Games that suprised you with their quality?

[The Wykydtron]

Right now, Fire Emblem Awakening. I wasn't expecting it to be bad, far from it but the combat is fuckin' awesome. The permadeath really adds to the game, well some don't die, they just leave the battlefield and never come back apart for some story related business. Some do die though, usually during their introduction mission because they love spawning them right in the middle of the enemy forces 10/10 game design. Every battle chucks so many enemies at you, you can only have I think 9/10 people then the enemies could have 40+ with reinforcements later on. Solution? Make every character OP as fuck once they hit lvl 10 and have Frederick carry the early game on his own. I mean he can and will 1v20 easily.

No idea why weapon damage is in this game though, especially when it comes to the transformation characters. Seriously, both my transformation characters' stones that they *need* to have to do literally anything break in the same battle. Move over, let the competent people tank for you, thank you partner system.

Also Spec Ops: The Line for the standard string of reasons. Also I really liked the combat in that game, the soundtrack and use of colour (yes colour was used in a shooter) was brilliant. Funny how the use of light rock guitar loops makes a game that much better.

 

[Valkrex]

Dust: An Elysian Tale

Was going into this after the YouTuber SomeCallMeJohnny did a review on it, and it looked cool. I was also a bit wary of it, but I got it for $4 on a steam sale. Couldn't hurt, right? Well, little did I know that I'd have found one of my fave games ever in my life. I LOVE the voice acting and characters (Fidget, so freakin adorable!!!), the music is wonderful, art style is beautiful, great length for a game, and just... All of it. I loved it. Doing side quests was actually interesting for me as well. I loved this game a lot. It really surprised me!

This. Also the crazy thing about this AMAZING WORK OF ART OF A GAME, is that it was created by ONE person.

 

[DarthAcerbus]

City of Heroes, greatest MMO to ever walk this plane.

 

[Karoshi]

Bastion surprised me in this aspect. I did not play many indie games and was generally very sceptical of indie games, since I considered it to be close to impossible for them to be so polished (due to lack of experience of the devs and the lack of funds).

Bastion completely blew me away, though. It did not only compare to AAA+ games, it even surpassed them in some aspects.

 

[Reaper69lol]

Recent Tomb Raider. Was never into the franchise much, picked it up on Steam sale for dirt cheap and definitely getting my moneys worth. Also Prototype 2, I found it to be such a huge improvement on a first one for some reason and did not expect to be having so much fun with it.

 

[Caiphus]

Euro Truck Simulator 2.

A surprisingly good game. Found out about it through nerdcubed, and put over 25 hours into it when it first came out. My friends were all tremendously disappointed in me for doing so. But who needs friends when you can spend your Sunday afternoon driving from Dover to Milan while listening to Podtoid?

 

[O maestre]

Rocksmith 2014 having tried the original, I was/am incredibly impressed by the ability of the game to detect what I am playing as well as there being little to no latency. The amount of work and thought that was put into the game really surprised. Especially when I expected another gimmicky rythem game. The only thing I really dislike is the string colours, either to remove them or change them, having never played guitar hero or rock band for more than a few minutes as a regular guitar player the string colours make no sense to me. The ability to transpose songs would also be nice.

 

[Hades]

The Ace Attorney series: When I first heard of this courtroom series I had they feelings they where going to be ''dad games'' As yahtzee would put it but the characters, plot and the writing in general are just SO good, and have remained so through every game in the series.

Samurai warriors Chronicles: I liked, but did not love Samurai warriors on the Wii so I wasn't expecting a gem in this game. I thought it would be a fun little mini title to get me through the barren wasteland that was the 3DS launch line-up. As it turned out Chronicles is one of the best games Koei has ever made. The amount of characterisation in that game is quite something.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Dust: An Elysian Tale

Was going into this after the YouTuber SomeCallMeJohnny did a review on it, and it looked cool. I was also a bit wary of it, but I got it for $4 on a steam sale. Couldn't hurt, right? Well, little did I know that I'd have found one of my fave games ever in my life. I LOVE the voice acting and characters (Fidget, so freakin adorable!!!), the music is wonderful, art style is beautiful, great length for a game, and just... All of it. I loved it. Doing side quests was actually interesting for me as well. I loved this game a lot. It really surprised me!

This. Also the crazy thing about this AMAZING WORK OF ART OF A GAME, is that it was created by ONE person.

Well, not quite one entirely. He did have a small studio make the music, and I think he had help with the script and stuff. But even then, such a small team made that masterpiece... Stunning~

 

[Frezzato]

Beyond Good And Evil:...

Not bad for ten bucks, right? There are some nice little extras like the futuristic air hockey mini game, racing games, and the hidden animal photography that just make it a great little experience.

For me that would be the Alien Breed games, which are only $3.50 each. I think it would have been cheaper if I had bought all three, but I only wanted to spend $7, so I got the first two. I could have done much worse with just $3.50 and can't really think of anything IRL that would have been a better buy. What else could I have purchased? ChapStick? A lighter? Nothing better comes to mind.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Sleeping Dogs. This game went through so many changes and developers since being True Crimes Hong Kong and all the footage I had seen from it made it look incredibly average.

I have never been so wrong about a game before, it's not only one of the best games of 2012. I count it among the best of this generation.

Yes, it seemed like a cheap GTA clone at first, but it's a beautiful and fun game. I was especially amazed by how fun driving was.

Also: Portal. I don't think I was the only one who just bought the Orange Box for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. But I kept playing for Portal.

 

[littlealicewhite]

Dragon's Dogma.

I'd heard about it when it came out, but I wasn't very interested. The big "Capcom" label made me wary, as I'm not too fond of JRPGs or the Resident Evil series. Then, just a month or two ago a friend got it very cheap and let me give it a spin. I immediately noticed some problems with it's story, namely that it's meandering and hard to pinpoint what's important, and had a hard time getting used to the controls.

But for some reason I couldn't put it down. It's engaging and interesting in a way that took me completely by surprise. I love the "vocation" system, I grew fond of my personal pawn, I felt thrilled by the challenge it presented. This game scratched an itch I didn't know I had.

 

[iwinatlife]

Another vote for Bastion I expected a fun little game. I got probably one of the best games I've played on my 360. Got chills the first time I heard Zia singing and cried at the scene at the end with Zulf. Only game to get me to cry. The swamp level was also awesome reminded me of the scarecrow levels in Arkham Asylum

 

[babinro]

Most indie games surprised me with their quality and value.

Puzzle Quest was the first one that really got my attention.
Later there was Plants vs Zombies, Defense Grid, Recettear, Limbo, And Yet it Moves, etc.

These days I buy more indie games a year than AAA. For me, they bring back true gaming diversity offering a great mix of nostalgia and innovation.

 

[blackdwarf]

Asura's Wrath

I was completely convinced that this game was poor. A lot of anime characteristics (which I am not a huge fan of) and Mostly QTE's. A friend bought it and convinced me to at least try it, because he was really digging it. What I got was precisely what I expected, only now I loved these aspects, because they worked so well. It was one of the most adrenaline pumped games, but still managed to have a amazing presentation and actual enjoyable characters. The music was great en the setting was great. Playing it was a great experience.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Most indie games surprised me with their quality and value.

Puzzle Quest was the first one that really got my attention.
Later there was Plants vs Zombies, Defense Grid, Recettear, Limbo, And Yet it Moves, etc.

These days I buy more indie games a year than AAA. For me, they bring back true gaming diversity offering a great mix of nostalgia and innovation.

I think I'm getting to the point now where I'm not often surprised by how good indie games are. There are definitely still games that make one exclaim "This is an indie game?" (such as my own entry to this thread, Valdis Story) but they really are getting to the point where they are just as likely to be "good" as any game with a bigger team and/or higher budget. If any gamer is craving something a little different, oldschool, inventive, daring, etc. then they really should start looking beyond the shelves at GameStop for stuff to play. Indies are definitely not the super artsy 2 minute flash game throw aways that some people still think they are (though they still can be, of course, but that's no different than AAA games.. except indies won't cost you $60+ to play them).

 

[lapan]

Valkyria Chronicles

Was entirely an impulse buy, i didn't know much about the game beforehand. I really enjoyed the strategic/3rd person mix they got in their battle-system. Too bad they ruined the sequel and never localized the 3rd game.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Final Fantasy 3, 6, and 9. I mean, 9 was pretty bad, with a good game underneath the... the rest of it.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter also really suprised me. It's like Dead Rising. But with swords, and dragons, and zombies bazookas.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

So, I tried playing Haze the other day and I was genuinely surprised that I could get my douchebag squad-mates to go kill crazy by shooting the Necter-thing on their backs. It surprised and pleased me and was the most fun I had playing that game for however many minutes. It's a small detail but I'm surprised it was put in at all.

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine was also really good for a movie tie-in game. The fact that it was based off of a shitty movie makes it that much more impressive that the game was so good. I need another copy though...

 

[Daymo]

Sequence, I bought it in a steam winter sale a couple of years back just because it was $2 and an easy achievement to get another free prize steam was giving out. My god the story and soundtrack were both spectacular and it's one of the few games I have 100%ed