Will Cyberpunk 2077 be handheld soon? TOP 5 games that were first hated and then loved

If the reviews for the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 were immediately laudatory, then the console release was a real failure. However, with each patch the situation is improving, albeit slowly, and at the same time the confidence of the players is growing. Of course, this is not the first such case in history: the attitude of fans towards many games has changed dramatically for the better over time. It is about the projects that we first hated and then loved that we will talk about in this article.

In 2017, Electronic Arts launched the «first loot box war», which united gamers of all ages, genders and religions in a crusade against an American corporation. Star Wars Battlefront 2 was expected to have exciting multiplayer and a storyline starring an evil imperial. However, everything about the game was bad. The developers were not particularly criticized for the story mode, where our hero quickly rethinks his priorities and switches to the light side. But multiplayer became the reason for the real persecution of EA.

The main problem of the game was pay-to-win loot boxes, which strengthened the characters of those players who were ready to donate. And yes, Battlefront 2 is not some free-to-play, but a project with an impressive full price! And if gamers wanted (and they did) to play as Darth Vader or other legendary heroes, they had to go to the game like they were going to work and grind for dozens of hours. The scandal was so loud that even Disney could not stand it and intervened.

The gamers' crusade has ended victoriously. Electronic Arts has made many positive changes to the project, and today playing Star Wars Battlefront 2 is truly enjoyable. Loot boxes are optional and purely cosmetic, there is much more content, and leveling up is almost never tiring. Electronic Arts managed to make a worthy Star Wars project, and gamers appreciated it.

At one time, only the lazy did not praise Bethesda. While more and more developers were interested in session crafts, Todd Howard and his colleagues created games such as Dishonored 2, The Evil Within 2, Doom , and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. The company even launched the hashtag #SavePlayer1 in support of single projects.

Unfortunately, most single-player games either barely paid off or failed miserably failed. In the first month of release, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus sold only 550 thousand copies, and The Evil Within 2 — 227 thousand. For such high-budget and impressive projects, this is very modest. Bethesda needed another profitable game besides The Elder Scrolls Online. That's why the company decided to take on multiplayer Fallout 76. Of course, some of the developers' statements about the lack of NPCs and experiments with servers were alarming, but still every fan of the post-apocalypse was really looking forward to the opportunity to find themselves in the Wasteland again. But the release was a real disaster.

Fallout 76 was problematic in everything: bugs were not only annoying, but also broke the passage, the servers were constantly crashing, the world was empty and dull. It is not surprising that at the start the project received extremely negative reviews, and discs with the game were sold in retail stores for next to nothing, just to get rid of them as quickly as possible. It seemed that Fallout 76 could no longer be saved, and the best thing to do was simply apologize and forget about its existence.

However, the developers thought differently. They rolled up their sleeves and began painstakingly fixing bugs, fixing problems with servers, and most importantly, filling the game with content. A year later, players were returning to Fallout 76, and ratings gradually began to rise. The launch of Fallout 76 was one of the most disastrous in the history of the industry, but this stage has long passed.

Today Final Fantasy 14 is rightly considered one of the most exciting MMOs. It has an excellent plot that is worthy of a single-player RPG, tons of content, interesting combat, nice visuals, an amazing soundtrack and many other advantages. It is logical that the ratings on Steam are very positive. Gamers love her. Many even managed to forget that it was not always like this, and one day the project had to be restarted.

The game was released back in 2010 and was not much like the current version. The start was simply disastrous, and two and a half months after the release, Square Enix had to admit that the game not only failed, but also caused serious damage to the brand.

However, instead of falling into despair and closing the unprofitable and useless project, the publisher made a very creative decision. One day, all the remaining players were brought together to participate in a story mission, which unexpectedly ended with... the powerful dragon Bahamut causing the end of the world. The world died, good was defeated, and Final Fantasy 14 went to be reworked. The finale was overshadowed by the collapse of the servers, but it still turned out to be so epic that it forced many to wait with hope for a reboot. And the updated version has become one of the most successful MMOs in the world.

It's funny that Square Enix seems to have stepped into the same river twice, because right now the publisher is in a similar situation. We're talking, of course, about Marvel's Avengers. Even such a powerful money-making machine as The Avengers refused to work in the hands of the publisher. However, perhaps, given the successful experience of the Japanese in reboots, it's too early to give up on «The Avengers»? Imagine Thanos suddenly coming into the game world and causing a new end of the world with a snap of his fingers! After this, she definitely should have been given a second chance.

Blizzard's path to the third part of the legendary series was not easy. Just think, development began in 2001 — just a year after the release of Diablo 2. The Blizzard North studio worked on the project for five years, which eventually closed due to «poor performance over the unannounced sequel», which was Diablo 3. The developments were transferred to Blizzard Entertainment, where work continued. The release took place after eleven (!) years of development, but even such an impressive period was not enough to avoid problems at the start.

Not only to pass, but even just to launch Diablo 3 on the day of release was almost impossible due to constantly crashing servers. «Error 37» has become a meme in its own right. «The servers are busy at this time. Please try again later (Error 37)». This is exactly the inscription that greeted most gamers eager to shred crowds of enemies and collect loot. As it turned out, Blizzard simply could not correctly assess the interest in its project and did not provide the necessary server capacity. As a result, fans suffered for a long time, threw tomatoes at the developers and gave the threequel bad ratings.

But there were also in-game reasons for dissatisfaction! The poor balance pushed the gamer, who was faced with insurmountable difficulties, to go to the auction and spend real money there. Luckily, Blizzard has been very active in tinkering with the game. In three months since the release, eighteen (!) patches and hotfixes were released, which corrected at least some of the problems and made the «diabloid» playable. The developers continued to improve the game, and Diablo 3's ratings began to change for the better day by day. Perhaps the attitude towards the game is still not the most unambiguous, but even after almost ten years it is popular and is one of the best representatives of the genre.

In 2016, No Man's Sky became the cause of a truly huge scandal. At first, gamers listened in awe to Sean Murray's inspiring speeches about eighteen quintillion different planets, each of which will be open for exploration, about colossal possibilities and exciting multiplayer. Is it worth reminding us how everything turned out at the release?

Countless planets turned out to be the most boring thing in the world, grinding was tiring in the very first hours, there was simply nothing to do, and the announced multiplayer turned out to be a hoax, because it was technically impossible to meet a live player. It seemed that absolutely all publications buried No Man's Sky and branded it the main disappointment not only of the year, but almost in the entire history of the industry.

But the developers refused to accept the fate of their creation and decided to correct the mistakes at all costs. Two years later, a major addition called Next was released, which plugged many holes, greatly changed the game balance and generally made No Man's Sky an exciting game. The main thing is that the project finally began to set clear goals and objectives for users, filling every action with meaning. As a result, today the Hello Games game is an example of how the developers were able to radically change the attitude of the community from hatred to acceptance and even love.

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As you can see, a failed release is not always a death sentence for a game, because hard work can pull even the most hopeless projects out of the abyss of despair. And what games have your attitude towards changed from hatred to love? Write in the comments!