There are definitely games (and books and movies etc) that I didn’t like at first but which grew on me by the end. I often think of this as “finding the [media’s] voice.” I perform public readings sometimes, so even in my private reading if I can’t read a book in “the voice” it feels like the author was going for then I can’t connect to it. Same in video games.

Like I recently started on RoboCop Rogue City. It’s good and I’m enjoying it. But it took me a month to get past the first stage. Partly I had some crashing issues but I also just didn’t get it. Its an FPS, you play RoboCop, the aiming feels off and the shooting seems clunky and wooden to me…

But, at some point it clicked and I started enjoying the game and moving through it at “normal” pace. It’s almost more like a gallery shooter, like Time Crisis. Yeah its an FPS but the way enemies arrange themselves in layers in a big warehouse, popping their juicy vulnerable heads in and out of cover: its clearly drawing on that “shooting gallery” experience, and this is to play into the film’s language as well.

However, there’s a limit on my patience for this. Sometime i just know a game mechanic or character is going to be too annoying for me and I bail. Or if i get about 6 hours in and I’m still not getting it, not enjoying myself. That’s usually when I’ll give it up.