Flawed Games You Actually Like

Thief 2014. I know this game got a bunch of shit but it was great if you changed the default settings. I changed my settings to make it full stealth i.e. I can't be seen at all. I don't think I could even knock people out I had to avoid everyone. If I was seen it was game over. Even the bosses were game over if they saw me. I thought it was a great stealth only experience.
 
For me, it'd be those two:

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Funny because they have the same flaws: half-cooked with a lot of missing content, and a difficulty curve that's messed up beyond repair without any semblance of proper challenge or balance.

Still love 'em.
I'd kill for a SMT IV and SMT IV:A release on PC.

It sucks that those games are stuck on the 3DS
 
I'll name 3:

Avowed. Has its issues. But I really enjoyed my time with it.

The Outer Worlds: again, has probably more than its fair share of issues, but I had a ton of fun with it.

Final Fantasy 15. Tons of issues. And I couldn't put my controller down from start to finish.
 
Mass Effect: Andromeda. It's a poor Mass Effect game, but it's not a bad video game.

I also like Starfield for what it is. Not Bethesda's best, but I enjoy it.
 
7.62 High Caliber. Yes, that is literally the name of the game. Flaws? Let's just start strong with its name. It's downhill from there. It's an obvious prototype, it's unfinished as all hell, and it has a guaranteed memory leak that will crash the game.

And yet, there's really nothing else out there like it (save Marauder, aka Man of Prey, which is a much more stable, watered-down, linear experience, though still pretty cool in its own right). It's a pausable real-time squad-tactics game with a lot of control minutia, and an emphasis on simulation. As in, "Let's set the game speed to ultra slow-motion to watch this spray of bullets ricochet off the wall and maybe hit some dudes around the corner." Fun, fun stuff.

EDIT: Castlevania 64 was a terrific mood piece. I gave up on it as a kid because I couldn't make my way down the cliff on the opening stage. Because it was a rental, I never played it again. Years later, I got to enjoy the humiliation ritual of watching my wife beat the game rather handily. At least she managed to get the bad ending on her first run because the vampire hunter dude died.

Fantastic soundtrack.

Another great but flawed game on the N64: Hybrid Heaven. Nothing else in the world like it, and shockingly fun in multiplayer. Especially if you play against someone who loves to call out their moves as they spam them over and over again (my wife). "Boston crab! And another Boston Crab! Get up, get up. Boston Crab!"
 
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I'm going to go with a few that haven't been mentioned thus far:

Wanted: dead

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Good established foundation to iterate over and polish off in a sequel if it ever happens. It was ripped to shreds by reviewers for nonsensical reasons, such as not having an identical/exact gameflow mechanics to other notable third person action games like DMC. Hollow criticism for something that's out to try something new.

Damnation

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How this managed to land on a 3/10 over at IGN, I will never understand. The irony is that the same guy who was responsible for the main game design in this game, later on went onto designing the critically acclaimed Uncharted 2.



Vampire Rain: Altered Species

I actually finished the game and loved it!

It's the Deadly Premonition of stealth games :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Same with Vampire Rain :messenger_tears_of_joy:
I remember seeing this and skipping it even though the premise sounded interesting. Not a good choice in hindsight. It actually frustrates me how games like these get unceremoniously raked by mainstream reviewers.

They might not be perfect, "rough" around the "edges" even, but they manage to possess more personality and authenticity than whatever those mega AAA studios/publishers churn out these days. Even with their imperfections they manage to stay far more memorable than the average safe and sterile AAA sludge. The unthoughtful part is they typically never get a second chance to rebound and polish up the concept in a new instalment after a lukewarm entry. Modern mainstream reviewers with shallow examinations are a plague in that regard. Very few of them seem to consider the future impact of their assessments. If they don't manage to resonate with the reviewer in question, then some minor blurb about how it might appeal to some with "acquired taste" could perhaps help such games find a niche audience.
 
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