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?
Friend and I played through Redfall and enjoyed it immensely , specifically because of how broken and half-complete it was. We just could not stop laughing.
Athena for NES. Now THAT’S some jank!
Bad is very subjective ofcourse. Most of the time these days it means that a video game is very polarizing. Elite: Dangerous is a great example of this. I fucking love it and have lived in that game for thousands of hours. But it’s not hard to see how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Clive Barker’s Jericho
It’s janky af but it has great atmosphere.
Really cool to see this mentioned. It was a mediocre game indeed but had such an amazing premise. I still think about it often.
Thing thing on Crazymonkeygames
Starbound is kind of like Terraria in space, but with a worse gameplay loop, worse characters, and worse bosses, but I did like gentrifying the cosmos.
I love starbound, it’s definitely not a bad game at all.
‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ (2003) by Bethesda
Edit: Also ‘Age of Pirates’ (2006)
I just liked pirates I guess.
Did you know that game was actually Sea Dogs 2 but got rebranded because Disney wanted a game to go with their movie?
Such a great game. I played the hell out of it but could never figure out how it had absolutely nothing to do with the movies.
Life is Feudal. It had the potential to be something great, but ended dying in a hail of bad server coding and poorly implemented monetization.
Every so often I will reinstall it, find one of the free servers and just chill for hours on end.
Hocus Pocus
Duke Nukem 2
Rise of the Triad
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Sim Tower
Shadow the Hedgehog
Star Fox Adventures
Halo Reach
Raptor was great.
Oookay calling reach a bad game will make me your enemy for life
It’s a good game, but bad in terms of reception, which is what this thread is about
Okay fair
Far Cry 2.
The game is fundamentally broken in a way that mods apparently can’t even fix. The enemy militia checkpoints instantly fully respawn as soon as you trip an invisible trigger. It makes combat with them pointless, which means getting stuck in a firefight with a checkpoint tedious.
The weapon degradation feature is way overtuned to cause some weapons to start visibly rusting from shot to shot.
These two aspects turn the game into a slog. Not even in a way that makes it immersive and survivalist, but immersion breakingly frustrating.
It’s a shame because the game was so ambitious. The game having a mechanic where a player at 0 health can get randomly saved if they befriended an NPC which will drag them to safety is really cool. The fire spreading everywhere was visually and tactically great. The malaria bouts were controversial, but I think they were a good way to increase the feeling of survival and desperation. There’s a lot good with a bleak, serious, and grounded Far Cry game but it just missed the mark in all the most impossible to ignore ways.
‘Far Cry 2 (2)’ would be amazing.
Populous: The Beginning (1998). I don’t think it was actually bad, it’s just been forever. But man did we have fun with that.
I think I played it on ps1 lol
That’s a blast from the past! I used to play it on the Amiga in like 1990. Loved it too.
Does anyone remember Deathtrap Dungeon. The game was so bad and confusing but i loved it.
I watched a portion of a lengthy video about it from Josh Strife Hayes. It seems like one of those games that would frustrate and compel me.
X-Com: The Bureau Declassified. Your “teammates” are fundamentally suicidal, making keeping them alive almost impossible. But the setting, story and challenge made up for it. It was inventive.
The Technomancer: Mid-budget game by Spiders. Was short and straightforward, which most people disliked, but I thought it was a blast. The story still sticks in my head screaming for me to write a novel based on it.
A couple I can remember really enjoying at the time that were not well reviewed and yeah probably are bad.
- Resident Evil: Outbreak
- Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain
I don’t remember a whole lot about either of these but do remember playing them a lot.
Final Fantasy XIII I don’t think it’s actually a bad game, and thought so at the time too. There’s a lot of revisionist history with this one. I see so many discussions now of people being like yeah it’s a great game I love it. Where were all these people at when it came out? XIII-2 is…weird. I think I prefer XIII, but like both. I’ve never finished Lightning Returns but enjoyed what I played.
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.
