Not every game shows its true colors right out of the gate. Some games take a little while before they blossom, and some need a little more help from their developers to smooth out the rough patches. Once you give them a fair chance, however, they might just end up being one of your personal favorites, or even widely acclaimed.
There are too many games that fall into this category than I could ever actually list, but these are ones that offer both a variety of genres, and some of the more shocking turnarounds in gaming history.
10No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Skyis the poster-child for hype versus reality. This is an indie game created by a very small group of people that relies on procedural generation to create the infinite variety of planets, creatures, biomes, and other content within the virtual universe.
Unfortunately, the marketing of the game prior to launch created the impression of a game that’s far more impressive than this small team of developers could ever hope to achieve with the time they had. When the game finally launched to eager gamers, it was absolutely ripped apart. People felt cheated, and the game was a bit of a joke. However, instead of just packing up shop and moving on, Hello Games' Sean Murray dug in his heels, and over the last decadeNo Man’s Skyhas been built into the game we imagined it would be, and perhaps even more. It’s become one of the greatest comebacks in gaming history.
9The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Today,The Witcher 3is considered one of the best games of all time, and when it first launched in 2015 it garnered glowing reviews from critics. However, it’s easy to forget that the game’s launch was plagued with bugs, performance problems, and criticisms of the game’s combat.
Even people with high-end PCs struggled to get good performance from the game at first, though within a few months of launch CD Projekt RED got the game into good technical shape, so nothing stood in the way of enjoying its exceptional story and gameplay. As for the supposedly bad combat (which people still complain about today), this is just an example of people being too quick to judge. The combat becomes more impressive and deep as your character levels and learns new abilities. So, just like any action RPG, your character has to suck to have room for growth.
8Cyberpunk 2077
Another CD Projekt RED game? Yeah, there might be a pattern here, except withCyberpunk 2077this wasn’t just a few bugs and slightly poor performance. This ambitious first-person open-world RPG was a complete disaster on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Not only was the gameincrediblybuggy, these poor consoles could not run it at playable frame rates or a resolution that didn’t make your eyes bleed.
This led to the unprecedented move by Sony to remove the game from its online store and issue refunds to customers. I was one of them and switched over to the PC version instead, which had far fewer issues, though it wasn’t perfect by any means. Today, the game has effectively been overhauled, is a technical showcase of the latest graphics technologies, and boasts one of the best game expansions ever, in the form ofPhantom Liberty.
7Assassin’s Creed Unity
It’s surprising that French developer Ubisoft took such a long time to create anAssassin’s Creedentry set in France, and of course it finally happened. The game is set during the French Revolution! How creative and surprising.
While the game was lauded for its graphics, it had some of the most egregious bugs seen in any game, much less just the AC franchise. The bugs were eventually fixed, and today Unity is considered quite a good game and a graphical high-point with its detailed cities and incredible crowd density. I often see people decry that the open world AC games, which basically tried to copyWitcher 3, still don’t look as good as Unity. Not even current-generation titles.
6Hitman (2016)
The 2016Hitmangame revitalized the classic franchise, and there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with the game at launch. In fact, it was a revelation of sandbox stealth assassination goodness. Sure, it had its share of bugs, but by and large people liked it.
The problem was the episodic nature of the game. There was a bit of a fad at one point to offer games in episodic format, so that gamers could spend less at once, developers could release content more frequently, and the issues of bloated and expensive AAA game development could be staved of a little while. Unfortunately, the episodic format rarely worked, and a lot of people assumed that the release schedule promised forHitmanwould never happen, and it would just be anotherHalf-Lifesituation.
Surprisingly, the episodes kept coming, and they just kept getting better. Now that the whole package is done and ready to play, you’re able to’t afford to miss out on it.
5Diablo 3
As a hardcoreDiabloandDiablo 2fan, I was practically frothing at the mouth to play the third installment. However, like many other fans, the more the game was revealed the less interested I became. The lighter, more colorful art style now looked more likeWorld of WarcraftthanDiablo, and the introduction of a real-money auction house didn’t sit well either.
Blizzard actually listened to some of these complaints, and when I eventually sat down to run through the campaign with my wife, it actually tuned out to be quite a good game. I still don’t think it’s a goodDiablogame, mind you, but what we got to play was fun and engaging—worth the price of entry for sure.
Sadly, breaking my own rule about pre-orders, I spent hundreds of dollars for early access toDiablo IV, which sadly has turned out to be an irredeemably awful game, despite fixing the art style issues ofDiablo 3.
4Street Fighter V
I grew up on a steady diet of arcadeStreet Fighter IIand have been a lifelong player and fan of the franchise. I never really liked the third installment, butStreet Fighter IVwas another absolute banger.
Then,Street Fighter Vreleased and—where’s the rest of the game?Despite being afull-price release, fans felt that the game was barebones, and there were plenty of technical issues. Especially on PC. This launch drama led to anapology by the CEO of Capcom, saying “we all know that we didn’t put out a complete product, in a way that is a learning experience.”
However, since its core fighting mechanic was solid,Street Fighter Vdid end up taking its rightful spot in the fighting game arena.
3Nier (Gestalt/Replicant)
Nier Automatais one of my favorite games of all time,but I didn’t think all too much of its predecessor,Nier Gestalt(orReplicant,depending on your region) at first. Both of these games are successors to theDrakengardfranchise, and all exchibit some pretty unique action gameplay and bonkers stories created under the watchful eye of Yoko Taro.
The truth is that this strange, genre-bending action game was pretty clunky on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and it took a good long while to know what was going on, and how to play it properly. However, if you can get past the initial frustration and confusion, there’s a genuinely unique and special game under the hood. Today, you can play the modern remake of the game, bolstered with graphics and gameplay seen inNier Automata, giving you the best of both worlds.
2Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The lastMetal Geargame that Hideo Kojima had any hand in is controversial for a number of reasons. For one, it’s clear the game wasn’t entirely completed, as the story fizzles out in the later parts of the game. Second, Kiefer Sutherland’s role as snake, replacing fan-favorite David Hayter, didn’t sit well with many players. It didn’t help that the character barely spoke at all in the game.
However, despite these flaws, once you actually get into MGSV, you’ll discover the best stealth-action sandbox game ever made. It might lack in the narrative department that’s made previous games in the series so iconic, but it made up for it in pure gameplay.
1Deadly Premonition
Thisextremelyweird open-world survival horror game is clearly drawing heavy inspiration fromTwin Peaks.This game split critics pretty much down the middle. Those that understood what it was going for gave it perfect scores or close to it. Those that didn’t get it, tanked the scores—there’s very little middle ground here.
On a technical level, this game was a disaster. I first played it on the PlayStation 3, and it played and ran like a dog, but if you managed to muscle through that initial impression that this was shovelware junk, you’d find one of the most original, funny, and eccentric games ever made. Whether you think it’s so bad it’s good, or just think it’s misunderstood good, we can all agree that good is good.
While I do support giving games a chance before you judge them, there are, of course, limits to this. More importantly, no one can simply spend a fortune on games hoping one will turn out to be good. Which is why I think services like Game Pass or PlayStation Plus are great for trying out games with no risk. I’ve certainly discovered that I like some games I would never have tried otherwise. If you get a chance to play any of the games above, you might just find gold.
