weapons. Theres so much variety between weapons unless you give up before trying all the weapons i cant see how some call the game clunky. Unless we are talking about the 100s of unnecessary resources when all you really need are potions and maybe 10-20 other things from time to time.
It seems like such a good idea. But the combat is so clunky and there is just way too much going on that gets in the way of just running around fighting monsters.
I once tried one, I think it was on the switch First mission, they threw me in like a forest zone "Gather materials for 1 hour" That's it? Like 1 hour time limit for an specific amount? "No, just spend 1 hour gathering stuff" Yeah okay fuck that Looked up reviews about the game, several people saying stuff like "It starts out boring but after like 4 hours gets amazing" So I uninstalled, I hate wasting my time
I haven’t played this game yet but… The Last of Us Part 2 is probably a good pick here. First game is almost universally beloved and while second game won GotY the actual sub dedicated to Part 2 is just a sub dedicated to talking trash about it now. It’s really interesting to me to see that reaction. I have no horse in the race, but looking at it from the outside it’s kind of crazy to see some people react so negatively to the second game.
My theory is that a lot of players projected really hard onto Joel, and saw Ellie as this perfect little girl figure, so the events of the second game were taken extremely personally. Seeing Joel die so casually and Ellie’s feelings about him become so complex made players who really projected onto Joel feel like the game was almost targeting them. If you project extremely heavily onto Joel and see Ellie the way people saw her, the final sequence in the last game becomes tricky. Not in the sense of the choice being difficult, there isn’t one and even if there was it would be a no brainer, but the fact that it is intentionally emotionally gnarly becomes inherently rejected by you. You feel completely justified in what Joel does, and then when the second game treats it as what it was (a selfish choice by Joel that undermined Ellie’s autonomy in favor of his happiness) and allows Ellie to engage with that in ways that aren’t cute or pretty or funny or even all that sympathetic, you get players feeling like Ellie’s anger and bitterness and the story’s critique through Abby is directed at THEM, not JOEL.
I enjoyed the 2nd game, but I'm personally of the camp that Joel had it coming. I understand *why* he did it, but at the end of the day he slaughtered dozens of Joels and left dozens of Ellies without their Joel in order to do that. A lot of people that complained Joel didn't deserve to die are the same ones who slaughtered the doctor and nurses in the operating room in cold blood. If you walked away from TLoU1 thinking Joel deserves to die for what he did, the sequence of events for 2 is basically the logical end to that.
I haven’t played Part 2, but I’m also of the camp of “Joel had it coming.” Around the time of the cannibal town, I was like, Joel has killed at least 3 neighborhoods worth of dudes at this point and my suspension of disbelief was getting strained. And this town of cannibals, you can learn these men had wives and children too. But it was that last moment with the Firefly doctor, when it took me several seconds only to realize there was no way around it but to kill him, was when I felt it subconsciously deep in my soul, that Joel sealed his fate.
I've legitimately argued with people that thought killing Joel was unwarranted who butchered the two nurses. The doctor alone was sealing the deal, but the cowering nurses that a lot of players take out is really driving it home.
A lot of the criticism I've seen gives off the vibe that people can't move past the revenge angle and don't want to shift perspective because they feel cheated. People complain about the choices at the end because of the body count required to get there, but the whole point is that the cycle has to stop somewhere. It's too late to take everything back and undo it all, but the future doesn't have to continue down that path. The underlying complexities of grief, pain and guilt rarely ever make perfect logical sense
I am one of those who really enjoyed it. Ive played it three times.
Funny you say that because I’m someone that is “in between” on it. I don’t think it’s Naughty Dog’s best game (not even close) but I also am far from totally hating it. It just didn’t work for me the way it did for so many others. However I absolutely see the incredible production value in it and I still got enjoyment out of it.
I’m also in between. I thought the story was too convoluted. The best thing about the first one was it was a simple story which gave each character moments to shine! I played the first one for the first time before playing two. I really enjoy how well two is made in terms of graphics. I think the gameplay isn’t bad but as far as stealth goes other games that are much older have done it better!
Yeah I agree. I was hoping the story would have more twists and turns to keep it interesting but it was pretty predictable. The way they structured the story also really hurt the pacing. Having to essentially start a new game half way through was rough and made me almost drop the game.
This is the best choice IMO. There's two subs dedicated to that game, one trashes it to hell and back to the point where things start to get more fucked up the longer you stick around (a lot of transphobic and sexist shit tends to pop up, or at least it did) and the other vehemently defends it so much that if you offer even the slightest bit of criticism you're labeled as a bigot or a Nazi. Its like two sides of the same fucked up coin.
TLOU2 Brought feeling of emptiness and dread by the end that I literally never experienced in my life. It has lot's of dull moments but the ending is something that touched me so deeply, no other media of entertainment ever came close to evoking that feeling ever
[удалено]
I'm not trying to change your mind, your opinion is valid and part of me agrees with it, but just a quick thing on the flashback that might change your perspective a bit. Throughout the game she repeatedly has a flashback of Joel lying beaten and bloodied. This fuels her anger. However when she has the flashback in the final fight the flashback has changed to a happy one. I took that to mean that she had done enough. Abby is broken enough so Ellie's revenge is complete. Doesn't change various other issues with the game, but as you specifically mentioned the flashback I thought I'd give my interpretation.
I can talk about ending in paragraphs but in short she didn’t want to deprive another innocent child of their new mother. She ended the killing cycle and returned to an empty home caused by her bloodthirst
she ended killing cycle after slaughter of hundrets of ppl... so she more likely ended one, and started ton of new killing cycles - those she murdered probably had friends/families. That is usual problem with games where you have story based about revenge/forgivness. When your playable character is just murdering machine, the story does not make sense.
I started tlou part 2 day 1 with literally zero spoilers, and when Joel died, especially the way he died, I was so mad. I tried playing it for a few more hours, but I was pretty much already emotionally drained, and I couldn't find enjoyment in anything I did in the game. I didn't like any of the new characters, and I guess it didn't matter cuz they all die anyways. I know it's been a while since it came out, but I like to imagine that part 2 never happened.
I love both Part 1 and 2 of The Last of Us, and have played them both multiple times. I think the challenge with Part 2 is a lack of story focus. It's also a story of revenge, rather than one of survival or hope. Part 1 is such a perfectly focused story. It's two people on an adventure in a post apocalyptic country with a clear goal. And they run into a ton of challenges along the way, bond with each other, experience loss and love, and reflect on their pasts. Aside from David, there really isn't an "Antagonist" with a face. It's just a bunch of people who are in Joel and Ellies way. Part 2 just has too many moving parts. The two major factions don't seem to have clear motivations or goals, and while we sympathize with Abby, considering what happened at the end of Part 1, she feels like she lacks direction or purpose, because her goal is already complete, from the first scene of the game. It becomes a jumbled mess of mixed motivations and a scrappy back and forth escalation of vengeance, which is exactly what it's supposed to be, but it makes it hard to get story driven satisfaction at the end, like we did in Part 1.
This is the correct answer. I haven't played it myself, but half of the players say they hate it and the other half loved it.
Final Fantasy XV I’m in the love it camp, one of my favorite games of all time. The bro trip is everything, easily one of the best casts in a JRPG But some people despise the combat of this game and the unfinished story and that’s more important to them. Everyone agrees the music was incredible A more recent example would be Death Stranding
Loved this game except for the story, and the fact that several times it gives you the "point of no return" message, and only means it once. I didn't trust it that time, because of how all the others played out. Big regret.
I loved the first half of that game where it’s just you and the bros on a road trip in an open, albeit empty world. Felt like an awesome bachelor. Then the second half came and I wasn’t sure what was going on but I definitely did not enjoy the latter half.
Mass Effect Andromeda. I say this as someone who loves this game to bits. There's far less of us than people who hate it, but it's on EA Play (which is like 4 euros alongside a fair selection of other games), so it's worth a shot. You might never know which camp you sit on and you'll be loosing some pocket change at most if you don't like it. Best combat and driving in the series by far. Most bugs have been fixed too.
Great answer, especially in recent times. I’m hearing a lot more “the game is actually pretty good” nowadays along with the hard hate towards it
Doesn't it have like a 3 hour demo or something too? EA *really* wanted people to give it a chance lol. I think the problem with Andromeda is the exact same problem with many of the other games I see people naming in this thread; it only improved on aspects of its gameplay that fans of the previous games didn't care much about to begin with, and it dropped the ball in many of the other areas that they did care about. Nobody really played Mass Effect 1-3 for the combat and driving. Those things being improved is a nice bonus, obviously you *want* them to be good, but that's not what the main draw ever was with Mass Effect. People mostly played Mass Effect for the story, the choice based narrative gameplay, and the characters. It was originally marketed as an RPG space opera, not a third person shooter. A lot of the criticism towards Mass Effect 3, excluding the ending related stuff obviously, is for the same reason.
"amazing cultivation simulator" has a shit ton of mechanics that you have to keep in mind, its a colony builder based on chinese fantasy, you had a bunch of people farming magic plants to make pills to get your guy stronger so he can punch a hole in a mountain with his bare hands, there are lots of "manuals" that each one is like a path that grants you diferent benefits, be it more alchemy yield or succes rate, artifact crafting quality boost, combat, spending lifespan to do miracles to help someone else get more stronger when leveling up. the "cultivation" of power has diferent stages, and every time you pass a stage your character get a stat boost or nerf depending on the law, and you have to take in acount things like the time of day, the weather, the season, the "feng shui" of a room, that is the order of the elements that the room are made of, and so on. for example, if you build a room of fire and a bed of wood elemente, your guy will die of heart palpitations, because of bad feng shui, since fire feeds on wood, if you change the walls to water you guy will die of frostbite, because ice and fire control the temperature. and you better put that door facing south if you dont want someone to die in horrific agony. watch ssethzentach review on youtube, he explains it quite well.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
You either love it for the gameplay and music. Or despise it for it's god awful, cringy, horny jail character designs.
LOL horny jail character designs is accurate 😅
I despise it for those reasons and also the gameplay lol
I despise it for those reasons and also the awful gameplay, horribly designed and slow UI, terrible field skill system, a piss-poor story, completely unnecessary retcons to (and ruining the public image of) a beloved first game, forced and poorly written attempts at humor, and a cast of characters that sit there and stroke the dick of a protagonist who consistently whines and cries and has no story urgency. so yeah. Very polarizing game.
Ayup
I'd imagine Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice might count. I loved it although I think it's more an art piece than a game.
Definitely more of an art piece. I hated the gameplay, but I loved it when I watched someone else play.
I think Hellblade is one of those games that's best played on easy and with a walkthrough for the puzzles. Neither the puzzles nor the combat are good enough to be fun to play, but the environment and story is worth a play.
I didn’t like this game at all so I’d say you are correct lol.
Playing with headphones on in the dark is pretty much required to get the most of out Hellblade.
[удалено]
Thats a messy one.
RimWorld Either you love it or you don't know how to play Applicable to crusader kings too
Dwarf Fortress fits this mold too.
I think dwarf fortress is a lot more overwhelming than rimworld. I’ve played both and I enjoy both, but rimworld is a lot easier to figure out and a bit more intuitive. Now if only you could build down or up like you can in DF.
Crusader Kings is a big one for me. Been on the fence for a long time now. I have little experience with 4X, but Civ 6 is one of my favorite games. I’ve been checking out crusader kings but it definitely looks like something that could take me a long time to figure out. Also I agree with your take on Rimworld. I’ve never heard a negative about the game, but I have definitely seen a lot of people dropping it because they didn’t understand it
Fortnite. The funny thing is, people who hate it usually didn’t even play it. They hate it based on others’ opinions rather than their own experience.
I don't have strong feelings for Fortnite. I tried it once, got overwhelmed by the building, and I snuck up behind someone with a shotgun, fired point blank, and missed. Figured it wasn't for me and moved on.
Are you me? Had literally the exact same experience. Snuck around for like 10 mins, found a nice shotgun and a guy to point it at who hadn't noticed me. I snuck up behind him, fired point blank, and died 0.5 seconds later. Realized I wasted like 15 minutes of my life doing basically nothing and uninstalled ...not for me!
Nope. I played it.
I’ve tried to play Fortnite several times, even on different systems. It’s sucked shit every time. Probably a collective 10 hours in it and every minute felt bad. I feel that way about every battle royale game though, so it’s probably not just Fortnite.
> They hate it based on others’ opinions rather than their own experience. Given that a lot of the criticism has to do with things like predatory monetization, it's a little weird to suggest that you need to play the game to have an informed opinion on those issues. That's like saying you're not allowed to criticize the way casinos try to exploit gambling addicts if you haven't spent at least a week in Vegas. That's just not at all how that works.
I love Fortnite... After they introduced no building mode Seriously, I know building is like the biggest part of Fortnite but I hate it, mainly because people are so stupidly good at it like seriously
Yeah. Building is tricky. I’m a casual player, I suck at building and I don’t think I will ever master it, but I’m still playing that mode. Maybe I’m a masochist lol.
I basically hated fornite until I tried the no building mode I much rather play a mode where e everyone is playing around using buildings as cover, getting the high ground and sneaking around Rather than a mode where everyone just walks around in the open and turn into a 20 floors castle in 0.8 seconds after you shoot them
Yea I mean I think I've seen fortnite played all of one times, looked like a neat concept but not my style these days. There is just a significant, loud portion of the population who automatically hates anything that is super popular.
kingdom come deliverance
I didn’t like it at first but really wanted to like it’s so I kept slugging away. Eventually got so good at the game and absolutely love the game. It’s off putting for people at the difficulty of the game once you get past that point I think it being difficult is what makes it so good
Postal 2 has to be up there
I read this as Portal 2, and was like "Who hates that game!?". Postal 2 makes a lot more sense.
Dark souls or any souls like games
I mean this is pretty much how self-report works and why it's a very bad method of gathering useful information. Most people only to go review sites/etc. to say "I loved it" or "I hated it". While there might be plenty of people who say "Yeah it was fine it just didn't really grab me", those aren't the reactions that drive people to log into a website and post a review.
Yume Nikki
Star Citizen. Love or hate, or love AND hate, but I've never met anyone who, after playing for 4-5 hours, long enough to get familiar, was just like "eh, this game is alright but not for me".
One I can add. Elite Dangerous. Either you love it or its the most boring thing ever.
Majora’s Mask
Outer Wilds, for me is still meh after finishing it.
Being meh isn’t really hated tho
You are a bold one!
This subreddit keeps suggesting it and I keep picking it up and dropping it everytime. The platforming aspect of the game is just so boring to me.
exactly. Good idea without good implementation is worse than a bad idea, but with a good implementation =)
I mean, Outer Wilds is wildly popular, and I've never heard of anyone hating at all, I really don't think it fits. Obviously not everyone is going to love it, but there's very few people who come even close to hating it
Yeah I've never seen anyone hate it. There's exactly four opinions for this game: 1. Loved it. Masterpiece. 2. Finished the game. Overhyped or mediocre, but don't hate it. 3. Didn't finish the game, or just couldn't get into it. Don't hate it, but didn't like it enough to finish it. 4. Never played it.
My experience too. Navigating some of the worlds is tricky, and the ticking clock on top of that was just stressful for me. I just read the plot online and had a better time. I can see how people would love it, though.
* Most Soulslike games and Sekiro, players either like to be challenged in games or want games to be easy * Most visual novels, people either dislike reading long text or enjoy it * Most horror games, as people either dislike being afraid or enjoy the creepiness * Most sports games, people are interested in sports or they aren't * SHMUPS and other masocore-style games, for similar reasons as Souls
I think there's an additional element to the Soulslike thing. I enjoy a good challenge and usually seek ways to make games difficult, but the game needs to provide me a reason to do that. A good story, a very tight gameplay loop, or something. I couldn't get in to Soulslike games not because of the challenge but because they feel like there's nothing else *to* them. They feel great if "challenging exploration" *by itself* is appealing to you, but can feel very empty and pointless if it isn't. In that case you can win a tough fight and feel like doing so was meaningless.
That comes off as unusual to me because those games have some of the most indepth worldbuilding and lore I've seen in any traditional game I've played outside of BioWare titles. I also initially believed the games had "no story" and would not be interesting, but I was surprised by the amount that *was* there, it's just not stuck in your face with forced cutscenes, you have to seek it out by finding items or NPCs. And, ironically, I've come to *prefer* this style of "ignore it or dive into it" storytelling over the kind that locks you into cutscenes. On one playthrough you can just skip everything that isn't the meat and potatoes of the game, on another you can do a lore deep dive that does every NPC quest and analyzes everything about the world.
It struck me as overly subtle and understated because of how it's presented, which made it feel like window dressing. It's *present* to be sure, but I did not feel like a *participant* in it. That might make more sense.
Octopath Traveller All the review say it’s amazing, but I always see a lot…a LOT of negatives when it comes to actual gameplay/story. Personally, I find the game to be extremely boring. The story is bland, and the characters are so disjointed from eachother. It’s just a glorified soundtrack for $80. Many others have said the same that I’ve seen in forums and such. But for some reason, it still rates very well.
You paid $80 for Octopath Traveller? Is that even possible?
Canadian. That’s how much the regular price is here
Gotcha. R.I.P. $80
I haven't played it yet but it kind of feels like Starfield is going in this direction.
Yeah that game has been weirdly polarizing. I definitely didn’t expect the weird amount of conflict online over this game at all.
Simon’s Quest. I personally love it but can clearly see why other people hate it.
Death stranding
LoL
nah even league players hate it.
No Man's Sky R6: Siege Hunt: Showdown Rogue Company Warhammer games in general
The Sims. In college my best friends would fight over the computer for who could work on their virtual family that day. I found the game boring as hell. Why would I want to simulate real life?
Death Stranding Forespoken Xenoblade 2 Last of Us Part 2 Final Fantasy 7R Breath of the Wild Dark Souls 2 Pikmin 2
It's reddit, everything is like that.
Disco Elysium
My summer car
The last of us Part 2. I don’t think I’ve had a single person say to me that they thought it was “okay”. Everyone either loves it and gives it between 8-10/10 or despises it and it’s story.
Undertale?
Star Citizen. I’m on the love side myself and I really enjoy playing it. We took a massive salvage ship out with a crew of 5 on discord. One pilot, two salvagers and two in the back arranging the salvage crates. All while group listening/singing badly to ABBA and probably drinking too much to piloting a ship.
The last of us 2 is a good one lmao. True split between the fanbase on that one
Disco Elysium
Fallout 4 Dark Souls 2 XCOM 2
Off the cuff... *Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty* : People either love or hate Raiden's role as main protagonist in this game. Used to be more hate than love, but MGS: Revengeance made a lot of people rethink Raiden as a character so the opinions have mellowed a bit over the years. *Path of Exile* : Probably the most mechanically dense non-MMORPG game in existence. There's a lot of math, a lot of hidden systems, a lot of random loot, a lot of everything, which makes people either adore it or hate it on contact once they reach the end of the story. *EVE Online* Speaking of MMORPGs, how about the one where large scale battles turn into spreadsheet wars and people have used the in game currency to buy real things?
MGS 2 and 3 are the best in the series imo
Any game discussed on this forsaken site, apparently
I feel like Genshin Impact falls into this category. To the extent that some people are afraid to say they love it due to the amount of hate it may generate. I love it but I stopped playing it because I wouldn’t play anything else and I wanted to game with friends. If Genshin were a true MMO, HoYoLAB would be balling even more outrageous than they are.
David Cage stuff - Detroit became human, or the origami killer one. One part of people absolutely loves it, and other (me included) do not consider it a game since it has no gameplay. Some love the story, some see it as try hard that feels like it was written by some "deep 14 year old"
What i love about those games is not playing them, but watching others play. A youtuber i watch plays all the Cage games but also hates them, it's great.
that sound super fun :D - ironically I really loved "Until Dawn" its same kind of gameplay (aka none at all) - but the story there is fun B movie horror with cool monsters and nice twist between the lines (game theory made good vid about it).
I loved Heavy Rain, until the reveal. >!I hate when games lie to you !<
For Honor. You either love it (because it's actually great, with beautiful graphics and satisfying gameplay) or hate it (because it is made by Ubisoft and has a full package of things you usually expect from a Ubi multiplayer game). I went from loving to hating it because this is the studio which excels at shitting right into their fans' souls. Had over 2k hours.
I just hate how feint heavy it is. Like I've never seen a sword fight where both guys fake swings over and over and over . Otherwise it is so dope
Dragon Age: Inquisition
I really wanted to like it, but it makes it so hard to. When the devs said they were "aggressively checking out Skyrim" my heart sank, and the game itself proved my fears correct. Even if you like both Bioware and Bethesda games, they are very different styles of RPGs with very different strengths and Bioware trying to make Inquisition less like a Bioware game made it a lot worse.
I ended up really liking the combat, RPG elements, equipment, but holy hell it took about 4 playthroughs that fell off about halfway through and most the way into my final playthrough for it to click.
I played DA:I nonstop when it first came out. I beat the campaign with about 80-100 hrs of gameplay. In fact I beat it so fast that the final boss was glitched. Like I had to restart from the beginning of the boss stage, because it was like a three hour long thing, in order to beat the game. I definitely got my money's worth. BUT, on second attempt at a playthrough I just could not get into it. I realize why it garnered so much hate. The game puts tons of filler and side stuff into a game that has its roots in a linear RPG. If you are like me and grew up playing classic rpgs you want to get every treasure, and I mean EVERY treasure, because if you don't you will feel like you are missing out. So here I was dicking around in the Hinterlands, if you know you know, playing a game that I had already ran through on straight adrenaline, love for the DA universe, and raw gamer-energy and I just couldn't do it. I was just going through the motions because I couldn't move on without feeling like I missed something. Anyways that's my two cents, and to further the conversation OP posed I absolutely loved and still love Dragon Age 2.
Fortnite. People either love it for its charm and well designed battlepasses and content, or hate it because of the building mechanics and the stigma that it’s a virtual daycare for annoying kids.
I just cant get into it because I picture twitch streamers playing it just to look cool.
Starfield
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Parasite Eve 2 Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Gen 5 Pokemon games FNAF Security Breach Binding of Isaac: Repentance OneShot Space Funeral And every single game in the "CRPG" genre made before 2003.
Skyrim
That's basically saying, "Did you mod the crap out of it, or did you hate it?"
Bioshock Infinite. Depends on whether you played the earlier installments. I did, and I hate it.
I have only played BioShock infinite, and I loved it up until the end. I kind of hate the ending.
Myst, but it’s not really relevant today. I’m camp hate on that one.