Games You Didn't Expect to Be Good

[EBHughsThe1st]

So, I picked up Driver: San Francisco and am having tons of fun.

I didn't expect it to be good. I expected it to be another licensed car driving game where the handling is funky, all the missions are basically "race here" or "smash this thing", the story is a rags-to-riches story about a hot-shot nameless driver who makes his way to the top by racing, and so on. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it.

The ability to hop from car to car is awesome. Hijacking a bus and ramming it into a bunch of street racers while imaging that the main character is saying "Hiiiiiiii!" Right as he crashes into them never gets old. You can basically just drive recklessly except for when you have to use one single car to navigate a series of turns.

And the plot, while silly, is done very well. Plus the dialogue between a guy in a car and the guy you just possessed does produce a few chuckles.

It's a rather pleasant surprise that this game turned out to be very fun.

 

[the.gill123]

Silent Hill 2, I first played this game about 3 years ago, and after hearing lots of praise, I seriously doubted that the game could be that good. I went into the game with the intention to hating it, but I just couldn't, everything they say about the game is damn true, it is one of the occasions where the hype really did match the game.

 

[genericusername64]

I was away on vacation, I saw a game sitting on the back shelf at a gamestop, It looked okay, so i picked it up. I was blown away, they hit a sweet spot on everything I could've wanted in a game. The gameplay was a hack and slash rpg, the game used a wide color palet, it was immersive as hell, the soundtrack is superb with over 70 tracks. The minor annoyances were so small that it didn't matter to me. I learned it was part of a trilogy, and I have about 300+ hours playing the series. I still have all the games, but I'm afraid to play it in case it might get scratched, and I'm crossing my fingers for an hd collection.

Heres the game btw
http://store.timezonegaming.com/images/hack_gu1_rebirth.jpg

 

[rokkolpo]

Kingdom Hearts.

And then my pants flew off!
BEST GAME EVER!

Captcha: Great legainsi
Well said Captcha!

 

[Gammayun]

For me it would hve to be bioshock had no real exspectations for this even with the massive praise it got but after a few hours i fell in love with it. Shame bioshock 2 sucked.

 

[RagnarokHybrid]

Portal--but mainly because I suck I puzzle games. Didn't expect it to be as funny or immersive as it was.

 

[Shivhappy]

Darksiders kind of took me by surprise. Picked it up for cheap, and had a blast.
I can't wait for the sequel.

 

[ZeroMachine]

D...

Darksiders kind of took me by surprise. Picked it up for cheap, and had a blast.
I can't wait for the sequel.

Oh, come on, out of ALL the things to be ninja'd on. Ah well... Darksiders 2 is pretty close to the top of my most-wanted list

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Singularity. All I knew was it had time travel, and the reviews were mixed. I got it for $20, and it was a great time. Sure it wasn't amazing but it was much better then I expected, beat it for each of the endings.

 

[DanielBrown]

Most recent one that took me by surprise was Singularity. Picked it up for around 7? and had a great time with it. Thought it was just a regular mindless fps, that are so common these days, but it was a little bit different. 8D

Singularity. All I knew was it had time travel, and the reviews were mixed. I got it for $20, and it was a great time. Sure it wasn't amazing but it was much better then I expected, beat it for each of the endings.

I feel... ninjaed...

 

[Fenra]

I picked up "Jurassic Park Operation Genesis" for £5 thinking "Looks bad but its only a fiver... ah why not! Should distract me for 5 mins or be worth a laugh if its crap", ended up really enjoying it and sinking a lot of time in it.

Sure its flawed but did a decent job of simulating running a "real" Jurassic Park, was laid back enough to relax with and just challenging enough to avoid boredom, particularily once you get to higher stages and get all the toys to play with, jeeps, balloons etc.

Plus just watching your dinosaurs wander about doing thier business is strangely charming.

 

[Takolin]

Portal--but mainly because I suck I puzzle games. Didn't expect it to be as funny or immersive as it was.

I agree with this. I know everyone loved portal, but before I played it, I just couldn't see why it would be fun or anything.

 

[Matrixbeast]

Kingdom Hearts.

And then my pants flew off!
BEST GAME EVER!

While I wouldn't say "BEST GAME EVER!", I will have to admit. I initially thought KH would be shit. Then I picked it up and DAYUM. It was amazing.

 

[Rawne1980]

A couple of days ago I started playing a dreaded F2P game, Forsaken World.

Turns out it's actually a pretty decent game. I've quite enjoyed it so far.

 

[nathan-dts]

Deus Ex most recently.

 

[Worgen]

Brutal Legend, I never thought it would be bad, I mean its Tim Schafer, he makes awesome games but after almost all the reviews I read for it were rather mediocre and I ended up canceling my preorder. I was so pissed at reviewers once I got the game after it had been price cut, the game is fucken awesome and the "rts" elements are actually really really fun, the stage battles were some of my favorite parts of the game so I'm still a bit pissed off that I wasn't able to buy it full priced and help support DoubleFine.

 

[V TheSystem V]

Deus Ex Human Revolution. Wasn't intending on getting it, because it's one of those games that could have easily failed, but I have completed it twice and only have 6 achievements left to get on it...which I won't get as I'll be trading it in for Arkham City. No way I'm going through the game again just to upgrade one gun fully...

 

[KeyMaster45]

Minecraft
initial reaction was like: uhm...well this looks like complete arse and theres no way of knowing what to do next so uhm...wtf guys?!

2 weeks later: OMG MINECRAFT IS TEH SH1T!!!11!one!eleven!!shift+1

Ninja'd, but a somewhat different story.

Had a friend rave on and on for weeks about how awesome minecraft was so I finally broke down and tried the free alpha trial they had on the site (game was in beta by then). I got a phone call from the same friend that afternoon "Hey whatcha doin'?" my only response was "I must...build more..."

Two weeks later I had bought the full beta client and had constructed a villainous fortress of doom in the side of a mountain.

 

[wolfapocalypse]

I picked up "Jurassic Park Operation Genesis" for £5 thinking "Looks bad but its only a fiver... ah why not! Should distract me for 5 mins or be worth a laugh if its crap", ended up really enjoying it and sinking a lot of time in it.

Sure its flawed but did a decent job of simulating running a "real" Jurassic Park, was laid back enough to relax with and just challenging enough to avoid boredom, particularily once you get to higher stages and get all the toys to play with, jeeps, balloons etc.

Plus just watching your dinosaurs wander about doing thier business is strangely charming.

Then you delete part of the cage and laugh sadistically when the velociraptors murder everybody
Also its always fun watching the dinos get into fights with each other. That game made up such a large part of my childhood.

OT: I wasn't expecting Dead Island to be as fun as it was.