What’s A Game Everyone Hates, That You Enjoy

I think most gamers have at least one game they genuinely love to play. A game that they really enjoy, but for whatever reason the vast majority of gamers seem to hate or dismiss that same game.

Maybe it’s a sequel, a sequel that didn't end the story the way the community was hoping for. Or maybe the controls were really weird or complex, but for you it just clicked. It could be the graphic style or quality. It could be any number of reasons that most of the gaming community have decided that the game you love is bad.

For me I have one that usually makes people look at me funny. Manhunt 2.

I know, I know. People seem to just generally hate this game. When people talk about Rockstar and the games they have released this is usually the one they single out as “The bad one.” The one real blemish on an otherwise perfect, or damn good track record. Like Ricochet for Valve, Manhunt 2 is usually seen as a misfire for Rockstar.

But..I actually enjoyed Manhunt 2. Now don’t get me wrong, Manhunt 2 is not Rockstar’s best game. Not even close. And overall I think Manhunt 2 is far from a great game. But I actually really enjoy it.

There is a reason though. I’m not completely crazy. I’m a huge fan of horror movies, particularly the slasher genre. The wacky and usually campy nature of those films, mixed with the practical effects and low budget feel they all seemed to have, I just love those movies. Movies like Friday the 13th VIII Jason Takes Manhattan. Movies that at one point have a man getting hot rocks shoved into his stomach and then have a scene like this.

There are not a lot of games that let you play a knife wielding murderer. Manhunt feels a lot like an old 80s slasher. And Manhunt 2 feels like a mid 90s slasher, with its weird “Brainwash/computers/evil corporation storyline.From the over the top locations you visit to the weird and disturbing characters you meet, like Piggsy, both games feel like schlock-y slasher films. Looking at some of the character designs in Manhunt its clear that Rockstar were watching some slasher movies. So maybe this was their goal from the start.

And I guess if were talking about horror/slasher games that I enjoy then I have to make a quick mention of the Saw games. Which I enjoyed much less but still liked…I don’t know maybe I am a bit crazy..

Anyways, that’s my game that I enjoy, that everyone else seems to hate. What’s your guilty pleasure, what game do you enjoy but are clearly in the minority on.

Final Fantasy XIII?

I loved Manhunt! Never finished 2 though....

I guess I'd say Thief, the new one & Deadly Shadows. I know that there are others like me, and they seem to similarly stay quiet about the negative response on the interwebz.

But holy shit, it's like the developers took everything I loved about Thief and made it better. The graphics, the ability to see your feet and arms/legs, the hub world. I love it.

I really really like Nier. Probably one of my personal favorite game from the last generation for sure and you know what? I may not love this game but Too Human/Alpha Protocol were totally ok games.

@video_game_king: When I asked this somewhere else I got 4 or 5 people who championed this game. Interesting how a lot of people hate it, to me (as someone who is not a FF fan) it seems like the same type of game. But watching the Spoony review it seems there are some major faults with that game.

@voshinova: I always find it fascinating how some people enjoy what many don't. I haven't played Thief (2014) yet, but I am going to get around to it at some point. Going in with an open mind.

Zelda 2

Final Fantasy II

DNF (not saying it's a good game, it's mediocre, but I did enjoy my time with it))

I don't know if it's everyone (I know it's not, though there are a lot of people), but I personally thought Resident Evil 6 was a great game, and don't feel the same way about most of the aspects people call problems, because I simply didn't believe they were problems. I mean, it's not perfect, and I have my own problems with it, but overall I really enjoyed the game.

Final Fantasy VIII and the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy , Brutal Legend.

Kengo. Although since I enjoy it because it's so bad I'm not sure of that counts.

@halomaste19: Right on! I would obviously recommend it. PC if you can. <3

Dead Space 3. Yes, it's not as good as the previous entries, but I still enjoyed it.

I have 4 games that I love that I think everyone hates;

1. Deadly Premonition, it might not be hated to so much on the internet, but a lot people that don't frequent websites think this game is trash, sure the gameplay is not the best, but I love the story and the characters so damn much.
2. The Legend of Dragoon, this game gets a lot of hate on the internet, there's a small minority that loves it, and the other side keeps comparing it to Final Fantasy and saying how much it sucks compared to that one.
3. Shadow of Destiny, I'm not sure if this game is even hated, but it's ignored so much that it makes me think everyone hates it, it's great story and it has time travel in it.
4. L.A. Noire, it was exactly what I was expecting and I was not disappointed one bit.

If you consider Japan Nier was very well received at least. I've never played it so I can't really say but it seems the uninspired art design led western critics to be overly harsh but the game as a whole.

If the podcast has made me realise anything, it's Cel Damage.

me, my brother and a couple of friends really enjoyed the 3D worms games back when they came out. (even the forts one)

Dragons Dogma

Majority of my friends that played it, despised it for it's graphics and lack of story and fast travel.

But the combat and world/setting are phenomenal and that, for me, made it one of my favorite ARPGs ever.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. I'm just a sucker for alternate history. Though I never finished the game, that was enough for me to thoroughly enjoy the time I spent playing it (more than half of it, it was a rental), and I guess I'm just not as critical as everyone else because I thought it was just fine in every other aspect as well.

Separated from the limitations in city management and online mandation, I kind of enjoyed the time I spent with Sim City. The core gameplay was still fun and it sure was pretty to look at. I really hope Maxis learns from their mistakes and tries at another iteration eventually.

The newest SimCity.

@themanwithnoplan: I totally enjoyed Sim City too. Glitches and all. I spent something like 100 hours building cities trying to perfect a region and had a good time. Loved the graphics/music. I think I stopped because I had repeated the start up process one too many times - I'll probably play it again at a later date. ^_^

Army of Two: The 40th Day was fantastic! At least, playing it all the way through on co-op in one day was fantastic. For a game that seemed to take itself pretty seriously, it was real dumb. And also real fun. My favorite parts were when you had to make a "moral choice" and they were all so overt-the-top and ridiculous. Like the one where you kill a tiger in a zoo to get more ammo and guns which leads to a cutscene showing how the species eventually went extinct. It was great!

I love Dragon Age 2 despite its flaws.

Most of my buddies are real snobs about Indie or arcade type games and none of them give two shits about PacMan Champ Edition DX...........I loved that game so much!

@themanwithnoplan said:

Yeah I kind of agree with this (though I think I'm a little more negative about it). The thing about the new Sim City is that it was just good enough to make you disappointed that it wasn't everything it could have been.

@thebluthcompany: Agreed. Merrill was such a fun character to interact with.

Alien Colonial Marines

@voshinova: I like every character except for Anders. Fuck that guy for fucking everything up.

Assassin's Creed III. Mass Effect 3. Dragon Age II.

I really like FF13.

Brutal Legend was a really cool RTS, guys! Trust me!

Why would EA market it as an action game...

Completely agree with this. I put somewhere around 20 to 30 hours into the game, and every time I filled in that rather small build space, or had to rely on another city's commerce that didn't exist, or lost all of my progress I just shook my head. I still had a ton of fun with the core game play, but it just turned into a pretty bittersweet experience.

FEAR 3 really was okay. Given a distaste for FEAR 2's gameplay and expectations at zero, you might enjoy it.

Playing as Fettel also seemed fun, even though I had no one to co-op the game with.

This is where I say Other M, isn't it?

@saturdaynightspecials:

Nope

Same here. The linearity didn't bother me a bit and it's gameplay was some of my favorite in a Jrpg to date.

You're a nope

anything Final Fantasy XIII pretty much...

Yep. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Final Fantasy XV comes out. My guess is the haters will all jump on it because it'll play like Kingdom Hearts and hating XIII suddenly won't be the "in" thing to do anymore.

@hailinel: I'm interested as well because I'm still of the opinon that the thing that has changed is that western game design tropes have influenced the way people think games should be made much more than when the Japanese companies really dominated in the early 00's and late 90's. JRPG's used to be the "in" thing back on the SNES and PS One and I don't think that is the case anymore.

Yeah, that's the thing, though. There's no specific way that games "should" be. If someone took a look at Final Fantasy XIII and insisted that it sucks because it's not an action RPG hack-and-slash with dialog choices and romance options, that's not intelligent criticism. That's just saying you want to play something that isn't Final Fantasy XIII and are using the lack your personal wants to craft fictitious flaws.

It's not a game but everyone talks shit about the Sega-CD but, simply due to nostalgia, I might have the fondest memories of that system then any other system. That or the Colecovision, which is also kind of laughed at. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.

@hailinel: Oh , I entirely agree but just look at how games like Halo, Gears and Call of Duty have influenced things. I mean perfect example of my point is Metal Gear Online. That was a shooter made entirely by a Japanese company and team and the game was so different from any competitive shooter that is usually seen in the west that most people quit playing it before they learned how all the mechanics worked properly. If you put in your time to learn the control scheme and mechanics and how the flow of the game went MGO was goddamn amazing. Most people however were instantly turned off by the control scheme and how non-standard everything was in the game.

@hailinel said:

You should probably just link all of your GOTY lists.

To be fair, Xenoblade Chronicles is a well-regarded game. My other top games of the year, well, not as much.

@hailinel: @demoskinos: Funny Xenoblade is mentioned because that is JRPG that western media praised but I did not like it. Largely because of how poorly I felt it implemented western design ideas. it takes elements from WRPGs without using them well. I found FF12 took those ideas but actually implemented them in a way that made sense with their design ideas.

Any list with Fire Emblem at the top is alright in my book. Unless it's Shadow Dragon (but we don't talk about that one).

Not going to close this but...this topic gets done about once every six months or so. If you were so inclined you could go back and take a look, some of these threads have hundreds of replies.

https://www.google.com/search?q=games+you+love+others+hate+site%3Agiantbomb.com&oq=games+you+love+others+hate+site%3Agiantbomb.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.5631j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8

Mass Effect 3, Brutal Legend and COD3 multiplayer (the only COD multiplayer worth playing imo.)

LA Noire was also great.

Dead Space 3. If that game hadn't been made by a post-Mass Effect 3 EA, people may have been mildly disappointed but it wouldn't have gotten a fraction of the hate it did. Yeah, the story wasn't great, but if you can deal with the rampant Deus Ex Machina near the end it's totally bearable and neat in spots. The coop character's presence was kind of weird at some points during the single player campaign, but beyond that I didn't feel like I missed anything when playing alone. The microtransactions were totally optional and it wasn't until the second playthrough that I even knew they were there. The crafting was cool but even if you hated it you could just slap together a Plasma Cutter and call it a day.

Also, come on guys, Dead Space was never scary. I'm a total puss when it comes to horror games and movies, but DS1 was mildly unsettling at points and nothing more. I'd argue that DS2's creepiest parts are creepier than DS1, and DS3 has a few good ones as well; they just don't make up the majority of the game.

I like Ryse a whole lot