Take a chance on me!

[tippy2k2]

Unless you happen to have a zillion dollars and all the free time in the world, most of us are on a limited income and time budget. Unfortunately, this means that there are a lot of games that just don't go played because everyone said they sucked.

But....what if you threw off the chains of reviews and took a chance!!?! What if you gave that 6/10 game a go and it clicked?!!> What if you got Wolverine's super powers!?? (Note: This has nothing to do with the thread; I just think his powers would be really handy to have). What if, dare I say it, the game that everyone hated was good?

Friends, enemies, people who are actually dogs in human disguises; I have played that game!

DEADPOOL (Metacritic; 62 Critic Score and 7.4 User Score)

As someone who is stupid excited over Ryan Reynold's sexy sexy sexy acting bringing the Merc with a Mouth to life but not until next year, I had a Deadpool itch that needed scratching. Most reviews I saw called the game average at best and a turd sandwich at worst but...

I freaking love it. Yes, if you took Deadpool away, the game would be an OK-at-best hack and slashy crappy God of War clone but I find the game absolutely hilarious. Nolan North voices Deadpool (I swear Mr. North voices everyone in every game that has ever existed) and he absolutely nails it. The game has a fair amount of blood and sexual content but would it be a Deadpool game if it wasn't kind of crazy? No, it would not be; that was a dumb question straw-man I just built. Some of the lines in combat get repeated an awful lot but that's a mild annoyance in a sea of hilarity.

So Escapist members, what games have you played that you took a chance on? Was it a game in a genre you normally hate? A game that got ripped apart by the reviews? A game you knew nothing about but grabbed because it was cheap so why not? What game was it and how/why did you take a chance on it?

 

[Dalek Caan]

Too Human.

Spoiler: Yep, that.

Review for it where it poor or mediocre, Yahtzee even named it his worst review of 2010. Whenever I ask other people talk about it they either say "What" or "Ugh".

But I loved it. I thought the setting was really cool, Techno-Viking fighting against an army of Robotic Goblins and Zombies from the depths of Hel. To younger, and older, me this was really awesome and what was made me pick up the game in the first place. The swordplay, which took a while to grow on me, was actually really fun and after a while I was pulling off some pretty good combos.

The level of Customization in that game however was what really got me. I could spend an hour easily going back and forth between different armour pieces and which colour to use on it. Every piece, 6 in all, could each be dyed a completely different colour so if you wanted to you could be a Rainbow dashing into battle with your sword and guns.

This is my stupid game, I don't care about some plot involving Loki and his search for power, I just want to slice things with my sword and look cool doing it.

 

[Redryhno]

Too Human.

Spoiler: Yep, that.

Review for it where it poor or mediocre, Yahtzee even named it his worst review of 2010. Whenever I ask other people talk about it they either say "What" or "Ugh".

But I loved it. I thought the setting was really cool, Techno-Viking fighting against an army of Robotic Goblins and Zombies from the depths of Hel. To younger, and older, me this was really awesome and what was made me pick up the game in the first place. The swordplay, which took a while to grow on me, was actually really fun and after a while I was pulling off some pretty good combos.

The level of Customization in that game however was what really got me. I could spend an hour easily going back and forth between different armour pieces and which colour to use on it. Every piece, 6 in all, could each be dyed a completely different colour so if you wanted to you could be a Rainbow dashing into battle with your sword and guns.

This is my stupid game, I don't care about some plot involving Loki and his search for power, I just want to slice things with my sword and look cool doing it.

I'd have to second this. If nothing else, the game had a unique artstyle and the basics of the combat system has to be one of the better hack and slash ones I've ever seen. Not just button mashing, but the way you tilt your right stick drastically changing how you swing your weapons around and what your combos do. Really satisfying on everything but the last level and minibosses. And the troll-fighting...sure it gets tedious after a while, but it's SOOOO much fun having to actually rip off armor to hit a weak point instead of it just being a prominent part of the enemy's design you can hit from the start. But that death screen can go fuck right off.

For my personal recommendation, I'd have to say Imperium Romanum, fun little city builder that was only really let down by the inclusion of combat and how simple it was to make infinite money. The campaign is gigantic too, something like 50 maps in all.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Mercenaries kinda ruined sandbox games for me because it made me realized what sandbox games should be. There were so many options to go about completing missions that the game felt more like a puzzle game than anything. You had all these factions that you had to keep happy like one mission you'd have to do something to the Chinese for the US and then the next mission you were doing something against the US for the Chinese. The thing was there was always a way to do a mission without the faction knowing that you did it. The disguise system (getting in a faction's vehicle) and the airstrikes really allowed for the multiple ways to complete a mission. The world design was even much different from GTA. Instead of a big city/map created first and then missions placed on said map (GTA style), Mercenaries map was created by making standalone missions (all with care taken to enemy placement and such) and then placing them all on a canvas to create the world. Mercenaries basically ruined GTA and most other sandbox games. Lastly, Mercenaries 2 sucked.

---

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Firstly, the campaign of Warfighter is just complete and utter shit; the level design is atrociously bad (hallways literally coming to dead-ends), bad enemy and friendly AI, you fucking leveled up door breaching, etc. HOWEVER, the competitive multiplayer is quite possibly the best FPS MP of last-gen. Basically all of things that made the campaign horrible aren't elements of multiplayer. The controls are the best FPS controls of last-gen, there's leaning and sliding, which makes gunfights so much more dynamic and allows for a much bigger skill-gap between players. The game's weapons and classes are extremely balanced, Warfighter is probably the 2nd most balanced online shooter of last-gen. Bullet damage was just right, it's took 5-6 bullets to kill depending on the gun, it was just the right amount where you couldn't spray for easy kills while having good aim allowed you to quickly kill an enemy.

---

Heavenly Sword

For me, Heavenly Sword was much more than a God of War clone with a chick as it was much better than even God of War 3. Heavenly Sword's combat system actually forced you to use different combos to take out different enemies whereas God of War is just mash square for everything. The stance system was pretty interesting (and basically used in DmC) and you also block by just not doing anything. Heavenly Sword had a lot of heart, I cared about the characters, the villains were quirky, and I loved the ending. Also, the ending felt pretty damn epic and the game really built-up nicely unlike God of War 3 which tries to be epic by constantly reminding you with how epic it is. Yeah, Heavenly Sword was a bit short, but I felt it was as long as it should've been (OK, maybe add like an extra hour at most). Note: I did really enjoy the first God of War but then in the sequels Kratos just became so unlikeable and the overarching plot makes no sense (especially how they tied the sequels to the 1st game) and the God of War 3 really has no point in existing as it could've and should've ended with God of War 2.

---

Bayonetta

Just because Bayonetta was really my first spectacle fighter and I didn't know whether I would like it or even dig the genre. I never had tried DMC because demons in general never interested me. I really fell in loved with everything about Bayonetta and got pretty deep into the mechanics like dodge offsetting.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Alan wake. No body liked Alan wake. Or so it seemed. But just as i was on the brink of thinking videoga e writing couldn't be good this game shows up out of nowhere and just engrossed me in its story.

Another is alpha protocol. Everyone and their dog bated this game. I thougbt it was a on of the best action games of the last generation.

 

[tippy2k2]

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

Mercenaries kinda ruined sandbox games for me because it made me realized what sandbox games should be. There were so many options to go about completing missions that the game felt more like a puzzle game than anything. You had all these factions that you had to keep happy like one mission you'd have to do something to the Chinese for the US and then the next mission you were doing something against the US for the Chinese. The thing was there was always a way to do a mission without the faction knowing that you did it. The disguise system (getting in a faction's vehicle) and the airstrikes really allowed for the multiple ways to complete a mission. The world design was even much different from GTA. Instead of a big city/map created first and then missions placed on said map (GTA style), Mercenaries map was created by making standalone missions (all with care taken to enemy placement and such) and then placing them all on a canvas to create the world. Mercenaries basically ruined GTA and most other sandbox games. Lastly, Mercenaries 2 sucked.

I loved Mercenaries! I would absolutely love for them to bring that to a current gen system as all the glorious destruction you could do could be even more glorious and destructiony on the more powerful systems!

Alan wake. No body liked Alan wake. Or so it seemed. But just as i was on the brink of thinking videoga e writing couldn't be good this game shows up out of nowhere and just engrossed me in its story.

Another is alpha protocol. Everyone and their dog bated this game. I thougbt it was a on of the best action games of the last generation.

I also greatly enjoyed Alan Wake (and to a slightly lesser extent, American Nightmare, although the bad guy was cool as ice in that).

Alpha Protocol as well. It was the kind of game that had the "You'll like it IF you can forgive the issues it has" attachment. I really didn't run into all the problems everyone else seemed to have since all I hear is how buggy it supposedly is but maybe I'm just lucky.

Sorry Too Human guys, I didn't play that one

 

[BeerTent]

I have to second(Third?) Alan Wake. I loved it to shit. Every second of it.

Brink was actually really enjoyable. I liked the character customization a lot, and I came out with quite a few cool looking characters. I also liked how the campaign's story was totally different depending on what side you were on.

I'll also put a cupcake out there for the original StarDrive. It was kind of cool, and I hear that they had a lot in place for the second one. Par at it's best, but it was still pretty cool and kind of fun.

And we can't forget the hidden gem that is VALVe's finest creation. Ricochet. (You CAN have some fun with that with enough beer in your system. and a few friends in a similar state.)

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Silent Hill Homecoming.

Spoiler

Scared me way more than SH2 ever did! I dunno, maybe it was the understandable plot, main character that had something to do with absolutely anything in the plot, and monsters you couldn't just walk briskly away from...

Also not being able to kill Pyramid Head? Kinda' a big deal if he's supposed to be such a badass!

 

[FPLOON]

Sonic 06... I beaten that game twice and on the second playthrough, I won a bet which net me 100 bones in cash... But seriously, it was Corruption of Champions, the game that showed me many things that I never thought I would like in a text-based RPG...

Other than that, the entire Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise back when the second game was announced... Now, that's a rabbit hole I've never regretted falling into out of sheet curiosity and, at the time, money to spend like tissue paper[footnote]Disclaimer: I did not know how to [truly] manege my overall income at the time...[/footnote]... Honorable mention to Virtua Quest for being the gem that time forgot, I guess...

 

[Something Amyss]

DEADPOOL (Metacritic; 62 Critic Score and 7.4 User Score)

I really wish I had bought this game. The thing is, there are two levels that really bordered on soul-killing for me. At the time, I couldn't see myself going back to it.

I can't think of any games right now, but since I play a lot of budget titles and also-rans, I'm sure there are some.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Whoever gave Deadpool a bad score is an imbecile, that game is brilliant B grade stuff. Although if you are one of the perpetually offended spazoids you will most likely suffer a hearth attack, so be sure to play it.
Most of the other stiff suggested in this thread is really a waste of your time and money, but in the event you got that shit for free and have no other options then I guess it's ok.

Stuff that is worth money but doesn't get the light of day is Darksider 1&2, no they aren't GoW clones they are games that borrow a whole lot of stuff from everywhere predominantly Zelda and DMC/GoW. They got story, they got a massive world to explore, they got puzzles, they got platforming, they got hack&slash, they got elaborate bosses,... there are even portals by the end of it. Granted these are no Gordon Ramsey gourmet meals, but they are nicely cooked pizzas that should make you pretty happy.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Games I took a chance on... hmmm.

First off: Miasmata

An indie horror/adventure game with an unusual premise (for the time). You wake up on an Island dying from some disease. Your objective? Find a cure. Your skills? Cartography.

The primary mechanic to this game is being able to map the island you are on. It's been a while since I played it but mapping the island is REALLY involved. Not only do you have to map the island (which involves WAY more then just walking around and having a blank sheet autofill) but if you ever need to get your bearings you need to be able to triangulate your position which is a feat in itself.

You find encampments that contain notes and diaries as well as work stations from which you can brew medication to stave off nausea, treat injuries and maladies and improve certain attributes (like stamina). In order to find the cure for the disease you need to collect samples from a variety of VERY rare plants that appear in only specific locations. Besides medication, you also need fresh water periodically to keep you in good health (you have a canteen that allows you to carry a few drinks).

All the while there is a strange predator stalking you. It doesn't appear too frequently, but when it does you are either running flat out away from it (and potentially getting lost in the island, stumbling over cliffs and injuring yourself or working up a fever that can cause you to faint) or desperately trying to keep out of it's line of sight.

Night in this game is EXTREMELY dark and for the most part all you have is a lighter or makeshift torches. The creature is most active at night, meaning it's best to find a camp and sleep till morning.

This was a surprisingly good game for what was the work of only 2 developers. A niche game no doubt, but I never thought I'd find cartography so engaging.

Next Up: Of Orcs and Men.

An RPG lite with a rather barebones story but with a twist. You take the role of a member of the Bloodjaws, an Elite Ork warrior named Arkail who is pretty much your garden variety Tank. You have one mission, kill the Emperor in order to end the slaughter and Human oppression of Orcs. You gain the assistance of a goblin assassin named Styx.

The game defines janky. It has a clunky combat system similar to DA:Origins, but far less refined. There is also this awkward combat mechanic where Arkail can become enraged and start attacking indiscriminately, completely taking away control from the player. Sometimes this can be a boon as he does tremendous damage in this state, but often it's a death sentence as he gets mobbed and overwhelmed. Voice Acting varies from good (Styx is great and as a duo, Styx and Arkail shine) to shite (pretty much every other character). The world is highly linear though often pretty (Unreal engine 3 still looks good). Animations are stiff.

The game had big ideas that never get realised. Which is a shame because despite all its flaws I really enjoyed it first time around. I'm reluctant to start a second play through as I fear it will tarnish my first impression.

 

[Savagezion]

Games I took a chance on... hmmm.

First off: Miasmata

An indie horror/adventure game with an unusual premise (for the time). You wake up on an Island dying from some disease. Your objective? Find a cure. Your skills? Cartography.

The primary mechanic to this game is being able to map the island you are on. It's been a while since I played it but mapping the island is REALLY involved. Not only do you have to map the island (which involves WAY more then just walking around and having a blank sheet autofill) but if you ever need to get your bearings you need to be able to triangulate your position which is a feat in itself.

You find encampments that contain notes and diaries as well as work stations from which you can brew medication to stave off nausea, treat injuries and maladies and improve certain attributes (like stamina). In order to find the cure for the disease you need to collect samples from a variety of VERY rare plants that appear in only specific locations. Besides medication, you also need fresh water periodically to keep you in good health (you have a canteen that allows you to carry a few drinks).

All the while there is a strange predator stalking you. It doesn't appear too frequently, but when it does you are either running flat out away from it (and potentially getting lost in the island, stumbling over cliffs and injuring yourself or working up a fever that can cause you to faint) or desperately trying to keep out of it's line of sight.

Night in this game is EXTREMELY dark and for the most part all you have is a lighter or makeshift torches. The creature is most active at night, meaning it's best to find a camp and sleep till morning.

This was a surprisingly good game for what was the work of only 2 developers. A niche game no doubt, but I never thought I'd find cartography so engaging.

I second Miasmata (which I still haven't beat) and Deadpool (which I have). Miasmata is very unique and it can even get a little frustrating for me personally. There still exists some issues in the game and I think it has been abandoned or is at least on hiatus from the devs. However, the exploration in it is fantastic. Be careful, running gives you momentum and if you are hoofing it at top speed, it can be hard to stop. Scary when you realize the bushes you are running at are hiding a cliff!

Seriously, this game can make you pee yourself.

While we are talking about Deadpool, I also recommend:

Captain America: Super Soldier on PS3/360

The combat in it is pretty good. As well, the story is decent. This game also scored a 61 on metacritic (7.2 with user reviews). You can tell it had rushed development as it lacks a level of polish that the Arkham titles hold onto. However, combat and really even the story both hold up. It's lack of polish comes in through the over use of hidden collectibles to the point where they are just laying around in the open, and level design, while not bad, feels bland with a lot of what feels like filler. However, the combat feels good so you hardly notice the environment as long as you have someone to fight. If you keep the action going, this game shines pretty decent.

 

[NPC009]

From my experience 6/10 games are either entertaining but kind of bland, or innovative but flawed. In the first case you could do better, but if you're delving into the depths of a specific genre you're going to end up playing 6s and enjoying it. The other 6s are interesting if you're into gamedesign. I like seeing new ideas and thinking of how they could be even better.

Anyway, the latest 6 I played was Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, a Wizardry-style DRPG that came out earlier this month. It currently has a 67/100 on Metacritic (with many mixed and several negative reviews), so looking at the numbers I could surely do better, but I was in the mood for a dungeon crawler and this game scratched my itch.

Sorcery Saga (65/100 on Metacritic) was enjoyable as well. I wanted a roguelike and this little game delivered.

A 6 that really impressed me is Fragile Dreams [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KvGd3hXgq8]. The gameplay is rather clunky because the developer was forced to put in combat where none was needed, but the story, the atmosphere and everything else more than make up for it. Short summary: after his caretaker dies, Seto assumes he's the last person alive in an eerily quiet world in which the rest of humanity just died one night. He then meets a young girl under the moonlit sky and when she disappears, he sets out on a journey to find her. It's a haunting tale of loneliness and isolation, and features what is possibly one of the most beautiful and quiet apocalypses I've ever seen in a game.

 

[Guffe]

Star Wars The Force Unleashed
I really enjoyed both games, saberfighting and using the overpowered forcemoves to just blast everything into oblivion.
I don't really need that much more to enjoy a game to be honest, it was just fun

 

[w23eer]

I was about to say FFXIII-2 but when I looked up the meta score it had a 79. Huh. I had the impression that reviewers slammed it.

But whatever, it was still a stupid thing for me to buy. I'm not huge into JRPGs (if you can even call FXIII-2 a JRPG) and I hated XIII with a passion. I can't remember what the hell was going through my head when I got it.

... but I'm glad I did. I just love that game. I love the stupid story, the stupid gameplay, the stupid monster collection mechanic, the stupid char... actually the characters were alright. But anyway, I absolutely loved the game. So much so that it's my favorite game of 2012.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Iron Man 2

My older brother got it while on a massive Iron Man binge, it was a movie tie in game that couldn't even get the proper actors in for the voices, but I'll admit, I had a lot more fun with that game then I thought I would, mostly because they managed to get in War Machine who I still think is way cooler

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Another is alpha protocol. Everyone and their dog bated this game. I thougbt it was a on of the best action games of the last generation.

Alpha Protocol is a game that I've always wanted to get to (among many other games) as I like Obsidian as a developer that I just haven't found the time for.

Brink was actually really enjoyable. I liked the character customization a lot, and I came out with quite a few cool looking characters. I also liked how the campaign's story was totally different depending on what side you were on.

I never got around to playing Brink but I liked several aspects of it. I like the emphasis on movement as I think that's where FPSs need improve greatly as that will greatly increase the skillgap among players. Most FPSs don't even have stuff like leaning and sliding, which make gunfights so much more dynamic. The modern military shooter has really only devolved the FPS genre IMO. I also heard that grenades didn't one hit kill in Brink (I'm not sure if that's true or not), which is something I really like so people can't just chuck grenades hoping for lucky kills. My favorite online shooter, Metal Gear Online, had grenades that didn't one hit kill as well. The one disappointing thing about Brink was there were no female characters and the devs said it was too hard; MGS4's Metal Gear Online did that years before Brink came out and I wouldn't be surprised if MGO had more customization options than Brink.