Well Liked/Reviewed Games...That You *Didn't* Enjoy.

[Starbird]

Title. Had a really weird experience recently. Got ahold of Divinity: Original Sin which everyone and their dog has been telling me was basically a game made for old, crusty Baldur's Gate players like myself.

And...I didn't love it. I liked some aspects of it, and some of the tricks you could do like carrying chests and barrels were amazing. I was also happy to see mechanically challenging fights in a turn based game.

However the story was blah, the companions were awful and everything was just so...limited. Not many spells, shallow itemization, not an extremely big world to explore etc.

I oddly had the same experience with the original Dragon Age: although that was more "love the story, hate everything else about the game".

Other examples I can think of have been:
- Injustice
- Command and Conquer 3
- The Total War series
- Dead Rising 2

How about you?

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Bastion..I don't think I've seen more than a handful of people saying anything negative about it.
What I can't stand is the sluggish input reaction and the ease with which I fall into those damn holes/over the edge.
Lastly, the annoying narrator who talks when I'm too busy fighting to listen, and I want to listen..just not right at that moment.

Fallout 3, too grey/brown. I prefer Fallout 2, but lets not talk about that old war.

Witcher seems universally liked. I could certainly agree with that, from what little I saw.
I didn't even get into the city. Can't stand Over-the-Shoulder cameras. Too bad.

 

[shrekfan246]

I usually bemoan the fact that people focus on negative emotions when making these threads, but at this point, eh.

The Half-Life series.

I can see the impact they had in their time, but the scrounging-for-health-packs kind of shooter has never been my thing in the first place (in those types of games, I like there to also be the ability for the player to store items that restore health which can be used at any time), and 2 had a lot of really bland, poorly-controlled vehicle sections that long overstayed their welcome.

The Last of Us.

I honestly think I was mostly spoiled by Bioshock Infinite (a game which I'm sure will come up in this thread), TellTale's The Walking Dead (again, I would be surprised if this one isn't brought up), and having spent the past few years largely playing shooters exclusively on the PC. But I have the same problem with The Last of Us that I have with the Uncharted franchise, in that I would find the game much more interesting and fun to watch rather than play myself. But, unlike Uncharted, a post-apocalyptic not-zombie thematic setting isn't one I find particularly interesting anymore. I could get over it with The Walking Dead because that was a take on adventure games I hadn't seen done very much before and I don't have a lot of experience with adventure games in the first place.

Oh, hey, and Baldur's Gate.

I'm not sure if I don't like AD&D rules or I just particularly don't like the way they were implemented into most of the Infinity Engine games (I've played a bit of Neverwinter Nights 2 and found myself enjoying that ruleset and implementation far more), or if I just don't like starting at level 1 in AD&D (because I've played a bit of Planescape: Torment, and that didn't put me off nearly as much), but I've tried three or four separate times to start Baldur's Gate or II now and every single time I play for about an hour before getting too fed up with how terribly I always do regardless of how I've built my character. I don't like the flow of combat because it feels both too stiff and too quick, and none of the in-game options ever really let me customize it to the degree where I would enjoy it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I couldn't get much pleasure out of Red Dead Redemption, whether it be story or gameplay. The gameplay seemed to consist of 'ride to this spot and then shoot guys'. The ride itself usually taking about 5 minutes, and the shooting being too hard manually and too easy with auto-aim. And the story was seeped in the usual Rockstar overbearingly edgy cynicism, with a main character who was everyone's footstool and never took any initiative on anything.

Braid also seems to be very well regarded, but I really couldn't get past its pretentious (yes I'm sorry, 'that' word) way of telling its story, which seemed to be 'get past this level, now read this poem'.

 

[Spanglish Guy]

GTA IV is a big one for me. To be fair, I did enjoy it a bit at first but as time went on more and more did I just find it to be too grey and dull, especially after playing Saints Row 2 which in my opinion is a much more colourful and entertaining game.

Killing Floor isn't the most critically acclaimed game but many people I know really like it and that's fair enough but I couldn't play it for more than an hour before just getting bored with it, which is crazy since it is just a lot of horde action which I normally like, but I just couldn't get into this game.

I can't think of any others right now it's late!

 

[QuietlyListening]

Dark Souls. It's beautiful. It's challenging. It's not for me.

 

[Michael Tabbut]

I've never been able to get into GTA at all. I don't know why, it has great soundtracks, good gameplay, and decent stories but for some reason I just don't like them.
I've logged about 55 hours into Skyrim and I just hate it. The game reminds me too much of an MMORPG which I have something of an aversion toward.

 

[DangerRanger5]

Yeah I'm going to stick my hand up and say the Last of Us. I literally cannot understand why it got the reviews and the love it did. It looks great, and the writing is excellent in its subtlety and nuance, but the game play is derivative, the setting is poorly realised, and the actual narrative is unoriginal. As well it, like the Uncharted series, uses enemies purely as a means of filler game play to artificially flesh out the game. It's fine to start with, but after killing hundreds, literally hundreds, of the same enemies, the novelty starts to wear off.

 

[Nimcha]

Skyrim. I'm totally into RPGs but couldn't get into that. Perhaps it's the setting, I found the story completely snoozeworthy.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Title. Had a really weird experience recently. Got ahold of Divinity: Original Sin which everyone and their dog has been telling me was basically a game made for old, crusty Baldur's Gate players like myself.

Yeah all the Baldur's Gate comparisons are misleading and not doing anyone any favors. It's more for TOEE fans than anything.

OT: I cannot offhand think of a critically acclaimed game I played that I disliked or didn't enjoy at least somewhat. There have been some critically acclaimed games I enjoyed less than the praise they received suggested I should...those being...

KOTOR - Too much hype given to the one trick twist ending, some pretty dull and two dimensional companions, laughably binary morality, a horrible UI/control scheme, and endlessly looping alien voice acting. It was a good game, but it wasn't a great game.

THE LAST OF US - A nice if somewhat hackneyed story and a couple of well fleshed out characters for the medium. Wonky, fiddly, linear game play jammed with idiotic quick time events and shooting galleries replete with chest high walls lets everything down.

METRO 2033 and LAST LIGHT - Gorgeous and atmospheric games that are quite literally on rails. Last Light improved the formula somewhat by greatly improving the former games shitbox stealth mechanics, but it never quite achieved the pacing/fun of a shooter nor the sense of exploration and character development of an RPG hybrid.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Mass Effect
Maybe there's something I'm not getting about it because it has a bunch of things I like but I don't know, it just doesn't res with me for some reason.

Grand Theft Auto
I just found them personally boring myself.

Thomas Was Alone
Okay, this *is* a good game and I *do* enjoy it but apparently not to the same extent that everybody else did. Maybe I just didn't feel the characters' personalities enough. I know their just blocks but the narrator really breathes life into them but I seemed to not feel it as much as I think I could have.

Crysis 2
I just rented it and sent it back about two days after. It's a good game, I just don't find it very engaging.

 

[Ryallen]

I have said this a million times and I will say it a million more simply because I love to ***** about stuff.

I did not and never will like The Last of Us. The combat was good, the soundtrack is haunting, the voice acting is top notch, and the game looks amazing for the PS3. I will not play this game ever again, however, simply because of the praise that people give the story and characters that I could never understand. Well thought out and well written? Never have I seen a group of character so well presented and yet so shallow so beloved. Seriously, I dare you to tell me one thing about Tess beyond the fact that she is a foul-mouthed *****. Or one thing about Sam and Henry besides they are surviving brothers, one of whom is a child and the other likes barbecues. Or even Joel and Ellie! Jesus Christ, Joel and Ellie are so unlikable it's amazing! Joel never came off as anything more than a stereotype that simply went a little deeper, and everything that Ellie did was something that I saw a mile away, aside from her joke book, and she hit it and quit it 1/3 through the game! The one character that I liked was Bill, and that's because I found what he did with the Infected in his town pretty cool and smart.

But the thing that pisses me off the most about this game is how they treat their homosexual characters. They treat Bill and Ellie as some sort of revolution in representation in gaming, how they are the first step in the acceptance of homosexuals in modern media. Well, news flash, dickheads! Gearbox did that first, and they did it so much better than TLoU. Want to know how? They mentioned Hammerlock's sexuality offhand as if it was no big deal. Because it isn't! The first step to acceptance is to stop acknowledging the difference. To treat everyone the same, no matter their race, religion, or sexual preference. If the LGBT community really wants to be accepted, they need to ignore those that treat them differently, because Lord knows that I do, and so does everyone else I know.

Anyways, my rant is over, and I know expect people to either flame me over their opinions of my intelligence, my ineptitude in the field of writing good characters, my lack of tolerance and understanding towards the LGBT community, or even getting banned by the moderators.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I remember Final Fantasy XIII and, Dragon Age 2 getting favorable reviews...I also remember hating them both. I hated how FFXIII was stripped down to the point that you were hitting 'auto-attack' in fights and, clopping down pretty corridors outside of combat. Dragon Age 2 is just a lazily made game, that has little to do with the original. It has a lot less to enjoy compared to Origins and, even Awakening.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Infamous. I simply could not get over how boring and repetitive the vast majority of the missions were, and the combat wasn't anywhere near good enough to make up for it (as fun as the lightning blast from space was). The Sewer levels were the biggest example of this, as well as all of those side missions that were literally smaller versions of a previous main mission. The lackluster morality system that punished players for not sticking to one extreme or another was just icing on the cake.

 

[Trunkage]

Oh, hey, and Baldur's Gate.

I'm not sure if I don't like AD&D rules or I just particularly don't like the way they were implemented into most of the Infinity Engine games (I've played a bit of Neverwinter Nights 2 and found myself enjoying that ruleset and implementation far more), or if I just don't like starting at level 1 in AD&D (because I've played a bit of Planescape: Torment, and that didn't put me off nearly as much), but I've tried three or four separate times to start Baldur's Gate or II now and every single time I play for about an hour before getting too fed up with how terribly I always do regardless of how I've built my character. I don't like the flow of combat because it feels both too stiff and too quick, and none of the in-game options ever really let me customize it to the degree where I would enjoy it.

Baulder's gate is not that good. People use it as the pinnacle of RPG and even when it first came out there was little choice, little agency and BG 1 wasn't that long. There were way better ones (an obvious example being Daggerfall and not long after Morrowind.)

Now I am also biased based on the stupidity of magic in D&D. You spend your time 'overnight' remembering spells, but those spells are used once before you somehow forget it. That doesn't make sense. It would make more sense if you could only remember a few spells that can only change by resting and remembering those spells.

Although not giving you a great deal of agency still, DA:O was a worthy successor to BA. A huge improvement

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

Bastion..I don't think I've seen more than a handful of people saying anything negative about it.
What I can't stand is the sluggish input reaction and the ease with which I fall into those damn holes/over the edge.
Lastly, the annoying narrator who talks when I'm too busy fighting to listen, and I want to listen..just not right at that moment.

Fallout 3, too grey/brown. I prefer Fallout 2, but lets not talk about that old war.

Witcher seems universally liked. I could certainly agree with that, from what little I saw.
I didn't even get into the city. Can't stand Over-the-Shoulder cameras. Too bad.

Bastion with sluggish input? That is actually strange. Myn had extremely tight reactions both using a controller and using mouse and keyboard, and that is when my shitty laptop lagged on it. It shouldn't be sluggish.

And over the shoulder cameras came popular for a reason. With the old system, its practically impossible to aim upwards or downwards with ranged weapons or guns without your character model getting in the way, or zooming so far out that the ground causes a gigantic camera zoom which ruins it just as fast. It is mildly harder to control on a mouse and keyboard yeah, but it isn't done for no reason. It also has a more cinematic effect. Still doesn't explain why The Witcher uses it, especially since the downright only game to use an over the shoulder camera in melee well, and it was more at ass level, was God Hand, and only used it because it intentionally wanted to make it impossible to see behind yourself, as it forces the player to pay more attention to their surroundings and predict the AI moving around them.

the two of you do realise that the Witcher lets you switch to an isometric view, right? It's like the first thing that it asks you to set when you start a new game.

There are always going to be games that have a great reception but don't exactly adhere to your personal tastes and vice versa. I have quite a few of these. To list just a few, not counting genres that I don't like because that's just not fair:

I thought Halo was boring and repetitive. Then again, I never played the multiplayer because I only ever got my hands on the PC version and by the time I did, the servers were empty.

Killzone series to me is just one massive slog. The fact that the main draw of the series are the graphics just kind of shows. A lot. Boring and frustrating. A lovely combination. I remember that after I finished Killzone 2 (I started and I was determined to see it through), I took it to the nearest game retailer and sold it for the first price they offered me. Used the money to buy a pack of condoms. Those were the times. I used to have a sex life then.

Borderlands was just a large dull checklist to me. I couldn't stand to play more than a couple missions. Weirdly enough, I did like Borderlands 2 a lot.

I hated the tits out of Oblivion and Fallout 3. I honestly don't know why at this point. It was something about the two games that I just found incredibly infuriating. I played for a bit and then just didn't want to anymore. I liked Skyrim though, so that's odd.

And my personal favourite - GTA. All of them. I honestly just don't see the appeal of the franchise. The missions are too long and badly designed with unreasonable checkpoints, the shooting mechanics are clunky and unsatisfying, the controls are just dreadful. I liked the story of GTA 4 but by the time I reached the third island, I gave up on the game because I couldn't stand the 20-minute commute before every mission and then again as a part of said mission but this time with an unreasonable time limit and a bad shooting bit at the end. All of which felt like I was drunk on lead-based paint.

 

[Starbird]

Oh, hey, and Baldur's Gate.

I'm not sure if I don't like AD&D rules or I just particularly don't like the way they were implemented into most of the Infinity Engine games (I've played a bit of Neverwinter Nights 2 and found myself enjoying that ruleset and implementation far more), or if I just don't like starting at level 1 in AD&D (because I've played a bit of Planescape: Torment, and that didn't put me off nearly as much), but I've tried three or four separate times to start Baldur's Gate or II now and every single time I play for about an hour before getting too fed up with how terribly I always do regardless of how I've built my character. I don't like the flow of combat because it feels both too stiff and too quick, and none of the in-game options ever really let me customize it to the degree where I would enjoy it.

Baulder's gate is not that good. People use it as the pinnacle of RPG and even when it first came out there was little choice, little agency and BG 1 wasn't that long. There were way better ones (an obvious example being Daggerfall and not long after Morrowind.)

Now I am also biased based on the stupidity of magic in D&D. You spend your time 'overnight' remembering spells, but those spells are used once before you somehow forget it. That doesn't make sense. It would make more sense if you could only remember a few spells that can only change by resting and remembering those spells.

Although not giving you a great deal of agency still, DA:O was a worthy successor to BA. A huge improvement

DnD games tend to be like them or hate them. I've always enjoyed the magic system a lot.

Baldur's Gate 1 was pretty good, but it only really works when you play it back to back with BG2.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Well, people really seem to like Vanquish for some reason I can never figure out. The same goes for Max Payne 3. Both are just really mediocre cover shooters. Vanquish was frequently annoying and quite poorly designed, and Max Payne 3 was vastly inferior in almost every way to its two predecessors. :\

 

[JayRPG]

Skyrim.

I hated it, I hated every second.

The combat was shit, the story was almost non-existent, the character models were ugly, the world was mostly ugly, the armor all looked like shit, all the dungeons were exactly the same, what is the point of exploring every inch of the map when most of it is empty, and I could go on and on.

I tried to like this game, I really did, I bought it for PS3 and forced myself through about 15 hours of it, I waited while people kept telling me how great it was, so I got it on PC on sale, forced myself through another 20 hours, and that is time I will never get back.

It was horrible, I can't remember having even an hours worth of fun out of those 35 hours.