What games did you think you would never play but ended up playing anyway? Why? How did it go?

Murdered: Soul Suspect is a game that will always be...special...to me because when it came out I read reviews and listened to discussion on podcasts and was like "Nope, not for me, that's just not for me." A horror themed adventure game with stealth elements just isn't my jam, and it had a pretty negative critical reception, earning in the 50s on Metacritic. This was just a game I did not need to play.

And yet...in February of 2020 I did, in fact, play it. And I finished it. And I thought it was okay. It's not going to make my top 25 of all time or anything, but I thought it was a 6.5 or a 7 out of 10. A fine experience I don't really regret playing.

Why did I play it? I'm not 100% sure. I know that I got it through Games with Gold so that's how I had a copy (though I think I also picked it up on PSN at some point for cheap, though not as cheap as the $3 it goes for digitally these days.) If I had played it around Halloween that would make sense, but it was in February so...I don't really remember. Sometimes I just get in a mood where I don't want to play anything specific so I just pick a game and check it out. The game itself is more horror themed than actual horror (it's not scary) and while it's nothing special it has an above average story and a very laid back gameplay loop that makes it go down easy. The stealth elements are minimal and not frustrating (frustration is the main reason I dislike most stealth games.) It has a nice spooky atmosphere and some engaging performances and...it's okay.

Two other games I thought I'd never play were Inversion and FUSE. They're both Gears of Wars clones with very mediocre reputations. I bought them when Microsoft was blowing out Xbox 360 games during the turn of the generation but over time I just accepted I would never play them. I even wrote a blog post about how I knew I'd never play Inversion. Surprise I did! I think at the time I was looking for something to cleanse the palate. Then I lost FUSE and I felt so annoyed by it I got a new copy for like $20 and if I'm rebuying a game I have to play it, right? That is how I played both Inversion and Fuse to completion.

Inversion is not as bad as its reputation. During the glut of cover shooters I understand why its gameplay was boring, but these days when cover shooters are pretty rare it's serviceable. Meanwhile it is good looking for a 360 game and its story is sufficiently batshit insane to be amusing, if not good. Some of the gravity powers are kind of fun to play with. It's not a great game or anything but I more or less enjoyed it.

FUSE is much worse. It was designed for co-op and I played it single player (Does anyone here have friends who would play something like FUSE with them in 2022 (I played it this may)? If so you have better friends than I do. My friends only want to play "good games" that "we'll both enjoy." Monsters. Anyway, I doubt FUSE is great in multiplayer either. It's just hopelessly bland. Unlike Inversion where at least you get gravity powers and total insanity, FUSE just gives you a bland mercenary plot and a lot of boring gray bases to explore.

There is no reason to buy FUSE once. Only an idiot would buy it twice.

I also completed Balan Wonderworld because my friend bought it for me as a prank, but I knew I'd eventually play that one because I found it fascinating.

Anyway, what are some games you never expected to play but ended up at least messing with and why? Did a friend drag you into it? Deep sale? Lost a bet?

How did it go?

Euro Truck Simulator 2. It's a really dumb concept but I've found that it's nice when I'm really stressed out and I just want something dumb to focus on while I listen to music or podcasts. The business building aspect helps retain interest. It's not a great game at all, but it is what it is and that's okay.

I saw friends go down an addiction rabbit hole with Final Fantasy XI and WoW. I didn't think I'd play any MMOs as a result but ended up cautiously dipping my toes into Lord of the Rings Online. It was fine. I can't stand MMO combat but I liked exploring that world. And whatever hooks it had never sank into me so that's a bonus.

The big one for me is Dark Souls, I thought I had no interest in it as everything said about it completely turned me off. It wasn't till Patrick started to talk strongly about it in early 2014 at about the same time that it was on sale for $7 that I decided to give it a go. It's now my favourite game of all time.

I also decided to play Final Fantasy VII in 2017, 20 years after its initial release and really enjoyed the experience and it pushed me to go on to play all the games in the series, it's now a series I feel pretty strongly about.

Yakuza games had me dread Mahjong for the longest time as an incomprehensible roadblock to Completion that I had to button mash or cheat through.

Fast forward to the Let's Learn Random Skills stage of the pandemic I learned how to play the game through Mahjong Soul and now I play a couple matches of it a day usually and I'd consider myself to be Pretty Good at it these days.

Saints Row the Third seemed very stupid to me at the time, and I immediately brushed it off as something just not for me. But listening to the GB guys talk about it made me want to give it a try.

It was a lot of fun! The stupid stuff I thought would be there was there, but they're few and far between or were at least easy to ignore.

Destiny. I played that pre-alpha beta and was intrigued by it, but I knew the state of that game before I picked it up. I had a backlog of Bombcasts, so over a week I got caught up to speed and found out what a mess that game is. Even with changes to the game, I was soured enough that I never bothered with it.

Years later, I was talking to a guy who worked at Walgreens about how Armor 2.0 was going to really improve Destiny 2. That conversation lead to me picking up Destiny 2 right before Forsaken came out.

I still play Destiny 2 to this day. I just checked and I have 1,000+ hours into it, making it my most played game ever.

Final Fantasy XIV. Trying the free trial now and while it hasn't got me hooked like World of Warcraft did many a year ago, it DOES look beautiful and I'm aware it takes a while for it to get good story-wise so I am going to give it a fair shot. Really wish tat it'd go on sale on Steam soon though. Square Enix is doing a 50% sale on their website for the Windows version but not Steam and I think I can't just log in to the Windows vesion because I linked my account to my Steam account? Yo Square Enix is a Japanese ass company alright.

Maybe it's recency bias, but I can mainly think "Neon White."

I have no interest in speedrunning or "perfect" runs, but hearing that they'd cast Steve Blum in a game that felt intentionally like a throwback to 90s/2000s-era Toonami anime dubs in terms of the script REALLY sold me. And then the gameplay absolutely hooked me, and while I was never shooting for world records, I found myself going for the gold (or platinum) a great deal more than I ever thought I would.

"Triangle Strategy"

After utterly bouncing off of Octopath Traveler, I was ready to write this game that looked to be of a similar pedigree and intention off as well. Until a friend started talking to me about it. And then suddenly couldn't STOP talking to me about it. And LORDY, I'm glad he did, because this has made its way into my top games of all time. The gameplay is incredibly complex (but never too complicated) turn-based tactics, but it really, REALLY shines in the story department. A story that feels grown-up and mature without resorting to edgelord/tryhard grimdarkness, rather the maturity comes from hard choices and realistic consequences for them. With three of the endings being rather bittersweet or downright pitch-black, there's one where everything works out, but it feels 100% earned. And in fact HAS to be 100% earned.

I know Endwalker is on sale on Steam and that includes Stormblood and Shadowbringers and Heavensward comes with the base game now so... I dunno it's a little confusing.

@efesell: Oh hey, you're right! I was looking at the bundle and for some reason it doesn't have the sale price for the DLC so it's still full price but if I buy them individually it's cheaper. Thanks for the info!