Numen: Contest of Heroes is a game that sits at about 50% recommended on steam. I beat it years ago and really enjoyed myself, but I knew it was a unique fit for me. I only say “bad” so that we have common ground, but I value that experience.
What are “bad” games you enjoy?
The Matrix Online. It was not a very good game mechanically, but the community and the monolith employees that would log on to role play major characters was the most fun I’ve ever had playing video games in my life.
Sacred 2 for PC. It is a top down action RPG (Diablo-like) that had dated graphics on release (it was still essentially 2D when everyone else had already gone 3D), it had tons of super cringe voice acting, and jankiness for miles. The game itself was just really, really fun, especially in co-op. The different characters and builds were really fun to play in a way that tend to get balanced out by dev in AAA games. My friends and I had a great time playing it, but it was clearly not a good game.
If you’ve played it, do you think it is worth it to play the first game first? Both are on sale from Steam. These look fun to me.
I did play it, but it didn’t “do it” for me the same way the sequel did. It could still be worth a shot. If you do end up playing Sacred 2, make sure you do the quest chain involving the “concert”. I won’t say more so you can experience the wackiness.
Sacred 1 is genuinely amazing, go for it
Earth Defense Force is a terrible looking game with an even worse premise and is fun as hell.
I’ve heard this a lot! I just searched “Earth Defense Force” and it showed me #6 and that makes me happy. Wasn’t the original on 360? I remember thinking it look like a bust and then hearing people pretty much say what you are saying.
Yeah, the first one on the 360 was called Earth Defense Force 2017 (actually the 3rd game in the series). I’ve played a bunch of EDF 2017 and 2025 and they are so fun. I’m glad they’re still making them; those games are so over-the-top. If you don’t care about graphics and just want something fun, I highly recommend.
Bear with me…
Megaman legends 2
Silly kids game, lots of fun, early dungeon crawling, but they snuck in heavy philosophy.
There is a scene where the protagonist is recalling long forgotten memories. The last living human, in luxury, in extravagance, in exactly what techbros want today but actually achieved here, has a perfect system, a perfect world, serving his every whim. A world without poverty, disease, suffering.
And he is lonely.
He befriends a bot in this system charged with keeping order. Basically a cop in this world. But he gives him special privileges to be able to “think” in ways the others are restricted from. This one is special. He literally creates a friend.
Then he uses the incredible technological prowess to recreate suffering.
He creates a synthetic recreation of humans, designed to be vulnerable to disease, to hunger, to suffering. They are subject to pressures that simply delay their deaths. And through doing so they achieve meaning and happiness. They exist.
The master watches them, like fish in an aquarium, for generations. Eventually, he goes down to earth to fully experience them. Thousands of years of disease free living have basically robbed this last human of an immune system. He is vulnerable there. No force in the universe can take him out. Man has become god. And yet, he goes down there anyway.
To experience the smell of a dinner bearing prepared.
He dies. Before he does, he released the bot that brought him down to earth from the rules of the system that governed him and told him to burn it all down. Perfection was not a remedy, it was a curse. And then he dies as the bot holds him in his hands, watching him fade away.
This was a game for children. And I understood way too much of it.
Xenogears/xenosaga. I liked them. Xenogears had a bad disc 2. Xenosaga had a bad episode 2. Saga also went overboard with the needlessly sexualized robots. But it was guns dan the story decent and by episode the graphics were really good. Music was good, characters were enjoyable.
All I remember liking from episode 2 through was jr charging a religious zealot screaming “you damn bitch” while firing at her. It was such a weird scene I was laughing my ass off. Oh and the American censorship had a scene where a little girl going through a breakdown scooping blood from her mother and trying to put it back in the corpse, except there’s no blood in the US version so WTF are we supposed to think is happening here? Ep 2 was horrible.
How dare you!
Xenogears is a flawed masterpiece. Even disc 2 wasn’t “bad” so much as they pushed about three discs of story into it as they were not given the time and resources to do it right. From what I read, It was supposed to be a seven game series/story, but they knew they were only given a shot for one game so they picked one of the better chapter in the middle and got a bit overly ambitious.
As far as Xenosaga is considered, I am really surprised you called out episode 2 as I consider that the best one. If any could be called out, it would be ep 3 because it was supposed to be a longer series and they have to change it up to have it make any sense whatsoever. I really enjoyed episode 2, though the censorship issues you mention were hilariously bad.
When I am in a bad boss fight design competition and my opponent is any XenoSaga game:
I loved Black Survival back in the day. It was early in the Battle Royal wave and it somehow made a visual novel style multiplayer BR fun for me, but any of my friends I convinced to try it absolutely despised it
Hatred. I know it’s edgy for the sake of being edgy, and is not top gameplay, but I enjoy it as a fun passtime from time to time.
I had more fun with Jurassic Park: Trespasser and Die By the Sword than I should have just because they had early physics engines.
I actually wonder if Trespasser would make a good VR conversion.
Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage for N64. By all rights it’s not a very good game, but something about it was just compelling to me.
I played the hell out of Screamer 4x4
It had nothing to do with the Screamer racing games (which were early 3D PC games), it was actually an off road 4x4 trials game. Not very good in terms of game mechanics or graphics, but the physics were satisfying.
Theres a fun top down Ice Hockey game called “Tape to Tape”
Its not a GREAT game, its a bit shallow but it is very fun.
Hmm, I guess I’ll go with Barbie Explorer, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Petz Sports. Also arguably Ostrich Runner because it’s unfinished/unpolished in some places: particularly I don’t know how the final level is meant to be played because it ends on its own without the player really doing anything. I played those as a kid so I was less critical back then.
#game #videogames #gamingFor me it would be Dungeon Siege III, specifically in co-op. From what I understand people dislike it for its differences from the previous games in the franchise, and even that aside it is fairly janky and unintuitive. But if you can laugh at the unintuitive jank then there’s plenty worse games out there.
This is a great example in the thread. I also really liked DS3, it was very fun despite (or maybe because of?) the jank.
Enter the matrix was fun as hell, at least the first mission with all the bullet time, kung-fu and acrobatics. It wasn’t a good game, but it was everything I needed from a Matrix spinoff
Redfall. It was hyped up and delayed, then after all that released unfinished. It deserved the beating it received on launch and was a major flop, but it was still an Arkane game and after trying it I enjoyed it. The Arkane DNA is in there, the gun play is satisfying and killing vampires is fun. The big ones are genuinely scary and as a solo player you learn which ones to tip toe around. It’s been updated and improved upon, but despite this still possesses many bugs and flaws. I still play it from time to time.
