The world is full of incredible art. Most days, I walk to my local library, and being surrounded by books I’ve never read — and may never have the chance to read — is a reminder that there is an inexhaustible depth to the ocean of classics. Scrolling through the Criterion Channel or browsing the list of games you picked up during various Steam sales offers a similar reminder. There is so much good stuff to experience, and you simply don’t have the time.
Learning To Give The Classics Breathing Room
Even the classics can disappoint, though, because earning a good reputation can be a double-edged sword. Widespread recognition puts great work on more people’s radars, but acclaim can sometimes make it more difficult to engage with. I had a fundamentally different experience with Coda than anyone who watched it after it won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2022. I thought it was a fine indie tearjerker with some good performances and a bog-standard Sundance script. Winning Hollywood’s biggest prize, though, elevates it to a higher status, a status that many (most?) viewers will determine it doesn’t deserve.
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That cycle of praise and reappraisal can make it difficult to engage with art on its own terms. When I played It Takes Two during the review period, I was surprised by how fantastically creative it managed to be across its entire runtime. But anyone who comes in knowing that it won GOTY at The Game Awards will have a fundamentally different set of expectations. Enjoying widely acclaimed art means attempting to break through the barrier that praise puts up so that you can experience the work on its own terms, in the same way the people who initially praised it in a vacuum were able to.
When The Greats Are Great
If you can do that, you might find a new favorite. This is what happened to TheGamer’s Lead Features Editor Jade King recently when she picked up Chrono Trigger to give it an honest attempt for the first time. Despite assuming it would be a dusty old RPG that wouldn’t live up to modern standards, Jade was blown away by how good the game continues to be in 2025. I had the same experience when I played Chrono Trigger through its much-hated iOS port back in 2017. Though the updated UI was indeed ugly, the game’s time-hopping story, combo-based combat and Akira Toriyama-created character designs kept me hooked from start to finish.
I had the same experience with Half-Life 2 when I went back to Valve’s seminal FPS in 2020, in preparation for Alyx. I had already played and enjoyed the first Half-Life, so I expected Half-Life 2 to be good. I didn’t expect it to become a top ten favorite. The writing was so sharp, the characters were brought to life so vividly through voice acting and Valve’s unique approach to non-cutscene cutscenes, and the setting was unlike anything else — oppressive and lonely at times, hilarious and hopeful at others. It made me a ride-or-die fan of the series, and I’ll be there day one when Half-Life 3 comes out.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines affected me in a similar way. The janky RPG — which was, coincidentally, released the same day as Half-Life 2 and massively overshadowed by it — was another 2020 discovery, a game I played during deep COVID, staying up until the early hours of the morning to explore its nocturnal Los Angeles.
Going in, I knew that the game was beloved and I knew that it was kind of busted. After enabling God mode to get through some bizarrely hard late-game fights, I understood that second part — even with the fan-created Unofficial Patch, I still faced some difficulties. But from the moment I was let loose in its moody rendition of Santa Monica, I understood why it had compelled fans to persist despite the bugs. It’s just unlike anything else.
When a game can do this — can live up to its reputation — it gives you the shot in the arm you need to keep trying new things; to keep exploring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone. A classic might disappoint you, sure, but it might remind you all over again why you engage with art in the first place.
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20 Years Ago, Half-Life 2 Staked Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines never stood a chance against Half-Life 2