2012 games that were unexpectedly a pleasant surprise?

So in your opinion, what game/ games this year have pleasantly surprised you?

I just played through Binary Domain just now and it was a absolute BLAST! Got it for cheap and was not expecting much at all and it was surprisingly a great game!!

What about you guys?

Sleeping Dogs. I never expected to get it until it was cheap on Amazon, but I did and it's fantastic.

Dishonored. I know it had a lot of hype, but all I could think about was a new game from the people who brought us Bioshock 2 and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Those aren't two terrible games, but it didn't inspire any confidence for Dishonored being a great game. It ended up being a lot better than I expected, even if I wouldn't put it in my personal top 10 games of the year.

The Walking Dead - I was a fan of Telltale already, but I did not have any interest in the franchise or zombies in general, so I was not expecting to buy it at all, much less enjoy it as much as I did. 
  
Xenoblade - I bought mostly because of how much I liked Xenosaga without really knowing much about it. Ended up being one of the best JRPGs I've played in years.

Spec-Ops:The Line was shockingly thought provoking and not dull to play at all. By far my biggest pleasant surprise this year.

I was curious about X-Com and it was pretty damn good and a refreshing break from the usual. Fary Cry 3 for me too a bit. Such an improvement in so many ways from FC2.

I've never played a Far Cry game, and I'm not a huge fan of big first person open world games, so Far Cry 3 was a great surprise for me.

I dismissed Saint's Row 3 as "probably going to be juvenile stupid fun" but it turned out to be better than that. Journey came out of nowhere. XCOM isn't so much a surprise but it is surprising they didn't mess with it.

Sleeping Dogs for sure. I also had more fun with KoA: Reckoning than I expected to.

I don't know if I would call Spec Ops "pleasant" in every way, shape or form but damn....that game blew me away.

That game....wow

NCAA Football 13 is actually pretty good for a sports game. The menus are a bit of a mess, though.

@Abendlaender said:

I don't know if I would call Spec Ops "pleasant" in every way, shape or form but damn....that game blew me away.

That game....wow

I totally agree with that. I hold Spec Ops as an example of how "Game of the Year" discussions are focused on the wrong things. Spec Ops: The Line is a terrible game to play (it could be said the terribleness is part of the game's theme) where I can't recommend it to most people but it is one of the boldest and interesting games to come out in 2012 let alone in years.

The Walking Dead for me. Saw that the other TellTale action stuff was terrible but TWD looked interesting and at the time I was kinda into the show and my brother was huge into it. It was on sale and decided to buy it. Episode 1 was pretty good but 2 is where it really took off for me and I think it is one of the best if not the best game of the year.

The Walking Dead & Asura's Wrath!

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that my favourite games would be a point & click adventure & an interactive anime movie I probably would have laughed in your face.

I was personally expecting to hate Far Cry 3 as much as I hated Far Cry 2. I still haven't actually played it yet, but my hate for Far Cry 2 seems equal with Jeff's and he actually likes 3. That makes me think I might actually enjoy it.

For games I did play, I would name both Sleeping Dogs and Syndicate. I, like most people, wasn't expecting it to be anything resembling good, but it's a pretty damn solid one of those games. I especially like the setting. Syndicate just wasn't on my radar until Jeff raved about it. I picked it up and thought it was pretty rad. Wasn't expecting it at all.

The correct answer is Sleeping Dogs. That game was so good, and came from such meager beginnings.

Sleepy Dawgs. Thought it was going to be an okay game ,but it is now my goty.

And to a lesser extent Natural Selection 2 and Chivalry were both pleasant surprises.

I Am Alive

There was some very interesting stuff in there. One of my favorite games of the year.

Gravity Rush for me. Really wasn't expecting it to be that good and probably would never have bought it. But I got it free on PS+ and it is EXCELLENT! Reviews seemed to feel the combat isn't very good and is repetitive. Which is kind of true but honestly I didn't notice it at all while playing. The gameplay is wonderfully liberating as you can fly anywhere throughout an open-world. Literally, you press R to hover, point in a direction, press R again and you shoot off. That feeling really never got old.

The story is fun and interesting, the other gameplay mechanics are good, it doesn't shoe-horn too many vita control methods in and I thought the game was really great looking. It does lose a lot of detail at a distance but I felt it worked with the cel-shaded graphics and the textures are very nice close-up.

Highly recommended.

I'd also like to recommend another PS+ game, When Mutant Blobs Attack. Very fun platformer with a brilliant progression and ending.

XCOM. I have no interest in turned based strategy games but that game is fantastic.

Aren't all surprises unexpected?

The Walking Dead.

sleeping dogs, zombiu

Not necessarily the game itself, but a particular mode surprised me. The multiplayer mode in Mass Effect 3 has been a pleasant surprise to me. It's pretty much a mini-horde mode, which I loved in the G.O.W. series. Granted, ME3 isn't the best in the third-person shooter category, but they found a way to make it seem better than it really is. I have a feeling I'll still play the MP long after I finish the main campaign.

Walking Dead for me. Tell Tale's other games were not anything I really cared for and I don't like the TV show, found the comics alright.

It's truly great story telling.

A lot of people saying Sleeping Dogs, and I get that to a degree, but I thought the game looked outstanding in all the pre-release coverage so I wasn't the least bit surprised personally. Maybe people didn't even really see any of that.

Definitely Sleeping Dogs.

I already said this in another thread but I'll say it again: I thought True Crime was a shit franchise and was not upset (or surprised) at all when the new one got cancelled. For that game to be created out of the ashes of that turd is nothing short of amazing to me.

Ok well I know this might sound silly, but The Walking dead, I never really liked the show, but I bought the game without reading reviews, or watching any videos about it, needless to say I was mindstruck

Tokyo Jungle.

Guess I'm the only one who thought Sleeping Dogs looked great and has not been surprised by the quality of it.

For me it's either been Gotham City Impostors or Prototype 2

Tokyo Jungle. After watching the Quick Look, I told my friend who has a PS3 about it and he picked it up. He then hounded me on the phone for about a week where I was busy at work about how I needed to come over and try it out. He hadn't hounded me about a game like that since Wild 9.

Tokyo Jungle definitely didn't disappoint. That game is so fucking clever and addictive.

FTL is another one for me. The premise of the game was cool and all, but two things got me about it:

• The first Kickstarter success story
• How goddamn addictive it is once you start playing; you can't even get mad about losing at it, you just start up again immediately afterwards

Has to be Sleeping Dogs for me, was expecting a naff GTA clone with zero appeal but ended up absolutely loving it. Must of put 40+ hours into that game, waaay more than I was expecting to.

Sleeping Dogs was a rental that I turned out to love and I went out and bought it. Also the Syndicate and Sound Shapes caught me off guard.

Spec Ops: The Line

When I first heard it was coming out I honestly laughed thinking back to how bad the originals were. Props to them for not only putting out a pretty good (albeit average gameplay) game, the story was really cool and kept me playing. It was a very refreshing change to see a war shooter with a good story line.

2012 was a year of pleasant surprises, for me.

ZombiU - Ubisoft making games for the launch of a Nintendo system? Most definitely NOT the place I expected to find the best survival horror in years.

X-COM - After all the failed attempts at reviving old PC franchises, I had all but written this one off, expecting a watered down easy version with console controls. I have never been so happy to be so wrong.

Sleeping Dogs - Never really liked the True Crime games, and switching publishers is usually a recipe for disaster. I tend to consider the open world GTA genre to be boring (without going for humour Saints Row style) and this one really surprised us all.

The Walking Dead - Now, I wasn't surprised that this one was good. Telltale knows how to do a point and click. I was surprised at HOW good this one was.

Basically All the Downloadable Games - Walking Dead, Journey, Fez - So many downloadable games are beating out full budget AAA retail titles when it comes to GOTY considerations, across all media outlets. Whether a combination of people wanting games in smaller chunks, more people having broadband - or of course Steam sales - People are developing and buying amazing download only titles, and personally, I love this trend.

Steam - Valve hasnt let up all year with Steam. From Big Picture, to Greenlight, and now the Steam Box, Valve has been going above and beyond what they need to when expanding their platform, and all without monetizing anything beyond the game store - and it's made PC the fastest growing gaming platform this year. Valve's philosophy towards customer service is something the entire industry should try to live up to. The recent War Z fiasco is a perfect example of this. While legally, Valve could have left anyone who bought the game with no recourse but to cut their losses (Steam has a no refunds policy) they knew it shouldnt have been listed, and that the developer lied in the store description and in the interests of Steam's reputation, refunded people anyway.