What games surprised you by being way better than you expected going in?

[Jade]

Picked up a certain game purely because it was on sale and had genuinely zero expectations, ended up being one of my favorite gaming experiences of the whole year

Curious what people's actual biggest surprise is, the game you almost skipped entirely that ended up completely exceeding whatever low expectations you walked in with

[Pixel Mark]

A game I bought purely as a filler between bigger releases ended up eating an entire month of my free time, didn't see that coming at all

[ThreadNecro98]

Picked up a game based purely on a friend's recommendation with zero prior knowledge, turned out to be one of the most emotionally affecting games I've ever played

[Sentry39]

genuinely small indie game with almost no marketing budget ended up being more memorable to me than several full price blockbuster releases that same year

[GoalPoacher42]

A sequel to a franchise I'd given up on completely surprised me by fixing literally every complaint I had with the earlier entries

[TheGame]

A demo I tried purely out of boredom turned into a full purchase within an hour and then a legitimate obsession for the following month

[Kev5]

A game I initially dismissed based on the marketing trailer alone turned out to have incredible writing once I actually gave it a real chance

[CipherMonk]

Bought a game purely because of a discount, expected a throwaway experience, and ended up thinking about the story for weeks afterward