20 Games You Deleted Before They Got Good

With countless games available today, it's easy to abandon a title the moment it feels boring and move on to something else. However, many acclaimed games deliberately bury their best content behind slow, confusing, or unconventional openings. Here are 20 games that punish early quitters but reward those who persist.

The Slow Starters

Death Stranding stands out as an obvious example. This gorgeous delivery game features an obtuse but interesting story that was widely dismissed on release for being unlike anything else in the AAA space. It's atmospheric and vibe-heavy rather than action-focused. Most players need to force themselves through the initial confusion for several hours before the game's carefully constructed catharsis becomes apparent. Once that clicks, the experience is genuinely unique.

Starfield frustrated many players with its opening hours, which involve following characters and aimlessly wandering planets. The game only opens up once you reach a point where you can explore at your own pace without constant danger. At that moment, the world becomes extremely unique and engaging, but the slow start alienated players who expected immediate gratification.

Mad Max was dismissed as a slow, generic open-world game set in an uninteresting desert. However, the gameplay loop of customizing your vehicle and engaging in intense fistfights becomes genuinely addictive. The game makes you feel like Mad Max once you commit to it, but it takes a couple hours to establish that experience.

Skyrim presents an interesting divide. The iconic dragon opening hooks many players, but others feel disengaged once the pacing slows. Some found the subsequent wandering and discovery-based gameplay less appealing than the initial high-octane sequence suggested. The game's appeal hinges on embracing its pick-a-direction-and-walk philosophy.

Fallout 4 disappointed fans of previous entries by prioritizing shooter and survival mechanics over traditional RPG elements. While justified criticism exists, the game excels in exploration and world-building. The exploration and combat mechanics, combined with the game's distinctive atmosphere, create an experience worth revisiting outside expectations of what a Fallout game should be.

Story-Heavy Beginnings

Kingdom Hearts begins with a cool tutorial scene layered with Disney nostalgia, but then strands players on a tropical island with friends before randomly intercutting Disney scenes. The opening is bizarre and disconnected from core gameplay. Once Donald and Goofy arrive and action begins, the game becomes an amazing nostalgia-driven adventure with an interesting story, but those initial hours test patience.

Cyberpunk 2077 deliberately keeps the initial experience small-scale while establishing the fiercely detailed world, its characters, factions, and stories. The game's massiveness takes time to become apparent, which can frustrate players expecting immediate immersion in such a vast setting.

The Witcher 3 frontloads extensive exposition and world-building in its opening tutorial section. CD Projekt Red seemingly anticipated many players would be encountering the Witcher universe for the first time and needed to establish context. This lengthy setup filtered out players before the game's true appeal became clear. Once the world opens up and you can ride the map, meet characters, and undertake odd jobs, the game's legendary status becomes apparent.

Pacing and Presentation Issues

Days Gone almost seems designed to bore players in its opening hours, despite marketing that emphasized explosive zombie horde combat. This core experience is indeed present, but arriving only after an extremely slow beginning. Once the world opens up and you can ride your motorcycle to find zombies, the game becomes extremely fun. The boring beginning misrepresented the entire experience and pushed many away before they discovered what Days Gone actually offers.

Red Dead Redemption 2 features an infamous snowy prologue where players simply walk while listening to cowboys discuss cowboy matters. This sequence feels disconnected from the actual game's vibe and potentially doesn't justify its length. Once the cowboy simulator portion begins and the story truly develops, it's a Rockstar masterpiece, but the lengthy introduction frustrated players after the eight-year wait from the original.

Assassin's Creed 3 opens with a bang before locking players into a painfully long exposition-heavy tutorial section. Many uninstalled during this sequence, assuming the rest of the game would be equally boring. However, Ubisoft's game seriously picks up a couple hours later and becomes one of the most entertaining entries in the series. The opening disconnect between promise and delivery severely hampered the game's reputation.

The Evil Within presented a third-person horror experience from the creator of Resident Evil 4. However, its distinctive presentation featuring black bars across the top and bottom of the screen to enhance cinematic feel, combined with a dry color scheme, caused many players to quit before the game hit its stride. Once accustomed to the visual approach, it reveals itself as a solid horror game with unique ideas.

Okami is a gorgeous action-adventure frequently cited in games-as-art discussions. However, it's notorious for a dense beginning filled with heavy text and unskippable dialogue sections featuring characters making random sounds rather than speaking recognizable language. While this world-building may be interesting, many found it obnoxious. The game becomes incredible once restrictions lift and true exploration begins.

Deceptive Openings

Dark Souls is built entirely around those moments when you finally understand what the game wants and how to progress. It's intentionally vague, teaching you about its world at the same pace as your character, without objective markers or explicit guidance. The first three to four hours involve frustratingly hitting walls without progress while not understanding the mechanics. Once the light bulb moment arrives and everything clicks, the game becomes a masterpiece. That payoff wouldn't hit as hard without the initial frustration, yet those opening hours filtered out many players.

Gears of War Judgment arrived after Gears 3 with a high bar set by fan expectations. The prequel was widely written off for being less dramatic and epic than previous entries. While the storytelling lacked detail and cinematic moments, the focus on horde fights and satisfying combat made the co-op experience genuinely fun. It wasn't as good as the trilogy and approached the franchise differently, but those who stuck with it found worthwhile content.

GTA 4 presents a case where newer players who entered the series through GTA 5 struggle with its very bland, bleak tone and slow world-opening pace. The constant errands for Roman became meme fodder. Yet the game features acclaimed story and characters, with an open world many consider the best in the series due to detailed NPC behavior. The meat of the experience justifies the slog, especially compared to GTA 5's more instant-gratification approach.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is widely regarded as one of the best single-player FPS games ever made. However, it opens as a straightforward World War II shooter with robots that doesn't immediately impress. After the opening sequence, the game jumps forward a decade and a half, where it gets going with character development, world-building, and expanded combat possibilities. The initial section is necessary for context, but because it plays like another standard World War II shooter, many players dropped it before experiencing what made it special.

Spec Ops: The Line takes this deceptive approach furthest. The game leans heavily into presenting itself as just another modern military shooter, a crowded market that could easily cause dismissal. However, as the story progresses, a profound subversion becomes clear. This is actually a psychological horror game whose impact relies entirely on those opening hours feeling like standard generic military action. The game transforms into a must-play experience, yet several players quit before discovering this transformation, convinced they were playing just another shooter.

Flawed But Worthwhile

Forspoken deserves criticism for its overall quality, but it still belongs on this list. The game takes forever to reach the fantasy parkour it advertised, while the writing and characters during this buildup are insufferable. The dialogue ranks among the worst in AAA gaming. After approximately two hours, the game finally lets you play, at which point the traversal and combat become satisfying. However, whether this good content compensates for the terrible beginning remains questionable. Reinstalling it and forcing through the initial hours reveals what others found compelling.

Atomic Heart was easy to abandon due to extreme jankiness combined with a slow start. The game borrows heavily from Bioshock's influence without being a direct ripoff. The combination of jankiness and slow pacing made it tempting to quit before reaching the parts that made people love it. With a sequel coming, revisiting the original by pushing through those opening hours reveals what generated the enthusiasm.