I’m talking about games that you still like but you had no idea were criticized so much.
The perfect example for me is Sonic Unleashed.
I admit that the game has its bad things, but I would have never imagined that it was so hated at the time… Although, that could be extended to the entire Sonic franchise, since for many years I was not aware at all of that “Sonic was never good”, “Sonic had a rough transition to 3D” nonsense.
But the point isn’t to see everything. The feeling of FOMO is what’s seems to drive people to madness. For a game that’s been developed for over a decade with multiple cycles of content release every year; I’m not surprised that people don’t get a chance to see everything. I see that as a positive and not a negative.
Other games do similar things. I play a lot of Dead Cells and can’t get beyond 4BC. Most people will never get to end game content to see all bosses or unlock all items. Who cares. As long as the game is fun.
My first play through of PoE was with no guides. I made it up as I went along. Had a terrible “build”. I enjoyed taking weeks to get through the campaign slowly and reading all the lore. Every league I played, I got deeper and deeper into the content…learning to make tons of currency, getting a character to lvl 100, etc. It has been great playing it off and on. The game is fun without experiencing “everything”. But if I ever engaged with the online community, all I would hear is “I’ve played 3000 hours and this game is shit”.