The gaming world can be quite pessimistic, often calling out likely bombs before the game has even released. With social media in the forefront, game trailers are an incredibly risky thing, as just the slightest issue could lead to entire campaigns against a game before it even comes out.
However, sometimes a game may look iffy, but then, against all odds, manages to come out sparkling, living up to the lofty promises the developers and trailers make. Although it’s rare, it does happen a bit more often than you may think.
We’re going to check out some games that seemed like they were going to be massive flops that ended up being awesome.
10 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
A New Fantasy
I don’t know about you, but for me, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 simply looked too good to be true. I saw the visuals, the turn-based battle system with interactive elements, and the over-the-top-looking boss fights in the trailers and then saw that the game was made for a first time studio and thought, “If it looks too good to be true, it is.”
I figured maybe it would be a decent but unremarkable small indie project that would get a little bit of fanfare but would fail to deliver on the crazy ambition of that initial trailer. Oh, how very, very wrong I was.
Not only was this a lengthy, complete RPG experience, but it’s the best game I’ve played in 20 years. It delivered on every aspect it seemed to promise and exceeded them in many regards. With incredibly deep combat, a gripping, shocking story, and some of the best visuals and voice acting performances you can find in gaming today, Clair Obscur more than proved the doubters like me wrong.
9 Helldivers 2
Who Played Helldivers 1?
Helldivers 2 truly came out of nowhere. The first game was an isometric shooter that was decently rated but didn’t make much of a dent and also released almost a decade ago.
There was little reason to make a sequel to that game, but it happened despite people being wildly skeptical when it was announced. It was released and was one of the biggest hits of 2024.
The action was now third person, the budget was clearly higher, and the action is unlike any other shooter out there. It’s so chaotic and explosive, and it’s all playable with friends and made for an incredible experience.
It showed that a franchise is never dead as long as someone has some ideas to make it feel new.
8 Lies of P
A Copycat Legend
There was so much hate for Lies of P when it first was announced that it was hard to believe. The Soulslike fandom is a hardcore one for sure, but it was over the top here with “Bloodborne copy, lame,” being said in every manner of way and profanity you can think of.
I was in that boat too though, as even the demo just felt like a soulless Bloodborne imitation. Thankfully, I took the full dive with the game and was rewarded with a title that was better than its inspiration in many ways.
It had a brilliant spin on the Pinocchio tale with some very dark themes at play and gameplay that kept building and building with new mechanics that kept you consistently feeling real progression.
The combat was incredible too, with some of the best bosses in the genre. Overall, it was a huge hit for an unknown studio that will most likely lead to a successful franchise.
7 Guardians of the Galaxy
An Impressive Rebound
Square Enix and superhero games were a red flag after 2020’s Marvel’s Avengers became one of the biggest flops of all time. Despite that, they went back to the well and put Eidos Montreal behind the controls for 2021’s Guardians of the Galaxy. To say people were wary would be a vast understatement.
Why would this company try the same thing again but without a multiplayer aspect? It just seemed like the same thing as Marvel’s Avengers but worse since it was one player only.
Surprisingly, the game ended up being great. It captures everything that makes Guardians of the Galaxy fun with some sharp combat that utilized the entire team, even if only Starlord was directly playable.
While the game was great, the reception was not, as fans were too far burned by The Avengers to think anything coming from the same production company would be good in this genre. Regardless, it’s a damn fun time and one of the better superhero games around.
6 Divinity: Original Sin 2
An Era-Defining Experience
Reviving a genre can be a very difficult thing to do. When Larian announced Divinity: Original Sin 2, there was some doubt that it would make much of a mark as Divinity: Original Sin was not all that notable, in my opinion.
The first game was overly goofy, and though the combat options were very cool, the story was not great, and the voice acting was particularly rough. So what could the sequel do differently to make its name known?
Well, that story immediately got far darker, but the characters were also way more interesting this time around, and the world was better established. On top of that, the combat was groundbreaking, giving us one of the best CRPG combat systems ever made. The amount of freedom it allowed during every fight was something I hadn’t really seen before.
The cherry on top was the full multiplayer, both couch and online, and it all made for an amazing experience.
This combination of elements led to the game becoming a massive hit, reviving the CRPG genre in the mainstream, and it set the groundwork for the behemoth that would become Baldur’s Gate 3.
5 Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Franchise Revival
Deus Ex had a great first entry that was enough of a hit to warrant a sequel. But the sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was just a bad game. Boring, slow, and behind the times in 2004, it seemed like the franchise was dead. But it was far from it, and when a third game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, was announced, it’s needless to say there was some healthy skepticism going on.
A new main character, a more serious and dark world, and a whole new direction for the story was promising, but the fact was, the last successful game in the franchise was out in 2000, and this being 10 years later was concerning, to say the least.
Luckily, those fears were unfounded as the game was a hit, getting to heights far beyond the original game in short order and cementing Adam Jensen as one of the all-time great video game characters in a thrilling sci-fi story.
4 Marvel’s Spider-Man
The Trend Setter
Despite superheroes being so perfect to use for video games, there have only been a handful that have ever really been considered good – The Arkham franchise, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That was the list, in over 30 years of modern gaming.
That’s not a lot of games, to say the least, so while Marvel’s Spider-Man had a good company in Insomniac behind it, what the result would be was anyone’s guess. That initial reveal trailer got people hyped, but cautious, because it looked like the best superhero game ever made. Thankfully, in many ways, it is.
It nailed what it meant to be not only Spider-Man, but Peter Parker as well, and that’s often something that is missed in superhero games.
It also told a great, original story and utilized the usual cast of characters while managing to feel new and special in its own right. Every superhero game since has tried to hit the highs seen here and none have come close.
A Spinoff That Works
The spinoff always has a healthy amount of doubt behind it. It’s never the same vibe as the game it’s trying to emulate and often, it can feel like DLC; unfinished, or generally just unnecessary.
Luckily, Platinum Games was behind this one, and their brand of crazy was a perfect match with Metal Gear Solid’s. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is simply one of the best action games ever made.
While the story is a bit all over the place, the action is 10/10, with Raiden taking a starring role yet again. But this time, he’s a full-on cyborg ninja capable of cutting anything and everything into tiny pieces thanks to a unique slashing system that lets you manually cut objects or enemies.
The action is completely nuts, and often resembles an anime in video game form, as Raiden literally cuts missiles in half and slashes enemies into pieces in real time.
It was a strange title to come out following the supposed end of the series and ended up becoming a game worthy of a franchise itself.
2 Mad Max
Apocalyptic Delight
There is a general rule when it comes to licensed games. They suck. Well, at least 80 percent of the time they generally are nothing to write home about. While Mad Max wasn’t an exact movie tie-in, it strategically launched the same year as the film with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron did.
Surprisingly, the game was far better than it had any right to be, with some incredibly fun, Arkham-style combat, and some really good vehicular combat too.
The graphics were also perfectly inline with what a Mad Max game needed to look like, and the story fit in nicely with the established lore. It did have some familiar open world trappings for the time, but this game would’ve been far bigger had it not released alongside one of the most anticipated games of all time in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
1 Horizon Zero Dawn
Not Just a Tech Demo
Horizon Zero Dawn was visually jaw dropping when the trailer for it got revealed, but many people thought it was just too pretty looking to actually be a game. To be fair, we’ve been fooled before by tech demos posing as games, so there was cause for concern to be sure.
How would the game actually play? What story could possibly support robot dinosaurs and feel not only believable, but part of a cohesive journey that would be capable of carrying Sony’s vaunted 1st party title distinction?
While it seemed like it might be another The Order 1886, Horizon Zero Dawn shattered expectations to deliver one of the most unique games ever made.
The gameplay was top-notch, and obviously, the visuals were as outstanding as advertised, but it was the story that really made this game a hit. The plot is so wild and intricate, and it has some of the best lore of any game. That alone was worthy of making it a hit.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
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