Best and Worst Games You've Bought Without Knowing Anything About?

[chronicfc]

Escapists, I want to know what are the greatest and shittiest games you've purchased and played without any previous knowledge about it? The rules are, you mustn't have read a review or seen gameplay, the only knowledge you had is the advice of a friend before exchanging money. My top 3 are:
TES IV: Oblivion: This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest games ever, and I picked it up 1 and a bit years after release, because my friend said he loved it. I know it's quite hard to go a year without hearing about Oblivion, but hey, I was only ten at release. Picked it up for £15.

Fallout 3: I bought this because: 1, it was made by Bethesda; 2, my dad(mistakenly) said that his friend said it was great and had good multi-player and 3, it was marketed as a post-apocalyptic fps RPG, bought a few weeks after release, £30

SOLAR2: Just bought it a few days ago, it makes the list because I want to bring some attention to the great indie devs who made it. I love this game because of the humor and progression curve, you start as a rock and end up a black hole, great game, and I suggest you pick it up now, last I seen it was on sale for £3.49

Worst Games:
Dark Messiah: Magic and Might, Elements: Now, this isn't a BAD game, it was just thoroughly mediocre, I expected more from the game, mainly because of the box blurb, lesson, don't judge a book by its cover.

Crackdown 2: Again, not a bad game, in fact REALLY fun, but it felt too much like the first game was a sequel to this, and not the other way round. Evolution of cars, for example, was removed, and that was probably my favorite part of that game.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Dynasty Warriors 4
One of mate's cousins gave this game to him to try. He loved it and kept telling me about it and that I should play it. It didn't sound interesting and up until that point my game library was mostly just Crash and Spyro. I eventually gave in and went to his house to play it.

Turned out to be one of the most influential and fun games I've ever played in my life.

Fallout 3
I heard about the game from various people that it was a post-apocalyptic game and it sounded interesting. At this point I knew nothing about the Fallout series so I had no knowledge of what to expect. I purchased it and played it and the universe seemed interesting and setting but there were things that really bugged me like the gameplay choices, voice acting, story was weird and then when the ending came I was really confused. Many people online were saying how it didn't hold up to the previous games so I thought I would try those out, so i did. That was when I realised what was so wrong with the game and as soon as I was done with the DLC I never played it again.

The only good thing it did was introduce me to the Fallout series.


That's it really, every other game I've got I knew something about it before purchase.

 

[Blue_Devil13]

The best would have to be Fallout 3, folllowed by killzone 2. Both of which i heard from the same friend who told me they were great.

The worst is probably Gundam Crossfire which I bought when I first got my Ps3 because I liked the gundam show, and needed some cheap games. If you haven't played it, needless to say its shit

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Um...I don't believe I've ever bought a game knowing absolutely nothing about it. Ever. But I have rented games without knowing anything about them.

Panzer Dragoon Orta would be the best. Gorgeous game, must have rented it three times before finally just buying it.

Worst? Probably Obscure or whatever it was called. I hear now that it was a good game for a horror game, but I was so bored in the opening levels (which I did cooperatively) that I turned it off and never went back.

 

[Benpasko]

I also got Dark Messiah, expecting something awesome. My first hint that it was a terrible game was the broken English in the tutorial archery section. "Aim the head, you'll do more damages!"
Or when it told me to go in my inventory for the key to that gate. You can't access keys in your inventory.

I'd have to say Star Ocean: The Last Hope was a great game that I got without any knowledge of the series. Lots of good times with that one.

 

[scnj]

The best is easily Deadly Premonition. All I knew was that it had poor graphics and my friend found it unbearable.

 

[Continuity]

Best is a toss up between Bloodlines the masquerade and Divine Divinity, worst is hard to call because to be frank these games are pretty forgettable and usually find the bin pretty quickly. For the sake of completeness lets say Savage which is a game I bought but never actually unwrapped before several years later throwing it away.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Final Fantasy XII believe it or not. I basically walked into an EB games with a friend who also liked the FF series, saw it, and was utterly astounded as how neither of us had heard about it. Bought it, and I have to say its my favourite in the series. Its a bit rough and unfinished, but its a lot of fun.

I'd have to say Star Ocean: The Last Hope was a great game that I got without any knowledge of the series. Lots of good times with that one.

I'd have to say Star Ocean: The Last Hope was an awful game that I got without any knowledge of the series. Lots of terrible times with that one.

Sorry, but this was pretty much what I was going to say. Dont take it too seriously, everyone tells me im wrong.

Welcome to the forums, punch and cake are served in the rooms to the left.

 

[EricKei]

Best:

Back when it was a current game: Final Fantasy I on the NES. Some RPG with an odd name from a company no-one had ever heard of, cool black cover with a nice logo. I had already fallen in love with RPG's in general thanks to Phantasy Star, the Sierra adventure games, et al, and heck, this was something new.

A friend of mine and I were both interested, so we got a ride to the store and each got ourselves a copy. It turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable game that raised the bar for RPG's in general.

I have been...Okay, not hooked, but a reasonably avid player of many games in the series ever since.

 

[LightningBanks]

Best was blue dragon, I got it when I got my xbox for £7 and despite not getting off disc one, I found it a brilliant game.

Worst is Duke nukem: critical mass (or mess) Got it on impulse that it was duke, and its just poor, and this one HASNT been in development for 13 years

 

[babinro]

I don't buy games without doing a good amount of research. That being said, thanks to Steam developer sales, I've to own a large number of games I'd have never cared to own or play otherwise. I've been surprised by more than one title and below are some of the best.

Best: Recettear - Addictive little RPG that lives up to the reviews I read after having played it.

Best: Jolly Roger - A really fun Monkey Island clone that I enjoy more than most Telltale games.

Best: Defense Grid - A very recent acquisition that is great fun. I got this based on word of mouth from a friend who knows that I play tower defense games. Without going into reviews I picked it up cheap from the recent steam sales and am loving it so far. Only time will tell what kind of lasting appeal the game has, but so far its been well worth the $7. What makes it so fun is the minor tweaks they put into the game..things like achievements, different challenges, being able to hit backspace and immediately revert to a checkpoint rather than actually wait for a file to load. These little things have kept me addicted so far.

Worst: Return to Castle Wolfenstein - I'm guessing its a shooter that just doesn't hold up as it was reviewed favorably at the time. I found every part of it to be bland...only making it to about the 3rd level before I could no longer force myself to keep playing.

Worst: Splinter Cell: I don't remember which version of splinter cell..but at the time it came packaged with a purchase of Prince of Persia for the Gamecube. I'm not a stealth game fan at all...so no part of this game was enjoyable despite sinking several hours into it. I quickly sold it used and loved Prince of Persia.

 

[Redingold]

I bought MGS4 without knowing the first thing about Metal Gear. Needless to say, I was confused as fuck the whole time, but I later caught up on what I'd missed. I bought MGS2, 3, Portable Ops and Peace Walker, and watched a playthrough of MGS on youtube. I did, in fact, play through the games in reverse numerical order.

No idea about the worst game, though.

 

[Ronan117]

As far as games that i purchased on a whim, without somone saying 'this is fantastic, you have to buy it etc' or without having watched trailers and been expecting it to be good i would have to say:

Best- Freelancer
It wasn't mind blowing, it was repetitive, but damn it was addictive, and just general awesome fun. I ended up finishing it the weekend i got it.

The worst- Yakuza 4.
I just didn't like it.

 

[Benpasko]

Best was blue dragon, I got it when I got my xbox for £7 and despite not getting off disc one, I found it a brilliant game.

I didn't get off disc one for a different reason. All of the characters were just so freaking annoying that I couldn't play past the first few areas.

 

[Electric Alpaca]

For the sake of this I'm going to ignore Amiga - PS1 era, I didn't really buy my own games - even though that period is home to some of my favourite time sinks

Best:

Ratchet & Clank

Slightly disobeying the rules, but got this as a demo from OPSM2 - back in the days when magazines were still relevant to me (catching the train to go to school). Completely and utterly fell in love with it and bought it the next day on the way home.

The humour, original amazement and surprise have all taken a hit of the years - but it remains one of my best series.

Devil May Cry

Had a PS2 bought for my birthday - went to the local Blockbuster and bought it mostly to see if I could (14 trying to buy a 15) I succeeded and was rewarded with another of my staple series.

I completed it so many times, I recall getting past the decade (there was a counter on the save file) but I don't think I managed to get past the double

Worst:

The Sims: Bustin' Out

Non stop raving about this from a friend who absolutely swore (and still swears) by it. I thought I would buy it so I could talk to her about about it, rather than her just talk at me.

Although I played it for a significant amount of time, never have I been more unhappy with having done so.

The really weird thing is, I'm fighting the lure of buying Sims 3: Complete from Steam at the moment as its such a good deal.

 

[tpbloomfield]

Obscure 2, one of the best. Largely due to finding out a fair amount about games before i buy them, saw it on a shelf in GAME, read the back of the box, saw co-op playing survival horror style game.
Best because, it was cheap, i had a laugh playing it with my friend (she got very annoyed W/ the camera and ended up rage-quitting early on) then played it with my mum's boyfriend and had a laugh then too. Didn't seem overly scary (ps2 graphics + playing in middle of the day with the sun shining through the window) but it was fun.

Or Tenchu Z. Had ninjas in, had stealth, that's all i found out from the box and all i needed to know. Love the game, one of my favorites even now.

I'd say Gears Of War, but it came with my xbox, so technically i didn't buy it, even though i knew nothing about it and still love it now.


Worst game: Alone In The Dark. Going purely on a nostalgia wave, i got it remembering the classic AITD games and how spine-tinglingly creepy they could be. Anyone who's played it knows how far from the classic games it is. I got bored, then came the driving sections. Then came the realisation the disc made a wonderful frisbee.

Or Damnation. Rip-off of Gears, done badly. Liked the look of the box art, hated the game as a whole. Though the "tutorial" boxes that took up half the screen and refused to leave for the entire first level ("press X to pull lever" "I did, half a level ago, there's no fucking lever around here!!") probably swayed my opinion rather heavily. Quite possibly the first game i stopped playing purely to stop myself throwing the controller at the wall. Or at that blasted lever...


Biggest disappointment: Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. Why? First DW game that didn't have split-screen co-op, online only. I love those games because of the offline co-op.

 

[Sixcess]

Doom. Bought it along with my PS1. I knew it was a bit like Wolfenstein, and that it was infamous for its violence, but that was all I knew. It's now my favourite game of all time.

Fear Effect. I'd skimmed a review weeks earlier and dismissed it because I didn't like the 'cartoony' looking graphics. Bought it on an impulse after seeing it in a shop (and the game I was looking for wasn't in stock) Also now in my top 5.

Does Minecraft count? The first time I went onto the website I was still under the impression it was some kind of Farmville thing where you just punched trees all the time. After about 5 minutes in the classic mode I bought the full version. Yep, also now in my top 5.

Seeing as that's 3 games that are all in my top 5, I think I should think less before buying games

Worst: Fallout 3. I bought it on the basis of looking at the box in a shop. Buggy, unstable piece of...

I'd put Jericho in there as well (Steam sale impulse buy) but I'd watched the ZP review of that one so I guess I can't use that as an excuse...

 

[Podunk]

Best: Fallout 3. I wanted to play an RPG but not Dragon Age or Final Fantasy XIII so it seemed like the closest I was going to get. Best purchase I ever made.

Worst: Deadly Premonition. Craziest WTF game full of nonsense and boring gameplay.