Games that are bad (or everyone else hates) that you like.

[Dany_the_penguin]

I've been playing through the deus ex games, finished the first a while back and now trying to get through invisible war and human revolution. Let me just say that as someone with no prior nostalgia to the franchise, I love invisible war even in spite of it's flaws and comparatively much better spiritual predecessor DX 1.

With that sake of example tossed up, what sort of game or games that have bad reputations (or are just flatout bad) do you like?

 

[Gordon_4]

DragonAge II.

I’m told every respectable dragon age fan has to hate this game because it’s got less scope than Origins, you can’t choose your race, and that it doesn’t use tactical view.

Despite that, DragonAge II is fun to actually play because it’s voice acting means the PC doesn’t seem like an idiot mute, and it’s combat leans more into hack and slash and not the MMO but slow style of combat, I liked all of the companions bar Anders better than anyone in Origins who wasn’t Liliana.

 

[laggyteabag]

Assassin's Creed 3 and Unity get a lot of shit, but i've always enjoyed them.

Sure, Connor isn't as charismatic as Ezio (who, for a lot of people, just came from the Ezio trilogy), and Unity was a broken mess at launch, but both games are still a lot of fun.

The Frontier is really interesting, and Paris is just gorgeous - especially with the crowd tech that they developed.

I'd still rather play both of these, twice over, than any of the NuAssassin's Creed games.

Christ, they are boring.

DragonAge II.

I’m told every respectable dragon age fan has to hate this game because it’s got less scope than Origins, you can’t choose your race, and that it doesn’t use tactical view.

Despite that, DragonAge II is fun to actually play because it’s voice acting means the PC doesn’t seem like an idiot mute, and it’s combat leans more into hack and slash and not the MMO but slow style of combat, I liked all of the companions bar Anders better than anyone in Origins who wasn’t Liliana.

Ditto. I think Dragon Age 2 is a great game.

Honestly, I think it might be the one that I look back on most fondly, when I think about the whole franchise.

I never quite understood the whole "lower stakes/scale = worse" argument. Not everything needs to be some epic, globetrotting adventure.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude... Kidding... sorta...... not really.

I took a weird liking to this dumb, icky game back when I first played it on the original Xbox.

 

[Hawki]

Too many to count, but screw it, I'm going to try anyway (and keep it to one entry per IP)

-Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (this has a mixed reputation, but it's my #2 AW game)

-Aliens: Colonial Marines (yes, I genuinely like this game. Even if it had a false advertising campaign, that doesn't mean the game itself is bad. Fuck, I like it more than Isolation, which had even more bugs)

-Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (I get why the CoD fanbase dislikes it, but as someone indifferent to CoD, I really enjoyed it)

-Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (why do people dislike this game? It's my favourite RA game)

-Diablo III (I don't know if everyone dislikes it now, since the game was turned around pretty well, but it's actually my favourite Diablo game)

-Doom 3 (TBH, it's my favourite Doom game)

-Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (it's the weakest of the trilogy, but I still think it's a good game, just not as good as its predecessors)

-Halo 5: Guardians (yes, I like this game. Not perfect, but it's better than Halo 4, which people seem to like now for some reason)

-The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (this isn't my favourite LoZ game, or even my favourite 2D LoZ game, but out of all the ones I've played, it's the most underrated IMO)

-Metroid: Other M (there's plenty of valid criticisms of this game, but I'm much more generous to it than a lot of others - I rank it higher than Hunters or Metroid II at least)

-Resident Evil 5 (I don't think everyone "hates" this game, but most people regard 5 as the start of a shift towards action, even if that shift technically began as early as 3. Semantics aside, I like 5 more than most people, and it ranks fairly highly on my RE list)

-Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (treating this as a complete package ala STH3&K, then yes, I really like this game. Ep. 2 does a lot of the heavy lifting, but I had fun with this.)

-Star Fox Adventures (this game gets way too much hate. Yes, it's an atypical Star Fox game, but it's better than quite a few in the series...yes, I'm looking at you, Command!)

 

[laggyteabag]

-Halo 5: Guardians (yes, I like this game. Not perfect, but it's better than Halo 4, which people seem to like now for some reason)

I don't particularly like the levels or the gameplay in Halo 4, but I like the story.

I don't particularly like the story in Halo 5, but I don't mind the levels or the gameplay.

Halo 5's multiplayer is pretty good though - at least for Arena. I don't care much for Halo 5's Warzone mode, because BTB-style modes have been gimped, ever since Halo Reach gave them healthbars.

Halo 4's gunplay is better than any of the previous games, IMO, but it deviates too much from what I enjoy about Halo MP, with loadouts, perks, and killstreaks. Wacky modes like Dominion and Ricochet were great though.

I don't really look back on either game, particularly fondly.

 

[happyninja42]

Dante's Inferno. Insane publicity shit aside, I love this game. Yeah it's a god of war clone but...so? God of war was a good game style, so cloning it means I'm already familiar with the combat and don't have to learn from scratch. The theme of it is something I enjoy a lot, and the mechanics of the redemption/punish were pretty cool.

I went redemption combat powers, meaning I'm using the crucifix almost all the time, and it's really satisfying to see that brilliant white light flash out in the dark bowels of hell, as you purge the enemies in front of you. Also, the redemption QTE attacks when you weaken an enemy, have you actually press the buttons in the manner you do if you were crossing yourself (Up, Down, Left, Right) Like you are literally giving the enemy a benediction to "kill" them, but you just end up redeeming them.

And you would frequently come across souls from history, that were often framed as being given a shit deal, and ending up in hell. And personally I enjoyed the idea of screwing up god's plans of ETERNAL TORMENT for a person who did something fairly minor. But you know, examples of the Deadly Sins or whatever, so apparently that's worthy of unending torment. Nah, fuck that shit, here, you get a free pass.

But yeah, playing the game like I'm doing a prison break on the souls of hell, to free them from the ridiculous spirit war of god/devil, yeah I eat that shit up.

 

[Elijin]

I actually liked the moment to moment gameplay of Anthem. Flying around in ironman suits raining hell onto shit was cool. The story was forgettable and somehow the loot managed to miss the mark, despite having a rich market of ideas to pull from.

....why is it that looter games manage to keep making the same mistakes as each other on the boring loot front?

 

[happyninja42]

I actually liked the moment to moment gameplay of Anthem. Flying around in ironman suits raining hell onto shit was cool. The story was forgettable and somehow the loot managed to miss the mark, despite having a rich market of ideas to pull from.

....why is it that looter games manage to keep making the same mistakes as each other on the boring loot front?

Interestingly, a friend of mine told me last night in chat, that he picked up Anthem for 10 bucks, and was enjoying it so far. He said it did a better job of "being Ironman" than the Avengers game, which he got bored with and didn't enjoy the combat as much. Not sure how long he'll be playing Anthem though.

As to your question about the loot, it's because they are so caught up in the microtransactions, drip feed, trickle down idea of how to give stuff to players, that they forget to make it engaging and enjoyable enough to warrant playing the same thing over and over. They want the odds low as hell so you spend money, but forget that if it's too low, nobody will want to keep playing.

 

[meiam]

DragonAge II.

I’m told every respectable dragon age fan has to hate this game because it’s got less scope than Origins, you can’t choose your race, and that it doesn’t use tactical view.

Despite that, DragonAge II is fun to actually play because it’s voice acting means the PC doesn’t seem like an idiot mute, and it’s combat leans more into hack and slash and not the MMO but slow style of combat, I liked all of the companions bar Anders better than anyone in Origins who wasn’t Liliana.

Yeah same, at least I liked it much more than inquisition, still think origin is slightly better than 2 but 2 had plenty of nice improvements. Dialogue system was much better, writing/character were definitely better (although I really didn't like Liliana and am pretty pissed at how much the writer seem to love her) and I'm just tired of always saving the world, the more personal quest focused on one city over time was a nice change of pace.

 

[laggyteabag]

....why is it that looter games manage to keep making the same mistakes as each other on the boring loot front?

I see this a lot with in-game skill/talent trees, too.

Lots of games include these, but far too many just have the upgrades be boring, barely noticeable improvements.

"+5% critical chance" Oh wow. "+10% reload speed" amazing.

The best ones add additional functionality, or chances to synergise your abilities with each other, or with allies.

It breaks my heart that Heroes of the Storm was shafted by Blizzard, because it is a stellar game. I would consider its per-character talent trees to be the gold standard. Much more interesting than the generic item shop that other MOBAs have.

 

[meiam]

It breaks my heart that Heroes of the Storm was shafted by Blizzard, because it is a stellar game. I would consider its per-character talent trees to be the gold standard. Much more interesting than the generic item shop that other MOBAs have.

It's definitely not their priority but their still supporting it, they even release a new hero this week. But yeah it's hard going to any other moba after HoTS, the talent tree system is both more user friendly (don't have to memorize 100+ items) and has a higher skill ceiling (no cookie cutter "all mage need this" build), plus its easier to balance since you only have to tweak one hero talent rather than change items that can potentially break multiple characters.

 

[BrawlMan]

Dante's Inferno. Insane publicity shit aside, I love this game. Yeah it's a god of war clone but...so? God of war was a good game style, so cloning it means I'm already familiar with the combat and don't have to learn from scratch. The theme of it is something I enjoy a lot, and the mechanics of the redemption/punish were pretty cool.

I went redemption combat powers, meaning I'm using the crucifix almost all the time, and it's really satisfying to see that brilliant white light flash out in the dark bowels of hell, as you purge the enemies in front of you. Also, the redemption QTE attacks when you weaken an enemy, have you actually press the buttons in the manner you do if you were crossing yourself (Up, Down, Left, Right) Like you are literally giving the enemy a benediction to "kill" them, but you just end up redeeming them.

And you would frequently come across souls from history, that were often framed as being given a shit deal, and ending up in hell. And personally I enjoyed the idea of screwing up god's plans of ETERNAL TORMENT for a person who did something fairly minor. But you know, examples of the Deadly Sins or whatever, so apparently that's worthy of unending torment. Nah, fuck that shit, here, you get a free pass.

But yeah, playing the game like I'm doing a prison break on the souls of hell, to free them from the ridiculous spirit war of god/devil, yeah I eat that shit up.

I never really hated Dante's Inferno, but I always found it just meh or whatever. What didn't help is that Bayonetta was also out around the time. You also had Darksiders, but I'm not a big fan of that either. That's three heaven versus hell brawlers competing with each other. I did not expect that in 2010.

• Killer is Dead - Critics totally hate this one, but it's an above average hack and slash. The only reason they hated it so much was because of the gigolo missions and a score of brownie points with feminists/people that don't play games much. It was 2013.
• Onechanbara: Z2 Chaos. Another fun 3D brawler, but this time from 2014. It's a fun budget title and the best in the series. It's definitely better than the games on PS2 and Xbox 360. Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is decent, but something I wouldn't pay 30 bucks for. I got that game for like $5 at a GameStop. I still need to get Origins, but I'm waiting for a price drop on that.
• Gungrave - critics thought it was mediocre, but I honestly like the first game better than the second one. The second game suffers from too much padding and kind of goes overboard on a difficulty.
• Asura's Wrath - this was more understandable, what with taking out the final episode of making it separate DLC on top of $60. I bought the game when it was 20 and I got the DLC for a cheap price when it went on sale. Despite that, I love the spectacle in this game as some of the best qte's ever made. Hell, it is the best qte game ever made, because it's never frustrating or unfair. It's one of the best 3D brawlers with the best story, because it works. It's basically Taken but with a demi-god. Definitely better than all the films. I wish Capcom, just release this modern consoles and have all the DLCs on disc. Charge it at $19.99.

 

[happyninja42]

I never really hated Dante's inferno, but I always found it just meh or whatever. What didn't help is that Bayonetta was also out around the time. You also had Darksiders, but I'm not a big fan of that either. That's three heaven versus hell brawlers competing with each other. I did not expect that in 2010.

Yeah the other 2 I had no interest in playing from the trailers. Darksiders just screamed some weird, emo hybrid of warhammer 40k and...I don't know, something else. Didn't catch my interest. Bayonetta fell into that "ridiculous Japanese hyper-sexualized weirdness" type game, that has just never really been my jam. When you tell me she's some angel or whatever, and her outfit isn't actually clothes, but it's her HAIR, and she can fling it out to fight people, and the more powerful the attack, the more hair it uses, and thus makes her more nekked, I'm just like ".....ok....and? I mean....that's not my fetish so I guess, enjoy it if you do or whatever?" Dante's Inferno, while also pretty emo, felt at least more grounded in it's presentation.

 

[BrawlMan]

Yeah the other 2 I had no interest in playing from the trailers. Darksiders just screamed some weird, emo hybrid of warhammer 40k and...I don't know, something else. Didn't catch my interest. Bayonetta fell into that "ridiculous Japanese hyper-sexualized weirdness" type game, that has just never really been my jam. When you tell me she's some angel or whatever, and her outfit isn't actually clothes, but it's her HAIR, and she can fling it out to fight people, and the more powerful the attack, the more hair it uses, and thus makes her more nekked, I'm just like ".....ok....and? I mean....that's not my fetish so I guess, enjoy it if you do or whatever?" Dante's Inferno, while also pretty emo, felt at least more grounded in it's presentation.

Bayonetta is a witch that fights angels, and later demons, in the sequel. I highly recommend you play them. Especially since you can get Bayonetta for cheap now. Depending on the console you have that is. Play the first one, and then jump into the second game . If I remember correctly you have a switch, so you should be able to play both. I think the second game is better, because they get rid of the insta death QTEs. The reason why I picked Bayonetta up over Dante's inferno was because of weapon variety. With Dante's Inferno, you're pretty much just stuck with two weapons that can be upgraded. Not everything can be grounded, especially when you're dealing with a concept of powerful witch fighting angels. That's something you really can't keep grounded much. I'm not saying it could work, but for a game like that; it needs to be over the top. Plus, this is a game from Hideki Kamiya. The creator of Devil May Cry & Viewtiful Joe. Two games that are known for being over the top, flamboyant, and campy intentionally. Also, Bayonetta is not that sexualized and she actually owns her sexualization. At least the games are honest about it too.

What I've seen from the Darksider games, they're actually not that emo either. It may look like that with the first game, but there's actually a lot of subtle humor. Darksiders 2 is the most funny without going overboard. Michael Wincott (Top Dollar from the Crow) playing as the Death/grim reaper definitely helps. They are as close as you're going to get to a modern Soul Reaver or Legacy of Kain games.

 

[happyninja42]

Bayonetta is a witch that fights angels, and later demons, in the sequel. I highly recommend you play them. Especially since you can get Bayonetta for cheap now. Depending on the console you have that is. Play the first one, and then jump into the second game . If I remember correctly you have a switch, so you should be able to play both.

Yeah I've got a PS4 as well as Switch.

I think the second game is better, because they get rid of the insta death QTEs. plus, the reason why I picked Bayonetta up over Dante's inferno commas because of weapon variety. With Dante's Inferno, you're pretty much just stuck with two weapons that can be upgraded.

I actually prefer games that only have a few weapons that you improve, instead of swapping out all the time. It kind of breaks my immersion to have them whipping out like 15 different. That was something I actually noticed about Shadow of Mordor vs Shadow of War. I found myself way more invested in my weapon upgrades in Mordor, because the items were emotionally significant to the character. My stealth dagger was my son's broken sword, now turned into my stealth blade. Upgrading it felt more satisfying. In SoW, I've got a metric ton of trash items that I'm swapping out, including magical rings, despite the fact that my new Super One Ring should be the only one I'm wearing. It just made it tedious and I'd rather not do it. I'm sure Bayonetta isn't that bad, but "having lots of weapons" isn't a selling point for me personally.

Plus, this is a game from Hideki Kamiya. The creator of Devil May Cry & Viewtiful Joe. Two games that are known for being over the top, flamboyant, and campy intentionally. Also, Bayonetta is not that sexualized and she actually owns her sexualization. At least the games are honest about it too.

The fact that she owns her sexualization, doesn't preclude her being sexualized. Which, to be clear, I don't have a problem with it in concept. I watch too much porn to have a problem with sex or people being sexy. I just don't find it a compelling selling point for my video game purchases. And "yeah but it's that wacky Japanese crazy sexualization" isn't a selling point for me either xD I'm fine with her being hot and kinky and shaking it and doing stripper combat, rock on. It's just not a game aspect that makes me think "holy shit I totally want to pay money for that!"

What I've seen from the darksider games, they're actually not that emo either. It may look like that with the first game, but there's actually a lot of subtle humor. Darksiders 2 is the most funny without going overboard. Michael Wincott (Top Dollar from the Crow) playing as the Death/grim reaper definitely helps. they are as close as you're going to get to a modern Soul Reaver or Legacy of Kain games.

I actually picked up one of the Darksiders on a steam sale years ago, possibly all of them at that point in a bundle? I tried playing one of them, I lasted about an hour before I just got really bored with it. Nothing was grabbing my interest and holding me. So I just uninstalled it.

 

[Dalisclock]

-Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (I get why the CoD fanbase dislikes it, but as someone indifferent to CoD, I really enjoyed it)

-Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (why do people dislike this game? It's my favourite RA game)

COD:IW has a lot of problems, but I love the fact you can run all these side operations in between the main missions and they're generally not copy paste either. Also, the fact some missions allow you to do on-foot and space combat in the same mission.

C+C:RA3 mostly gets shit for going too far to the Campy, Silly side, though my big issue was that a lot of the units(especially for the Empire) felt gimmicky.

 

[BrawlMan]

actually prefer games that only have a few weapons that you improve, instead of swapping out all the time. It kind of breaks my immersion to have them whipping out like 15 different. That was something I actually noticed about Shadow of Mordor vs Shadow of War. I found myself way more invested in my weapon upgrades in Mordor, because the items were emotionally significant to the character. My stealth dagger was my son's broken sword, now turned into my stealth blade. Upgrading it felt more satisfying. In SoW, I've got a metric ton of trash items that I'm swapping out, including magical rings, despite the fact that my new Super One Ring should be the only one I'm wearing. It just made it tedious and I'd rather not do it. I'm sure Bayonetta isn't that bad, but "having lots of weapons" isn't a selling point for me personally.

Not you too? Not the "ruins/breaks my immersion" argument! I thought you were different @happyninja42! I've been betrayed! /end sarcasm.

I understand where you're coming from on the weapons. I know a guy that made a similar argument. He works at a Disc Replay. though with the exception of the immersion part, he felt it too difficult to learn other weapons or styles in Devil May Cry his case. Yes, if you are weapons can work, but the combat has to be really good or at least decent. I like killer is dead, and you only get one sword, and four sub weapons. Mondo has an expansive move list and upgrades to his sword that compliments that. The only problem is that two out of his four sub weapons become useless late in the game or on new game plus. The freeze gun and the drill gun for his right arm. The standard machine gun does crazy fast damage per second when fully upgraded and the charge cannon is an outright game breaker. As for Bayonettaa, when you're a stylish combat game, you're going to at least need more than two weapons. The same applies to Devil May Cry. Onechanbara gives you characters that can only hold two weapons and a sub weapon, but each character plays completely different so it makes up for that. I meant there are some of weapons in Bayonetta one I do not like. Mainly the whip from the first game. The second game actually fixed that issue by giving you a double whip you could equip on your hands or feet or both. you can actually get through both games fine and not know every single weapon, though if you want to pure Platinum there are some cases where you need to learn a specific weapons exploits.

I actually picked up one of the Darksiders on a steam sale years ago, possibly all of them at that point in a bundle? I tried playing one of them, I lasted about an hour before I just got really bored with it. Nothing was grabbing my interest and holding me. So I just uninstalled it.

Yeah I have a hard time getting into the Darksiders games too. They all suffer from padding and they tend to drag in the middle areas of their respective games. From what I recall, Darksiders 2 suffers from this the most.

 

[CaitSeith]

The World Ends With You: Final Remix (with motion controls)

TWEWY is a well liked game; but the Final Remix version... not so much. The differences between the original and the Switch version comes from adapting a game with mechanics and visuals specifically designed to use the Nintendo DS top screen, the touch screen and the D-pad into a console game connected to the TV. The solution was to use the joycon's motion control capabilities to move a crossair pointer through the screen, and to eliminate the use of the D-pad completely. It's easy to see why the Switch version is regarded as inferior; but it still is fun in this way.

 

[happyninja42]

Not you too? Not the "ruins/breaks my immersion" argument! I thought you were different @happyninja42! I've been betrayed! /end sarcasm.

I understand where you're coming from on the weapons. I know a guy that made a similar argument. He works at a Disc Replay. though with the exception of the immersion part, he felt it too difficult to learn other weapons or styles in Devil May Cry his case. Yes, if you are weapons can work, but the combat has to be really good or at least decent. I like killer is dead, and you only get one sword, and four sub weapons. Mondo has an expansive move list and upgrades to his sword that compliments that. The only problem is that two out of his four sub weapons become useless late in the game or on new game plus. The freeze gun and the drill gun for his right arm. The standard machine gun does crazy fast damage per second when fully upgraded and the charge cannon is an outright game breaker. As for Bayonettaa, when you're a stylish combat game, you're going to at least need more than two weapons. The same applies to Devil May Cry. Onechanbara gives you characters that can only hold two weapons and a sub weapon, but each character plays completely different so it makes up for that. I meant there are some of weapons in Bayonetta one I do not like. Mainly the width from the first game. The second game actually fixed that issue by giving you a double whip you could equip on your hands or feet or both. you can actually get through both games fine and not know every single weapon, though if you want to pure Platinum there are some cases where you need to learn a specific weapons exploits.

I said I PREFER a few weapons, not a ridiculous arsenal And YOU were the one that brought up the weapon arsenal as a criticism/positive *points accusing Ace Attorney Finger at you* so don't complain that I have a different opinion!! But yeah I mean, in reality, most people don't use the entire list anyway. They pick a handful of weapons that fit their playstyle, and stick with those. Unless the game forces you to try something new (a boss that is immune to a particular weapon type for example), there's really no reason to constantly swap out. So for all practical purposes, it might as well just be a handful of weapons anyway. But again, my point is that as a selling point to make me want to play/buy a game, things like "it's got anime tiddies and a dump truck of crazy weapons that you won't use most of them!" isn't compelling advertisement to make me want to buy your game. Not saying that makes it a BAD game, just not a game for me personally.