To me right now is the first Red Dead Redemption. Finally I'm able to play it, I've wait for over a decade. No spoilers, zero youtube gameplay videos, zero questions about the game to my friends. It gotta be me, and the game, it happened, and I think it sucks.
Maybe you thinking in "well, you shouldn't play the second first". I did not. My first Red Dead game was Red Dead Revolver, I was able to play it a few years ago when I could buy a PS2, but I couldn't get a PS3 nor a Xbox 360 to play RDR1. It grinded my gears because we got the prequel in PC. When RDR1 came to PC it was so freaking expensive, yet today, I think it is expensive. I was able to buy the game some weeks ago while there was a Steam Sale, and well, I regreat it now.
I don't like its exploration, its missions, its characters, its world, its secondary missions. its wanted system, and nothing but less important: has a lot of bugs.
That's my experience in a few words.
What's the game that you wanted to play but it was a total mess?
surprised you feel that way, I was 13 and played it 3 years after it came out with no expectations and really enjoyed it. I wasn't part of the hype around it before release so I assumed a lot of other people in my position would feel the same way. I think the different "minigames" led me on a path to discover games later on like civilization, cities skylines, no man's sky, etc