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

2. Dirty Bomb

Dirty Bomb first came onto the scene in 2015 with a very funny trailer that landed on the side of legitimately hilarious or “what’s up, fellow kids”, depending on your sense of humor. For the large part, though, it seemed like there might be something special here. That said, in the oversaturated free-to-play first-person-shooter genre it’s hard not to go on with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Turns out, though, that in this case that scepticism would be entirely misplaced because Dirty Bomb is a damn blast. Yeah, I know what I just did. No I will not be rephrasing.

Fears that the 2015 Splash Damage release would simply be a Team Fortress 2 clone were quickly allayed as soon as players checked it out for themselves. It launched at a time where Steam was flooded with multiplayer shooters so, unfortunately, it struggled to gain traction at the time and now has a disappointingly low number of active players. That doesn’t take away from the sheer joy offered by the gameplay loop back when it launched, though. Movement is key, speed is encouraged, and matches are extremely well balanced. The combat is bombastic and immensely satisfying, maps are well designed, and the shooting feels fantastic.

The game has admittedly died in the seven years since it originally launched but it was far better than players expected it to be and plenty of diehard fans still remember it fondly.