I don't want to go back into the depths of time to try to remember an obscure game I played decades ago. So I'll do a recent one that people didn't necessarily hate, but didn't like as much as its predecessor and were pretty open about it.

Doom: The Dark Ages

I ended up liking it more than Eternal. It wasn't as fast paced, even though it was still fast, but you could FEEL the combat more in Dark Ages. The devs made the movement and hits FEEL more substantial. I was skeptical about the shield, but ended up loving it. Chaining together the shield attack, melee attack, and gunplay felt great. I liked the levels more than Eternal too. And they added a lot of lore to deepen the Doom universe. Main story was whatever, but that's typical for the Doom franchise.

Digimon World for the PS1.

I know it was a greatest hits game, and this is probably cheating because the game is "for the fans." But I feel a lot of people bought it and evolved a sludge monster who pooped everywhere. And then the restarted and got something they wanted, only for it to die and they have to start all over again.

But I loved the show and I loved trying to get the monster I wanted. Now, years later, the evolution requirements are demystified and I play through it every year or so.

Ngl, I've really enjoyed Fallout 76. It's still a lot of people's least favourite in the franchise, despite the updates over the years, but it's a lot of fun!

Not a favourite but back in the day, me and my friend played the shit out of Battle Arena Toshinden on the PS1. Have since heard on various podcasts that people hated it. I genuinely loved it at the time.

I didnt think Starfield was as bad as folks say.

GTA. Lotta haters Here on lemmy even though it is one of the few AAA games that hold up unlike bland and boring stuff like cod

Forspoken has one of the best battle and movement gameplay systems in gaming, or at the very least in the "power fantasy sandbox" genre. Its story and dialogue are also a very cute, earnest take on Isekai that didn't deserve the backlash they got. It has its flaws but it's absolutely nowhere close to being the utter cringe-fest and terrible game that people like Asmongold successfully convinced the rest of the internet it was (because it has a female POC protagonist, basically). Personally, as someone who wanted to live the ultimate elemental wizard power-fantasy in a game since I was a child, Forspoken gave me everything I wanted and more (like cats! Lots of adorable cats).

Dark Souls 2

Mass Effect Andromeda. It's a lot better than people give it credit for. Sure it has its issues, but no more than the original trilogy which is so revered. And the game is gorgeous, definitely the best looking ME to date - even with the trilogy legendary edition. The story was good too, it could've been the start of a great new trilogy. It doesn't have Shepard, but female Ryker was a lot of fun.

Everyone is just saying actually popular games, but ones they don't think are popular enough. If people don't have to look up the game, it's probably not answering this question (with a few infamous exceptions maybe).

Mine would be Stationeers. There's no real action or anything. It's a game about designing, building, managing, and automating a station on another world. Each world has its own issues, be that Luna with a vacuum, Mars (the easiest) with storms, no breathable atmosphere, and cold, Venus with all the Venus issues, or some made up planets with crazy problems. It simulated gasses and liquids, replicating the refrigeration cycle so you can make your own heat pumps for cooling. It's really cool, but complex and potentially boring for most people.

It's made by the studio making Kitten Space Agency. It's a studio created by the DayZ mod creator, and they seem really cool. They're very much not profit motivated, and I think they've said developing Stationeers is costing them money, at least at one point, and KSA is planned to be free and donation supported.

I loved bulletstorm.