video games really are terrible, others end up getting a bit more hate than they deserve. This can happen for a variety of reasons, be it an underwhelming launch, over-inflated expectations, or even manufactured controversy.

This initial word of mouth can end up sticking a game with a bad reputation that it doesn’t deserve. This could mean some players end up skipping great games simply because they had an unfair stigma surrounding them. Many of these games have been revisited since their contentious launches, only for players to find that they missed out on some seriously good games.

10 No Man's Sky Hasn't Stopped Adding Features

No Man's Sky Was Initially Criticized For Missing Promised Features

It’s hard to pretend that No Man’s Sky’s developer, Hello Games, wasn’t at fault for the initial wave of harsh criticism of the game. Players were promised an in-depth universe they could explore, an intergalactic war they could influence, and factions they could . When the game actually came out, what players really got were a bunch of identical-feeling procedurally generated worlds, a barebones crafting system, and a lot of boring mining/resource collection.

While this disastrous launch made many players write off No Man’s Sky, Hello Games was determined to do right by the fan base they had let down. In the eight years since its initial release, No Man’s Sky has added a lot of content that was initially promised into the game. It has also added new biomes to spice up the worlds and even mini-games like the Galactic Bug Hunt, which is a Helldivers 2-style mission. There’s also now a multiplayer function so players can travel the stars with friends.

9 The Outer Worlds Was A Victim Of High Expectations

The Outer Worlds Doesn't Need To Be The Best Obsidian Game To Be Good

The Outer Worlds had the unenviable task of living up to Obsidian’s previous open-world RPG: Fallout: New Vegas. Unfortunately, many players felt it failed to do so. This was partially due to the less open nature of its world, though being disconnected from a popular IP probably didn’t help much either. Some players also expressed being turned off by its overt political messaging.

However, just because The Outer Worlds wasn’t on par with one of the greatest RPGs ever released, doesn’t mean it was a bad game. Like the Fallout series, The Outer Worlds offers a look at a bleak future and uses an irreverent sense of humor to skewer concepts like corporatism and the mistreatment of employees at the hands of big business. The game also has a unique cast of characters, several neat worlds to explore, and good weapon and enemy variety. It also offers a lot of freedom when it comes to completing missions, allowing for creative problem-solving.

8 Cyberpunk 2077 Has Fixed Its Game-Breaking Bugs

Cyberpunk 2077 Was Nearly Unplayable At Launch Due To Glitches

Like No Man’s Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 was the victim of a bad launch. Except, instead of missing features, the game just didn’t work. The bugs were so bad that many players opted not to play, and Sony even temporarily removed the game from the PS Store. After having been hyped up for years, the game essentially became a punchline, or else a cautionary tale for expecting too much from a game.

In another example of a developer not being satisfied with releasing a substandard product, CD Projekt Red buckled down and made sure to turn Cyberpunk 2077 from an unplayable mess to a masterpiece of an RPG.

Their efforts eventually culminated in the incredibly well-received and award-winning expansion, Phantom Liberty. Players who were burned by this game at the release had good reason to give up on it at the time, but if they held onto their copy they should boot it up again and see how much better it has become.

7 League Of Legends Owes Its Bad Reputation To Some Toxic Players

League Of Legends Is Fun, But The Community Can Be Rough

League of Legends is an interesting case because it seems to be the people who play it the most who talk the most trash about it. However, anyone who plays League likely knows that talking trash is just kind of a way of life for many players. It’s hard to deny that the League community has its issues with toxicity, but this doesn’t mean the game itself isn’t fun to play.

Its many champions, builds, and strategies make League a fun puzzle to solve for anyone who enjoys spending time analyzing matchups and win rates. In many ways, League is the type of video game that sports nerds can sink their teeth into. The game also vastly improves when playing with a group of friends, which helps cut down on unpleasant interactions with other players.

6 Mass Effect 3 Succeeded In More Ways Than It Failed

Mass Effect 3's Endings Were Criticized For Feeling Too Similar

There have been a lot of words spent bemoaning the ending of Mass Effect 3. Many players felt that their choices throughout the series were largely invalidated because the endings were all very similar to one another. However, fixating on the last moments of the story instead of looking at the Mass Effect trilogy as a whole kind of misses what an accomplishment these three games were.

Sure, maybe the absolute ending was largely set in stone, but a story is often more about the destination than the journey. By the end of Mass Effect 3, players were able to look back at the relationships they developed across the games, the impacts of major decisions like curing the Krogan of the Genophage, and the consequences of choices like deciding to save Ashley or Kaidan. While not every individual storyline or choice was groundbreaking, this trilogy of games was still a massive accomplishment for video game storytelling.

5 Dark Souls 2 Is Better When Not Being Actively Compared To Other FromSoftware Games

Dark Souls 2 Was Largely Panned For Being Too Different From Dark Souls

Dark Souls 2 was initially seen as a big disappointment from its predecessor. Players didn’t enjoy the lack of enemy variety, the fact that the world was less cohesive, or what seemed like needless difficulty spikes in an already tough franchise. In short, Dark Souls 2 was too dissimilar to Dark Souls for players to be immediately sold on it.

As the Soulsborne franchise went on, and each new entry developed its own unique identity, players became accustomed to switching up their playstyle between games. The way one plays Bloodborne is very different from how they’d play Sekiro, and both differ greatly from Elden Ring’s strategy. Now that players know not to treat each game in the Soulsborne series the same way, players have revisited Dark Souls 2 and found that it is more enjoyable when treated as its own game with its own strategies, instead of thinking of it as an extension of Dark Souls.

4 DmC: Devil May Cry Still Has Solid Gameplay

DmC: Devil May Cry Does A Lot Wrong With The Story, But Its Gameplay Holds Up

Similar to its redesigned version of Dante, DmC: Devil May Cry was a game that made itself hard to like. It was a reboot made by developers who seemed needlessly antagonistic toward the original series. This rubbed many fans of the original the wrong way who were not happy that a new Devil May Cry not only ignored most of the established canon but also gave them a subpar version of their favorite protagonist to play.

While some of the cutscenes and dialogue can be a little cringe-worthy, DmC: Devil May Cry does not deserve to be completely written off as an entry in the series. The gameplay itself was very accessible, allowing players to easily string together impressive and stylish combos.

There were also some fun boss fights and inventive designs for enemies. For players who are more interested in Devil May Cry games for how they play instead of their story, DmC: Devil May Cry is a worthy entry in the series.

3 Batman: Arkham Origins Is Better In Hindsight

Many Players Were Sick Of Batman Games Telling Similar Stories At The Time

Understanding why Batman: Arkham Origins was so disliked takes some context. The game was released on the heels of the first two Arkham games, and players were excited for a new direction in the story.

The first two games had relied so heavily on the Joker, that it was exciting to see the trailers for Origins focusing heavily on Deathstroke and Black Mask. Unfortunately, Deathstroke turns out to be a minor villain and Black Mask is a fake-out who quickly gets replaced by the Joker.

While players at the time were getting a little sick of the Arkham formula and were especially sick of the Joker, revisiting Arkham Origins shows that the game was not nearly as bad as it was made out to be. There are some valid complaints that the combat is clunkier than other entries, but it still manages to capture a similar rhythm as the better games in the series, like Arkham City. It also doesn’t have a lot of tedious and out-of-character tank levels like Arkham Knight.

2 The Last Of Us Part II's Challenging Narrative Was Never Supposed To Make Players Happy

The Last Of Us Part II Saw Major Backlash Over Narrative Decisions And Due To Some Manufactured Controversies

The Last of Us Part 2 rubbed a lot of players the wrong way when it first came out. Some felt cheated that Joel died so early on, while others were frustrated that they had to start playing as his killer, Abby, midway through the game. Some players took their hatred of Abby way too far, harassing her voice actor Laura Bailey.

The game also saw unfair backlash for its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters. As the outrage and toxicity surrounding the game reached a fever pitch, the quality of the game itself took a backseat in discussions.

This is a real shame because The Last of Us Part II is one of the most emotionally moving stories ever told in a video game. The game forces players to embody a character they initially hate and learn to empathize with her as a way to illustrate the way the cycle of violence warps otherwise good people, and leads to nothing but pain. Anyone who skipped this game due to the backlash is missing out on a very moving story.

1 Spec Ops: The Line Is A Work Of Art, Even If The Gameplay Is Stale

Spec Ops: The Line Is Fairly Criticized For Its Gameplay, But Its Worth Playing Despite That

Spec Ops: The Line poses a question: can a video game be good, even if its gameplay leaves a lot to be desired? To a not-insubstantial group of players, the answer seems to be no. Spec Ops: The Line has been criticized for its generic third-person shooting which starts to feel like a repetitive chore. Players have also pointed out that the game’s controls can be a little frustrating because multiple actions are bound to the same inputs, causing some confusion.

What gets lost in discussions over controls or play style is the fact that Spec Ops: The Line helped do one thing that many video game enthusiasts claim to care a lot about: prove that video games can be art. Spec Ops: The Line comments on the nature of violence in video games, and serves as a shocking illustration of the effects of white phosphorus, an incendiary used during the Fallujah Offensive in 2004. It doesn’t matter that Spec Ops: The Line has some clunky gameplay, because it is ultimately more about the message.