Alpha Protocol comes to mind. I didn't play it at release, so maybe that is why my experience with it was better than most (it got patched, I guess), but I still think it is one of the most criminally underrated games of all time. It is truly an amazing espionage-RPG that offers an experience that, for lack of a better description, is the best parts of Splinter Cell and Mass Effect.
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I guess my other favorite "bad" game would be No Man's Sky. I still think the main problem with this game is the player base and the studio, not the game itself, and that's a damn shame. I feel that, as gamers, we have forgotten to have fun for the sake of fun, and No Man's Sky is all about that; it's about putting you down in a big sand pit and letting you go wild with no instructions or anything.
I think that Hello Games had the right idea early on, but as time went on they had to generate hype and you have to keep promising more and more "features" in games, but No Man's Sky is by design a game light on features: all you do is roam around and just, I don't know, relax and discover shit and appreciate stuff for the sake of appreciation and fun. There's no real goal, no tangible reward outside of an upgrade every now and then.
The game definitely had some fundamental problems early on; I had some issues with the small inventory, and there were a few bugs, and I reeeeeeeeeeeeeally wish they invested a bit more time developing space combat (it would have made the game a lot more fun!)
But overall I think it was a great game that made me reconnect with my inner child. It was like entering a universe and every time I entered and exited hyperspace it was a new, fresh experience and I never had to be overly committed to anything like "OH MY GOD! A purple planet! I Want to land there! Ew nevermind it's ugly, let's get out of here" then enter hyperspace and "Oh wow look at this space station NEATO!" and you could just do this for 20 minutes or two hours.
I think people were needlessly tough on this game, and while Hello Games is partially responsible for getting people's expectations up, I think it is mostly our own damn fault.
One lesson I hope we all learned from this, or at least the industry learned, is this: there cannot be "Indie AAA" games. They are mutually exclusive now. Maybe 10-20 years ago when AAA meant quality but not these days when AAA simply means big budget and feature-packed.
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