2nd chance games

[hanselthecaretaker]

What games have you given a second chance, and are you glad you did?

I'm about to give Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut one after uninstalling some time ago due to a glitched side quest and annoying HUD bug. Hopefully the reinstall helps the latter, and I know now how to avoid triggering the former. Also going to go for a complete stealth play through, which I botched on my first attempt rather early on.

It's one game that I did enjoy what I played of it (up to the third chapter somewhere), so hopefully that will continue. Someday I still want to also play Mankind Divided as several people have stated it does gameplay and world design better than HR, which was already lauded for those things.

 

[tippy2k2]

It's what I am currently playing...

The Witcher 3

For whatever reason, I've never been able to get into the series. I started with Witcher 2 and was so lost in the story and frustrated with the gameplay that I just kind of ragequit it. I picked up Witcher 3, wanting to give it a chance since everyone said you didn't need to know anything about the other games to play it and the gameplay got better.

I played it for about a week before deciding I was bored with it. It didn't hook me and the gameplay was OK (better than 2 but still not great). I played Cod Infinite Warfare (single player was much better than I had expected, the zero G stuff was fun and unique and I like the jetpack boost jump thingy in single player) and decided to give Witcher 3 another chance. I was off and on with it where I would play it a bit and then stop a few days and then play it again.

I finally decided "Fuck it, play it for a few hours straight and let it try to get the claws into you, if it fails to do so, drop it for good". So I did just that. While probably not as loved by me as everyone else does, I am greatly enjoying the game and am very happy I gave it another go. I just got to Skelliege so I've now sunk dozens of hours into it.

 

[American Tanker]

Payday 2.

I dropped it back on October 15th, 2015, because of the "Black Market Update" that added micro-transactions to the game. I'm glad they've been removed, but the game is still quite different from how I remember it. Still fun, though.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

BloodBorne. Once I ground through the starting city like 80+ times and got super over leveled for the first 3 bosses, it was easy. And as someone who wants to explore a Gothic nightmare city without having to re-spawn every other room 'cause the one enemy around the corner cornholed me with a diseased ulna, I want to make sure I'm the biggest bad in the room, not them.

Also I summon allies for every boss battle. My rule is I give it one try on my own(which surprisingly I've done a few...a witch, something that claimed to be a spider but was just a blob, some werewolf *****, a huge skeleton Death type moon monster, few others...), then summon as many allies and NPCs as I can and just hammer fuck the bastard. Ain't got the patience to fight the same boss 20+ times just so I can continue.

 

[Amigastar]

XCOM Franchise. I decided to finally sit down and learn the mechanics. I'm glad i did.

 

[Hawki]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

When I first played it, didn't like it, due to its art style, and I didn't get the hang of the map mechanic (or something). Replayed it a few years ago, now it's my #1 game of all time.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

BloodBorne. Once I ground through the starting city like 80+ times and got super over leveled for the first 3 bosses, it was easy. And as someone who wants to explore a Gothic nightmare city without having to re-spawn every other room 'cause the one enemy around the corner cornholed me with a diseased ulna, I want to make sure I'm the biggest bad in the room, not them.

Also I summon allies for every boss battle. My rule is I give it one try on my own(which surprisingly I've done a few...a witch, something that claimed to be a spider but was just a blob, some werewolf *****, a huge skeleton Death type moon monster, few others...), then summon as many allies and NPCs as I can and just hammer fuck the bastard. Ain't got the patience to fight the same boss 20+ times just so I can continue.

And that's why the Souls games don't need an "easy mode." There's already one built in. If you're struggling you summon in another player and let them do half the work. It's sort of like having your big brother beat the hard part for you.

Speaking of which, Dark Souls was my first big "2nd chance" game that actually changed how I felt about it. The first time I tried it I didn't get it at all and I absolutely hated it. I didn't like dying to low level enemies and I didn't understand why it was happening. Games like God of War and Devil May Cry had trained me to walk into huge groups of enemies with reckless abandon and just hack away at them because as the player character I was obviously the biggest baddest dude in the room, so how can a zombie thing with a broken sword possibly be killing me over and over again? Game sucks, I quit. Returned the game.

Fast forward about 2 years and I borrowed Dark Souls from a friend because I wanted to try again. For some reason everything just clicked and I started having a blast with it. I understood the more cautious play style and finally got how important positioning and stamina management were. Beat Dark Souls 1, beat Demon's Souls, beat Dark Souls 2, beat Bloodborne, beat Dark Souls 3. I might go back and play through the Scholar of the First Sin version of Dark Souls 2. I own it, but haven't touched it yet.

After initially hating Dark Souls 1, the souls franchise became one of my favorite franchises ever after I gave it a second try. Sometimes changing the mentality with which you go into a game really changes how you perceive its mechanics and whether you end up enjoying them.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Starcraft 2. Just .... meh. Usually I don't like multiplayer RTS games that can't atleast make me enamoured with mechanics in singleplayer when I'm learning it. But it's pretty darn good. And as much as people put crap on Heart of the Swarm, I thought it was better paced than the first one.

 

[Catfood220]

Skies of Arcadia, basically I got lost in the starting area, I had no idea that I had to go in a certain direction until a cut scene happened. Not being able to find where I was supposed to be going coupled with the constant annoying random encounters had me switching the game off in frustration. About a month later, I decided to give the game another go, I had a look online to see where I needed to go. I started the game again, got past the bit I was stuck on and ended up loving the game. It needs a re-release or sequel.

I am currently addicted to Overwatch after hating the beta and totally writing it off as crap. I got the feeling that the Universe wanted me to play this game, so when it was on offer, I picked it up with the thinking that if I hated it then I could trade it in for more than I bought it for. I wasn't sold right off the bat but I have played it enough now that it has got its hooks into me and I love it.

Uncharted 2. This was the first Uncharted game I played and it starts off pretty slowly. I played past the museum and the forest bit and abandoned the game shortly after that, not knowing that it really got good after that. A little while later and I decided to carry on with the game and the game started being awesome, the bit where the helicopter makes the building you're in collapse made me realise that I was playing a game of pure awesome. I'm glad I didn't give up after the first few levels.

 

[DoPo]

I'm about to give Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut one after uninstalling some time ago due to a glitched side quest and annoying HUD bug.

Was the side quest the one where you have to disable all the gang members but one of them is apparently spawned outside the game area? If so, I ran into it as well and it seems somewhat common, also really annoying. I finally managed to get around it using this tool [http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=121245] - it allows you to cheat, so I used it to mark the objective as done, since I couldn't really deal with the guy any other way. There are some other possible solutions listed in the wiki [http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Cloak_&_Daggers#Glitches].

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Final Fantasy 7 is my big one. Initially, I was too young and my English wasn't at a level high enough to allow me to get the full experience and I got stuck in the part where you need a chocobo to get past the swamp with the huge snake boss without defeating it. I even grinded enough to beat it but it respawns so once I finally beat it it just respawned and killed me, so I just kinda quit right then and there. Once I got a couple years older and after learning more English I revisited the game and loved it.

This was forever ago though, I became good at discerning whether I'll like a game or not prior to trying it so I've not run into games where I disliked them the first time I played them so there was no need to give anything a second chance.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'm about to give Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut one after uninstalling some time ago due to a glitched side quest and annoying HUD bug.

Was the side quest the one where you have to disable all the gang members but one of them is apparently spawned outside the game area? If so, I ran into it as well and it seems somewhat common, also really annoying. I finally managed to get around it using this tool [http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=121245] - it allows you to cheat, so I used it to mark the objective as done, since I couldn't really deal with the guy any other way. There are some other possible solutions listed in the wiki [http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Cloak_&_Daggers#Glitches].

No it was the Motherly Ties one where you have to talk to someone at a police station I think to get him to confess. If you set off an alarm before that he disappears or something, so it literally makes the quest broken. The lady you need to talk to to finish it only ends up having 3 out of 4 necessary convo options, so the games just sits there because one's missing.

Pretty annoying but I'm not even bothering with it since the reinstall I did today fixed my other HUD issue. I'm just going to continue with my current save profile and pick up that side quest on a new game stealth run if I end up enjoying the whole thing enough.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

God Hand. Tried it once, made it up to Mr. Gold and Mr. Silver, gave up. Nothing punctual, I just wasn't liking the game and I thought it was unfairly hard. Picked it up later, started messing around with combo customization and ended up enjoying it a lot.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Gave up at the Tyrant fight in the helicopter, just couldn't beat it. Picked it up about a year later, breezed through the fight and finished the game.

Wolftenstein: The New Order, to a degree. Playing it felt like giving the series a second chance, because I'd never liked the original Wolfenstein - too plain and boring, on top of making me literally nauseous (something about the repeting patterns and choppy scrolling rate). Ended up loving TNW for being so unexpectedly good.

 

[Yoshi178]

Metroid Prime. bought it when i was very young. played it for about half hour or so then forgot about it for awhile.

picked it up again a year or so later and it ended up becoming one of my favourite games and franchise's of all time.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

The Halo series.

I was a bit of a Sony fanboy when I was young, but besides that, I didn't understand the appeal of the original Halo back then. I played it for all of 2 hours and found it lacking.

And you know, to a degree I still don't enjoy the games that much. But one my second time around (with the pretty excellent Masterchief Collection) I was surprised how much fun I had. Well...until I got to Halo 2, and the dreaded "crosshair towards the lower end of the screen" thing gave me a headache, but I've whined enough about that in other posts.

Despite that, I did enjoy myself. I wouldn't say it's one of the best shooters I've ever played, but it's certainly up near that.

It's unfortunate they stopped doing PC ports. I think I'd enjoy the games a lot more with a mouse and keyboard at my hands, and some FOV control. I can tolerate shooters on console, but it takes an awful lot of adjustment in my gaming setup to make it comfortable (moving the screen further away, adjusting the screen height, my chair height, how I sit, etc.)

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Starcraft 2. Just .... meh. Usually I don't like multiplayer RTS games that can't atleast make me enamoured with mechanics in singleplayer when I'm learning it. But it's pretty darn good. And as much as people put crap on Heart of the Swarm, I thought it was better paced than the first one.

I think the hate came less from a pacing issue, and more a...'well that was pointless, wasn't it?' issue. Like they might as well have started Heart of the Swarm with 'Previously, on Starcraft...nothing happened, forget about it, here's some Zerg!'

SNIP

Having a big bro do it is a great analogy. And after the horrendous slog that was the Blood Starved Beast, I wasn't about to grind bosses anymore. Seriously fuck that guy! I wish mini versions of the bosses respawned, so I could go curb-stomp the BsB.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

SNIP

Having a big bro do it is a great analogy. And after the horrendous slog that was the Blood Starved Beast, I wasn't about to grind bosses anymore. Seriously fuck that guy! I wish mini versions of the bosses respawned, so I could go curb-stomp the BsB.

Funny you should say that, some bosses do come back as normal enemies or mini-bosses in the souls series. You just might see blood starved beast again when playing the DLC. Hint hint, nudge nudge.

Also, it's a really great DLC.

 

[Saelune]

Hitman: Blood Money. It was hard and I did not understand how to play it at first and gave up on it. But eventually I decided to try to squeeze some achievements out of it and just blasted my way through the easiest difficulty, but by then I started to like it and looked up how to beat the missions stealthily. Absolution was nowhere near as good, but atleast I knew what I was doing then. Shame about HITMAN though...

Dark Souls. Similar to my Hitman story.

Starbound. I played it when it first went into beta, but then lost interest. Then it went "official" release, played it for a bit, lost interest again. Then when really bored forced myself to play it, and now I really like it. But its -not- a replacement for Terraria. Its more like Metroid than Terraria.

Those are positive ones, but you did not say it -had- to be positive.

My recent 2nd chance was Destiny...and yeah no. Do not like it. Its boring and tons of other games do separately better what it tries to do all at once. Id rather play Mass Effect, Halo, Borderlands, and Call of Duty instead.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

-Borderlands
I hated like the 1st hour or so of the game and quit playing. My friends roped me into playing with them for like a whole afternoon as it was free on PS+ and we all just downloaded it. I started to like it somewhere around level 20 or so when your character build actually starts to come into play with skills proccing often while being able to use your power more. The beginning of Borderlands still sucks because it basically plays as a below par shooter where you get to use a power like once every couple minutes. I guess my friends got me to play until the game got good. Borderlands 2 fixed the early game issue by drastically lowering the initial cooldowns on the characters' powers.

-Sly Cooper 1
I recall trying a demo of it on PS2 and not really caring for it. When the HD collection released on PS3, I gave it a full shot. I found the game to be really great, old school platforming (like 1-hit kills you) mixed with really creative level design with great variety. The sequels I guess are fine, I stopped playing in the middle of Sly 3 because the sequels went open world and yeah...

Resident Evil, the remake. I found it too directionless. Phoenixmgs convinced me to give it another shot. I beat it with both characters, using guides a few times. It's a good game.

It wasn't me, I've only ever played RE4 in the series.