10 Video Games Everyone Hated (Until They Played Them)
Everyone was wrong about these games, and thank GOD.
First impressions are so incredibly important where video games are concerned, because how a game is initially presented to potential players will forever colour their perception of it moving forward.
If that initial reveal doesn't land well, then the publisher immediately faces an uphill struggle trying to persuade customers that, no, the game is great, actually.
And that was absolutely the case with these 10 video games, each of which were unveiled to players in a less-than-ideal way, causing them to immediately fear the worst.
Perhaps the marketing team chose the worst possible assembly of footage, or failed to focus on the game's more unique aspects. Maybe leaks pointed to a trouble development, or it was impossible to have faith in a studio whose track record was flimsy at best.
And so, the negative PR absolutely piled up against these games in the months, even years, leading up to release, only for us all to be pleasantly surprised when the end result turned out rock solid, if not genuinely great.
These games defied the rampant online backlash, committed to making a quality end product, and actually delivered the thing at the end...
10. Doom (2016)
When Bethesda revealed their 2016 Doom reboot - the first major entry into the franchise in over a decade - fans weren't happy.
The consensus from the early reveal was that the gameplay looked like it had been slowed down significantly from previous games, which combined with the presence of cinematic QTE-style kills, seemed to suggest that the publisher had cynically "dumbed down" the series to appeal to more casual players.
It didn't help that the game's multiplayer beta was disastrously received, or that Bethesda withheld review copies from critics until release day, seeming to suggest that they knew they had a real turkey on their hands.
So what a shock it was, then, when Doom turned out to be one hell of a face-melting good time - a slick, brutal, challenging FPS in an era where they were steadily on the decline, and one that proved popular enough to genuinely revitalise the stagnant IP.