Games you Love Despite Objectively horrible gameplay?

[Rickolas Walrus]

GT Final Bout for the PSX. Horrendous controls, crappy graphics...but I loved that game to bits. Also, I was 13.

To quote what someone once said to me on this site, right in the nostalgia. Completely agree too

I'd like to add that Godzilla game for GameCube, not sure what it was called though. The monsters were slow and it felt like they took a 2D fighter but then decided at the last minute to let you move around more and the controls were complete crap, but being a Godzilla fan since I was like 5 I played that game just to see who would win between my dream match ups

 

[The Wonder of the net]

Aliens colonial marines. I love how broken it is. Being able to push allies one minute then as you try to kill a ally by pushing him off a cliff and going right through them.

 

[Thebazilly]

As far as I'm concerned there is only one correct answer.

Vampire The masquerade - Bloodlines.

Everything about this game is amazing. The world building, the atmosphere, the level design and the quests. At least until about 3/4 of the way into the game. Though to be fair, the World of Darkness (which the game is based on) does have amazing atmosphere anyway, but it was good to see it translated fairly well.
But the game play itself is bloody atrocious.

Excellent game overall.

But those sewers. And that werewolf. And all the ending sequences.

The first time I played, I made a social character, since you could talk your way out of a lot of stuff in the beginning. I quickly traded in for an idiot Brujah with a big axe.

 

[Blunderboy]

As far as I'm concerned there is only one correct answer.

Vampire The masquerade - Bloodlines.

Everything about this game is amazing. The world building, the atmosphere, the level design and the quests. At least until about 3/4 of the way into the game. Though to be fair, the World of Darkness (which the game is based on) does have amazing atmosphere anyway, but it was good to see it translated fairly well.
But the game play itself is bloody atrocious.

Excellent game overall.

But those sewers. And that werewolf. And all the ending sequences.

The first time I played, I made a social character, since you could talk your way out of a lot of stuff in the beginning. I quickly traded in for an idiot Brujah with a big axe.

Yeah, sadly the whole social play aspect only got you so far.

 

[Denamic]

As far as I'm concerned there is only one correct answer.

Vampire The masquerade - Bloodlines.

Everything about this game is amazing. The world building, the atmosphere, the level design and the quests. At least until about 3/4 of the way into the game. Though to be fair, the World of Darkness (which the game is based on) does have amazing atmosphere anyway, but it was good to see it translated fairly well.
But the game play itself is bloody atrocious.

Haha, joke's on you!

...I never uninstalled it.
But yeah, Bloodlines. Terrible gameplay, especially the melee combat.

Other than that, I'd have to say Neverwinter Nights. No control over party members, and the AI in question is retarded beyond belief. It's a hurdle in of itself just to adapt how you play to make use of what little they can do. And the right click wheel menu is shit. And trying to keep focus on one enemy in a melee clusterfuck is a doomed venture, especially with abilities like whirlwind attack and circle kick. Hell, even attacks of opportunity will make you switch targets at random. Sometimes, the game just infuriates me, but fuck me if I don't love it and its fanmade modules.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Deadly Premonition.
Deadly Premonition x100,000,000.

The gameplay is like trying to pilot a helicopter with no prior knowledge of how to fly a helicopter, all while your pores perpetually seep extremely slippery butter.
The thing is, you can easily pick out what makes the game awful, but what makes the game good is a lot harder to find. That's why it's difficult to reccomend. It has this mysterious, engrossing charm to it. The game isn't one of those "so bad it's good" deals; it is utter garbage and a masterpiece simultaneously.

 

[Quorothorn]

It's not "terrible" per se, but I definitely think I liked the Revenge of the Sith video game more than it "deserved" on anything approaching an objective level: it made some definite bad choices and wasn't exactly hugely groundbreaking, but boy was it fun for me. If it had given the ability to play single-player campaign missions with any character I would have wasted soooo much (more) time on it.

Oh yeah, and if I may go semi-off-topic to mention a non-gameplay issue for a game with excellent gameplay, Prototype's approach to cutscenes is basically token to the point of feeling outright weird at times (almost every time I was left going "...that was it?"/"that was...abrupt"), and yet I like the Web of Intrigue idea and some of the things they did with the plot overall quite a bit. Of course, nothing they did with said plot convinced me they could do a sequel well, and, um....yeah, from my perspective that was entirely the case.

The first two Fallout games.

I wouldn't say the gameplay is horrible. In fact I do like most aspects of it, but it's far from perfect.

A lot of the skills seem useless. Medicine and Doctor are kind of redundant when you can just travel across the world map and regain your health that way. And how many instances can you actually use Traps or Gambling anyway?

2 also had probably one of the worst tutorial levels in any game I've played. What's that? You want to play as someone who's good at speech and can handle small guns? Here's a spear, go fight some ants with it's shitty RNG, and beat this guy up in a fist fight. At least 1 had the decency of giving you a gun and only having to deal with easily avoidable rats if you just want to get to the main game.

Also, the bottom of the tanker. FUCK. THAT. PLACE. Seriously. Friggen aliens and mutants everywhere and they all bum rush you as soon as you step foot in there. Doesn't help that most of them are bullet sponges as well.

So yeah... kinda prefer how they handled the gameplay in New Vegas honestly. COME AT ME FALLOUT PURISTS!

I semi-recently got the "classic" Fallouts and haven't been able to really get far into them as yet even though I want to. The time pressure in Fallout 1 is particularly a problem for me (this is also one reason I've never seriously considered getting Dead Rising: I guess what this means is I instinctively don't like time limits in my sandboxes).

Kingdom Hearts.

I love the first game to death, but every time I play it the camera and jump controls, combined with some occasional awful level design make me completely understand why some people can't stand it.

Oh, that camera. Also, there are some definite platform problems due to the camera and some of the control choices. For example, the vines areas in Deep Jungle, with the hippos, are kind of unnecessarily fiddly. I don't like many things Kingdom Hearts II, but fixing the camera was definitely a plus.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

There's no way that this thread is going to avoid modern gamer bias. If a game was great to us way back when, we played it. We figured our way around things that would now be considered "bugs" or "bad game design" because we didn't know any better (I didn't know any better for sure).

So I'm saying that it's very difficult to do what you're asking without comparing to the gameplay of modern games. Everything falls short if you compare it to today's standards.

I'm not talking about Nostalgia though I'm talking about games people love despite flaws. Which admittedly might be some olders games, but should be fairly universal.

Avalon Code isn't Bad because it's old (And I would be hard to even call a game that's only 4 years old "old"). It's bad because it had some innovative ideas that fell short on execution. Documenting everything in the game world makes sense given the premise, but it makes exploration tedious and means I have to flip through 20 pages of menu to find the item I want, and then 50 more pages to find the right codes to modify that item.

But I still enjoy playing it despite the fact that I need to keep a notebook full of relevant page numbers just to remember where shit is. That's all I'm really talking about.

I didn't think you were talking about nostalgia in any way. I'm actually surprised at how this thread is turning out - very interesting. The notion that a game has or had a "flaw" is a very modern one. Back then (even in the 90's/early 2000's) I'm not sure that people were thinking about flaws. Either a game kept your interest or it didn't.

I guess you're thinking through what would make your favorite games better...which is definitely an engaging conversation.

 

[Cheesepower5]

The Persona 2 Dualogy. Great story, great characters, repetitive, dull battle system.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Necrovision is rather clunky, but I love that game.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Oblivion for sure.

The combat is atrocious, the magic is dull and the leveling is broken, but there's just something charming about that game.

I really don't know why I like it. It's just so gloriously FANTASY.

The first two Fallout games.

I wouldn't say the gameplay is horrible. In fact I do like most aspects of it, but it's far from perfect.

A lot of the skills seem useless. Medicine and Doctor are kind of redundant when you can just travel across the world map and regain your health that way. And how many instances can you actually use Traps or Gambling anyway?

2 also had probably one of the worst tutorial levels in any game I've played. What's that? You want to play as someone who's good at speech and can handle small guns? Here's a spear, go fight some ants with it's shitty RNG, and beat this guy up in a fist fight. At least 1 had the decency of giving you a gun and only having to deal with easily avoidable rats if you just want to get to the main game.

Also, the bottom of the tanker. FUCK. THAT. PLACE. Seriously. Friggen aliens and mutants everywhere and they all bum rush you as soon as you step foot in there. Doesn't help that most of them are bullet sponges as well.

So yeah... kinda prefer how they handled the gameplay in New Vegas honestly. COME AT ME FALLOUT PURISTS!

I agree with you quite a bit. Trap, Gambling, and the like are just silly.

Also, Fallout 2 sort of pissed me off for the reasons you mentioned and more. Everything late game sponged like bitches, the first few hours are just irritating weapon railroading and the only thing truly amazing toward the end is Energy Weapons.

Yeah, and the Wanamingos can just go fuck themselves.

I'm one of the few who feels Fallout 1 was way better.

 

[shrekfan246]

The premise of this thread invalidates its question. Taken from a literal perspective, at least.

If what you actually meant was "Games you love despite their flawed gameplay", that's what you should have said -- And that's what all of the responses are going to actually be anyway. You can't say something has "objectively bad" gameplay. Even in the case of things like Big Rigs or Superman 64, there are always arguments against it. Big Rigs, for instance, can barely even be called a game in the first place.

Nitpicking aside...

Of Orcs & Men is probably the biggest modern contender for me. Its combat is like a watered down and worse-explained version of Knights of the Old Republic combat, sans any form of dedicated healing in combat outside of two rather weak skills, and there's practically no exploration. But the narrative is presented in an excellent and novel manner, and it's really one of the few times where I'd say it actually saves the mediocre combat and world design.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm going to be THAT asshole and say Sonic the Hedgehog...as in Sonic 06. I played the Xbox 360 version and while I skipped the story bits (I watched a bunch of reviews, I know what happened) and the game seemed to be fighting me every step of the way (especially Snowboarding as Sonic at White Acropolis), I had a genuinely good time with Sonic the Hedgehog. I think...I wouldn't put it back in my 360 but every time I beat a level I got an immense rush of satisfaction (especially snowboarding as Sonic at White Acropolis). This was the game that made me realize I was a Sonic fan...then I played the two fairy-tale games on the Wii...still excited for Lost Worlds though!

Speaking of extreme satisfaction despite a game that hates you for playing it: PREDATOR on the NES! I played and beat it shortly after it brain-fucked Screwattack last summer or so and after a while it really grew on me. Beating that game was very satisfying. Same with Zelda 2: Adventures of Link...gameplay wise I like it a lot more than Skyward Sword and the DS Zelda games (Phantom Hourglass and, Spirit Tracks). I never went back to Skyward Sword because I can't get the controls to work. I'm not going to say the controls are broken I'm just going to imply it while saying "I had to calibrate my controller every few minutes" (I really did you know). Zelda 2 made you feel like a bad ass though as you leveled up and beat previously tough enemies. Death Mountain is always a hassle, as is Great Palace but beating the game makes it all worth the effort to me.

As for more modern games...Fist of the North Star is repetitive as all Hell but it's probably the game I've put the most time into when it comes to my Xbox 360 library (not counting games that start with the word Saint's).

 

[draigan]

Deadly Premonition has already been mentioned, so I'll let that lie.

Instead, I guess I'll add Earth Defense Force 2017. This game is out and out stupid, but in its own blissful way amazingly fun. The world is being overrun by giant bugs, UFOs and robots that look like they fell out of a Gumby cartoon. Instead of any quantifiable strategy to the game, it's essentially run in in your super fantastic crash helmet and red and white jumpsuit and kill anything that moves.

I'll let Rage Quit explain/show it better than I can (warning to those of you who are sensitive to those who don't use indoor voices)

cheers for posting that my neighbours are probably thinking WTF right about now because i couldn't stop laughing

 

[draigan]

Oblivion for sure.

The combat is atrocious, the magic is dull and the leveling is broken, but there's just something charming about that game.

I really don't know why I like it. It's just so gloriously FANTASY.

The first two Fallout games.

I wouldn't say the gameplay is horrible. In fact I do like most aspects of it, but it's far from perfect.

A lot of the skills seem useless. Medicine and Doctor are kind of redundant when you can just travel across the world map and regain your health that way. And how many instances can you actually use Traps or Gambling anyway?

2 also had probably one of the worst tutorial levels in any game I've played. What's that? You want to play as someone who's good at speech and can handle small guns? Here's a spear, go fight some ants with it's shitty RNG, and beat this guy up in a fist fight. At least 1 had the decency of giving you a gun and only having to deal with easily avoidable rats if you just want to get to the main game.

Also, the bottom of the tanker. FUCK. THAT. PLACE. Seriously. Friggen aliens and mutants everywhere and they all bum rush you as soon as you step foot in there. Doesn't help that most of them are bullet sponges as well.

So yeah... kinda prefer how they handled the gameplay in New Vegas honestly. COME AT ME FALLOUT PURISTS!

I agree with you quite a bit. Trap, Gambling, and the like are just silly.

Also, Fallout 2 sort of pissed me off for the reasons you mentioned and more. Everything late game sponged like bitches, the first few hours are just irritating weapon railroading and the only thing truly amazing toward the end is Energy Weapons.

Yeah, and the Wanamingos can just go fuck themselves.

I'm one of the few who feels Fallout 1 was way better.

While it had flaws i love the hell out of fallout 1 and 2 and while a couple skills where crap you could for the most part play almost any skill combination and have an option whether it was hacking / persuasion or just blowing the crap out the problem.

oh and the answer to all lifes problems in fallout combat was and always shall be the guass rifle and guass pistol

 

[Anachronism]

Planescape Torment and Alpha Protcol, two of my all time favourite games but there's a lot of non-good about them (although Alpha Protocol is mainly just not exceptional, rather than bad)

Oh, Planescape. One of the best stories I've ever played through, one of the most unique and interesting RPGs ever made... but by Christ is the combat terrible. The worst part of it for me was that the vast majority of the combat in Sigil was avoidable, but once you get to Curst and Baator you suddenly have to slog your way through loads and loads of difficult, boring combat encounters. Breaking into Curst Prison was so awful that I almost gave up on the game.

Incidentally, I've been thinking of picking up Alpha Protocol for a while now, but I was put off by how reportedly broken it is. Would you say it's worth a look? I'm assuming there have been patches for it.

 

[babinro]

- Resident Evil 1 through Resident Evil 3
The controls and inventory management aspect to these games are hard to tolerate. The loading times involved when you've taken the wrong item with you makes you want to pull out your hair. These games are 'guide' games IMO because otherwise you'll be watching doors open for 10 hours longer than necessary.

 

[BrotherRool]

Oh, Planescape. One of the best stories I've ever played through, one of the most unique and interesting RPGs ever made... but by Christ is the combat terrible. The worst part of it for me was that the vast majority of the combat in Sigil was avoidable, but once you get to Curst and Baator you suddenly have to slog your way through loads and loads of difficult, boring combat encounters. Breaking into Curst Prison was so awful that I almost gave up on the game.

Incidentally, I've been thinking of picking up Alpha Protocol for a while now, but I was put off by how reportedly broken it is. Would you say it's worth a look? I'm assuming there have been patches for it.

Yes, Curst was by far the worst point of that game. I actually gave up there the first time through and then I went back to it and I'm glad I did because the end was incredible. Luckily I discovered you can actually run past most of the fights which helped a lot.

As for Alpha Protocol, it basically depends on how much you're willing to overlook lack of polish. The game isn't so broken as to be unplayable, it autosaves at checkpoints and it also keeps a save from before the start of every mission and in my time playing it, I only ever once had to reload a mission. I don't think it's ever even crashed for me, whereas Dragon Age has crashed frequently. But there will be bugs, every now and then some enemies will fail to load or a mission marker won't work. It doesn't break the game, but it is there.

The gameplay is fairly humdrum, as is the graphics and if you play it, don't do Moscow first because it has two pretty unbalanced boss fights (and as a hint, the pistols special ability is a get out of boss fight free card). There are definitely parts of the game that feel rushed and the story is designed like a proper spy story and it's actually fairly hard to see everything on one go, which is both good and bad. But what the game does have is the most incredibly flexibility and responsiveness I've ever seen in the game. I've played through it twice and watched an LP and I'm still seeing things that I never realised could happen and I can see so many more ways I can have a playthrough of the game.

The simplest way to describe the genius of this game is, there are 28 named PCs you'll meet throughout playing. At the end of the game up to 21 could be dead, or 25 could be alive, depending on what you choose to do. You could be a complete ghost with almost no-one alive whose ever even seen you, or make alliances with practically everyone

To give an example (if you want to go into the game completely fresh you might want to stop reading here, but I don't give any explicit spoilers), there's a person you meet whose very similar to you and a very gifted spy, on first meeting with him

Spoiler

you have this incredible conversation where he reads everything he's researched about you already, what you've done in other missions, whether you're stealthy, whether you're trustworthy. He even comments on the armour you chose to wear to meet him. And then if you're skilled and did your research you do it right back to him. On a standard playthrough you fight him once in the middle of the game and once at the end. On my playthrough I used the dossier I'd built up on him to exploit his trust issues and get him to walk away and leave his boss instead of fighting him at the end. On my second playthrough I decided I'd piss him off instead and I managed to piss him off enough that in the first fight where he's meant to run away and fight another day, instead he became so angry with me that he fought me to the death, and again I didn't have to do his boss fight at the end of the game.

I've never really played a game like that before. It's definitely designed to be played more than once.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Little Big Adventure 1 and 2...

LBA1 was horrific at times... You start in a prison and have to do a puzzle to break out (which due to the incredibly slow animations and speed of the gameplay is tedious, and because of the camera angle is actually quite difficult to get the jumps right!) And then you have to do the item swapping fetch quests, which I find quite fun (mosly because I love the characters in these games!) But all the moving and figting is really slow... and then it has a mechanic in it that if you make one slightly wrong move you get chased down by some guards and jailed again... to have to break out (in exactly the same way... seriously, do the guards not upgrade this place?) again. It can get really tedious finding yourself in jail... over and over! :/

The second game was much better, but still has the slowness problems. Most 3rd person games either have mouse controls or when you press arrow keys the character moves in that direction relative to the camera. LBA games have left and right that rotate you on the spot, and up runs forwards in the direction Twinsen is facing... This sometimes makes it difficult to run round obsticles, or to do precision platforming. Coupled with the really long animations for some moves this can be a painfully slow game at times!

Hopefully this vid shows what I mean:
Still, number 2 is one of my favourite games ever!

 

[The_Echo]

Kingdom Hearts.

I love the first game to death, but every time I play it the camera and jump controls, combined with some occasional awful level design make me completely understand why some people can't stand it.

There are people who can't stand the gameplay? Huh. The only problem I've ever had was the camera and ? command (which have been fixed for 1.5HD).

OT: I'm racking my brain here. I really don't tend to love games with awful gameplay. And I think I might have a pretty good tolerance for bad gameplay on top of that.

So... Kid Icarus: Uprising?

Or... people complain about the controls in Shadow of the Colossus, right? I mean, I liked it. But I guess it counts.