Yeah, to be clear I felt mixed about ME2's gunplay as well. But ME1's gameplay in particular always felt so off to me, and if that's OP's only experience I can totally sympathize with that.

How else would you interpret OP's question?

I don't know that it's that bad, but yeah, I couldn't get into it either.

No Man's Sky: I've tried playing it and just end up getting bored. Every once in a while I'll go back and check it out again, feeling like I somehow didn't give it a fair shake, but remain underwhelmed.

Maybe next time...

This was the game that made me realize I prefer story over infinite sandbox games.

Even after it started getting praise due to all the updates, it just felt... empty every time I went back.

The gameplay is fun, but it's hindered severely by the grind built into its core progression.

Like all grindy games, it starts fun and you feel powerful for the first few hours. But then they introduce the concept of world level and character progression as soon as you're out of the tutorial. Everything turns into damage sponges, so you have to upgrade your characters and weapons, either by grinding dailies/misc world objectives or by spinning the gatcha wheel (ideally with real money, for the developer).

Then you start to get a bit stronger, but subsequent upgrade materials are locked behind higher world levels, so you advance up. Everything gets even tankier, you feel more inclined to just spend cash to skip the grind, and then you repeat this cycle several more times until your character is all statted up and has the right relics at the right levels that you want.

To further add salt to the wound, progression is character-specific, so when you get a new character from the gatcha wheel out of its >100-strong cast of waifus and twinks, you have to start the progression from scratch for that character.

I also think it's fine to just go full strength if you want something powerful and dead simple.

Carry a colossal sword in each hand, wear the beefiest set of armor you can without going into heavy load, and then just bonk things to death while tanking a lot of hits that would otherwise instantly kill squishier characters.

And don't be afraid to use Spirit Ashes. There's this weird machismo thing among players who think that real players don't need summons, but they're there for a reason and the game was designed around them.

I really like sandbox games, but this one just didn't grab me (at least not yet).

Something about the way you fly in that game isn't satisfying.

People KEEP saying that they “fixed” that game but every time I try it it’s still a pretty generic survival game in space. I don’t see how it’s even close to what they promised.

That is how liking and disliking works, if the activity in question is sufficiently dumb. For instance, golf.

"Mom, can we have Zelda BOTW?"

"We have that at home."

Zelda BOTW at home: ...

Halo. I've been hearing about how cool and just good the games are. How deep and interesting the lore is.

I was visiting old games I heard good things about but never played. I had finished with the Half Life games and enjoyed them.

Then I decided to get the Master Chief Collection.

Started with Reach. Shooting immediately felt bad. The characters started dying off almost immediately after meeting them. Then the game was finished.

That was... Disappointing.

Well alright. Maybe Reach is a black sheep.

Onto Halo CE. Shooting felt even worse. The open areas were pretty cool, but there were a lot of small frustrations with the game. Story wasn't anything special. Certainly none of that "deep lore".

Well... Halo 2 then? Felt a lot like Halo 1. More story, yes, but it was as if the game assumed I was already invested in the story. About two thirds in I realised I was still waiting for Halo to finally become cool or good.

I stopped playing.

Decided Halo as a whole is very overrated.

It was better in the beginning I think… they gave you more control now but honestly it feels less satisfying

The gacha is a really, really big downside, but still:

Genshin Impact received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[87][88] The open world of Teyvat drew praise; IGN's Travis Northup described Teyvat as "a world that is absolutely bursting at the seams with possibilities", and Hardcore Gamer's Jordan Helm described it as "one big environmental puzzle".[27][92] Liyue in particular was picked out by Kotaku's Sisi Jiang for being "one of the most exciting regions that I've visited in a video game in years", before continuing on to discuss how the region "shows an idealized portrayal of Chinese social relations that exists in localized pockets".[100] Game Informer characterized the game as an incredible experience, noting that "[t]he gameplay loop of collection, upgrading, and customization is captivating and compelling".[91] The execution of gameplay impressed Pocket Gamer, and Destructoid's Chris Carter called the combat system "one of the most interesting things" about the game.[5][95] NPR remarked that the game had an abundance of content despite being free to play.[101] Gene Park of The Washington Post lauded the game as revolutionary for the genre, having players "imagine a mobile gaming world with titles with quality that matches the industry's top-tier experiences".[102] Polygon also praised the game for differentiating itself from its peers, heralding its arrival as mobile games become more mainstream and appealing to "an audience outside the typical mobile gaming demographic" and "new players without the hardware to play more conventional and resource-hogging RPGs".[103]

Something that is popular (or sells well) despite having no apparent appeal to anyone the commenter can think of.

I don't enjoy Bloodborne. I think I can figure out why there is a lot of hype for it.

All first person shooters. I grew up with original wolfenstien, doom, rise of the triad, unreal tournament, quake... Modding each was pretty popular.

Now all fps feel like mods of those games.

damn, should have started in order of release instead of jumping straight into reach. love halo

I had the same experience.

I kept comparing it with the absolute masterpiece that is Half-Life and it felt boring.

The story doesn't pull you, no characters are memorable, in some areas I felt like I was cleaning the exact same room over and over.

Even compared to something like Doom II, which lacks any real story and is all about playability and fun, it felt lacking.

I guess it's just not for me.

Pretty much any AAA game. It's like going to the cinema to watch a movie, just the commercials beforehand never stop