What game looks completely generic at first, but is actually well worth playing?

[LookingGlass]

I'm looking for the kinds of games you might dismiss as uninteresting by just giving them a quick look, or might get lost in a sea of similar-looking games.

I'm thinking of games like Spec Ops: The Line, which looked for all money like a typical modern military cover-based shooter, but then turned out to have some of the best and most surprising storytelling in any game in recent years.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Risen 1. Admittedly, yes, it does look like a generic, mindless fantasy action RPG. However, when you get into it proper, you start seeing all the things that make it much deeper than what trailers or gameplay footage might show you (and Xbox 360 reviews... but let's not start that discussion). The combat system, for one, is very fluid yet challenging. Tough to master, but very rewarding when you do. The NPCs are, for the most part, interesting and competently acted (there's even a few big names, including John Rhys Davies and Andy Serkis). The environment and world building is great, and the mixed medieval/tropical setting is certainly a breath of fresh air. The graphics may not be immensely technical, but unless you have a Crysis hard-on, they're gorgeous to look at and give the game world a serious charm. The storyline, while nothing brilliant or groundbreaking, is competent enough to hold everything together. The difficulty level is just right as well, you'll always be challenged even up to the end of the game, but it's also not to a point that discourages you from continuing. The challenge comes not from artificial difficulty, but a mix of your player skill and the character stats, which is the right way to do difficulty in my opinion.

It pains me that this game got such a bad rep due to a poor console port, when it's really a fucking great game and stands up to even Gothic II, in my opinion.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Hotline Miami had a bit of this going for it.

It really just looked like it was going to be an arcadey fight to the end, in order to 'win' and avoid 'GAME OVER'.

But it does have undercurrents of a very strange story developing alongside all the missions as well though.

I thought the ending didn't really do it justice and left me a bit confused as to the details that would've held together the story we had been told so far, but it was an enjoyable ride during the experience. It just fizzled out at the end without a bang.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes to mind. The story was pretty interesting in that it would have never held up as a book or a movie, but was exceedingly well-crafted for a video game. It's a shame that the IP never had a chance to develop and nobody will go near it (there have been several auctions with no takers).

One complaint that people had about the game was that it was too easy after you reach the midpoint, and that complaint definitely has merit. Even if you ran around with no armor, you'll still never come close to dying after you flirt with level 25. The level cap was 40. Shortly before 38 Studios folded, they confirmed that they were working on an update that would have added a much harder difficulty setting.

The game also suffered from a horrible region-locking mechanism, wherein each region permanently locked itself to the level of your character when you first entered the region (same for instanced caves/dungeons). If you go on a massive exploration kick, you could, right out of the starting gate, visit every region in the first half of the game, and then the entire first continent would be fixed at a very low level for your entire playthrough. Imagine having half of the world stuck at level 5 when the level cap was 40. Entire walkthroughs are dedicated to the exact order in which you should play so you don't accidentally lock something you want to experience as a challenge.

Alright, so there's no defending some of the horrible game mechanics that I just mentioned above, but the game itself was a BLAST! I'm not the slightest bit keen on pure fantasy as a genre, and yet, though Amalur's story is squarely within the realm of fantasy, I loved it to pieces. Battles were insanely fun, definitely one of the best RPG battle systems of the last generation. Hitting an enemy was as satisfying as completing a combo in Mortal Kombat. Every hit had real weight.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt - the words "this game sucks because it's too easy" have never crossed my lips.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes to mind. The story was pretty interesting in that it would have never held up as a book or a movie, but was exceedingly well-crafted for a video game. It's a shame that the IP never had a chance to develop and nobody will go near it (several auctions with no takers).

One complaint about the game was that it was too easy after you reach the midpoint, and that complaint definitely has merit. Even if you ran around with no armor, you'll still never come close to dying after you flirt with level 25. The level cap was 40. Shortly before 38 Studios folded, they confirmed that they were working on an update that would have added a much harder difficulty setting.

The game also suffered from a horrible region-locking mechanism, wherein a region (or cave, or dungeon, or anywhere else you can visit) would permanently lock itself to the level you were when you first entered. If you go on a massive exploration kick, you could, right out of the starting gate, visit every region in the first half of the game, and then that entire continent would be fixed at a very low level for your entire playthrough. Imagine having half of the world stuck at level 5 when the level cap was 40. Entire walkthroughs are dedicated to the exact order in which you should play so you don't accidentally lock something you want to experience as a challenge.

Alright, so there's no defending some of the horrible game mechanics that I just mentioned above, but the game itself was a BLAST! I'm not keen on pure fantasy as a genre, and yet, though Amalur's story is squarely within the realm of fantasy, I loved it to pieces. Battles were insanely fun, definitely one of the best RPG battle systems of the last generation.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt - the words "this game sucks because it's too easy" have never crossed my lips.

I could never get into that game. I tried twice, but it just didn't work.

It was so painfully obvious that it was meant to be an MMO, but it ended up being forced to be a singleplayer game, so you were by yourself.

I really didn't like the overly bright/cartoony art style and the questing was pulled out of MMOs standard missions.

 

[raeior]

The storyline, while nothing brilliant or groundbreaking, is competent enough to hold everything together.

Until you get to the final act where they suddenly repeat everything and end it with the worst boss fight ever. Still loved the first 2/3 of the game though.

My game would be Binary Domain. Looked like a generic shooter with mechs instead of terrorists but in the end I really liked it because the story was interesting, it had interactions with your team members that had an influence on the story and the gameplay was fun. Shooting robots into tiny bits never loses its fun.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

I could never get into that game. I tried twice, but it just didn't work.

It was so painfully obvious that it was meant to be an MMO, but it ended up being forced to be a singleplayer game, so you were by yourself.

I really didn't like the overly bright/cartoony art style and the questing was pulled out of MMOs standard missions.

I never said it didn't have its faults, only that I thought it was fun. One of my fav games. 38 Studios was branching the IP into an MMO that was already well into development when the studio folded.

(Not being defensive here, just speaking facts).

As for MMO-style quests, I played several MMOs for a long time and always liked them. The only reason I eventually quit was because my computer broke and I couldn't (still can't) afford to replace it. When I do, I probably won't go back to the MMO world. Games like Amalur were a perfect substitute and I honestly wish there were more like it.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Binary Domain. Looks like your basic cover based third person shooter but when you actually give it a chance you might notice firstly, that it?s a very fun game and secondly that the combat in it is unbelievably satisfying; And add to that with a really interesting world and story and some nice Mass Effect Light squad interactions. Just try the demo see what you think.


Oh! I doubt I have to mention it because, well, everyone else does but

Saints Row 2.

 

[Casual Shinji]

inFAMOUS 1

Visually it's just a grey blur of ruined buildings, but the gameplay is so much fun. Climbing buildings, running around rooftops, skating across powerlines and traintracks. It's one of the few games of the last generation that feels very old school; Here's your character, these are his powers, this is the world, and these are the enemies. Go play!

 

[LetalisK]

Risen 1. Admittedly, yes, it does look like a generic, mindless fantasy action RPG. However, when you get into it proper, you start seeing all the things that make it much deeper than what trailers or gameplay footage might show you (and Xbox 360 reviews... but let's not start that discussion). The combat system, for one, is very fluid yet challenging. Tough to master, but very rewarding when you do. The NPCs are, for the most part, interesting and competently acted (there's even a few big names, including John Rhys Davies and Andy Serkis). The environment and world building is great, and the mixed medieval/tropical setting is certainly a breath of fresh air. The graphics may not be immensely technical, but unless you have a Crysis hard-on, they're gorgeous to look at and give the game world a serious charm. The storyline, while nothing brilliant or groundbreaking, is competent enough to hold everything together. The difficulty level is just right as well, you'll always be challenged even up to the end of the game, but it's also not to a point that discourages you from continuing. The challenge comes not from artificial difficulty, but a mix of your player skill and the character stats, which is the right way to do difficulty in my opinion.

It pains me that this game got such a bad rep due to a poor console port, when it's really a fucking great game and stands up to even Gothic II, in my opinion.

...is it better than Gothic 1, though? Actually, how do the rest of the Gothic/Risen games compare to Gothic 1? I tried playing the first one and I quit a few hours in due to frustration with the controls.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Mount and Blade. Looks liked a boring Age of Chivalry at first glance (and I thought AoC was already pretty boring) but quickly picks up. It's actually a combo of Pikmin and Daggerfall, in a way.

 

[Fox12]

Dark Souls. Oh, a western inspired fantasy story? I'll put it next to oblivion, skyrim, kingdoms of amular, dragon age 1 & 2, dragons dogma, and whatever other dozen fantasy "epics" were coming out that week. I watched brief lets plays, and it looked awful. The graphics and art design looked terrible and completely cookie cutter. Then Yahtzee described it as a medieval metroidvania game, and something clicked. Turns out the gameplay diverse and fun, the atmosphere is wonderfully melancholic, and there's a rich mythology behind the story that doesn't ape either Tolkien or Martin. When I found out that it was inspired by Berserk, but that it doesn't rip it off, I was sold. I'm playing it now, actually, and it's one of the best games of the generation.

 

[duwenbasden]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes to mind.

Second this. While the game looks like an MMORPG, it has the best fast-paced combat in games I've played.

 

[stroopwafel]

I second Spec Ops: The Line. Game fits the generic third person military shooter at first glance but is actually full of subtleties and thematically interesting. Kind of pretentious in places, but I admire they tried to do something different with this stale formula.

I second Amalur as well. It's cliche fantasy from story(the amount of exposition that is dumped on you is staggering) to setting to visuals but I just found it really fun to play. It had this untangible element that kept me coming back to it. Probably the combination of excellent battle system, some cool boss fights and simple yet fun customization.

 

[william12123]

I'm trying to think... Well, in my own experience:

1) Red Alert 2: Looks like a pretty generic military FPS, with B-movie quality cutscenes and ridiculous plot. BUT, it's nonetheless an extremly fun game, and the actors in the cutscenes never took themselves too seriously, so it's always very entertaining. They tried to reproduce this in RA3, but failed. They simply invested too much money into getting "good" actors & decent production values, and all the actors seemed to take the ridiculousness too seriously.

2) Pirates of the Carribean (2003 PC/XBOX game): Despite seeming like... a movie tie-in, this game saves itself by being only tangentially related to the movie, and being one of the better pirate games out there (in my opinion).

Nothing else much for the moment. I'll have to check out my games library for more.

 

[WarpedLord]

Lost Odyssey.

Looked like your run-of-the-mill FF clone, but in reality was much, MUCH more. Granted, the game is not a standout in terms of mechanics (although I enjoyed the combat system well enough), the story and the way it is told in both the game itself and the prose "memories" is fantastic.

Easily one of the best RPGs of last console generation.

 

[SweetShark]

O would like to say a specific game:

God Hand: Yep, at first just because I heared about this game and I never really saw a advertisment for it, I bought it just for the heck of it.
When I started playing it, I get seriously sick of how generic looked. I really was ready to stop playing from the first Level. But this thoughts vanished when I first met a demon:

Spoiler

This monstrosity kick my ass!!!! I get surprised and I started playing more serious. Then....magic....MAGIC EVERYWHEWRE!!!!
BEST FIGHTING GAME OF MY LIFE PEOPLE!!! PLAY THE GAME!!!!

 

[shrekfan246]

I could never get into that game. I tried twice, but it just didn't work.

It was so painfully obvious that it was meant to be an MMO, but it ended up being forced to be a singleplayer game, so you were by yourself.

I really didn't like the overly bright/cartoony art style and the questing was pulled out of MMOs standard missions.

Funny enough, the fact that it's basically a single-player MMO is exactly why it can keep me interested. I still want a single-player, party-driven RPG built in the same open, dungeon-filled end-game focused manner as World of Warcraft, but until then Kingdoms of Amalur is the best I've got.

OT: Divinity II.

Apparently the original release of the game was pretty dire, and on the surface it looks like a pretty generic fantasy hack&slash RPG, but with the Developer's Cut release, it was actually pretty sweet. The mechanics of the game were still fairly ropey, but there's a spirit behind everything that just gives it an unmistakable charm. It made me a fan of Larian Studios, at the very least.