Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - You get considerably more powerful and get cooler demons the longer you play. You start as just a teenage kid and turn into literally the lord of the underworld and Lucifer is scared of you.

Arma 2 - The more you learn about the mechanics the better it gets seemingly. 8 out of 10, 8.5 out of 10, 9 out of 10, 10 out of 10.

Manhunt - This game is nuts, and then it gets even more nuts, if that wasn't enough nuts already it gets even more nuts.

Diablo 2: It became more interesting later on when I started hunting for pieces for that magical something-something that will give you great powers.

Online multiplayer games like Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2: the fact is that the better you get in this games, the more enjoyable it tends to get. At first many levels feel just frustrating (e.g. Sawmill for me in TF2), but after you learn some tricks and ins and outs of the particular level, you start enjoying it.

Starcraft: The first of the three campaigns was the Terran one. It was... okay, but just okay. The Terrans is the most boring race to play of the three IMHO, and the Terran campaign had the most boring story.

But after that you get to play the Zerg campaign, and after that the Protoss campaign... both the story and the gameplay became twice as interesting at that point. Also at that point you learn how different it feels to play the game with the three races, almost like you'd have three different RTS games in one game. Yet, the three races feel pretty well balanced, which is quite an achievement considering how different they are.

In other earlier RTS games like Dune 2(000), Warcraft 1-2, Command&Conquer games, Total Annihilation etc., the different races/factions felt very similar to each other, which was kinda boring.

Diablo 2 lod.
Red Alert 2.
GTA San Andreas.

Every roguelike ever

Of the games available here, I'd say Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is a pretty good example. The plot starts of very slowly and remains a slow-burn until the half-way point of Chapter 2, with most subtle foreshadowing flying over your head the first time you play. Once the plot picks up pace though, it picks up the pace well and the final chapter of the game is extremely gripping. But it's definitely not a game for people with short attention spans.

Master of Magic, Alpha Centauri, etc. All these Civ-ish games that start with very weirdly short turns, where you just move one tile away and "uh, that's it ?", before developping into hours-long turns with epic stuff taking place everywhere.

If you don't know what to expect, the first turns may look confusingly empty, before the game gets its actual momentum.

I recall that sometimes being a problem in TFC (albeit I also got pleasure if I was able to help turning the tide against a more powerful team, at least preventing them from capping), but in TF2, at least nowadays that problem seems mostly non-existant.

There are three ways TF2 seems to tackle this problem (probably these can be enabled or disabled by server admins):

- While playing, if the game detects the teams are lopsided, it will automatically transfer some players to the other team on the fly. Of course that can also be a bit annoying if you have just set up a defense position as an engineer and then lose it all when you are suddenly transferred to the other team...

- If one team wins several rounds in succession, it usually seems to trigger an "auto-scramble" for the next round, ie. the teams are scrambled.

- On top of that, there is a voting option to scramble the teams on the fly during the round. If it gets enough Yes votes, the teams are scrambled right away.

The only issue with those scrambling options is that I don't quite understand how it re-distributes the team cap points, after it has scrambled the teams. Maybe there is some logic in there.

Also one thing that is different in TF2 compared to the earlier versions of Team Fortress is that in the beginning of each round, the whole level is cleared. Everyone must start from a scratch. I think this is good if one team has been able to establish a defense position that seems pretty much impenetrable, with lots of sentry guns and supporting forces. They have to build them all over for the next round, which is good IMHO. Makes the gameplay more dynamic, a bit less camping.

Which was unfortunately too glitchy. And the novelty was lost by then.

I might have to try my copy of Civilization 4 again then...

Oh yes, I remember something of the teams being scrambled mid game, but I don't think that always happened. Like you said, probably it can be enabled or disabled.

I used to love playing as an engineer and absolutely didn't mind building stuff over again, especially since I had to rebuild everything several times during a round in any case :) Not due to spies mind you, for which I developed a clinically effective sixth sense. I also found it curious just how much satisfaction there was to be gained from setting up a good teleporter for your team, and seeing them lining up to it to quickly get to the front line. Such an awesome game really

A typical civilization also rapidly cranks up the fun as you continue playing, though it usually peaks for me around the industrial age. The civilization levels that stayed fun for me throughout, surprisingly, came from the long list of scenarios. I used to ignore civilization scenarios outright, never thinking that they could be any good, or at least not on par with the main game which stretches over thousands of years. Turns out I was horribly mistaken. Several of the civ scenarios are wicked fun! Because they span more believe time intervals, ie months/days instead of years, and because they focus on much smaller areas as opposed to the entire globe, they end up feeling far more real. For example, the Vikings scenario only spans a couple of years, and the map, which is large, consists only of england and a part of europe. Compared to a global civ map, these landmasses suddenly become far more believable. Other brilliant scenarios center around ancient rome, and are simply delectable, though quite difficult. Especially Rise of Rome, which I could never finish, not as Rome, Egypt or as the Celts. Then there are also, Alexander, Genghis Kahn, medieval Europe and frontier America scenarios, all of them excellent. There are some supernatural and sci fi scenarios as well, but I never could get into them.

Racing sims and strategy games in general for me. These kind of games get more enjoyable with time because your skills improve significantly the more you play them, and the more skilled I feel at something the more I enjoy it.

Alpha Centauri, Star Control 2, Patrician 3, Capitalism 2 and Xenonauts are great examples of strategy games that I think get better the more you play them. For racing I'd say MotoGP 14, F1 Championship Edition, SBK Generations, Stock Car 2012, Race 07, McRae 2005 and WRC Rally Evolved.

The last one for me was Neverwinter Nights 2, bought on the last sale, i always hesitated to buy it because i thought part 1 was really lame (well, i don't play multiplayer, so just judging the main campaign).

At first it really was extremely generic, cliche village, cliche dwarf, cliche Imoen-with-horns, meh, but by the end of it i really liked a lot of the backstory. It was also nice that many companions actually weren't too likeable. Good game, in my opinion.

Kinda agree with Stalker, although it felt great right from the start for me. It really doesn't explain much and with the crappy gear in the beginning its a rough start for someone new. But thats what makes it amazing.

Dark Souls series.