Games that surprised you

[wolas3214]

long time lurker here, decided to finally join the community... anywho... Games you thought were crap but punched you in the face for thinking that, for me it was mount and blade warband.

First impression- Well its on sale.... might entertain me for awhile, looks okay.. might haswell.
In game- Huh... this is pretty cool training graspable but not to easy..
30 minutes- Wow this combat is awesome the ladnscape is beautiful and my little army is flourishing!
the next day- WHOOO YEAHHH! TAKE THIS AND THAT!!!! wait.. WHAT TIME IS IT?
the day after- Was i supposed to go to work..?
the day after after THAT- God this multiplayer is amazing and im nowhere near the end with the single player..


That was some months ago and im still hooked, i give it a high reccomendation to anybody who loves rpg and medieval combat the range of armor and weapons is amazing. So what about you people of escapist? What games surprised you?

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

Scooby Doo Night of a Hundred Frights.

That shit was awesome, man.

 

[Seives-Sliver]

Divinity 2, I saw it because it looked nice and the game was completely awsome ^^

 

[theonlyblaze2]

No More Heroes. Saw nothing but poor reviews for months. Then I wanted a Wii game and saw it was on sale for 10 dollars. Popped it in....HOLY GOD!! This is amazing! Did that guy just explode?! What is going on!?

 

[kane.malakos]

Darksiders. I was expecting a pretty mediocre God of War ripoff, but it was a lot of fun and had a decent story.

 

[wolas3214]

Divinity 2, I saw it because it looked nice and the game was completely awsome ^^

Haha yeah thats a good one, I bought it because lair left me wanting. I loved the entire game except the last level.. What annoyed me was that not only did all my armor and points spent in skills not matter beause they gave me sets anyways but the total lack of choice. one epic dragon battle and thats it? I came to expect way more from a game with so much choice and paths it makes peter molonuex cream his pants.

 

[Vern5]

I think Valyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume for the DS managed to surprise me in a way I didn't think was possible.

There's a point at the very beginning of the game where you use a god-blessed Valkyrie wing plume to give your best friend super-human strength just so you can survive the current battle. You win, of course, but the plume has a specific price for its use: the life of whomever it blesses with strength. Your best friend quickly has the life leeched from him.

The main character is by his friend's side for his death and it seemed like his buddy was going to die like a champ with last words that reflected his bravery. Then, just as he starts sinking into unconsciousness, he suddenly snaps back and starts pleading that he wants to live and just raving in terror over his sudden demise.

I was expecting that scene to go a lot differently and, even though it was done with text and sprites, I was actually shocked.

 

[PlasmaFrog]

Darksiders. I was expecting a pretty mediocre God of War ripoff, but it was a lot of fun and had a decent story.

Here, here! But it turned out to be a LoZ rip off.


For me, Demon's Souls. Wonderful game.

 

[Scabadus]

Hmm I can think of a lot of games that surprised me the other way around... but question at hand it is:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I thought this would be a fairly standard running/shooting RPG and I only got it to do some research on realistic fantasy games of the era. Over a hundred hours later (thanks Steam, keeping track of all my shameful time wasted playing games) I finally stopped playing through with different bloodlines, combat stratagies and quest choices. And 50 of those hours were spent on one single playthrough (though thankfully not one single session!). Best £15 I've spent in a long, long time.

Bioshock gets an honourable mention, since I'd had the story 99% spoilt (I'd been told of the phrase and what it meant/did, but not exactly what it was) and I was also determined to hate it just to prove a friend wrong, but I rather annoyingly found myself to be having great fun... right up untiiiiil

Spoiler: Has anyone who cares not played this game yet? Whatever, spoilers away!

Andrew Ryan makes you smash his skull in. Yes, I get that he was tired of living in a destroyed and broken city. Yes I get that he's lost everything in a matter of days. Yes I get all the reasons. I just still think they were all STUPID. I could go on as to exactly why I think that, but it would turn this post into an essay. I was complaining about it aloud to my friend for a solid ten minutes, let's not see what I can come up with when I can write down my thoughts and argue them all properly.

After that I kind of lost interest in the believability of the world and so was able to safely say to my friend that it was not the greatest peice of storytelling I've ever experianced, and could go home feeling very smug. Hurray.

 

[SergeantAnt]

star ocean the last hope for 1. at first i was like oh god these characters are so annoying and awful. and trust me, they still are lol. but the customization ended up being awesome and it's actually enjoyable despite its flaws.
then freelancer. it just wasn't my type of game i thought. but once i put it in man it sucked me in

 

[Xyphon]

Lost Planet 2. Thankfully my friend got me to try it.

God DAMN was it fun.

 

[kane.malakos]

Hmm I can think of a lot of games that surprised me the other way around... but question at hand it is:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I thought this would be a fairly standard running/shooting RPG and I only got it to do some research on realistic fantasy games of the era. Over a hundred hours later (thanks Steam, keeping track of all my shameful time wasted playing games) I finally stopped playing through with different bloodlines, combat stratagies and quest choices. And 50 of those hours were spent on one single playthrough (though thankfully not one single session!). Best £15 I've spent in a long, long time.

Bioshock gets an honourable mention, since I'd had the story 99% spoilt (I'd been told of the phrase and what it meant/did, but not exactly what it was) and I was also determined to hate it just to prove a friend wrong, but I rather annoyingly found myself to be having great fun... right up untiiiiil

Spoiler: Has anyone who cares not played this game yet? Whatever, spoilers away!

Andrew Ryan makes you smash his skull in. Yes, I get that he was tired of living in a destroyed and broken city. Yes I get that he's lost everything in a matter of days. Yes I get all the reasons. I just still think they were all STUPID. I could go on as to exactly why I think that, but it would turn this post into an essay. I was complaining about it aloud to my friend for a solid ten minutes, let's not see what I can come up with when I can write down my thoughts and argue them all properly.

After that I kind of lost interest in the believability of the world and so was able to safely say to my friend that it was not the greatest peice of storytelling I've ever experianced, and could go home feeling very smug. Hurray.

I would disagree about Bioshock, but we probably don't want to horribly derail this thread.

 

[SilentCom]

For me, it was Portal. Before playing it, I didn't know much of it other than it was a game about portals. The concept seemed a little bland to me but after I started playing, I immediately enjoyed the humor followed by the increasingly difficult puzzles and story-laden easter eggs.

 

[The Apothecarry]

Dawn of War II. I went it going "I know absolutely nothing about Warhammer 40k and I'm bad at RTS games." I came out "I'm still a bad RTS player but...FOR THE EMPEROR!!!"

 

[Chancie]

Bayonetta, I think. I didn't go into it thinking it would suck or anything, but I wasn't expecting too much from it. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and it was crazy fun. xD

 

[Merkavar]

Dawn of War II. I went it going "I know absolutely nothing about Warhammer 40k and I'm bad at RTS games." I came out "I'm still a bad RTS player but...FOR THE EMPEROR!!!"

thats whats good about Dawn of war games. all the units repeat the saying over and over every time you move them or click them so after 30 mins your are indoctirnated into the warhammer universe. or atleast can pass as a 40k fan.

Blood for the blood god
Skulls for the skull throne.

I dont think i have ever been positively surprised by a game. ormally only negative. but im hoping that when i get around to playing dragon age 2 i hope i am surprised. with all the negative talk i hear around the interwebs, it would be a positve surprise if its buggy piece of crap the crashes ever 2 mins.

 

[DanielBrown]

Borderlands. I was expecting generic fps, but I found a game that was completely amazing with a good sense of humor, and well, plain fun. A great split screen co-op too.

Gonna second that.
I bought Borderlands just to get a game with a long playtime(I ran out of new games so quickly!) in spite of my dislike for cel-shading. Turned out to be an amazing game that I had tons and tons of fun with.

To be more original I'm gonna vouch for Alpha Protocol as well.
The reviews and critique for the game was very mixed, so I wasn't sure what I'd think about the game, but once I finished it I was filled with awe. Sure, the story was pretty meh and the hacking mini-games were so awful that I had to lower the difficulty setting, but all in all I thought the game was amazing.

 

[Saint Cynicism]

Braindead 13. I thought it would be a semi-amusing game from the 90s.

To say that it has a steep learning curve (tutorial, what tutorial?) and a burning hatred for anyone who plays it would be an understatement. If you don't have perfect timing, quick reflexes, and some sort of sixth sense for what option / direction / button you're supposed to press (there are no prompts other than your impending doom fast approaching), you're going to die in-game. A LOT.

Turns out, I like the challenge.

 

[CobraX]

Condemned - Only got it because it was only 2 bucks. It's now one of my favorites

Mass Effect 2 - HATED ME1's gameplay but loved the story so I gave ME2 a chance. Just like Condemned it's now one of my Favorites

Assassin's Creed 2 - I hated #1, but something about it appealed to me, so I gave 2 a chance. once again It's now a fav of mine.

Viva Pinata - Shit's addicting.