Harrison
8th August 2007, 12:51
Reading the Amiga thread, Who was the worst developer of Amiga games, I suddenly started to think of games released over the years that have been panned by the press and poorly received by the general public, but which I personally enjoyed.
So have there been any games on any platform that were received badly on release, but that you personally enjoyed?
For me one that stands out is the game The Fifth Element on the Playstation, based on the film of the same name. I actually thought of this one because in the same thread we were also discussing games based on movie franchise being generally bad.
The Fifth Element got bad reviews and low scores by the press on release and I don't think it did well. But a friend loved the film and had to buy the game anyway, so I borrowed it from him and ended up really enjoying it and even completing it (which I must add he never did!).
While it was definitely not the most polished game in the world I personally found it very playable with a third person gameplay style similar to tomb raider, but obviously set in the futuristic world of the film. It also followed the film scene by scene in the correct order, using quite well modelled versions of each set and sticking to the same structure and requirements of the film to proceed. Having also liked the film a lot I think this added to the game as the memories of the film were maintained as you played.
The graphics were very average with the biggest issue being a quite short draw distance, so everything was in fog beyond your field of view. This meant that enemies could sometimes surprise you by running at you suddenly from out of nowhere.
The gameplay was a mix of platform negotiations and fights. Some of the platforms required precise positioning and accurate jumping so could get frustrating if you couldn't pull them off, but unlike many games you never found yourself lost in this game and always knew the requirements or directions you needed to go to continue further.
It wasn't too short either, taking quite a few hours to complete and all the levels were easy to work out and negotiate without been too easy.
If they had just managed to polish the game a bit more, removing the short draw distance and making the graphics look a bit higher quality I think this might have done much better as the actual gameplay was fine.
So have there been any games on any platform that were received badly on release, but that you personally enjoyed?
For me one that stands out is the game The Fifth Element on the Playstation, based on the film of the same name. I actually thought of this one because in the same thread we were also discussing games based on movie franchise being generally bad.
The Fifth Element got bad reviews and low scores by the press on release and I don't think it did well. But a friend loved the film and had to buy the game anyway, so I borrowed it from him and ended up really enjoying it and even completing it (which I must add he never did!).
While it was definitely not the most polished game in the world I personally found it very playable with a third person gameplay style similar to tomb raider, but obviously set in the futuristic world of the film. It also followed the film scene by scene in the correct order, using quite well modelled versions of each set and sticking to the same structure and requirements of the film to proceed. Having also liked the film a lot I think this added to the game as the memories of the film were maintained as you played.
The graphics were very average with the biggest issue being a quite short draw distance, so everything was in fog beyond your field of view. This meant that enemies could sometimes surprise you by running at you suddenly from out of nowhere.
The gameplay was a mix of platform negotiations and fights. Some of the platforms required precise positioning and accurate jumping so could get frustrating if you couldn't pull them off, but unlike many games you never found yourself lost in this game and always knew the requirements or directions you needed to go to continue further.
It wasn't too short either, taking quite a few hours to complete and all the levels were easy to work out and negotiate without been too easy.
If they had just managed to polish the game a bit more, removing the short draw distance and making the graphics look a bit higher quality I think this might have done much better as the actual gameplay was fine.