Games you thought you would like, but didn't

What are the games you thought you would like but when you got them you bounced off?

I was a huge JRPG game player in my teens, yet now in my 40's I avoid games like Final Fantasy. I loved Civilization and Alpha Centauri and attribute Civ 3 as the reason my undergrad GPA was so low. I can still play Civ 5 and 6, but have no time for Beyond Earth. I played hundreds of hours of Master of Orion 2, but can't seem to get into Galactic Civilization 3 or Stellaris. The biggest surprise to me is when I could not get into BioShock, Skyrim, or Pillars of Eternity when I loved Halo, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate.

The thing is all the games I bounced off from seem to be games I liked before. I waited for Beyond Earth to go on sale and then I only played 5 hours. I have installed Bioshock 4 times and every time I only make it though
2-3 levels. I still don't know "will you please kindly" means. For whatever reason my likes changed and I was shocked when this happens. What about you?

I love BioShock 1 but bounced hard off 2 and haven't yet gotten around to buying 3. Whenever I start up BS2, I sort of wish I was replaying the first one, because there are so many ways to spec out your...guy, and I think the plot and pacing are sublime. Admittedly, I may be biased due to love of its inspiration, System Shock 2.

As for Pillars of Eternity, I share your feelings about it. I played a dozen or so hours, got to the main big city and just sort of drifted away from it. Though it was made by many of the creators of Baldur's Gate, the shallow truth is that it's just not the same as playing a D&D game. Thinking back, getting to a main hub -where mission options really open up- seems to be my stopping point in many games of that ilk: The Witcher, Fallout 4 (for a while at least), Dragon Age 3, Divinity: Original Sin, Mass Effect, Wasteland 2, and STALKER to name a few.

Other than those, I tend to bounce off of games that force you into a bad guy (or even anti-hero) role, like the GTA or Saints Row series. Which is strange, because Garrett from Thief is my all time favorite character, but I tell myself he's more of a Robin Hood archetype.

I loved Jet Set Radio, so I expected to love Sunset Overdrive. Whether it was the unrelenting mechanics expecting me to always be in motion even when defending a fixed location, or the amped up "edginess", it just drive me away.

I've touched on the topic in some of the "pile" threads... part of my problem is buying games based on what I think I like (or what I want to think I am the kind of person to like) rather than what I actually like. And, yes of course, my tastes have changed over the pas three decades! I'd be surprised if someone's tastes did not.

I could list a million games I've bounced off of, but generally, I'm kind of pretentious and expect to like slow weird arsty indie games more than I usually do. I've loved a few, but not as many as I think I will.

Like you, I've also found JRPGs much harder to enjoy. The time commitment is more difficult to make, and I'm less tolerant of many Japanese tropes (well, probably a lot of lazy American tropes too) than I was when I was young.

Mass Effect 2. I loved ME 1 and so I jumped into ME2, rebuilt my sniper with hacker powers and slogged my way through it. I never got ME3.

I also could not get into Pillars of Eternity but I played though all of Tyranny.

Red Dead Redemption.

Everything about it sounded like something I would like, but when I got into actually playing it I found that it just wasn't good. The gunplay was awful, the world was giant but empty and failing a mission was too punishing in terms of lost time (riding a horse for ten minutes to get to a place just so I can get shot and respawn ten minutes away from the mission just wasn't enjoyable, and if there was a system to make that not be a problem it wasn't adequately explained.)

Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy.

Loved it at first, found the difficulty and learning curve frustrating but challenging. Then as I progressed I realized that the controls are not only based relative to the character's center, but also the mouse location relative to the camera's position (which is also relative to the character), which inconsistently throws the controls off during major swings of the hammer (thus changing the mouse's position relative to the character when the camera lags behind a big thrust). This causes erratic hammer swings that you can't correct for in time
(sometimes the camera lags behind the dude, sometimes it doesn't, and the direction in which it might isn't always clear-- so it's virtually impossible to correct for the mouse location's shift on screen and thus hammer movement), making it hugely detrimental to the minute actions required in the later stages of the game.

Rather than being brutally challenging by designing brutal challenges around a stable control scheme with a steep learning curve, it feels more like the game is brutally challenging because he never bothered testing large swaths of environment to find the inconsistencies in the controls. Or worse, didn't bother to correct those inconsistencies and instead tries to convince players it's a feature.

BioShock Infinite. I quite enjoyed BioShock. I could not get into Infinite at all.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. After being thoroughly impressed with DA: Origins the threequel bounced hard.

Those two were just a real step down from the prior offerings, for me. I did miss the second game in both franchises which may have felt a more natural progression.

Pretty much every JRPG that is not Chrono Trigger or Phantasy Star. I like CRPG and ARPG which causes me to occasionally venture over to JRPG. The Japanese themes bring much razzle dazzle that burn out my suspension of disbelief. Sometimes it's merely the grind.

RnRClown wrote:

BioShock Infinite. I quite enjoyed BioShock. I could not get into Infinite at all.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. After being thoroughly impressed with DA: Origins the threequel bounced hard.

Those two were just a real step down from the prior offerings, for me. I did miss the second game in both franchises which may have felt a more natural progression.

DA2 is like neither DAO nor DA: Inquisition. DAO is more like a classic dungeon crawl in the tradition of Baldur's Gate, and DA:I is more open-world-ish/MMO-ish. DA2 is more like Mass Effect 2. The narrative game is just as good or better than the tactical game. Many people play and replay it just to get all the possible reactions and endings, rather like in the manner of a visual novel. It's just short enough to do that.

I think that Dragon Age might be one of the few trilogies where you could conceivably classify each game into a different genre.

My list of sadness include:

Pillars of Eternity - I was supposed to like it but I actually really hate having to pause every couple of seconds and wonder if my spell really worked well or not. Kind of a turn off. I did make it to the last act, but I canno will myself to complete it.

Divinity 2 - I really liked the first one. Brutal and unforgiving until you hit your stride and combat was always a challenge. With the new itineration with magic armor and physical armor and what just feels like power creep and some ridiculous fights near the end, I shelved it. There are workarounds online but that’s so dang exhausting to me. I dig creative solutions but they need to be somewhat self-evident in my opinion.

Total War: Arena — thought I’d like it. I don’t tend to like the crapshoot teams you’ll end up getting. Coupled with connection issues was just a deathknell.

Assassin's Creed. I liked open world action-adventure games of all stripes, but I just can't get into Assassin's Creed games. I tried getting into Ass Creed 2, Black Flag, and and whichever one was set in Paris? I can't get over the janky combat. It just wrecks the moment to moment experience and I find myself hating the entire game.

RnRClown wrote:

BioShock Infinite. I quite enjoyed BioShock. I could not get into Infinite at all.

+1 to this.

Because I love Civ, I think I will like 4X or other grand strategy titles like EU, Total War, or Endless Legend. I never do.

Despite not finishing a FPS single player campaign since COD4, periodically I think would enjoy shooters again and whatever I try, I never do.

LarryC wrote:

Assassin's Creed. I liked open world action-adventure games of all stripes, but I just can't get into Assassin's Creed games. I tried getting into Ass Creed 2, Black Flag, and and whichever one was set in Paris? I can't get over the janky combat. It just wrecks the moment to moment experience and I find myself hating the entire game.

Heh, the only AssCreed's I paid for are 1 and the Vita game. I got 3, 4, and AssCreed: Chronicles for free at various times, but still haven't played more than an hour or two.

BlackSheep wrote:

Pillars of Eternity - I was supposed to like it but I actually really hate having to pause every couple of seconds and wonder if my spell really worked well or not. Kind of a turn off. I did make it to the last act, but I canno will myself to complete it.

As much as I loved Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, I've bounced hard off of every single one of the new CRPG remakes from the last few years. I'm not entirely certain why. I feel like that genre hasn't aged very well, and that most of the attempts to remake it haven't dealt well with its inherent weaknesses in UI. The one exception to this are the Shadowrun games, where the turn based gameplay keeps things from turning into a jumbled mess. But I've also bounced off the Divinity games, so maybe this is just about my recent disenchantment with fantasy settings.

kazooka wrote:
BlackSheep wrote:

Pillars of Eternity - I was supposed to like it but I actually really hate having to pause every couple of seconds and wonder if my spell really worked well or not. Kind of a turn off. I did make it to the last act, but I canno will myself to complete it.

As much as I loved Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, I've bounced hard off of every single one of the new CRPG remakes from the last few years. I'm not entirely certain why. I feel like that genre hasn't aged very well, and that most of the attempts to remake it haven't dealt well with its inherent weaknesses in UI. The one exception to this are the Shadowrun games, where the turn based gameplay keeps things from turning into a jumbled mess. But I've also bounced off the Divinity games, so maybe this is just about my recent disenchantment with fantasy settings.

Maybe it's the traversal -- eg Pillars can be a drag when you get quests in a hub town that just ping pong you from one district to another and back again, or from one overworld area to another. Add in loading times and it drains momentum. The Shadowrun games didn't have you crossing large maps between encounters. I have lower tolerance for backtracking than I did in earlier gaming eras.

The entire Anno series. I love trading games and city games, but these just bounced off of me within an hour of gameplay time. I've played long enough to know when it's time to bail and I jumped out hard from these.

On the MMO side, Guild Wars 2. It has all the parts there but for some reason I just feel a big meh while playing.

Everything made by Supergiant. You'd think I'd stop buying them, but the community enthusiasm always gets the better of me.

Budo wrote:

On the MMO side, Guild Wars 2. It has all the parts there but for some reason I just feel a big meh while playing.

It does seem like the ideal mmo, but in practice I disliked having everything scale to my level, having to zone to different areas, and the general overly-high fantasy aesthetic.

Though I like to see myself a someone who defines himself by things he loves, I will chime in...

1. Dragon Age: Origins...

After 10 years back in gaming, I hoped this was a fresh, nice, beautifull take on the RPG like Baldurs Gate was back in the days - but no with more options, less railroading, bla di bla. What I found was a game were you had to program your party like GWBasic, stories that consisted of iron railroads and sometimes stupid plot or plotholes and a ridiculous passage were a soldier broke the law for a cookie and rowed me to a tower to enter a dream within a demons head - or something like that. Graphics were impressive, but the whole thing felt more like work and I couldn't bear the storie of hack, slash, next room, hack, slash, next room anymore... utter disappointment

2. Total War. Medieval II...

Boy, did I love the old Shogun. Play with all factions, conquered everything. Rome was a nice turn! Medieval II I grew tired of the battles, and without the battles it is a cumbersome, boring RISK game that give no satisfaction. Pump up town with militia, siege on lands, listen to the pope... rinse and repeat.

3. All Civs after Civ II

Civ I, four cities, four chariots.. conquer the world! Great fun. Civ II was DA BOMB. Civ III was fat and ugly, and it went downhill. Shock and Awe and Blitzkrieg is virtually impossible in the stack-of-doomless world.
I did LOVE the old colonization, would love to give that one a whizz.

I realize that the old Hobbit and Zork unforgiving playtype will not sell anymore. But to railroad everything into numbness... that's another story.

KOTOR is probably my least favorite BioWare game, mostly due to the painfully dull opening section and the unsatisfying D&D combat rules. I suspect I'd have liked it more when it first came out, but since I only played it after playing several other BioWare franchises, it hadn't aged well in comparison.

I like Star Wars, and I like BioWare games, but it didn't work for me this time.

Black & White. I liked a lot of Bullfrog's output in the 90's and spent a decent chunk of time playing Populous on the SNES. I don't think I ever made it past the second or third island.

COD: WW2

I was really itching for a good fps, and really like the time period, so went into my play through really excited. What a terrible game.

The story seemed as if it was written as fanfic by a 14 year, who decided to shovel in every war trope. Pacing was really off, with the flash out sequences and QTEs being completely immersion breaking. Even the fps elements (gunplay, squad dynamics, AI, etc...) were really disappointing.

I guess I am never buying another COD after this experience...

shoptroll wrote:

Black & White. I liked a lot of Bullfrog's output in the 90's and spent a decent chunk of time playing Populous on the SNES. I don't think I ever made it past the second or third island.

Omg yes. I was so disappointed in this. And populous was fun and inventive gameplay. B&W was one of those games that had a brilliant premise without the tools to execute at the time the vision.

BlackSheep wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Black & White. I liked a lot of Bullfrog's output in the 90's and spent a decent chunk of time playing Populous on the SNES. I don't think I ever made it past the second or third island.

Omg yes. I was so disappointed in this. And populous was fun and inventive gameplay. B&W was one of those games that had a brilliant premise without the tools to execute at the time the vision.

I have never understood why that game received such unadulterated praise. For me, it was clearly the point where Molyneux's vision had gone further than his ability. Great idea, yes, but a lot of games have great ideas.

Crusader Kings 2 (I wrote into the podcast about this a year or so back). Big strategy games are my ‘go to’ games. So when I got this, I cleared an evening, made a cup of tea and settled in. I bounced off the interface so hard I damn near hit myself in the head. For whatever reason I’ve just never been able to get into the game.

Also, despite many many many hours sunk into the Civ series over the last 20+ years, I’ve still only got 30 hours in Civ VI. I liked what I played but for whatever reason (again) I’ve just not really gone back to it. Hopefully the new expansion will sort it all out.

kazooka wrote:

As much as I loved Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, I've bounced hard off of every single one of the new CRPG remakes from the last few years. I'm not entirely certain why. I feel like that genre hasn't aged very well, and that most of the attempts to remake it haven't dealt well with its inherent weaknesses in UI. The one exception to this are the Shadowrun games, where the turn based gameplay keeps things from turning into a jumbled mess. But I've also bounced off the Divinity games, so maybe this is just about my recent disenchantment with fantasy settings.

Same boat, starting with the original release of FFVII, I was nearly a RPG-exclusive gamer, with just a handful of FPS/Adventure-type games thrown in - Half Life, Jedi Knight Series, etc., thrown in as an occasional distraction. These days, after work, I mostly want to jump right in and blow some sh*t up.

I don't usually have the time or the patience anymore to complete most long-winded RPG campaigns. Hell, I absolutely love the Elder Scrolls games, but I think the only ones I've ever beaten the primary story campaign for are Morrowind and ESO. I haven't TRULY completed any of them.

I'm an even bigger fan of the Fallout universe, but while I've beaten 1 and 2, 3 and 4 haven't held my attention for more than 10-20 hours and that barely even scratches the surface of those games.

Edit: Come to think of it, I completely murdered the Icewind Dale series and all DLC, but I don't recall if I actually ever completed any of the Baldur's Gate games.

I bounced right off of Witcher 2 & 3.

Shame 'cause the world-building seems incredible, but ultimately the game falls down for me on a base gameplay level. It's just no fun in the moment to moment, imo.

(I likely haven't learned my lesson yet as enough time will pass and I'll try yet again with Cyberpunk 2077.)

The Guild Series - I want to like these games so badly! I love crafting, building an empire, all that stuff. These games are just so obnoxiously obtuse and creepingly slow that I can't get into them. I'm really hoping that the soon-to-be-released #3 will finally be the one I break in to.

The one that comes to mind instantly is Witcher 2. I really liked the first game, and as it turns out, the third game is the best thing ever in the history of the world and all things in the universe. But, I just couldn't get going with 2. I've often thought about going back to it, and I just can't even.

The Witcher 3 qualifies for me too. It's not a bad game. I would class it as an amazing accomplishment. Just not my cup of tea. How so? I also found the moment to moment gameplay to be lacking. Everything else was great. Getting around the world wasn't enjoyable. The traversal felt off. The world was so good, though. I wanted to see more. Fighting enemies wasn't engaging. It felt rote. The quest lines were so good, though, they all but demanded to be followed through.

RnRClown wrote:

The Witcher 3 qualifies for me too. It's not a bad game. I would class it as an amazing accomplishment. Just not my cup of tea. How so? I also found the moment to moment gameplay to be lacking. Everything else was great. Getting around the world wasn't enjoyable. The traversal felt off. The world was so good, though. I wanted to see more. Fighting enemies wasn't engaging. It felt rote. ...

This so perfectly sums up my feelings about Assassin's Creed: Origins. I picked it up and tried it but all the things above make me not care.

The only one I took out was the quests lines because that was not even a little true about AC:O. Unlike the Witcher 3 the quests in AC:O were the most dull kinds of "go to point A and kill X enemies" I don't even remember the names of the quest givers or their stories because they don't matter. They have no bigger story, just some vague reason I need to kill a bunch of people.