Surprised?

SEANMCAD

Have you ever played a game you thought you would not like only to discover you really liked it alot. Lets say after maybe 20 hours of play

Loke666

I happens even though the opposite is more often true. Some games take a while before you get into and I might of course have missed some good games due to trying it a few hours and quitting.

Still, in 90% of the cases, if I don't like the first hour I wont like the game more. Then there are the few that just get better and better as you play.

SEANMCAD

Here is an example of both. In my example I will use 'watching hours of video' as 'getting the game'

The kickstarter video I saw for 7 days to die years ago I was very impressed with but the game itself didnt seem to me to be that intresting, zombies fighting is really something I dont want to do. But then I watched some videos and it grew on me, it took hours though, and now its one of my favorite game of all time.

Project Zombiod - again...zombies...horrible graphics...clunky controls..but all the youtube channels I watched had plenty of videos about the game I would watch those videos. I could not get into it. no matter how opened minded I tried to be, I got the game, same thing..just could not get into it.

I am not making a point in all this just sharing

Wizardry

No because that would mean i did no homework and just bought the game on a whim.that has happened a few times and those times the games were far worse than i imagined.

I look for game play,animations,tactics and character design/depth,i use that as a very strong base to determine if i should look at the game beyond 5 minutes.

SEANMCAD

Wizardry said:

No because that would mean i did no homework and just bought the game on a whim.that has happened a few times and those times the games were far worse than i imagined.

I look for game play,animations,tactics and character design/depth,i use that as a very strong base to determine if i should look at the game beyond 5 minutes.

yeah i tend to do a lot of research as well and that almost always pays off. rarely do I get a game that doesnt meet my expectations. StarMade held me for longer then I thought it would but it ended up not keeping my attention. I like Voxel games..but ones that do not smooth out anything like that I just cant do it....just cant.

timeraider

Havent told anyone this but.. Witch It.
I never thought i would like it after seeing it was a cartoonised prophunt game.
Tried it regardless just for funsies and i really did get surprised. Played it for the coming 5 hours before i had to eat because it was alot more fun than expected for sure XD

Everyone probably has these moments whereby you unconsiously need a certain game while in that mood and you randomly stumble upon one only to feel your soul get its satisfaction ;D

Po_gg

SEANMCAD said:

Have you ever played a game you thought you would not like only to discover you really liked it alot. Lets say after maybe 20 hours of play

Can't remember, maybe happened back in the '80s but pretty unlikely. I'm with @Wizardry on this one, and doing my "homework" beforehand. Time is way more valuable to waste on games I know I won't like, so 20 hours in "a game you thought you would not like" - nope.
If I think I wouldn't like it, I don't touch it in the first place, easy as that.

It doesn't mean there are no surprises, though. The most notable was maybe Her story... I started it with the expectations of an interesting / good investigation game, and by the end I was totally amazed. The design, the narrative structure, the whole idea... awesome.

Vrika

No. I wouldn't be playing if I didn't think I'd like it.

The opposite has happened too often, though. Especially with F2P games that try to suck you in, then present you with a giant paywall.

Lithuanian

Not after 20 hours...say, from third try. I did not believe I would find it so attractive.
Lord of the rings online.
1st try: Lotro - ok, let's try Elf, let's try archer, craaaap - why  do I die so soon?
2nd try: Lotro -ok, let's try Dwarf - oh my, what's this mess about?
3rd try: Lotro - ok, let's try Human...ok, this is for me, this is really for me.

Po_gg

Lithuanian said:

1st try: Lotro - ok, let's try Elf, let's try archer, craaaap - why  do I die so soon?

You should see the hunter now... (wanted to put a smiley here, but it's more like sad)
Blue, Precision (free focus and no loss with movement), quick shot and pen shot (or barrage), everything dies.
They're even yapping about skill bloat (after the massive skill removal with the trait trees ) because they don't use anything else.

Good old days, when an on-level pack of mob could easily overwhelm the hunter... traps were real items not just something dropping down left and right at whim, focus management was important and you needed chants and oils for most encounters.

ConstantineMerus

EVE Online would be the pinnacle of surprise for me. I never thought I would like a space game with those mechanics. When I first logged in I was like wtf is this, can't even maneuver my freaking ship? What's the point? 

12 years later I closed down 27 accounts and retired as one of the games legends. 

Maurgrim

Guild Wars 2 was it for me.
I tried the open beta weekends, and I wasent impressed at all, I thought It was boring.
Then the very last beta weekend I rolled a new toon, I didn't rush thrue, the thing was I didn't understood the concept from the start, I thought the hearts on the map was the quests and everything that happen around was just things to kill.

So I took my time, I watched the quests unfold I followed them thrue, I listen to the NPCs and then I understood the whole game and I was amazed, Played for solid 2 years before I took a break.

laxie

Three games surprised me recently:

Black Desert - Everything felt subpar on the surface, cluttered and difficult to navigate. Forcefully spending a few hours with the game, I started to discover the small nuances of how all the systems work. It's not my all time favourite game, but it's one I learned to appreciate.


Wildstar - I'm genuinely surprised the game is not canceled yet. I was one of the few people who really enjoyed it at launch. I think I am in the minority who enjoys truly challenging games, but also likes housing and fluffy unicorns. All of my friends left the game 2 months in. I was certain the game would close soon after, so I left as well. 3 years later, it's still running for some strange reason. It is a shame, I would love to play it had I not thought it would be shutting down any day now.

Guild Wars 2 - I did not expect any game to hold my interest for that long. I went in expecting 2 or 3 months out of it, as is common with most other MMOs. I played it for 2 years straight, rarely getting bored.

Kyleran

Wizardry said:

No because that would mean i did no homework and just bought the game on a whim.that has happened a few times and those times the games were far worse than i imagined.

I look for game play,animations,tactics and character design/depth,i use that as a very strong base to determine if i should look at the game beyond 5 minutes.

I struggle to imagine there's been a game you've actually liked in recent years.  Can you name a few and why you enjoyed them?

BTW my list is pretty short, but I am coming to learn this has been a well of my own making.

Kyleran

ArcheAge was a game I didn't decide I enjoyed until I hit level 35 and joined a strong guild about the same time. I stopped enjoying after the alpha phase ended.

DAOC really didn't grab me for a month as I experimented with and discarded several alts before finding a class I enjoyed 

Half Life 1 surprised me as I generally don't enjoy shooters but the story and presentation drew me in. (Played thru it 3 times)

Surprisingly Half Life 2 didn't go as well, I  tired of it about midway or so and never finished. 

EVE was a game I researched well before starting but on several occasions I found myself struggling to find the fun.

Not really a game issue, by design the player must evaluate the gameplay tools and forge their own path, which takes some thought coupled with an assist from CCP when they add new features.

Sid_Vicious

Guild Wars

Gavyne

CS:Go, I had left the Counter-Strike franchise a long time ago.  Moved on to Battlefield for my fps twitch needs for many years.  But their recent ESL & PGL Major tournaments got me really into the game again.  I'm now enjoying CS:Go, which surprised me.  Shows you esports popularity do make a difference in showcasing the games.

BDO, I wasn't expecting to like it, I really was just going to play it out of boredom at the time.  I thought the combat looked too arcade/tekken like.  But the game sucked me in, it had a modern Asheron's Call feeling to it.  The combat totally sold it for me, it was more fun than I had imagined.  Of course the endgame & RNG parts of the game sucks, which is why I don't play it anymore.  But I played the crap out of that game for awhile, totally unexpected.

GeezerGamer

SEANMCAD said:

Have you ever played a game you thought you would not like only to discover you really liked it alot. Lets say after maybe 20 hours of play

On paper, GW2 did not look like anything I wanted. Yet I enjoyed the hell out of it (Pre-HoT anyway)

Sovrath

Yes, my first mmorpg, lineage 2

Come to think of it, also Andromeda

MikaelJordan

Well, to me it would be the game called: This War of Mine - It greatly impacts my point of view and perspective about the conception of war.

Wars or War themed games is about you are the “chosen one”, super elite soldiers, carry a whole arsenal from a handgun to rocket Launcher, go out there and eliminate the “bad guys”.

 Now you are a civilian, stuck in a war, and try to survive. You got tons of problem to deal with, food, medicine, safety, how to organize your shelter and divide the task, tough decision to make... This is very close to how it will be if you are actually stuck in a war.

This game has totally changed my mind about how the war would be if I ever had to be a part of ones. Strongly recommend everyone should give it a try.

SEANMCAD

MikaelJordan said:

Well, to me it would be the game called: This War of Mine - It greatly impacts my point of view and perspective about the conception of war.

Wars or War themed games is about you are the “chosen one”, super elite soldiers, carry a whole arsenal from a handgun to rocket Launcher, go out there and eliminate the “bad guys”.

 Now you are a civilian, stuck in a war, and try to survive. You got tons of problem to deal with, food, medicine, safety, how to organize your shelter and divide the task, tough decision to make... This is very close to how it will be if you are actually stuck in a war.

This game has totally changed my mind about how the war would be if I ever had to be a part of ones. Strongly recommend everyone should give it a try.

to that point 7 Days to Die challenged my conception of permanence and the value that can come from loss.
Concretely my first base which I spent 7 hours building got destroyed by zombies and after taking a break to consume that loss I was even more compelled by the challenge then I was before. So the thought that in a game the progress you make should always move forward in order for the game to be compelling was challenged. loss can become compelling

Kyleran

SEANMCAD said:

MikaelJordan said:

Well, to me it would be the game called: This War of Mine - It greatly impacts my point of view and perspective about the conception of war.

Wars or War themed games is about you are the “chosen one”, super elite soldiers, carry a whole arsenal from a handgun to rocket Launcher, go out there and eliminate the “bad guys”.

 Now you are a civilian, stuck in a war, and try to survive. You got tons of problem to deal with, food, medicine, safety, how to organize your shelter and divide the task, tough decision to make... This is very close to how it will be if you are actually stuck in a war.

This game has totally changed my mind about how the war would be if I ever had to be a part of ones. Strongly recommend everyone should give it a try.

to that point 7 Days to Die challenged my conception of permanence and the value that can come from loss.
Concretely my first base which I spent 7 hours building got destroyed by zombies and after taking a break to consume that loss I was even more compelled by the challenge then I was before. So the thought that in a game the progress you make should always move forward in order for the game to be compelling was challenged. loss can become compelling

Without the risk of real loss there can be no real feel of victory, or at least how I view playing games.

SEANMCAD

Kyleran said:

SEANMCAD said:

MikaelJordan said:

Well, to me it would be the game called: This War of Mine - It greatly impacts my point of view and perspective about the conception of war.

Wars or War themed games is about you are the “chosen one”, super elite soldiers, carry a whole arsenal from a handgun to rocket Launcher, go out there and eliminate the “bad guys”.

 Now you are a civilian, stuck in a war, and try to survive. You got tons of problem to deal with, food, medicine, safety, how to organize your shelter and divide the task, tough decision to make... This is very close to how it will be if you are actually stuck in a war.

This game has totally changed my mind about how the war would be if I ever had to be a part of ones. Strongly recommend everyone should give it a try.

to that point 7 Days to Die challenged my conception of permanence and the value that can come from loss.
Concretely my first base which I spent 7 hours building got destroyed by zombies and after taking a break to consume that loss I was even more compelled by the challenge then I was before. So the thought that in a game the progress you make should always move forward in order for the game to be compelling was challenged. loss can become compelling

Without the risk of real loss there can be no real feel of victory, or at least how I view playing games.

I used to think perma-death and game saving without your choice to save to be retarded. I get it now, you loose that base, there is no re-load.

cameltosis

Deus Ex - Human Revolution

Game always got good reviews, I liked the setting, gameplay videos looked ok. But, man, I really didn't enjoy the initial experience. I don't like stories in my computer games, they never work well, and the gameplay for the first 5 hours was pretty shit. I was also even less motivated to play as I got the game free with a CPU. 


However, on my 3rd attempt I tried to push through. I would play the game for 45 minutes during my lunch breaks, rather than playing at home, and this allowed me to progress. Once I hit around hour 7, I'd progressed enough to reach newer, larger zones and unlock more skills and equipment which in turn improved the gameplay. I still never really cared about the story but would always challenge myself to move through each building / zone without setting off alarms. 


That's pretty much the only one I can think of. I don't even know why I persevered with Deus Ex, I was probably just skint at the time and couldn't afford new games. Most of the time, if I'm not enjoying the game within a few hours then thats it, im off and don't come back. MMOs are a slight exception - I hate the leveling experience so will play for days / weeks not really enjoying it in order to reach the content I do enjoy - endgame. But, I know in advance what to expect from endgame which gives the motivation to power through. In single player games, no guarantee that I'll start enjoying it later. 

SEANMCAD

RimWorld

I have been putting off this game for a looong time. Many of my favorite channels have lots of videos on this, a lot play in my 'ecosystem' but the graphics just really put me off.

well I finally got in and am hooked, took me 2 years of avoiding it.

Hatefull

SEANMCAD said:

Have you ever played a game you thought you would not like only to discover you really liked it alot. Lets say after maybe 20 hours of play

Rarely, but it does happen. My latest was WH40K eternal crusade. I got it knowing I would hate it and it turns out it is a neat little lobby shooter. Nothing special mind you, pretty much your run of the mill shooter, but the maps are made well, there is a healthy player base and for whatever reason, it is very fun.

I also started DNL with the same mind set and as it turns out, I am a bit surprised by it as well. We will see how this turns out, but thus far (only like 10 hours played) it is pretty ok.