Subnautica, I thought it was just minecraft under water, which sounded ok. Didn't expect it to have a story, absolutely didn't expect it to have an interesting story. The audio logs had some charming characters, ham and cheese had me cracking up whilst trying not to die. BUT, the exact moment I realized this game was special was the translated message you get after getting your arm poked, suddenly hours of environmental story telling snap into place as you realize what is about to happen. 11/10 would buy again.

Outer wilds, went in blind (as you should) was not disappointed.

Horizon Zero Dawn - From what I saw from the marketing seemed just odd. Relatively primitive looking humans fighting animal shaped robots. It just looked a bit too gimmicky. Several years after it's initial release I saw that it was on sale and gave it a shot. I was genuinely surprised by the depth of the story. It was much more emotionally impactful than I expected and the story now feels almost prescient.

Hades. Hate roguelikes. Quite enjoyed that.

These three jump out at me. I went blind on all three.

• Portal 2 - I genuinely had no idea what it was about when I started, and I certainly did not expect comedy.
• Titanfall 2 - Bought it on release because I wanted a solo FPS game. Amazing. I wish I could experience it for the first time again.
• Spiritfarer - I cried. A lot.

Dwarf Fortress.

And, I mean pre-steam release.

The ASCII graphics, controls and everything about it were not appealing to me. I started playing it because of the Boatmurdered story and some friends trying to recreate that. We started playing and rotating fortresses on a random Friday night.

And once things started to click? I put way too much time into it. I'd eventually mod it and make it easier to play but I put many many hours into it.

I wouldeventually put the game down after that initial burst and then years later the steam release came, making it much more enjoyable and well... A couple thousand hours later I still keep going back to it.

Control. I've always had a fondness for SCP-related stuff so when I saw Control on sale for $3 or $4 it was an instant mindless purchase. Bored a few days later I decided to give it a go, and then I went and beat the entire game and the DLC. Great power fantasy, great lore, great voice acting, fun moment to moment gameplay balanced between exploring, upgrading, story beats, and boss fights. Also ties in to their other games like Alan Wake; I haven't played that one, but I've strongly considered it just because of Control and wanting more of that universe.

Hollow Knight. I tried playing it back when it came out but it wasn't until silksong was about to come out I gave it a shot. Was obsessed with the game and almost did everything in the game. Never thought I'd like a Metroidvania this much before

Inscryption, I went in expecting a short card based escape room with a lil bit of meta story. I found so much more, by the end the risk investment was great!

Disco Elysium..., totally not my kind of game, gameplay-wise. I reluctantly accepted to give it a go after my best friend sold it to me passionately. and damn

Saints Row the third. It hit a few right spots with me that GTA never could

Also Darksiders. I got it as a preorder bonus for Space Marine 1 and i ended playing it was more. Really like the universe.

Gris

I was looking for a game to play with my daughter and I saw it included in the Apple Arcade subscription.

…. I don’t remember ugly bawling like that at the end of a game. Truly a work of art.

Deep Rock Galactic. Even after a few years, I still regularly play this one with a group of friends.

Another non-VN guy, but 1000xResist became one of my favorite games despite being essentially a VN. Like the gameplay is literally just walking up to people and talking, and the dialogue options don't impact the story at all, but damn if the narrative wasn't enough to earn a 10/10 from me

marvel's midnight suns. the only other turn based game ive played was fallout 1. i just expected something to scratch my superhero video game itch and instead found a new favorite. im on my 2nd playthrough now and still loving it. my favorite "relaxing" game

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

I usually don't have the patience for VNs with minimal gameplay, but the atmosphere, soundtrack and the general mood of the game got me hooked.

Most recently, Slay the Princess. It's a VN, and I typically do not play VNs, but wow. It's actually quite amazing and I can't actually tell you why because it'd spoil it.

I get pleasantly surprised all the time though, since I like to use a randomizer to choose my next game sometimes. I think one of the other experiences was the Rusty Lake games. I got them in a bundle and since it was a puzzler, I had my friend join me in comms and it was... very strange. But we will use references from those games as insider nods to one another.

Botw it was my first zelda game I played, never expected myself to enjoy the game that much.

The saboteur

Picked it up randomly back in the day with 0 expectations . I loved playing this game. The way it uses black and white to express the despair of ww2 France , slowly transforming to colour as you destroy nazi infrastructure and the tide of the war changes is so satisfying .

Talos Principle 2. It’s a solid chamber puzzle game like Portal, but the philosophy audio logs were so good that they shifted my real world views into a less nihilistic place.

It's not that deep, but I thought Ultrakill wasn't something I'd enjoy. Now I don't enjoy any shooter that isn't like Ultrakill

God of War 2018. I had never played any of the GOW games and I tried this one on a whim.

I fell in love with it immediately.

Hollow Knight and by extension, Elden Ring.

I was always rather nervous to play Souls games, and these games are challenging as hell.

I’m not very far in either game — having just beaten the first boss in HK and I just beat Margit in Elden Ring.

But god, that rush when you beat a boss in either game is amazing. Took me about 8 tries to beat Margit and I was so excited when I won.

I can see why people love this genre now.

I never finished Tunic, I got stuck on some relatively simple fight and it put me right off it. Always vowed to come back but I havent yet.

I loved how it took me back to being 3 years old though playing my dads Nintendo. Can sort of work out what the manual is telling me based on pictures, but cant read the language.

Slime rancher and slime rancher 2 were shockingly wonderful experiences. Completely different than my typical type of game. Usually I just play M rated open world RPGs.

Detroit: Become Human. I skipped it it when it was released and totally never played it. Recently I got it on discount and tried it out. Even my wife is extremely invested in the story and she doesn't even play games.

Psychonauts. I just saw a few times this game on some top game lists and decided to try. Man, this game fucking rocks! Also, Psychonauts 2 is also epic and Compton's level should be made into a standalone game! What an epic imagination devs at Double fine have!

Rust. I was there during Beta. Me and one my friend had fun. But once Garry had remade it to what it is today, we tried to play with more people. I hate the game but it is also so much fun with friends.

Heavy modded Minecraft. Once only vanilla payer, my friends finally convinced me to play TPPI with them. Never going back to vanilla.

the binding of issac, looked lame at first, but i put 500+ hours on it

Back in the day Morrowind on a Twilight disc. I'm not into fantasy at all, but that game took me for a spin that lasted many years.

A bit of an odd choice, but Half Life 2's episodes.

I really didn't like the base game, it was a huge disappointment after playing the first one imo. So I expected the episodes to be just more of the same, but they turned out to be so much better than what I expected.

For anyone wondering how I could not like base HL2, I also think of Halo 3 as being the second worst Halo. I have some odd stances like that.

I played Warframe for about 3 years before I realized it was my favorite game ever. As in I was 12 when I started playing, and at the time, it was just what I had. It wasn't until I got my first personal gaming laptop and began playing on there that I realized how much I liked it, and started engaging in the community more.

JoeAAverage, if you're out there: Thanks, man. It may have seemed like a small gift at the time—especially for an already 3-year player—but now, 11 years in, I still can't be certain that I would've realized how cool of a game I had in my hands had you not gifted me that Limbo set. Limbo may be forgotten by DE, and I may not play him much anymore, but he will always be my favorite frame.

BG3. Never played the first two, and I find some games like that have bad writing (like every bit of dialog feeling like it's overstaying it's welcome, being way to chatty and/or dull). I think I saw Cohh playing it (pretty sure that was my introduction to him) and I was blown away by the early access writing and mechanics. I bought the early access right away and was enthralled in it's writing, the plot, the dynamic choices based on class, race, or deity choice, and the music. There used to be a lady sitting next to the waterfall in the grove that had a whole sob story and a music box. Seeing the thralls on the nautiloid and the implications of what it all meant... I was really sad the release was so different. Still very good, but wasn't as good. But as it stands it is one of the few games I've actually completed, and I think it's the only game I've actually completed multiple times. Needless to say I'm very looking forward to Divinity.

Then Expedition 33. When I first saw gameplay I really thought it was just another Persona clone. I thought that due to the menu layout in combat. Day it released, saw some gameplay and decided to take a risk and bought it. Before I even left for the expedition... I already told my friends it was GOTY, it just dethroned KCD2.