Games you've played where you expected something... different?

[aozgolo]

Have you ever had an idea in your head of what kind of a game you think you're getting, only to realize after getting it that's it something totally different?

I remember my first experience was with Battletoads for NES, I expected a full length game of the kind of awesome beat-em-up action that you see in the first level, only to realize the horrible truth that that's ONLY the first level, as a kid I could never pass the third level, and as an adult only with liberal use of auto-pause features...


Another one was Overlord, I half expected some kind of modern iteration of Dungeon Keeper, instead it turned out to be Evil Pikmin... I still enjoyed it however.


So what about you guys? Ever gotten a game expecting one thing but finding something totally different?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I've never had that happen, mostly because I research every game I buy prior to buying it. Games are expensive man, I'm not going to waste my money on something I might not enjoy.

 

[Keoul]

Psychonauts.
I'm not sure what I had in mind, only got it recently and I haven't really researched it, it was on sale on steam and peeps talked about it all the time so I thought I'd give it a go.

It was different in a good way, very nostalgic as it reminded me of the sly cooper series more than anything, and the inclusion of some "dark" memories were really nice. To be honest it seemed a bit like a kids game to me but after playing through meat circus and seeing a few memories that opinion changed.

 

[tippy2k2]

This is probably going to be the most obvious answer but it's really the only thing I can think of

Spec-Ops: The Line

Marketed as another Modern Military Shooter when...well....it's a very different MMS. Now I knew there was some special things it did that made it stand out from a normal MMS but that....that was most unexpected.

 

[Joseph Harrison]

I didn't really play it much but Brutal Legend was like that, it was marketed as a beat em up but it was really an RTS.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

After playing 1000+ (yes, thousand) hours of Final Fantasy tactics, the Advance series didn't deliver everything I was expecting, even with it being super hard to find in my area for a long time after release.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Custom Robo. I expected this [http://www.wallpaper4me.com/images/wallpapers/armoredcoreforanswer-778274.jpeg], but I got this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWObmmp7pr4]

Still a really fun game, but there was a bit of a period of disappointment when I discovered you couldn't customize your robots from the ground up. It wasn't until some years later that I found a game that did what I was looking for, Armored Core

 

[JoshGod]

Spec Ops the Line, I was expecting good morale choices and an interesting story, but I just found it rather meh as at certain points the game gives you two or three choices that don't matter much. It takes many decisions out of your hands and makes them for you in the cut scenes. It was jarring half way between making it role playing myself and walker.

 

[JoshGod]

Spec Ops the Line, I was expecting good morale choices and an interesting story, but I just found it rather meh as at certain points the game gives you two or three choices that don't matter much. It takes many decisions out of your hands and makes them for you in the cut scenes. It was jarring half way between making it role playing myself and walker.

That's exactly what you are meant to take out of the game, it, like the Stanley Parable, parodies the illusion of choice in videogame narratives

Just being a parody doesn't give it a free ride, I found that aspect of the game to retract from the enjoyment, it keeps switching between you are in charge do what you want, and shhh its our game, it was annoying and frustrating, just because it's a parody doesn't excuse it, normally parodies are done for humour or to prove a point, I resent buying a game that deliberately made the game worse to prove a point I already understand.

 

[IrateDonnie]

I didn't really play it much but Brutal Legend was like that, it was marketed as a beat em up but it was really an RTS.

That's the same thing I was going to say.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I didn't really play it much but Brutal Legend was like that, it was marketed as a beat em up but it was really an RTS.

The Demo showed off an awesome, heavy-metal themed open-world, action/adventure-brawler. Then I bought the game and within the first couple of hours I got this strange, heavy-metal themed open-halled, action/adventure-RTS with Brawling and, Upgrades.

I thought Mirror's Edge would be good based on the demo. I bought the game and was wrong...terribly, terribly wrong. It was a divisive game and I was on the side of the line that was anti-Mirror's Edge...

I thought Final Fantasy XIII would be more like Final Fantasy X. It was not...linear yes but the combat system was just terrible.

 

[Nonomori]

Gone Home.

When I was promised a ghost story, I was expecting a story-heavy horror game (something which Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs ended up being), but Gone Home is pretty much a interactive drama. Though, to be fair, the actual "ghost story" contained in the game is more frightening than most horror tropes. And much better than I imagined.

That's just the most recent example. I don't like to do too much research, especially with short indie games. Yeah, buyer's remorse happens sometimes, but nothing beats the sensation of beginning a game without knowing anything that is going to happen.

 

[The]

Burnout Paradise. What I expected to be a regular racing game turned out to be a canvas for my inner rage and recklessness, making it a liberating zen trip into my soul.

Psychonauts.
It was different in a good way, very nostalgic as it reminded me of the sly cooper series more than anything, and the inclusion of some "dark" memories were really nice.

I believe they had the same composer.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I never do that much research on a game, my gut feeling is pretty spot on most of the time. You know the only research on my all time baist gaem evar Persona 4 I ever did was a quick check to see if I had to play 3 first to get what was going on. I just had this really good feeling about it.

Recently with Fire Emblem Awakening, I noticed an hour or so in that it's fuckin' XCOM with anime characters. The cruel RNG Gods want a certain character dead then there is nothing you can do to stop it. I could have the respawn function on but I gathered that permadeath was half the fun. Doesn't stop me from reloading an entire battle when fucking Lissa gets instakilled by a breath of fresh air halfway through. You're the only mage person I have left, all the offensive ones selfishly died in their introduction missions, stay with me. Oh god, Cordelia not again, is it so hard to stop getting instagibbed by a single measley archer?

Still the plot centric ones don't even die. They're just conspicuously absent from the character select menu.