The type of game that when you recommend it, you have to clarify they need to play a few hours before they'll understand.
To me, many JRPGs have this problem. Xenoblade, Final Fantasy (14 especially), Tales, Kiseki, etc all take forever to get interesting.
Final Fantasy XIII is a goddamned hallway simulator for the first 20 hours of the game. By the time you're out of the "tutorial" and reach the open-world part, you just have the final boss left and maybe an optional sidequest or two.
My first Oblivion playthrough went a little like you described, too -- sneaking through a sewer and killing rats for a damned hour and a half to get back to Emperor Picard because I refused to stop picking up every item that dropped (what if I need these brooms for the broom dungeon?!), etc.