10/10 Video Games Everyone Immediately Forgot About

There are too many video games. There, somebody finally said it.

As fans, we have so much to keep up with year on year, and with the big releases today demanding up to 100 hours of our time, it makes sense that players are picky about which ones they dedicate their time to.

Consequently, while they might not hold the same cultural cache they once did, reviews are still used as valuable resources to point players towards games that they simply can't miss. Elden Ring was always going to be a big hit, but would it have sold 12 million copies in a couple of weeks and brought in a whole new audience which had never touched a Dark Souls game before without reviews lavishing it with praise, 10/10 scores, and Game of the Year accolades? Probably not.

However, sometimes a title comes out, gets an insane amount of praise from media outlets and fans alike and then immediately falls out the conversation. Let's call it the Avatar effect - a movie that immediately became the most successful of all time, but one which most people never watched or thought about again (until the recent sequel anyway).

These are the games - just or otherwise - that suffered the same fate.

What makes Dark Souls 2 such an anomaly is that it's actually the highest-rated game in the franchise. I'm not making that up. It scores two points higher than both the iconic and beloved original, as well as the fan-favourite third game. Yet ask fans of this series and they'll no doubt tell you it's the worst, or that they haven't played it at all.

Those same fans were quick to forget this sequel, in part because of controversial changes to mechanics and systems it made to the original game's formula. An altered healing system, a drastic change in approach to the level design and enemy variety were all deemed a step back by some fans who wanted a sequel closer to the sensibilities of the first Dark Souls.

The third game would provide that more iterative continuation, forgetting developments made in the second title. Hell, even the story of that trilogy-capper was mostly unconcerned with addressing any of the narrative threads established in the second game.

Still, while many players were content to forget Dark Souls 2 ever happened, it's a shame it's not recognised as a must-play today. Sure, its elevated critical praise stinks of reviewers making good for missing the original, but it's still a worthy instalment in the series, and a daring sequel in many respects.