Unexpectedly good games

[VondeVon]

Resonance of Fate. I didn't expect it to be rubbish so much as average... but WOW. It has the good looks of a JRPG, the humor of a well-written WRPG and the stylish combat of Devil May Cry. The latter, less-clunky ones.

I'm halfway through it right now, delighting in the many utterly unexpected details and liberal topics.

 

[Picosaurus]

The first Red Faction, a game I was given by a friend of mine and liked it so much back in the day that I bought it on steam once it went on sale!

 

[Diablo27]

Medal of Honour. The controls weren't very good but all in all it was an extremely fun game.

Singularity: I wasn't in the mood for horror when I got my mum to pick it up while she was out and of course the first couple of levels were horror, but it was a really good game.

Aliens vs Predator: I went into it with hopes dashed because of reviews. My friend bought it for me because I did a favour for her as I had been wanting it for a long time. I wasn't expecting much when I played it but after finishing it, I can safely say that it is awesome.

Final Fantasy XIII: People can guess why I wasn't expecting much.

BioShock 2: After the second half of BioShock being action, I wasn't expecting any horror elements to appear in BioShock 2 and after playing it I can say that I was right except for one encounter but that's not the point. It was action based but it was fun, and the multiplayer may have been almost deserted but it was a blast.

Resident Evil 5: Horrible reviews, demo sucked, turned out to be fun.

Dead Space 2: After playing the demo I was horribly disappointed (to the point where if I had not already preordered the CE I probably wouldn't have picked it up) but also hoping that was just a crappy part of the game and not only was the game friggin' incredible, that part had been changed and was actually fun.

Lord of the Rings Conquest: I heard it was a really mediocre game and while it isn't a rollercoaster of an epic campaign, I had a lot of fun in the short time I had it.

The Last Remnant: It wasn't interesting but I bought it anyway and while I didn't beat it, it was fun.

 

[Findlebob]

Lost planet 2. I thought it would be crap but all the flaws i found with it where drowned out by the railway gun's main turret.

 

[MetalDooley]

Alpha Protocol - Bought it as part of a "2 for ?30" offer.Wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be one of my favourite games of 2010

 

[mexicola]

Mass Effect. I picked it up only weeks before ME2 came out since i wanted to hear what the nerds were talking about. It was great and then I got to play the sequel pretty much as soon as I finished it.

 

[Speakercone]

Beyond Good and Evil.
hear me out.

My friend told me it was a game about a photographer who lived in a world populated by pigs. Not the best sell eh. Anyway, I was staying over at his house and couldn't sleep so I figured a crap game I'd never heard of would be a good distraction. As it happens, that's now one of my favourite games ever.

 

[DigitalAtlas]

Demon's Souls.

I expected this game to be crap and overall a test of patience.

What I didn't expect was one of the best role-playing games this generation.

 

[Product Placement]

Dungeon Keeper 2.

I wasn't even the one who bought it, my brother found it in a bargain bin. I had very low expectations.

Anyone who's played the game knows how wrong I was.

Shame on you, for having previously thought less of that game.

And I liked the original even better, since between missions, we got to experience a beautiful and tranquil fantasy land being slowly converted into a hellish nightmare.

 

[ThePirateMan]

Mount and Blade - I was bored, had some spare money and it was the only thing interesting that I could find in the Steam store. I wasn't expecting much but was utterly blown away by how fun the campaign and mods were.
Gothic 3 - Was expecting it to be an allright timewaster while I was waiting for Gothic 4 to be released. (I got it in a package deal) Instead I was bored to death by Gothic 4 and enjoyed the hell out of Gothic 3. (I just realised that I might have made a pun.)
Europa Universalis 3 - I was expecting a pretty boring, complicated Grand Strategy game. Instead I got an epic, not so complicated once you get into it Grand Strategy game with some of the greatest multiplayer campaigns I've ever played in a game. There's nothing like seeing the nation that you've put dozens of hours into rise and fall. Although, hopefuly not the latter.

 

[The Zero]

Zombies Ate My Neighbours

Expected a cheesy, tacky kids game. Got a quirky, B movie homage with loads of wacky weapons and a great sense of humour which is a lot fun as a quick "pick up and play"

 

[Squidden]

Amnesia
Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life
Mount & Blade
Revenge of the Titans
Risk: Factions (Even though it is frustrating as hell)


All of these I had either moderate or low expectations for.

On another note, I was disappointed by Dead Space 2 and Trials 2 for PC which was a terrible port.

 

[Akihiko]

Deadly Premonition. I actually bought it originally because it looked so bad that I would be able to have fun just by laughing at it. Turns out the story was actually quite amusing. The controls were awful though...

 

[Scythas]

Magicka

Picked it up for the $10, thought what the hell. Played through the tutorial. Grabbed the first friend I could find on Steam and said "OMG YOU MUST BUY THIS". Ended up having many laughs after exploding ourselves with beams that should not be crossed.

 

[Vonnis]

Dead space 2. I had fun with the first but I didn't have high expectations of the sequel. As it turned out, they took everything that made the first game good, and made it awesome. It still isn't horror, and I still think you're not supposed to take the game (and story) too seriously, but I had a blast playing it.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Beyond Good and Evil.
hear me out.

My friend told me it was a game about a photographer who lived in a world populated by pigs. Not the best sell eh. Anyway, I was staying over at his house and couldn't sleep so I figured a crap game I'd never heard of would be a good distraction. As it happens, that's now one of my favourite games ever.

Why don't more games have cameras? They're so cool!

 

[Kenko]

Recently Crysis 2. Figured it'd be a boring re-hash of the previous titles. It turned out to actually have good gameplay and a decent story. As well as a decent gametime (8-10 hrs depending on player and difficulty).

not saying its a bad game or anything


8-10 hours....discounting multiplayer (and even then thats a grey area) thats a little disapointing, yes I know its a FPS and your lucky to get over 6 hours thease days but I still think thats a little short

or mabye Ive just been spoilt by long games like Fallout NV and Bioware titles

IF a shooter campaign took 300 hours to complete it'd be waaay tooo fucking long xD. RPG's need long time to tell the story since they want character depth and other stuff that needs more time to grow.

 

[Blondi3]

Red Faction: Guerilla.

I was really surprised by how much fun I had in that game.

My addition is, Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West. A really simple and easy to get into game. It was on sale for $2.50.

 

[Laser Priest]

I legitimately wasn't expecting anything of Dragon Age: Origins.

I greatly enjoyed it (at least as a mage. The melee classes are rubbish).