Aby game that you heard about and thought “meh it’s just another xyz style game. How good can it be?” But you gave it a go anyway and it turned out the game was really good.
Minecraft.
I usually hate creative builder games with a passion, I joined fairly early in the alpha process and fell in love with the blocky design.
Then when i thought the game couldn’t get more engaging, forge was released for it and mods started being made and it opened a whole new universe that I’m /still/ playing today.
Also was Minecraft for me, but different story.
Back in 2011 or so someone told me it was a game where you could do anything: build anything anywhere, craft, fight, explore an unlimited world… But without mentioning the graphics and that it was made with cubes. I was a kid back then, so I believed it would be realistic graphics. Imagine my disappointment when they showed it to me.
But I actually watched some videos after and tried it myself and absolutely loved it.
Spiritfarer
Was not ready for that emotional rollercoaster from a “cozy” game.
A thousand times this. There were a lot of stories that made me cry, but Alice had me sobbing. When you had to walk slowly to stay with her, I felt like I was walking with my grandmother towards the end.
Incredible game.
I had lost my grandad a few years prior and never really dealt with it. My Grandma was already declining and only had months to go. I went in 100% blind to Spiritfarer and started it because I wanted something laid back, and I enjoyed the art style. Talk about a gut punch.
That game, at that time, had the same effect that watching Grave of the Fireflies had back in the day. It still sticks with me to this day.
I looked it up and wasn’t all that excited by it, but figured I’d give it a try anyway based on this thread Yep, thanks, I’ve not got a hope in hell in doing anything else for while now. :D
Mad Max
Could have been just movie tie-in garbage but is a solid top 20 game from last gen.
That game was so much more fun than reviewers made it out to be.
Thomas Was Alone.
I suck at platformers, and don’t like playing them. But this game, and most especially its narration, made me fall in love with quadrilaterals.
I won’t say more, but if you haven’t tried it please give it a chance.
It’s not a game I ended up playing a lot, but during the pandemic one person I know gifted me a copy of Among Us, and kept insisting I play with him and his friends. I was reluctant at first because I’ve never had good experiences with multiplayer games, but I ended up having a great time. They were on Discord with mics, but I was text-only, and it was funny hearing them when I was the Impostor. When they all went to bed, I continued playing with some randoms for a few more hours, and also had a great time, some were sad when I decided to finally leave.
Space Engineers. Little space ship building game, why not.
1500 hours later…
Strange Horticulture.
I expected some entertaining puzzles for an afternoon, but I really liked everything about it.
I played it with my partner but then we took a break and came back to it a while later. Forgot who we were helping and ended up with an ending we weren’t aiming for. Fun gameplay for a pair otherwise.
I was a teenage exocolonist
I thought it was a pretty cute narrative game but the amount of love, story, mechanics and possible outcomes blew my mind and no week goes by that I don’t wish I could play it again for the first time.
I picked it up on sale cause it looked like something I would like. It sat in my steam library for years before I played it on a whim.
What I didn’t expect was an incredible story that would have me gripped till the end. Absolutely an awesome game.
Ixion
Thought it was another generic fun little city builder.
And it is only it has some absolutely unique mechanics that are fun, a really good approach to unlocking through research, and a genuinely beautiful setting.
Seriously, the music, the story and the voice acting make it a genuinely rich experience.
I churned out on my first attempt to pay the game on release,but am really glad I gave it a second try after it got a few patches.
Ixion had me at the trailer. Not many games or movies hold that kind of sway over me, and I was so richly rewarded for giving it a shot.
My only frustration with the game is how low replay-ability is, and how the overall plot is fixed. You can make some different decisions along the way, but you’re not going to impact the story all that much.
True.
The biggest change during my replays is how I interact with the spheres!
Die Hard (for the NES)
Warning: You MUST read the manual!
At first glance it might look like a simple top-down scrolling shooter like Commando or The Chaos Engine, but it’s so much more. It’s very free and open, with seven floors to explore, and once the in-game timer ends you must go to the 30th floor for the final showdown. The thing is that there are a few ways both to pick off the terrorists singly or in pairs, and to extend the time limit. If you just hide in some corner of the building and wait for the timer to run out, you’re going to get mown down by 30 armed terrorists in a fairly small space. But if you’re good you can use that time to wipe out almost all of the terrorists, leaving only the leader Hans himself to face you, which is much more manageable.
Die Hard wasn’t high on my list at all when I first played it in the 1990s, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s still one of my all-time favourites. But ever since AVGN did a video on it, it’s become popular to dump on it.
Most “complaints” that I see about this game either show that the person hasn’t actually played it for themselves at all, or are solved by reading the manual. Funnily enough, in that AVGN video he even says something like “Maybe this would make sense if I read the manual, but f*** that, who reads manuals?”
The only negative thing I have to say is that IMO the “foot power” meter, which affects movement speed, runs out a bit too quickly even when you walk everywhere instead of running. That being said, I’ve only noticed it on later replays, and I don’t recall it being a problem the first time I played it all those years ago.
who reads manuals?
In the 90s, everyone who wanted a shot at understanding what was going on. Games didn’t have a ton of text, so the manual was the way to learn the controls, get backstory, and even some hints for obtuse puzzles.
If you’re going to play an old game, you need to embrace the way people played back then, which was the manual and sometimes a paid guide book.
And social media wasn’t a thing, nor YouTube, nor forms for sharing it really known. Reading the manual on the way home, getting excited to play it was part of the experience.
Super Mario 64 was, by memory, one of the first to have tutorial-like directions and informational instructions in game with more in the first few levels. Even then reading the manual still helped. I was genuinely shocked when Skyrim just omitted a manual entirely compared to the thick booklet Oblivion came with.
Yup, I remember reading the manual on the toilet while my sibling was playing so when it was my turn, I’d have a leg up. We would take turns, cheering each other on as we got past a difficult part, and sharing secrets that we found.
With the internet, I can just look up a walkthrough pretty soon after the game launches, so I have no reason to look at the manual (if there is one) or talk to anyone else.
I think that’s why competitive MP has taken off. People want that social experience, and that’s filling in for what used to exist. I remember PvP being a thing, but I also remember helping each other out on a SP game being a thing, so both were social activities (if it wasn’t a sibling, it was a friend or coworker).
Thank you for posting this. I’ll have to check this out - I slept on this for all this time. You don’t see many scenario-style games… ever? The fixed timer and resources sound like quite the challenge.
Balan wonderland. It looked like a dumb kids game graphically, and I never saw it cost more than $10 new. How good could it actually be?
Picked it up because why not, $10. And it’s actually a great little platformer with cute and engaging mechanics.
I wish the clock did something if you complete it; spawning the kings is a gigantic pain and very confusing for something that does nothing at all, but it’s a very cute little side project, so it should have had a purpose. The use of consumable costumes sucks. It should just be an unlock thing rather than needing to farm the level, since farming is just standing next to the spawn point, which is tedious and dumb. Other than those two minor complaints, it is really engaging and a lot longer than I was expecting. Lots of hidden stuff, great level design, and just complicated enough to make you think without being overly frustrating.
I love that you dig it but don’t even call it by the right name, Balan Wonderworld, because it was named so poorly hahahaha
Funnily enough Hollow Knight. I saw the release of the Grimm Troupe DLC on GOG and was interested by the art style. I thought, hey a metroidvania, it’s been a while since I played one and 15 €, that’s nothing. The rest was one of the best gaming experiences I ever had, precisely because I didn’t expect anything.
That would be my one also. I thought it to be another platformer, but the story and progression had me hooked
Second this. I shout from the rooftops how much I love HK.
Silksong is proving a touch less perfectly balanced, and as a sequel a smidge of the novelty has worn off, but still, extremely good.
Bioshock. It was expected to be just another FPS but with an interesting “magic” system. What it turned out to be was a narrative played from the first person. My room mate played it as a standard run and gun, and was rightfully unimpressed. Taking it slow, exploring, and passing attention to all the little bits of story made it amazing.
Yes, same exact experience here with that game.
No Rest for the Wicked
Reviews were pretty harsh and videos did not make it look that great. It’s been my main squeeze for about 100 hours now, having me put other games on hold only to return to it every evening after work.
Not even done yet, but currently, it’s a very solid EA game.
Absolutely amazingly beautiful game. The cutscenes…
makes me think of Arcane every time I load it up.And then, it turns out it’s got solid gameplay, if you like Dark Souls type of games. It’s got that oomph to the fighting. That visceral feel that really makes the fighting enjoyable, although brutal. It’s got room for improvement for sure, but they keep polishing it and every time I come back it’s better. It’s hard to believe it’s only a fraction of the full game, too!
