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Heavily criticized games that you really enjoy

Final Fantasy XIII.
I really enjoyed it. Once the game let you play with a 3 character party the battle system comes to life. Doing all the sidequests on Pulse was a lot of fun.
I even enjoyed the sequels, especially XIII-2. The ending was ballsy and amazing.
 
Only heavily critized on GAF, but Dark Souls 2.

Game is too good.
 
Guess I'll count LA Noire too then. Incredible, sophisticated, and mature. They were gunning for some production design Oscars with this thriller.
la-noire.jpg
 
Sir TapTap said:
Quest 64.

It was blazing new ground and damn near the only RPG on the system, with a combat system never before seen. Yes, balance was wack as hell, but the elements and attacks were so cool, and it felt so different since you were really casting and aiming the spells in 3D space, not just causing a sprite to overlay the screen and cause damage.

Speaking personally, my only major problems with the game were the high encounter rate and the fact that water and earth are really the only proper choices of elements. Water has healing (extremely vital) and earth just plain does the most damage, so while there's some cool Wind abilities, there's little reason to level fire or wind. But it still had lots of great ideas, even if not executed so well. Didn't mind the story. I think people over-criticize RPGs that don't try to be Final Fantasy with massive stories.
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Loved Quest 64. Playing it again fairly recently, the high encounter rate is definitely a bit of a drag, though. Like you, I love the spells. I haven't really found a turn based RPG that replicates that same "aiming in 3D space" feel, either (forgive me ignorance if there is one out there).
 
RE6 has some of the best TPS combat I've seen since Vanquish. The combat mechanics are tightly designed and insanely versatile. You're so maneuverable, rolling and sliding and diving one way while shooting another. And the focus on breaking enemy lines by leaping into the fray is so refreshing in a sea of cover shooters. Like Vanquish, you're only supposed to use cover to manage your stamina; the optimal way to play is to be aggressive, always on the move, stunning enemies and then dispatching them with melee strikes before dodging out of harm's way.

The game truly shines in Mercenaries, where you're offered tons of well-designed maps that throw loads of ever-changing monsters at you. They swarm you in escalating numbers and really test your ability to prioritize targets and execute a plan, snagging the right time extensions and combo multipliers in the right order while managing your resources and controlling a very dangerous crowd.

It's just a shame the campaign was so schizophrenic in its focus and poorly communicated the mechanics of the game. There was no training mode, let alone anything resembling an organic tutorial. You learned everything through brief tips on the loading screen and the occasional glimpse at a control schematic, IIRC. I hated the game the first two times I played the demo; if it weren't for me patiently figuring out the mechanics on the third attempt, who knows if I would've seen the game through. But I'm glad I did, because there's an amazing action-adventure to be had there, and more importantly, an incredibly sound survival mode in the form of Mercs.

I really hope they continue this gameplay in RE7, but structure a campaign around it that better manages its rollercoaster highs and lows by eschewing gimmicky run-from-danger sections and button-mashing QTEs in favor of "breather" moments that build atmosphere leading up to each fever-pitched encounter.

In the meantime, here's to you, RE6:

resident_evil_6_wallpjbc16.png
 
DmC was amazing to me. I had a ton of fun.

NSMBU may be my absolute fav 2D mario music aside.

Prince of Persia Warrior Within is great as well. I love the mean prince and the chases were amazing!
 
Shadow the Hedgehog. For how shitty the story is, the level design and pacing is actually pretty good, and it has a lot of replay value with the branching level paths.
 
Star Fox Adventures
Dark Souls 2 - My GOTY so far for 2014, enjoyed this more than DeS and DS1
Paper Mario Sticker Star
Super Paper Mario
Skyward Sword


Most of these games get unfair criticism because of annoying fanboys.

Let me enjoy the game son, please stop complaining and let others enjoy the game.
 
HOW 2 SURVIVE was not just "heavily criticized", it was barely critiqued at all. It was given next to no coverage by the gaming press.

It's a fantastic game that was criminally overlooked, and the gaming "journalists" who did give it a review were really dismissive and snotty towards it, probably because it wasn't some heavily profiled, highly publicized "triple A" title.

The big, glaring fuck up this game made was it region-locked the servers for co-op. Honestly, who the fuck does that? It made it so a friend of mine and I can't play.

Therefore, anyone who has the NA PSN/PS3 version, hit me up if you want to play!
 
final fantasy xi

i can't really defend things people dislike about it. the grind was ridiculous, some things had ridiculous/unknown popping conditions (fucking skirmish pephredo), some bosses were literally impossible and gear never dropped.

but it was one of the best games i ever played.
 
Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy - None of them would end up on any of my top rated FF games lists, but I enjoyed the games nevertheless.

Star Ocean 4 (and to a lesser extent 3) - The story for these games sort of went off the deep end but it was still a fun ride, the gameplay was enjoyable, and I liked most of the characters (Lymle being the glaring exception).

DmC: Devil May Cry - As a non-fan of the series, this was the first dmc game that I was able to get into for whatever reason. I really liked the level design and boss encounters.

Dragon's Dogma - Suffers from Assassin's Creed 1 disease. Game has a lot of great ideas and mechanics, just needs some polish. Hopefully we'll get a sequel or spiritual successor.

Alpha Protocol - See Dragon's Dogma.

Tales of the Abyss - Easily my favorite Tales game. The main protagonist's arc and the unstable relationships between the various party members in often cited as a reason people dislike the game but those aspects made the game far more interesting for me.

Xenosaga Trilogy - My favorite of the Xeno series of games (specifically 3). Very Evangelion though so I can see how people wouldn't like it.

Neptunia Series/Agarest War Series/Conception II - Moe/Echi games. People tend to hate them for that alone but it doesn't bother me. They aren't great games but they're competent and very anime, and I like anime.
 
EpochError said:
Going back a ways, Final Fantasy VIII and Chrono Cross were a couple of Square games that people's ire up [and still do, based on threads that pop up periodically] that I loved at the time and still do.

More recently, I enjoyed DmC and Max Payne 3 a lot, and they certainly inspired a lot of rants.
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Did people really not like Max Payne 3? I thought the game was really good, one of my favorites from that year.
 
Redrop said:
Loved Quest 64. Playing it again fairly recently, the high encounter rate is definitely a bit of a drag, though. Like you, I love the spells. I haven't really found a turn based RPG that replicates that same "aiming in 3D space" feel, either (forgive me ignorance if there is one out there).
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IIRC Wind makes it easier to flee from battles due to a couple of spells. But wind is easily the 3rd best element. It's good enough, but you'll really need the Water healing spell at the minimum. Fire/Wind is your challenge run...and I wouldn't recommend it.

This is, yet again, game I like but are heavily criticized territory, but Idea Factory's RPGs tend to do combat a lot like Quest 64. I've heard Fairy Fencer F possibly has the best combat (coming out soon) but they best I've played of theirs is Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory.It's basically an evolution of Quest 64's turn based combat with spells that have a visible AOE and you move around in a movement circle to aim your attacks.

IF's RPGs do NOT have the quest 64 thing where you have a brief moment to move in realtime to dodge enemies spells though. It does have a rather unusual turn order system too, basically each attack has a certain amount of delay, so by waiting you can have a second turn sooner, or by executing a very powerful attack you delay your future attacks further. Some attacks even let you delay your enemy's turn.

The games are like 50% cheesy visual novel though. They're perfect if you like lighthearted stuff, lots of meta Video Game references (mostly japanese game related, mind you), and can tolerate some stereotypical moe/silly/whatever anime stuff. Everyone's personality is deliberately exaggerated and if you go in expecting Final Fantasy you're going to be confused.
 
DmC is my favorite Devil May Cry game and I've played all of them. I'm not saying it's the best, so don't feel personally affronted, but it's my favorite. The combat felt instinctual and improvisational in a way that just clicked with me.

But I don't think DmC is as despised outside of Gaf as it is in, unlike my next choice:

Dragon Age II. I love this game. I put 100+ hours into it over the multiple classes. It feels like Dragon's Dogma to me (although that gets much more love on Gaf): a heavily flawed game with cut corners and a plethora of terrible design choices with a core game experience that still manages to be deeply satisfying and engaging, making the whole of the experience worth it. I never could get into DA:O so I didn't have expectations of the sequel that undermined what it was going for. I thought the characters were mostly great and I really connected with a few of them, and the writing was always serviceable and sometimes great.

I truly enjoyed the combat though. Playing on console is a big part of this, I haven't met a single PC player with mouse and keyboard that liked DAII but of the console players with controllers I've talked to, more than half enjoyed it. Mage and Rogue are okay but 2-Handed Warrior is fantastic. It plays like a full-out action RPG where every press of X corresponds to a single swing of the sword that becomes tremendously fun when chaining all your special abilities together one after the other.

However, playing that class and style on that platform with no expectations of what the game should be is pretty much the only way I found the game to shine through its numerous flaws so I understand why so many people abhor it.
 
Final Fantasy XIII, Infinite Undiscovery, and Xenosaga: Episode II. None of them deserve the amount of hate they got. They're all flawed, but complete gems, in my opinion.
 
DangerMouse said:
Cool.

Nier's another good one.
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Both of these games will probably run you less than 10 bucks a pop used. In the summer desert of no games, these will for sure get you through if you are looking for something to play so long as you view them with an open mind...and realize you really are playing them for "concept" rather than a polished AAA experience.

They both have something special about them, among a lot of sub-par things.

Im jealous you can play these games for the first time! Im looking for stuff to play until the fall onslaught begins.

Dragons Dogma falls into this camp as well. One of my favorite "end game" story ever. Big ol scoop of Japanese crazy!

BeforeJam said:
Assassin's_Creed_III_Game_Cover.jpg


Yeah, really.
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HA, I liked it too. I can see why some people hate on it, but will never understand the almost universal hatred for it.
 
splatter-house-3.jpg


Splatterhouse franchise. I don't give one fuck what the critics think about the original three games and the NES spinoff, these are awesome and amazing horror games. I don't think I have a favorite of the trilogy, some days I prefer 1 and some days it's 2 or 3. Part 3 took away the importance on weapons and had some very annoying enemies but man did it nail the atmosphere. It's just like a cheesy 80's horror flick. And it's well on par with beat 'em ups of that era.

Can't say too much about the Remake/Reboot as I'm really not a fan of modern God Of War style action/beat 'em up/character action games. Plus I hate QTE's. But I liked the atmosphere and voice acting and it had an awesome soundtrack.
 
Liked Eternal Sonata for its vibrant world and lovely music. Yes the plot is nonsense and the VO irritating but I liked it all the same, and now its in my head.

Quite liked Army of Two 2. Solid third-person combat and a fantastic customisation system that allows you to tape a kitchen knife to the front of your rifle, swap the components of one rifle onto another (the stock of a FAMAS onto an M4, for instance) and paint the whole thing with love hearts.

I adore Kameo: Elements of Power, whilst acknowledge everything that's been said about it's clunky mechanics and jagged gameplay. The world is just so charming.
 
Dead Space 3. I criticize it myself but I still ran through 3 times and I've reinstalled it a few times to play the first few chapters from time to time.

Batman Arkham Origins. Thoroughly enjoyed the game but apparently its horrible trash and proof Rocksteady should be the only ones making Batman games.
 
LA Noire is a great game imo. It obviously had glaring flaws but it certainly had an appeal for me.

Also I think Super mario sunshine is a brilliant game and one of the finest 3d platformers of all time. Much better than 64 imo
 
JustinBB7 said:
I really enjoyed Bioshock Infinite, was really surprised at how much hate that got. Before I played it I didn't read much about it and it got nominated for GOTY everywhere. And after I played it I read around and people seemed to really hate it.

I played the first Borderlands and I like it, bit too many fetch quests and went on a bit too long though. Haven't played 2 yet.
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Yeah. Pretty much every game mentioned on the first page are games that I really liked. I don't know if it's because I used to be a game reviewer myself, but I usually agree with the criticical consensus on games, even when I don't read any reviews till later. I seldom agree with the (IMHO often exaggerated) hate some of the more critically acclaimed games get.

Critically acclaimed games that typically get (IMHO often exaggerated) hate on GAF are often games that I like a lot.

DJ_Lae said:
I enjoyed the hell out of it too in spite of the reused assets.

Enough to platinum it, even.
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Kind of agree. I did get worn out by the reused assets, but on PC the combat system was fucking FANTASTIC. You had all the tactical depth of the first game, but it was much more engaging and visually stimulating.

I also really like ME3. Ending was mediocre, but not horrible, and definitely not enough to derail a really solid Bioware RPG that I had a lot of fun with. The outcry from gamers after the ending frankly disgusted me, and made me ashamed to be part of gaf.
 
Dead Space 3. Although the co-op completely changed the feel of the game, playing it with a buddy was an absolute blast. Having a friend present also made the ridiculous story more enjoyable, since we could poke fun at it and goof off. I played through it twice with one person, and am currently playing through it again with my best friend. I've also played through it solo, and enjoyed that playthrough as well.

I also bought all the DLC on PS3. Even the bot upgrades and voice pack, although I never actually played through that version again after purchasing them. It's hard to go back to the console versions after having it run so beautifully on PC.
 
too-human-20080429110qakj6.jpg
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The game that had some objective flaws, but the exceedingly negative reception it's gotten was unwarranted. Too Human had a big perception problem (it looked like an action game, but it was an engaging dungeon crawler inspired by the likes of Diablo more than anything), and then Dyack basically dared everyone to hate it. Gamers being gamers, they did, to both Silicon Knights' and their own detriment.

What a glorious game, what a tragically wasted opportunity.
 
I was thinking of replaying Fable 3 the other day, despite the flak people give it online I actually find it fun.


One shouldn't take online opinions too seriously, focus instead on what's fun for you and what you think.
 
Moh Warfighter. It is not a good game, but I had fun with it. It looks really damn good and I am MoH fan so I am sad, that we may never get a follow up.
 
CannonO said:
Guess I'll count LA Noire too then. Incredible, sophisticated, and mature. They were gunning for some production design Oscars with this thriller.
la-noire.jpg
Click to expand...

Best game that year for me. A perfect example of why games are a medium that can play with the big boys. No other medium can make me feel like I'm a detective, exploring the 40's Los Angeles. The atmosphere in this game was just perfect. I wish more games had the balls to do what LA Noire did. I actually wish they would remove almost all of the shooting sequences though.
 
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Star_Fox_Adventures_GCN_Game_Box.jpg



Basically this. As someone else said, the on foot missions in Assault aren't as bad as ppl made them out to be but they could use some work.
 
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