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

[Rebel_Raven]

I'm gunna toss in Senran Kagura. Looks like a typical, shallow, fanservice laden side scrolling brawler, but there's a level of writing to it that makes it deeper than that. There's also a good bit to unlock.

Don't get me wrong, it definitely is a fan service laden side scrolling brawler, but I think it's better than typical, or shallow. Definitely hoping to get the next Senran Kagura for 3ds.

 

[sXeth]

The 1st Amazing Spider Man movie-game. Its not that it isn't necessarily generic as the superhero beatemup things go, but it was a hell of a lot better done then expected. Although the villains were kind of half-assed (most of them are unnamed homages, probably cause the good ones were in reserve for movie sequels).

Speaking of which, I dismissed Arkham Asylum for the longest time as a Batman themed Assassins Creed clone before finally picking up a cheap copy of the GotY edition.

 

[wcaypahwat]

Anarchy Reigns. Saw it sitting on the shelf a million times and completely disregarded its horrible standard boring fighting game cover... looked a tiny bit closer one day and noticed a little P* logo, and one of the characters looked a little like the guy from Madworld......WAITAMINUTE!

 

[Azure23]

I'm gonna say Tomb Raider (2013) the reboot just looks like a generic shooter/Uncharted mash up. Give the game an 1 hour and you'll discover that it's actually much more than that. This Lara (despite what "real fans" say) is the best interpretation of a female badass in 2013... the healing factor + adamantium bones were a bit much but everything else was just great

Seconded, this is an excellent game with great exploration as well as very, very satisfying weapons and a nice progression system that really showed Lara's change into a badass through tactile game mechanics. By the time I was at the big battle i was dodging and counterattacking (loved the melee system, even if it was basically qte's they were well implemented) and blowing zombie samurai away with execution moves, it was beautiful. And I used all the weapons equally! That's crazy for me to do in a game, usually I get a shotgun and a pistol I like and I'm set (btw the shotgun and pistol felt great) but I was alternating regularly and having fun with all of them, Napalm arrows are awesome. I got this game on a lark for like 25$ used, but I would gladly have paid full price, I probably would've even bought the season pass because I loved the multiplayer too, which felt a bit sneakier and tactical than other third person shooter's I've played. I guess I'd compare it to the last of us' multiplayer, where stealth is the most viable option until you spring your ambush and shit pops off. Great game all around.

Unfortunately I can't think of another game that upset my expectations on the level of Spec Ops, sorry. I will say that I went into Black Flag with quite a bit of trepidation (I didn't finish AC3 because the dumb fucking story missions, and other reasons, too many in fact, to list here) but about an hour and a half into it I was loving it. Like I was really, really stoked on Black Flag. It was the pirate videogame experience I always wanted, and I reveled in the little things. For example; EVERY island I saw i'd pull up to, swim to, and then just kind of walk (not run, I'm a cool pirate after all) around exploring. It reminded me of Red Dead, it WAS Red Dead, but for pirates. That comparison is even apter when you consider that they both give you a fascinating and well realized world to interact with. I loved walking my horse down dusty trails under the moonlight, screw galloping, I was enjoying the experience of being a cowboy. Likewise I embraced being a pirate and even tried to roleplay a little bit by only attacking spanish ships (Ed's loyal to the crown after all).

 

[Azure23]

Gonna have to go with Sniper Elite V2. It's a military shooter kind of based on stealth, but if you're like me you can run and gun it for the most part. There's an awesome X-Ray camera, and a whole bunch of sniper specific mechanics like wind, bullet drop, speed and momentum decrease so it won't fly through more than two enemies, and setting up your nest. It's short with a shit story, but it's fun enough to replay a few times, and you can bounce a bullet off the ground into an enemy.

The only unfortunate thing is when you have the Hitler DLC his model still has two testicles.

You might wanna explain why that's relevant or people are gonna get some weird ideas. I played the demo and got one of those oh-so-special shots, I immediately quit out, pulled up psn, and bought it.

Sorry for the two posts in a row, I always see someone I want to respond to and then when I'm done with that theres someone else saying something I gotta respond to!

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Binary Domain. I didn't mean to buy it at first, but then I realised it was made by the Yakuza Team, so I just wanted to support them. Turned out the shooting mechanic is very solid (compared to Yakuza: Dead souls anyway). The game was fun! Boss battles were amazing! The story was pretty good too. (They always write good plot, so this is not a surprise.)

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

The storyline, while nothing brilliant or ground breaking, 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.

pretty much this, I loved the cover of the game and it ws what originally got me to buy it along with the back cover and seeing a trailer for it.

At first I thought the overall control scheme was pretty Gears generic but as time went on I found myself enjoying the gameplay and some of the story along the way.

Playing the co-op section of the game can be good with a friend or two, especially since the AI loves skulking about the corridors quite silently until they find you or vise versa.

I did also love Kingdoms of Amulur too, the story was drab in some areas (like the Fae being copy+paste for each section of the story) but I really loved the art style and gameplay overall, especially the Dead Kel dlc, that was some good fun.

 

[FPLOON]

Hyperdimension Neptunia... What starts off as another "Fanservice: The JRPG Nosebleeder" turns into an interesting satire at video games, consoles, and the cliches that follow alongside each of them... (Including a story cool enough to warrent it's own anime series of the same name, despite it taking place after the events of the first game...)

Honorable mention goes towards Virtua Quest... which, to its credit, looks repetitive enough to wonder why such a spin-off would even exist in the first place...