Which games did you buy at random and were completely blown away by?

[Deleted member 924886]

For me it was Uncharted 4. I expected absolutely nothing and hadn't played any of the previous games. It completely captivated me. Probably the most beautiful PS4 game. And this Playstation 2 games "The Getaway" and "The Getaway Black Monday" are absolute 10/10 games with absolutely divine voice acting. A worthy GTA clone.

 

[Kremiso]

Blood Omen Legacy of Kain on PS1, absolutely no idea how the game was.
Consumed

Darkness and Condemned (first chapters) on Xbox360;
Baiten Kaitos on Gamecube

a lot more indeed

 

[Sumea]

Kinda random; 13 sentinels.
Likely best psn 15€ sale buy ever. Though, I was already aware of the game from whispers, so it was not entirely random but opportunistic.

 

[Tonberry]

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Had no expectations (I don’t even like AC) when I bought it on a whim on a sale, but I hoped it would be an Ancient Greece adventure RPG and that’s exactly what I got.
Wanted just a game like that since I was a kid so it was kinda perfect in that way.

 

[PSVitaForever]

"Samurai Warrior Chronicles" 3ds (never played a musou before, I simply saw the case at gamestop and decided to buy it, it's been my favourite despite obvious flaws)

 

[BrawlMan]

• Bloody Roar 2
• One
• Ikaruga on GameCube.
• Viewtiful Joe
• Samurai Warriors 4
• Dynasty Warriors 8XL
• Oneechanbara Z2 Chaos
• Hard Reset Redux

 

[Jon-Patrick-S]

I literally picked up the first Uncharted game in a bargain bin sale without any knowledge of what it was supposed to be or that it was made by the same developer whose games I'd loved growing up. Maybe for that reason of having no expectations it remains my personal favourite of the series.

Also on the PS3 there was Yakuza 3 (way back before that series really blew up in the west), Way of the Samurai 4, The Saboteur, The Darkness and Valkyria Chronicles. Man the second hand game store trawling experience was such a fun experience back in that sixth to seventh gen, I don't even really bother for newer consoles these days cos the finds are rarely as interesting and the bargains don't feel as substantial either.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I brought 'Pandemonium!' in a whim some time around 1997 - and only because 'Tomb Raider' was completely sold out - and I loved it so much that it became an instant classic, the kind my sister and I would play constantly and my best friend and I would organize entire sleepovers around.

What a beautiful thing.

 

[Morgan Katarn]

Yakuza 4 was the first game in the series bought it randomly at local game store back in the days. Saw it setting in the pre-owned section for like 10 bucks. Played it got hooked and finished all 6 games in the series.

Mass effect 2 remember buying on a sale randomly and well got hocked.

 

[CaesarAlbus]

Kingdom Hearts 2, went "look, Disney characters!!" after seeing the cover art, bought, went home played it for a bit and was disappointed with the whole Roxas prologue and no Disney to be found. Then I gave it a second chance and surprisingly found it was the best game of all time.

 

[Kovlak]

Silent Hill Downpour

I bought it on sale for 20€. I wasn't expecting much from it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite horror videogames ever.

I eventually sold it with the rest of my 360 collection, only to rebuy it, a decade later, for 55€ used. Still worth it!

 

[ThatOneLum]

Silent Hill Downpour

I bought it on sale for 20€. I wasn't expecting much from it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite horror videogames ever.

I eventually sold it with the rest of my 360 collection, only to rebuy it, a decade later, for 55€ used. Still worth it!

a kindred spirit!!!! Downpour is immense and way under-rated IMO.

For me, the game was Heart of Darkness. Tough game but so good for a random bargain bin pick.

 

[Kovlak]

a kindred spirit!!!! Downpour is immense and way under-rated IMO.

Ha so I was right! I'm not the only person who loves Silent Hill Downpour. The exploration of Silent Hill is pretty cool in the game!

Also got Call of Cthulhu for 8€ in a PlayStation store sale and loved it! The story and endings are interesting and cool and it has stats making every playthrough slightly different.

 

[Deleted member 924886]

loves Silent Hill Downpour

Same, It was a very good part. I really enjoyed playing it.

 

[DanCalibur]

A bootleg Japanese copy of DuckTales 2 for my famiclone, awesome game, me and my cousins would play it all day looking for secrets. Also RoboTrek for the SNES, found it on a flea market, never heard of it before but, the Enix mark on the cover got my attention, turns out it was a very charming time travel RPG.

 

[Doomsday519]

Sleeping Dogs. Came out of nowhere for me as back then I was just trying to find any game to occupy my time. Ended up being on of my all-time favorites and still have the copy I bought to this day. Also Nier Automata & Prey, two games that I just randomly bought digitally.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Klonoa Door To Phantomile

My 12 Yo. Dumbass thought it was a Sonic character, i got the game because admitively the character was cute (Spoiler, he totally is), at first i wanted to refund the game since i found it boring, but as i played it... i found the game was fun, akin to a sidescroller take on Bubble Bobble or Snow Bros, the plot was basic but it was charming and adorable, i legitimally cried with Granpa's death and definitively bawled with the ending, Klonoa's screams as he was dragged out Phantomile still makes me shed a tear

What i expected to be a boring game turned out into a Hyperfixation that persist to the day i write this

 

[Badseed Badseed]

I know this is supposed to be for "retro games" Is 8 years retro enough?
Probably not, but anyway no other game OF ALL TIME has consistently
blown me away as much as

I have been playing for 312 hours and still going strong

 

[Deleted member 924886]

I know this is supposed to be for "retro games" Is 8 years retro enough?
Probably not, but anyway no other game OF ALL TIME has consistently
blown me away as much as

View attachment 175792 I have been playing for 312 hours and still going strong

I can understand that, it's a good game.

 

[JoeJoe45]

When I was younger and my granny/mom/whomever would ask if I wanted a new game. I just picked out Illusion of Gaia one time and then Secret of Mana another. As I got older and was buying games myself I got Wild Arms by sheer will of "fuuuuzzzzzz Final Fantasy VII is going to come out in 3 more months and I have nothing to play right now" played it until I got Final Fantasy Tactics cause "ARRRRRGH one more month till Final Fantasy VII is out and I have played the bombing mission demo disk like 20 times and I need something to keep my mind off of it." Since then I have made more rational decisions and really haven't made better ones. Gaming has had its golden nuggets since 1997 but has deuterated severely since. That time and age is kept alive with sites like this one and Rom hacks in my opinion.

 

[Kebasketball]

Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of The Abyss, Uncharted 2, Lunar 1&2, Rogue Galaxy, Far Cry 3, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Soul Caliber 2, Magna Carta 2, Custom Robo Battle Revolution, Virtua Quest, Ace Combat Zero, Persona 4, Pokemon ORAS, Pokemon X&Y, Pokemon Heart Gold&Soul Silver, Mimana Iyar Chronicle, Ys Seven, Grandia 1, Grandia 2, Cruis'n Exotica, Rampage World Tour, Snowboard Kids 2, dynasty warriors gundam reborn, Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy XIII.

Post automatically merged: Apr 18, 2026

Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of The Abyss, Uncharted 2, Lunar 1&2, Rogue Galaxy, Far Cry 3, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Soul Caliber 2, Magna Carta 2, Custom Robo Battle Revolution, Virtua Quest, Ace Combat Zero, Persona 4, Pokemon ORAS, Pokemon X&Y, Pokemon Heart Gold&Soul Silver, Mimana Iyar Chronicle, Ys Seven, Grandia 1, Grandia 2, Cruis'n Exotica, Rampage World Tour, Snowboard Kids 2, dynasty warriors gundam reborn, Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy XIII.

 

[Lokgamer]

Shadow of Mordor. I was looking some games displayed where I used to buy Xbox 360 games. I just took the box and look the back and some pictures looked fine, so I bought it. Really, it was one the best choices I've made. I loved that game.

Post automatically merged: Apr 18, 2026

Silent Hill Downpour

I bought it on sale for 20€. I wasn't expecting much from it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite horror videogames ever.

I eventually sold it with the rest of my 360 collection, only to rebuy it, a decade later, for 55€ used. Still worth it!

Though is not one of my favorites Silent Hill, I appreciated that, at least narratively, was the most decent Silent Hill since origins. It is certainly underrated.

 

[skramz]

killing floor. god motherfucking damn.

 

[Kebasketball]

Shadow of Mordor. Was looking some games displayed where I used to buy Xbox 360 games. I just took the box and look the back and some pictures looked fine, so I bought it. Really, it was one the best choices I've made. I loved that game.

Yeah I miss physical games and the artwork on them and the amazing super fun games. Anything after Ps3,Wii,Xbox 360,3DS I remember starting to feel let down on more games than any console or handheld from the past beginning with the PS Vita, don't get me wrong there was some decent games on it but nothing blew me away and then Sony gave up on it and decided to make the Ps4 and that had almost every game on the pc so I noped out of that console and same with Xbox Console none of them had games that looked like I wanted to get them and play so no Console for that and Switch 1 had barely any more power than my Nvidia K1 Android Tablet and I knew most games would have terrible fps issues or graphics watered down in order to run them since they were focusing on higher end games and I laughed back then for whoever the dodo brain was that decided on that. Long story short gaming is just not good anymore and it shows even Steam has less people buying games and games that are bought player count goes down to like 300 players in a matter of weeks to about 4 months. Crazy time to be alive with gaming I never thought it would get as bad as it has now, I know for a fact creativity is not lost it's just the higher ups in Technology whether it games, movies, tv shows, anime, manga that won't let people create anything that they want anymore but only what the higher-ups allow and see that is the problem it never used to be like that so we get too much crapification now, but alas this ran comes to an end I just feels like I should put this out there because I know many of us already know this is what is happening yet we stay silent, well not me as my name is Master K :).

 

[nobitakun]

Nier Gestalt. I only bought it because it was printed "Square Enix" on the cover and it was very cheap. I didn't like the idea of controlling an ugly caucassian muscle man and I still don't like it, but the game is simply wonderful.