I played a heavily praised indie game expecting it to change my life and spent the first hour waiting for the magic. When I returned months later with no expectations, I had a lovely time. Hype had turned a perfectly good game into a test it could hardly pass. Which games did you appreciate more after the noise died down, or after you stopped expecting them to represent the future of gaming?
Games that are better with lower expectations than with hype
- games-worth-playing
- games
- better
- lower
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4 replies
Outer Wilds was like that for me. Everyone talked about it as if it had to rewire my brain, and once I stopped trying to have a revelation,...
Outer Wilds was like that for me. Everyone talked about it as if it had to rewire my brain, and once I stopped trying to have a revelation, I just enjoyed the exploration and the weird little discoveries.
I had the same thing with Celeste. The hype made me think every minute had to be profound, but it was better when I just took it as a hard, thoughtful platformer with a lot of heart.
Disco Elysium for me. I bounced off the giant reputation around it, then came back later and let it be a strange detective game instead of some cultural event.
That’s funny, because I had the opposite reaction to one of the big indie darlings. I liked it more when I expected less, but I still think...