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Games you hated at first, only to be fully immersed years later

Need for speed 2015:

Got this game early, couldn't wait to get back into a more gritty NFS only to be appalled by the driving gameplay and at the time nonsensical map. I had no idea which races i had to do and which races I already did. It was so bad I sold the game on the SAME DAY! About 5 years later i had an itch for a NFS title and thought to try again. Not only did i enjoy it, i got plat trophy TWICE on two different accounts. My most hated NFS became one of my favorite.

Fallout 4:

Loved F2 and 3 so bought F4 day one. Enjoyed the prologue but once i was out on my own, i felt the game to be a bore. Years later it came on PS+ so thought to give it another try. Still didn't like it. 2-3 years later again, i said one last try. I ended up playing 4 hours a day non stop till i finished it then i bought all the DLC. Totally immersed.

Dragon Age Inquisition:

Bought day one after awesome time with Witcher 3 and i wanted more of that fantasy world. It didn't click at all. I must of kept running into areas where i was so under levelled, i hated it. Everything seemed complicated, way too many quests and i couldn't figure out which were important and which weren't. I couldn't get into the story at all. 8 years later, i see DA1 on gamepass. Finished that and thought hmmmm if i could enjoy a clunky old game, maybe Inquisition ain't as bad as i thought. Next thing you know, im now waking up earlier to finish my daily tasks just so i could play more DAI. Im all in this time and loving it.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Horizon Series (kinda).
I tried 2x to get into the game but didn't enjoy the gameplay. The 3rd time the story kept me engaged enough to play it to the end and now I'm playing Forbidden West and having more melee combat options makes it easier to play than the first one, but I won't say I'm fully immersed.
Maybe the 4th try of RDR2 will work too.
 
Although not "years," Valheim took a while to grow on me. Though i just felt there was something special and kept at it. Now its my go to and cant get enough. Host a server with my wife and a few Co workers.
 

small_law

Member
Xenogears. I was too young and stupid to appreciate it. Final Fantasy VII was my first JRPG, so it set my expectations. I wasn't ready for a more traditional JRPG with long-winded cutscenes and a crazily intricate plot.

I actually sold that game to GameStop when I was done with it. Years later, I felt so bad that I tracked down and bought a brand new copy, sometime around 2003 or 2004.
 
No Man's Sky. I regretted buying it so hard on launch week. Left it for a long time and came back after they'd added a ton of updates, it's pretty fun now. A lot of things to do.

Still wish I hadn't paid full price but I'm not as sour about it as I used to be, like for the longest time it was one of my biggest gaming regrets ever.
 

ungalo

Member
The first Dark Souls definitely, my first Souls experience. It's not that i hated it but i dropped the game, not particularly impressed.
 

Vyse

Gold Member
BOTW. Not saying I truly hated it, just never clicked. Started up one last time before the new Zelda comes out. Game is amazing, deep and difficult in some parts without research. Up to the final boss and holding off to clean up some shrines and finish up some side quests. So happy I gave it another shot.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
BOTW. Not saying I truly hated it, just never clicked. Started up one last time before the new Zelda comes out. Game is amazing, deep and difficult in some parts without research. Up to the final boss and holding off to clean up some shrines and finish up some side quests. So happy I gave it another shot.

Same for me. I was so put-off by the disposable weapon aspect that I quit the game and vowed never to play it again. 5 years later and I gave it another shot and I'm really enjoying it more than I thought I would. I think having a better idea what to expect and going in with a fresh outlook has helped a lot.
 

Vyse

Gold Member
Same for me. I was so put-off by the disposable weapon aspect that I quit the game and vowed never to play it again. 5 years later and I gave it another shot and I'm really enjoying it more than I thought I would. I think having a better idea what to expect and going in with a fresh outlook has helped a lot.
It’s my GOTY 5 years in the making!
 

Woggleman

Member
I want to give Death Stranding another try. I respect it but I did not enjoy playing it.

Also Bloodborne. I didn't like it at first but now that I played Elden Ring and I understand Fromsoft games better it clicked with me.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
DKC: Tropical Freeze. Kinda hated the game at first, as the years have gone by I’ve come to recognize it as one of the best platformers of its era. I can barely play the original DKC nowadays, which I thought to be vastly superior at the time.
 

SSfox

Member
I was done playing Skyrim after 4/5 hours. Came back to it almost exactly 1 year later on a rainy boring afternoon and put 100 hours into it the next months.
Exact same thing happened to me. Bought the game day one, it felt weird and gameplay felt meh, also the multi bugs and freezez were just the ice in the cake to drop it after only 1 hour. A year later there was nothing i was interested to play, and by this time most awful bugs were corrected, come back to it and keep liking the more i played it, ended up 100% the game + dlc with around +200H in totale and truly loved it, game was incredible experience.
 
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Magic Carpet

Gold Member
Oblivion, It took me way to long to get out of that prison. The dull slog of that opening killed the game for me.
I kept starting over and over and put the game down for months before finally trying again much later and getting out into the open and enjoying Cyradiil eventually.
 
Not sure.

Code Veronica X comes to mind but I don't think I ever hated it, just thought it was a bad game for 15+ years. It's now possibly my favorite when it comes to classic style gameplay. So many puzzles and I just love navigating the areas and how they completely transform when you go through them as Chris.
 

spawn

Member
Skyrim. Tried it. Thought it was okay. Didn't really enjoy it. My friends were all hyping it to be this amazing game. I decided to try it again and I sunk about 200 hours into it.

Also, Bloodborne. It was way too hard at first. I couldn't even get past the basic bitch enemies to get to the boss. I decided to try it again after the hype over Elden Ring and was totally immersed into Bloodborne and From Soft games.
 
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Bloodborne. It was my first Souls game, and I got as far as Bloodstarved Beast, hit a brick wall and realised I wasn't enjoying the oppressive atmosphere and running out of blood vials.

I dropped it for about 18 months but something drew me back, I upgraded my weapon and finally beat BSB's massive flappy face. What a rush! I was hooked.
 

amigastar

Member
I wouldn't say hated but i ignored Turn based games like X-Com or Civilization for years and now Turn based games is me favourite genre.
 

Hestar69

Member
I was done playing Skyrim after 4/5 hours. Came back to it almost exactly 1 year later on a rainy boring afternoon and put 100 hours into it the next months.
I've been trying to get into skyrim (even tried last week) since I bought it on release for 360. I LOVE morrowind and Obivion, but I jsut can't get into skyrim for some reason.


BOTW took me 3-4 off and tries and it finally clicked (still hate the weapon breaking/stam bar)

Same for HFW and i finally beat it this year. It was an alright game, but that story was a snoooooooooooooooooooze fest.
 

Kydd BlaZe

Member
Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

I couldn’t even tell you why I hated them at the time. I think I was fully enthralled with Half-Life 2 that I just hated everything else 😂

But years later, I finally decided to play both of them and couldn’t believe how much of an idiot I was back then.
 
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jm89

Member
Dragon age inquistion.

My biggest mistake was i played it after playing witcher 3 which set a high bar.

But came back to DAI years later when i got the wrpg itch, found the story a step down from dragon age origins but was still good, especially towards the end.
 
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brian0057

Banned
I don't give second chances to games I hate

And I don't buy games I hate to begin with
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sodstall

Member
Deus Ex Human Revolution

Holy shit I couldn't stop talking about it when I gave this game a second try.
I just finished my 2nd playthru of HR on wednesday, first time since 2012 that i had played that game and cant stop thinking about it. Started my first playthru of mankind divided right after and felt right at home.
 

Kurotri

Member
I couldn't for the life of me get into Shadow of Mordor. Everyone was singing its praises and I felt like I was taking crazy pills, but at the same time I felt that it SHOULD appeal to me since it did things I'd normally be interested in, and that bugged me lol. It took me 3 or 4 tries to actually get into it and then I couldn't let go.
 

Jinzo Prime

Member
Red Dead Redemption 2

I think it took me about two years to realize I was playing it wrong. It’s a cowboy/bandit simulator with an incredible story.
What made the gameplay click for you? I bounced off of it twice, but I still want to get into it since its a waste of money otherwise.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
This might not count, but lately I have made my first ever entry into the God of War series via the 2018 reboot, and few hours in I am still not quite completely sold on it....even though it is one of the flagship titles for Sony's machine...I am willing to give it a go, but so far it hasn't hooked me in..
 

Yoboman

Member
What made the gameplay click for you? I bounced off of it twice, but I still want to get into it since its a waste of money otherwise.
For me I was the same at least two failed attempts to like it

My advice, take it slow. Do things that interest you, whether it's.getting distracted by hunting or a side mission that pops up. Just take it all at a slow pace because it's a slow paced game. Invest in the story and characters because it's not a throw away story like (IMO) the GTA games are
 

CGNoire

Member
TLOU .....spent the majority of 360/PS3 gen on a High End PC so when I tried it the 720p image and the following jaggie fest mixed with the slow ass first 2 hrs turned me off and I quickly took it back to redbox. During the Pandemic decided to try it this time with the remastered version and Holy Fucking Shit did it become one of my all time favs.

It does something that I so wish other games made standard bye now which is facial acting during combat. Max Payne 3 is the only other game I can think of that does as well. Shit should be standard in 2023.
 

Hambone

Member
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

Bought the game on release and was excited to play a vampire RPG. About three hours into the game I came upon a camera bug that made it difficult get the camera out of this awkward third person view, so I deleted my save and restarted as I wanted to make a new character now that I was grasping how to level up skills. Got to the same point and the same bug happened again (plus I wasn't really feeling into the game), so rage quit and uninstalled.

Five years go by and I'm reading an article on some online gaming site how the game has developed a cult following and is now pretty good due to the community patches. Still had the game, so reinstalled and applied the community patches. Like OPs title says, I was fully immersed all the way through to the end. Now I bust it out every few years for another run through. Fantastic game.

Oh, and RIP VTMB 2.
 

AndrewRyan

Member
Darksiders 3: Was originally put off by the dramatic gameplay changes from the two previous games. About a year later wanted something to show off the new OLED tv and got hooked. Ended up loving it for what it is. Can also put MGSV in the same category.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Couldn't stand the controls until finally getting the Subsistence version that fixed everything and ended up playing it many times on multiple platforms- the 3DS is my favorite.
 

Red-Dead-Ocelot

Gold Member
Horizon Forbidden West. Recently just got back into it. Just got a new tv with VRR and playing in balanced mode is absolutely incredible.
 
Fallout 3 seems shitty and confusing at first. I was playing in front of a friend and didn't know what I should pick up or not. Wasn't used to playing games where there is just loot everywhere and it was kinda frustrating. Once I got the hang of it the rest was history.
 

unlurkified

Member
Biggest flip for me was FF13. Was hyped from 2006 until release in 2010. Got on release but quit after a few hours because all of the characters and dialogue were too annoying. Also, the story and terminology seemed tedious to keep up with. Came back to it in 2013, ignored the story and fell in love with the combat system. Ended up as one of my favorite jrpgs.
 
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