One game that disappointed you, one game you enjoyed more than expected.

- Much less enjoyable than expected :

Gibbous. The humour was really tedious, and so were the cinematics, like... bad acting on the drawings' part. I was looking forward for a slightly tongue-in-cheek, slightly caricatural cthulhu adventure (with a cat, yay), but it's one of the least enjoyable and most amateurish point and click I've played. I'm still pleased to see it got good reviews, because for all its clumsiness it looked like, well, a dedicated amateur's project. But it's a game I could have avoided spending time and a couple of coins on. This is no Broken Sword, no Runaway and no Hector Badge of Carnage even.

- Much more enjoyable than expected :

I was doubtful about Sniper Elite's x-ray cam, which looked like gratuitous violence porn for its own sake, and that I expected to be distracting or even a bit nauseating (in the sense that it appeals to sickos). And in practice, it feels oddly natural and satisfactory, not jarring at all. It ends up just representing death, in a more detached way than I expected. And the rest of the games (at least the 3rd and 4th ones) are really brilliant sneak-a-thon, reminiscent of the best of Hitman and Death to Spies, minus the costume changes. Excellent level design, and attention to detail. I kinda expected something like Soldier of Fortune, an average game selling on the basis of the graphic violence gimmick, and it turns out an excellently polished, clever game with an interesting graphic personality. A whole league above Sniper Ghost Warrior.

- Much less enjoyable than expected:

Rayman Origins. Was hoping for another grand adventure like in Rayman 2 or 3, got disjointed levels where the only objective is to collect stuff so you can unlock more stuff where you can collect more stuff. Also didn't really like the regression back to 2D and that you could unlock more playable characters either. It felt more like a mobile game to be honest. Stopped playing after a couple of hours and never came back. And I'm saying that as a huge fan of especially Rayman 2, and, to a lesser degree, 3.

- Much more enjoyable than expected:

Styx: Master of Shadows. I'm generally not a fan of stealth games (haven't even played Thief yet), but the world design in this game really grasped me. Especially as I played Of Orcs and Men before. In Styx, it felt great, sneaking around as a goblin around knights in full plate armor that you can't even fight in the first place, figuring out how to slip past the gaps in their patrol routes or using the environment to dispatch them one by one. The 2nd game is great too.

Much less enjoyable:
* Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (NES): This game suffers from the fact that it's the sort of game that needs a save feature, as the game could take hours to complete, but doesn't have one. The only reasonable way to see the later parts of the game is to use a cheat code that opens up a password screen, then enter a password there. (Note that you can't get a password of your own.)

Much more enjoyable:
* Many of the incremental games I've played, like Cookie Clicker and Swarm Simulator. I love seeing the numbers go up and the math involved if you want to optimize your playing. (Other good games in this genre are Universal Paperclips (one of the harder games of this genre) and Candy Box 2.)

Much less enjoyable than expected :

Dead Space 2.

To most people this is their favourite in the series, but I did not like it as much as the first one, by a large margin. It was OK, so it's not a bad game per se.

What I don't like is the pacing; the game is too frantic and fast-paced, and relies too much on jump-scares. The first Dead Space game had a slower pace and was much more atmospheric .I also retained a lot more memories from the first game than the second one, as it has more memorable scenarios and battles. I remember the "eye" scene and baby-room scene from Dead Space 2, but that's about it. Whereas I could recall almost everything from the first game, long after I finished it.

So compared to the first game, which I still think is one of the best games I have ever played, this follow-up was significantly less enjoyable than I expected it to be. To the extent that I have only ever replayed the first game.

Much more enjoyable than expected :

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (an appropriate pick since it recently appeared here)

The first game was OK at best, it had some very annoying check-point systems, companion AI that was rather bad, and a narrative that felt disjointed, especially at the end. So I was rather sceptical about the first game.

Dog Days though, is an entirely different type of game and experience. This is Tarantino, Takeshi Kitano and John Woo combined into a computer game format. I like the rawness, the spectacle, the pacing, the combat ... frankly, I only wish the game was longer. One of my favourite shooters.

Looking at my recent experience.

- Much less enjoyable than expected :

The Last of Us. It wasnt a bad game per say but was overhyped. The story was ok, basically the Road but in video game form and the combat system is mediocre, essentially a discount Resident Evil 4. Looking into its dev history, the developers did take ICO and Resident Evil 4 as inspirations when designing the combat system and also purposefully nerfed the main character to make him more of an every man so the weaker combat system makes sense but made it less fun. Again, it isnt a bad game and was quite enjoyable but since many people hyped it up as game of the decade and best game ever made, I was quite underwhelmed with the experience.

- Much more enjoyable than expected :

Days Gone. On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Days is an underrated gem that I loved. This game was panned by critics and got middling to low scores across the board. It also does seem to be another zombie game. I picked it up for cheap since a friend said it was good and it is honestly amazing. The combat is fun, story is interesting (although I admit the last quarter undermines the overall narrative), the game is long and honestly could have been two games. I was a fan of the walking dead tv show and this game gave me the closest experience to playing as a character in the walking dead where single zombies arnt an issue but a horde is pretty terrifying. Its also a game with great progression, starting off as a relative weakling that needs to rely on stealth to survive turning into a one man army (literally). I cant recommend this game enough and do wish it came to GOG.