Games you loved that got horrible reviews?

I usually research games....but do take reviews with a grain of salt :). Curious if anyone else has found any hidden gems. One of my favorite games on ps3 is Wizardry.

Alpha Protocol, it was pretty bad but I liked it for some reason.

Bloodrayne 2

Gauntlet Legends/Dark Legacy (overall this game got bad reviews everywhere but i still love it)

Theme Hospital

Jagged Alliance BiA

Beautiful Katamari

@Old_Gooseberry: Have to agree, thought gauntlet was a very good game!

KIRBY AIR RIDE

Resident evil 6

Ditto on Alpha Protocol. It's controls are clunky, but it's mechanics are a lot better than I was expecting.

God Hand (via the IGN website Score)Shadow Hearts (via the IGN webstite Score)
Raw Danger/Disaster Report
Time and Eternity (got a 3.5 here.... which is pretty insulting)
Ar Tonelico
Way of the Samurai 4
Yakuza Dead Souls
PS2's Xenosaga 2.
PS2's Siren

You beat me to it. This was literally the first game that popped into my head. I would have also included Vampire Bloodlines in the "awesome but broken" camp, but since it came out 10 years ago the reviews averaged out to pretty good on that game.

AP wasn't perfect, but it had a -lot- of good ideas. The NPC influence system where there were advantages to both making people like you -and- pissing people off, the hacking and lockpicking minigames that were both fun and challenging, the skill tree system was flawed but detailed, and most importantly a story that -actually- plays out differently based on choices and the order in which you do things.

The final reason I really liked AP though was that it was an RPG (or at least a game with strong RPG elements) that had a comtemporary setting (i.e. modern). Game developers are way too locked into the idea that an RPG has to be medieval fantasy or high concept sci-fi (or both in a lot of FF games). I would love to see more RPG-style games that take place in a modern city like AP, V:TMB or The Secret World.

-Byshop

Cant really think of any. There's usually good reasons games score consistent 5's and 6's or lower.

Nier

Amazing spiderman 2

Pokemon mystery dungeon (1+2)

Halo wars

Infamous 2

Bioshock 2

@Byshop: to tell you the truth I can't remember much about the game, but I remember reading the reviews, and I thought it can't be that bad when it sounded so good when it was being developed, so I got it anyway. After playing it, straight away I noticed the gameplay wasn't as polished as I would like, but I enjoyed the concept of the game.

Someone really should make a game similar to AP obviously without the faults it had.

Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360)

Going to agree with Threesixtyci about Xenosaga 2 I loved all three titles and think they are a great example of developers thinking outside the box and really trying to do things a little differently.

Beyond Two Souls.

Glad to see somebody else liked that.

What are you talking about ? It's metascore was 94 last time I checked !

I can't believe someone liked that piece of ... !

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Dracula: Resurrection
Dragon Ball Z Sagas
Predator: Concrete Jungle
Shadow Tower

Fallout 3 and Skyrim. I know these games were generally well received but I think nostalgia for past games has blinded a lot of gamers claiming previous TES entries were necessarily better.

Maybe Oblivion had better guild quests and was more mage friendly but the combat, crap leveling and copy / paste dungeons sucks. You were basically running around Cyrodiil being everybody's bitch the whole game. At least in Skyrim you can ignore the main quest and role play your own destiny.

I couldn't even imagine diving into Morrowind without mods. Particularly Skywind if they ever finished it. Besides weapon mods and factions, I don't see how New Vegas was better than Fallout 3 unless you were nostalgic for Fallout 1 and 2.

Assassin's Creed 3. Many of my friends say it was really bad but I enjoyed it enough to play it through twice.

Mario Party games generally get medicore reviews, but I love them (except for the last one).

I also enjoyed The Simpsons Wrestling on PS1. I remember IGN gave it their worst score ever, a 1/10, but my friends and I had some fun with it.

@elkoldo: Yeah its around 88, but the game gets a shit load of hate!

Resident Evil 6 and Bionic Commando immediately spring to mind.

P.N.03 on the Gamecube.

@Old_Gooseberry: Bloodrayne 2

hah. Loved that game. And the dismemberment system needs to make a comeback. It's not like that Ninja Gaiden silliness where you hit a guy in the chest and his arm flies off. I remember kicking a guy in the stomach so he ended up in this half crouched position when I brought my blade across...so the blade only just hit the very top of his head, causing just the top of his head (not the whole thing!) to fly up into the air...guy slumps back dead and the top of his head lands on the desk behind him like a discarded hat. The combat was so satisfying in that game.

it basically ended with a vampire apocalypse. Would love to see the story picked up from there. Of course, Majesco has another game with a story I'd love to see the ending to: Advent Rising. Lukewarm reviews, but I really dug the story and atmosphere.

Legend of Dragoon is the only one that comes to mind and it doesn't have horrible reviews.

A six is not a horrible.

Deadly Premonition.

South Park got a 7 here on Gamespot, which is a very great game

In gaming, with the competition as it is, it pretty much is considered a bit of a failure to receive a 6.

Yes, that is a shared perspective of many in the gaming community, yet it really is not the case.

It is the case, though. From a developer/publisher/reviewer/gamer perspective, however you want to look at it, a 6 is bad score.

From major reviewers' perspectives, it is not. In actuality, a six out of ten game has more good qualities than bad. As far as I know, the amount of perceived negativity about 7 scores and lower (on a ten point scale;just an example for reference) has been due to sensationalistic groups who happen to comprise a vocal minority in the gaming community. That sensationalism gains momentum and affects opinions, which affects sales next, and then jobs. Game makers do care about getting the highest score possible with regard to that.

C-12: Final Resistance on ps1

Urban Chaos on ps1(PC version had great reviews but ps1 was poorly recieved due to bad porting) I still enjoyed it.

Death By Degrees

Gravity Rush, Killzone Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall, Zombi U, Injustice Gods Among Us, are some of the more recent examples of games I felt were underrated.

On the other hand there are also games that appear overhyped to me, like e.g., Bioshock Infinite.

Alone In The Dark (PS3) and Knack (PS4).

I wanna try The Walking Dead & Zombie U at some point.

Timeshift , Sniper Elite 1, Shadowrun Returns ( The Expansion got an 8 though)

Mega Man X6. I don't know what people think of it now but, I remember the game getting a lot of flack for it's difficulty, rough translation and Japanese only voice acting.

F1 Race Stars, Aliens VS Predator, Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition, Hoard, SBK Generations, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.

Metroid: Other M, Sonic Unleashed, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Sonic 06.

NieR

A game substantially better than the sum of it's parts. For the most part, the game did deserve it's mostly average reviews (around 6/10) but the story telling, character design/development, soundtrack (one of the best ever in any game) and overall impression the game left was incredible. Way more interesting and far more emotionally affective than a game of that caliber would normally be.

Dark Sector and Yakuza Dead souls.

Maybe loved is a strong word, but I did not hate Duke Nukem Forever. I liked it for what it was - a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D that retained the "Duke" personality.

Pac-Man on Atari 2600, along with E.T. might have been the games that caused the industry to crash, but for what it was, the system limitations, and the time involved, I thought it was 'ok'.

I have to admit its funny to hear people say "research" when all they mean is "oh i read a few reviews, because my opinion is not equal to joe common gaming critic"

Anyways i cant remember what reviews the games i have played got, i have never and will never take anything a critic say to heart and let them decide if i should play a game or not.

Mass Effect 1.

I agree with what all those reviews said because the problems are pretty apparent but I still love that game.

I'm speaking of modern games here, but Octodad got a 70 or so on metacritic.

I love it not for it's gameplay, but the enjoyment it gives my friends and I. It's clearly a funny game and it's hilarious to play, and that's what I believe games are supposed to achieve these days. Guess review websites don't agree..

Nier is one of my favorite games ever. Viking was fun. I'm enjoying Bound By Flame right now.

CRASH TIME

Lots of fun. I believe it got low reviews because the auto reverse worked differently than other games. The manual didn't do a good job explaining it. You have to fully release the brake and reapply the brake for auto reverse to work. Plus there are one or two missions were the mission objective at the start stays on screen for just a second. But there similar to other previous missions, so you'll know what to do.

FUSE

Lots of fun. So what if the graphics weren't the absolute best like Halo 4 or GTA V (on the 7 gen consoles). You get to switch between the four characters in battle and upgrade each with their specialty powers. Lots of fun. No drudgery, the scavenging is minimal and only takes seconds verses many other games. Fun, with little or no down time between the fun (compare that with games like Skyrim or GTA V).

Other games that weren't worthy of their horrible reviews. They weren't great but they were OK: Alpha Protocol and Aliens: Colonial Marines.

I wouldnt' say I loved it, but Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse received bad reviews, yet I genuinely had some fun while playing it. Yeah, the graphics looked on level with a PS2 game and much of the jokes and dialogue were recycles from the show. But, surprisingly, the levels had decent variety and the local co-op was fun.

Every Dynasty warriors game past 4. I can't get enough of that series.

There is hope in this world!!!!

Lol nah seriously, I finished this game in like two sittings with my little brother (co-op). And I must admit it was pretty damn fun, we never took the game seriously but boy did it give us some enjoyment and some good laughs.

If you ever plan on playing Colonial Marines people, do it with a buddy or brother sitting right besides you in co-op. You'll have a blast or at least I did.

You're still considering this from a mathematical perspective, when in reality, it isn't really treated like a linear scale.

This goes for the vast majority of reviewers, not a minority. A 7 is considered mediocre. An 8 is considered pretty good. A 9 is very good. Anthing above is excellent.

And a 6 is generally considered disappointing. Nobody gives a game a score of 6 and says 'yes this is a good game, go buy it!'.