Games Worth The Hype - I can't believe it's not streamer bait.

[Judge Dredd]

I don't know when exactly it started, but I ignore a lot of popular games. Especially indies. These hyped, flavour of the month games were often average (Factorio) or outright bad (Binding of Issac, 7 Days to Die). To this day I still haven't played Lethal Company despite pretty much all my friends telling me how great it was, only for them to drop it like a stone a few days later. The hype had worn off and they on to the next shiny thing.


In Autumn, I bought Vampire Survivors on sale for £3, and it's fantastic. I put almost 50 hours into it. Highly recommend. I'm still not done with the base game, and I'm tempted by the DLC. It's a simple but addicting formula and I can see why it's been cloned so much.

Then there's UFO 50, I was put off by the steep price, character designs for a couple of games, and it being shilled by the games press, but I took a chance on it and think it's great. While there's a lot of crap in the collection, there's some good in there too, with Overbold being a particular favourite. Hard to say if it's worth £20, but I've put 13 hours in and I just got the achievement for opening half the games. Some games I didn't think I'd like I'm enjoying.


This has got me wondering if other games I skipped are worth the hype, as well as other games people were pleasently surprised by.


I might as well ask. Is Slay the Spire any good? I hear about that one a lot. How about Cult of the Lamb? Goat Simulator?

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Slay the Spire is actually kind of like Vampire Survivors: A genre defining game that was ultimately outshined by its own clones. It's not a BAD game, but it appeals to a very, VERY specific type of interest.

Goat Simulator is trash.

Stuff that's worth the hype? XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. It's not for everybody, but it is far and away best of breed.

 

[Bloitzhole]

I am largely out of the loop on games journalism / hype and have no autistic fixation on video games beyond wanting them to be fun and not overly grindy so my opinions represent, perhaps, a rather "basic bitch" POV:

Slay the Spire is fun for a few sessions, especially with the "Downfall" Expansion which essentially just lets you play it as one of the enemy bosses vs the player characters as the antagonists. It's, to me, just a competent and pretty easy to pick up deck builder. When I need to kill an hour, I still play a run occassionally.

I recall playing through Cult of the Lamb for about 12 hours, putting it down after finishing the story and thinking "That was decent" - nice balance of building up a town (which I usually don't enjoy) and dungeon crawl, so if those genres happen to appeal, you'll probably enjoy it.

Darkest Dungeon would probably be my pick for Indie Game that has a larger fanbase and actually deserves it. Polished, enjoyable gameplay that keeps you on your toes no matter how well prepared you think you are and excellent voice acting on the part of Wayne June who narrates it.

Xcom 1 is also good. Two is fine, but it felt a bit cluttered to me.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Slay the Spire is actually kind of like Vampire Survivors: A genre defining game that was ultimately outshined by its own clones.

Any clones you'd recommend of either game?

I bought Brotato, but not played it yet. £2.50 for a gun themed Vampure Survivors? Yes please.

Edit:

Darkest Dungeon would probably be my pick for Indie Game that has a larger fanbase and actually deserves it. Polished, enjoyable gameplay that keeps you on your toes no matter how well prepared you think you are and excellent voice acting on the part of Wayne June who narrates it.

I skipped that because the whole "git good. The party dies and you have to build them up for hours just for another attempt" sounds like anti-fun to me, but if it's worth it, I might add it to my backlog. I own a clone where you play as the monsters and found it to be dull. That's one of those "it gets good hours in" type games, supposedly.

 

[OJ Simpson]

Dave the Motherfucking Diver
Balatro
Bloons TD 6
Slay the Spire

Taste is subjective but I really can't see how anybody could play any of those games and go yeah, this sucks. Dave the Diver differs from the others in that it's story based but all of the gameplay elements are fun and keep you engaged throughout, and the game doesn't overstay its welcome. 20-ish hours is what you're looking at. One could argue that the whole gathering fish for your sushi bar is tedious but there's a way to make it not be a burden in the form of a fish farm. It's a great game all around and it's never really repetitive, new and interesting things are a regular occurrence. The others are fun as shit and and you don't need to set aside 2 hours for a gameplay session. Easy games to play for hours on end, or play for 20 to 30 minutes and come back to it again later. Of them all though I'd say Balatro is a must play and more than worth the hype it receives.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Any clones you'd recommend of either game?

I bought Brotato, but not played it yet. £2.50 for a gun themed Vampure Survivors? Yes please.

Edit:

I skipped that because the whole "git good. The party dies and you have to build them up for hours just for another attempt" sounds like anti-fun to me, but if it's worth it, I might add it to my backlog. I own a clone where you play as the monsters and found it to be dull. That's one of those "it gets good hours in" type games, supposedly.

I never really got into Brotato but I can't really explain why. It's not objectively bad by any stretch, it just didn't grab me. Nordic Ashes is also in the same category. Probably a good game by most measures but it just didn't work for me.

20 Minutes Till Dawn is solid, if on the simpler side. Yet Another Zombie Survivors is pretty fun. Still in development but appears to be moving in the right direction. Boneraiser Minions and Time Wasters are honorable mentions. Don't expect too much out of them, but they're decent.

I have a very mixed relationship with Soulstone Survivors. It's cool, but... higher difficulties and bosses are just really badly balanced and it turns into a dodge simulator.

But if I could only have one, I would absolutely take Halls of Torment.

On the deck builder side, I'm not nearly as into it so I couldn't give a lot of recommendations. I did really enjoy Monster Train though.

 

[Bloitzhole]

I skipped that because the whole "git good. The party dies and you have to build them up for hours just for another attempt" sounds like anti-fun to me, but if it's worth it, I might add it to my backlog. I own a clone where you play as the monsters and found it to be dull. That's one of those "it gets good hours in" type games, supposedly.

If the clone is the one with the necromancer who raises minions, it didn't do much for me either.

I'd say for the very very last dungeon of the game, the part about taking time to build up characters after dying might apply but I don't think it would take hours. Essentially as you progress, your baseline level for the roster also increases so when this becomes relevant, you're only 1-2 levels off max anyway. It's also less of a souls-y "git gud" game because there is a modicum of luck involved in every encounter and while I'm sure that is infuriating to some who like autistically obsessing over numbers to somehow "beat" the math via research and theorycrafting, I find it oddly liberating because no matter how well prepared you are, sometimes you're just gonna have to deal with the pain and try again. The luck goes both ways, so sometimes you manage to claw your way back from the brink in the most improbable fashion and those moments are highly memorable. It means the game never becomes trivial. You can decide to run to save your party (or what remains of it) in most places for just that reason - it just runs counter to intuition to a lot of people to make the hard, but sensible choice to salvage what is left and gtfo.

I freely admit that while I was able to beat the DLC (and DD2), I never had the tenacity to crack the original final "Darkest Dungeon". Didn't really detract from the experience for me though.

 

[Croco]

Breath of Fire series. Take one look at the box art. Blue haired man turning into a dragon, and a bird woman join forces against evil. Thank you Capcom. We are ready for the NEXT grand adventure coming soon.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

These are older, but Spelunky, it was hyped up and is actually truly great. Limbo is another one, also Hotline Miami.

Shovel Knight fits here but the DLC is actually quite overhyped, people say it's better than the base game but they're retarded.

 

[Hooked on phobics]

Noita is one that I can say is absolutely worth the hype. Very fun game-play, unique physics, wand crafting is stellar and mod support is so good that you can objectively miss me with the "its a roguelike, I hate roguelikes" bs, since you can just mod in respawns if you REALLY hate that, or hp drops, or a mod with 200 more monsters, or play as some big fuck off space marine.

In terms of games in the last 5 or so years, its definitely a top contender. Its also 5 years old and there STILL practically full time noita streamers (who get high views), and thats a pretty good fucking indication of a games viability in my opinion.

 

[peachlover669]

Risk of Rain 2 was really good and had a decent bit of hype when it came out from what i remember despite it being a completely different take on a game that never really received much notoriety.

Im hoping that subnautica 2 will be good. it will be pretty damn hard to make something worse than below zero was so its a pretty safe bet that it will be worth the hype.

Spelunky

spelunky 2 was pretty hyped aswell and that ended up being very good, pretty much being the first game but better in every way.

 

[Asian tech support]

I skipped that because the whole "git good. The party dies and you have to build them up for hours just for another attempt" sounds like anti-fun to me, but if it's worth it, I might add it to my backlog. I own a clone where you play as the monsters and found it to be dull. That's one of those "it gets good hours in" type games, supposedly.

DD definitely appeals to a certain type of autism. I love it but it's 100% understandable to be turned off by it. I don't think there's a point where it clicks and becomes good though; either it has enough appeal despite the initial bullshit factor that one will stick with it, or it'll be a drag forever.

In Autumn, I bought Vampire Survivors on sale for £3, and it's fantastic. I put almost 50 hours into it. Highly recommend. I'm still not done with the base game, and I'm tempted by the DLC. It's a simple but addicting formula and I can see why it's been cloned so much.

All of the DLCs are pretty good. If I had to pick just one, the Castlevania one is the best.

Tax: Deep Rock Galactic. Yes, it's a reddit game, yes, rockpox is and always will be fucking cancer, yes, the devs are making every excuse under the sun to work on literally anything else. There's nothing quite like ruining a clenched butthole run by purposefully accidentally blowing up your team with the satchel charge.

 

[Judge Dredd]

These are older, but Spelunky, it was hyped up and is actually truly great. Limbo is another one, also Hotline Miami.

There were lots of games from that early-mid Xbox Live era that were so good. Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars, Shadow Complex, Trials, Assault Heroes. I don't know how many, if any, hold up. Maybe they deserve to be forgotten?

There were even ones I never played like Scott Pilgrim, Divekick, Space Giraffe, Splosion Man, Bionic Command Rearmed, and Pacman DX, all of which were hyped at the time. Divekick was arguably the last because games journalism was well in the shitter when they started shilling that, and GamerGate happened the following year.

Hotline Miami was great. It's a shame Hotline Miami 2 was not good, but it's interesting at least. Great soundtrack, and some amazing story moments like the boss fight with the fans. On reflection, it might be the first case of devs hating their own audience, as the fans were supposedly intended for those that wanted more of the same from Hotline Miami 2.

 

[TheHarbinger]

There were lots of games from that early-mid Xbox Live era that were so good. Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars, Shadow Complex, Trials, Assault Heroes. I don't know how many, if any, hold up. Maybe they deserve to be forgotten?

Lots of those games got re-releases or special editions on modern consoles and PC. There were games like Limbo, Deadlight, or Mark of the Ninja that are considered classics or great games. And tons of fighting games that were part of the Xbox Live Arcade and not titles released on DVD or PC that are even just recently getting modern ports. A bunch of obscure Dreamcast or Arcade titles like Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, or Virtual On, were also only available on the 360 for a long time through the Live Arcade.

The Xbox 360 and XBLA have probably the best console library outside of the PS2 or SNES.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

spelunky 2 was pretty hyped aswell and that ended up being very good, pretty much being the first game but better in every way.

That's good news, glad it's in my backlog then.

There were lots of games from that early-mid Xbox Live era that were so good. Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars, Shadow Complex, Trials, Assault Heroes. I don't know how many, if any, hold up. Maybe they deserve to be forgotten?

Castle Crashers is extremely overrated imo. The rest, I'm not sure.

There were even ones I never played like Scott Pilgrim, Divekick, Space Giraffe, Splosion Man, Bionic Command Rearmed, and Pacman DX, all of which were hyped at the time. Divekick was arguably the last because games journalism was well in the shitter when they started shilling that, and GamerGate happened the following year.

Divekick is extremely fun, but it's better for short bursts. Scott Pilgrim relies on its IP a lot, I don't think it'd be remembered otherwise.

Hotline Miami was great. It's a shame Hotline Miami 2 was not good, but it's interesting at least. Great soundtrack, and some amazing story moments like the boss fight with the fans. On reflection, it might be the first case of devs hating their own audience, as the fans were supposedly intended for those that wanted more of the same from Hotline Miami 2.

I actually thought HM2 was good too, and that it had an even better OST. I don't remember a boss fight against fans though. I thought it was just about war and drugs. It's been a while.

 

[BradeRunna]

I usually get into indie Boomer shooters. Stuff like Dusk Amid Evil and stuff like that. I also have a few indie pixel art games and retro throwback type of games. Pixel art or not.

I don't really get into a lot of the survival games. Last game I played like that was stranded deep and I got burned out pretty quickly. People used to say indie games would save the gaming industry but quite a bit of them are garbage. I fell for the hype of certain indie games. But I don't so much anymore. I even have Stardew Valley. It's ok if you like a yard work sim/RPG.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

My list is gonna sound weird as fuck but Half-Life 2 and Super Mario Odyssey. I heavily anticipated both, more than I anticipate most other games, and they were both everything I wanted and more.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I don't remember a boss fight against fans though. I thought it was just about war and drugs. It's been a while.

At the end of the game. You're playing as a guy on drugs. Each fight is some hallucinated monster based on the masks. So the goose twins is a hydra looking thing.

That's good news, glad it's in my backlog then.

Supposedly there are rogue-likes in UFO 50, but I've only played one so far, and it's more blaster master than spelunky. I've never played spelunky, though I know of it.

Lots of those games got re-releases or special editions on modern consoles and PC.

Scott Pilgrim was lost media for a while. I remember it being delisted from XBLA a while ago. I guess technically all XBLA games are lost media now.

 

[Magicat]

Old game. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.

I only bought it a few months ago. I'd never played anything like it before and I think it's pretty good. People still praise it despite the clearly dated PS3-era graphics. Now I can too (:

 

[TheBallPit]

I know it's probably lazy to say, especially given their age and notoriety, but the Stalker trio is a must if you're into zone raiding. There are tons of mods and even some that tie all three game areas together into one gigantic world. All of them have batshit crazy endings, especially Shadow of Chernobyl since the final assault is on the pre-New Safe Confinement reactor and the devs did an amazing job of detailing every square inch of the plant along with big sections of Pripyat.

Of course, even the latest patched versions have their quirks. The X-Ray engine is always engaged in shenanigans along with the A-Life system, which controls all the NPCs, but the games are rewarding, nonetheless. Make sure to save often and don't overwrite previous saves.

I can't comment firsthand on Stalker 2, as I haven't played it yet, but from what I've read, it's badly undercooked and still needs a ton of patches, so I'd give it a few months.

I also used to play a neat little submarine title called Steel Tide, but it's not easy to find. I'm hoping GOG picks it up at some point, otherwise it'll become lost game media.

Obligatory shoutout to the Halo series, at least 1 thru 4 and Reach.