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[TintoConCasera]

Hey GAF, ever played a (somewhat objectively) bad game that still had something cool that made you push through it?

Maybe the game plays like shit but it has a cool story, or the game is paced like a slog but those few moments of quality gameplay are enough to keep you going. Or maybe the game is just bad all-around, but the music kicks ass?

For example, I can think of Rise of the Triad 2013. Bad game, full of jank with and not optimized at all. But the music is so good that I wouldn't mind playing for a while it just because of that.



Got any other examples?

 

[digoutyoursoul]

The Ren & Stimpy games on the SNES did a good job of capturing the look of the show

 

[violence]

Duke Nukem Forever on PC. Which I’m told is a bad game, but I had a good time. I remember playing the demo on someone’s Xbox 360 and the loading times and the controls were way worse and kind of a dealbreaker. PC gamer had the most positive review at the time.

 

[TintoConCasera]

The Ren & Stimpy games on the SNES did a good job of capturing the look of the show

Yeah I remember trying some of those many years ago. They weren't good, but the art was pretty nice and was on point with the show.

 

[AV]

The most glaring recent example in my mind is Scorn. It's a really shoddy game, but the Giger aesthetics are 10/10, A+, homerun. Worth playing just to see the ick.

 

[M1chl]

Alpha Protocol

 

[Bring Back Scalebound]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you took away the great writing, story, music and shiny graphics and (unnecessary, mastubatory, and time wasting) animations and attention to detail, NO BO DY, would care about it.

It's the worst game I ever played, and I played Devil May Cry 2.

And it's only high regarded for those aforementioned things. By stuffy nosed "The Last of Us is the greatest game ever made" IQ level people that could care less about video games, or by people that simply appreciate games for other reasons then I do, which is obviously fine.

Anyway, RDR 2 is a zero for me. But the great writing and characters, definitely redeems it to some more then a zero. A really great movie.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Yeah I remember trying some of those many years ago. They weren't good, but the art was pretty nice and was on point with the show.

Another comes to mind is original TMNT on NES. I hated it but the music is awesome .

 

[Black_Stride]

Supposedly a bad game (I liked it)
Dantes Inferno had an amazing OST......I actually bought it....damn I was spending 70 dollars on a game way back when?
The voice acting was also really good yes campy.....but the good kind of camp.

Suicide Squade KtJL
A bad game with some of the best cutscene character animations out there.
Seriously the animators did a hell of a job and I feel bad their work isnt going to be seen by more people.

Total Overdose....dun know if this counts cuz its a solid game
Fun gameplay.........for a while.

Anthem
Fun gameplay, amazing flying mechanics, great graphics.....even to this day.
So so limited in content......the core mechanics are there......the rest of the game just needed to show up.

Sonic Unleashed
Has some of the best speed stages in any Sonic game and the werehog wasnt that bad....just didnt need to exist.

Lost Planet Extreme Conditions - What this game claims are a story and characters are an affront to stories and characters.
The freeze mechanic + 10 minutes to get up after being knocked down has to go down as some of the dumbest ways to kill an otherwise fun game
Its actually a really fun game to play the MP was dope laying draps by leaving mechs with no ammo and just waiting to deck whoever decides to get in.

I play alot of games through the whole spectrum from games considered bad, right up to the greats......so I could solo this thread.

 

[OuterLimits]

Vandal Hearts 2 on the Playstation. The original srpg Vandal Hearts is fantastic and sadly severely underrated in my humble opinion. Konami decided to change up the battles in the sequel so that both the player and computer moved a character at the same time. Which most fans of the first game despised.(I was more neutral on it). The narrative though was quite good.

 

[R6Rider]

Anthem is terrible, but has great flying mechanics that would work wonderfully in another game.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Wh40k Mechanicus. Lame X-COM clone with terrific soundtrack and dense atmosphere.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you took away the great writing, story, music and shiny graphics and (unnecessary, mastubatory, and time wasting) animations and attention to detail, NO BO DY, would care about it.

It's the worst game I ever played, and I played Devil May Cry 2.

And it's only high regarded for those aforementioned things. By stuffy nosed "The Last of Us is the greatest game ever made" IQ level people that could care less about video games, or by people that simply appreciate games for other reasons then I do, which is obviously fine.

Anyway, RDR 2 is a zero for me. But the great writing and characters, definitely redeems it to some more then a zero. A really great movie.

One of the GOATs

But I still understand where you’re coming from

 

[Black_Stride]

Anthem is terrible, but has great flying mechanics that would work wonderfully in another game.

Almost all of Anthems mechanics work......they just needed to be coherent and in a finished game.
The combat wasnt bad, dare I say it was great considering this was an RPG-lite and the combo system worked.
The classes played differently enough we just didnt have enough say in their builds and could probably have just been one class that we spec out ourselves.
The flying as mentioned was great.
It was impressive graphically ( i played on PC no idea how the console versions looked).
The few characters had the building blocks needed for memorable characters.


If they just stuck the landing, Anthem II would probably have been EAs big game for 2023 or 2024.
Why ohhh why did they force Bioware to make a Destiny clone from what would ahve been a much better RPG?

 

[semiconscious]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you took away the great writing, story, music and shiny graphics and (unnecessary, mastubatory, and time wasting) animations and attention to detail, NO BO DY, would care about it.

It's the worst game I ever played, and I played Devil May Cry 2.

And it's only high regarded for those aforementioned things. By stuffy nosed "The Last of Us is the greatest game ever made" IQ level people that could care less about video games, or by people that simply appreciate games for other reasons then I do, which is obviously fine.

Anyway, RDR 2 is a zero for me. But the great writing and characters, definitely redeems it to some more then a zero. A really great movie.

very good post. i've replayed red dead redemption more than once. i've revisited rdr2 via my post-game save. never really've wanted to replay it...

 

[Guilty_AI]

For all its issues, FFXV still had great music

 

[TheAtomicPile]

Gotham Knights has a perfectly implemented co-op system. The matchmaking is quick, cross play is available, enemies scale to both players, and you can choose whether or not to carry story progress back to your game.

It's nothing groundbreaking, but it has everything you would want out of co-op in a story driven game like this.

 

[butane bob]

Another comes to mind is original TMNT on NES. I hated it but the music is awesome .

Hell yeah. I was going to post something similar - A lot of shitty games have great music!

 

[LakeOf9]

God of War 2018 had good music and graphics

 

[Guilty_AI]

God of War 2018 had good music and graphics

eh, i'd say even the music fell short of previous games.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Another one that comes to mind is El Shaddai.

Game isn't bad really, kinda average imo, but the visuals sure kept me going forward.

 

[Fbh]

The music: FFXIII, XV and XVI

Also the way FFXVI handles the index and lore archive was amazing and I wish every JRPG would copy that

 

[Evolved1]

I literally just bought WANTED: Dead and everyone says it's terribad but for some reason something in my brain is telling me it might have good / fun aspects that will appeal to me. We shall see.

 

[Raven117]

Alpha Protocol

Always.

 

[bender]

Deadly Premonition

 

[Neolombax]

I am constantly reminded that Destiny as a series is a shit game, but it was one of the games that defined last gen for me. It continues to be one of my favourite games ever. I will now stop here before someone reminds me again why its shit. I know it has shit elements in the game, but it is nevertheless my favourite shit.

Star Wars Jedi Survivor. It was on my game of the year list for 2023. Played on the PS5, performance was fine I thought. Loved the story and gameplay. But people seem to hate this game.

Lost Planet 2. Cool mechs, amazing set pieces, very anime. To this day I think people hated this game because of that train cannon level (it was riddiculously hard with the sluggish controls, I will admit that), but capcom eventually patched it to become super easy to complete.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Demon Souls comes to mind. All the archstones are disjointed and it is unpleasant to wade through areas like Swamp of Sorrow with scaffolding and a debilitating swamp. Even worse are the unintuitive world tendency tied to dying, secret areas, and unique enemy encounters as well as a punishing spirit form that only has half health. The good qualities are that some of the levels are very imaginitive and there are some fun (but limited) combat mechanics.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Music is often the reason, followed by graphics. A good mechanic or two can‘t really make a bad game worth playing through by themselves.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Yaiba Ninja gaiden Z. The game is low budget and poorly designed with a bad story, but the game art and gameplay is very good.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Redfall

Good gunplay, good atmosphere, Arkane artstyle, game goes to some cool locations,

If you want more out of your games, it wont work for you though.

 

[bitbydeath]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you took away the great writing, story, music and shiny graphics and (unnecessary, mastubatory, and time wasting) animations and attention to detail, NO BO DY, would care about it.

It's the worst game I ever played, and I played Devil May Cry 2.

And it's only high regarded for those aforementioned things. By stuffy nosed "The Last of Us is the greatest game ever made" IQ level people that could care less about video games, or by people that simply appreciate games for other reasons then I do, which is obviously fine.

Anyway, RDR 2 is a zero for me. But the great writing and characters, definitely redeems it to some more then a zero. A really great movie.

The story overstays its welcome as well.
Should have ended right before you switch to John.

 

[Hypereides]

I'd probably say Ride to hell: retribution.

People say it was a bad game, but I had a blast with it. Yes, it does have some clear technical performance issues, which can damper the experience. But, other than that, the core was a fun ride (no pun intended). I actually would've been onboard if a sequel had been announced. I'm not joking.

I'd recommend openminded folks to give it a try. Unless you're a pure techie, then you'll probably develop some kind of allergic reaction.

 

[amigastar]

Hey GAF, ever played a (somewhat objectively) bad game that still had something cool that made you push through it?

Maybe the game plays like shit but it has a cool story, or the game is paced like a slog but those few moments of quality gameplay are enough to keep you going. Or maybe the game is just bad all-around, but the music kicks ass?

For example, I can think of Rise of the Triad 2013. Bad game, full of jank with and not optimized at all. But the music is so good that I wouldn't mind playing for a while it just because of that.



Got any other examples?

I liked Rise of the Triad 2013 despite the music.

 

[scoobidoo112]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you took away the great writing, story, music and shiny graphics and (unnecessary, mastubatory, and time wasting) animations and attention to detail, NO BO DY, would care about it.

It's the worst game I ever played, and I played Devil May Cry 2.

And it's only high regarded for those aforementioned things. By stuffy nosed "The Last of Us is the greatest game ever made" IQ level people that could care less about video games, or by people that simply appreciate games for other reasons then I do, which is obviously fine.

Anyway, RDR 2 is a zero for me. But the great writing and characters, definitely redeems it to some more then a zero. A really great movie.

"If you take away everything that is great about a game, it would be bad".

 

[crackajack]

Practically every open world game is inherently made worse/bad by it, since it essentially requires distracting und usually rather shitty sidequests to qualify as open world, abandoning the main plot and any pretent urgency that often is part of the story. It's janky busy/engagement time over actual well directed linearity that is often burried under the open world garbage. Every AC game, Horizon, Far Cry, TES, Watch Dogs, Yakuza, the last Metro... even racing games suffer from this with the player wasting half of their time on driving to the actual missions.

Also enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever more than I expected rather recently. The game is somewhat terrible but it kinda aimed at being simple fun or maybe stupid fun, which so many games don't know anymore how to achieve. Kinda like all Serious Sam games and Shadow Warrior 3. Not every game needs to be drama and emotional.

 

[consoul]

So many games. I don't need a game to be good, I just need it to be interesting. I can forgive a litany of sins if a game has something new and offbeat on offer.

Grasshopper Manufacture games come to mind. Frequently janky as fuck, but full of interesting ideas. I love them.

 

[GymWolf]

Forspoken traversal was quite fun, fast, acrobatic and not mindless because it has timed inputs to get faster, it was just a pleasure to run and jump in the map.

The great chocobo music in the otherwise dogshit ff15

The protagonist face looked incredible in callisto protocol and it was the only good thing about the game basically

Music, and combat animations in the ff7 remilk part 1, the only thing i enjoyed from that turd


There are so many bad games that have at least a redeeming quality.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

The Order: 1886 had really fun gunplay between the long forced walking sections.

 

[ozz ex machina]

The Order: 1886 had really fun gunplay between the long forced walking sections.

Interesting. I'd say the opposite. It had a really cool look, style and world. Very boring/if any good gameplay.

I actually miss the days of having lots of free time as a kid and not much money. I played ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I could get my hands on. Had plenty of fun with shit games.

 

[Larxia]

I wouldn't say it's "redeeming" because I still give up and don't want to play these games anymore, but Ubisoft games have some impressive world maps, it's their only quality, but it's filled with such awful content.

 

[SnapShot]

Sonic Unleashed is not a bad game yo

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Deadly Premonition

Definitely this.

Utterly trash mechanically but one of the best games I've played. Playing it on the PS3 was painful.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

I literally just bought WANTED: Dead and everyone says it's terribad but for some reason something in my brain is telling me it might have good / fun aspects that will appeal to me. We shall see.

This is a good example brother.

Wanted : Dead is janky as they come, it's clearly unfinished (must have run out of budget midway), it's a mishmash of ideas and game mechanics, it's unpolished, it has TERRIBLE voice overs, it doesn't play particularly well and yet, after lvl ing up your character and getting to know the mechanics (which there aren't that many to begin with, just 3 combos and a parry) can get somewhat fun with you slicing and dicing enemies.
It's the perfect "I don't know what to play today so I'll just finish 1-2 levels " game.
It's dumb "fun" basically.

Still, the gall of selling this full price (and in the state it was in) is something that I'll never quite comprehend.

At best, it's a silly, low budget hack n slasher, at worst, it feels like a money laundering scheme.

My most hated game of last year, and yet, I managed to put 30 hours on it

 

[Bernardougf]

Last of us 2 had very nice graphics

 

[MayauMiao]

Fallout 76. I enjoy building camps, upgrade weapons, interacting with other players via emotes, fun time taking on team missions.

 

[Danknugz]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you took away the great writing, story, music and shiny graphics and (unnecessary, mastubatory, and time wasting) animations and attention to detail, NO BO DY, would care about it.

It's the worst game I ever played, and I played Devil May Cry 2.

And it's only high regarded for those aforementioned things. By stuffy nosed "The Last of Us is the greatest game ever made" IQ level people that could care less about video games, or by people that simply appreciate games for other reasons then I do, which is obviously fine.

Anyway, RDR 2 is a zero for me. But the great writing and characters, definitely redeems it to some more then a zero. A really great movie.

i played rdr1 all the way to the end, couldn't last past the first mission in rdr2, got super frustrated by the slow pace and same ass pew pew gun fights.

as for the last of us, i always understood it's popularity was from the fact it kind of gives you a pretend girlfriend to go around with and incels latched onto that (correct me if i'm wrong , i never paid attention or played it)

 

[The Cockatrice]

Theres a lot of them, especially nowadays more than a decade ago and sadly it seems most of you have lowered your expectations so much that even if it has at least one redeeming quality you consider the game "amazing". Anyway an objectively bad game that I downvoted on Steam at the top of my head is Marvel's Midnight Suns. The story is shit, the characters talk like children, half the gameplay is wasting time exploring more waste of time BUT you can tell that whoever worked on xcom or knew what made tactical games great, worked alone on combat and nothing else because the combat was super fun, so much that I am deciding to replay it soon.

 

[Madserb2023]

Devil May Cry 2 was pretty bad but I remember at the time baing really impressed with how fluid Dante was to control. There is a fluidity to the animations that still look good today. I actually prefer the war Dante animates in DMC 2 to any other entry.

 

[Resenge]

"If you take away everything that is great about a game, it would be bad".

Yes?

That is the point is this post, bad games with redeeming qualities. Keep up man.

 

[adamsapple]

Deadly Premonition

DP isn't a bad game, bite my shiny metal ass.