Bad first impression for great game?

[meiam]

I'm playing hyper light drifter at the moment and I'm greatly enjoying this, but the game opening was pretty disappointing and really lower my expectation, it's pretty much just a bunch of random non sense stuff without any context and no logical connection, it really came off as artsy for the sake of being artsy. Thankfully the rest of the game is very good and I'm having a blast.

You often hear stuff like study that say we don't change our opinion and first impression matters a tons, did you have any other experience where a game started on the wrong foot with you but you ended up really liking it?

 

[BarryMcCociner]

The Walking Dead. Who thought those S1 animations were a good thing? Everyone looks like they're dtuffed full of spiders trying to manipulate their body.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, not sure if I'd call it a "great" game but Divinity Original Sin.

Game has good mechanics and combat but a crappy story.

So naturally it spends the first two hours or so grabbing you by the hair and holding your head under the waters of its narrative.

 

[The Enquirer]

Skyrim didn't have a great intro. Of all the locations they could have picked, they picked the bleakest, most boring one.

 

[Bad Jim]

Fallout 2 starts with the Temple of Trials. An infamously tedious tutorial area that will take quite a while to get through. Which is a shame, because the rest of the game is good.

Dark Souls because the game gives you no help whatsoever. Unless you count the comic geniuses that write "jump here" next to cliffs. Also because the PC port was locked at 30 fps, low resolution, and had unusable keyboard and mouse controls, something you don't really expect from such good game.

 

[King of Asgaard]

Bit of a niche value of 'great' but Yakuza 3 didn't give me a great first impression because, as a newbie to the series, I watched the hours of recap cutscenes of the previous 2 games to bring me up to speed. What's worse is that arguably the first couple of chapters are really slow and uneventful, resulting in some serious downtime. Luckily I stuck with it, because of the combat, and found a far better game later on which got me into the series as a whole. Damn though, it was a close call.

 

[Saelune]

Hitman Blood Money. I was bad at it. Eventually cause I'm an achievement whore, I gunned my way through it just to up my Gamerscore. Then I started to get used to it and now I'm bitter about the new game, all cause I gave Bloodmoney a chance...yay. (Cause it was good, and the new one wont be)

Morrowind, my favorite game ever. I didn't understand what I was doing at all when I first played. Saw the Silt Strider and quit out of fear thinking it was an enemy.

Tekken. I love fighting games, but I always felt Tekken was too heavy and slow. Still kinda think that, but eventually I played 6's campaign mode thing and loved it. Also it had Dragonov who I'm actually competent with.

 

[Catfood220]

Skies of Arcadia, I wasn't a fan of the combat to begin with and I finished the starting area and had set out to rescue Vyses dad and the rest of the crew and I could not for the life of me figure out where to go. The random encounters were really starting to annoy me so I turned it off. Then a few months down the line, I got the itch to try it again, looked online as to where I was supposed to go and I am so glad that I did because I ended up loving the game so much that I played it over and over again.

 

[Uberpig]

Kingdom Hearts 2 with its hours of boring cut scenes and minimal gameplay. To call it an endurance test is underselling it - the whole prologue could have been told in half an hour and brevity would have increased its impact.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm playing hyper light drifter at the moment and I'm greatly enjoying this, but the game opening was pretty disappointing and really lower my expectation, it's pretty much just a bunch of random non sense stuff without any context and no logical connection, it really came off as artsy for the sake of being artsy. Thankfully the rest of the game is very good and I'm having a blast.

You often hear stuff like study that say we don't change our opinion and first impression matters a tons, did you have any other experience where a game started on the wrong foot with you but you ended up really liking it?

Kind of agree on HLD. I've watched the intro 3 times so far and still have no idea what's going on(though it's really pretty). The whole thing feels like a weird dream or acid trip. Really digging the game though, even if I spend a lot of time getting murdered.

Not that it's a great game, but The Witcher starts with an awesome cutscene before throwing you into a pretty terrible battle/tutorial level that's so different it's jarring. The first chapter is slow and not terribly interesting and it doesn't start to pick up until you get to chapter 2...of 5.

Also, Serious Sam: BFE starts out rather slow, with a few uninteresting weapons while facing enemies one or two at a time like any other FPS. It takes a few levels before getting some decent weapons and you start getting zerg rushed by wave after wave of enemies, like a Serious Sam game is supposed to be.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Skies of Arcadia, I wasn't a fan of the combat to begin with and I finished the starting area and had set out to rescue Vyses dad and the rest of the crew and I could not for the life of me figure out where to go. The random encounters were really starting to annoy me so I turned it off. Then a few months down the line, I got the itch to try it again, looked online as to where I was supposed to go and I am so glad that I did because I ended up loving the game so much that I played it over and over again.

I had almost the exact same experience only I decided to keep playing the next day because I did not have any other games I had not completed at the time and I am glad I did as after that horrible start it became an immensely enjoyable game with one of the best worldmaps I have ever seen in an RPG.

Another one for me was Vanquish I played the demo when it was released and well I hated it. Skip forward a few years and I found the game for a few pounds so decided to give it a go and then completed it in almost one run it was just that good. Now I am sad because there will never be a sequel.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Crusader Kings 2. On one hand, I was first impressed with the feature that you could play as any medieval ruler in Europe. On the other, the game didn't bother having a decent tutorial and I resorted to watching a Youtube Let's Play for some directions. Not to mention that I was used to playing M2: Total War, so not being able to declare war whenever I felt like was, at first, a turn off.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

This may be stretching it(or not depending on how you look at it) but...

Fallout New Vegas

The launch for FNV was an abomination with terrible bugs and glitches EVERYWHERE. I'm certain you've seen the doctor failing to animate his body and his head spinning around, but that wasn't the worst of it by far.

At launch the game's optimization was TRASH and it ran like dogshit on even really high end computers
Oftentimes the ground would not render at all, or it would flicker in a headache inducing way
After loading a save after dying your guns would stop working
One of the pre-order pistols could be missing its model entirely and be replaced by a giant red box that covered up your screen entirely
Quest bugs too numerous to count or list

 

[BrawlMan]

Skies of Arcadia, I wasn't a fan of the combat to begin with and I finished the starting area and had set out to rescue Vyses dad and the rest of the crew and I could not for the life of me figure out where to go. The random encounters were really starting to annoy me so I turned it off. Then a few months down the line, I got the itch to try it again, looked online as to where I was supposed to go and I am so glad that I did because I ended up loving the game so much that I played it over and over again.

I had almost the exact same experience only I decided to keep playing the next day because I did not have any other games I had not completed at the time and I am glad I did as after that horrible start it became an immensely enjoyable game with one of the best worldmaps I have ever seen in an RPG.

Another one for me was Vanquish I played the demo when it was released and well I hated it. Skip forward a few years and I found the game for a few pounds so decided to give it a go and then completed it in almost one run it was just that good. Now I am sad because there will never be a sequel.

Seriously, Vanquish? I loved it the moment I took out the case. Then again, I never played the demo, and got it for $40.00 a few months after it had been out. The demo wasn't that good I take it.

Gran Turismo 2. It's been a long while since I played, and don't have anymore, but I was not sure to think of the game. I was so used to arcade style racers that a realistic one through me for a loop. You start out with a car that's barely functional, getting more takes a while, and getting those licenses can be a *****, but once stick it a quarter way through, the game is fun. What also kept me going was the jazz/rock soundtrack. I still consider one of the best racing game soundtracks of all time.

 

[kekkres]

Okami, great game beautiful art, wonderful story, and great characters, all represented in the intro that just wont stop, seriously I think the intro to that game is like 25 minutes long, its ridiculous.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hated God Hand from the get-go, took it out, played something else, tried GH a second time and loved it. Still not sure why.

 

[otakon17]

Shadow Hearts all the way back on the PS2, game opens with a cutscene and immediately tosses you into combat. And the Ring of Fate combat system is jarring when you can even mess up an ITEM USAGE if you miss it. And on a crappy tube TV with an RF cable. However, played on a flat tube TV with S-Video cables it's loads better and more enjoyable.

 

[BrawlMan]

Hated God Hand from the get-go, took it out, played something else, tried GH a second time and loved it. Still not sure why.

God Hand is one of those games with a steep learning curve, and doesn't tell you everything from the get go. It's basically boils down to trial and error, and learning how to use your customized moves effectively. I understand your situation, because I got my copy of God Hand due to the guy not liking the combat. He gave the game to me for free, and I don't regret owning it. Glad you were able to give the game a 2nd chance.