Have you ever played a game that you weren't expecting to be anything out of the ordinary?
Have you ever played a game that absolutely destroyed your expectations to the point of you being left in a state of complete disbelief?
Some of them might have turned out to be all time favourites while others might have not. The key word here is expectations.
If the answer is yes,share your experiences here.
First of all I would like to start with the end all be all breaker of expectations for me:
Let's jump back to early 2013
I had heard good things about this game from youtube videos and other folk on the internet. I didn't think much of it, I thought it was going to be a good game with a decent story, an enjoyable experience overall but nothing to write home about..
Boy was I wrong....
I started playing this in conjunction with Ys Seven to have something different going on to compliment the fast paced nature of Ys.. Well I started it at 18:00, right in the beginning of the evening. The setting was intriguing and it was enough to make me get past the rather annoying first puzzle(I was not used to a lot of point and click games by this time so I had a hard time finding some of the items to progress), the logic needed to do the puzzle however was intuitive and I enjoyed it.. Got past the first room and then met the characters. The soundtrack started kicking in for real, characters were established and the twists began immediately, there was one twist right after the first puzzle that immediately got me hooked.
The setting, characters, story, twists and turns, the atmosphere, the dread, everything about this game was surreal and completely unbelievably good. I played until about 4 in the morning, reached my first ending and got halfway through another playthrough(in which you can skip text you previously read so it's really quick), went to bed completely high on the game, I was floored and couldn't wait to wake up and continue.
When I woke up the first thing I did was turn on my ds and continue.. I played until 4 am again only stopping to eat and go to the bathroom when I needed. I finished the game and got all endings and the game blew me away in every step of the way. It had been the best narrative I had ever experienced, I proceeded to obsess over the game for a few weeks by constantly listening to the soundtrack and getting other people I knew to play it(I succeeded in getting my brother and two of my friends to play it and they also loved it.).
Ternary Game - This is an example of the atmosphere drenching nature of the OST. It's not very effective outside of context for people who never played the game but I guarantee that this is one of the most immersive OST's in a game.
This particular game ended up being an all time favourite and it still remains to this day the most impactful gaming experience I ever had.
Next up:
I know it might seem weird that these were a surprise hit but hear me out.
So I only jumped into the MGS bandwagon in 2012. This was a time where my internet lurking did not include gaming related stuff for the most part, I was completely ignorant about the magnitude of the franchise. All I knew was that this was a game that my brothers had played when they were teens and I was a little kid. I remember that they loved this game and I had faint memories of cool looking boss fights and stuff. Fast forward to 2012 and now my eldest brother buys Metal Gear Solid 2(they kinda dropped out of gaming during he early 2000's , my eldest brother must have been feeling nostalgic and he wanted to see what the sequels were all about.), well he bought it and he played through the tanker chapter and dropped it for some reason, however my other older brother played through the entire game and I watched a few parts of it here and there and the narrative was super compelling(this is when I found out the MGS games were very story heavy, I thought they were gameplay oriented stealth games).
With that I decided to get the first MGS for my psp and see what the fuss was all about.. I struggled with the gameplay early on because this was my first experience with a stealth game but the narrative, voice acting and long cutscenes pulled me in completely. I could not stop playing this game. The gameplay was tons of fun too with great boss fights and a lot of imaginative ways to tackle problems. In every step of the way I was completely baffled that a non RPG game had such a great story(in 2012 let's just say that my knowledge of gaming in general was very limited and it was playing games like MGS that made me crazy about gaming and basically it's a central part of my life now.).
I finished it in 2 days and I had to immediately start up MGS 2.. Playing MGS 2 was like reaching a new level of enlightment.. I was completely blown away by all the twists, philosofical commentary and level of complexity of the story.. I played it in a single sitting and jesus fucking christ was it good.. Another one of my all time favourites. MGS 1 shattered expectations because I was ignorant about the series, MGS 2 shattered expectations when they were already sky high coming off of MGS 1.
Of course in the vacinity of 2 days I bought MGS 3 for the ps2 and also played it in a few sittings but it didn't raise the bar after MGS 2.
I have a few more examples but I want to leave those for later because I don't want to make this OP too long.
Have you ever played a game that absolutely destroyed your expectations to the point of you being left in a state of complete disbelief?
Some of them might have turned out to be all time favourites while others might have not. The key word here is expectations.
If the answer is yes,share your experiences here.
First of all I would like to start with the end all be all breaker of expectations for me:
Let's jump back to early 2013
I had heard good things about this game from youtube videos and other folk on the internet. I didn't think much of it, I thought it was going to be a good game with a decent story, an enjoyable experience overall but nothing to write home about..
Boy was I wrong....
I started playing this in conjunction with Ys Seven to have something different going on to compliment the fast paced nature of Ys.. Well I started it at 18:00, right in the beginning of the evening. The setting was intriguing and it was enough to make me get past the rather annoying first puzzle(I was not used to a lot of point and click games by this time so I had a hard time finding some of the items to progress), the logic needed to do the puzzle however was intuitive and I enjoyed it.. Got past the first room and then met the characters. The soundtrack started kicking in for real, characters were established and the twists began immediately, there was one twist right after the first puzzle that immediately got me hooked.
The setting, characters, story, twists and turns, the atmosphere, the dread, everything about this game was surreal and completely unbelievably good. I played until about 4 in the morning, reached my first ending and got halfway through another playthrough(in which you can skip text you previously read so it's really quick), went to bed completely high on the game, I was floored and couldn't wait to wake up and continue.
When I woke up the first thing I did was turn on my ds and continue.. I played until 4 am again only stopping to eat and go to the bathroom when I needed. I finished the game and got all endings and the game blew me away in every step of the way. It had been the best narrative I had ever experienced, I proceeded to obsess over the game for a few weeks by constantly listening to the soundtrack and getting other people I knew to play it(I succeeded in getting my brother and two of my friends to play it and they also loved it.).
Ternary Game - This is an example of the atmosphere drenching nature of the OST. It's not very effective outside of context for people who never played the game but I guarantee that this is one of the most immersive OST's in a game.
This particular game ended up being an all time favourite and it still remains to this day the most impactful gaming experience I ever had.
Next up:
I know it might seem weird that these were a surprise hit but hear me out.
So I only jumped into the MGS bandwagon in 2012. This was a time where my internet lurking did not include gaming related stuff for the most part, I was completely ignorant about the magnitude of the franchise. All I knew was that this was a game that my brothers had played when they were teens and I was a little kid. I remember that they loved this game and I had faint memories of cool looking boss fights and stuff. Fast forward to 2012 and now my eldest brother buys Metal Gear Solid 2(they kinda dropped out of gaming during he early 2000's , my eldest brother must have been feeling nostalgic and he wanted to see what the sequels were all about.), well he bought it and he played through the tanker chapter and dropped it for some reason, however my other older brother played through the entire game and I watched a few parts of it here and there and the narrative was super compelling(this is when I found out the MGS games were very story heavy, I thought they were gameplay oriented stealth games).
With that I decided to get the first MGS for my psp and see what the fuss was all about.. I struggled with the gameplay early on because this was my first experience with a stealth game but the narrative, voice acting and long cutscenes pulled me in completely. I could not stop playing this game. The gameplay was tons of fun too with great boss fights and a lot of imaginative ways to tackle problems. In every step of the way I was completely baffled that a non RPG game had such a great story(in 2012 let's just say that my knowledge of gaming in general was very limited and it was playing games like MGS that made me crazy about gaming and basically it's a central part of my life now.).
I finished it in 2 days and I had to immediately start up MGS 2.. Playing MGS 2 was like reaching a new level of enlightment.. I was completely blown away by all the twists, philosofical commentary and level of complexity of the story.. I played it in a single sitting and jesus fucking christ was it good.. Another one of my all time favourites. MGS 1 shattered expectations because I was ignorant about the series, MGS 2 shattered expectations when they were already sky high coming off of MGS 1.
Of course in the vacinity of 2 days I bought MGS 3 for the ps2 and also played it in a few sittings but it didn't raise the bar after MGS 2.
I have a few more examples but I want to leave those for later because I don't want to make this OP too long.
_PAL_cover.jpg)
