TLOU2. I thought the first was a good game, but it was not one of my favorites. I picked up the sequel having next to no hype, and it turned out to be the finest thing I've ever played, and I'm 37.
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When was a time that a game FAR surpassed your expectations?
- Thread starter ScOULaris
- Start date
Bloodbourne, I was a dark souls hater because it was in the prime of the memes and everything being a "souls like" so I acively avoided the franchise. I tried bloodbourne after buying a ps4 because it was on sale and I hated it cause it felt pointless and I was just dying. But I did the best thing ever, just said "let me try to beat this first boss" and I got good...then it became the best gaming experience I ever had in my life, theres really nothing like finally beating your first soulsborne boss.
Outer Wilds. I went in completely blind after hearing some vague positive buzz and it became one of my top 10 favorite games of all time. One of the most unique games I've ever played and solving space mysteries was just so much fun. Also, the way they stick the ending... *chef's kiss
Games I heard great things about but wasn't expecting to love:
Yakuza 0
What Remains of Edith Finch
Games I heard mixed things about and ended up loving:
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Prince of Persia '08
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PC)
Yakuza 0
What Remains of Edith Finch
Games I heard mixed things about and ended up loving:
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Prince of Persia '08
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PC)
Hollow Knight and the Witcher 3 (I wasn't paying too much attention to it when it first came out)
Both pretty recent. I know they aren't obscure or niche but I was not expecting to love them as much as I did.
I saw the really positive reviews for Disco Elysium and I expected it to be alright but it hit a whole other level for me and I utterly loved it. Best written game I have ever played.
Sekiro would be another one, I could never get into souls and had bounced off everything 1 to 3 and Bloodborne but I think stripping back the RPG elements made that game for me.
I saw the really positive reviews for Disco Elysium and I expected it to be alright but it hit a whole other level for me and I utterly loved it. Best written game I have ever played.
Sekiro would be another one, I could never get into souls and had bounced off everything 1 to 3 and Bloodborne but I think stripping back the RPG elements made that game for me.
Arkham Asylum is another one for me. I can't imagine many people were expecting the level of quality it delivered
Arkham Asylum is probably the best superhero game that I've played (have not yet played Superman though). I was NOT expecting it to as great as it was.
FF7 remake exceeded my expectations in the area of combat gameplay specifically. It was a day and night experience from FF12, which I had beat recently prior (not that FF12 gambit system was bad, but the game eventually played itself one you perfected that system).
FF7 remake I can always hop into and the gameplay is deeply satisfying no matter whether you are playing it turn based style or action rpg. See Sunhi's and other gifs from that game. Also there are YouTube videos up with some nice builds that people have constructed.
There are ton of amazing games that I didn't list, but I expected them to be amazing...
FF7 remake exceeded my expectations in the area of combat gameplay specifically. It was a day and night experience from FF12, which I had beat recently prior (not that FF12 gambit system was bad, but the game eventually played itself one you perfected that system).
FF7 remake I can always hop into and the gameplay is deeply satisfying no matter whether you are playing it turn based style or action rpg. See Sunhi's and other gifs from that game. Also there are YouTube videos up with some nice builds that people have constructed.
There are ton of amazing games that I didn't list, but I expected them to be amazing...
Ghost of Tsushima
I thought it would be a samurai with some nice graphics, and mediocre combat. It turned out to be my GOTY so far.
I thought it would be a samurai with some nice graphics, and mediocre combat. It turned out to be my GOTY so far.
Sea of Thieves. I dont like pvp and this game looked simple and repetitive. I finally gave it a try since it was on GamePass (even though I've been a GP customer since day 1) and I can't stop playing it. When I'm not playing Sea of Thieves, im thinking about the next time I will be playing Sea of Thieves. Not because its new to me, im way past the honeymoon period at this point ;)
Hades
I knew to expect great things from Supergiant, and was fully on board with buying their next game sight unseen. Given their track record, I knew that even if their next game was a miss for me personally, it would have some real craft and boldness to go with it. But I never expected this. It took Capcom 2 decades to reach the perfection that is DMC V's combat system, and Supergiant has been at it for what, less than 1? With their last real time isometric real time action game being praised more for its narrative flourishes than its mechanics, I never expected for them to make an action game that would be noteworthy in a post-DMCV world. And that's just the gameplay I'm talking about, the themes, sounds, visuals, acting.... it's all there.
Into The Breach
I'll be honest, I never liked FTL that much. It was a fun game that trended towards collapsing under it's own flawed systems. Maybe we have come to expect that from strategy games, Fire Emblem does it, X-COM does it. Into The Breach doesn't. It never does. It's swiss watchmaking in game form. It's a series of randomly-generated maps with such genius baked in that you can choose more than a half-dozen drastically different loadouts, and the game will make it fair for you. Just an absolutely pristine bite-sized diamond. The Spelunky of strategy games.
SaGa: Scarlet Grace
You ever play a JRPG and wish you could skip the rote patterns? The slow pan over a new town? The lengthy deliberations between characters just to pad out the script? Scarlet Grace does away with all the junk that the Tales of of this world hold onto for no reason than it being "what a JRPG is supposed to be like", and just puts all of its meagre budget into a combat system that will blow your femur clean out your ass. less than a dozen hours in, I chained all of my party members into a combo that culminated in me whacking an immortal divinity with dominion over the earth, with a frying pan, killing it instantly. Man was not meant to experience the most transcendental parts of JRPGs, pure and uncut but... here it is. We should be weeping. We don't deserve this.
If you like one of the above three games and any of the other two seem in the least interesting to you, I urge you to give them more than a glance. Games like these remind me why I play games at all.
I knew to expect great things from Supergiant, and was fully on board with buying their next game sight unseen. Given their track record, I knew that even if their next game was a miss for me personally, it would have some real craft and boldness to go with it. But I never expected this. It took Capcom 2 decades to reach the perfection that is DMC V's combat system, and Supergiant has been at it for what, less than 1? With their last real time isometric real time action game being praised more for its narrative flourishes than its mechanics, I never expected for them to make an action game that would be noteworthy in a post-DMCV world. And that's just the gameplay I'm talking about, the themes, sounds, visuals, acting.... it's all there.
Into The Breach
I'll be honest, I never liked FTL that much. It was a fun game that trended towards collapsing under it's own flawed systems. Maybe we have come to expect that from strategy games, Fire Emblem does it, X-COM does it. Into The Breach doesn't. It never does. It's swiss watchmaking in game form. It's a series of randomly-generated maps with such genius baked in that you can choose more than a half-dozen drastically different loadouts, and the game will make it fair for you. Just an absolutely pristine bite-sized diamond. The Spelunky of strategy games.
SaGa: Scarlet Grace
You ever play a JRPG and wish you could skip the rote patterns? The slow pan over a new town? The lengthy deliberations between characters just to pad out the script? Scarlet Grace does away with all the junk that the Tales of of this world hold onto for no reason than it being "what a JRPG is supposed to be like", and just puts all of its meagre budget into a combat system that will blow your femur clean out your ass. less than a dozen hours in, I chained all of my party members into a combo that culminated in me whacking an immortal divinity with dominion over the earth, with a frying pan, killing it instantly. Man was not meant to experience the most transcendental parts of JRPGs, pure and uncut but... here it is. We should be weeping. We don't deserve this.
If you like one of the above three games and any of the other two seem in the least interesting to you, I urge you to give them more than a glance. Games like these remind me why I play games at all.
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13 Sentinels and God of War 2018 are both games that I couldn't or can't stop thinking about in between play sessions. And they also both were studios going in directions I initially didn't like but they really pulled it off in the end.
Did it really far exceed your expectations when it sounds like you had no expectation?
I'm always so happy to see Outer Wilds love. One of my favorite games of the generation.
Just recently, I played Transistor for the first time and I just did not like it. Cant put my finger on why but it definately wasnt my cup of tea. But after reading tons of people rave about Hades in the Nintendo direct thread I just thought to myself, it's 20% off for another hour, I'll bite..
and damn. It's probably the best game of the year. Awesome and extremely addicting.
and damn. It's probably the best game of the year. Awesome and extremely addicting.
"Maybe DOOM just isn't the right franchise for 2016. It looks like they've tried to slow down the pace of combat based on these trailers and I really don't know if id Software still has it after RAGE."
*two hours in*
*two hours in*
My first experience with modern gaming was Dark Souls at the end of 2013. I'm not even sure why I picked it, I had basically completely ignored most gaming coverage for several years prior. Maybe some half-remembered word of mouth about Demon's Souls back when that game released. I'm sure I expected the game to be good, but what I got was transcendent, the most overwhelming gaming experience of my life at age 32, everything I wanted from the medium and didn't know it. I've played other games that were better than I expected, even a lot better (Lightning Returns is one), but Dark Souls gave me an entirely different kind of experience than I was expecting, so that's my answer.
Absolutely this.
Also, I played No Streight Roads recently after hearing that it is mediocre at best. I still played it for the art style and I absolutely loved everything about it. It reminds me heavily of those PS2 gems that we are intrigued by even after many many years. I had an absolute blast and I loved that it had no fluff.
Fallout 3. I was excited for the game when but honestly I was not a fan of single player FPS games back then. I played it for an hour or so I started to think this game isn't for me. I stuck with it and after I left the vault and started to walk around I knew this was going to be a great game.
GOW and Horizon zero down. Yeah both these games looked great but I had no real desire to play them. Obviously they turned out to be some of the best games this gen.
Black ops-Loved MW and the chaos so I thought after a few games of Black ops the game was too scaled back for me. Turned out that was not the case and Black Ops is still my favorite COD game.
GOW and Horizon zero down. Yeah both these games looked great but I had no real desire to play them. Obviously they turned out to be some of the best games this gen.
Black ops-Loved MW and the chaos so I thought after a few games of Black ops the game was too scaled back for me. Turned out that was not the case and Black Ops is still my favorite COD game.
No one has said Driver: San Francisco yet? I was never really a fan of the Driver games, but I was blown away by the amazing writing, open world game play, and abilities that made it a lot of fun to play.
I was sad they didn't remaster it for the XBone/PS4 generation, here's hoping that it gets a proper sequel or update for the new generation.
I was sad they didn't remaster it for the XBone/PS4 generation, here's hoping that it gets a proper sequel or update for the new generation.
Saints Row. Years earlier I bounced off GTA 3 hard and the whole gangsta culture stuff really isn't my thing but the game was really good.
The Binding of Isaac. Sure, I'll pay 7€ for this simple flash game (yup, that was the launch price for the original version), seems cool enough. Now it's one of the most important games of the decade.
The Binding of Isaac. Sure, I'll pay 7€ for this simple flash game (yup, that was the launch price for the original version), seems cool enough. Now it's one of the most important games of the decade.
Original Doom. Absolutely blown away on every level. Hasn't been anything that exceeded my expectations to that level since.
OP
OP
Same thing happened to me with Transistor. I bounced off of it pretty quickly when I picked it up at launch on PS4 years ago, but then I got the Switch version on sale and LOVED IT. I went on to then buy every single other Supergiant game, and now I'm a mega fan who'll buy anything they make sight unseen.
this is why future games shouldn't do the whole "same title as the first" thing because for about a minute I was like, how was god of war copying a game that came out 8 years after it
Genshin Impact. Saw zero previews of the game before playing.
Nearly a BOTW clone, not even a hypberbole. Some things BOTW does better imo (boss battles and puzzles,) but some things Genshin does better - character development and world building.
Nearly a BOTW clone, not even a hypberbole. Some things BOTW does better imo (boss battles and puzzles,) but some things Genshin does better - character development and world building.
World of Warcraft
I in fact started it once when it was just near or after TBC release, got some Warrior till level 20 and quit as I did not get it. Played LOTRO, Guild Wars and few others.
Came back to it few months after TBC had been released, rolled a Rogue this time around. And well, played it non-stop for many years until MoP release. Now with RL and everything, stopped playing will resub for Shadowlands to see how the new expansion is.
I in fact started it once when it was just near or after TBC release, got some Warrior till level 20 and quit as I did not get it. Played LOTRO, Guild Wars and few others.
Came back to it few months after TBC had been released, rolled a Rogue this time around. And well, played it non-stop for many years until MoP release. Now with RL and everything, stopped playing will resub for Shadowlands to see how the new expansion is.
It has to be undertale for me, when that game was receiving its first impressions and review I passed over it cause I heard it had "mess with the player" meta moments. Also I definitely judged the book by its cover and decided it was only worth a watch from YouTube.
I'd say to this day I regret robbing myself of playing that game for the first time blind.
I'd say to this day I regret robbing myself of playing that game for the first time blind.
