Games That Suprised You (For Better Or Worse)

[electric_warrior]

Oblivion

I didn't know anything about the series and thought the trailer looked majorly hokey/crappy

Upon beginning playing I stood immediately corrected.

Now bring on Skyrim

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Borderlands, I bought it on a whim and didn't expect to like it, but I noticed that several hours have passed and dinner was missed. I was loving the game so much that I didn't notice.

 

[HumpinHop]

The God of War series.

This gameplay, This gameplay Escapist, oh my god, this gameplay, oh my god.

EDIT for clarity: A god-smiting, bone-crunching, head-ripping fuck yes this series surprised me.

 

[Spawny0908]

Red Dead Redemption: I don't like GTA and everyone called it GTA with horses but I gave it a chance and it's my new favorite game.
Mass Effect: Didn't like it at first but I stuck with it and love it
Singularity: Very good game
Crackdown 2: Loved the first but this was awful
Alpha Protocol: Not as bad as everyone said

 

[DiabloBub666]

HEAVY RAIN. I never would've guessed that [ ] was the killer...

 

[TheLoneBeet]

Guitar Hero / Rockband games. I hated the idea of it but once I had a few drinks and my friends and I were pissing off my buddy's parents at 2 in the morning I realized I was having fun.

 

[ReinofFire]

The God of War series

With all the hate that people start spouting about games that are mainstream or games that don't have a storyline and wit as clever as portal (which is impossible) I didn't have high expectations for GoW. Then I got a PS3 and a new road of gaming was opened up to me (with all roads except handhelds opened up). After a little while I decided "why not?" and got the greatest hits of God of War and God of War 2. God of War 1 I was fairly prepared for. It was exactly as people said it was, a very interesting game with a mind blowing premise. Then God of War 2 was next. With all the crap about how both God of War 2 and 3 were mostly just a bunch of Kratos angst I was thinking that it would be like that. Then I played it. I will just say that God of War 2 and 3 are worth every penny I paid for them and more. They are fun enough that I would play through them more than once (which is actually something that is only reserved for games I love, an example of one would be Ocarina of Time).

Demon's Souls

Not as surprising an experience but I thought it would be a very tedious and extremely hard game. It still is extremely hard but it is now one of my favorite games.

 

[Baconmaninspace]

Metroid Other M.

I expected the next step in the evolution of my favorite video game series.

What I got was paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Unlimited Saga was surprisingly horrible. This was made worse when my expectations were heightened by Saga Frontier 2 being awesome and Unlimited Saga was supposed to bring that universe to the PS2...

 

[MisterShine]

Deus Ex: Invisible War
Expected greatness. I don't have to say anything more.

The exact opposite of this ^^

Played DX1 when it first came out, loved it but didn't think much about it again til' several years later, a year or two maybe after IW came out. I heard the overwhelming waves of "this is complete shit" over and over, morbid curiosity got the better of me so I bought it.

I quite liked it. It's a very trimmed down and even weirder version of its predecessor, but on its own I'd call it well above average (which is pretty sad, honestly).

 

[thenamelessloser]

Nier for the better.

 

[Mr Thin]

Spore! *uncontrollable sobbbing*

It was just so bad compared to what I'd thought it would be.

As for a good surprise... mostly just games I played never having heard anything about them at all before.

Dungeon Keeper 2, saved from the bargain bin. Did NOT deserve to be there.

Commandos 2: Men of Courage, friend of my dads gave it to him, he didn't like it, I gave it a whirl. Such an awesome game.

 

[xXBanisherXx]

Darkest of Days... I didn't do any research but the thought of killing off Romans with machine guns sounded fun. Then I played it and because of all the bugs I could only get to the level where you steal a blimp from the Nazi's. Fun, yes. Annoying as hell, YES.

 

[Babitz]

Deus Ex: Invisible War
Expected greatness. I don't have to say anything more.

The exact opposite of this ^^

Played DX1 when it first came out, loved it but didn't think much about it again til' several years later, a year or two maybe after IW came out. I heard the overwhelming waves of "this is complete shit" over and over, morbid curiosity got the better of me so I bought it.

I quite liked it. It's a very trimmed down and even weirder version of its predecessor, but on its own I'd call it well above average (which is pretty sad, honestly).

Well, if it wasn't called Deus Ex, I'd call it a pretty good game. It still is a decent game and while playing it I never thought of it as a piece of crap, but it wasn't the sequel I (i.e. we) wanted. Ion Storm got greedy by wanting a wider audience which is what backfired at them.

 

[LookingGlass]

For better:
Valkyria Chronicles. I bought it because of its seemingly universal acclaim, but I still didn't expect it to be as great as it was. A top 3 PS3 game for me.

For worse:
Deus Ex: Invisible War. As someone said earlier, I expected it to be great. It never occcurred to me, until the awful demo was released, that they could butcher it so badly.

 

[A Shadows Age]

KOTOR 2. I kept reading about how mediocre or broken it was. I bought it, patched it, restored lost content with a mod and added even more fan patches.

If the ending wasn't rushed, it would have been superior to the first game (which I found to be somewhat overrated) in every single way imaginable.

Oh yeah, also this. I was not expecting that game to make me re-think my views on morality.

Damn, I wanted to say that... should use this game in high school sociology classes(KOTOR 2). I got to go with fuel of war, I thought I would hate this game and was surprised by how fun such a broken piece o' garbage actually was to play, still broken though. Alpha protocol is definitely on this list as well, All good surprises. As for bad surprises, halo 2. Oh well...

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Assassins Creed...I put off playing it for ages because I figured I wouldn't like it...

and now I realise I must have been on crack becuase I am a massive Tomb Raider fan and I have a history degree.

What the hell was I thinking I LOVE THIS GAME (series).

My cat had two male kittens one white and one black ,so I named them Ezio and Altair.

Ezio likes to steal things. He ran out of the room with one of my lollipops (suckers to Americans) the other night. I can only assume it is the 'bleed effect'...lol

 

[Iwata]

Recently, "Shadows of the Damned". It was a really tough sell, as the game has almost nothing that appeals to me, but the guy behind the counter was so insistent that I picked it up.

And I liked it so much that just yesterday I bought Suda51's other supposed masterpiece, "No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise".

 

[A Shadows Age]

Oh yes I would also like to add oblivion, believe it or not, I just didn't like the controls at first. I'm ok now though. I gotta throw in condemned, didn't think much of it at first then I kept playing and now I will never feel safe near mannequins or school lockers again. (you have to play it alone and in the dark. And the biggest surprise would have to be The Outfit, check it out, it's a fun game.