What are some poorly-reviewed games that you have put dozens of hours into?

[Clive]

Silent Hill: Book of Memories was maybe not a fantastic game but it was great for someone studying away from home with a Vita as his only console. The console didn't have many big and grindy games around launch so that one filled a void. I honestly had a great time with it even if I can acknowledge it having flaws.

I also have the platinum in Yakuza: Dead Souls. Great game for its world building and characters and I have no issues with some PS1-PS2-level control jank.

 

[Kunka Kid]

I......kinda enjoyed Sonic Forces?

 

[Siresly]

Probably spent like 30 hours on it or something, I dunno.

Like usual with Driver it was a fun game to mess around in and have dumb car chases with dumb cop AI. The detailed cities and physics enhanced that. The on-foot gameplay was garbage ass, worse than the unreliable framerate and draw distance, but blooping grenades on the highway was fun and Tanner strutting around on the streets allowed you to do things like jump on top of cop cars so the cops would reverse down the pier and into the sea where they'd just sit around until they drowned and floated up into the sky. People who complain about bugs rarely seem to appreciate when they add to the fun, which they did more often than not in this game. But I suppose your mileage may very.

One of the few games to feature a replay editor. So you could have fun with too, making dumb videos with forklifts and whatnot. I still insist that all games ought to have a replay editor.

The soundtrack was pretty good too.

Can't remember a single thing about the story or missions. It was all about Take A Ride.

 

[The Artisan]

Digimon world 2

 

[TacomaSCDisaster]

Wasn't super poorly received, but I put dozens of hours into PlayStation All-Stars. Got the platinum and got multiple characters to level 300+.

 

[Manu]

I platinum'd Resident Evil 6.

 

[Skronk]

The Rampage games on N64

 

[Cecil]

The best sports arcade game there is.

 

[Zutrax]

I just got done playing a shit ton of the PS4 Godzilla game. It's kind of ass, but I really adore Godzilla as a franchise and frankly this is a really good adaptation of how the movies feel even if the way it feels to play is really shallow and slow. I'm having fun with it regardless due to that fact alone.

 

[McScroggz]

I love Deadly Premonition, which has a 70% score, but I feel like that's an easy one. I do have the platinum for it though.

The worst game that I can think of that I've played a fair bit is probably Spectal Force 3 on Xbox 360 with a 55%. I was spending the week at a friends house and wanted a game to play and impulsively thought "I like tactics games." It wasn't miserable, but I wouldn't recommend it as some hidden gem.

Also, I beat Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (66%). That game is actually worth playing despite the pacing being atrocious. The combat system is pretty interesting, though super flawed in implementation. Fan service is offputting though but what can you do?

 

[oni-link]

Does Resi 6 count?

I think it's a great game but I'm aware it didn't review that well

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

I platinum'd Resident Evil 6.

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Didn't even review that poorly. But it's surely an underrated game. It's a fantastic and crazy ride. Completed it twice, once on PS3, once on PS4.

 

[Arthois]

The Darksiders series. 2nd gets a 73 on metacritic.

 

[thebagel1]

I've played and beat Kane and Lynch 2 over 5 times.

 

[Ryo]

Probably True Crime: NYC, Digimon World and Need For Speed (2015).

I'm not sure how NYC holds up today but it was a blast as a kid: cool cars, cool weapons and you play as a badass detective.

Digimon World was great fun but I never managed to finish it on the PS1, it was a very punishing game but I tried it again on an emulator about a decade later and finally managed to see it through to the end.

Regarding NFS, the cutscenes made me want to vomit and the physics weren't great but it looked stunning and the sense of speed was there.

 

[Brandon]

I really enjoyed the game Murdered: Soul Suspect and my only issue was not being able to get all the collectibles at the end. It's short enough to where I kinda want to replay it.

 

[Cure Save Exit]

Operation Darkness, my favorite console SRPG from previous gen.

 

[More_Badass]

Rain World, one of my favorite indie games of all time. It's super divisive but if it clicks with you, it clicks

 

[DestroyerOfWorlds]

Sea of thieves. I've put well over 100 hours into that game. It's shallow and has no real driving motivation to keep going, but I just have so much fun sailing around, having shoot outs with other boats, and running around islands finding treasure. The extra content they've been adding keeps sucking me back in, too.

 

[jerd]

Radical Rex was one of my most played games as a kid. I think most outlets didn't even bother reviewing it but that ones that did weren't kind. I still loved it. It was everything wrong with 90s characters wrapped up into one it was incredible

 

[KDR_11k]

Hellgate London (70 MC)
Gotcha Force (56 MC)
Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies (too old for Metacritic)

 

[Master Alucard]

got drakengard platinum

 

[mookie1515]

Put around 200 hours in to Let It Die. I'll probably do it again on PC, too.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

<insert PS3 era JRPG title here>

 

[Pancho]

MAG had a very mixed reception. However me and a couple of friends played that game almost every night most of the year when it came out.

 

[Delriach]

Sometimes it's totally ok to enjoy a completely medicore game :P

 

[Alethiometer]

Two Worlds 1/2.

 

[Bansai]

Shinobido 2 is definitely a good example.

Other than that I've also played a lot of Yakuza Dead Souls, Mass Effect Andromeda, Metal Gear Survive and Mafia 3, don't remember anything else of the top of my head, but I bet I'd find more.

 

[ComputerBlue]

This game ranges from as low as 42 to as high as 64 on metacritic depending on platform.

I've platinumed it twice, once on PS3 and again on PS4. I really like it even though it can be quite terrible at times.

 

[Hentailover]

This is about the closest I can remember and even then score ain't that low and I didn't spend THAT many hours on it.

 

[JAGMASK]

I put about 30 hours into immortal unchained recently. It has a lot of issues but I ended up finishing it and getting most achievements for it.

 

[SephLuis]

got drakengard platinum

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I think the true platinum for this is hearing that song just at the mention of Kuroi Hana.

Oh...

 

[Freddo]

The Shinobido series and the Way of the Samurai series.

 

[ckareset]

Shadow the Hedgehog.

GC version 51% in Metacritic.

To my defense, I didn't have too many games when I was a kid.

Spoiler

I still liked it though

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My choice as well. Also I noticed that the reviewers repeatedly reviewed games on the PS2 version mentioning bugs and errors that werent on the Gamecube Version

 

[Hoa]

This definitely didn't get a chance by big reviewers due to the previous games. You can tell because this is the only Starforce game that has a positive User score lol, while the other games the meta score and user score are very close. What Megaman Battle Network 3 was to the BN series, this was for the Starforce series. They nailed the formula with the third game and I wish they had done it sooner so this series could have lived for a bit longer.

I always think of it as Punchout with a Megaman flavoring to it.

 

[Kyari]

I have about 117 hours in Metal Gear Survive on Steam, and about 50 hours in Sonic Forces on PS4 and Steam combined.... so ... there's that

 

[wolfshirt]

Mass Effect Andromeda.

I put about 100 hours into the multiplayer mode, which is still pretty great IMO.

 

[LuckyLinus]

The Darksiders series. 2nd gets a 73 on metacritic.

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Darksiders 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, so underappreciated.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Drakengard/Nier the thread. Also

 

[Deleted member 40604]

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on GameCube. Reviewed poorly back then. Didn't care. Still got all 180 emblems and every now and then I'll fire up my GC and do a quick run of the speed stages. I honestly consider it one of my favorite games despite the glaring issues it has.

 

[Bradford]

I played 130 hours to full complete Pathologic Classic HD. That being said, I mostly felt like the (very few published) reviews for that game fundamentally did not really understand it, and most reviewers didn't complete the game, so the scores were sort of arbitrarily limited by that. Especially considering how many that dismissed the original 2005 release never played the new translation.

That's probably the longest I've spent on a divisive game. Maybe my 70ish hours in The Void, also by Ice Pick lodge, count as well.

Edit: oh, I guess I also love Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness completely unironically and have played them multiple times.

 

[moblin]

I loved this shit

 

[Magnus]

Dozens of hours? Nah. I actually tend to find myself pretty in line with the mega-critic voice out there. I don't like all the games the world loves necessarily (like the Bethesda RPGs, or whatever) but I can't think of a single instance where I've legit played and enjoyed and continued playing a game the world reviewed poorly.

Closest would be Final Fantasy XIII, I guess. Some reviewers rightfully outed that dumpster fire and I still painstakingly trudged through its entirety.

I would say FFXV too but it justifiably scored better than XIII.

Silent Hill 4: The Room is another one. I guess. Even then, I only played it once for 8 hours or whatever.

 

[shinobi602]

The Darksiders series. 2nd gets a 73 on metacritic.

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Hm? Both Darksiders games are in the 80's on Metacritic and well received...

 

[antitrop]

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad on 360 is legit one of the worst games I've ever played, but Z2 Chaos was actually good and I think I got every trophy for it except just 1 that wasn't worth the grind. Easy 7/10 and I would recommend it to anyone that likes Stylish Action Games and is looking for something that isn't made by Platinum or Capcom.

Ya, it's not even close to as mechanically complex as Bayonetta, but I liked the "Tag-team" aspect of the combat, as you're controlling multiple characters at the same time, instead of just one.

 

[Ravelle]

I played this game to death leveling my level 60 SSJ2 Trunks.

 

[spad3]

This definitely didn't get a chance by big reviewers due to the previous games. You can tell because this is the only Starforce game that has a positive User score lol, while the other games the meta score and user score are very close. What Megaman Battle Network 3 was to the BN series, this was for the Starforce series. They nailed the formula with the third game and I wish they had done it sooner so this series could have lived for a bit longer.

I always think of it as Punchout with a Megaman flavoring to it.

Click to shrink...

I fucking loved these games idgaf what reviewers say.

I really fckn want Capcom to bring back the Battle Network or Starforce series. So fucking dope.

 

[Roy]

I think I have 700hrs in GT Sport. Then again it got reviewed by mainstream media most of which don't even have a racing wheel.

It did get good reviews by sim racing reviewers so that's what matters.

 

[Khanimus]

It was shit. But I enjoyed exploring and there was some open-endedness to some of the encounters that was fun to fuck around with.

...But it was very much shit.

 

[DarkChronic]

Not dozens of hours (not even close lol) but most recently, I really, really enjoyed The Order: 1886. Still hoping we get a sequel at some point. Felt like playing a movie. And it looked dope.