Games that surprised you.

[sXeth]

Yeah no, that didn't fix anything. The whole 'organics vs. synthetics' still suddenly became the crux of everything for no reason, and the Reapers were still reduced to just a bunch of big, stupid robots. Though to be honest it didn't come as too big of a surprise, since Mass Effect 2 added nothing to the overarching plot, and its ending made it clear Bioware was going pull something out of its ass for ME3.

Thats just Bioware writing, as much as the Good, Mercenary, and Puppy killer dialog "options" are. They can do a good intro or pilot episode as it were, then a sequel will advance nothing or derail onto a random other plot. Then the ending will be a rushed mess. Going back all the way to Baldurs Gate..

 

[Buyetyen]

Thats just Bioware writing, as much as the Good, Mercenary, and Puppy killer dialog "options" are. They can do a good intro or pilot episode as it were, then a sequel will advance nothing or derail onto a random other plot. Then the ending will be a rushed mess. Going back all the way to Baldurs Gate..

Ouch. I actually liked Inquisition. And I'm cautiously hoping that The Dread Wolf Rises will at least be fun.

As for titles that surprised me, Thea: the Awakening is surprisingly addictive. It's like the early-game of Civilization set in a post-apocalyptic Slavic fantasy. The main mechanic is a card game, pretty straightforward and easy to learn. UI's a bit clunky, voice acting is just one dude's storyteller voice, which gets repetitive, and it takes forever to unlock some of the content, but pretty good all the same.

 

[Trunkage]

Mass Effect 3 was one surprise. I liked most of the story. Thought the ending was average, especially going to attack the Illusive Mans base on. But I was very surprised at the backlash for an average piece of media. This is what made me go from lurker to poster on this forum

Thats just Bioware writing, as much as the Good, Mercenary, and Puppy killer dialog "options" are. They can do a good intro or pilot episode as it were, then a sequel will advance nothing or derail onto a random other plot. Then the ending will be a rushed mess. Going back all the way to Baldurs Gate..

BG1 was all very average. BG2 was way better. Which gets me to my pick. I might see Obsidian as being better than Bethsheda or BioWare. Calling them good is a stretch. I relied on trying to get perks to get me through NV, as they manage to find an incredibly boring way to do everything. Benny was pretty interesting but had no agency. Caesar was interesting but his ideas weren’t really related to his Legion. PoE was very similar. Some bright sparks in an otherwise dreary game. A lot of characters that match with the faction they are apart of, ruining the illusion.

Then I met Alpha Protocol (about 5 years ago.) The gameplay is absolute shite. But the story requires a lot of thought, double crosses that make sense, characters not aligning with factions because they actually are double agents, actively trying to avoid blame or dislike parts of the faction. It is almost impossible to see most of the story because whole missions are cut out based on your choices. Doing one mission can lead to different outcomes in another mission.

AP is the first time I ever thought Obsidian was good writers

 

[happyninja42]

But I was very surprised at the backlash for an average piece of media.

Nothing surprises me anymore about nerds/gamers and their vitriolic overreaction to things that don't meet their inflated expectations.

 

[sXeth]

Mass Effect 3 was one surprise. I liked most of the story. Thought the ending was average, especially going to attack the Illusive Mans base on. But I was very surprised at the backlash for an average piece of media. This is what made me go from lurker to poster on this forum
BG1 was all very average. BG2 was way better. Which gets me to my pick. I might see Obsidian as being better than Bethsheda or BioWare. Calling them good is a stretch. I relied on trying to get perks to get me through NV, as they manage to find an incredibly boring way to do everything. Benny was pretty interesting but had no agency. Caesar was interesting but his ideas weren’t really related to his Legion. PoE was very similar. Some bright sparks in an otherwise dreary game. A lot of characters that match with the faction they are apart of, ruining the illusion.

Then I met Alpha Protocol (about 5 years ago.) The gameplay is absolute shite. But the story requires a lot of thought, double crosses that make sense, characters not aligning with factions because they actually are double agents, actively trying to avoid blame or dislike parts of the faction. It is almost impossible to see most of the story because whole missions are cut out based on your choices. Doing one mission can lead to different outcomes in another mission.

AP is the first time I ever thought Obsidian was good writers

Funny thing about BG2 and Mass Effect 2 is they're both generally improvements on the polish of their original title. That both basically stall the plot to go on a random tangent about some brand new villain with only the barest relation to the over-arching plot . (BG2 almost does an Inception level of this by also having its middle chapters be some totally unrelated Underdark stuff).



As Obsidian goes, more misses then hits at this point. They might have the ideas, but the ability to actually implement them effectively seems pretty suspect. With the most recent case (Outer Worlds) having the main banner of distinction for it being "Not made by Bethesda".

 

[happyninja42]

As Obsidian goes, more misses then hits at this point. They might have the ideas, but the ability to actually implement them effectively seems pretty suspect. With the most recent case (Outer Worlds) having the main banner of distinction for it being "Not made by Bethesda".

Which amuses me to no end, considering how much of the mechanics from FO3/4 they clearly copied for their game. I mean when I was playing that game when it first released, all I could think was "wow, this feels just like FO3 and 4 to me." So yeah, the "glorious" second coming of Obsidian, to "show Bethesda how it's done" seemed like a lot of hot air to me.

I actually just pulled up their game library, and the only game they've made that I actually enjoyed, was Tyranny. Everything else they've ever made just was bleh for me.

OT: Tyranny. Was very reluctant to play it, as the whole setup is one I just generally don't enjoy. The "you play as the asshole" concept. It took a lot of just bearing through choices I didn't enjoy making, until I got to the point where I could actually rebel, then the game became a lot more fun. I enjoyed the concept of the "weight of belief" impacting people of power in that world. It felt very much like the general setting for Scion by White Wolf, where the gods were fundamentally shaped, and sometimes altered, based on how reality perceived them. So they tended to stay away from the mortal realm, because any time they visited, they risked having their "base code" fundamentally altered, as cultures shifted and saw them differently. The fact that your character ends up doing that very thing to themselves by making the choices in the game, ultimately setting themselves up as a potential rival for the god kind of the game, was really interesting.
Sadly it doesn't seem like the game is likely to get another installment.

 

[meiam]

There was a yearly 'game of the year that didn't come out this year' thread on the old Escapist; maybe we could bring that back in a few months.

OT: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. I don't know what I really expected from it when I bought it, and I'd heard from the Ace Combat series fans that it isn't that good (compared to the PS2 games, which are venerated in the fandom), but I had a fantastic time with it as a series outsider. Honestly, I'd recommend it just for how unique it is in the 8th-gen market, if not for the fact that it's just a total blast to play.

AC7 is a perfectly fine AC game and as far as I can tell the community is pretty happy with it, especially after 6 and assault horizon, it is a nice return to what the franchise was like in the PS2 day. I found the actual story pretty disappointing (the entire prison story line was completely unnecessary) but I liked always how their story presentation/style is almost B movie territory with how serious it take itself and how ridiculous most of what happen is, and AC7 pulled that off pretty well. I think the game did pretty well so I'm sure there'll be an AC8 down the line and I'm excited about that. If I had to rank them I'd go something like this AC5 > AC0 > AC7 > AC4 >>>>> AC6. If your interested you can try out a couple of AC0 cutscene on youtube, they're all live action in the form of interview and have a very unique feel for video game.

 

[Dalisclock]

AC7 is a perfectly fine AC game and as far as I can tell the community is pretty happy with it, especially after 6 and assault horizon, it is a nice return to what the franchise was like in the PS2 day. I found the actual story pretty disappointing (the entire prison story line was completely unnecessary) but I always how their story presentation/style is almost B movie territory with how serious it take itself and how ridiculous most of what happen is, and AC7 pulled that off pretty well.

Yeah, the Prison storyline seemed completely pointless and feels disconnected from the gameplay, other then the fact the missions were quite difficult and your teammates were useless. Then again, the rest of the plot felt like it jumped from plot arc to plot arc without really having a satisfying resolve for much of any of them(The Drone war thing at the end feels like it needed a lot more foreshadowing then it got, and yes, I know AC3 tackled something similar but most people haven't played that one or probably aren't aware of it.

 

[Chupathingy]

It's on my wishlist. Waiting on a nice sale. Will get around to it tho. Eventually.

You could always try out the PS2 games in the meantime if you haven't already.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

You could always try out the PS2 games in the meantime if you haven't already.

If you can get them. They aren't available digitally due to expired licenses on the planes, and copies can go for over $100 each on resale sites.

 

[happyninja42]

Life is Strange 1. I picked this up sort of on a lark, but by the end, it was a game that I really loved. The climax of episode 2 gave me a genuine emotional reaction, which doesn't happen often with games. So that made me sit up and take notice. People like to slam the game for it's "cringy teen dialogue", but I hate to break it to you, kids say stupid shit. I said stupid shit as a teen, kids today say stupid shit, YOU said stupid shit. It's part of being a teenager. They are over dramatic, prone to emotional outbursts, talking in cringy, emotionally awkward ways, you name it, kids do it. I was playing that game and thinking "damn, I remember kids like this in school." Sure the dialogue is different, because different generation. But the mood of it? Surprisingly on point a lot of the time.

It doesn't stick the landing at the resolution, but, frankly it was doomed from the start, as it's a story about time travel, and those never play out well. Too many plotholes and paradoxes that undermine everything. So I don't really care that it ultimately kind of flops. Leading up to the end, I had a story that started out as a silly teen romp with fun time control powers, into a story with a really dark tone, some emotionally gut wrenching scenes, and setup that made me genuinely give a shit about many of the characters.

So yeah, LiS definitely surprised me, in a great way.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Dust: An Elysian Tale

A simple 2D side-scrolling action-adventure game. Gorgeous art style, compelling enough story, but the surprise comes in the fact it was pretty much a labor of love by a single guy.

 

[Dalisclock]

Life is Strange 1. I picked this up sort of on a lark, but by the end, it was a game that I really loved. The climax of episode 2 gave me a genuine emotional reaction, which doesn't happen often with games. So that made me sit up and take notice. People like to slam the game for it's "cringy teen dialogue", but I hate to break it to you, kids say stupid shit. I said stupid shit as a teen, kids today say stupid shit, YOU said stupid shit. It's part of being a teenager. They are over dramatic, prone to emotional outbursts, talking in cringy, emotionally awkward ways, you name it, kids do it. I was playing that game and thinking "damn, I remember kids like this in school." Sure the dialogue is different, because different generation. But the mood of it? Surprisingly on point a lot of the time.

For me the cringiest thing was Max saying how "Final Fantasy: The spirits within" was the best movie ever. As one of the 3 people on earth who went to see that movie in theaters and didn't hate it, I will say that NOBODY thinks that movie is the Best movie ever. Not even ironically.

Oh, it was Published by Square Enix. That explains it.

It doesn't stick the landing at the resolution, but, frankly it was doomed from the start, as it's a story about time travel, and those never play out well. Too many plotholes and paradoxes that undermine everything. So I don't really care that it ultimately kind of flops. Leading up to the end, I had a story that started out as a silly teen romp with fun time control powers, into a story with a really dark tone, some emotionally gut wrenching scenes, and setup that made me genuinely give a shit about many of the characters.

So yeah, LiS definitely surprised me, in a great way.

Yeah, that's one of my big gripes. It throws new time travel powers at you and never explains the rhyme or reason to them, it's pretty much "New Powers as the plot demands". It was also hard for me to take the ending choice seriously, since the entire game had been practically screaming that Chloe should have died and all this shit was the universe trying to self correct.

 

[BrawlMan]

For me the cringiest thing was Max saying how "Final Fantasy: The spirits within" was the best movie ever. As one of the 3 people on earth who went to see that movie in theaters and didn't hate it, I will say that NOBODY thinks that movie is the Best movie ever. Not even ironically.

Oh, it was Published by Square Enix. That explains it.

.........

That actually happend? I believe you, but there is no way that voice actor was able to say that with a straight face.

 

[happyninja42]

For me the cringiest thing was Max saying how "Final Fantasy: The spirits within" was the best movie ever. As one of the 3 people on earth who went to see that movie in theaters and didn't hate it, I will say that NOBODY thinks that movie is the Best movie ever. Not even ironically.

Oh, it was Published by Square Enix. That explains it.

I don't remember the line in the game, but was she perhaps being sarcastic? And as apparently one of th eother 2 people in your universe that saw Spirits Within in the theater, I enjoyed it. I never really understood the hate for that film, as it often seemed to criticize the film not following the....are we going to try and call it "canon" for a series where NONE of the games have any connective tissue, and are as bat shit crazy plot wise as anything out of Japan? Seriously I don't really get how it wasn't "Final Fantasy" for people. It had a team of people, a dude named Cid, you had an airship flying thingy. It had spirits/ghosts, a corrupt government that you had to topple. I mean, those check a LOT of the FF cliche boxes as far as I'm concerned. Ghosts of a planet spiritually tied to an asteroid that hit earth, now making them haunt our world, is about as out there crazy/stupid as any FF plot, plus I actually thought it was fairly well done. So yeah, I don't get it.

Yeah, that's one of my big gripes. It throws new time travel powers at you and never explains the rhyme or reason to them, it's pretty much "New Powers as the plot demands". It was also hard for me to take the ending choice seriously, since the entire game had been practically screaming that Chloe should have died and all this shit was the universe trying to self correct.

That's what I mean about time travel. I personally don't like time travel plots at all, because they almost NEVER work out neatly. Something is always overlooked, and someone invariably goes "yeah but why don't they just go to X time and do Y thing, and then nothing needs to go bad?" Ignoring "because then you don't have dramatic tension and a story, and that's what we're trying to fucking tell here you pedantic temporal nerd!" It just makes everything just...bleh. There are only a couple of time travel stories that I like, and they all basically use the "closed loop" trope for their plot. That the time travel doesn't change anything, it just basically sets up things how they are. 12 Monkeys the film is my favorite example of this. Those types of time travel stories are at least neat and tidy, so they don't irk me later on with the "yeah but what about..." stuff.

LiS fell apart at the end, and frankly I think the devs knew this. I remember when the leadup to the final episode's release, they posted a thank you post on their steam page, and the phrasing seemed to imply they also realized time travel tends to make things messy, and that they hoped they ended it well. They said almost those exact words. I don't think they did personally, but I don't really mind. Everything leading up to it had me heavily invested, so I'm fine with a really good game with a fun story, that sort of wet the bed at the end.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

If you can get them. They aren't available digitally due to expired licenses on the planes, and copies can go for over $100 each on resale sites.

...I need to go back in time and slap the fucking stupid out of younger me for selling my copy of Ace Combat 5...

EDIT: Whoops, just realized this is my only contribution here so:

Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, I was wandering around the EB Games in my mall when I saw this used PS2 game with a Tomcat on the front, and basically went "sure, why not", and wow, what an amazing game it turned out to be. Probably up in my top 5 games easily and one of the casualties of my "dur hur, sell all my games to get a PS3" fiasco.

 

[sXeth]

I don't remember the line in the game, but was she perhaps being sarcastic? And as apparently one of th eother 2 people in your universe that saw Spirits Within in the theater, I enjoyed it. I never really understood the hate for that film, as it often seemed to criticize the film not following the....are we going to try and call it "canon" for a series where NONE of the games have any connective tissue, and are as bat shit crazy plot wise as anything out of Japan? Seriously I don't really get how it wasn't "Final Fantasy" for people. It had a team of people, a dude named Cid, you had an airship flying thingy. It had spirits/ghosts, a corrupt government that you had to topple. I mean, those check a LOT of the FF cliche boxes as far as I'm concerned. Ghosts of a planet spiritually tied to an asteroid that hit earth, now making them haunt our world, is about as out there crazy/stupid as any FF plot, plus I actually thought it was fairly well done. So yeah, I don't get it.

I didn't really get it either. But I'd say the general lack of swords/magic was probably what knocked it off course. Like even your super sci-fi leaning FF's have still kept at least one foot in that fantasy adventure pool. Spirits Within went full sci-fi on it.


If I remember right, the movie was also after FF7, which was in itself a divisive entry and had more then a little backlash of its own for the same reasons, so doubling down on that was even less likely to go over.

 

[Chupathingy]

If you can get them. They aren't available digitally due to expired licenses on the planes, and copies can go for over $100 each on resale sites.

Not sure where you're looking, but I'm seeing a decent amount of copies of 4 and 5 on Ebay for prices ranging around $10-20 each, though 0 seems somewhat more rare and pricier. Of course you could just emulate instead. From what I've gathered 4 has some graphical bugs but 5 and 0 are fine.

 

[CaitSeith]

Mass Effect 3. After all the memes and hatred I'd seen online, I was expecting much, much worse. What I got instead was one of best third person shooters I've ever played (from a gameplay standpoint).

The Vangard class is really fun to play.

 

[happyninja42]

The Vangard class is really fun to play.

Was that the one that had the biotic rush attack and the ground slam?