What Game have you've played thinking it will be bad, yet it hooked you and you actually enjoyed it?

Didn't know that Hotline Miami was like that. I didn't play it as of yet, I only thought it's a stylized pixel game and what I did like about it was the top-shooter as it reminded me of classics.

I'm also surprised how this game is overwhelmingly positive and I never knew about it. Thanks for bringing this to the table.

I never liked companies that gave this type of treatment to gamers that purchased their games. A DLC should be a side mission or additional content, but not determine the overall outcome of the main story. Unless it's given for free or let's say the developers messed up the story and wanted to rectify, I would not see why that should be a thing. An absolute no go for me and I've been quite tolerable with some games I must say.

Often times, I like to own the complete game, with DLC and all, so I don't mind investing additional money on it.

I've never played it because I didn't like the art-style and how hyped it got. I felt it would not fit my criteria, although I don't mind giving it a try if ever I get my hands on it.

That's true! That game was nice and I enjoyed the story. I think we'd be pretty happy with a sequel if it would come out.

That's awesome man! I've got the game as well, as I got it through the Humble Bundle, but I've never really considered going for such a game either. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed it and thought nothing of it just to be surprised.

It's awesome when games you expect less surprise you positively more.

This was really surprising how enjoyable it is, the maps are absolutely gorgeous. I've played closer to 30 hours of it and I've only hunted couple animals during that time, the rest has been just walking around the maps I have available. Truly just taking it as an "outdoor walking sim" and it's still a good time, it does help a bit with the feelings from being stuck indoors for so long.

The most beautiful videogame forests with those of Kingdom Come. I agree that it worths it just to walk around !

This is an interesting question, not one you'd have to really sit around and consider that often. As gamers we're all much more familiar with the exact opposite, of thinking a game would be good but then it being bad. But to think a game would be bad and you still make the decision to play it? That's a different mentality altogether and I doubt that many people have actually done much of that, unless they're doing it to get a laugh out of how bad something is.

I like things to be outside of the box and believe or not, by challenging people to list their games, I discover new gems or games that considered mediocre they turned out to be loved by a small community and I myself and others reading the comments can draw some help and make decisions out of it. A win-win for everybody I should say. I've been doing this for quite some time now since I've started my journey on Steamgifts and since gamers are different from a player to another, I draw a lot of inspiration knowing what people like.

I also like to ask tougher questions others don't mind asking. 😅 Can be weird and hard sometimes to think about it, but I enjoy it.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is that game for me. For the longest time I didn't have any interest in The Witcher series, but after hearing for a time of hearing how good Wild Hunt is, I eventually begun to entertain the thought of trying the games out for myself.

Mind you, I'm still at this point considering to play it too. So I perfectly understand how you feel. I am hoping one day I'll pick the games up as I'm interested in trying them. When? I don't know, it could be this month, or the months after. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Naturally had to start playing from the beginning, thinking it was mandatory in order to keep track of the overall plot. I absolutely hated the first game, the gameplay was beyond clunky and tedious, I legitimately struggled to finish it.

Same, the very reason why I've not went for the rest. I am obsessed at this point with playing games older than myself to simply understand the plot and the characters. I've had a poor experience with another game where I jumped on the most recent, that's God of War and I felt disconnected with the main character because I could not associate his struggles and motives all together. Although the game was good, I wanted to know how the first 3 God of Wars were before playing, yet I've not done it.

Going back to what you said, I'm not enjoying Witcher 1 no matter how much I know the 2nd and 3rd may be. I feel like a drag going through the game, but I will overcome that drag, because I'm a little fixed on going over every single quest and small details so I can fully absorb the game.

What I didn't like out of Witcher 2, as I've tried the first minutes is that it feels like it's ported off the console. And that kinda overall concluded my experience with the 2 games. Yet again, I feel I'm being critical about it and I should definitely shut up and try it. Some games take time for you to actually enjoy them for what they really are.

The Ace Attorney series (played on the Switch, but they're available on Steam). It was an impulse buy because I only had a few games on the Switch at the time and I wanted more choices, I didn't even know it was a visual novel.

Oh it's a visual novel? I didn't know either. I thought it was a more strategy discussion game. 😅

avoided visual novels like the plague, but this game made me more open to them.

Why do you avoid them?

The way the dialogue was paced I could swear the game was voice acted, although it has no voice acting other than the occasional "Objection!". The text does not appear at a steady pace. It's paced like real speech. It's hard to explain. some phrases are slower, some are faster, some words feel more emphasized, there are brief pauses after some words...etc. I could read the speaker's tone of voice, it was surreal.

The "Objection!" part I'm the only thing familiar with as I know little about the franchise, although I've recently wishlisted the franchise for the sake that one day I will play them.

I do like that somewhat it allows you to be able to keep up to a regular, yet well put together discussion, since you're part of the attorney. Or so I think. 😅

As for the soundtrack, it's not about being a good soundtrack (although some tracks are really good), It's how it's used. Although the tracks repeat, there is not one of them that feels misplaced. I could read the mood of the moment through the music. The moments when the music stops and you're treated to silence were also placed masterfully, like holding your breath.

Really important for a game that focuses a lot on text I guess. Maybe that's what makes the game so special and appreciated by many.

I've heard that about the game. It's just not polished as a game. The closest I've played that left me like that was Blood Knights. It's really unpolished as a game, but somewhat it was fun on some areas and I just wanted to see how bad the dialogues can get. Sometimes you gotta enjoy a good parody. 🤣

Although I must say, the game didn't try to be, and took itself quite serious, just poor voice-acting.

I've never played the Red Dead Series, I've told myself to play the first one and then the 2nd, because simply I would not dare to go back to an older game for the simple downgrade level.

My wife loves RDR 2 and unexpectedly, spent over 400-500 hours in the Multi-Player. She never played the story, although I encouraged her to do it. She did recently check it and said: "Why the Multiplayer doesn't feel as polished and detailed as the SinglePlayer?"

I regret checking that spoiler now, but it's expected for games from Rockstar anyway.

It was not as bad as I've hoped for me. I expected to not enjoy and finish it at all after reading reviews.

It's not a game I'd recommend over similar games I've played, but it's okay.

What you didn't like about the game? The Combat or the story?

theHunter: Call of the Wild seen being mentioned. You're the 2nd who remarked that. That's awesome. Do you think it's worth having the rest of the DLC's to enjoy the game?

What is UFS? I can't find the abbreviation of this game anywhere. 🤣 Oh! It''s Ultimate Fishing Simulator I see now. I thought it was a sports game for a second seeing it's being mentioned. Well... fishing is a sport, but heck. Never mind! 🤣😅

You pose an interesting question. As was already pointed out, I doubt many people would play a game they expect to be awful. They would spend their time on something else. So as gamers I would expect us more often to play those games we expect to be great and they let us down. But I can see how a question like this would lead you gems you hadn't considered or maybe wouldn't consider otherwise.

True. They can be optional, but I've discovered some interesting titles that allowed me to spend more time and check them out. Having a more personal response to my question is a lot more valuable for me than reading random reviews from people. I don't know a lot of people on this website, but I feel I can trust their genuine comment than a review written on the game. I can bring it down to a conversational level and find it's reason easier. Plus is hell'a fun to try to think outside of the box we're used to.

I get to pick my games based on positive reviews and recommendations really, and visuals are a great influence on my decision, but sometimes I overlook games that visually would be not my pick, like indie games and just discover that they are beyond my expectation of them. I could never discover a lot of the games mentioned here because my Steam doesn't recommend me such games as it kinda picked up what I'm interested in.

One game for me that surpassed expectations and hooked me for a time would be Motorsport Manager. I had bought it on a big discount because I thought it seemed interesting and the discount made me try it out. I later bought all the DLC available. I currently have over 150 hours in the game and actually haven't even really played with the DLC yet. It's one that I still would enjoy spending some time and picking it back up again. I am not a huge racing fan and have some knowledge of Nascar but nothing really beyond that. I really enjoyed the race strategy along with the development and financial aspects of it.

I personally have the same knowledge of racing games. Most that I've played was the Need for Speed ones. Didn't touch any of the racing games since NFS The Run. I personally never picked up racing games that were strictly professional. NFS Shift was never in my favorite list of games for the simple fact that I preferred street racing or street sports in general.

It's nice to hear that a game like that can surprise you and you're hooked countless hours in it.

I had purchased The Long Dark early on when it was still in Early Access. It is another game that surpassed expectations. I thought the concept seemed interesting and they have since done a great job with it. It's one that I would like to pick back up and play some more. They are still finishing the story mode but have it mostly done. Definitely one of the Early Access successes.

This game is on my wishlist for that particular reason. Didn't read a single review about it. Just picked it because it looks interesting and reviews are quite positive as a general look.

Another game I found I enjoyed more than anticipated was Prison Architect. An interesting management game that I would like to spend more time playing.

I've played this one quite a bit. I've done it for a few Streams. It was fun really, but I didn't play it after the streams, which is a steam. I need to revisit it as I got all the DLC's for it.

I decided to list 3 different games as maybe one or more don't appeal at all to you.

Why thank you! 🤗

Death Stranding is a game I have been somewhat interested in but at the same time fear that I might find it boring as a walking simulator is not something that sounds real interesting. I probably will eventually give it a go but I liked your summary above and review left on Steam.

I can 100% recommend this game. It fell to become one of my most enjoyable games of last year and all times. I felt the same thing. I don't really buy games that are walking simulators, but this is something that if you're opened about will hook you and keep you in the story for hours. I had no issue pursuing the achievements to 100% for this game and that says something.

If I like a game and want to get it to 100%, that says a lot about the game. It means that I have no issue spending more time in the game to get all the bits and pieces. Some games can feel great and I honestly enjoy them, but revisiting it again for the achievements feel more like a chore.

View attached image.

Funny... I didn't even know I owned this game. That's awesome and I will definitely try that game. Thanks for shedding a light on it!

I do have interest in Pyre as well. Thanks for sharing that although a flawed game, it did preset you with a good story.

The beginning didn't catch me either but after reading this, maybe i'll retry.

The Witcher is a game I have never have expected to reach so much popularity at it's time, when it released. I think the 2nd one set the tone a lot better for the franchise. I gotta play them. I could not get over the graphics of the 1st and the controls. Witcher 2 is poorly ported from consoles, but I'm willing to overcome that issue.

It's unlucky on the design part that the game really starts going in chapter 2, and there's a pretty long chapter 1 before that.

This is the police 2. The 1st one had an interesting corruption setting but gameplay was fastly super repetitive. When i've read players complaining that the 2nd one turned militant ideologically, i was afraid that the writing would be caricatural and so ignored the game for a long time. Well i was wrong, the game plot is as exciting as a very good novel, and gameplay is better with a nice tactical aspect.

That game I've got on my radar for a while, but didn't research much about it. I thought it's a detective game, so I had it wishlisted.

After reading your list, i agree about AC Unity, Ubisoft fixed it well, and it's a fun game even if i far prefered AC3.

Idk, I liked the engine used a lot more than previous installments. I felt the update they were using. I could have not say the same if I'd play the game at launch. It was a mess, like most AAA games released nowadays. I was lucky to not encounter many throughout my experience back in 2020.

And maybe i'll give a chance in the future at least to Greedfall.

If you liked AC3 for it's Colonial era, you may enjoy that about Greedfall. The combat is the worst part about the game, but after overcoming it's issues, I enjoyed it.

I don't feel inspired by Death stranding ambiance, but maybe Greedfall.

This may surprise you, but I enjoyed this game more than a lot of other games I've played. It's something many misjudge to just find out how fun and awesome the game really is. Out of all my listings, I'd 100% recommend Death Stranding with my whole heart. ❤

Fallout 4
I thought it's gonna be terrible fallout... and it is indeed terrible fallout.
Yet - I played for more than 250 hours - just gathering resources and building settlements... I didn't even finish the game- but it was fun anyway.

Fallout is not a bad series, even if it's flawed. So many times we spend time analyze it's imperfections to just find out that we've spend more than we think on the game. I think what really made the whole Bethesda franchises get so much hate was the popularity it got. They are not excellent games, but they are hella fun in the sandbox department.

Rambo The Video Game
It's not the worst game ever as some say. It's just low quality - but still - good rail shooter. Quite a lot of bad reviews are just whining about high difficulty.

Oh yeah, I've heard that about the game. Not all movie remakes are poor and some games based on movies can be quite decent.

Bad Rats
Absolute classic. So bad that it's good xD Absolutely disgusting, filthy, low quality and unpolished and I really liked it.

Don't know if I could play such a game. 🤣

Tell me about this game, visually it looks really nice. What's it about without me going over the spoilers.

I also want to play it for the story. Did you play the whole franchise?

I am one of the type of people that don't play many pixel games. I do appreciate some of them, but a lot of the time I don't pick a game for that particular reason. I need to probably see it recommended over and over for me to pick it up.

I am about to play Aegis Defenders that I won on the giveaway a while back and I fancy a lot the art-style.

Sometimes you gotta go past the visuals and pick a game for it's gameplay or story.

Do you still revisit some of the old titles? I sure do from my early 2000's as that's when I started playing games more seriously and being aware of them. I did start somewhere in the 1996, but that wasn't really something I did actively every day. It really depended how much we were allowed to play.

You just helped me discover an interesting title and the developer makes pretty good games of that sort. Although I'm not a fan of the visuals of the games, I can see that people like them, so I wishlisted them.

Spec Ops: The Line
Reviews were full of how mediocre it is, only with litlle hints here and there that there is more to the game than this aspect. If i remember correctly, I've tried the demo back in the day around release, I've kind of enjoyed the gameplay loop but did not feel an urge to get the full game. Years later I got it for free. Once, on a boring day I decided to give it a go. Upon completion, I felt totally dumbfounded. This game is not as mainstream as it was back when it released, but the revelation hit me: it was mediocre for a reason! It was intentionally made in a way that reflected how shooters of that time generally worked! It was talking about the genre and medium itself! It comes together beautifully with the narrative and the theme, its genius!

By far one of my most enjoyable war stories. The game lacked the thrill of the shooters nowadays, but it did well on the story department. It was tragic, mind-blowing and pretty deep.

I've never played a game like that before. It reminds me somehow of The Elder Scrolls: Arena, but I doubt they are similar by nature. I like turn-base tactics, so I never played such a thing, but I feel I may as well like it. I'm pretty sure others may find it interesting too.

Oh, after checking my wishlist, I noticed that I have Legend of Grimrock and Legend of Grimrock 2 which is similar in style, just more fantasy based, which I personally am a fan of.