i’m seeing two different questions so i have two different answers

game that’s good but despite that you could never recommend it to anyone

warframe, always seems like either people already know about it or they’ll bounce off it within a couple days

games which while you personally enjoy could never recommend to anyone

lichdom battlemage, it’s got a really cool and interesting “weapon” system trapped in a game full of the most godawful boring maps and enemies i’ve ever seen

ancient domains of mystery (1994)

Alien: Isolation. Brilliant game, in that they clearly set out to achieve a goal and succeeded beyond all expectations. Can’t recommend it because that goal was to be an utterly terrifying, paranoia-inducing nightmare of a game.

Urban Chaos: Riot Response

One of Rocksteady studios first games, it’s one of the best arcade style FPS games on console and has several mechanics that make it really fun to play

However, the story is about how workers unions are evil and full of murderous psychopaths

And it’s hard to tell if the game is meant to be satirical or not, because it is so cartoonish and goofy

Just hard to recommend, wish there were more games like it

Homefront: The Revolution was NOT a good game but it had the bones of something interesting. It’s too broken to recommend, you need to have either played the first game for some reason or be interested in what happened to Free Radical games, the team that made Timesplitters

Joke’s on you, I recommend every single game I play to everyone I know. I’ve basically trained all my friends to ignore me at all costs

Exile: escape from the Pit. It is a really old game that is somewhat broken if you figure out the mechanics. There is a modernization called Avernum, but I still like the mid-90s 2d tile game for nostalgia reasons and the ways in which its mechanics are broken. So I really like the game though I think people would not appreciate it if I recommend it.

Fuck’s Quest II

Legitimately a VERY good game and unironically one of the best zelda-likes out there, but the game is so absurdly stupid (complimentary) that it doesn’t exactly have mainstream appeal lmao

Actually fucking hilarious if this kind of low brow bullshit is up your alley. Be prepared to bust out cheat engine (or limit FPS in SteamOS performance settings) for one stupid joke puzzle if you want to go for 100%.

Hollow Knight: Silksong.

The original Hollow Knight I recommend to basically anyone, but the sequel I can only recommend to a very small subset of people: Hollow Knight speedrunners and challenge runners (the people this game was made for) and people willing to mod it. Sad to say, Team Cherry completely lost the plot on how to balance a game for a wide audience.