Man... I watched the intro to Steins;Gate and was totally turned off. Anyone want to convince me it's worth seeing?
There is a GIGANTIC genre shift about midway through the series. There are serious repercussions, not everyone gets a happy ending, and oh god if you extrapolate what's going on and if you empathize with one of the characters oh god
It's slice-of-life-y with a silly twist until the shift, and then you're just along for the ride. The beginning part is necessary, at least to me. Personally, I rank Steins;Gate up there with NGE and Code Geass. It really got to me, and I think it's a very interesting story.
Yeah, Steins;Gate is easily one of my favorite anime, but I'm a sucker for time travel stories in general. I can see how some of the silly slice-of-life stuff might turn some people off, but it's pretty integral to the series, much like, I don't know, Higurashi's silly comedy.
I just finished playing Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited and I think I'm like 3/4 of the way through Muv-Luv Alternative. I don't think I've ever had a series make such a drastic change in direction, but it's fantastic. I was bored by most of Muv-Luv Extra, but the fresh setting in Muv-Luv Unlimited drew me back in, even though the character interactions were mostly more of the same. Then Muv-Luv Alternative happened and holy shit I can't stop reading.