PixlBit

I think there are a lot of games I don't really enjoy all that much but have an easy time getting through and keep playing for that reason. 

In my case, it has more to do with games being too long and overstaying their welcome, or just not being streamlined enough. I know I can ignore all that shit on the map, but doing so messes with me, so I wind up bored going through easy fetch quests. That's more of a me problem than bad game design necessarily, but I do hope games stop focusing SO much on open world trinkets in the near future. Or just don't show me everything on the map so I don't feel the need to get rid of those icons. I realize I can do that, but if I see those things on the map before switching them off I feel like I'm playing the game "wrong." 

Ok, I gotta work on me ...

Anyway, if your game is more than 15 hours, I suspect you padded it out. 

I feel the same about some games being too long and over staying their welcome. The Surge is actually on the shorter side of most souls-likes and there is no map, icons or real sense of direction which forces you to explore every corner looking for shortcuts. Finding shortcuts back to base, or picking up new weapons or armor is rewarding in itself, instead of following NPC quests or markers. I think for these reasons I have a higher tolerance for it, and I find the grind addicting. 

Playing Skyrim recently, I enjoyed the game more when I was just wandering the landscape and finding random dungeons, but I didn't like the rewards or boss fights at all and when the map got full of quest markers I felt overwhelmed and got bored. Same thing with GTA 5. I just like my games short and to the point I guess.

Yeah, I need to start shutting off waypoint markers.

That's an odd situation to be in but at the same time I can relate. I think we all have encountered a game or two like this where you want to just walk away but you end up loading it back up and sinking more time into it.

Part of it has to do with me playing through games that I missed the conversation about when they first came out, so I'm playing catch up. It's more of a text-book research/analysis type of play throughs that's keeping me playing through games I normally wouldn't be that interested in. I like souls games, but I haven't really enjoyed many clones except for maybe The Surge, but it's mainly the addition of Monster Hunter part carving and armor collection as well as map-less areas to explore without hand-holding that I appreciate. There's also a nice variety of odd weapons to mix things up when I get tired of the same combat.

I can't think of many modern games I feel like that about, but I know they're out there. But there have been games in the past that I liked that I understand kind of suck... Zelda 2 comes to mind. Hey, if you enjoy it, enjoy it. 

I didn't know Zelda 2 was bad until I got older and everyone said it was bad. That was one of those games I would get tips for in the playground, like a lot of other NES games.  Deadly Premonition, Silent Hill and Resident Evil games all have considerably bad controls, also Monster Hunter, but they are still good. Weird, that can't decide if bad-but-good zone?

The Surge looks pretty neat. I usually get frustrated with more tactical type fighting games like the Souls game, but I admire what they do. I'll give it a shot if it appears on Game Pass.