Games that surprised you

That game for me right now is Tetris Effect! Picked this up on the e-shop (if you have GamePass or PS Plus Extra, it’s on there too). Love that it takes Tetris but makes it more interesting by adding immersive music and the beats coincidence with how you play. If this was just Tetris, I’d be meh. But sign mine up for Tetris Effect, especially on my Switch OLED! 😎

How about you, SW? What games surprised you?

Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I didn't like the demo very much, but I decided to buy the game anyhow. I'm glad I did, because it's a fun little game. It's so cute to see Kirby take the form of a traffic cone, a vending machine or a car.

Tetris Effect seems more beneficial for VR. I'll just stick to the crossovers with Puyo Puyo for regular screen Tetris.

Anyway, my recent choice would be probably TMNT: Shredder's Revenge.

The Rez games are amazing (Pretty sure made by same people)

Anthem…..bait’n’switch baby!

Kirby and the Forgotten Land was a fairly recent one. I knew I would enjoy it but was kind of surprised at just how much.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land did it for me. That game is so amazing. Goty easy.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is pretty good too. Another one for me NEO The World Ends With You. I didn’t think they could match the original as far as gameplay goes (without the dual screen), but they found a way to do it a different direction and still make it fun. If anything, it’s even more complex than the original!

Metroid Dread was another one that I knew I would enjoy but turned out to be even better then I expected. Fantastic game.

Batman: Arkham Knight

TLOU 2 - a rollercoaster experience

TMNT: SR surprised me with the amount of moves you could do. Glad it was deeper than I thought.

Sleeping Dogs I expected a decent game but ended up with one of the best open world crime games ever made.

Call of Cthulhu was a surprise for me. I didn't think it would be nearly as interesting as it turned out. I got it as a freebie from Games With Gold, but after playing it and absolutely loving the story, I bought it on PC.

Expected Amid Evil to be so-so low budget retro inspired shooter. Dime a dozen at the point. Didn't pick it up at launch and bought on a sale whim.

One of me fav FPS of all time now. Of note in particular is Arcane Expanse, easily some of the most beautiful levels seen in any game.

12 Minutes was a surprisingly good game. It's got a few twists in there too.

The original Nier, far better than I initially expected it to be.

What happened with Anthem really upset me.

They could've made an amazing single player rpg with live components and it would've been amazing.

Making a live service game was a waste of Bioware's talents.

most recently demon's souls remake. picked it up when i bought a ps5 early last year. wasn't really on my radar, thought it would just be ok, something to play whilst waiting for other games. but it blew me away, so good. and it looks amazing, not a stretch to say its the best looking ps5 game

Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I was never into the Kirby series at all and the only one that I have ever played was the NES Kirby game. But ever since the trailers for Forgotten land came out, it looked very interesting, and I was happy that I bought it since it's amazing.

Guacamelee - Had no interest in side-scrollers after playing them for years, but I ended up loving it.

Hotline Miami - Was burnt out on everything being pixel art, but the game was great.

Subnautica - Oversaturation of survival games, but it changed my mind. Probably the scariest game I've ever played.

Vanquish - Didn't care for the demo, but it was super fun.

Sleeping Dogs - Never really liked GTA, but really enjoyed this one.

I guess the theme is that I'm too quick to judge. But then again, sometimes my judgement works; like with Anthem, Cyberpunk, Fallout 76, etc.

Arkham Asylum. Expected another super hero cash-in. But it turned put to be one of my absolute favourite games of all time!

Halo Infinite. I expected it to be bad, but wow. Talk about trashing its Halo 5 records.

@marleykilladope:

I just started playing Arkham Knight, it is pretty good, but I find the combat is a bit cheesy with all the button prompts and the animations mid combat.

Catherine surprised me at the time. Absolutely everything about the game was unexpected in the greatest way. If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and pickup Catherine Full Body.

Arkham Origins - got it like a year after release because the game got a 6-7 everywhere, turned out it was really good. Maybe because it came out after Arkham City which was a great game

More recently, Ghost of Tsushima.

This was a very pleasant surprise. A love letter to the source material, beautiful, with an engaging and satisfying combat engine (for an open world), unlockables, narrative progression, interesting characters, pacing of their development, variety of environments, all wrapped up and punctuated by an amazing ending.

Easily one of the best open world games in a long time.

It's really good. Sadly they went with the boring open world route for the sequels.

I'd love to get a solid, linear, half open(?) Batman game again like Asylum. Make some tight gameplay sections instead of forcing the player to take out two thousand bandit outposts or what the shit they waste your time with nowadays.

Titanfall 2 as I expected it to be bad COD clone. but turn out amazing SP FPS experience.

Greedfall

@uninspiredcup: Amid Evil is my favorite sp fps in a long time

Astro Bot Rescue Mission (PSVR, 2018). I never expected platforming with VR to be so creative and fun.

Horizon Zero Dawn. I was expecting Tomb raider with robots...and it kinda is that....but the combat is surprisingly fun and the game is just nice to play overall. I didn't find myself getting tired of it. I must finish it and am looking forward to when FW gets to the PC.

FF7 Remake: I grabbed it when it dropped on steam there. It has its issues but overall i am enjoying it. The combat is good fun. Its development on the source material is also generally good. The soundtrack is great. Technical issues and some odd stuff added to the story let it down a bit but neither issue is game breaking (seriously though Square: vsync. can you even just add vsync?).

Yeah it was very disapointing. It’s sad studios feel they must have content just for the sake of it… Arkham Asylum was so cleverly designed in how it guided you through it’s intricate layout. I just wanted more like that.

@st_monica: want to check that out when I get PS VR2!

Returnal. Never really been into bullet hell or roguelike games. The setting, atmosphere, enemy design, all fantastic and made even better with a stellar sounds track and 3D audio enabled.

I just wish it had more content and less recycled levels (2nd act is largely copy/paste of act 1). Biome 3 is easily one of the greatest levels I've played through in a game for some time, topped off with the Nemesis boss fight.

Hades. It completely changed who I am as a gamer. I went from loving AAA experiences to seeking out mostly indies.

@SolidGame_basic: Yeah, I can assure you that you will be amazed at how it creatively blends VR and platform action. I will be very disappointed if TeamASOBI (formerly JapanStudio) does not have a new Astro Bot game ready for the PSVR2 launch.

In recent years:

Streets of Rage 4

Fall Guys

Among Us

👍 I wonder if PS VR2 will come out this year 🤔

How about just playing good games instead of choosing one of the two as if only indies offer quality titles?

Agreed. I watched the videos and trailers on it but when I actually sat down and played it, it turned out to be a lot better than I expected.

@SolidGame_basic: Well, it's rumored to be early 2023, though Sony's original plan was probably for this holiday season. Some folks are predicting it might launch around the same time as the upcoming RE4 remake, which will be compatible with PSVR2.

God of War (2018) surprised me as well.

I was surprised by how shit it was. And I'm also surprised with the patience others have with shit. After hearing so much praise, even from my friends whom I thought had pretty good taste in games, I tried the game out and was appalled. Luckily, it's from Sony who's games I've ignored for decades because of them being shit, so this kind of crap might stay with Sony. But if this would become the norm for how games are being made in the future, god damn. Need to find a new hobby.

Well said.

This is one of the worst game I have ever ever played. there's nothing about this game is good. except graphics maybe. combat is awful. just slow, tedious and press few buttons.

the entire game is scripted walking in straight line.

lot of people here shit on my games but when games like this available it make any bad game looks like a masterpiece.

Batman Arkham Asylum. I don't like superheroes and avoided the game for quite a while even after all the praise. I finally got it after the sequel was released to see what's all the fuss is about. Ended up liking it a lot. The only superhero game I enjoyed.

Outer Wilds

Didn't expect such a mind-blowing physics sandbox

hades and subnautica. Both these games were indies and I didn't expect it to be so great. Metroid Dread, is a solid game, and I forgot that nintendo could make such solid 2d games still. Then you have halo infinite, which blew my mind with the massively open world concept.

SMT3 surprised me with its jokes and dialogue. Its obviously from an older time, because the stuff they say wouldn't fly in todays woke world.

Same! I had super low expectations for this based on the first one. But wow, what a pleasant surprise!

Also, OP, thanks for the Tetris recommend, I did see that on the Game Catalogue (PS+) and glanced it over before brushing it off. I'll check it out.

@shellcase86: 👍