So you've been trying to track down that indie game that everybody loves huh? Well, it may well have ended up here in the section I controversially like to call "Rejects." Rather than just list a bunch of games I didn't like, this is the batch of critically acclaimed titles whose very positive to overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam (and elsewhere) just failed to connect with my own personal experience. Rest assured, if you play over 2000 PC games and don't express a dislike for any of the "overwhelmingly positive" ones then your judgement really might have to be called into question. I've kept it down to 20 altogether and given a brief description of why they didn't gel. Please, no hate and take with a pinch of salt.
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Amnesia: The Dark Descent (95% positive of 13699 reviews on Steam).
This one is not strictly a disappointment because my expectations of most first-person indie-games are never that high to start with. The over-hyped Amnesia interested me because it wasn't the usual mad and frantic kill-fest but a first-person stealth game. Unfortunately, I found it to be very routine with an over-reliance on jumping puzzles and placement of boxes made scary only by the gasping and panting of the protagonist... a bit like Outlast really. There was an ok story there somewhere but soon enough I just longed to get back into some straight-up shooting again. 
The Basement Collection (87% positive of 771 reviews on Steam).
A collection of "9 award winning indie games" by the revered Ed McMillen seemed like an offer too good to refuse but these proved to be more like cheap throwaways. Keyboard bindings were illogical, nothing was explained well (if at all) and the package really did play like a shoddy bunch of games thrown together willy-nilly by a kid in his basement. A few may have eventually turned into great classics but in this bland iteration they played like poor off-cuts you just wouldn't want to play again. I tried, but this didn't last an hour on my hard-drive.
Botanicula (96% positive of 2902 reviews on Steam).
It may be a charming delight full of delicate artwork and playfully creative ideas but my experience was that I just grew more and more bored as I played. Clicking random items to see what happens and backtracking screen upon screen to see what crucial object I missed or left behind was not my idea of fun. Sure, the music was intriguing and there were some mildly humourous moments but award-winning artwork does not always equal fantastic gameplay. Sorry folks, just didn't get into this one.
Death Skid Marks (92% positive of 552 reviews on Steam).
Upgrading between playthroughs to make a campaign easier is not a new idea but making that the core element of the game is plain dull in this instance. This is an inventory management game where you'll spend most of your time fiddling around with icons at the menu screens. You'll then spend a few minutes playing a vertical scroller in a bobbling car that's supposed to be more powerful but with nothing much to suggest this is the case. Add the fact that things are either explained badly (if at all) and it can seem like a game of blind progression.
Faster Than Light (97% positive of 29764 reviews on Steam).
Sometimes a game comes along that's so critically acclaimed by both reviewers and fans alike that you start wondering if you're actually normal for not jumping on the bandwagon. FTL is such a game. I've tried this game on and off numerous times but find my motivation being sapped out like water through a hole in bucket. Reports of the game being too hard and its complicated nature are not recipes to be inspired by either. This is one of those I want to like. But like adventure games, maybe it's an acquired taste that I'll warm to later.
Gunpoint (97% positive of 8695 reviews on Steam).
This is another game that, on the surface, I feel I should enjoy but one which I never really warmed to. It has a kind of Hotline Miami abruptness to it regarding player mistakes and I think I found this to be too punishing and annoying. I also found the controls to be a little fiddly and the all-round gameplay to be a tad awkward and complicated to make me want to dive in. There is probably one more atttempt left for this one. 
Machinarium (95% positive of 5963 reviews on Steam).
Like Botanicula, this is one of those adventure games I thought I would like due to its compelling art-style and interesting ideas. But the trouble with a game of this nature is that if you get to a point that's too obscure then it's really quite hard to proceed with at all... and there are only so many times you want to break immersion and refer to a walkthrough. Machinarium certainly had charm and promise but when the difficulty spike is insurmountable, that's game over. 
Mini Metro (96% positive of 7041 reviews on Steam).
This was a title I felt sure would smash into my Top 10 puzzle games with no trouble but when I finally took the plunge, I found it to be bland, uninspiring and boring. The main deal-breaker though was when I tried to place lines on a busy map and when they'd all get tangled up with others resulting in a frustrating mess. With a tad different game mechanic, I eventually stumbled across Train Valley and realised that was the game I really wanted.
Overture (73% positive of 500 reviews on Steam).
I may be missing something here but can continuously dying on the first floor ad-infinitum in a top-down shooter really ever be fun? What did I do right? Well, I picked up all power-ups before tackling the boss; I upgraded plenty between playthroughs and - I made sure my weapons and health were all maxed out as much as poss. But, hey - whenever I encountered the boss on the first floor I'd get my arse handed to me on a plate. Every. Single. Time. Uninstall.
*This game's popularity has fallen dramatically since this entry was written.
Papers, Please (96% positive of 34409 reviews on Steam).
I can forgive the extremely dull 1990s pixel art-style and the text-based gameplay. I can even forgive the slow-moving action, limited sound and ridiculously distorted mumbo-jumbo burbled by the announcer from the loudspeaker. But the game essentially attempts to dress up and glamourize finding discrepancies in documents. Aren't people paid to do these boring administrative jobs? Why would I want to do that in my spare time? Well, I came to this game because I thought they'd spice it up. They didn't.
Retro City Rampage (89% positive of 1586 reviews on Steam).
This was supposed to be a nostalgic look back to the golden age with references to all the classic old games of the 1980s in a fun and retro setting. What I got was a pixellated splodge of a game that actually played like something from the 1980s. Add some strange design decisions with hard-to-navigate menus and you get a bit of a mess. Still, it's one of those titels I'd need to revisit in order to give it more justice. 
Lured by its mystery and intrigue, this was another title that I felt would be a sure-fire entry into my puzzle game section. Unfortuntely what I got was a dark, but albeit good-looking game, that played out not unlike one of those obscure adventure games that I've kind of grown to hate. Playing through The Room felt too much like a chore where far too much trail and error and plain confusion reigned. Of course, I am part of the massive minority so this is probably down to my own incompetence and stupidity.
Sanctum (90% positive of 1766 reviews on Steam).
Now I like a good "action tower defense" as much as the next man. Orcs Must Die, Deathtrap, Hero Defense and the Anomaly series are all well and good. But by making the experience overcomplicated and introducing far too many clunky features I think Sanctum is one that gets it wrong. Going in all first-person like and blasting away at the towers mixed with switching to a plan view and then changing camera angles again - all while balancing numbers and figuring out the best strategy is too much of a mess for my small brain to take in.
The Stanley Parable (92% positive of 33738 reviews on Steam).
Most reviewers worship this game so I know I should be questioning my intelligence here. Thing is... I just didn't get it... and for something supposedly deep and profound I actually feel kinda ripped off! You walk around an abandoned office complex while someone talks gobbledegook at you; all the while feeling something mysterious yet deep is going to happen to you. You encounter some clever wrap-around mechanics, some quirky environments and clever narration... but it never delivers on its promise and it's all over in well under an hour. 
Teleglitch: Die More Edition (89% positive of 875 reviews on Steam).
To be fair, I wasn't particularly enamoured with the game prior to purchase but after reading positive reviews and hearing the same old argument that it was something of a cult-classic and kinda special, I bit the bullet and went for the bait. Needless to say, my initial suspicions were correct and it turned out to be a pretty lame excuse for a top-down shooter after all. If blurry pixel-art with run of the mill gameplay mechanics that you've seen a hundred times before sounds like fun then go ahead and take the plunge.
Terraria (97% positive of 502716 reviews on Steam).
The fact that this game appears in this section must surely mean that the fault is with me rather than the game itself. It's basically a Minecraft style build/survival game that's most likely to be downloaded by players who know they will like this kind of game. As I had never played MInecraft before, I thought I'd download it to see if it was my sort of game. It isn't. The biggest deal-breaker for me is that it cries out to be lavished with far too much of a time-investment that I'm prepared to give it. Still, with around half a million positive reviews on Steam, I'm definitely the one losing out on something here.
To The Moon (96% positive of 37106 reviews on Steam).
I must surely have a heart of stone because there's something about being able to identify with cutesy little cartoon characters in a dinky little game that I just don't share with the vast majority of the world's population. And when the story is layered with a sentimentality that's clearly way over-indulgent and bordering on the manipulative then I'm afraid it's a turn-off for me. It's a heartfelt story sure but so overdone that it really detracts from the gameplay which, if I recall, was fairly weak involving a lot of backtracking and repetition anyway.
Triple Town (92% positive of 484 reviews on Steam).
This match 3 game was supposed to have some sort of strategic depth but in reality I found the gameplay to be extremely dull and entirely luck-based which in turn made the experience totally aimless. Personally, I recall just getting more and more impatient to take my turn and frutrated with the restricted play area. Randomly placing objects mechanically in the hope that a positive match would spring up out of the blue and with apparently zero punishment for bad play - the game left me wholly unsatisfied. *I have since, revised my feelings on this game and plan to give it a re-try at a later date.
Ubermosh (89% positive of 2054 reviews on Steam).
What can be better and more satisfying than shredding and tearing through enemies in this blast-fest of a chunky top-down shooter? Well playing a lot more top-down games other than Ubermosh I'll tell you that. Under the guise of simple gameplay mechanics but with a crunching soundtrack and Orson Wells paying a visit as the narrator - this is one of those games whose elite difficulty for the very hardcore of hardcore players is the only feature that might give it the cult status it craves. It also has that annoyingly abrupt end when you finish a run.
Undertale (96% positive of 1521 reviews on Steam).
I have most definitely missed something here and it's not even funny. We have a game featuring: an art-style reminiscent of the simplest adventure games from the 1990s; tedious dialogue trees and text-based gaming done in the most boring font imaginable; badly done mini-games that lag terribly, and all done to a dull chiptune that makes you want to cry. All overlooked in the name that it drives a great story nad is wonderfully different. True - the game has garnered huge critical acclaim and is a huge financial success! Me? I just don't get it.
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