This thread is for surprising games in general. Games that had moments where your just went Wow!, games that your thought were going to bad but were actually good, or vice versa. A surprising game for me was Arkham City. I thought that it would be bad due too all the hype. Too my surprise, it was one of the greatest games ever. How about everybody else?

World of Warcraft: WoW.

Two Worlds II.

Metro 2033 too short but still felt long.

Kingdom Hearts - I thought a combination of Final Fantasy and Disney would be an absolute disaster. Turned out to be one of my favorite game series.

Epic Mickey - Similar to Kingdom Hearts, this was another Disney-themed game that I was very skeptical of. It's actually pretty cool. A lot of Disney and Mickey Mouse history stuffed into a really fun action-adventure/platformer.

Shadow of the Colossus - A game that's made up entirely of boss battles? How much fun could that possibly be? A lot.

Chronicles of Riddike: Escape From Butcher Bay.

Oh look, another crappy movie tie-in game... Not!


Also I never imagined I'd be spending so much time on Minecraft when I first got it back when it turned alpha.

All three of these.

Plus.....

Limbo.

Star Ocean: Till the end of Time. I actually never finished this game, I first played it when I was about eight and it blew me away then, from what I remember of it, it was pretty fantastic. It also has merit in that its a space sci-fi JRPG that isn't absolute crap.

In terms of wow moments? KH is just packed with those, too many to count, really.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution. My "wow" moment was the end of the game. "Wow...that's the final boss? Wow...this is the end of the game? Wow...I really want to play more..."

Eternal Darkness. Any of the sanity effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA31R9e3k0E

Two Worlds 2 and Arkham Asylum

Deus Ex. I was a little late to the party on that one (over ten years) and thought that all the praise that game got was coloured by rose-tinted nostalgia goggles. Turned out it was actually every bit as good as everyone said.

Doom
Wing Commander 3
Broken Sword
Command and Conquer
Fallout 2
Planescape: Torment
BG series
Morrowind
World of Warcraft
Starwars: Knights of the Old Republic
Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War
Rift

Metal Gear Solid 4, Rex Vs. Ray.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA02xxwaOH8

Okami, never been so surprised by a game. Picked it up from my little bro (who had gotten it after my mom bought it in a bargain bin for him) who did not understand it which led to me being curious about it.

Had never really heard much anything about Okami and had no idea what I was going to dive into and I had no idea if it would be good or bad, I just remember my initial impression being that based on the cover and back it shouldn't be a very complex game, just an adventure game for kids.

And in many ways I was right and in many ways I was terribly wrong. If it was not for Persona 3 this would be my favorite PS2 game (yup, Persona 4 actually takes 3rd place rather than 2nd because of it).

Haha gotta love that kindom hearts music

Half-Life, when you depart Earth, was "WoW" for two reasons:

1. What, the game isn't over yet? :gun:
2. Hey, this is actually pretty cool. :gun:

Edit: I didn't know what to think going in, didn't think I'd ever be into shooting games. It totally surprised me, a youngster not interested in the FPS genre at all, and revolutionized my view of gaming.

This. And I almost dismissed it, as it looked way too "fluffy" and "cutesy" for my tastes. As It turns out, it's a complex, and at times, very challenging game. Still stands as one of my all time favorites. Now, If it didn't have that twenty minute intro that you had to prompt forward every sentence,it would be perfect. :tongue:

Mass Effect.

Was expecting a mix of Baulder's Gate and Star Wars and really generic. Turned out to be one of my favorite games to date.

Edit: Oh, how could I forget! PORTAL!!! "What's with all the hype for this game? Okay a robot talking to me... neat I can go through portal to another place... HOLY CRAP THIS IS AWESOME AND FUNNY.

Morrowind and Oblivion, for one.

Another would be Dawn of War. There is just so much cross fire and so many explosions, bodies flying through the air etc.

I agree. I heard good things about Chronicles of Riddike, but when I played it I was just blown away. That was a very well developed game.

Crackdown. I'm one of the few people that didn't actually pick it up to be a part of the Halo Beta and really wasn't expecting too much but I really loved that game.

I loved that game. It was so fun playing human bowling whenever you drove out of the Lab.

Dragon Age: Origins and the Portal games. I thought DA:O was gonna svck hard. Glad I was wrong, haha. The Portal games were surprisingly funny and fun. Wasn't as repetitive and dull as I thought it would be. Too bad they're so short.

Oblivion, Hmm, whats this game with nondescript box art and just the controls on the back of the box( 1st time playing was a rental). Might as well give it a whirl this weekend About 45 mins later; Good god, where have you been all my life.

Bioshock- really had no idea I would enjoy it that much.
Warhammer 40k II - Never like RTS/Action games that much but this one has really drawn me in. Especially after seeing how expansive the upgrade and loot tables were.
Agree with Portal 1
GTA Vice City, hadnt played a GTA since the first one. Was anticipating the same style of game.

Wow, opposite for me. I bought it expecting another great SquareEnix RPG and I was surprised how bad it was. One of my least favorite games, to this day.

I guess a surprising game I liked would be the Phoenix Wright series. A game where you play as a lawyer suddenly became my favorite series on the DS.