Biggest video game surprise?

Wticher 2 was a surprise though I had to slog through the begining for a bit but once Iorveth was introduced I was hooked (hardboiled elf, whats not to like?). Became one of my all time favorite gaming memories.

Brothers a tale of two sons also surprised the fuck out of me. Simple but engaging gameplay and a genuinely sad story. Hard for most games to generate genuine feels but Brothers did it.

Dragon's Dogma did pretty well but it still far surpassed my expectations.

Stardew Valley I expected to hate but it completely enthralled me for a couple weeks.

I'll also add Divinity Original Sin. I didn't really know what to expect since I never really liked the previous Divinity games Larian put out but D:OS is an absolute masterpiece.

This thread and the biggest disappointment thread are highly subjective. I love FTL but it wasn't a huge surprise because I heard nothing but praise about it even before I bought it.

Nester said:

Journey

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Same here. I still play this game. It still gets me in the feels.

Illusions of Gia and WildArms - both purchased because they looked like Zelda and FF respectively on the back of their box - had no clue about either and ended up really enjoying both of them, in some aspects MORE than Zelda and FF!

Alundra - think I got to buy a game for doing well on my report card and picked it at random. Hadn't heard about it and ended up being a cool puzzley rpg with some challenging material (for me at least).

FF 9 - mostly lowered expectations myself after I realized I was playing a fucking cat kid guy. The game didn't get the hype that the last installments had, but the combat and story ended up being really cool and enjoyed the ride.

Civ 3 - I always have fought my inner nerd, thinking I was too cool for lame nerdy games, but when I tried civ I was blown away by the depth and fell in love despite thinking only dorks and Sim people played this.

Guaccamelee!

So I'm guessing Everquest is a given for most of us. I was 16 or 17 at a buddy's house and I'm looking through his PC games. Always loved RPGs but had never heard of Everquest so asked him how it was. He said he got to level 4 or something and gave up. Told me it had a subscription to play and I could have it. Took it home and my life was never the same. Looking back, there are a few moments in your life where the smallest things can have the most dramatic effect on your future. Surprising, to say the least, how much one borrowed game as a teenager became a butterfly effect lasting 15 years and counting. I've been MMO-free for about 5 years now but the influence on the person I am today is just incredible.

I actually knew EQ was amazing because my friend was in the beta and wouldn't shut up about all the cool shit and the social aspect. Oddly enough we only talked about it in Sunday School.

Denamian said:

Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. I figured it would be total crap that I would ignore, but it ended up being one of the best parts of the game.

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This for me too. The multiplayer was worth the box price all by itself. I feel sorry for people who played ME3 and never tried it.

- Borderlands 2 was one for me. I picked it up to play as a 'quick game to frag some shit with my friends'... 500 hours played later.. not so much.
- Planescape: Torment, going way back here, but still stands out as my favorite rpg ever and I had heard nothing about it, buying it pretty much on a lark after thinking it was a cheap Baldur's Gate knock off
- Star Control 2, another old one that has stuck with me all these years that pretty much no one had heard about or received any hype / fan faire
- Witcher 3.. I think I have more hours in Gwent alone than most other games in recent history
- Dragon Age: Inquisition. Had some hype around it to be sure, but the game exceeded all my expectations -- especially after DA2 had just as much if not more hype around it and was... lacking
- And Everquest, of course. I was an avid MUD player when it came out and bought it on the premise that it was a MUD with graphics and nothing else. I am not sure what my /played was when I quit after PoP but I am sure it was only remotely rivaled by WoW in total life-hours wasted.

Path of Exile - 1200 hours played and counting. Never expected this game to be an all time favorite but it keeps me coming back like no other.
Everquest - I knew everquest would be a problem before I started. But even know it was a drug it still hit me so hard. Once and addict always an addict for this game.
Eve online - I had no idea what this game was when I installed it. I thought it was about boats lol. The depth of the game, the learning curve, the offline hours spent configuring ships - so good. I ache for a modern space game that has the same depth.

Starcraft-I played Warcraft but the concept of Starcraft sounded corny to me so I had no interest. My mom took me and my brother to Best Buy and I got a Janes flight sim or something and my brother got Starcraft. It took maybe 2-3 hours of me watching him to know I needed it bad, I ended up getting it a week later. My brother had the Terran box, I got the Protoss box and that's what we both ended up playing mostly.

Tribes-I was heavy into FPS's at the time, but Tribes had gameplay elements so different from Quake that were a blast to play with like skiing, jetpacks, vehicles, different loudouts, etc. It's too bad the sequels have all been garbage. I only ended up getting the game because I thought it was a mech game hah. In the early days I remember playing with the lead programmer GotMilk or whatever, pretty neat.

Everquest-In that era pc gaming magazines were still big and the online articles were taking off. I would constantly read about EQ before it's release and the concept sounded amazing, but actually getting and playing the game blew me the hell away, but I don't have to explain all of those feelings to anyone here.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic-There at a handful of games I won't mention here that were better games, but they were games I was expecting to kick ass. This game was a blast and you never really heard anyone mention it. The single player campaign was very interesting and hard to put down and the multiplayer, while very sparsely populated and not exactly balanced, was a blast.

League of Legends-I was a Dota player since 2003 and had no interest going into a new game, but after most of my friends migrated over I decided to try it out of boredom and the last 3 years it's been my most played game. The funny thing is Overwatch has pulled me away from it and it's the first FPS I have played a lot in years.