Classics you can't get into

[Ihateregistering1]

I picked up System Shock 2 on steam for cheap a while back. The archaic controls just bug me to the point I can't make it through the tutorial. I've heard nothing but praise for the atmosphere and story of this classic, but the controls and interface just make it a slog to get through that I can't force myself to do.

Oh man, totally forgot about that one! I can see why people liked it: it's creepy as hell, makes you really want to learn more about what's happening, and really feels like true 'survival horror'. But the murderous difficulty, respawning enemies, getting lost over and over again, and the weapons which literally break after about 4 shots (which of course never break when your enemy is shooting them) was just too frustrating for me.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Going to copy a lot of other people and say Metal Gear Solid. Only the first one on Playstation though, every other game in the series either was decent to me, (MGS 2) or was pretty great(MGS 3 and 4). The controls are atrocious, the visuals are nasty, both of which are much better in contemporary PS and N64 games. MGS had no excuse to play that badly.

Final Fantasy VII didn't do anything for me either. Which is why the remake is promising, since the scenario of FFVII has always intrigued me. I also found Final Fantasy X to be really boring, but I know a lot of people hold it in high regard.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

MGS3: Snake Eater. The 20 min cutscene & the incessant phone calls put me off, got killed by crocs 2 min in, never returned to it.

 

[FPLOON]

Persona 1... It's makes Persona 2 feel like Persona 4...

Other than that, how the fuck did anyone play, let alone like, Battletoads when it came out boggles me mind... I seriously wish that game got some kind of remake because despite really liking the concept/story, the gameplay really needs some works...

 

[Quazimofo]

Baldur's Gate 1/2 and DEUS FREAKING EX 1

It's just too dense....

Not to mention it looks like absolute ass nowadays. Old graphics aren't necessarily bad (I still like red alert 2 and the classic homeworld's aesthetics), but goddamn are those games ugly and obtuse as hell to get into.

So yeah, ditto on baldur's gate and deus ex.

Also, anyone go back to the old westwood titles (tiberian sun, red alert etc.?). I tired recently and holy hell do the later installments just blow them out of the water in so many respects. Just gameplay mechanics which are present in later games but not these which I've become accustomed to because they're just so convenient and useful. Not to mention the older ones (particularly tiberain sun) are frustratingly slow. I get infantry isn't supposed to go as fast as vehicles, but when you're going so slow it takes minutes to walk your infantry not even a quarter of the way across the map (which isn't very large mind you) that's too slow. Even the slowest units in Grey Goo go at least twice as fast, and that's a game where the unit speed is deliberate to make you plan ahead.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm gonna jump on a couple beloved RPG's a little bit.

I've played through Balders Gate and....didn't particularly enjoy it. I'm not sure if it felt too difficult or too clunky but I just can't seem to love it like everyone else does. I bought the directors cut and sequel on GOG during a sale, and someday I'll probably go back and play it.

Dragon Age: Origins. So I've played through the Intro a couple times and I've even finished the mage tower, after a long struggle. However, I stopped when I went to the deep roads after that(which apparently the deep roads are meant for later) and I still haven't gotten back to it. That was 4 or so years ago. I don't know if it's the combat, the difficulty or something else that throws me off. I keep thinking I need to go back and at least finish it. someday.

Oh, and Halo. Played the first one on PC sometime in 2007 and really didn't see why it was so beloved. I keep hearing that a books are really good from fans but that doesn't exactly convince me to buy the sequels. Maybe it's different if you'd only played XBOX games up to that point(though I do feel bad for them if HALO was really the best they XBOX players had to choose from up until then).

 

[Dalisclock]

Been trying to play the classic X-Com and yeah, I just can't. They really throw you in the deep end with no explanation of any of it's mechanics at all (fortunately the Steam version comes with a digital manual). I don't mind retro graphics and stuff, but the interface really leaves something to be desired, and RNG seems to just hate me even more than the modern remake.

I played and beat the first one way back in the day and I only vaguely recall how difficult it is until you develop some decent weapons and find out which of your guys can't be mind controlled. But the game play feels really crappy now after playing XCOM:EW/EU and Even though I got it super cheap on steam for nostalgia sake, I don't know if I could ever play it again.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Fallout - didn't like the combat system and the world wasn't interesting to me. Got lost early on after losing track of my objectives, wandered around for a bit and ultimately quit after nothing caught my interest.

Baldur's Gate - Quit super early on. The game mechanics were too obtuse for me. Combat was very difficult and I kept second guessing my character's stats I decided on since I chose them without a solid knowledge foundation of what everything did. I just don't care enough about the potential of the game to self teach myself DnD rules.

Half Life - Hated the movement controls. Ladders were my worst enemy...

Games I can't get into because I don't want to miss anything, resulting in the use of a walkthrough that cripples the enjoyment of the game since I'm basically ensuring I never get immersed and invested:

Persona 3/4
Planescape Torment
Space Quest 6
Deus Ex
Suikoden(1/2/Tierkreis)

There's several more in this specific category but I can't think of any others right now.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

As much as I like arcade classics by the big names of the 70's and 80's, I strongly prefer pinball from that era. As for more recent classics in gaming though;

The Metal Gear series (not counting Solid). I haven't tried the NES games (and have no means of playing the MSX originals) but other than Solid, I just couldn't get into Solid 2, I've never had an interest in Solid 3 and, I straight up don't like Solid 4. I played a bit of Revengence and thought that was alright but I generally haven't been able to get into spectacle brawlers in general. Speaking of...

Bayonetta and 2. I don't dislike these games, I just can't really get into them. I've enjoyed my time with Bayonetta on the PS3 but I didn't care enough to finish it...or get far into Chapter 2. On the Wii U, I couldn't bother to get very far into chapter 3 or 4.

Shadow of the Colossus is a pretty beautiful game and it has a great atmosphere but I would have rather experienced it as a film or mini-series. As a game, I just couldn't really get into it. I've killed a couple of Colossi but the platforming was a turn off from relatively early on.

 

[Rabish Bini]

Oh, and Halo. Played the first one on PC sometime in 2007 and really didn't see why it was so beloved. I keep hearing that a books are really good from fans but that doesn't exactly convince me to buy the sequels. Maybe it's different if you'd only played XBOX games up to that point(though I do feel bad for them if HALO was really the best they XBOX players had to choose from up until then).

I feel that to truly appreciate Halo you had to have played it when it first came out. It's often forgotten that the game was actually pretty revolutionary, and started this whole 2-weapon restoring health trend AFAIK. That obviously seems like a point against it nowadays, but back then there wasn't much like it.

OT: None (that I can think of ATM). Out of all the games I've played that frequently considered classic, not one have I not gotten into. Sure, there's been classics I've played and considered grossly overrated (looking at you OoT), but I've still enjoyed them and played heaps of, if not finished.

 

[ThreeName]

Any Final Fantasy
Any Sonic
Persona 3 (Loved 4; 3's protagonist makes me want to gouge my eyes out)
Psychonauts
Fallout 1 and 2
Halo
Planescape: Torment
Civilisation

Okay, so who haven't I pissed off yet? For context, here are some "classics" I love:
Deus Ex
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Doom
Red Alert 1 and 2
Unreal Tournament (Original)

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Been trying to play the classic X-Com and yeah, I just can't. They really throw you in the deep end with no explanation of any of it's mechanics at all (fortunately the Steam version comes with a digital manual). I don't mind retro graphics and stuff, but the interface really leaves something to be desired, and RNG seems to just hate me even more than the modern remake.

Don't feel bad, even those of us who had X-COM during its first release were baffled by the RNG's hate for us. That I even made it to the endgame more than once is either a lesson in crazy determination and stubborn will, or just pure insanity. I love the game but I still recognize the difficulty curve in it and don't recommend it for people who missed out on that era unless you're really into retro-hard games. I mean yeah its artificially hard, but it feels like an accomplishment overcoming the RNG and prevailing. Terror From the Deep, the sequel, is even worse and mindbogglingly difficult. Again, a testament to stubborn will or just plain insanity I don't know, but I still love those games.

It might be a product of being raised on games from the NES era where some of them were difficult because of bugs in the code but back then most of us weren't aware that some of these games weren't intended to be so hard (*cough* Battletoads *cough*) and we basically spent our early youths banging our heads against the wall of difficulty. Transitioning to early 90's PC games wasn't much of a stretch and high difficulty curves were kind of par for the course.

Makes me think sometimes that most games are way too easy in the modern era and the higher difficulty settings of some of those games aren't really difficult so much as time-wasting. I used to speed-run Quake and record demos of it to try and beat world record times after watching other folk's uploaded demos... Trying to beat E1 of Quake on Nightmare way below par and 100% killrate is nothing short of an achievement.

I'm not saying all modern games are easy, some are legit difficult. Just that years of being subjected to old school "hard" has made me wonder if all that was some sort of boot camp style training for the modern era. Either way I still love the classics but I'm not going to push them on younger folks who never had the chance to experience them. We who grew up with these classics had to figure out a lot of the mechanics for ourselves because as big as manuals were, they didn't cover everything and the game didn't have room for a tutorial level or mechanic. So we just had a few sheets with keyboard commands and a general idea of strategy then were kind of kicked out of the nest hoping we could fly with the basic info provided.

 

[persephone]

Final Fantasy VII. Maybe it's because the general gaming culture had spoiled so much of it for me years in advance, but once I actually sat down to play, I wasn't enthralled. I found the game stiflingly linear and the gameplay just wasn't grabbing me. Granted, I hear it opens up later in the game, and I liked Final Fantasy IV, so it's not the battle system per se. I guess it was just a visual mess I didn't enjoy navigating. The 3D models on the 2D background were just painful and trying to find the little plot flags that would advance the damn plot already wasn't exactly intuitive or engaging.

Maybe the upcoming HD remake will be more my cup of tea. I guess I'll wait and see.

 

[Kyrian007]

Never had a problem getting into games regarded as classics. Generally because to earn the name, those games have to be pretty damn good. And funny thing about me, I like good games. I have a much harder time getting into newer games. I'm about halfway thru the most recent Tomb Raider. Have been for a year or so. I enjoy Assassin's Creed, but took a several month pause for boredom during Rev and still haven't finished Unity. I might not ever get back into it now. Halo, I didn't like it when it was new. Still think N64 era shooters like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark are superior to Halo. Modern Warfare and any MMS... they're so insubstantial they're hardly worth noticing. Oh, and Mass Effect was good enough... then they turned it into a subpar covershooter with Gears of Mass Effect Army of 2 and 3 and I haven't bothered since.

Don't get me wrong, there are great games being made these days. Recently I really enjoyed Shadow of Mordor, I'm sure I'll like Arkham Knight, if the pc port ever gets fixed. I liked Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite, plenty of good ones out there today. But a "classic" is something I always have a higher expectation of enjoyment for than anything made today. Or to put it another way, If I play a new game and like it... I'm pleasantly surprised. When I play a classic and really enjoy it its more like, "well duh, people wouldn't have loved it so much if it weren't awesome."

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Classics I cannot get into? That would be any and all of them. Xevious: check. Commando: check. Parasite Eve, Soviet Strike, Crash Bandicoot 1-3, Gex, Vanguard, Ikari Warriors...basically anything older than the PS2 era I regret purchasing, except for Metal Gear Solid. Thankfully, none of those games cost me more than $5 each.

Seems I can't get rid of my nostalgia glasses. Every damn time an old game seems like a good idea, followed immediately by omigodthatwasgarbagewhydoIkeepbuyingthese.

And yet I think I would still like to have a working version (any) of the classic arcade game Time Pilot.

I will never learn.

*EDIT* Oh no wait, I do thoroughly love my imported copy of Vib Ribbon though.

I think you are my soul twin with this aspect... I have so many games on Steam for this reason! You don't realise how much games change either. I got Red Faction the other day. As much as it works nicely, wtf on the pacing and story. It's so weird! Also... There are no sights bar the ones on snipers, it confuses me no end. I got bored relatively quickly. It's like playing Serious Sam at times, but with less enemies. I got bored of the blocky visuals relatively quickly.

I also couldn't get into the Soul Reaver games. You mean I can't just kill enemies? Fine... I have to pic them up and throw them whilst they are stunned.. but... the pick up button is the same as the pick up weapon button, and they are standing by a weapon. And the camera never shows the guy sneaking up behind me. And there is no way of telling what the surroundings are meant to be unless you read the level name... bugger this for a game of frogs.

I also couldn't get into Fallout 1 or Baldurs Gate. I will keep trying though.

I am trying Gothic 1 and Summoner 1 too. So far the graphics are putting me off, but I will get used to them. Gothic I didn't get past the first area. I tried exploring, walked over to some barrels, was struck by lightning and died. W.T.F.

I bought a Sega set on HumbleBundle too. Loved all star racing, but that was pretty much it. Crazi Taxi wasn't what I remembered, (might as well just play GTA) Sonic Adventure DX /) Space Channel 5 Part 2, and Sega Bass Fishing all were sadly disapointing.

I also tried to play some old platformers that I loved as a kid, but either never had or never completed. Banjo Kazooie, Croc, Gex and Kingsley's Adventures were all a bit horrible to play!

 

[asdfen]

I've been trying to play through Persona 4 for years now. So far on my 3rd attempt. First time I've started on hard mode and realized at first boss that by hard they meant insane japanese grind mode. After 2nd boss that was 1hko me I've just stoped. Second time I put it on easy or normal and this costant runing out of time with lots of stuff to do made me want to cosult a walkthrough. I still got bored after 1/2 dungeon as the battle gameplay is way too simplistic and boring and other than that there is jus bunch of text that is decently writen but nothing too excitng. So far my 3rd attemp I got through 1st dungeon again and just got bored.

Shadows of Colosus omg I dont know how anyone find this game fun. The world is empty. The horse controlls are ... I dont have a word that is offensive enough to describe it. The battles with bosses is ok but no more than that. There is nothing amazing here or new. The character developent and story are also lacking/non existant so why bother?! I could pick up anything other game that is centered around epic boss battls and have way more fun like God of war/DMC/bayonetta and so on

Okami this one I didnt play at release and tried it recently. I almos quit this game before it began after around 30 minute unskipable bullshit that is its opening cinimatic which doesnt even have decncy to play itself out while I am away as I have to pres a button for it to go on. That made me furious. The game starts I get a bunch of tutorials then after another hour I get to "paint" the world and the battles. I see that working while exploring but battle painting is just dumb it destroys whatever little flow there was. I am done. The battle system - not for me. Story elements openly piss me off staring with the intro.

Halo - I've tried to finish original 1st game a few times and always got bored to tears. Compare to Doom/Quake and slew of other fps game available at the time it was boring slugish and had nothing new to offer. I couldnt belive that this game came from developers of Myth the fallen lords one of the most epic games ever. Tried a few of it equels - same crappy fps without anything that stands out.

Diablo 2 - when I played through it by myself I thought it was crap. I found it extremly boring to slog through samy enviroments and dungeon generation aspect seemed stale as it was really generating same map over and over with maybe few different turns which seemed like a downgrade from D1. But then I got together with some friends and we played over lan. that was one of the best gaming experiences ever. We still play D2 once in a while over lan it is that good but single player still disaponts me.

MGS4 the game is attrocious game is extremly short the whatever hell those insanly long monologue cutscenes are about. Mediocre stealth game with shit story and horride ending.

Eternal Sonata - one of the most boring games I have ever played. it has grinding on the same one enemy that populates a dungeon and a silly alternate reality story.

DMC 1 - I've tried playing one of those at release and it was an awful experience for me. I would get lost in the map layout with all of the backtracking after some fights that magicaly open doors but I managed through first few levels. Then I encountered a new enemy that was flying around and seemed to take no damage from my attacks it took me forever but I killed it however encountering it a second time now in the company of others ... thats all the while I have no idea how to use this battle system as there is no tutorial(this was pre video internet) ... I've had enough. In fact I stayed away from DMC ater that till a friend recomended me DMC4 and it took me 2 playthroughs of that to finnally get it.

World of Warcraft - I dont undrstand how this medicoraty became so popular. Its simplistic gameplay its generic quests... I find it incomprehencable.

 

[Dornedas]

I am trying Gothic 1 and Summoner 1 too. So far the graphics are putting me off, but I will get used to them. Gothic I didn't get past the first area. I tried exploring, walked over to some barrels, was struck by lightning and died.

Well that is the magical keep-prisoners-from-escaping barrier. And I'd say it's rather effective.
But I've never understood how it can distinguish between leaving and entering. And no I wont accept "Magic" as an answer.

OT: classics I never could get into were *drumroll*
Fallout and Final Fantasy 7.

With Fallout I managed to get to that Vault or whatever it was where people think the water something chip is. There a giant scorpion that killed me in 1 hit waited for me. Eff that game.

Final Fantasy I managed to play untill I got to Fantasy Las Vegas or whatever its name was.
There cat shit decided to join the team and I just thought: No. Please god no. Not another annoying follower.
There wasn't a single character that I liked at this point in the story and I highly doubt he would have been the one.

 

[Recusant]

Add in another vote for Halo here. A friend lent me a copy of the port, and I was eager to see what I'd been hearing raving about for the previous two years. I was... distinctly underwhelmed. A regenerating health system that ripped out any challenge, and a two-weapon carrying limit- which I assume was intended to counter that- that did nothing but force you into narrow combat roles; an annoyance, not a challenge. Disappointed, I turned to the multiplayer, which was supposed to be the better part of the game; indeed, I'd repeatedly heard it called "the best multiplayer shooter ever". I had played Starsiege: Tribes. I had been playing Starsiege: Tribes three years before Halo was even released.

I still wonder what anyone ever saw in that game.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Final Fantasy 7. Got it about a year after it came out because every game mag out there talked about it like it was the second coming. Played to the point where I got to this desert island on a balloon then quit. Far too animu. Should've realised, it being a JRPG and all, it was pretty much doomed to fail from the outset.

Baldur's Gate. Again got this a year or so after it was released and really wanted to like it, played to a point then uninstalled a good few time, but the vaguely chosen one story and 2nd ed mechanics didn't work on a CRPG for me. Basically I wanted a pnp replacement and it didn't come close.

Dragon Age. Felt really clunky and just didn't give a shit about the world, characters or story. Played to the castle/undead bit and stopped. Forced myself to play through later when I was really broke and bored. Zevran was the one saving grace.

Half Life. Played a few years after it came out. Just not into it. Corridors, aliens and platforms. Blech.

Mass Effect. Same as Dragon Age. Think I got through the 1st shooting bit then gave up. Guess I'm just not a fan of Bioware games.

Witcher. Was ok, but then got to the big town and by god it dragged. stopped playing.

As far as games that I've played long after they came out, I guess Fallout 1. Too much like Baldur's Gate.

 

[jklinders]

Morrowind. I really wanted to like it and get into it but the ganky leveling system, weird pseudo action RPG combat and even the geography of the maps confounded me to the point that I just gave up.

The first Deus Ex game. Utter blasphemy for a PC gamer but I just...can't...get...past...the horrid voice acting and even more horrid textures. Early voice acting and 3D were terrible. Any time I had to platform I cringed.

Maybe not really a classic as it's a little obscure but i could not really get into Arcannum of Steamworks and Magik Obscura either. I guess that mean I only love 2 out of Troika's 3 three games. Warts and all. It was supposed to be in many ways great classic old School RPG, but I arrived a little too late out the gate to PC gaming to appreciate it.