consider this a counterpart to the post made by @GuyWTriangle
i have a few but this is my best example:
driv3r. i played the absolute hell out of it back in the day. the first two driver games are ps1 classics but the third game nearly killed the series entirely. atari forced the devs to release it several months before it was finished in order for it to compete with gta san andreas, but the game was very glitchy and a tacked on third person combat system was no match for what gta had to offer. there was also a scandal called driv3rgate (very original) related to atari giving early access to a couple of gaming magazines in exchange for positive reviews, which ended up being the final nail in the coffin for the game.
i still like it a lot. the driving in it feels really good, and i honestly prefer it to san andreas in that respect. the car destruction in the game is also really impressive for ps2, even though car explosions could bring the game down to like 5fps due to the amount of physics objects flying around. also, the three cities in the game (miami, nice and istanbul) have their own distinct atmospheres, cars, and soundtracks. speaking of soundtracks, there were some really good songs on it, my favorite being this. the story mode had some fun missions, but also some really brutal ones. i feel it relied way too much on the third person shooter combat that just wasn't very good. however, the driving missions were mostly fantastic in my experience. it's kinda what the series was known for.
it'd be nice to hear about any negatively received games that are near and dear to you. i love to hear people being passionate about the things they love
My favourite game of the Assassin's Creed series is Liberation, which many others think is the worst in the series. But the story, the dress mechanics and the main character I think hit the Assassin vibes the best of any game. Just walking up to a target, poking them with an unbrella and walking away unseen.
My favorite is AC1. I felt like most of the games in the series don't fully embrace their setting (2, Unity, Syndicate) and the ones that do are kinda boring (3). But AC1 setting is fresh and historical while fitting the assassin character perfectly.
i'll have to check that out, i haven't played that yet. it seems way more interesting to me than ac3! plus having a female protagonist is a massively welcome change of pace
I really enjoyed Liberation too! Mechanics were great and really interesting change, that also worked really well with the main character and her story. Plus you get to kill slavers and free slaves, automatically making it great