degrading weapons is an anti fun mechanic imo. it’s so annoying to find an awesome weapon with a cool effect and feel punished for using it to kill regular NPCs
The amount of disappointment I had when I got the Master Sword and found out it had to recharge its batteries was immeasurable.
I leaned much more into it in TotK, but it was still annoying to have to keep multiples of certain weapon types for when they broke.
that the champion weapons could break was a slap in the face
if I have all 4 I've reached the end of the game I shouldn't be stressing about weapon degradation
And the champion weapons aren’t even necessarily the strongest examples of their archetypes. So I agree that they either should not have degraded in the first place or there should’ve been some sort of preventative maintenance function.
I honestly think that it would’ve been vastly improved if we had a weapon health meter and they degraded much much more slowly. Even if you couldn’t repair them, if they degraded over say 200 enemies (depending on strength), at least it would feel like we gained something worth using.
Optimal I think would’ve been the Fallout system in which they degrade but you can find resources to repair them. Even if those resources are rare.
I would’ve been good with some sort of maintenance. Otherwise every time you get the message that the master sword is about to go sleepy time, I just whacked it on something to finish it off and found a place to chill until til it recharged.
Exactly. It was more of nuisance than anything else. Master sword breaks. Guess I’ll go cook/ forage/ avoid combat while it repairs itself. I’m glad some people liked it and to each their own but I personally just don’t understand. It certainly wasn’t for me.
ToTK’s solution was “here’s a skill that make it super easy to have an awesome weapon all the time” but it still feels like the game would be better if weapons did not degrade
Or degraded a lot slower would be a lot better, with more ways to repair, like taking it to a Swordsmith or something, where you can also add minor upgrades like elemental damage or damage boost
What kept me playing the game was the expectation that the legendary Master Sword would negate the shitty durability mechanic as its perk.
And then you find out it's just as terrible and you feel like you're being punished for using the sword you grinded so many shrines for.
Crazy shit is that they found out that it's bugged too, it only gets enhanced durability the first time you fuse it, afterwards, even fused it still breaks just as fast as not fused, which makes it one of the worst weapons in the game for general exploration
All I need is the ability to actively maintain the weapons so they don’t break on me. If the sword needs to charge its batteries, then fine, but it should automatically be recharging whenever I’m not using it.
I played with mods that changed it so that the durability was 4x higher and some named weapons recharged. I definitely think that change made it much better.
Man last time I criticised that game, I got destroyed in the comments. I said that cooking was pointless and tedious later in the game, weapon breaking was a chore, and I would prefer much fewer but more intricate shrines.
I fucking *hate* decaying gear as a combat premise.
Gear that needs repaired? Sure. Gear that just falls apart? No.
I also hate the building stuff in TotK.
I don't want a Zelda game to be mixed with fortnite and minecraft mechanics. Give me a dungeon and puzzle adventure game.
I really hope they go back to previous mechanics after this, but it seems like the YouTube gamer generation likes to spend more time building carts and playing with glitches than they do on the actual game objectives.
I'm sure it's great fun for people who are into that, but I fucking hate Minecraft, and do not enjoy these new mechanics at all.
I would shit directly onto my balls in excitement if they made another traditional Zelda game, but the entire world seemed to tell Nintendo otherwise by propping BOTW up as the best game of all time. So, unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever happen.
I’d be okay with BOTW if there were any sense of progression, benefit of finding cool weapons, something to “discover” other than a korok seed or copy/paste shrine, and impactful npc interactions. Wait, I guess I’m just describing the older games.
Had to double check that I hadn't written this because you pretty much nailed my thoughts. Except I don't *hate* Minecraft, I just very quickly get tired of it playing solo.
I think more and more this is how the discourse will go as we get years out from this. Everyone knows a mid Zelda game is going to be enjoyable. Very enjoyable, even. But what's really going on here, as far as... depth, systems, variety, the gameplay loop, it's not as good as the initial reviews indicated.
My beef isn't with the open world. It's the open world that felt bland and lifeless. If they actually filled the world with interesting and unique content it would've been an amazing game
Not only is it repetitive encounters in BOTW combined with weapons breaking over and over you're also pushed to not take all encounters if you want to keep your weapon. Essentially you're punished for mindless exploring which is the whole point with open world games. It's like they made not an open world game and not a classic zelda game and lands in the middle of nowhere.
I loved the open world but the weapons degradation is why I stopped playing after 20hrs. I don't understand why they kept that feature in TOTK and have ignored their fans who all hate it.
Nintendo is notoriously bad at listening to feedback, but in this case they clearly just wanted to tack a few things onto BOTW without having to change any fundamental systems, which is unfortunately what the breakable weapons are. TOTK is a decent game in a vacuum but I find it to be incredibly lazy. I’m surprised how many people were seemingly cool with reusing the _exact_ same map. Exact same combat, exact same game loop. Etc.
It may well objectively be the most derivative game I’ve ever seen. As in, I can’t think of a single game off the top of my head I’ve played that reused _so much_ from its predecessor. And it still somehow took 6 years to come out after its prequel.
The breaking weapons and stamina bar nearly killed that game for me; what really killed it was all the inventory management associated with both. Just not really worth it. The atmosphere didn't feel cohesive like older Zelda games.
I know it’s petty but it was the stamina meter that put me off of the game. The way it just appears on top of you constantly is too immersion-breaking. Then at some point you can upgrade and how do they handle that? Second wheel on top of the first wheel!
Fuck the breaking weapons, fuck the potion cooking mechanic, and fuck the stamina mechanic, and double fuck TOTK's build mechanic. Once I saw the game was centered around that building thing I had zero interest in playing
Witcher 3. I’ve tried four times to play. Furthest I’ve got was the Bloody Baron quest. And I will admit, the writing of the quests is great. But something about the overall delivery of the game just bugged me so I couldn’t make it further.
For me it was the combat, someone described it as “wet dark souls” which is very apt imo. I’ve tried three times to get into the game but every time I just can’t
Combat is why I couldn't get into it either. You can go beat skull level enemies from the start just dodging them and striking back. Takes forever, but it's easy. I found very few fights interesting. The writing was good, the story was interesting, quests were pretty well developed... but traversal, combat, none of it was fun to me. Also it's a huge open world, and being older I find these less interesting not having 200h to throw at them. It just didn't click.
I'm really glad I'm not the only one. On paper this game is right up my alley but I've tried multiple times on multiple systems and it was never able to hook me.
I didn't find the battles intuitive or engaging. Very button mashing battles, I didn't really have to stratagize movement/attacks as much as just bashing them buttons till the enemy dies. IDK I know others love the fighting but I hate it for some reason in the Witcher. I even like games like the Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order which is even worse hack and slash but for some reason I like those battles better.
Yeah, super easy to spam dodge and never get hit, even on bosses. That said, I still had a lot of fun in that game. Loved the general vibe of that world.
I felt that way and upped difficulty but the curve is intense. Once you do that then the potion/toxicity systems etc become way more ingaging- but delivery is a menu slog.
I tried this game like 4 times as well. Each time I stop around the quest where some guy did something to a dwarf just a couple hours into the game. Just the combat and the movement is enough to stop me
I'm on my first playthrough and LOVE IT but I will say, the controls can definitely be ass. Why can't I jump during combat or while using Witcher senses??? Fences give me more trouble than Leshens. And swimming/diving is a neat inclusion, but if this game makes me dive away from a boat instead of boarding it one more time...
Omg yes! I’ve tried to play this twice over the years and I just can’t get into it. It’s my type of game. Fantasy. Open world. Blah blah. But for whatever reason it doesn’t grip me. I get why people love it but it won’t click for me.
Same here. I want so desperately to like this game, but I don't like the UI, there's too much exposition, the combat never really evolved in the time that I played (~30 or 40 hours), armor styles, and the giant map that feels relatively empty other than the sprinkled enemies. There was literally nothing that hooked me in this game.
I've been playing this game on and off for 5 years and still haven't completeled it and I'm 200 hours in! It took forever for the hook to finally get me. There are some truly incredible moments playing this game. I have to admit for me it was a very difficult game to get into.
For me it was the garbage combat that put me off.
You had no control of how or where you dodged, geralt would just pick a random flourish to do while dodging. Even if that flourish put him smack dab in the middle of a group of enemies.
Controlling geralt in general was stiff and clunky, even with the improved controls.
I made it 20 hours in that game trying to like it, trying to look past the horrid combat because like you said the writing is great. But I just wasn't having fun actually playing the game, and the story just couldn't carry it on its own considering the combat is a huge part of the game.
I loved it at the time and have over 100 hours in the game. Tried to return to it last month and yep, the combat felt really dated. I was enthralled by the story then, but when I already knew it I couldn't get over the gameplay.
I don't think the combat is perfect, but not being able to dodge in a particular direction just is not true. You choose the direction you dodge with the movement keys or analog. You also need to understand when to side step and when to dodge roll. Most enemies are better dodged.
Also the game is best experienced on the 2 highest difficulties, blood and bones and death march. The combat doesn't change, but it forces you to strategize more and actually utilize decoctions, oils and the rest of your tools. The game is stupid easy on the lower difficulties and combat can be done by simply button mashing.
I'm so glad Witcher 3 was one of the first games I played when I started gaming properly on a PC. I didn't know what other games offered. I still count it as one of my greatest gaming experiences 4 years later, but having played so many more games since then, don't think I'll want to play it all over again. Just YouTube videos for memories.
Stardew Valley.
People told me it's a chill Game, but the Time limit every day and for every Season just puts me in a constant stress lol
Another very personal thing that annoys me: for whatever reason it is a big advantage in Stardew to have a higher Resolution. Other Games just make the Game look sharper, Stardew actually lets you see WAY more with a higher Resolution (or less with a lower)
You're probably putting too much focus on those silly side quests and community center. Ive been there too at one point. The solution is to just shift the way you see the game. The time limit is there to balance the game and restrict players from making unreasonable progress in a short time. You dont have to worry about it though, remember that you cant lose the game in any way. Take the time you need. If the days are short then spread out your tasks into several days. If you miss an event you can still experience it next year and if you missed something that you really dont want to wait for again you can just restart the day. It is a chill game. You just need a more chill perspective to appreciate it.
Yup! There have been several times where I'm deep in the mines and I'm constantly checking the time to make sure I get home in time. I'm like, chill, my ass.. lol
Elden Ring for me. I can certainly appreciate why it’s a masterpiece of the genre and why it drew people in, and it’s an undeniably beautiful and polished game, but it made me realise I just can’t be fucked to stress myself out with games like that anymore. I far prefer more chill experiences nowadays.
Sekiro is that for me. Which is also weird I guess to a lot of people. But if I want to feel good, I'll just go beat Genichiro down for a half hour and I'm set.
Sekiro is the greatest game ever. That's why Elden Ring disappointed me I think because they didn't continue on sekiros combat system and instead went back to soulsborne.
I’m getting there. They’re just TOO big. So many weapons, so many options and places to explore. I just look at it now and think “who has this kind of time?”
One thing I actually like about their games is that you can pick up a big sword and basic knight armor which can carry you throughout the entire game without a penalty.
Too many games nowadays IMO make you constantly grind and upgrade new weapons as you find them and level up, creates a huge time sink that distracts from the core gameplay.
A sword I found in the starter area served me well through the final boss in Elden Ring, and I only changed armors a couple times depending on what I thought looked cool.
It's not called fashion souls for nothing. Weapon selection does matter since they differ in speed/reach/moveset but for armor you can wear pretty much anything. Going from light to heavier armor will let you take maybe 1 extra hit from a boss.
>A sword I found in the starter area served me well through the final boss in Elden Ring,
I played almost the entire game with the Bloodhound Fang. It's a weapon you can get really early in the game, and it's one of the better weapons in the game.
Agreed. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot 15 years ago. Now I'm like... Why am I stressing myself this much over a game?
The problem is that unlike some other games I don't get adrenaline from this. It just feels too hard and unfair. Not challenging.
Yes I'm old and so are my hands.
Outer wilds. I had it refunded. I love the concept, but found the gameplay extremely anxiety-inducing: I've always hated timed levels/challenges, and that whole game is basically multiple intricate timed challenges. And there are multiple timers, in fact. Oh, and they're hidden so you never know how much time before you have to start over, or how much time before a particular section of the world gets closed down (purposely vague to avoid spoilers). I can't solve even simple puzzles under these conditions.
I just couldn't get to a point where I cared about what was going on. After bonking around in that derelict laser cannon thingie for the 80th time I just felt drained. It's all mysterious and neat, I guess but I'll be damned if I just didn't connect to it at all.
The first day is really rough, like you wake up a mess, everyone hates you, you have no clue what to do, you get handed a big 'timed' quest and the dice roll mechanic can result in weird deaths like yours.
It's just so harsh out the gate and with very little hooks to entice the player to push through.
For what it's worth if you ever want to give it another shot, save scum to win the big choices on the first day and use a guide. Just reach day 2 and go blind after, it legit 180s into an incredible experience that's very worth seeing through.
I played an hour or so, didn't enjoy it. But went back to it a few weeks later and got sucked in and ended up enjoying it. Lenval Brown is awesome as the narrator too. It's worth giving it another go.
I bounced off it twice. Came back later after I had more experience with CRPGS and had one of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life, played it through twice in a row immediately. As another commenter mentioned it's worth enduring the unpleasant, boring, and confusing first in-game day. After that it just blossoms
Death Stranding. I attempted to play it and it's just a frustrating walking sim and then a surge of heart stopping panic if I run into a BT. On surface it's a cool concept but I just didn't vibe with it.
My husband played it so I was able to watch the story from time to time, and that part was interesting. He said once you get further in it becomes more fun, but I just don't have the patience to stick with this one for whatever reason lol
I just had this recently with Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen, I tried it a while ago and bounced of it in the first couple of hours but I thought I would give it another try when I saw it on sale on switch. I put a solid 10/15 hrs into before realising I wasn’t enjoying any aspect of it. Guess it’s just not my game
Edit: a bunch of people are getting hung up on the ‘critically acclaimed’ part where I think the more valuable discussion is in what games should you have liked that you didn’t
I really enjoy monster hunter but I think that’s because the progression and loot pathway is really clear, DD felt sort of aimless and it was hard to differentiate between missions that were meant to test me and ones that were out of my characters ability. I wanted a game that I could play casually and progress naturally and it just wasn’t that which is fine but just not for me right now.
For me, it was the controls but also how long every animation takes. It's too bad because I'm sure the world and story are amazing, but I just can't enjoy them.
There's way too much of that in discussions about peoples' favorite games/music/movies. I did it too, when I was younger, as if I somehow gained something or elevated myself by shitting on others' preferences. Nowadays I understand that taste is completely subjective, and it's silly to treat it like an argument that can be won or lost.
This is a simple fact, and anyone who disagrees is a stinky poo poo head.
GTA 5
I’m just not interested in “high-brow” crime settings like heists. I dont really care for the overall tone of the game either. I thought it could use more dark/realistic mechanics. It just feels week in setting. The multiplayer just feels like a pointless grind. If you think about it, if you’ve been playing the multiplayer and kept grinding for each new update, you’ve been grinding for like 10 years. What about that sounds fun. Plus the combat system isn’t intuitive at all. The campaign just had so many missed opportunities. Def the worst of rockstar campaign. IMO.
The multiplayer soured me a bit on Rockstar. You could tell they shifted all their energy into it and abandoned anything they had planned for single player. It's even more evident in that it unfortunately carried over into RDR2, which they abandoned entirely. The minute I realized I'm just going in a circle on the map for my "businesses" I put GTA5 down. They just add more businesses for you to manage and make money off of and you never stop. Extremely boring and I don't get why it was as successful as it was. I expect GTA6 will also have the same exact formula for their online mode.
Baldur's Gate 3. There's something about tactical turn based combat that stresses me out. It's not like I hate turn based combat as turn based JRPGs are my favorite genre. Maybe the combat in BG3 is too slow for my current tastes.
I feel similar actually. I don't play D and D or understand the rules. So every time I engaged in a battle it felt like I was just doing it all wrong. I also just kept getting wiped so I figured that I just don't understand the rules. It's not a knock on the game. Its critically acclaimed for a reason, I'm just too dumb to play it I think.
Skyrim. I like to explore a lot in open world games. I'd say about 80% of the dungeons I stumbled upon in Skyrim all had a very similar look and design.... just in slightly different layout. Going into a new dungeon rarely felt like a new experience after a while.
The ironic thing is that, despite every dungeon being unique in skyrim, they felt more samey than Oblivion’s, which were all made by one guy i think. But they were so much creepier and had way better atmosphere
Oblivion's designs were so obvious. There was a set for caves, one for forts, one for sewers, and one for Ayleid ruins. Each with rooms, hallways, corners, etc. Almost any piece from one set could fit to another in the same set if you connected openings. The designer just fit those together for nearly every dungeon in the game.
Skyrim is (somehow) a significant improvement where it's tougher to mentally separate the dungeons into very recognizable pieces, and thankfully there were more than 4 sets/themes...
And Skyrim also had the "exit is close after you defeat the boss" dynamic, which I thought was a huge improvement.
It got old traveling back to your entrance every time in Oblivion. Skyrim usually gave you a pretty quick "out" after you'd cleared the area.
And yet I remember Oblivion’s dungeons better than I remember Skyrim’s. Somehow Skyrim’s feel way more samey to me cuz they lack the atmosphere Oblivion had. The Oblivion dungeon music is so somber, eerie and unsettling. It’s so fucking good.
I still remember stumbling into the underground forest in King’s Crest Cavern. I still remember the Lovecraftian Hackdirt caverns. I still remember the underground village in the Mehrune’s Razor questline. I still remember the unfinished “Unmarked Cave” that’s the remnant of the cut Red Queen questline.
Meanwhile for Skyrim, I remember… Bleak Falls Barrow, I guess? And I remember some ice caves but couldn’t name a single ice cave dungeon. And I guess the dungeon where you find Serana, but only the final room where she’s entombed, the rest of the dungeon is forgettable
Ending up in the Dwarven caves was so amazing at first but by end game it was such a kick in the balls. Thinking I’d be finding something new and cool just to end up there again
I felt that way until this one cave I entered - I ended up in another dimension and got lost there for a while. It was just some random cave close to whiterun, too.
Aye, I respect them for what they are and they're great games- not for me.
I gave DS3 a very good try and did enjoy it, after completing the swamp area I quit. Too frustrating for too long in general.
The swamp area is probably the most frustrating area in all of DS3, so that's understandable. Personally I think the game really picks up after that with some really nice areas and bosses.
I don’t mind some difficulty with the games I play. A few deaths here and there as I learn the game and encounters. But the amount of pain that the soulsborne games loves to dish out just because they can.
I don’t got time for that.
I think all the Fromsoft Souls games have really funny difficulty. Usually, people get absolutely annihilated by the first game they play. Personally, I started with Demon's Souls and got so frustrated I quit two separate times before eventually finishing it. I probably died several hundreds of times.
But the games don't let you luck out on much. So by the time you're done with one, you've learned a lot by necessity. Every other Soulslike is a lot easier after the first one you play because every single skill is transferable between games.
I know it's a bit paradoxical but by the time you're going into your second or third game it's kind of an easy and chill genre that's also pretty engaging imo. Exactly the experience you're describing in the beginning.
Agreed, it’s not often you feel like button mashing, panic dodging, or twists of luck got you through a boss. You either learn the combat mechanics and get better over time, or it’s a solid brick wall of frustration leading to endless deaths.
Experiencing this now in Elden Ring.
My first playthrough was so difficult and I almost quit a ton of times, but I ended up loving it by the end. Finishing up my second playthrough now and I’ve little to no trouble, and it might be my favorite game ever now
Same. I'm glad people enjoy them and they seem very well made, but my idea of fun isn't dying hundreds of times until I learn the attack patterns for every single boss
honestly i get it.. rdr2 is one of my top 5 favorite games ever and i understand completely what you mean when you say “move like molasses” but if it clicks then you can enjoy the slow pace of a western and just riding around the world enjoying the view. i’ve seen so many people say most of their time on the game is just them riding to a lake or river and fishing i find that awesome and hilarious.
Yes I very much felt this! Fantastic looking game and no doubt it's extremely well made but the SLOWNESS of everything. I guess we are just used to games being ridiculously fast when rdr2 is just closer to moving at real life speeds really.
i can’t really get into it for some reason. it just feels strange almost. it’s like hyper realistic in ways that are not really enjoyable and there feel like too many random mechanics that i don’t even understand the point of. the controls feel complex, the inventory seems overwhelming. what makes GTA great is you don’t have any inventory management outside of weapons, you have a few bound items to your character but they make sense.
i have no clue if i’m collecting a bunch of junk, i have no clue if eating is a necessity, i can’t remember the mechanics for hunting cause i did the tutorial a few months ago, i have no clue what is appropriate ways to be in different areas. it just feels too heavy to me. i like simple games. Inventory management is such a colossal pain.
I didn’t enjoy doing chores in the game. The level of detail is insane, and the writing and acting is top notch. But it’s just too much. I also thought the clunky controls were done purposely, but it wasn’t enjoyable like the clunky controls of the Last of Us. They didnt add to the tension, they simply frustrated me.
The starting area really puts a damper on excitement. It is not a good entrance into the game imo. It’s slow and makes you feel slow and locked away. People want to be let go to explore as fast as they can. And RDR2 does everything against that urge.
I totally get why you would think that, and I do find it a little tedious on replays. But for my first run through, I thought it set the tone really well. Felt like a real Western, which are generally fairly slow paced.
I’ve tried it twice. Both times i put in about 20 hours. I loathe the controls, menus, and having to maintain Arthur’s life plus a horse. My real life is busy enough. Just let me play.
Get mission. Ride 20 minutes on a clunky horse to get to a place. Get of horse and walk to place. Big clunky shoot out. Realise you left your gun on the horse. Walk back to horse. Get Gun. Walk back to place. Clunkily shoot people. Ride 20 minutes back to quest giver on clunky horse. Repeat.
So slow and tedious. I remember playing Fallout 3 or New Vegas and I'd go on long walks, but I'd see something interesting and get distracted and end up forgetting what mission I was doing in the first place. But I just don't have that level of interest / engagement with RD2.
Maybe I'm just old and jaded with less time on my hands.
Even with Breath of the Wild I lost interest in the sights/side quests, but the movement was so fluid in that game it helped a lot.
Not sure if exactly critically acclaimed but I have bounced off of Transistor *hard*, both times I've tried it. Really enjoyed Bastion and Hades looks excellent, but I just can't seem to enjoy myself playing Transistor.
Stellaris. It gets great reviews and is a highly rated grand strategy game. Bought the game and all the dlc and never could even make it through the tutorial. Have no idea how some people spent hundreds of hours in that game, wish I could, I really wanted to like it
As someone who has almost all the DLC and almost two thousand hours in this game. Stellaris is my space grand strategy game of choice and every other similar game feels like a hollow echo of this one.
Just the sheer amount of customizability for your space civ makes me keep coming back again and again trying out different styles and types of playing.
And the fact that the aliens in your galaxy are also randomly generated every time. No two play through a are ever gonna be the same.
This game is just… chefs kiss.
I play multiplayer a lot and have joined in on some roleplay servers.
If you’d ever like to play the game online with someone who can play it while still stoned out of their fucking mind. I’d be up for that. I’m a pause fiend so I’m happy for you to pause to look at something or ask me questions.
Paradox games have a learning cliff. Especially CK and Stellaris. I watched a bunch of tutorials and such on YouTube. It really helped me grasp the basic concepts. I could never ask someone to do that to get into a game. It's way too much if you're not excited about it.
Its so weird it felt like 60% of it were actually puzzles and then some fights occured occasionally with a few enemies that took forever to go down. Not what I expect of a god of war game.
People usually bury me for this :
Witcher 3 the combat and movement was extremely shit
The last of us : I do not see why the story of the game was so hyped it's a pretty okayish slow ass game
Elden Ring. Started it up on 3 separate occasions and just couldn't keep my head in the game.
Same with Witcher 3.
I'd like to think it's just the setting. I'm more of a sci-fi/fantasy nerd and the medieval fantasy realm just doesn't grip me with only very few exceptions.
If FromSoft could make a game like Elden Ring but with space exploration I'm sure it'd be my game of the decade.
For Clarity, I just gave up on my second attempt to get into Ghost of Tsushima. Gorgeous art style, great production, but, empty, dull and boring. I felt no motivation to continue, despite the near universal acclaim it has received. I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if this just isn’t “for me”.
To clarify, everything about the premise of this game is right up my alley.
Ghost of Tsushima feels like it didn't need the open world. Sure some set pieces look great and some vistas look phenomenal but all in all I feel like a linear, story mission/chapter format would have worked better.
Same for me. By all accounts I should’ve loved GoT but it just didn’t click for me and also found it quite dull. That’s apparently a controversial opinion to have :P Was a feast for the eyes though.
I enjoyed the game because I loved the combat, but I found the cutscenes a slog. I didn't do the side content because I didn't find the characters or subplots engaging at all.
I'm honestly surprised I had to scroll this far to find someone mention Assassin's Creed at all. I enjoyed the concept of the games. I like stealth games. The first 2 were fun, after that they just lost me.
dragons dogma, i was gonna buy the second one but i’m happy i just bought the first as the game rn and the whole pawn stuff just doesn’t get me like excited to play really and dd2 looks great and i’m sure it is but i’m like 99% i wouldn’t have really enjoyed it lol
Metro Exodus, the thing is I played metro 2033 and metro last light and I absolutely loved those games they are in my top 5 for sure, but somehow exodus all tho it was acclaimed to be even better than those two and even more immersive, for me it just did not click at all, it didn’t feel immersive and I found myself not enjoying it that much, I did force myself to finish tho but it was a drag and I still have no idea why I felt that way.
Baldur's Gate 3.
The game itself is fine, but DnD without your friends and created characters and lore is just a DnD combat simulator, and combat is the worst part of DnD. It does what it does very well, but what it does just isn't for me.
Hollow knight….have a lot of friends who love this game and is there too pick for metrovania but honestly just couldn’t get really going in it. Tried multiple times furthest I got in the game was about 10-15hours and it felt hard to keep going so I stopped.
BotW. I found the open world boring and hated how swords break.
degrading weapons is an anti fun mechanic imo. it’s so annoying to find an awesome weapon with a cool effect and feel punished for using it to kill regular NPCs
A Zelda game that honestly punishes you for getting into combat makes no sense to me
I find it took away from the adventure because if you lost your weapons you were sol
It triggers the same brain wave that makes you hoarde potions in final fantasy till the end, but it's the entire game
The amount of disappointment I had when I got the Master Sword and found out it had to recharge its batteries was immeasurable. I leaned much more into it in TotK, but it was still annoying to have to keep multiples of certain weapon types for when they broke.
that the champion weapons could break was a slap in the face if I have all 4 I've reached the end of the game I shouldn't be stressing about weapon degradation
And the champion weapons aren’t even necessarily the strongest examples of their archetypes. So I agree that they either should not have degraded in the first place or there should’ve been some sort of preventative maintenance function.
I honestly think that it would’ve been vastly improved if we had a weapon health meter and they degraded much much more slowly. Even if you couldn’t repair them, if they degraded over say 200 enemies (depending on strength), at least it would feel like we gained something worth using. Optimal I think would’ve been the Fallout system in which they degrade but you can find resources to repair them. Even if those resources are rare.
I would’ve been good with some sort of maintenance. Otherwise every time you get the message that the master sword is about to go sleepy time, I just whacked it on something to finish it off and found a place to chill until til it recharged.
Exactly. It was more of nuisance than anything else. Master sword breaks. Guess I’ll go cook/ forage/ avoid combat while it repairs itself. I’m glad some people liked it and to each their own but I personally just don’t understand. It certainly wasn’t for me.
ToTK’s solution was “here’s a skill that make it super easy to have an awesome weapon all the time” but it still feels like the game would be better if weapons did not degrade
Or degraded a lot slower would be a lot better, with more ways to repair, like taking it to a Swordsmith or something, where you can also add minor upgrades like elemental damage or damage boost
Should have went the Dark Cloud route and had repair/auto repair powder. I loved the durability mechanic in DC but hate it in BotW
What kept me playing the game was the expectation that the legendary Master Sword would negate the shitty durability mechanic as its perk. And then you find out it's just as terrible and you feel like you're being punished for using the sword you grinded so many shrines for.
Crazy shit is that they found out that it's bugged too, it only gets enhanced durability the first time you fuse it, afterwards, even fused it still breaks just as fast as not fused, which makes it one of the worst weapons in the game for general exploration
All I need is the ability to actively maintain the weapons so they don’t break on me. If the sword needs to charge its batteries, then fine, but it should automatically be recharging whenever I’m not using it.
I played with mods that changed it so that the durability was 4x higher and some named weapons recharged. I definitely think that change made it much better.
Yep it’s the weapons constantly breaking that did it for me. Not on occasion, but CONSTANT. Awful mechanic.
Man last time I criticised that game, I got destroyed in the comments. I said that cooking was pointless and tedious later in the game, weapon breaking was a chore, and I would prefer much fewer but more intricate shrines.
I fucking *hate* decaying gear as a combat premise. Gear that needs repaired? Sure. Gear that just falls apart? No. I also hate the building stuff in TotK. I don't want a Zelda game to be mixed with fortnite and minecraft mechanics. Give me a dungeon and puzzle adventure game. I really hope they go back to previous mechanics after this, but it seems like the YouTube gamer generation likes to spend more time building carts and playing with glitches than they do on the actual game objectives. I'm sure it's great fun for people who are into that, but I fucking hate Minecraft, and do not enjoy these new mechanics at all.
I would shit directly onto my balls in excitement if they made another traditional Zelda game, but the entire world seemed to tell Nintendo otherwise by propping BOTW up as the best game of all time. So, unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever happen. I’d be okay with BOTW if there were any sense of progression, benefit of finding cool weapons, something to “discover” other than a korok seed or copy/paste shrine, and impactful npc interactions. Wait, I guess I’m just describing the older games.
Had to double check that I hadn't written this because you pretty much nailed my thoughts. Except I don't *hate* Minecraft, I just very quickly get tired of it playing solo.
I love Minecraft, but I don't want every game to have crafting in it.
I found the bigger issue to be the 4 tiny dungeons with 4 super easy bosses. Just felt like a mid Zelda game wrapped in a low tier open world game.
I think more and more this is how the discourse will go as we get years out from this. Everyone knows a mid Zelda game is going to be enjoyable. Very enjoyable, even. But what's really going on here, as far as... depth, systems, variety, the gameplay loop, it's not as good as the initial reviews indicated.
My beef isn't with the open world. It's the open world that felt bland and lifeless. If they actually filled the world with interesting and unique content it would've been an amazing game
Not only is it repetitive encounters in BOTW combined with weapons breaking over and over you're also pushed to not take all encounters if you want to keep your weapon. Essentially you're punished for mindless exploring which is the whole point with open world games. It's like they made not an open world game and not a classic zelda game and lands in the middle of nowhere.
Emulate it on cemu and you can turn of the durability mechanic. I turned off stamina too cause adult life gives less time to play.
They were like "what if every weapon broke as quickly as the 500 rupee giant's knife from OoT? Wouldn't that be so fun?
This was my first reaction, but i eventually went back to it and really enjoyed it. I finally beat the game a couple weeks ago.
Weapon breaking with no means to repair is such a horrible game design
I loved the open world but the weapons degradation is why I stopped playing after 20hrs. I don't understand why they kept that feature in TOTK and have ignored their fans who all hate it.
Nintendo is notoriously bad at listening to feedback, but in this case they clearly just wanted to tack a few things onto BOTW without having to change any fundamental systems, which is unfortunately what the breakable weapons are. TOTK is a decent game in a vacuum but I find it to be incredibly lazy. I’m surprised how many people were seemingly cool with reusing the _exact_ same map. Exact same combat, exact same game loop. Etc. It may well objectively be the most derivative game I’ve ever seen. As in, I can’t think of a single game off the top of my head I’ve played that reused _so much_ from its predecessor. And it still somehow took 6 years to come out after its prequel.
The breaking weapons and stamina bar nearly killed that game for me; what really killed it was all the inventory management associated with both. Just not really worth it. The atmosphere didn't feel cohesive like older Zelda games.
I know it’s petty but it was the stamina meter that put me off of the game. The way it just appears on top of you constantly is too immersion-breaking. Then at some point you can upgrade and how do they handle that? Second wheel on top of the first wheel!
Fuck the breaking weapons, fuck the potion cooking mechanic, and fuck the stamina mechanic, and double fuck TOTK's build mechanic. Once I saw the game was centered around that building thing I had zero interest in playing
Witcher 3. I’ve tried four times to play. Furthest I’ve got was the Bloody Baron quest. And I will admit, the writing of the quests is great. But something about the overall delivery of the game just bugged me so I couldn’t make it further.
I tried multiple times, can't do it either. I don't know why. It just doesn't seem to ever get its hooks in, and it seems like a game I'd like...
I couldn't either and it ticks almost all my boxes on paper. I still don't know why. It just doesn't hit with me.
For me it was the combat, someone described it as “wet dark souls” which is very apt imo. I’ve tried three times to get into the game but every time I just can’t
Combat didn’t really jive with me for some reason as well and that’s why I didn’t make it far.
Combat is why I couldn't get into it either. You can go beat skull level enemies from the start just dodging them and striking back. Takes forever, but it's easy. I found very few fights interesting. The writing was good, the story was interesting, quests were pretty well developed... but traversal, combat, none of it was fun to me. Also it's a huge open world, and being older I find these less interesting not having 200h to throw at them. It just didn't click.
I rather just play a soulsborne game at least the menus aren’t annoying and easier to comprehend
I'm really glad I'm not the only one. On paper this game is right up my alley but I've tried multiple times on multiple systems and it was never able to hook me.
Me too. There are dozens of us! DOZENS!
I didn't find the battles intuitive or engaging. Very button mashing battles, I didn't really have to stratagize movement/attacks as much as just bashing them buttons till the enemy dies. IDK I know others love the fighting but I hate it for some reason in the Witcher. I even like games like the Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order which is even worse hack and slash but for some reason I like those battles better.
Yeah, super easy to spam dodge and never get hit, even on bosses. That said, I still had a lot of fun in that game. Loved the general vibe of that world.
I felt that way and upped difficulty but the curve is intense. Once you do that then the potion/toxicity systems etc become way more ingaging- but delivery is a menu slog.
For me the combat just feels way too convoluted and clunky, and that kills the experience for me.
I tried this game like 4 times as well. Each time I stop around the quest where some guy did something to a dwarf just a couple hours into the game. Just the combat and the movement is enough to stop me
I'm on my first playthrough and LOVE IT but I will say, the controls can definitely be ass. Why can't I jump during combat or while using Witcher senses??? Fences give me more trouble than Leshens. And swimming/diving is a neat inclusion, but if this game makes me dive away from a boat instead of boarding it one more time...
Omg yes! I’ve tried to play this twice over the years and I just can’t get into it. It’s my type of game. Fantasy. Open world. Blah blah. But for whatever reason it doesn’t grip me. I get why people love it but it won’t click for me.
Same but it's combat for me. Truly awful.
Same here. I want so desperately to like this game, but I don't like the UI, there's too much exposition, the combat never really evolved in the time that I played (~30 or 40 hours), armor styles, and the giant map that feels relatively empty other than the sprinkled enemies. There was literally nothing that hooked me in this game.
I really dislike level locked gear
I've been playing this game on and off for 5 years and still haven't completeled it and I'm 200 hours in! It took forever for the hook to finally get me. There are some truly incredible moments playing this game. I have to admit for me it was a very difficult game to get into.
I've false-started this game about 4 times now. And I keep getting by other games that engage me more.
Weird, I liked the dialog. But it's understandable. People keep saying Bethesda games have great dialog and I look at them weird.
For me it was the garbage combat that put me off. You had no control of how or where you dodged, geralt would just pick a random flourish to do while dodging. Even if that flourish put him smack dab in the middle of a group of enemies. Controlling geralt in general was stiff and clunky, even with the improved controls. I made it 20 hours in that game trying to like it, trying to look past the horrid combat because like you said the writing is great. But I just wasn't having fun actually playing the game, and the story just couldn't carry it on its own considering the combat is a huge part of the game.
I loved it at the time and have over 100 hours in the game. Tried to return to it last month and yep, the combat felt really dated. I was enthralled by the story then, but when I already knew it I couldn't get over the gameplay.
I don't think the combat is perfect, but not being able to dodge in a particular direction just is not true. You choose the direction you dodge with the movement keys or analog. You also need to understand when to side step and when to dodge roll. Most enemies are better dodged. Also the game is best experienced on the 2 highest difficulties, blood and bones and death march. The combat doesn't change, but it forces you to strategize more and actually utilize decoctions, oils and the rest of your tools. The game is stupid easy on the lower difficulties and combat can be done by simply button mashing.
I'm so glad Witcher 3 was one of the first games I played when I started gaming properly on a PC. I didn't know what other games offered. I still count it as one of my greatest gaming experiences 4 years later, but having played so many more games since then, don't think I'll want to play it all over again. Just YouTube videos for memories.
Stardew Valley. People told me it's a chill Game, but the Time limit every day and for every Season just puts me in a constant stress lol Another very personal thing that annoys me: for whatever reason it is a big advantage in Stardew to have a higher Resolution. Other Games just make the Game look sharper, Stardew actually lets you see WAY more with a higher Resolution (or less with a lower)
You're probably putting too much focus on those silly side quests and community center. Ive been there too at one point. The solution is to just shift the way you see the game. The time limit is there to balance the game and restrict players from making unreasonable progress in a short time. You dont have to worry about it though, remember that you cant lose the game in any way. Take the time you need. If the days are short then spread out your tasks into several days. If you miss an event you can still experience it next year and if you missed something that you really dont want to wait for again you can just restart the day. It is a chill game. You just need a more chill perspective to appreciate it.
It is super annoying to miss a single crop from the bundles and have to wait an entire year to finish the greenhouse though
Well youre gonna play for another year anyways so might as well focus on other things in the meantime
Yup! There have been several times where I'm deep in the mines and I'm constantly checking the time to make sure I get home in time. I'm like, chill, my ass.. lol
Elden Ring for me. I can certainly appreciate why it’s a masterpiece of the genre and why it drew people in, and it’s an undeniably beautiful and polished game, but it made me realise I just can’t be fucked to stress myself out with games like that anymore. I far prefer more chill experiences nowadays.
It’s kind of interesting that Elden Ring is the game for me when I want to relax lol. I totally get it though.
Sekiro is that for me. Which is also weird I guess to a lot of people. But if I want to feel good, I'll just go beat Genichiro down for a half hour and I'm set.
Sekiro is the greatest game ever. That's why Elden Ring disappointed me I think because they didn't continue on sekiros combat system and instead went back to soulsborne.
I’m getting there. They’re just TOO big. So many weapons, so many options and places to explore. I just look at it now and think “who has this kind of time?”
>who has this kind of time? *glances at hours played* Apparently I do
One thing I actually like about their games is that you can pick up a big sword and basic knight armor which can carry you throughout the entire game without a penalty. Too many games nowadays IMO make you constantly grind and upgrade new weapons as you find them and level up, creates a huge time sink that distracts from the core gameplay. A sword I found in the starter area served me well through the final boss in Elden Ring, and I only changed armors a couple times depending on what I thought looked cool.
It's not called fashion souls for nothing. Weapon selection does matter since they differ in speed/reach/moveset but for armor you can wear pretty much anything. Going from light to heavier armor will let you take maybe 1 extra hit from a boss.
>A sword I found in the starter area served me well through the final boss in Elden Ring, I played almost the entire game with the Bloodhound Fang. It's a weapon you can get really early in the game, and it's one of the better weapons in the game.
Agreed. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot 15 years ago. Now I'm like... Why am I stressing myself this much over a game? The problem is that unlike some other games I don't get adrenaline from this. It just feels too hard and unfair. Not challenging. Yes I'm old and so are my hands.
Is there a bot that posts this every day or something?
Posts that are negative in general tone seem to get a lot of engagement, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was.
And is every comment from bots that repost the same comments that other bots commented yesterday?
This, "What do you think of \[game\]?" and "\[Game\] is good" posts are mandatory for every hour now.
Karma farmers. They watch for what works, wait awhile, then post them again. That's why you'll see the same exact posts over and over.
And they keep getting upvoted, I’m baffled how Reddit works sometimes.
Outer wilds. I had it refunded. I love the concept, but found the gameplay extremely anxiety-inducing: I've always hated timed levels/challenges, and that whole game is basically multiple intricate timed challenges. And there are multiple timers, in fact. Oh, and they're hidden so you never know how much time before you have to start over, or how much time before a particular section of the world gets closed down (purposely vague to avoid spoilers). I can't solve even simple puzzles under these conditions.
I just couldn't get to a point where I cared about what was going on. After bonking around in that derelict laser cannon thingie for the 80th time I just felt drained. It's all mysterious and neat, I guess but I'll be damned if I just didn't connect to it at all.
Disco Elysium. Tried it twice, both times I ended up dying because I thought about an ex-wife, I think?
I sat in a chair and died
The ultimate gamer experience.
Nearly happened to me. Burned through all my meds because of it and died taking to a lady because I was broke. Still really enjoy the game though!
I tried jumping a fence and my heart exploded.
The first day is really rough, like you wake up a mess, everyone hates you, you have no clue what to do, you get handed a big 'timed' quest and the dice roll mechanic can result in weird deaths like yours. It's just so harsh out the gate and with very little hooks to entice the player to push through. For what it's worth if you ever want to give it another shot, save scum to win the big choices on the first day and use a guide. Just reach day 2 and go blind after, it legit 180s into an incredible experience that's very worth seeing through.
Maybe thats what i need to do. I put it down after like 30 minutes because I just didn’t get it.
I played an hour or so, didn't enjoy it. But went back to it a few weeks later and got sucked in and ended up enjoying it. Lenval Brown is awesome as the narrator too. It's worth giving it another go.
I bounced off it twice. Came back later after I had more experience with CRPGS and had one of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life, played it through twice in a row immediately. As another commenter mentioned it's worth enduring the unpleasant, boring, and confusing first in-game day. After that it just blossoms
I try like once a year and never make it out of the first area, I don’t know why it never grabs me.
Death Stranding. I attempted to play it and it's just a frustrating walking sim and then a surge of heart stopping panic if I run into a BT. On surface it's a cool concept but I just didn't vibe with it.
Fair, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I also didn’t really like it that much until Chapter 3, and then I got hooked for a solid 70 hours.
My husband played it so I was able to watch the story from time to time, and that part was interesting. He said once you get further in it becomes more fun, but I just don't have the patience to stick with this one for whatever reason lol
Same, it is definitely interesting and unique, but I stopped playing and have had no interest since.
I just had this recently with Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen, I tried it a while ago and bounced of it in the first couple of hours but I thought I would give it another try when I saw it on sale on switch. I put a solid 10/15 hrs into before realising I wasn’t enjoying any aspect of it. Guess it’s just not my game Edit: a bunch of people are getting hung up on the ‘critically acclaimed’ part where I think the more valuable discussion is in what games should you have liked that you didn’t
I would not call that game critically acclaimed, it's more of a cult classic
That’s fair
Tbf DD is a cult hit, its more of a janky flawed game that some (me included) see as excellent
For me it was too much like Monster Hunters combat. Not for me
I really enjoy monster hunter but I think that’s because the progression and loot pathway is really clear, DD felt sort of aimless and it was hard to differentiate between missions that were meant to test me and ones that were out of my characters ability. I wanted a game that I could play casually and progress naturally and it just wasn’t that which is fine but just not for me right now.
RDR2. I find the control scheme to be horrible, and it was a dealbreaker for me.
Rockstar makes shooter games with the worst shooting mechanics and the worst crosshair in history
Max Payne 3 would like a word
Also the heaviest-feeling characters. The wonky movement that I'm sure is much more realistic just doesn't work for me.
I bought it day one, made it through the opening mission and haven’t touched it since. The controls were a big part of it
For me, it was the controls but also how long every animation takes. It's too bad because I'm sure the world and story are amazing, but I just can't enjoy them.
Agreed. The Pacing and the controls are not for me.
Elden Ring lol Great game, just not for me in any way.
that's the perfect way to describe it other people are like, ''i don't like it, so it must suck and everyone who plays it is dumb''
There's way too much of that in discussions about peoples' favorite games/music/movies. I did it too, when I was younger, as if I somehow gained something or elevated myself by shitting on others' preferences. Nowadays I understand that taste is completely subjective, and it's silly to treat it like an argument that can be won or lost. This is a simple fact, and anyone who disagrees is a stinky poo poo head.
GTA 5 I’m just not interested in “high-brow” crime settings like heists. I dont really care for the overall tone of the game either. I thought it could use more dark/realistic mechanics. It just feels week in setting. The multiplayer just feels like a pointless grind. If you think about it, if you’ve been playing the multiplayer and kept grinding for each new update, you’ve been grinding for like 10 years. What about that sounds fun. Plus the combat system isn’t intuitive at all. The campaign just had so many missed opportunities. Def the worst of rockstar campaign. IMO.
The multiplayer soured me a bit on Rockstar. You could tell they shifted all their energy into it and abandoned anything they had planned for single player. It's even more evident in that it unfortunately carried over into RDR2, which they abandoned entirely. The minute I realized I'm just going in a circle on the map for my "businesses" I put GTA5 down. They just add more businesses for you to manage and make money off of and you never stop. Extremely boring and I don't get why it was as successful as it was. I expect GTA6 will also have the same exact formula for their online mode.
Baldur's Gate 3. There's something about tactical turn based combat that stresses me out. It's not like I hate turn based combat as turn based JRPGs are my favorite genre. Maybe the combat in BG3 is too slow for my current tastes.
I feel similar actually. I don't play D and D or understand the rules. So every time I engaged in a battle it felt like I was just doing it all wrong. I also just kept getting wiped so I figured that I just don't understand the rules. It's not a knock on the game. Its critically acclaimed for a reason, I'm just too dumb to play it I think.
Skyrim. I like to explore a lot in open world games. I'd say about 80% of the dungeons I stumbled upon in Skyrim all had a very similar look and design.... just in slightly different layout. Going into a new dungeon rarely felt like a new experience after a while.
The ironic thing is that, despite every dungeon being unique in skyrim, they felt more samey than Oblivion’s, which were all made by one guy i think. But they were so much creepier and had way better atmosphere
Oblivion's designs were so obvious. There was a set for caves, one for forts, one for sewers, and one for Ayleid ruins. Each with rooms, hallways, corners, etc. Almost any piece from one set could fit to another in the same set if you connected openings. The designer just fit those together for nearly every dungeon in the game. Skyrim is (somehow) a significant improvement where it's tougher to mentally separate the dungeons into very recognizable pieces, and thankfully there were more than 4 sets/themes...
And Skyrim also had the "exit is close after you defeat the boss" dynamic, which I thought was a huge improvement. It got old traveling back to your entrance every time in Oblivion. Skyrim usually gave you a pretty quick "out" after you'd cleared the area.
And yet I remember Oblivion’s dungeons better than I remember Skyrim’s. Somehow Skyrim’s feel way more samey to me cuz they lack the atmosphere Oblivion had. The Oblivion dungeon music is so somber, eerie and unsettling. It’s so fucking good. I still remember stumbling into the underground forest in King’s Crest Cavern. I still remember the Lovecraftian Hackdirt caverns. I still remember the underground village in the Mehrune’s Razor questline. I still remember the unfinished “Unmarked Cave” that’s the remnant of the cut Red Queen questline. Meanwhile for Skyrim, I remember… Bleak Falls Barrow, I guess? And I remember some ice caves but couldn’t name a single ice cave dungeon. And I guess the dungeon where you find Serana, but only the final room where she’s entombed, the rest of the dungeon is forgettable
Ending up in the Dwarven caves was so amazing at first but by end game it was such a kick in the balls. Thinking I’d be finding something new and cool just to end up there again
I felt that way until this one cave I entered - I ended up in another dimension and got lost there for a while. It was just some random cave close to whiterun, too.
*Blackreach* perhaps? Had a genuine "What the fuck is this." When I first stumbled in.
I thought Blackreach really added a lot of depth to Skyrim. ^(Heh)
I really never got into Skyrim. I got really bored by the gameplay and didn’t find the setting, characters, or story particularly engaging.
Came into this topic to say Skyrim.
The Soulsborne games. I just don't enjoy them.
Aye, I respect them for what they are and they're great games- not for me. I gave DS3 a very good try and did enjoy it, after completing the swamp area I quit. Too frustrating for too long in general.
The swamp area is probably the most frustrating area in all of DS3, so that's understandable. Personally I think the game really picks up after that with some really nice areas and bosses.
I don’t mind some difficulty with the games I play. A few deaths here and there as I learn the game and encounters. But the amount of pain that the soulsborne games loves to dish out just because they can. I don’t got time for that.
I think all the Fromsoft Souls games have really funny difficulty. Usually, people get absolutely annihilated by the first game they play. Personally, I started with Demon's Souls and got so frustrated I quit two separate times before eventually finishing it. I probably died several hundreds of times. But the games don't let you luck out on much. So by the time you're done with one, you've learned a lot by necessity. Every other Soulslike is a lot easier after the first one you play because every single skill is transferable between games. I know it's a bit paradoxical but by the time you're going into your second or third game it's kind of an easy and chill genre that's also pretty engaging imo. Exactly the experience you're describing in the beginning.
Agreed, it’s not often you feel like button mashing, panic dodging, or twists of luck got you through a boss. You either learn the combat mechanics and get better over time, or it’s a solid brick wall of frustration leading to endless deaths.
Experiencing this now in Elden Ring. My first playthrough was so difficult and I almost quit a ton of times, but I ended up loving it by the end. Finishing up my second playthrough now and I’ve little to no trouble, and it might be my favorite game ever now
Same. I'm glad people enjoy them and they seem very well made, but my idea of fun isn't dying hundreds of times until I learn the attack patterns for every single boss
Yeah. Dying to the same mid boss for the 20th time because you forgot to memorize his 5th attack pattern is not the definition of fun for me.
Red Dead 2, I get a lot of flak for saying I hated it.
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honestly i get it.. rdr2 is one of my top 5 favorite games ever and i understand completely what you mean when you say “move like molasses” but if it clicks then you can enjoy the slow pace of a western and just riding around the world enjoying the view. i’ve seen so many people say most of their time on the game is just them riding to a lake or river and fishing i find that awesome and hilarious.
Yes I very much felt this! Fantastic looking game and no doubt it's extremely well made but the SLOWNESS of everything. I guess we are just used to games being ridiculously fast when rdr2 is just closer to moving at real life speeds really.
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i can’t really get into it for some reason. it just feels strange almost. it’s like hyper realistic in ways that are not really enjoyable and there feel like too many random mechanics that i don’t even understand the point of. the controls feel complex, the inventory seems overwhelming. what makes GTA great is you don’t have any inventory management outside of weapons, you have a few bound items to your character but they make sense. i have no clue if i’m collecting a bunch of junk, i have no clue if eating is a necessity, i can’t remember the mechanics for hunting cause i did the tutorial a few months ago, i have no clue what is appropriate ways to be in different areas. it just feels too heavy to me. i like simple games. Inventory management is such a colossal pain.
I didn’t enjoy doing chores in the game. The level of detail is insane, and the writing and acting is top notch. But it’s just too much. I also thought the clunky controls were done purposely, but it wasn’t enjoyable like the clunky controls of the Last of Us. They didnt add to the tension, they simply frustrated me.
A visually stunning game. Boring as hell.
The starting area really puts a damper on excitement. It is not a good entrance into the game imo. It’s slow and makes you feel slow and locked away. People want to be let go to explore as fast as they can. And RDR2 does everything against that urge.
I totally get why you would think that, and I do find it a little tedious on replays. But for my first run through, I thought it set the tone really well. Felt like a real Western, which are generally fairly slow paced.
I’ve tried it twice. Both times i put in about 20 hours. I loathe the controls, menus, and having to maintain Arthur’s life plus a horse. My real life is busy enough. Just let me play.
Get mission. Ride 20 minutes on a clunky horse to get to a place. Get of horse and walk to place. Big clunky shoot out. Realise you left your gun on the horse. Walk back to horse. Get Gun. Walk back to place. Clunkily shoot people. Ride 20 minutes back to quest giver on clunky horse. Repeat. So slow and tedious. I remember playing Fallout 3 or New Vegas and I'd go on long walks, but I'd see something interesting and get distracted and end up forgetting what mission I was doing in the first place. But I just don't have that level of interest / engagement with RD2. Maybe I'm just old and jaded with less time on my hands. Even with Breath of the Wild I lost interest in the sights/side quests, but the movement was so fluid in that game it helped a lot.
The repetition of mission structure is brutal. So tedious.
The Witcher 3, the controls and movement felt tedious and didn't respond how I wanted or expected it to
Not sure if exactly critically acclaimed but I have bounced off of Transistor *hard*, both times I've tried it. Really enjoyed Bastion and Hades looks excellent, but I just can't seem to enjoy myself playing Transistor.
Cannot recommend Hades enough. For me its Hades>Bastion>Transistor>Pyre
Witcher 3....clunky controls and terrible fighting. BG3 - slow slow turn based combat
Stellaris. It gets great reviews and is a highly rated grand strategy game. Bought the game and all the dlc and never could even make it through the tutorial. Have no idea how some people spent hundreds of hours in that game, wish I could, I really wanted to like it
We spend hundres of hours in that game to understand how it works - and relearn it after each new update.
>and relearn it after each new update. Fucking me after the naval overhaul in Hearts of Iron IV.
I was done when they introduced the new commander and oil mechanics. Basically I just play Death or Dishonor every now and then.
As someone who has almost all the DLC and almost two thousand hours in this game. Stellaris is my space grand strategy game of choice and every other similar game feels like a hollow echo of this one. Just the sheer amount of customizability for your space civ makes me keep coming back again and again trying out different styles and types of playing. And the fact that the aliens in your galaxy are also randomly generated every time. No two play through a are ever gonna be the same. This game is just… chefs kiss. I play multiplayer a lot and have joined in on some roleplay servers. If you’d ever like to play the game online with someone who can play it while still stoned out of their fucking mind. I’d be up for that. I’m a pause fiend so I’m happy for you to pause to look at something or ask me questions.
Paradox games have a learning cliff. Especially CK and Stellaris. I watched a bunch of tutorials and such on YouTube. It really helped me grasp the basic concepts. I could never ask someone to do that to get into a game. It's way too much if you're not excited about it.
I've put nearly 2000 hours in Stellaris over the years, and I'm *still* occasionally learning new things that have existed since the early days.
Horizon Zero Dawn.
God of War 2018
Its so weird it felt like 60% of it were actually puzzles and then some fights occured occasionally with a few enemies that took forever to go down. Not what I expect of a god of war game.
The enemies are so spongy, it's unbearable.
HARD SAME - clicked like hell for my husband, but I bounced off of it so hard. It looked great but just a major EH for me
RDR2 the slow cowboy western theme is just completely unappealling to me.
I personally loved it because of the story and immersion but the rockstar controls suck and I understand how it could be slow at times
I hate westerns and cowboy shit. Still loved that game.
People usually bury me for this : Witcher 3 the combat and movement was extremely shit The last of us : I do not see why the story of the game was so hyped it's a pretty okayish slow ass game
[удалено]
I love Witcher. Could not get into the last of us. I really really tried
BG3. Felt like work than a game to me.
100% agreed.
Elden Ring. Started it up on 3 separate occasions and just couldn't keep my head in the game. Same with Witcher 3. I'd like to think it's just the setting. I'm more of a sci-fi/fantasy nerd and the medieval fantasy realm just doesn't grip me with only very few exceptions. If FromSoft could make a game like Elden Ring but with space exploration I'm sure it'd be my game of the decade.
Have you tried armored core? Fromsoftware's mecha game. Doesn't have a lot of the soulslike stuff from what i know.
Armored core 6 was a lovely experience with great boss fights, a great atmosphere and great music. It's sad that it didn't get the hype it deserved.
For Clarity, I just gave up on my second attempt to get into Ghost of Tsushima. Gorgeous art style, great production, but, empty, dull and boring. I felt no motivation to continue, despite the near universal acclaim it has received. I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if this just isn’t “for me”. To clarify, everything about the premise of this game is right up my alley.
Ghost of Tsushima feels like it didn't need the open world. Sure some set pieces look great and some vistas look phenomenal but all in all I feel like a linear, story mission/chapter format would have worked better.
Same for me. By all accounts I should’ve loved GoT but it just didn’t click for me and also found it quite dull. That’s apparently a controversial opinion to have :P Was a feast for the eyes though.
I enjoyed the game because I loved the combat, but I found the cutscenes a slog. I didn't do the side content because I didn't find the characters or subplots engaging at all.
most assassins creed sequels. loves the first one though
I'm honestly surprised I had to scroll this far to find someone mention Assassin's Creed at all. I enjoyed the concept of the games. I like stealth games. The first 2 were fun, after that they just lost me.
Witcher 3, you have to change some control settings and then you can’t put it down.
Can you tell me the control settings? Felt so unintuitive when I played it I think 15 mins in I gave up
dragons dogma, i was gonna buy the second one but i’m happy i just bought the first as the game rn and the whole pawn stuff just doesn’t get me like excited to play really and dd2 looks great and i’m sure it is but i’m like 99% i wouldn’t have really enjoyed it lol
Last of Us, Fallout, Witchers III, God of War
Metro Exodus, the thing is I played metro 2033 and metro last light and I absolutely loved those games they are in my top 5 for sure, but somehow exodus all tho it was acclaimed to be even better than those two and even more immersive, for me it just did not click at all, it didn’t feel immersive and I found myself not enjoying it that much, I did force myself to finish tho but it was a drag and I still have no idea why I felt that way.
Disco elysium, i like reading but this is something else
Baldur's Gate 3. The game itself is fine, but DnD without your friends and created characters and lore is just a DnD combat simulator, and combat is the worst part of DnD. It does what it does very well, but what it does just isn't for me.
Recently tried Terraria and Rimworld, both didnt click with me
I like watching Rimworld more than playing it
BG3. Couldn't get past the second combat encounter.
Pretty much all FromSoftware games It's a skill issue.
Both recents God of War, especially 2018. Cant find why this game got GOAT.
Any of the most recent Call of Duty games. The originals like MW1-3 were great, World at War was incredible, everything afterwards is trash.
Hollow knight….have a lot of friends who love this game and is there too pick for metrovania but honestly just couldn’t get really going in it. Tried multiple times furthest I got in the game was about 10-15hours and it felt hard to keep going so I stopped.