Games Which Positively Surprised You

Snatcher on 26/07/2022 - 13:18

There is always a sea of games which can make it easy to overlook certain titles.
This morning I got reminded of how awesome Vanquish was.
I remember back then I had zero expectations but the game blew me away.
Short, full of action, fast paced and hell of a lot of fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofLuzyQiQCg

It was overlooked by a lot of people unfortunately. Curious to hear what games people came across which were not played by the masses or did not receive great scores, yet were amazing games to play.

Gaming

Comments

    • cjhero on 28/07/2022 - 21:10
      +1

      Have you played Nier Automata? It is the only game that has ever had that affect on me as well.

      I picked up replicant a couple of weeks ago and are maybe 10 hours into it. I should pick it back up.

      • slowmo on 28/07/2022 - 21:36

        that game made me very angry because of buggy PC ports

        • Vool on 29/07/2022 - 21:13

          They finally released a massive update last year that fixed a bunch of the issues. The far mod also fixed a lot of the problems years ago.

          • slowmo on 01/08/2022 - 13:47

            @Vool: i had it on steam so it's been a while since i last played on it. was a major waste of time to try to get it fixed… i've moved on to other games since, there are better games out there. my experience with the support is that it was woefully inadequate.

      • Ostrk on 28/07/2022 - 23:01

        Yea I played it right after playing replicant. I much prefer replicant though even if it's super dated. I think the story, soundtrack and the dialogue of replicant is on another level. While the combat is more fun with automata + quests are more meaningful and not just all fetch quests. Automata also wasn't the giant slugfest to finish that replicant was (if you get all endings like I did). Although I think playing at least up to B in Replicant is a must for some extra scenes and expanded dialogue that actually ends up mattering a lot. With Automata I think you have to play it all (it's all new content after you finish ending B anyway).

        Overall really liked both games. Automata was much more fun to play, whereas replicant despite being a slugfest left a bigger impact on me. Can't recommend them enough.

  • Herbse on 27/07/2022 - 19:29

    Not sure if these received low scores. But I know some received negative feedback for various reasons.

    Tomb Raider 2015 - afaik it was one of the first games I can recall that used object creation really well, now all games use that feature

    Alien Isolation - scared the hell out of me, a great horror game

    Astro Boy with the PSVR, great usage of the vr system

    Death Stranding - surprised me by not relying on guns and violence, which I'm over tbh. Turned boring things like walking and delivering things into an exciting game. Excellent visuals.

  • p3nf0ld on 27/07/2022 - 19:57

    Another vote for A Story About My Uncle

  • idonotknowwhy on 27/07/2022 - 20:37

    Tokyo Jungle. I set it up to test the PS3 emulator and loved it!

  • cannedhams on 27/07/2022 - 21:12
    +3

    The Talos Principle. I haven't been able to get anyone else to play it tho

    • serpserpserp on 27/07/2022 - 21:46

      What is so good? I'm intrigued.

      • cannedhams on 30/07/2022 - 00:18

        If you liked Portal you'll like Talos Principle. Puzzle platforming, but with a plot that explores basic ontological questions without seeming hackneyed. Its brilliant.

    • trapper on 27/07/2022 - 22:17

      yeah this was good.

  • BusMan247 on 27/07/2022 - 21:14

    Without question, “Control” on PS5

    • FrugalBoi95 on 28/07/2022 - 15:22

      First game I played that actually properly used the PS5 controller's haptic feedback

    • PaKoRa on 30/07/2022 - 08:49

      yes Control - I think it somehow glitched and I am still playing on my xbox series X (gamepass) even though its been taken off GP…^L^

  • Vote for Pedro on 27/07/2022 - 21:27
    +1

    Pitfall

    • So Was Red on 29/07/2022 - 18:32

      Big cat roar, theme music

  • yaburi on 27/07/2022 - 21:40
    +2

    Hades. The art style looked interesting and it was on Game Pass so I gave it a try. It's the perfect game to play 1 or 2 hours a day after work, without trying too hard to getting too stressed (except for your first deep run and you've reached Styx with 20hp).

    • serpserpserp on 27/07/2022 - 21:45

      I remember facing the boss use to stress me out. But now it is probably one of the easier bits of the game lol

  • andgucps on 27/07/2022 - 22:00
    +2

    Soma

    Deeply philosophical game, amazing atmosphere. Get a mod to turn off monsters if you want because it won't change how good it is.

    • Bid Sniper on 28/07/2022 - 10:20

      This was amazing, best to go in without knowing anything. Underrated

  • anzacpaul on 27/07/2022 - 22:08
    +3

    Spec ops - The Line
    Dust - An Elysium Tale
    Hellblade - Senuas Sacrifice

    • fenric on 29/07/2022 - 15:31
      +2

      Was looking to see if someone mentioned Spec Ops - The Line. Game play was fairly generic shooter for the time…..but the story…
      Yes, you did read that right…..standout story in a shooter.

  • sparky42 on 27/07/2022 - 22:45
    +5

    Can't believe nobody's mentioned Titanfall 2 yet! That game was shockingly good fun for $6

  • Qazxswec on 27/07/2022 - 23:18

    i thought snake was pretty good on the nokia 3210

    • smartazz104 on 29/07/2022 - 14:56

      Yeah except

      Curious to hear what games people came across which were not played by the masses

      • Qazxswec on 01/08/2022 - 01:02

        Snake 2 was pretty good on the Nokia 3315

  • HerpinDerp on 27/07/2022 - 23:28
    +3

    Nier Automata.

    Absolute masterpiece.

    • Bid Sniper on 28/07/2022 - 10:23

      I wrote it off when it came out but when I played it was certainly a masterpiece.

      Some themes and questions it wrestled with amazing takes on philosophy and human condition.

      • cjhero on 28/07/2022 - 21:13
        +1

        C and D (profanity) destroy you, then E comes flying in.

        • Bid Sniper on 29/07/2022 - 15:10

          Yeah wow that was difficult, Pascal story was hard enough for me as a parent.

  • SpainKing on 28/07/2022 - 00:19
    +2

    Nova Drift is a roguelike in the same vein of Asteroids. It's a very fun game in my opinion and the devs have a new update coming out

    Superflight is good provided you have a controller. Just a bunch of randomly generated structures you get to fly through with a wingsuit. The closer you fly to structures the more points you get

    Hotline Miami and Minesweeper were good so +1 to that

    Dead Cells you can get in to a nice flow state playing

    Void Bastards is an FPS where you're a space prisoner going from ship to ship for loot

    Super Meat Boy if you like platformers

    If we're talking about games I think are big but still worth bringing up in a discussion about good games you have to go with The Binding of Isaac and Stardew Valley

  • AlanHB on 28/07/2022 - 00:59
    +1
    • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
    • Transistor
    • Oddworld: Strangers Wrath
    • CrispyChrispy on 30/07/2022 - 11:41

      I found Gunslinger immensely fun, quite a bit of replayability too.

  • rogerwilko on 28/07/2022 - 06:51
    +1

    Sopwith

  • meowbert on 28/07/2022 - 08:08
    +3

    Random purchase VAMPIRE SURVIVOR. It costs 4 bucks and I must have played it for days, months. Do yourself a favour and buy it.

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors…

    Also buy renowned explorers while you're at it.

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/296970/Renowned_Explorers…

  • Mr Haj on 28/07/2022 - 08:16
    +2

    Oblivion. That game blew my mind. I watched my mate play it for three days straight and when I went home bought myself an Xbox 360 so I could play it myself.

    He said the only reason he found out about it was because his dad rented it from Video Ezy. The front covers of Elder Scrolls games are so bland so when my mate played it for the first time he had zero expectations.

    • CrispyChrispy on 30/07/2022 - 11:42

      STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!

    • Slippery Fish on 30/07/2022 - 11:48
      +1

      Me and my brother grew up playing Morrowind. I remember dad telling him off for paying $120 for it 😂 but we played for years

  • Zondor on 28/07/2022 - 08:31
    +3

    Cyberpunk 2077.

    As much as it was shit on, it ran fine for me. While there are some bits that are not quite up to scratch, the music and story had me hooked the whole way through.
    I really hope they put in the effort to finish it off, or make a sequel to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public.

    • fenric on 29/07/2022 - 15:38
      +2

      Up-voted to remove the neg. It's your opinion after all. I just ordered it in a recent sale and am looking forward to going into it with an open mind.

    • meowbert on 30/07/2022 - 10:51
      +1

      Agreed, thought it was a really great game and despite the problems, had lots of fun

  • navyskies on 28/07/2022 - 08:40
    +1

    I highly recommend It Takes Two.

    I played the game with the mrs and we were pleasantly surprised. Tight and varied gameplay, charming setting.

    Definitely recommend it playing local co-op.

  • narcoleptic-haze on 28/07/2022 - 08:56

    Honestly, the moment I saw there was a Portal 2 out, and the word on the street at the time was "it's got a story mode, but most of the puzzles are in a separate co-op mode" — I kinda tuned out. I wasn't into multiplayer games at the time and I just saw the whole thing as a bit of a slapped out sequel with a token story mode with the 'meat' of the game focused on co-op. Not for me.

    Boy I was wrong.

    It's now one of my all time favourites and when I had a PC I would play it once a year or so. I just wish there was a remastered version (just Hi-res/framerate update) on Xbox. Why is the Companion Edition exclusive to Switch?

    Also, Inside blew me away even more than I expected. I liked Limbo, but Inside just captured me in every aspect - the art style, the sound, the music, the atmosphere. I truly love that game.

    • Zondor on 28/07/2022 - 10:38

      Which lady did you pick?

  • Taro Milk Tea on 28/07/2022 - 10:51

    BitCoin

    • dogboy on 28/07/2022 - 13:43

      That postively surprised you?

  • SillySorjai on 28/07/2022 - 11:06
    +5

    XCOM 2: WOTC
    It just doesn't get boring. Replayability with new mods is amazing.

    The crazy frustration and crazy relief roller-coaster doesn't get old

    Xcom: enemy within was a fantastic game even when it was ported to the Android mobile

  • Littlevu on 28/07/2022 - 11:32

    Jagged Alliance 2 with mods. Such a good game. Anyone have any recommendation on similar game?

  • amrdeus on 28/07/2022 - 11:48

    Return of the Obra Dinn.

    There's nothing else like it. Completely different vibe from most video games. Best puzzle game I've ever played. It requires patience, but if you like solving mysteries, so good.

  • Therealjohndoe on 28/07/2022 - 12:25
    +2

    I know more mainstream, but would you kindly consider Bioshock. Loved every aspect of that game.

    • Commander Shepard on 28/07/2022 - 20:18
      +3

      I bought myself off eBay Bioshock, Mass Effect 1 and Assassins Creed for Christmas back in 2007. After a couple of months of Halo 3 and Modern Warfare. As well as playing through the Orange Box and still continually playing LOTR BFME2 and Company of Hero's.

      Hell yeah I was surprised at Bioshock. Even after a crazy year, it still completely blew me away.

      And I didn't watch reviews back then either. Just the odd game trailer. So I often didn't know what to expect.

      But holy shit I miss those times. Peak gaming for me.

    • donkeydoc on 29/07/2022 - 19:07

      Never played any of the bioshocks but loved infinite!

  • justwii on 28/07/2022 - 13:58

    Truth or Dare

  • TSH on 28/07/2022 - 14:53
    +1

    +1 for vanquish.
    I picked up a loose disc at EB for $3.
    Controls tighter than tightarses deals on here.

  • BillS2 on 28/07/2022 - 17:13

    Ravaged, a really fun game imo just to bad it it didn't make the big time.

  • lookingforTV on 28/07/2022 - 17:34
    +1

    Half Life Alyx. The title honestly made me believe in the future of VR gaming, blew my mind. I hope Meta succeeds in creating smaller VR headsets so the market grows big enough for other companies to make AAA VR games.

  • slowmo on 28/07/2022 - 17:35
    +1

    discovered genshin impact recently and it was surprisingly good for a free game.

  • DiscountForThee on 28/07/2022 - 18:40

    Don't Starve Together is surprisingly addictive. Even more so once you get the hang of it

  • PumpkinHater on 28/07/2022 - 18:42
    +5

    FTL!!!

    • pointblank on 29/07/2022 - 23:56
      +1

      Was going to say this. Amazing game and sound track!

  • EdenKai on 28/07/2022 - 18:48
    +3

    Nier Automata. After getting the final ending i was just crying for some reason. It also really brought about an existential fear in me.

  • cybapete on 28/07/2022 - 19:26

    Red Dead Redemption 2
    i got it on sale i wasn't too thrilled about a western game but at the price i said what the heck and i LOVE it
    no spoilers but the story mode is very engrossing with a few plot twists and turns and i still play red dead online every day

  • SolitaryMan on 28/07/2022 - 21:11
    +1

    Red Dead Redemption 2 - had never played anything from R*, and expected it to be really good and it still surpassed all expectations. Such a work or art.

    Elder Scrolls Oblivion - didn’t know much about Elder Scrolls, not typically into fantasy RPGs, but the huge scope of world blew me away.

    Space Quest 2 - had never heard of Sierra but the whole interface and atmosphere was amazing, couldn’t get enough of Sierra after that.

  • niknah on 28/07/2022 - 21:12

    Universal paperclips: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html

  • kl2999 on 28/07/2022 - 21:30
    +3

    Cyberpunk 2077

  • truebunny on 28/07/2022 - 21:54

    rocket league

  • Deridas on 28/07/2022 - 23:08
    +1

    Everyone's making real and serious suggestions.

    Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
    Definitely makes a "positive suprise" to pre-teen boys…

    • seabombs on 29/07/2022 - 11:15

      Man, this and tetris were the go-to games in my uni share house. It was actually a pretty good volleyball game!

  • Dreamcast on 29/07/2022 - 06:37

    Flower

  • Windows7forever on 29/07/2022 - 07:49
    +2

    Firewatch

    • CrispyChrispy on 30/07/2022 - 11:44

      Definitely a steal at the common Steam sale price of around the $7 mark; can easily sink dozen of hours, replaying and using the open world game mode!

  • manbearpig on 29/07/2022 - 11:06

    Hello Kitty Island Adventures

  • Robydc on 29/07/2022 - 11:20

    Golf Story, an RPG golf game. surprisingly a lot of fun

    • Vool on 29/07/2022 - 21:24

      Still waiting for Sports Story, hope it doesn't take too much longer.

  • seabombs on 29/07/2022 - 11:35

    Singularity was a fun action FPS with time manipulation abilities in the Xbox 360 era.

    Zombie Night Terror is like lemmings but with zombies. Really creative levels particularly in the second half and a fun campy story. (Currently $1.85/90% off on Steam, definitely worth it IMO)

    Lightmatter is an FPS puzzle game based around light and shadows. Reminded me a bit of Portal.

    Quern - Undying Thoughts is a Myst-like puzzle game.

    • TheBean on 29/07/2022 - 17:14

      Really enjoyed the Singularity, was a lot of fun back in the day!

  • centrelink on 29/07/2022 - 13:14

    Elden Ring, man I thought that game was so bad at first at the beginning and got progressively better the more I played it.

  • he11bent on 29/07/2022 - 13:34

    Breath of the wild. It's easy for some to dismiss this "Like yeah, we all know"
    But the last Nintendo system I had was the N64, I thought the pinnacle of gaming was the N64 days, my absolute favourites being Ocarina of Time, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Donkey Kong64, and a myriad of others. After that got a PS and Xboxes through the years.

    It wasn't until a Switch deal on OZB, that I picked one up, I honestly wasn't going to keep it, I was going to gift it for a bday. But my brother lent me BOTW and…I haven't had these feelings about a game since Ocarina of time. I've been so jaded with gaming, BOTW and the Switch in general has made me fall back in love with gaming. I can't believe I neglected Nintendo the past few years chasing the eye candy instead of realistic graphics and 4K.

    I've now have a gaming PC, a PS5, and SeriesX and of course the Switch. It's only been the past 2 months that the PS5 and SeriesX have gotten more air time. Even after buying the PS5 a few months back, it sat collecting dust while I gamed on the Switch.

    I guess Horizon:Zero Down was another that really surprised me, picked up with absolutely no expectations and it completely blew me away.

    • narcoleptic-haze on 29/07/2022 - 17:29

      Yeah, I actually mostly bought my Switch for Metroid Prime 4 (lol) and picked up BOTW just because it seemed like a big deal, and sure in the past I have enjoyed the odd Zelda game. But man it's just amazing. I would be excited about the sequel, but it's a bit late for me .. I've moved on to the Xbox Series X and going back to switch is just an eye-sore.

  • CharityCase on 29/07/2022 - 17:26

    What Remains of Edith Finch

    It's an art

  • sm0 on 29/07/2022 - 18:15

    Leisure Suit Larry

    • Willy Beamish on 30/07/2022 - 18:54

      Which one? Land of the Lounge Lizzards? Haven't played any of the others, but that was a good one.

  • bowdo on 29/07/2022 - 19:06
    +1

    Alien Isolation.

    Very well made survival horror game, pants pooping good without feeling 'cheap'. The damn thing hunts you with AI routines rather than scripted sequences.

  • donkeydoc on 29/07/2022 - 19:09

    Apex legends, terrible at fps and was told to try it a year ago with a friend, so damn fun! 3k games played!

    • Willy Beamish on 30/07/2022 - 19:05

      Shame the game is filled with cheaters, you might not see them if you don't play ranked or highly skilled games.

      • donkeydoc on 30/07/2022 - 19:15

        Really? Not as prevalent as warzone or cs go right? Haven't noticed, my kd 0.58 xD

        • Willy Beamish on 31/07/2022 - 13:19

          Haven't played CS since it went F2P and there were plenty of cheaters at global elite.

          Apex being F2P doesn't help the cheater situation unfortunately, as long as you're having fun atleast!

  • Diji on 29/07/2022 - 19:29
    +3
    • Surprised by Death Stranding, that someone else mentioned. Heard lots of people I generally share opinions with dislike it but for the most part I really got into it.
    • Tunic was a surprise, not just in how good it was but what kind of game it was.
    • I guess Hades kind of surprised me. I liked Bastion but I didn't get into Transistor and at the time I was getting sick of roguelites. The game was about 10 bucks on sale at Epic during early access though so I grabbed it and it really hooked me for a good while.
    • Dead By Daylight was surprisingly fun, I initially wrote it off as microtransaction filled garbage.
    • Euro/American Truck Simulator sounded boring but after getting it cheap or maybe in a bundle I've ended up owning most of the DLCs.
    • Neon White is a recent one which threw me off because of the visual novel presentation and the writing isn't really my thing but the demo convinced me to buy it on release.
    • Disco Elysium came out of nowhere and completely changed what I want out of RPGs.
    • Citizen Sleeper also came out of nowhere for me and while it's not as good or revolutionary as Disco Elysium, it hit me in a similar way.
    • TMNT Shredder's Revenge was something I expected to be retro nostalgia bait rubbish but was legitimately good and captured the vibe of that era of game, great soundtrack too.
    • CrispyChrispy on 30/07/2022 - 11:46
      +1

      Euro/American Truck Simulator sounded boring but after getting it cheap or maybe in a bundle I've ended up owning most of the DLCs.

      ETS2 definitely was a bit of a surprise to me, not because it's inherently fun, but because how relaxing it is. Throw on some music, and just drive. Can easily spend 2-3hrs on a single session. Definitely somewhat overlooked.

      And 10 years on, there's still so many updates being released! Gotta respect SCS!

  • zanzibar on 29/07/2022 - 19:37
    +3

    Dragons Dogma. Such a quirky thing with wierd mechanics but dang that was a fun action RPG, had to 100% it.

    • Diji on 29/07/2022 - 20:09

      The pawns were incredibly annoying and yet fun enough that the sequel must include them again.

  • Gamer Dad Reviews on 29/07/2022 - 21:37
    +1

    Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order

  • darkchoc on 30/07/2022 - 00:12
    +1

    Patapon 2

  • PlaunsJanus on 30/07/2022 - 02:56

    Killing floor…
    Repetitive
    FPS
    gibs
    Just a team based fps tower defence game. Sometimes better fun when you don’t win

  • Tuftsdude on 30/07/2022 - 10:54

    Dust: An Elysian Tale

  • darkmoss on 30/07/2022 - 11:38

    nude Twister

    • AlienC on 19/08/2022 - 16:56
      +2

      Entirely depends on who you play with it.

      Without family = no fun

      With family = hello new baby brother

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