Bad first impression for great game?

[sanquin]

I'll say mass effect again. Specifically the first one. The game started out fairly slow. After the first planet that you have some combat on, there's suddenly a lot of walking around and talking to people. Probably not the most engaging gameplay for a lot of people.

And Dark Souls too for me at least. I had gotten used to rpg's where you could get overpowered by grinding a bit, making fights a lot easier. I wasn't used to "you can f*ck enemies up but they can f*ck you up too" gameplay. It took about...2 hours I believe before the combat system started to click, and I started to get better at it. Which suddenly turned "hard" into "challenging, but mostly just different". And after that I started having a lot more fun with the game. Even with the obscure lore, having to piece together what might be going on through the visuals and small titbits of lore.

 

[Tomeran]

Dragon Age Inquisition.

The game itself is alright even though it sure has its flaws, but the beginning was far from appealing with its boring rather standard run and kill gameplay. It showed absolutly zero innovation which fortunetly appeared a bit later in the game. When I first tried it, coupled with the annoying character generator and the challenge to get a character that actually looked ingame like they appeared in the generator, I thought I was gonna hate it. In the end, DA:Inquisition ended up being an....average experience.



As for games that are GREAT but give a very poor first impression, I'll second mount and blade.

Its one of the best games I've played, but the first impression is pretty damned shit. "what kind of crap is this?" is what I thought to myself after five minutes, but after playing it for a mere hour I was completly hooked.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Not sure if I can call it great yet as I'm still getting my feet wet but having to turn the lighting down to low in Dark Souls 3 to prevent crashes wasn't the best way to start. Having a pretty good time now though.

 

[Slenn]

I'm sure Shadow of the Colossus is up there. During one night in physics club someone had brought over their copy of this game. I watched nearly an hour of early, mid, and late game material. And I felt like it was an extremely boring experience. The landscapes seemed underdeveloped and lifeless. Even then all I saw was my friend pressing the button to raise the sword to tell him where the next giant is. I saw about maybe 3 or 4 fights, including the final one, all of which looked tedious to watch. I'm sure it's more engaging if I were to play the game. But I just haven't had the interest.

 

[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 Blood Money a chance...yay. (Cause it was good, and the new one wont be)

You think you have it bad? I keep hearing about the first level being so good and open like a proper Hitman level, but all I ever get in my PS3 version is nearly as linear as the aforementioned X-Com opening. It's bad enough that I've yet to figure out how to snipe without being seen, but there aren't even any checkpoints, meaning I have to slam that thug's face into the bars every. Single. Time.

Either they are referring to the actual first level where your targets are mafia father-son in a vineyard, or are lying to you, cause the tutorial is just that. Certainly enjoy it being actually part of the story, but still. I don't think its possible to go unseen in that, and I recommend you move on for your own sake.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I played the early demo of State of Decay and absolutely hated it. It was messy, hectic, confusing and the controls were sloppy.

Went back nearly a year later and oh man, I couldn't put it down. I probably put 200hours into that game! No replay value at all, but it was so much fun while I played it.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

To me, it was Undertale. I was traveling during December and half of January, and when I return everybody is talking about the same thing: Life is Strange and Undertale, one of which more than the other. I was skeptic at first, however after people showed me the importance of spoilers in this game (spoiling some of it to me in the process) I played the game and found it charming without getting too much attached to it, then became stuck on Undyne and stopped playing for a week or two, then people wouldn't stop talking about it, it was certain YouTubers' advices and Ben Yahtzee's "Undertale is a good game", that motivated me to continue playing.

After that I continued, I finished the neutral ending and restarted the whole game to get the good ending and my experience definitely changed and I really loved the game.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I actually restarted Thief: The Dark Project twice, both times having gotten at least a couple of missions in, because I just wasn't "getting" how the stealth worked and was getting frustrated. Then it finally clicked, and I became one with the shadows.

It was funny going back to Half-Life after bingeing my way through Thief, and having the loud "clomp-clomp-clompsqueak" of the HEV suit's boots drive me crazy.

 

[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.

I would suggest playing it first by testing what does what. Don't worry about running your kingdom properly, just try to figure out the cause and effect of different actions.

So, apparently, you like it now?

Part of the fun about games with large learning curves is that you can screw up, learn about a mechanic or strategy (I didn't know you can earn CBs by marrying) and apply that the next time. It still doesn't hurt to include a decent tutorial.

So yes, I love CK2. But it was a stepping stone for my favorite GSG, Victoria 2.

 

[Laughing Man]

Final Fantasy 7, got to the first boss and got killed it was my first go at an RPG and had borrowed it from a mate, didn't really like it so decided not to bother. Then that night a bit bored I though I'll give this another go got past the first boss and that was it I was hooked, is still one of the greatest games I have ever played.

KSP, my god that game has a learning curve with every new major task seeming more difficult than the last and of course the game had no in game help to eplain what you were doing but when you finally built that first rocket to get in to orbit, then the first one to make it the moon, first in orbit docking, first interplanetry transfer. Every part of the game is a learning curve with no help on how to do any of the things you want to do but my god when you master the basics it is amazing.

Bioshock, now I wouldn't call this a great game, but I know a lot of people hold it in high regard. I played it when it first came out and just got bored of it, I replayed it when Infinite first came out and pushed through to complete it, it was fine but I know many people love it, ironically I did the exact same with Bioshock Infinite, played for around 2 hours or so got bored and have yet to revisit it.

Dark Souls 3, again I wouldn't call it a great game but I know it is held in high regard, hated the menus, hated the almost delibrate way in which it seems to be making things harder than they need to be and lost all interest when the first boss (3 minutes in to the game) just wails on you without you ever really being told, well anything.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Final Fantasy Tactics. Being used to Fire Emblem, it took me a pretty long time to come to grips with how the game worked completely differently, but once I got that figured out, the combat can be interesting, particularly coming up with new and interesting ways to break it completely (Auto-Potion and Dual Wield w/ Blood Sword was how I beat Wiegraf) and the story is incomparable, especially if you play the War of the Lions version with the translation that doesn't suck.

 

[Jute88]

Part of the fun about games with large learning curves is that you can screw up, learn about a mechanic or strategy (I didn't know you can earn CBs by marrying) and apply that the next time. It still doesn't hurt to include a decent tutorial.

So yes, I love CK2. But it was a stepping stone for my favorite GSG, Victoria 2.

Not to mention how the game changed with almost every update. In earlier versions bribing was much easier and cheaper that it almost broke the game. Now it feels a lot more balanced.

Also, how similar are they? I've been thinking of trying it out (and maybe Europa Universalis IV).

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Deadly Premonition's first 10-20 minutes are extremely offputting for the average player. You're dumped in an ugly forest with zombie creatures and you're walking around and it's not all that enjoyable or engaging. It's every janky bit of game design the game has condensed into a few minutes. Once you leave the forest, the game changes considerably, with the only truly low points being the horrifyingly awful QTEs during some boss encounters.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Part of the fun about games with large learning curves is that you can screw up, learn about a mechanic or strategy (I didn't know you can earn CBs by marrying) and apply that the next time. It still doesn't hurt to include a decent tutorial.

So yes, I love CK2. But it was a stepping stone for my favorite GSG, Victoria 2.

Not to mention how the game changed with almost every update. In earlier versions bribing was much easier and cheaper that it almost broke the game. Now it feels a lot more balanced.

Also, how similar are they? I've been thinking of trying it out (and maybe Europa Universalis IV).

Not very. In Victoria 2, you play as a nation in the 19th-20th centuries as opposed to a single ruler. The name of the game is industry and population management (like if you want more soldiers for your armies or workers for your factories, you need to encourage more of your population to take up those roles). The world is globalized so you might involve yourself in some crisis, or "Great War" far away in another continent.

This is also the era of machine guns and advanced artillery, so a handful of well-placed, well-armed and well-fortified soldiers can take on armies five times their size at a certain point. Every "civilized" (ie Westernized) nation is in the hierarchy of Great Power>Secondary Power>Normal Nation. This affects if you can colonize land or sphere weaker nations.

I'd recommend hopping to EU4 before you try Vicky 2. And definitely get the two expansions if you do.

 

[Worgen]

To me, it was Undertale. I was traveling during December and half of January, and when I return everybody is talking about the same thing: Life is Strange and Undertale, one of which more than the other. I was skeptic at first, however after people showed me the importance of spoilers in this game (spoiling some of it to me in the process) I played the game and found it charming without getting too much attached to it, then became stuck on Undyne and stopped playing for a week or two, then people wouldn't stop talking about it, it was certain YouTubers' advices and Ben Yahtzee's "Undertale is a good game", that motivated me to continue playing.

After that I continued, I finished the neutral ending and restarted the whole game to get the good ending and my experience definitely changed and I really loved the game.

I found that Undertale is one of those games that has a slow build up to loving it. I enjoyed it at the start but it didn't really grab me and not let go till I got closer and closer to the end and things just got more and more interesting and awesome.

For me a game that left a pretty bad first impression was Ace Combat Assault Horizon. While the first mission was visually impressive and epic etc etc. How scripted the encounters were really hurt it, not enough for me to put it down but enough to feel boring since your actions in a good portion of the first mission don't matter.

I have a friend who would say Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. Soon as he got to the no combat stealth section at the tower he got caught, said 'fuck this' and stopped playing it, to the point where he doesn't play Zelda games anymore.