What's are Some Games You Thought Would Be Crap, But Ended Up Loving Them?

Sypro: The Dragon, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for me.

Spyro looked way too childish for me, even as a child, but then I started playing it, and loved it.

I remember a game I bought in a bargain bin years ago called Conflict: Desert Storm. I’d have heard of it, but no one ever talked about it and the reviews were mediocre to poor. I played it casually a few times and didn’t put much mind to it. One day I randomly decided to put some effort into it and learn the controls (which were quite in depth), and I had a lot of fun with it. It stands out as a favourite from the generation.

Hotline Miami and Guacamelee. I thought they both looked generic and boring, but they turned out to be two of my favorite games.

Red Dead Redemption (PS3). Westerns were never my thing but I gave it a chance and what would ya know....

I wrote off Dead or Alive as a game using boobs to sell a mediocre product. Fortunately there was a demo disc for Dreamcast that had DOA 2 on it. Been a fan of the series sinse.

The Division 2 is the most recent one, as I bought it to play co-op with a friend, I went in with very low expectations and ended up loving it. I beat the game, then beat the invasion, got to world tier 5, gotten nearly all of the masks, have a gear score of 497/500. I just need to find about 5 people to have a go at the raid.

Destiny: The Taken King.

After how terrible Destiny vanilla was, I begrudgingly purchased the expansion only to find it clicked in almost every way.

I would say Crackdown 3, but love isn't correct word.

I'd say Dark Souls Remastered, cuz never gave them games a shot, but I knew a friend who loved Demon Souls, so didn't expect shit per say, more a shitty time, but loved it.

Blackops 4 is definitely the pick. I got it via Humble Bundle, and thought I'd just get access to the Blackout, but got whole game, and I absolutely love the Zombies, maybe more than any Zombies before it. I thought Blackout would be dumb af, yet, I like that its same guns I use elsewhere. Sadly the lack of campaign sucks, but I've never played a campaign post World at War, so I can't complain.

Quite a lot on this gen:

Mafia 3, Deus Ex, Killzone Shadowfall, AC Syndicate, FC Primal, Fallout 4, Both Tomb Raiders...

I also have a DOA answer, then I picked up Dimensions on 3DS and had a lot of fun with that.

Dead Island. I was on the verge of returning it, and then I gave it another go. Really enjoyed the game. Glad I didn't end up bringing it back.

Elder Scrolls Online. I was sure that I would not like it, but it was actually pretty good.

currently nothing, but back then I used to watch Pewdiepie play Amnesia and I never really liked the game walkthrough or gameplay, but when I played it myself I really did love it. And also Flappy bird. I remember how my friends used to play every day, it was so weird to me, but once I downloaded the app I couldnt stop for two weeks.. same thing happened to me with app Pou (the one where you tkae care of a poop haha! till this day I remember the sound it made when I put food on it and It wasnt hungry anymore). What a weird time man haha

I can’t really think of any really. However to be fair there’s been a lot of games that I thought looked good and that I’ve enjoyed so I really don’t have time to even try a game that I think might be no good.

Assasin's creed, funny enough I've played through every mainline assassin's creed since.

But the first one certainly was the hardest to finish. If anyone is looking for a starting point with the series, I recommend Origins. It's the best one of the bunch.

Vampyr, I had no expectations for this game at all, never liked Life Is Strange and all the trailers for Vampyr looked a bit naff but it's actually an excellent game, under-rated in reviews IMO. Great characters and a pretty good story and there's a heavy underlying atmosphere that's present throughout the whole thing.

I even liked the combat which seemed to be the biggest complaint for most people. Delighted to see that they're now working on Vampyr 2 which will be day one for me.

the first deus ex. i played the demo of it (which takes place on liberty island) and was not really impressed. seemed like a very wonky shooter. all the reviews were glowing though and it came in a shiny box so i gave it a shot. the start was still meh. after that....yeah best game ever made imho.

batman AA. again not a great demo. but people that played it seemed to love it. it was on sale so i have it a shot. a very good game....very well done.

monster hunter tri. on paper i should not like this series. time limits, grinding, shines in MP. but, like dark souls or animal crossing, its one of those games one should try and i actually really liked it (have MHGU sitting in my switch. 80 hours in and barely scratched the surface).

Horizon Zero Dawn

Went in very pessimistic ended up Blowing me away, and exceeded benchmarks previously see other top tier games.

Fallout 76. It’s rather... dare I say it....fun.

Especially now knowing that they’re adding NPCs.

Killzone Shadow Fall just came to mind. I enjoyed the previous Killzone games but I hated this one at first. The game was just boring. I shelved it for like a year or two then finally decided to give it another chance and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Brothers: A tale of two sons

i had no intentions of playing this game but a friend of mine gifted me the game via steam so i gave it a try - i instantly fell in love with the game and even cried at the ending.

I can't think of any. I am good at analyzing games before playing them. So, if it seems like crap, it is most likely crap. The game would have to change a lot for me to start liking it.

Spec Ops: the line- looked like it was going to be another generic dude bro shooter but was quite the opposite especially in terms of story.

Skyrim I usually don't like first person games. I was hung up on Dark Souls at the time Skyrim came out. It wasn't until special edition was released on PS4 that I fell in love with the game. I've always been a huge Zelda fan. I quit playing breath of the wild halfway through because I couldn't put Skyrim down. I still can't quit playing I even bought a gaming pc so I could play with mods.

AC IV: Black Flag. I didn't much like AC3 much and had low expectations but it ended up being my favorite game in the series and one of my favorite games the year it came out

I don't tend to play games that look shit gameplay wise, so almost never.

I suppose Nier 2, I didn't like the original so enjoying the sequel was a surprise I suppose.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2- I hated Rex's art style but after playing it, it's easily in my top 5 games atm

Nier Automata- Thought it looked meh by the trailers but after putting some time into it, fell in love with it

ESO- The first two years were rough and it was pretty bland, but after the OT update it became A LOT better and it's become my 2nd most played game ever (after WoW) which I've put 1300 hours into ESO since 2015 with a 2 year break during that time.

AC Origins- Like many other gamers the AC formula was getting old for me, then I took a chance cause I love Ancient Egyptian history so I gave it a shot and didn't regret it.

AC Odyssey- Pretty much the same with AC Origins

Warframe- To be honest the first few years it was a meh game and I thought it was a "slightly below avg game" but the last two years DE has made Warframe into a whole new beast.

Demons souls. Gamespot gave it game of the year so I was curious why. Played it and it was crap, dying means you get a penalty and you die a lot in this game. Frustrated and go on a week long rank on online about how I hated this game but urges from people to calm down, finish the game changed me. I loved the experience, it wasnt that hard as many boses were just gimmicks but it was the first time I played a game where I had to die a lot to learn. I memorized whole boletaria layout, studied enemy A.I and read every description on item I found. loved the whole experience.

Also Magic and bow is really overpowered in this game.

Trials Fusion. Had zero expectation. Think it may have been on a psn sale. Perhaps its just what i look for in a game. Easy to pick up/hard to master. Cant get into the time consuming stuff anymore.

I seriously need to get that game.

Uh I don't know possibly like one of those like pong or asteroids I guess?

Recently, Sea of Thieves. Damn, that game got so much hate. Reading forums, you'd never think the game is actually a lot of fun. Pretty bare bones, but fun. The game doesn't tell the gamer how to have fun though, which I believe is the main reason why so many gamers found it boring. Modern gamers usually need arrows and pointers all over the place.

Also, Rocket League. I really don't like sports games, but this sport I like. :P

@Litchie:

Good summation of Sea of Thieves. I think it's the least handholding game I've ever played.

@SecretPolice: Yeah, it's one of the reasons I like it so much. I wish more devs dared to make games for the non stupids.

Playing a perfect example of this right now: Resident Evil 6. Very entertaining game imo that was received super negatively back in the day so I didn't play it until now. But great controls and intense pacing with many over the top moments allready! Simple fun, love it :)!