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Games that ended up over delivering?

For me it's gotta be MGS V. In terms of game-play and day one PC performance it was definitely my pick for game of the year.
 
How can people say Witcher 3 when the movement and combat is so clunky and tedious? Obviously not everyone will think so, but it seems to be widely agreed upon that the game's combat and movement leaves a lot to be desired.
 
I see this as a subjective thing, unless I am doing it wrong. What I personally expected from a game and it went over that.

AC2 - first game was repetitive to me
DOOM - We pretty much all know why
The Witcher 3 - It's just massive and full of life and things to do
World of Warcraft - back in 2005 I didn't even know it was an MMO
Bloodborne - my first game of the developer
Uncharted 4 - expectations were really high and it went over it for me

Some other games you might think I missed like GTA V as an example. For me that game, just like some others, I simply had very high expectations and they delivered just that.

I actually didn't like the story at all in GTA V. Not to be confused with the voice acting.
 
Fahzgoolin said:
How can people say Witcher 3 when the movement and combat is so clunky and tedious? Obviously not everyone will think so, but it seems to be widely agreed upon that the game's combat and movement leaves a lot to be desired.
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Because it was made up for by world size and density hundreds of interesting well written side quests and contracts, a great main quest, deep rich lore, great characters, and a super in depth potion and crafting system? Just a guess.
 
Fahzgoolin said:
How can people say Witcher 3 when the movement and combat is so clunky and tedious? Obviously not everyone will think so, but it seems to be widely agreed upon that the game's combat and movement leaves a lot to be desired.
Click to expand...

While I agree with you, the game does a lot of other things really well.
 
paragonpro said:
Because it was made up for by world size and density hundreds of interesting well written side quests and contracts, a great main quest, deep rich lore, great characters, and a super in depth potion and crafting system? Just a guess.
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OrbitalBeard said:
While I agree with you, the game does a lot of other things really well.
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I hear you... I just find it really strange that the core gameplay and interaction with the game is not very good, yet everyone is willing to look past it. I can totally see where people are coming from when it comes to the writing, quests, plots, and world...but when I'm playing the game and not enjoying my interaction with it I get turned off really fast.

I'm currently struggling to get through it because of this.

Alpha Centauri said:
The game gives you a huge buffet of food (content). Your utensil (gameplay) to enjoy it may not be to your liking, but it is undeniably a banquet-sized feast.
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An apt analogy. I understand. I guess coming fresh off the heals of Bloodborne, Doom, and Ratchet and Clank, I'm getting quickly bored with the "utensil."
 
Fahzgoolin said:
How can people say Witcher 3 when the movement and combat is so clunky and tedious? Obviously not everyone will think so, but it seems to be widely agreed upon that the game's combat and movement leaves a lot to be desired.
Click to expand...

The game gives you a huge buffet of food (content). Your utensil (gameplay) to enjoy it may not be to your liking, but it is undeniably a banquet-sized feast.

The question was what game over delivered. I think Witcher 3 is the best example.
 
I don't agree with people saying witcher 3s movement is clunky. I think horse riding was kind of clunky but everything on foot was fine. If anything, combat was just kind of boring, even on death march. It over delivered on content though
 
Doom, easily.

-Had an E3 reveal that made it looks pretty slow and pedestrian
-Multiplayer beta reception was mostly negative
-Review copies weren't even handed out until after launch, making people suspicious of the games overall quality.

3 strikes against it from it's initial reveal all the way up to launch, most people were expecting a mediocre game, but it blew most people away with it's campaign. The very definition of a game that's over-delivered.
 
Bloodborne

a spinoff off the Dark Souls formula, but ending up being better in gameplay and boss design. The only thing holding it back were the chalice dungeons and limited replayablity, but the DLC "fixes" that, but not really with the poor NG+ implementation. That said, the gameplay and boss fights and JUST THAT GOOD that it exceeded my expectations and overdelivered.
 
Saint's Row 2.

First game was a fairly average game. I remember seeing the first pics of the second game, looked like ass compared to GTA IV, and I was expecting a fairly average game like Saint's Row 1.

I put hundreds of hours into SR2 and it ended up being one of my favourite sandbox games ever. The amount of content and customization was amazing.
 
Doom is a good one.

Demon's Souls and Arkham Asylum were probably the two best examples last generation.

Generation before that probably GTA3.
 
I've never played it but I have to say the new Hitman. Following up to Absolution, the weird and not well explained episodic system and the refunds didn't inspire confidence but the game came out and got massively positive word of mouth.
 
In terms of content?

Okami

in terms of content AND quality?

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Resident Evil 4
SSB4
GTA5

I'm not saying Okami's content isn't quality, but it didn't shatter my expectations like the other four games did. They just kept on giving and giving.

EDIT: I also agree with Pokemon silver. That was incredible.
 
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Been replaying it recently so it popped in my head when I read the topic.

I mean
You have a huge amount of levels spanning three books that practically serve as sequels within the game and followed by WHOLE 3D World levels that you try to survive as a non-jumping Captain Toad!

This and 3D World itself that seemed to never end in the sheer amount of levels it had.
 
Fahzgoolin said:
How can people say Witcher 3 when the movement and combat is so clunky and tedious? Obviously not everyone will think so, but it seems to be widely agreed upon that the game's combat and movement leaves a lot to be desired.
Click to expand...

It's a (pretty big) improvement upon Witcher 2 though and it's still fun. It's not top of the line but it's good. Those of us that played the previous games knew the combat wasn't going to be up there with the likes of Dragon's Dogma (never played it myself but from what I hear it's very good) and the Souls games. The combat is still solid though, and everything else about the game is extremely good.

Alpha Centauri said:
The game gives you a huge buffet of food (content). Your utensil (gameplay combat) to enjoy it may not be to your liking, but it is undeniably a banquet-sized feast.

The question was what game over delivered. I think Witcher 3 is the best example.
Click to expand...

I think people often mix gameplay and combat up. The combat is just one of the things you do in the game, you can easily spend more time talking to people than fighting if you want to for example.
 
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Like everyone already said witcher 3. I really thought it was just going to be a really average open world rpg since I didn`t play the first two....but man I`m glad I was wrong.
 
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. A licensed property from a series of movies that are okay at best. Nobody had any expectations for the game and from a relatively unknown studio at the time, but what they delivered was awesome.

Demon's Souls. Few people knew what to expect and it had but a small following at first, but as word spread people discovered the title to be much better than it appeared at first glance. The fact it's one of the few games to establish a whole subgenre of games in recent gaming is really telling of something.

Super Mario RPG. A cutesy RPG at the end of the SNES' lifecycle. People mostly had moved on to the Saturn and Playstation or chomping at the bit for the N64 and Mario 64 so Mario RPG was mostly overlooked. Turned out it's one of the best RPGs on the SNES, a great end to an amazing console.
 
Metroid Prime was doomed to be some me-too cash grab first person shooter slapping a dead Nintendo license onto it from a developer with no experience.

Until it wasn't.
 
The only recent games that I felt gave me more than I paid for were Kirby Planet Robobot and Rhythm Heaven Megamix.

Rainbow Six Siege also feels like the gift that keeps on giving. It's so. damn. good. And Ubisoft just keeps making it better.
 
GTA 5. Everything about a Rockstar game's announcements and press is so nonchalant for lack of a better word. Nothing is ever trying to draw attention to anything in a "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING" fashion, but every time one of their games comes out it's the new benchmark in world content and atmosphere.

It had big advertising campaigns but everything detailing features seemed so modest. I'd say at the very least the SP campaign is a massive overdelivery in a good way.
 
BenedictBlakbrn said:
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. A licensed property from a series of movies that are okay at best. Nobody had any expectations for the game and from a relatively unknown studio at the time, but what they delivered was awesome.

Demon's Souls. Few people knew what to expect and it had but a small following at first, but as word spread people discovered the title to be much better than it appeared at first glance. The fact it's one of the few games to establish a whole subgenre of games in recent gaming is really telling of something.
Click to expand...

Both great choices. The fact that the game was based on movies that were barely even okay to begin with is what makes it so surprising - it really does feel like a total labor of excitement and passion.

And yeah Demon's Souls was a total sleeper hit - there were so many ways it could have been bad or worse (never made in the first place). I also felt that Dark Souls overdelivered for fans of Demon's Souls. Obviously the same great combat and grim world - but I was not expecting such sprawling, elaborate level design. Which is funny because that is now seen as one of the pillars of the series!
 
Overwatch. On release day I was debating with myself whether I actually wanted to buy it or not, even after playing the Beta.

I've put almost 300 hours into it in the last 3 months and no sign of slowing down any time soon (well, except for this 3 week break between Competitive Season 1 and 2).

Ya, it was Blizzard and I should have known, but it was still a surprise just how actually amazing it is once you really dig in deep.
 
Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.. before that I think we all had low expectations as all super hero games (if not most) before them are not really very good..
 
Witcher 3 & its DLC - That expansion pass was a heck of a deal.
Bloodborne - First game in a long time that I kept replaying. First Souls-type game I ever played and I couldn't get enough.
 
Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag I never expected to like the pirate stuff so much(finished it yesterday)

Deus Ex Human Revolution who would have thought I would consider this one of the best games of the last generation
 
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