Games where you love the premise, but hate the genre.

[Ironclash]

I'm gonna say Tomb Raider or Uncharted.

I used to play Tomb raider all the time when it was still mostly puzzle based. It got a bit more actiony over time before transforming into full on run and gun and eventually a cover based shooter. Uncharted didn't really change all that much but it has the same sort of adventurous setting.

Back in the day I was hoping those games would head more towards actually exploring the archaeology side of things, or at least make solutions more intricate such as manipulating individual relics or actually having to map out and look for clues and such. In the end though, all the actual puzzle solving is either in cutscenes or so laid out that it may as well be.
The least I should expect is maybe read a book or pick where to go you know?

I'm looking for a game that can really scratch that itch, preferably with little to no combat.

At least the witcher 3 stuck some decent effort into identifying creatures and planning ahead for encounters, even if those were a bit too scripted at times. Same for investigating curses and such.

 

[Bad Jim]

That and I guess AI Wars Fleet Command. I love the premise (Humanity is reduced to one base while a pair of inane AIs have taken over the entire Galaxy, and you have to tactically liberate it with careful surgical strikes and stuff). I love the soundtrack. But the gameplay is basically an endless RTS with a bit of tower defense that I can't seem to figure out how to handle.

Doesn't that game have a generous range of difficulty settings though? Unless you are completely failing on a strategic level (eg trying to conquer every planet), you should have a sporting chance of winning, even if you have to set the difficulty to 1. You don't have to give up just because you are bad at it.

 

[Erttheking]

I love the idea of EVE Online, a massive world where EVERYTHING is player created, player run, and destructable, with crazy things like 3,000 player wars. But in a game where you need months or even years of grinding, have to pay a monthly subscription and there are microtransactions? AND with a learning curve that's slightly less steep than Mount Everest? Sorry, I'll have to pass on that one.

You know EVE Online is free now right?

Free being in giant quotation marks with reduced EXP and limited ship access

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Overwatch looks interesting and cool lore-wise but it's an FPS while it should have been something like a fighting game or a beat-em-up (kinda like dragon's crown or Anarchy Reigns). I feel most of the coolness of the chars is lost when you don't see anything more than their hands and weapon for a majority of the time unless they're the enemies and due to the twitchy nature of FPSs there's few really cool moments and most of the game revolves around unnaturally-looking running and shooting without finesse or style.


Also I have a bunch of mobile tap games which could have been full games instead that I love the premise but the one that takes the cake is Fate/Grand Order which originally was supposed to be an online game but they ended up turning it into a phone game instead.

 

[Zen Bard]

I'll step into the Wayback machine for this one and call out Arcanum.

It had a great premise as a Steampunk RPG that took place in a Magical realm going through an Industrial Revolution. So Magic and Science coexisted and gave way to some interesting character classes apart from the standard Mage, Fighter or Thief. The player could conceivably be a Half-Orc Gunslinger or an Elven Gambler while exploring a world that was more Wild West than Middle Earth.

Unfortunately, none of those concepts translated into any kind of engaging gameplay. The graphics were substandard, the action and controls were glitchy and the stats were HEAVILY weighted in favor of the Magical skill trees. So playing as one of those more interesting hybrid Steampunk character builds ended up being severely underpowered.

Shame though. It was really a unique concept that was ahead of its time.

 

[sXeth]

Magic the Gathering. I'd love to play some sort of big scale Civ-style strategy game where you wielded powers to reshape terrain and lay enchantments over areas, and duke it out with armies, but the card game aspect is kind of meh.

A good Mortal Kombat (or Injustice I suppose) action/brawler/lite-rpg game. They tried it sort of with the Sub Zero thing way back when, but it was pretty crap.

Sort of a different idea, but the Battlefield style game applied to something more interesting then bland "realism" shooters. They did have the one futurey installment, and there's Planetside, but nothing really diverse as those just kind of sub in lasers for bullets here and there. I guess For Honor is kind of the same idea in a medieval setting, but was pretty barebones in the alpha when I played. Command & Conquer Renegade was actually my first experience with that sort of gameplay (smaller maps though), which had a bit interesting differentations in unit/vehicle types.

 

[aozgolo]

Brutal Legend is a classic example, now don't get me wrong, I love the game, but the RTS parts are very blah... they aren't all that challenging, but they take the place of what could be a more compelling side to gameplay. The really weird part is the game starts out being fully devoted to the action-adventure side of things, with three missions featuring a dungeon/gauntlet capped with a boss fight... then after the first stage battle, you never see these types of missions again, everything is driving between mission points, and stage battles, and the side quests are just extremely repetitive versions of the same 5 missions...

I love Brutal Legend's lore, I love action adventure, I love that it has open world, heck I even love the idea for stage battles, but I wish wish wish it had doubled down on it's action adventure parts and gave us more interesting progression missions. Oh, and a jump button... Double Fine you made an excellent platformer game right before this, gimme a jump button!

 

[Kyrian007]

Yeah, right there with you. I saw that, got excited and then saw.....MMO. Crap. Free to play? Nope! NOPE!

Well, as mentioned in my post above this one: If you're interested, you should check it out at least once. It's more like a single player RPG with little grinding, good stories and a very good quest structure. 40 hours in and I didn't need to group up once.

Its an MMO, I just can't. I've heard "less grind" and "no fetch quests" from people trying to get me into an MMO many... many times before. And when I use whatever part is free to see what they are talking about... killing slimes, retrieving x number of dropped y... MMO = NO for me. Besides, if it really does "story driven" right I won't be able to ignore the fact that there are tens of thousands of other people in the same game making the same "discoveries" I am. Make the exact same game with the same quests and story, single player and I'd probably love it. It doesn't make any sense, but its an MMO so I know I'll hate it. I don't even try free modes unless a friend is actually starting a new character and is actually there while I'm playing. And they usually get to watch me log off for the final time ever within a half hour.

 

[Xerosch]

Yeah, right there with you. I saw that, got excited and then saw.....MMO. Crap. Free to play? Nope! NOPE!

Well, as mentioned in my post above this one: If you're interested, you should check it out at least once. It's more like a single player RPG with little grinding, good stories and a very good quest structure. 40 hours in and I didn't need to group up once.

Its an MMO, I just can't. I've heard "less grind" and "no fetch quests" from people trying to get me into an MMO many... many times before. And when I use whatever part is free to see what they are talking about... killing slimes, retrieving x number of dropped y... MMO = NO for me. Besides, if it really does "story driven" right I won't be able to ignore the fact that there are tens of thousands of other people in the same game making the same "discoveries" I am. Make the exact same game with the same quests and story, single player and I'd probably love it. It doesn't make any sense, but its an MMO so I know I'll hate it. I don't even try free modes unless a friend is actually starting a new character and is actually there while I'm playing. And they usually get to watch me log off for the final time ever within a half hour.

Hey, that's absolutely fine. I just thought I'd mention that in my opinion it's the MMO that tries to get as far away from the established grind formular as it can. There are little to no players in the main areas anymore and the story missions are all instances, so you don't really run into many other players.

I guess this comes off as if I'm trying to talk you into the game, but if you already know it's not for you, then that's of course perfectly fine.

 

[Kyrian007]

Yeah, right there with you. I saw that, got excited and then saw.....MMO. Crap. Free to play? Nope! NOPE!

Well, as mentioned in my post above this one: If you're interested, you should check it out at least once. It's more like a single player RPG with little grinding, good stories and a very good quest structure. 40 hours in and I didn't need to group up once.

Its an MMO, I just can't. I've heard "less grind" and "no fetch quests" from people trying to get me into an MMO many... many times before. And when I use whatever part is free to see what they are talking about... killing slimes, retrieving x number of dropped y... MMO = NO for me. Besides, if it really does "story driven" right I won't be able to ignore the fact that there are tens of thousands of other people in the same game making the same "discoveries" I am. Make the exact same game with the same quests and story, single player and I'd probably love it. It doesn't make any sense, but its an MMO so I know I'll hate it. I don't even try free modes unless a friend is actually starting a new character and is actually there while I'm playing. And they usually get to watch me log off for the final time ever within a half hour.

Hey, that's absolutely fine. I just thought I'd mention that in my opinion it's the MMO that tries to get as far away from the established grind formular as it can. There are little to no players in the main areas anymore and the story missions are all instances, so you don't really run into many other players.

I guess this comes off as if I'm trying to talk you into the game, but if you already know it's not for you, then that's of course perfectly fine.

No, I didn't take any offense. You're right my dislike probably doesn't make much sense, but as irrational as it is it will still poison my opinion. And that's all it is, opinion. Actually I wish things like The Secret World were more successful and imitated than they were. Especially if they are as different from "I wanna be WoW" as people say. I'm all for there being more than one kind of online game out there. Even more than 2 or 3 WoW clones or online shooters would be awesome. Even if I'm more of a singleplayer, or couch splitscreen or LAN multiplayer kind of guy.

 

[iwinatlife]

Dishonored is such a cool setting. I am unfortunately garbage at stealth games.

 

[BrawlMan]

Magic the Gathering. I'd love to play some sort of big scale Civ-style strategy game where you wielded powers to reshape terrain and lay enchantments over areas, and duke it out with armies, but the card game aspect is kind of meh.

A good Mortal Kombat (or Injustice I suppose) action/brawler/lite-rpg game. They tried it sort of with the Sub Zero thing way back when, but it was pretty crap.

What about MK: Shaolin Monks? That was a good co-op Devil May Cry/God of War style brawler, and far surpassed the Sub-Zero game or the spin-off game with Jax.

Overwatch looks interesting and cool lore-wise but it's an FPS while it should have been something like a fighting game or a beat-em-up (kinda like dragon's crown or Anarchy Reigns). I feel most of the coolness of the chars is lost when you don't see anything more than their hands and weapon for a majority of the time unless they're the enemies and due to the twitchy nature of FPSs there's few really cool moments and most of the game revolves around unnaturally-looking running and shooting without finesse or style.

I admit, if Overwatch was a brawler, I would have far more interest in playing it. At least it's fun watching high quality comic dubs on YouTube.

 

[sageoftruth]

Far Cry Primal was a nifty idea.

Sadly it was in the Ubisoft genre.

So true. I think you picked a thread winner in my book. I remember getting so excited over this, and thinking, "What a great idea. Throw out the guns and get up close and personal. Now we just need to buff up the melee system, give it some dodge/counter mechanics, and... oh, they made it just like Far Cry 4."

Such a disappointment.

 

[sageoftruth]

Definitely Overwatch for me. I'm super intrigued by the characters and the story, but I hardly every do multiplayer and as people have said, the story barely exists in the game itself. If anyone manages to make a game with a decent Overwatch campaign, I'll be looking forward to it.

 

[American Tanker]

Seeing Overwatch brought up repeatedly, I guess I'll throw in my two cents on it.

I'd actually love to give it a shot, if it was to be a third-person, over-the-shoulder single-player action shooter. That way, I could look over the character I'm playing as in all their glory, while using their abilities in unique and interesting ways to complete missions and objectives.

 

[meiam]

I wouldn't say I hate the genre but I would love mount and blade as an RTS game instead of third person for the battle.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Any and all Real-Time-Strategy games. Any time I see one, I think ?Gee, it?d be way more fun to actually DO the things versus sitting on a cloud in the sky and TELLING a bunch of tiny troops to do the things.? Every RTS mission is a missed opportunity for an 8-10 hour campaign in another, more fun genre.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Undertale is an answer I sort of expect to pop up a bit in a thread like this (although maybe not here), and is my nomination.

Great idea, and for the most part well executed... but the random encounters got incredibly tedious, and the actual encounter mechanics weren't my cup of tea at all.

But you can run away from every single fight...

 

[American Tanker]

Any and all Real-Time-Strategy games. Any time I see one, I think ?Gee, it?d be way more fun to actually DO the things versus sitting on a cloud in the sky and TELLING a bunch of tiny troops to do the things.? Every RTS mission is a missed opportunity for an 8-10 hour campaign in another, more fun genre.

Aye, this too.

I don't want to be the General communicating orders via SatCom, I want to be the Sargent leading the battle personally.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Yes, The Secret World.

I agree it would have made for a phenomenal SP game. The setting and aesthetic are great, but saying that, it's an utterly unique MMO and not like you expect. It isn't a gear-grind treadmill. The quests are very different, involving some crazy puzzles, spatial awareness, observation, memory, and more. Your character at the start "awakens" to the Secret World, where magic and the supernatural exist and far from being a champion or saviour, you're a grunt in the army of one of the three secret societies.

The combat can be a mixed bag. You essentially have 9 different weapons, each of which can do 2 things, one of which is DPS, the other of which could be tanking, healing or CC for example. You can mix and match to make your build from two weapons. It's interesting and I kinda like how it allows for lots of combinations. The only downside is that there's only one playstyle, which is resource builder-resource consumer abilities. The areas are cool, the lore is great and once you own it you don't need to spend another penny. It's worth a look in for sure. The first few areas and quests are really special, I think I enjoyed them more than what came later.

Far Cry Primal

I just finished this. It was the latest "the Ubisoft Game" with Adam Jennsen as a caveman, but the beastmaster thing was cool. If Skyrim had had that feature, it would be the icing on the cake. A lot of the game was forgettable, but they got the hairy american dude from FC3-4 again, playing a dumb caveman. At one point, he asked me to get him some rocks, so I rode my tamed sabertooth tiger into an enemy caveman tribe's village, speared them to death and stole their rocks. I hate myself for enjoying it as much as I did, but no game has ever let me do that before. It's a 7/10 game with a handful of good moments. It's not bad. Get it on sale.

Oh, X-COM 2

I was in the same boat as you with the predecessor, XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within. But I gave it a go and I have to say, it was a masterpiece. I don't say that with hyperbole or any exaggeration, it was honestly a sublime game. I loathe turn based games for the most part, and strategy games aren't my favourites, but, and I say this sincerely, XCOM does for the genre what Deus Ex, BG2, PoP: Sands of Time and the like did for theirs. You need to play these games.

Dishonored

The setting really is the star of the show, but the game itself is worth playing. It isn't really a "stealth" game, tho it could be played as such. Corvo has powers that effectively make him a god among men. It is a very easy game on any difficulty with pretty much any playstyle. It is still a fun enough adventure and seeing Dunwall and NPCs react to Corvo's actions is a nice touch. Don't be deterred by skill, it's designed for you to be a supernatural assassin. You can be stealthy, or not, both work. Corvo can teleport, see thru walls and freeze time, you don't need to be amazing at stealth games to get thru this one Give it a go, it's worth it!