Games that you'd like to like...

[mlnevese]

There are many games out there that i'd like to like but just can't. They are not bad games, but they just failed to keep me interested for some reason.

Some of the most famous ones would be Divinity Original Sin I & II and Pillars of Eternity... I have over 40hrs playing all of these trying to like them, but it just doesn't work.

I can see both Divinity are really good but the story fails to catch me. I also deeply dislike the excessive use of elemental surfaces in both games. Pillars of Eternity just had me give up in the beginning because I saw no point. There was nothing in the story that actually held my attention or made me care about the characters I met. Also some of the mechanics were not what I'd call intuitive such as Might affecting magical damage.

 

[alice_ashpool]

Some of the most famous ones would be Divinity Original Sin I & II and Pillars of Eternity... I have over 40hrs playing all of these trying to like them, but it just doesn't work.

Wierdly, I am exactly the same. I think I could "get" PoE with some effort, but I have tried multiple times to get into D:OS 1 and 2 and they never clicked.

I really wish I liked those Grand Strategy Games, the concept always seemed cool but I never have the patience to learn.

 

[Eternal]

Can I ask you to become my research participant for a bit? I urgently need to understand this way of thinking! I’ve definitely heard many times about problems with the use of surfaces in Divinity: Original Sin games but there is still insufficient data on my part on why surfaces there are a bad thing. Please tell me about your experience in more detail.

 

[mlnevese]

Can I ask you to become my research participant for a bit? I urgently need to understand this way of thinking! I’ve definitely heard many times about problems with the use of surfaces in Divinity: Original Sin games but there is still insufficient data on my part on why surfaces there are a bad thing. Please tell me about your experience in more detail.

I feel like surfaces are abused in the games. Let's get a traditional RPG like D&D. You may be hit by Greek Fire or some other fire inducing potion, for instance. You can get rid of it by a save, throwing water on yourself or just rolling on the floor, so you get rid of the damage source and can concentrate in your main fight. Also, it won't deal an absurd amount of damage every round.

Now let's see elemental surfaces: they deal an absurd amount of damage that can kill you faster than the monsters you are fighting and, most of the times, there is no straightforward way of getting rid of it. Also, almost EVERY enemy will carry something that will cause elemental surfaces to appear. It's just too much when everyone in the world is carrying flasks of acid/fire/whatever that will deal damage all the time during a fight.

I could deal with elemental surfaces in certain terrain types, like a fight that happened inside a Volcano, or if just some enemies used it, but EVERY FIGHT is too much.

Larian tried to do it in BG 3 and the reaction was strong enough that they toned it down. Seriously don't try to convince a D&D player that Greek fire or something similar will deal more damage than a Fireball.

 

[Cahir]

For me, the most not able example is The Witcher 3. I tried it twice, second time with some mods, but it never caught my attention for longer than 30 hours. Which is weird, because I loved W1 and W2.

The same story with DOS and DoS2, although I too recognize both as great games. PoE is for me immensly dull and overcomplicated, to the point I simply don't understand the game mechanics. PoE2 was somehow better in this regard and the setting was much more interesting which even allowed me to finish the game.

 

[mlnevese]

I got to such a point of dislike with PoE that I didn't even try PoE II... and I could play the Complete Edition for free thanks to Microsoft's Game Pass...

 

[Cahir]

The problem I have with PoE2 is that after all this time I played it I don't remember places and companions anymore. Nothing... even PoE sparks some memories.

 

[Eternal]

Thanks for the clarification. Now I understand reasons for the criticism better (although, personally, I'm in love with surfaces, to be honest). It’s always interesting to hear an opposite point of view well-reasoned.

Here are my meh games, although many people might like them. I wanted to like them, but just couldn’t.

Horizon Zero Dawn. I was waiting for this game to be ported to PC. It was finally ported, and, well. A very inspiring first hour of the game, beautiful monsters, a fundamentally new setting (I really appreciate the opportunity to visit new worlds). But then I started to have problems: boring grind, a world that is not particularly interesting to study, cringe dialogues, and, most importantly, very silly science fiction. Each plot twist made me either hit my forehead, or laugh to tears. I’ve predicted every plot twist simply by choosing from the most cliche options. I have finished the game, but I'm definitely not interested in the second part (that is currently in development). To a fantasy title, I can forgive a lot of things, but to a science fiction game full of holes and inconsistencies, sorry, no. I just don't understand why the authors chose this genre for such a story.

Control. A very pleasant main character, great visual aesthetics, an interesting world and lore, many ways to control the battlefield and the incredible Old Gods of Asgard. But this endless running back and forth across locations got tiring so bad that if it weren't for the music, I definitely wouldn't have made it to the end.

Borderlands 2. I was looking for a decent FPS and heard a lot of good things about this game, but, alas, I haven’t agreed much with the humor and the combat choreography. I had to drop my playthrough around 1/3 of the game.

Subnautica. I like survival games, they wake up my inner caveman. Survival games give a feeling of development, overcoming the obstacles and that you have conquered a hostile environment. But Subnautica is clearly not that case. These gigaliters of water pressing on your head, the lack of oxygen, terrible Leviathans and their screaming— it's damn scary! The world is beautiful, the level design is good, and there are so few games dedicated to oceans, but I just can't play it.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Well since I'm the one who started a thread about DOS2 here, I think it's no surprise that I like those games and have no problem with the elemental surfaces... in fact, to me they add spice to the challenge, make the world more interactive and are just another type of area of effect or crowd control spells that require a bit of extra planning and countermeasures. But of course I might have a different view on that if I came from long years of D&D background. Which I don't. I come from Tuchanka, obviously.

Pillars of Eternity is a game that I tried hard to like and want to finish one day, but I just couldn't get used to the combat mechanics and also wasn't in the mood for the gloomy atmosphere.

I also had problems trying to like Icewind Dale. Maybe I should have played it before the Baldur's Gate series, but it was just too low on story content and interaction for me to really get into it. It didn't feel personal to me, more focused on playing with the mechanics. Creating the whole party instead of recruiting people is also something that doesn't really interest me.

 

[Antimatter]

If you're looking for a good game to play (and some commentary from really good gaming journalists), look at the list of PC Gamer's Top 100 games. Yay, Planescape: Torment is still on that list (#33).

And of course, I, just like all of you, see games in that list that couldn't grab me for one reason or another (even if I exclude game genres that I'm not interested much in).

The Outer Wilds, Prey, Red Dead Redemption 2.

I like stealth games, but Prey just didn't have that edge, that extra something else in terms of adrenaline and pleasure when you eliminate your target.

I like exploration games, but couldn't get into the Outer Wilds. Hard to pinpoint, maybe it's the constant new cycles of 22 minutes and the need to replay them.

I like story-focused games, but I couldn't feel like Arthur in Red Dead Redemption 2, I just couldn't sympathize with him. Also, both the Outer Wilds and RDR 2 are not that easy to play on PC and better on console, while I play on PC.

 

[mlnevese]

The best stealth game I ever played was the first Thief. The mechanics were revolutionary back when it was released.

 

[alice_ashpool]

I loved thief 2 so much back in the day I was obsessed with completing a ghost run, and complete it I did. Trying for an Ironman Ghost would be pretty cool.

I think Thief 1 and 2 were the only games where I really "got" stealth. Staring motionless at a PC screen for 10 mins watching guard routes

 

[mlnevese]

I loved thief 2 so much back in the day I was obsessed with completing a ghost run, and complete it I did. Trying for an Ironman Ghost would be pretty cool.

I think Thief 1 and 2 were the only games where I really "got" stealth. Staring motionless at a PC screen for 10 mins watching guard routes

We certainly spent a lot of time doing nothing in that game... Most exciting doing nothing I ever played

 

[Chronicler]

I feel like I just have so much less energy for learning new games at this point.

Bought Azure Striker Gunvolt ages ago. It was from the makers of one of the Megamans I liked. Tried to play it a few times. Looked great. Just couldn't make myself sit down and learn how to play it.

Pillars of Eternity looks like it should be adjacent to my interests at least, but every time I pick it up it's just so much at once. Like immediately asking me to choose between these various races and cultures and classes and stuff before I even know what's what. Then I start up the campaign and it's like way deep into its own lore. Feel like I walked in halfway through a university lecture and missed the part where they introduced us to the terms and basic concepts.

When I was in highschool, I used to buy 1 videogame every month, and play it from start to finish. Now...

 

[Skatan]

Too many to list them all here. My flavor for games is quite specific, many times I can't even know or understand myself why I don't like a game. But listing only games I actually bought and tried keeps the list fairly short;

Witcher 3. Tried it a few times but can't get into it. Dunno why, I just don't like it. Loved W2. It looks so gorgeous, I want to love it, to get immersed in the world, explore, find cool stuff but I just load the game, prance around a bit on my horse and then get bored and quit.

Mutant Year Zero. Looks cool, but bought it after watching a few episodes of a lets play and then playing it made me realize I instinctively played almost identifcal to the letsplayer. The lack of original ways to tackle the combat and situations made me feel it was just too linear. Too bad, wanted to love it since it's based on an old swedish PnP game and takes place here in SE, which is very rare in the gaming world. I like the fable fantasy of having ducks, pigs etc as races.

Men of war. Love watching other ppl play these games, but find them too stressful to play myself.

IWD. Never finished it, made it to the second half but no longer.

ToB. Not a standalone game, but perhaps worth mentioning in a place like this. Never made it past yaga shura. I find the highlevel battles ultraboring and way too repetitive. After killing 500 fire giants with the run that lasted the longest, I gave up and rerolled from the BG1 again instead. To this day I have never seen or read the epilogues of the bhaal spawn saga. When ppl mention them I feel like I've missed out, heh.

Drakensang. Wanted to play and like it, finally got a GoG copy not that long ago, but in the end didn't like it. The classes look fun in theory but I dunno, I couldn't really connect with the game world somehow. The lack of nostalgia stopped me from playing long at all. The thought of playing a non-DnD game is intriguing but in the end didn't work for me.

GTA 5. The first scene have me run around and slaughter a plethora of police just doing their work and it gets worse from then. All player characters are despicable. I like their world-building, the game play is pretty good and I'm not opposed to play "evil" per se, but GTA5 took it way too far for me. Reminded me a bit of that old CoD game where you could start the game as the antagonist and launch a terror attack in an airport, but that was optional and you could skip it.

Stellaris. Love 4x games, but I don't wanna spend 100000000000 dollars buying DLCs just to actually experience the proper game. The only Paradox games I play nowadays are the free ones I've got so that I could buy a few DLCs and still get the "complete" game at a reasonable price (EU3 in GoG, CK2 Steam, EU4 Epic)

 

[mlnevese]

Too many to list them all here. My flavor for games is quite specific, many times I can't even know or understand myself why I don't like a game. But listing only games I actually bought and tried keeps the list fairly short;

Witcher 3. Tried it a few times but can't get into it. Dunno why, I just don't like it. Loved W2. It looks so gorgeous, I want to love it, to get immersed in the world, explore, find cool stuff but I just load the game, prance around a bit on my horse and then get bored and quit.

Mutant Year Zero. Looks cool, but bought it after watching a few episodes of a lets play and then playing it made me realize I instinctively played almost identifcal to the letsplayer. The lack of original ways to tackle the combat and situations made me feel it was just too linear. Too bad, wanted to love it since it's based on an old swedish PnP game and takes place here in SE, which is very rare in the gaming world. I like the fable fantasy of having ducks, pigs etc as races.

Men of war. Love watching other ppl play these games, but find them too stressful to play myself.

IWD. Never finished it, made it to the second half but no longer.

ToB. Not a standalone game, but perhaps worth mentioning in a place like this. Never made it past yaga shura. I find the highlevel battles ultraboring and way too repetitive. After killing 500 fire giants with the run that lasted the longest, I gave up and rerolled from the BG1 again instead. To this day I have never seen or read the epilogues of the bhaal spawn saga. When ppl mention them I feel like I've missed out, heh.

Drakensang. Wanted to play and like it, finally got a GoG copy not that long ago, but in the end didn't like it. The classes look fun in theory but I dunno, I couldn't really connect with the game world somehow. The lack of nostalgia stopped me from playing long at all. The thought of playing a non-DnD game is intriguing but in the end didn't work for me.

GTA 5. The first scene have me run around and slaughter a plethora of police just doing their work and it gets worse from then. All player characters are despicable. I like their world-building, the game play is pretty good and I'm not opposed to play "evil" per se, but GTA5 took it way too far for me. Reminded me a bit of that old CoD game where you could start the game as the antagonist and launch a terror attack in an airport, but that was optional and you could skip it.

Stellaris. Love 4x games, but I don't wanna spend 100000000000 dollars buying DLCs just to actually experience the proper game. The only Paradox games I play nowadays are the free ones I've got so that I could buy a few DLCs and still get the "complete" game at a reasonable price (EU3 in GoG, CK2 Steam, EU4 Epic)

I only finished ToB once...

Stellaris is victim of something that is becoming very common. If you think it's bad, check Train Simulator... the basic games costs around 1/20 of the DLC...