Gaminghas always delivered its fair share of disappointments, and the communities around these games don’t tend to be too shy to express their feelings about them. While somevideo games really are terrible, others end up getting a bit more hate than they deserve. This can happen for a variety of reasons, be it an underwhelming launch, over-inflated expectations, or even manufactured controversy.
This initial word of mouth can end upsticking a game with a bad reputation that it doesn’t deserve. This could mean some players end up skipping great games simply because they had an unfair stigma surrounding them. Many of these games have been revisited since their contentious launches, only for players to find that they missed out on some seriously good games.
10No Man’s Sky Hasn’t Stopped Adding Features
No Man’s Sky Was Initially Criticized For Missing Promised Features
It’s hard to pretend thatNo Man’s Sky’s developer, Hello Games, wasn’t at fault for the initial wave of harsh criticism of the game. Players were promised an in-depth universe they could explore, an intergalactic war they could influence, and factions they could join. When the game actually came out, what players really got were a bunch of identical-feeling procedurally generated worlds, a barebones crafting system, and a lot of boring mining/resource collection.
While this disastrous launch made many players write offNo Man’s Sky,Hello Games was determined to do right by the fan base they had let down. In the eight years since its initial release,No Man’s Skyhas added a lot of content that was initially promised into the game. It has also added new biomes to spice up the worlds and even mini-games like theGalactic Bug Hunt, which is aHelldivers 2-style mission. There’s also now a multiplayer function so players can travel the stars with friends.
9The Outer Worlds Was A Victim Of High Expectations
The Outer Worlds Doesn’t Need To Be The Best Obsidian Game To Be Good
The Outer Worldshad the unenviable task of living up to Obsidian’s previous open-world RPG:Fallout: New Vegas. Unfortunately, many players felt it failed to do so. This was partially due to the less open nature of its world, though being disconnected from a popular IP probably didn’t help much either. Some players also expressed being turned off by its overt political messaging.
However,just becauseThe Outer Worldswasn’t on par with one of the greatest RPGs ever released, doesn’t mean it was a bad game. Like theFalloutseries,The Outer Worldsoffers a look at a bleak future and uses an irreverent sense of humor to skewer concepts like corporatism and the mistreatment of employees at the hands of big business. The game also has a unique cast of characters, several neat worlds to explore, and good weapon and enemy variety. It also offers a lot of freedom when it comes to completing missions, allowing for creative problem-solving.
8Cyberpunk 2077 Has Fixed Its Game-Breaking Bugs
Cyberpunk 2077 Was Nearly Unplayable At Launch Due To Glitches
LikeNo Man’s Sky,Cyberpunk 2077was the victim of a bad launch. Except, instead of missing features, the game just didn’t work. The bugs were so bad that many players opted not to play, and Sony even temporarilyremoved the game from the PS Store. After having been hyped up for years, the game essentially became a punchline, or else a cautionary tale for expecting too much from a game.
In another example of a developer not being satisfied with releasing a substandard product,CD Projekt Red buckled down and made sure to turnCyberpunk 2077from an unplayable mess to a masterpiece of an RPG.
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Their efforts eventually culminated in the incredibly well-received and award-winning expansion,Phantom Liberty. Players who were burned by this game at the release had good reason to give up on it at the time, but if they held onto their copy they should boot it up again and see how much better it has become.
League Of Legends Is Fun, But The Community Can Be Rough
League of Legendsis an interesting case because it seems to be the people who play it the most who talk the most trash about it. However, anyone who playsLeaguelikely knows that talking trash is just kind of a way of life for many players. It’s hard to deny that theLeaguecommunity has its issues with toxicity, but this doesn’t mean the game itself isn’t fun to play.
Its many champions, builds, and strategies makeLeaguea fun puzzle to solve for anyone who enjoys spending time analyzing matchups and win rates. In many ways,Leagueis the type of video game that sports nerds can sink their teeth into.The game also vastly improves when playing with a group of friends, which helps cut down on unpleasant interactions with other players.
6Mass Effect 3 Succeeded In More Ways Than It Failed
Mass Effect 3’s Endings Were Criticized For Feeling Too Similar
There have been a lot of words spent bemoaning the ending ofMass Effect 3. Many players felt that their choices throughout the series were largely invalidated because the endings were all very similar to one another. However, fixating on the last moments of the story instead of looking at theMass Effecttrilogy as a whole kind of misses what an accomplishment these three games were.
Sure, maybe the absolute ending was largely set in stone, but a story is often more about the destination than the journey. By the end ofMass Effect 3, players were able to look back at the relationships they developed across the games, the impacts of major decisions like curing the Krogan of the Genophage, and the consequences of choices like deciding tosave Ashley or Kaidan. While not every individual storyline or choice was groundbreaking,this trilogy of games was still a massive accomplishment for video game storytelling.
5Dark Souls 2 Is Better When Not Being Actively Compared To Other FromSoftware Games
Dark Souls 2 Was Largely Panned For Being Too Different From Dark Souls
Dark Souls 2was initially seen as a big disappointment from its predecessor. Players didn’t enjoy the lack of enemy variety, the fact that the world was less cohesive, or what seemed like needless difficulty spikes in an already tough franchise. In short,Dark Souls 2was too dissimilar toDark Soulsfor players to be immediately sold on it.
As the Soulsborne franchise went on, and each new entry developed its own unique identity, players became accustomed to switching up their playstyle between games. The way one playsBloodborneis very different from how they’d playSekiro, and both differ greatly fromElden Ring’s strategy. Now that players know not to treat each game in the Soulsborne series the same way, players have revisitedDark Souls 2and found that it is more enjoyable when treated as its own game with its own strategies, instead of thinking of it as an extension ofDark Souls.
4DmC: Devil May Cry Still Has Solid Gameplay
DmC: Devil May Cry Does A Lot Wrong With The Story, But Its Gameplay Holds Up
Similar to its redesigned version of Dante,DmC: Devil May Crywas a game that made itself hard to like. It was a reboot made by developers who seemed needlessly antagonistic toward the original series. This rubbed many fans of the original the wrong way who were not happy that a newDevil May Crynot only ignored most of the established canon but also gave them a subpar version of their favorite protagonist to play.
While some of the cutscenes and dialogue can be a little cringe-worthy,DmC: Devil May Crydoes not deserve to be completely written off as an entry in the series. The gameplay itself was very accessible, allowing players toeasily string together impressive and stylish combos.
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There were also some fun boss fights and inventive designs for enemies. For players who are more interested inDevil May Crygames for how they play instead of their story,DmC: Devil May Cryis a worthy entry in the series.
3Batman: Arkham Origins Is Better In Hindsight
Many Players Were Sick Of Batman Games Telling Similar Stories At The Time
Understanding whyBatman: Arkham Originswas so disliked takes some context. The game was released on the heels of the first twoArkhamgames, and players were excited for a new direction in the story.
The first two games had relied so heavily on the Joker, that it was exciting to see the trailers forOriginsfocusing heavily on Deathstroke and Black Mask. Unfortunately, Deathstroke turns out to be a minor villain and Black Mask is a fake-out who quickly gets replaced by the Joker.
While players at the time were getting a little sick of theArkhamformula and were especially sick of the Joker,revisitingArkham Originsshows that the game was not nearly as badas it was made out to be. There are some valid complaints that the combat is clunkier than other entries, but it still manages to capture a similar rhythm as the better games in the series, likeArkham City. It also doesn’t have a lot of tedious and out-of-character tank levels likeArkham Knight.
2The Last Of Us Part II’s Challenging Narrative Was Never Supposed To Make Players Happy
The Last Of Us Part II Saw Major Backlash Over Narrative Decisions And Due To Some Manufactured Controversies
The Last of Us Part 2rubbed a lot of players the wrong way when it first came out. Some felt cheated that Joel died so early on, while others were frustrated that they had to start playing as his killer, Abby, midway through the game. Some players took their hatred of Abby way too far, harassing her voice actor Laura Bailey.
The game also saw unfair backlash for its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters. As the outrage and toxicity surrounding the game reached a fever pitch, the quality of the game itself took a backseat in discussions.
This is a real shame becauseThe Last of Us Part IIis one of the most emotionally moving stories ever told in a video game. The game forces players to embody a character they initially hate and learn to empathize with her as a way to illustrate the way the cycle of violence warps otherwise good people, and leads to nothing but pain. Anyone who skipped this game due to the backlash is missing out on a very moving story.
1Spec Ops: The Line Is A Work Of Art, Even If The Gameplay Is Stale
Spec Ops: The Line Is Fairly Criticized For Its Gameplay, But Its Worth Playing Despite That
Spec Ops: The Lineposes a question: can a video game be good, even if its gameplay leaves a lot to be desired? To a not-insubstantial group of players, the answer seems to be no.Spec Ops: The Linehas been criticized for itsgeneric third-person shooting which starts to feel like a repetitive chore. Players have also pointed out that the game’s controls can be a little frustrating because multiple actions are bound to the same inputs, causing some confusion.
What gets lost in discussions over controls or play style is the fact thatSpec Ops: The Linehelped do one thing that many video game enthusiasts claim to care a lot about: prove thatvideo gamescan be art.Spec Ops: The Linecomments on the nature of violence in video games, and serves as a shocking illustration of the effects of white phosphorus, an incendiary used during the Fallujah Offensive in 2004. It doesn’t matter thatSpec Ops: The Linehas some clunky gameplay, because it is ultimately more about the message.
