Second Chance Gaming

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

We've all probably done this once or twice (or multiple times) with games, hated it at first glance/play then years or months later picking up the game again and finding you pre-judged it way too quickly.
Many games have done this for me, my first time playing X-COM (the original) was probably the epitome of "OMG this game sucks!" then 4 months later I ran the .exe again for the hell of it and found myself at the PC 12 hours later at 5am with a pyramid of soda cans on my desk.
What happened? Well the first time I played it, the game either got really buggy or I just was irritated to no end because I swear I barely got out of the Skyranger on my first mission when an alien tossed a grenade (from the other side of the map) into the Skyranger and killed my entire fucking crew.
One shot...

Other games that have had similar effects:

Mass Effect 1 (didn't like it at first, grew on me later after playing through 2)

Dragon Age: Origins (took me a few plays to get into it)

Battletoads (that damn jetbike level... after the rappel level...)

Demon's Souls (never read reviews nor player criticisms before getting it, no idea what I'd bought)

I've got a lot more, just gave a couple examples. Anyone else give games a second chance after it pissed you off/failed to impress the first get-go?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

First time I played Mount and Blade I almost threw up in my mouth. The horrible graphics, the crime-against-humanity interface, the overland map from 1993, etc, etc. I'm not even sure what compelled me to give it a 2nd chance, but that 2nd chance quickly spiraled into over 200 hours played.

 

[Legion]

I wouldn't say I hated Skyrim when I first got it, but I did only play it for a few hours before leaving it for a while. When I came back to it I became a lot more invested in it and have made many characters since. I originally found it kind of annoying how my minor quests kept stacking up without me even trying to get them. I had so many that I didn't know where to begin and I think that put me off at first.

Fallout 3 was similar. It was the first games of it's type that I had played and I pretty much only did the main missions. My reaction upon finishing it was "Is that it?". It was only on my second time around when I truly started to enjoy it properly.

Deus Ex Human Revolution seemed pretty average when I first played it too. The game didn't seem to encourage stealth at all and I struggled to get enough Praxis points to upgrade myself properly. I have enjoyed it much more in later play-through's, even going through it on the hardest difficulty entirely stealthily and passively.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

What happened? Well the first time I played it, the game either got really buggy or I just was irritated to no end because I swear I barely got out of the Skyranger on my first mission when an alien tossed a grenade (from the other side of the map) into the Skyranger and killed my entire fucking crew.
One shot...

That's hardly a bug. That's working as intended.

For me, such a game would be Bully. The first time I loaded it up I was fairly unimpressed by it, but recently, a couple of years later I started playing again and I now think it's the best game Rockstar has made.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Half-Life 2. The first time through I bought into all the talk that it had the best story of an FPS game and expected it to be some great, meaningful story I was supposed to pick apart the same way I did BioShock. Needless to say, it failed to meet expectations. When I went back with more reasonable expectations of it, understanding that it was meant as a fun game not some pinnacle of storytelling brilliance, I found myself enjoying it much more.

There was also Resident Evil 4. The game was easy to forget about shortly after starting it the first time, but my second playthrough was much more engaging. Not sure exactly what happened the first time, but I guess it just wasn't the right time to play the game.

Finally, there was Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Even as a huge fan of the series, I hated the game to no end the first time I tried to get through it. During the second time, I realized that it was one of the few games that found a way past many of the issues of telling a story across multiple timelines, not to mention it had the best combat of the series. Yeah, the game is still my least favorite of the trilogy, but the second time through had me enjoying it much more than the first time.

 

[Vegosiux]

Dark Souls and Witcher 2 were both games I did not like the first time I tried them, the former because it just bored me, the latter because CDProjekt fell victim to what this week's Jimquisition is about - "Boobs and rape, so mature, ainnit!". They're still sitting on my backlog for when I get around to it, though. Maybe I'll be able to enjoy them when I'm feeling less cynical.

 

[krazykidd]

Fallout New vegas. I played as the bad guy when i tried it and got bored as hell. 2 years later i played it as a good guy , which is rare , and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Lost oddesy took two tries before i managed to get into it , and it's now one of my favorite Jrpgs this gen.

 

[josemlopes]

My first game on the original Xbox, Timesplitters 2.

Didnt know any better so I went to the arcade mode and since the game comes by default with inverted aim I couldnt do shit and was too young to understand that I could go to the options and change it. Hated the game.

A year latter I tried it again (still with the inverted aim) and fell in love with it, played 1 year straight, multiplayer, singleplayer, the challenges and the map editor. It was all I played for a year (multiple times a day) and every time I play it I still use the inverted aim since I am so used to it now in that game (its the only game that I play with inverted aim, not even in TS:FP)

 

[Salus]

Civilization V: I had heard so much about the Civilization series that when Civ 5 came out I just bought it on the first week in stores. I was used to real-time, realistic, historical games (like Total War) so when George Washington founded Boston in 3000 BC, I basically uninstalled and let it sit on my shelf for a year. One year later, I re-installed it, and "got it," ending up with over 500 hours into it, every DLC and expansion, and joining the "No Quitters" multiplayer group on Steam.

Left 4 Dead: When I bought this jointly with my gaming buddy, we were shocked to start playing and discover there were only four "campaigns" to replay ad infinitum. Each "campaign" was the same four levels with the same holdout level at the end, and there was no story in the traditional sense. We ALMOST returned it, but we didn't, and we began to discover the wonders of L4D and the insane replayability of the game. We ended up always playing on Expert and beating 2 campaigns on Expert, then we got L4D2 and did the same.

Pokemon FireRed: I thought this was just a kiddie game, so when I got it as a Christmas present I was let down. Eventually I gave it a shot and I played it with someone else that had LeafGreen, and we had a blast. I think we beat FireRed/LeafGreen twice or thrice, and got the rest of the series until Diamond/Pearl.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Bayonetta - First time round, hit a certain part that for the life of my I could not get past, so I put it down, and away for a few months. When I came back to it, I beat whatever enemy was troubling me first time, and then shot through the rest of them game because I loved it that much. Sits up there as one of my favourite games ever.

 

[SKBPinkie]

Dishonored.

I have no idea why I didn't care for it the first time I tried it out. I played it again a few months later, and man - it's easily one of the best stealth games I've played.

 

[Kinitawowi]

Bayonetta - First time round, hit a certain part that for the life of my I could not get past, so I put it down, and away for a few months. When I came back to it, I beat whatever enemy was troubling me first time, and then shot through the rest of them game because I loved it that much. Sits up there as one of my favourite games ever.

Ditto to all of this.

One of the Gracious And Glorious fights in Chapter 10, perchance? That's about where I said "blow this"...

 

[porous_shield]

Psychonauts.

I got a Humble Bundle specifically for it and I installed it right away but it was completely underwhelming and I stopped playing after about an hour and it just sat on my desktop for nearly a year. During my web trawling I came across [link]http://www.doublefine.com/campster/index.htm[/link] and it completely changed my opinion of the game and I started playing again. I'm glad I did because it's great and nothing like my first impressions of it.

Also this:

Spoiler: Secret Agent Housewife

 

[gamernerdtg2]

You know - with Lost Odyssey it was the opposite. I enjoyed it when I rented it a few years ago, but I own it now and I have no patience for it. The turn based thing really bothers me. It has to be a special game in order for me to dig it.

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

Binding of Isaac. Picked it up on a Steam sale, played one game, and though "Meh, not for me." Picked it up on a whim a few months later. Its one of my favorite games of all time now.

 

[Bad Jim]

A few years ago, I purchased the Space Unlimited Compilation, featuring Galactic Civilizations 2: Ultimate Edition, Sins of a Solar Empire, Dark Star One and Star Assault. I installed them all, quickly uninstalled Star Assault when I realised it was crap, spent about five minutes messing around in Galciv and Sins before getting absorbed in DarkStar One. DarkStar One is a bit like Freelancer but not quite as good, but I played it through to completion anyway. Being worse than Freelancer doesn't mean it's bad, after all.

I have only recently discovered GalCiv 2. Sins is still unplayed, but at least it is unplayed because Galciv2 is being played.

 

[Rob Robson]

Age of Conan. Tragicomic launch with bugs, performance valleys, huge patches of no-content levels...

Came back to it 1-2 years later and it instantly became my favourite MMO ever produced.

Became a Funcom fanboy since then, and The Secret World was the first real challenger AoC had for my affection.

 

[Nazulu]

The only one I can remember last was with Half-Life 2. When I first heard about HL2 back in 2004 and saw some screen shots, it really didn't interest me. It probably didn't help that my budget was limited and there were other games I was more interested in at the time.

With the stagnation faze we are going through now, I became bored enough to go back through all the classics that I ignored years ago, and it's been great. I first played Half-Life 2 in late 2011 and to my surprise, as linear as it is, the game has some of the best design I have ever seen. Also, I couldn't believe how fluent the game play was, and how they managed to make the gravity gun so... functional throughout the game. I stop calling something a gimmick when it has no downside and increases your options.

 

[Jak2364]

Wow, I had the same problem with ME, DA, AND Demon's Souls. I stopped playing all three of them halfway through cause they started boring me (especially Dragon Age, those Dwarven tunnels bored the hell out of me.) and then I got back into them randomly and didn't stop till I beat them.

Crap I need to add something else to be unique.....


another game I gave a second chance and enjoyed a lot was Batman: Arkham City. I hated the demo for Arkham Asylum (I don't know why, but I really hated the combat, yet I loved it in Sleeping Dogs...), but for some random reason I decided to buy Arkham City GOTY Edition and I enjoyed it a lot.