Games that you changed your mind about when replaying

Sometimes when you play a game for the 2nd time, it just seems different. Do you have such games? For me, they are...

Wolfenstein: The New Order - I gotta admit, I loved it the first time, but the second time, it felt extremely boring. I started to notice how linear the game is, even though on the 1st playthrough it felt quite open. Also, I don't like its monotone colors and overly long story parts. The balance between a silly shooter and serious storytelling is off.

Left 4 Dead 2 - The first game is one of my all-time favourites, I play it every year. The second one... Nah, it's too much. I liked the additions at first, but they started to feel unnecessary. Too many too similar weapons. Too many types of infected that appear every five steps to halt the progress. I didn't like the characters as much, and the locations are crap (the amusement park being possibly the worst). The atmosphere is just not here, and horders and hordes of zombies in some remote swamp just don't make sense.

Half Life: It was exciting to see this "realistic" mapping style for the first time and playing through it, but when I revisited the game later I started to realize how repetitive, linear and uninvolving many parts of it really are. It surely has its good sections, but it also has long stretches of corridors where nothing exciting happens.

19 minutes ago, Graf Zahl said:

Half Life: It was exciting to see this "realistic" mapping style for the first time and playing through it, but when I revisited the game later I started to realize how repetitive, linear and uninvolving many parts of it really are. It surely has its good sections, but it also has long stretches of corridors where nothing exciting happens.

 

I'm going through Black Mesa now that Xen is out and "pretty much" done. And the mod does a pretty damn good job at updating it; even if I do have problems with how they redid the H_Grunt AI.

There are some sections of that game that I still absolutely love. Surface Tension and Forget About Freeman come to mind; I also enjoyed Office Complex. But whenever I hit Residue Processing, it just bogs me down. I must've forgotten about that section after the first time I played it back in the late 90's. But I hit that section and I just thought "Oh shit... yeah... this is in the game isn't it?" There's no real puzzles in the section, just a shit load of conveyor belts and an extremely confusing layout, and drops into running water where you can't see anything, but they have a bunch of grinders that are instant death if you touch them. And then you slam into a grate and have to fight against the current to find a ladder to get out. Very few enemies, aside from head crabs sitting just behind a corner when you're going through a tiny tunnel on a conveyor belt. 

Yeah, I still love Half-Life, but Residue Processing really sucks. And it does show it's age, but at least I can still enjoy playing through it again.

40 minutes ago, Jello said:

I'm going through Black Mesa now that Xen is out and "pretty much" done. And the mod does a pretty damn good job at updating it; even if I do have problems with how they redid the H_Grunt AI.

Game*. It can't possibly be considered a mod anymore, or even a TC or whatever. That stopped after it became standalone in 2015. All dependencies on HL2 or Source 2007 stuff had been purged.

As for the topic, actually L4D2 here as well. First couple of times I liked it, but after that I realized just how soulless this game really is (the FOV is also atrocious compared to the first game). L4D2 is a filler entry in the series, it was made just to add 1-2 more zombies and use some new features, its maps are nowhere near as atmospheric or as fun to play as the original game's. But sadly Valve disagreed, and rendered the original mostly obsolete by porting all its content to the sequel.

Wolfenstein: The New Order comes to mind as well. In the initial excitement I did multiple runs, getting both timelines and as many achievements as possible. I then played The Old Blood not long after and had a great time with that too. Fast forward a couple of years, and I've played Doom (2016) and am eagerly anticipating Wolfenstein: The New Colossus. So I go back to replay TNO to get myself up-to-date on the story and... Got bored really quickly. I think Doom being just that good made Wolfenstein seem slow and unexciting by comparison. This was a bad sign for the upcoming sequel and, sure enough, I struggled to get going through the mopey first half and, once I'd beaten the game, had no desire to go back and replay it.

On a different note: The Ultimate Doom. For many years I took it as read that Doom II was the superior game as it had more features, enemies and an additional weapon. Then, with ZDoom about 12-15 years ago, I played through E1 on NiGHTMARE! and had a whale of a time. Much more recently, I tried my new theory that HNTR was the way to play and was pleasantly surprised by both The Ultimate Doom and Doom II as playable experiences with sparse enemies (using GZDoom with mouselook and always run, as is my preference). Evilution killed that enthusiasm about 12 maps or so in, but I've known for a long time that it simply isn't a fun mapset, as cool as the "realism" was back in the day.

I don't often replay games, to be honest, as I often have a lot of unplayed games to get to and used to spend many years primarily on Doom. My rare replays are usually in games I enjoy, or games I couldn't understand or overcome years ago.

1 minute ago, Phobus said:

Wolfenstein: The New Order comes to mind as well. In the initial excitement I did multiple runs, getting both timelines and as many achievements as possible. I then played The Old Blood not long after and had a great time with that too. Fast forward a couple of years, and I've played Doom (2016) and am eagerly anticipating Wolfenstein: The New Colossus. So I go back to replay TNO to get myself up-to-date on the story and... Got bored really quickly.

The problem with New Order is this:

Just a straight corridor with enemies popping our here and there. It's a gallery shooter. It's fast, but levels are just so simplistic. Go forward and kill.

For me Wolf:TNO actually happened the other way around. I started off being somewhat into it, but I dropped it for some reason, can't remember where exactly. Then, some time later, I restarted it and found that it was working much better for me and it's become one of my all-time favorites ever since - in terms of everything but the gameplay, mind, but I don't really like mostly-hitscan shooters so it never had a chance in that regard. The gameplay being merely okay for me is compensated a thousand times over by how much the story, setting and atmosphere just click for me. It made it all the more disappointing when neither Old Blood nor New Colossus managed to replicate that. (I'm one of the few people who really didn't like Old Blood.)

@Szuran There's a lot of more open areas (anywhere with a commander/officer, normally) where you have multiple routes, hidden paths/crawl ways and a choice of stealth, gung-ho or somewhere in-between. It's a well-designed game, as far as I'm concerned, it's just that Doom did the action so much better and I rather got my fill of the game the first time around. I suspect the story was the bit that made the first playthrough and replay stand out so well. Without that novelty and the additional challenge modes/achievement hunting incentive, you're left with gun play that isn't quite as good as other games and slow progression.

1 hour ago, Graf Zahl said:

Half Life: It was exciting to see this "realistic" mapping style for the first time and playing through it, but when I revisited the game later I started to realize how repetitive, linear and uninvolving many parts of it really are. It surely has its good sections, but it also has long stretches of corridors where nothing exciting happens.

Oddly enough I completed Half Life 1 just yesterday after many years and I totally agree with this. Long stretches of boredom, especially Residue Processing chapter which has almost no combat and mostly just conveyor belt platforming. I also hated the platforming and the stupid traps in Half Life (traps which are potentially lethal without prior knowledge but become trivial with knowledge). But this isn't the worst. The worst part is the infinitely spawning of enemies in certain maps (especially in Interloper). Unreal 1 also had this issue and I HATE it.

Moving away from Half Life, I would like to talk about Blood. When I played it for the first time, I didn't like it much. The visuals were depressing due to muted palette (I am still not the biggest fan of the palette but I have grown to accept it), the levels felt too mazey with 6-keys setup, The cultist felt too punishing. However after playing Blood for a second time, I ended up liking it much much more (though I still don't prefer it over Duke or Ion Fury). The above problems felt much less of an issue due to remembering the level layouts and also becoming better at dealing with cultists.

3 minutes ago, Phobus said:

@Szuran There's a lot of more open areas (anywhere with a commander/officer, normally) where you have multiple routes.

That's the point for me, though: there are routes, but usually they're quite narrow, so not much room to manoever in any single enounter. Even when there's a larger open space, it's usually a symmetric area with either a couple of columns or some circular obstacle in the middle. It's too tight, and it all feels samey.

Circular area with an obstacle in the middle:

Circular area with an obstacle in the middle:

And a circular area with an obstacle in the middle:

And a circular area... you get the point:

It really stood out for me.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl

Mostly because I had no idea what I was doing, but after I got some of the gist and got the scope I fell in love

Oh man, too many games to name. I'll start with Quake 4 and see if I feel like talking about others later.

Bought the game with my Xbox 360 on launch day. Barely made it anywhere. Combat felt weak, the framerate was inconsistent, and its heavy emphasis on story and exposition annoyed me.

Fast-forward a couple of years later, I played it on PC. It sort of "clicked" and I began enjoying it. For one it looked and ran nicer. The faster movement in Strogg form (that I didn't make it to previously) was a nice change of pace as well. I think I ended up finishing it twice. Even went back to the 360 version to pick up the achievements in the game. This was somewhere between 2008 and 2010.

Fast forward to today and I am trying to go through the game again, but this time am seriously struggling to stay awake while playing it. It's slow, the exposition annoys me even more than the first time, and it's not really pretty to look at anymore. The turret-based sections aren't engaging at all. The invisible walls thrown up when there's mandatory in-game story just wastes time. It's just a boring slog on this playthrough.

So basically I went from disliking the game, to liking it, back to disliking it. Yay.

Why I'm I not surprised Half-Life is here, feels like people like taking opportunities to mention it every time a thread like this pops up for the "hurr durr im controversial" lol.

Jokes aside Doom 2016, I enjoyed it a lot first time around but the more I replayed it the more cracks started to show, repetitive arenas, dull hell levels and even the music started to get irritating thanks to it becoming more intense every time I entered an arena.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, I found it boring first time around and gave up in the first dungeon / cave quest with Keira because I kept dying at the Golem boss fight, I eventually returned to it and started a fresh new game and decided to take it slow, learned about quest level requirements, learned to do side quests to level up, loot and explore before doing main quests, learned how to use the right signs, potions, oils, block, parry, dodge and quickstep and it became much more enjoyable.

Amid Evil - The first i mplayed this it felt slow and clunky, especially coming off dusk before, but after again i began to appreciate its more detailed enviornments and creative weapons, learning how to use them, especially the ultra strong axe, makeds, the game feel less tedious (there's no "killing a baron with a shotgun" moments if you know what you're doing)

POSTAL 2. When I first played it, I really enjoyed it for its humor and craziness. But a year or two ago I replayed it and realized that its gameplay is actually pretty bad. The worst is that the enemies are bullet sponges and shooting just doesn't feel fun at all. As for the humor, it doesn't feel nearly as fun when replaying it the second time.

Right now I think that when it comes to FPS gameplay POSTAL 2 is the worst game I've played.

2 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Moving away from Half Life, I would like to talk about Blood. When I played it for the first time, I didn't like it much. The visuals were depressing due to muted palette (I am still not the biggest fan of the palette but I have grown to accept it), the levels felt too mazey with 6-keys setup, The cultist felt too punishing. However after playing Blood for a second time, I ended up liking it much much more (though I still don't prefer it over Duke or Ion Fury). The above problems felt much less of an issue due to remembering the level layouts and also becoming better at dealing with cultists.

I have to concur with your thoughts about the palette. In addition Blood is a strange beast - the game is utterly anachronistic with its period-style artwork mixed with other more modern looking parts.

My first exposure to it was through ZBlood, though, and I cannot honestly say I liked it - only after finally playing the real game I saw what a piss-poor reproduction ZBlood really is. The original plays a lot better. I still don't think that it'll ever become a favorite of mine thanks to this weird artwork style.

Lots of people here talking about how they loved some game, but didn't like when played again due to lost of excitement.

I have the opposite experience. Lots of games felt boring first, but when played again, I already knew what to do and then I finally can appreciate how great the game is.

For example I didn't like Half Life first and the Xen part was soooo bad. But somehow I have grown to appreciate it more and more how the time comes. Today I think it's a masterpiece.

Don't remember what game I didn't like when played for the second time.

37 minutes ago, Graf Zahl said:

I have to concur with your thoughts about the palette. In addition Blood is a strange beast - the game is utterly anachronistic with its period-style artwork mixed with other more modern looking parts.

My first exposure to it was through ZBlood, though, and I cannot honestly say I liked it - only after finally playing the real game I saw what a piss-poor reproduction ZBlood really is. The original plays a lot better. I still don't think that it'll ever become a favorite of mine thanks to this weird artwork style.

This is why playing the real deal is important, not surprised to hear you didn't enjoy what was essentially an imitation running on a completely different engine. The Blood TC on Build is most likely not a substitute either.

There are some parts of Blood I'm not fond too, but I find the combat so good it doesn't even matter.

3 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Oddly enough I completed Half Life 1 just yesterday after many years and I totally agree with this. Long stretches of boredom, especially Residue Processing chapter which has almost no combat and mostly just conveyor belt platforming. I also hated the platforming and the stupid traps in Half Life (traps which are potentially lethal without prior knowledge but become trivial with knowledge). But this isn't the worst. The worst part is the infinitely spawning of enemies in certain maps (especially in Interloper). Unreal 1 also had this issue and I HATE it.

There's infinitely spawning enemies in HL?

You talking about the Alien Grunt factory?

7 minutes ago, seed said:

 There's infinitely spawning enemies in HL?

 

You talking about the Alien Grunt factory?

Yes, I am taking about the penultimate chapter "Interloper" which contains the alien grunt factory segment. Those flying enemies (forgot their name) keep spawning in some segments of the chapter.

23 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

Yes, I am taking about the penultimate chapter "Interloper" which contains the alien grunt factory segment. Those flying enemies (forgot their name) keep spawning in some segments of the chapter.

Make sure you don't try to kill everything there. Parts of Xen also rely on avoiding combat and this would be a prime example of that.

Back when I didn't understand the map I made the same mistake as well and kept dying. That's not the best approach in dealing with this level and the predictable outcome is a clear indication of that :p .

4 minutes ago, seed said:

Back when I didn't understand the map I made the same mistake as well and kept dying. That's not the best approach in dealing with this level and the predictable outcome is a clear indication of that :p .

Well yeah I just decided to rush through those segments. I didn't die too much thankfully. 

Its just that I hate any part of a video game where I have to do that. I prefer to take my time observing the environment and the level design.

23 minutes ago, seed said:

 

This is why playing the real deal is important, not surprised to hear you didn't enjoy what was essentially an imitation running on a completely different engine. The Blood TC on Build is most likely not a substitute either.

The main problem with ZBlood is that it totally changed the gameplay to appeal to hard core Doomers by stuffing the levels with lots of enemies, even on the lowest skill, which totally changes how the game plays. And to top it off, older versions totally screwed up the level order. The other changes, like altering the levels to work in the Doom engine were forgivable by comparison.

5 minutes ago, seed said:

Parts of Xen also rely on avoiding combat and this would be a prime example of that.

.. which reminds me a bit of Strife. There's two levels that were designed to avoid combat, yet some of those "must get 100%" people tried anyway and then complained that these levels were nearly unbeatable with insufficient ammo and health, but when being told that they were not supposed to do that they complained that this is not what they expected of a Doom-engine game.

12 minutes ago, Graf Zahl said:

complained that this is not what they expected of a Doom-engine game.

Can't say I'm surprised seeing how the tunnel vision some people have about the games also extends to its engine...

Deus Ex Human Revolution - Loved it at first. It did sort of felt like the original Deus Ex & it does have freedom to approach a situation in a variety of ways. 

I replayed it a couple of times to uncover more stuff & get almost all the achievements.

But the last time I played it, I noticed that my enjoyment was dying as I realized how dumb the main story is, especially its main missions. (Talk to person A, person A tells you to find person B to talk to him/her, then person B tells you to find person C & get some clues from him/her)

And of course, it's consolized. No complex RPG system, like the first one & no skill required for a stealth takedown.

Half Life 2 - Another one that I replayed quite a bit when I was younger but as I got into adulthood, I realized the game doesn't offer much. Not to mention I was blinded by the mainstream praise of it at the time I first played it, so now, the picture is clear. The game's gunplay is mediocre at best as are sound effects.

Story is still interesting to me but we'll never see the conclusion, so that sucks.

Borderlands 1 - This one is a complete opposite. At first, I thought it was meh & as a result, skipped the DLC missions. After that I was calling the franchise 'Boringlands' but that completely changed last year when the Enhanced edition came out & it was for free for the owners. I decided to give it a second try after 5 years & it was a pleasure to replay it. Not to mention the FOV slider was included & many other fixes. This time, I also wanted to beat the DLC missions & that was also the pleasure to play (except that Moxxi arena thingy).

So, I got myself Borderlands 2. Beat that too & am currently playing Pre-Sequel.

The borderlands series is just overrated for me tbh. The jokes in borderlands do not work anymore since it's like from 2012 with stuff like random = funny and unless you have some teammates the game's combat sucks ass

41 minutes ago, The_SloVinator said:

The game's gunplay is mediocre at best as are sound effects.

I still like the games despite their flaws, maybe i'm just blinded by nostalgia rip

Skyrim, I got it when I was 12 and couldn't figure out how to do shit, played it again a year later and got addicted

1 hour ago, sluggard said:

I still like the games despite their flaws, maybe i'm just blinded by nostalgia rip

Nah, I revisited some mods a while ago and it's still a great game IMO.

Overall, I think the OG HL2 is the only thing that aged badly in some regards. The combat, while being nothing special, is still pretty fun to me.

Metroid Prime 2 I remember being one, I think I was just a bit burnt out on the concept after playing the first Prime and Super and Fusion in relative proximity. So when I started 2 I just did not feel particularly engaged by it. 

I didn't play anything related to the series until Prime 3, which I played through and thought was fine, then shortly I played through 2 and I think it became my favourite of the three of them.

Any story that ends with the playing of Metroid Other M is a sad story though :< 

1 hour ago, seed said:

Overall, I think the OG HL2 is the only thing that aged badly in some regards. The combat, while being nothing special, is still pretty fun to me.

Yeah, the first one aged worse in the physics department at least, for example ladder climbing can be confusing if you strafe while climbing, I exploit that bug by turning 90 degrees to left or right then strafe to climb faster heh, or the wallrunning trick.