10 Video Games MUCH Better Than We Thought They'd Be

Gotham Knights story is... pretty great??

by Jess McDonell

There’s a decent chance if you roll the dice on a random new release game you have no prior knowledge of, you might end up realising it’s not for you. And there’s an equally good chance that the brand new AAA game from your favourite developer will impress you.

But what about those games that really seemed like they were going to miss the mark? The ones that, for whatever reason, didn’t leave much of an impression on you before release but ended up absolutely knocking it out of the park.

We can get lukewarm on games before they’ve hit shelves for a number of reasons. Maybe it’s because the developer isn’t well known, the game concept seems shaky, or a crappy trailer lands.

For whatever reason your expectations end up somewhere between middling and through the floor but these excellent games proved we couldn’t have been more wrong about them.

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Contributor
Contributor

Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.