What is a game that you know is bad but really enjoy(ed)?

Back 4 Blood. It was a zombie game marketed as "made by the same people who made Left 4 Dead" but they really didn't have any of that talent left after 15ish years and just seemed to be pretty unpolished all around. However, they had a card system where you make a deck of bonuses you want and after each mission you get one that you keep until the end of the campaign. But the devs, Turtle Rock, had a habit of nerfing any cards that were strong or fun into the ground even though the game was mostly PvE. Also they made a change halfway through the game's lifespan so that you get the entire deck at the start of the first level instead of building up to it. I still don't know if that was a good change or not, but they never rebalanced the game so the first couple levels of every campaign were just ridiculously easy. Unpolished game, horrible devs, but I had fun while it lasted

Bioshock Infinite. I wouldn't call it bad, but it gets a bad rep for not being the game that Bioshock superfans wanted. I hadn't been infected by the immersive sim brain worm when I played it and didn't judge games based on their box-stacking mechanics, nor did I care about how it fit into the lineage of \shock games. Evaluated on its own, It was a fair shooter with great visual style and okay story.

There are other cheap shot meme games that I enjoyed for how bad they were, like Mystery of the Droods*.

Alpha Protocol, a spy-themed RPG by Obsidian and probably their worst game. The gameplay was absolute garbage, but it had some of the best writing in games and your dialog choices actually affected the plot in dozens of ways. It was the first time I can remember since the old Sierra days where a minor choice you made ten hours ago could come back and screw you over.

In some ways it was the game that Mass Effect claimed to be, one that reshaped itself around your choices and let you lead the plot where you desired. It just sucks that in all other ways it was a buggy piece of crap, where everything from combat to stealth to hacking were miserable chores that weren't fun even when they _did_ function properly.

Fallout 76

The game was a fucking dumpster fire on release, but honestly, I really enjoyed the item grind with nuclear bombs and the build system. I was building some really cool houses back then and I probably spend a vast majority of my time with that.

Haven't touched it in years tho. Idk how it is today.

It's the #72 highest rated game of all time on Metacritic with a 94/100. I don't think BioShock Infinite really fits this thread.

Bioshock Infinite had a wildly good reception. It's 91% positive on Steam with 47k reviews.

These might be closer to mediocre than BAD bad but I don't expect too many people to mention them so why not.
- Drakengard 3 - action adventure game with dated graphics (even at the time of release), terrible performance on the original hardware, huge amount of asset reuse (including whole levels) and writing that can range from childish, crass and annoying to extremely emotional. It's rough but it's also my favourite Yoko Taro game.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2004, PS2) - alright gameplay, decent voice acting, meh story and levels. It's not terrible but based on the opinions I've seen it seems like I enjoyed it a bit more than most. Pretty cool drum & bass soundtrack.
- Kane & Lynch (both games) - most people didn't like these games due to rough feeling gameplay and presentation (especially in the first game), I can't help but love it. I feel like all of the elements combine in a coherent and extremely raw experience which might not be "fun" or "polished" but for me it just works.
- Kao the Kangaroo (2000) - extremely basic mascot platformer with (mostly) dated visuals, linear levels and some annoying enemies. Sequel might be an improvement but I still prefer this ugly duckling over anything that came after.
- Oni (Bungie's action game from 2001) - it has huge empty levels, basic presentation, pretty mediocre story and uneven difficulty curve. It also has a great hand-to-hand combat system which makes those issues easier to swallow. Pretty good Ghost in the Shell game.
- Scarface: The World is Yours - GTA clone set after an alternative ending to the 1983 movie with Al Pacino. Pretty ugly and rough around the edges but it also has some fun mechanics (empire building, customisable mansion, money laundering, ability to bribe cops and more). A competent experience, even if it didn't reach the heights of GTA or Saints Row titles.

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Edit: I remembered another one!

Trespasser - physics based action-adventure game from 1998, intended as a sequel to The Lost World: Jurassic Park movie. It has extremely weird and wonky control scheme where you interact with the world by moving your hand - as in, you physically move it with your mouse, no simple "press button to do things".

- You want to open the door? Cool, use your hand.
- You want to make yourself a ramp using a plank? You know how physics work so go ahead.
- Interacting with keypads? Just push the buttons.
- Want to attack something with melee? Pick up an object and swing manually.
- You want to aim your gun? No crosshair, move the barrel in the general direction of your target and pray it'll work.

It's not super intuitive but it does work pretty well once you get the hang of it. Heck, I even managed to throw a 3-pointer at the court in the residential zone! Man, I wish I still had my Twitch account...

The game also went with a "no hud" approach so no ammo count (only vague call-outs by the character like "about 5 shots" and to check your health you had to look at the tattoo on your chest (it changed depending on your HP). Also no gun reloading cause your other arm is broken and your character can't do it one handed, I guess.

It was unfinished, extremely ambitious (both in terms of planned features and implemented technology) and has a bunch of problems. It's an interesting and very unique experience, worth a try even today in my opinion. It's also the only piece of Jurassic Park media I actually care about and I wish it was easily obtainable in official distribution again - come on GOG, you can do it!

Something key to remember is that when a game gets “Mixed” on Steam, eg 50/50, that still means half the people who play it enjoyed it. Half is not nothing.

For instance, Aliens: Colonial Marines. To my knowledge, AI was kinda shit, but could be fixed in a text file, but apparently a lot of people still enjoyed it otherwise.

So there’s probably a lot of these that have niche appeal to people.

It’s a funny case where it was pretty widely panned by diehard fans of the previous games, but it was extremely popular with basically everyone else. So there was a very vocal minority who shat on the game right after it released. But it hit a broad enough audience that the new/casual players overwhelmed the diehard fans.

Bioshock Infinite is basically the Fallout 4 of Bioshock games. If you played Fallout 4 first, you’d probably think it’s a great Fallout game. The gameplay is decent, you have roleplay choices for the story, there is lots of world building, etc… But if New Vegas is already your favorite game, you probably hated FO4 for not being enough Fallout. It doesn’t mean people enjoying FO4 are wrong. It just means the game didn’t deliver what existing fans were hoping for.

By all accounts, Quest 64 ranked somewhere between runny dog shit and aggressive bone cancer, but I was just enthralled with it as a kid. Actually kind of bummed when I got a Switch and it wasn't on the retro games subscription thing.

Not sure if this counts because it's not that bad, but Final Fantasy 15.

I can't even begin to explain how much of a complete mess this game is. The combat consists of mashing buttons and teleporting away when you're low HP, the open world is very big and isn't that interesting, it's a mess of systems that don't work together because this game had a very troubled development, and the story is borderline incomprehensible - the last third of the game felt like I was skipping cutscenes. The few dungeons included were also terrible. Oh and there are parts in the game where you literally have to wait entire minutes in a car waiting to go from point A to B.

And yet, I played through the whole thing, it was weirdly relaxing. Whenever it wasn't trying to be a final fantasy game, it was actually pretty fun. Fishing, doing menial tasks, chocobo racing (and riding chocobos in general) were great. The game also has some of the most beautiful towns I've seen in gaming, and boy is that soundtrack perfect.

I enjoyed it a lot, but by all accounts I'd still call it a bad game.

It’s got good steam reviews so everyone else liked it too, but Mad Max. I would describe it to people as just a great bad game. It’s not art. The story is crap. The ending was dumb.

The actual gameplay was amazing. Just really really great. Still love that game.

Uplink

Ultima 3 Exodus for the NES. Few games incentivize you to wait to level up as much as this one does, not to mention the drudgery.