Underrated Games?

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Homless Snark

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Haven't had one of these threads in awhile so I was just wondering what you guys thought were some underrated games that were actually very good. (preferably PC) I'll start.

Freedom Force - I thought the game was awesome with all the super hereos and the MOD communicty really fleshed it out until they started cracking down on comic-based characters. I feel like it doesn't really get as much notoriety anymore for being a solid action game.

Vampire: Bloodlines - Figured i'd get this one out of the way. It's sort of like it's so underrated it's almost overrated but with the fan patches this is one of the most fun gaming experiences i've ever had.
 
Dark Souls - no other game can match the atmosphere, terror and sheer beauty. Commit to it, accept you'll die and get frustrated beyond your imagination, and nothing will ever come close. A serious must-have for ANY RPG fan.
 
Every time a thread like this is made I have to add Shenmue to the list.

Awesome adventure game and very detailed for it's time! I need Shenmue 3 please, Sega.
 
Crysis. People said it was all glamour and the gameplay lacked substance. I thought it was fun as hell.
 
Urban Chaos by Mucky Foot (not to be confused with Urban Chaos: Riot Response on Playstation 2). I like it a lot.
 
Gotta throw Metro 2033 in there. One of the best games I've ever played, and it got some pretty mediocre reviews.
Tribes:Vengeance singleplayer.
Quake 4 multiplayer.
Privateer 2 (now that's going back a few years). Speaking of which, whatever happened to space combat games? Give me Freespace 3! Freespace 2 was just incredible.
Strife, and Hexen (also going back a few years).
 
Space Rangers 2: Dominators!

It got good reviews, but still no one talks about it :<
 
Flatout 2/Ultimate Carnage, although it's no perfect game there is pretty much no competition in the derby genre.
 
Commandos 2. ***k me I loved that game, and the animations, for the time, were amazing.
 
Jurassic Park: Trespasser. Yes, its old, its buggy and it has that horrble "robot arm" interface, but I still enjoy it. Certainly a must for any JP fan and also an interesting look back to the early attempts to put physics in games. But yes, certainly fun, especially those tense moments when you run out of ammo, throw the gun at a raptor and then run like hell!

Silent Storm - fantastic squad-based tactical fun in the vien of Jagged Alliance & X-COM, though there are a few things that I'm not a fan of, but aside from the, excellent!
 
Bob_Marley said:
Silent Storm - fantastic squad-based tactical fun in the vien of Jagged Alliance & X-COM, though there are a few things that I'm not a fan of, but aside from the, excellent!
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You should try 7.62 aka Brigade E6.
 
I also like Trespasser. There isn't much gameplay, but it's extremely fun to explore the island.
 
Viperidae said:
You should try 7.62 aka Brigade E6.
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I've played through both Brigade E5 and 7.62, pretty good games all told. The translation seems to be off in some parts, but the gameplay and the Smart Pause system are great!

Oh, Dark Messiah is rather fun too.
 
Bakurei said:
Space Rangers 2: Dominators!
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Yeah, I loved that game! :D

I would also agree with Crysis and Dark Messiah as they are both games I enjoyed despite receiving heavy public criticism. The X series is one of my all time favourites, and I think is worth a mention because people glance over this game without realizing the ridiculous amount of things you can do in this game. Aside from that... I still maintain that the really old Spiderman game (for PC and N64) was the best Spiderman game ever made.
 
I'm also going to champion Crysis. For a game that focused most of its resources on pretty it surprisingly did manage an exciting campaign on the side. It's still the only linear game I can think of in recent memory that really opened up their missions to allow dozens of different ways to approach it. Apart from of course the second half which just completely dropped the ball, the rest was stunningly open. Even the tank mission allowed you to get out and go guerilla in that absolutely huge valley. The combat was just satisfying too. Compare that to a certain tech benchmark that was released recently.
 
Zephos said:
I'm also going to champion Crysis. For a game that focused most of its resources on pretty it surprisingly did manage an exciting campaign on the side. It's still the only linear game I can think of in recent memory that really opened up their missions to allow dozens of different ways to approach it. Apart from of course the second half which just completely dropped the ball, the rest was stunningly open. Even the tank mission allowed you to get out and go guerilla in that absolutely huge valley. The combat was just satisfying too. Compare that to a certain tech benchmark that was released recently.
Click to expand...

This, recently there have been far too few games that allow you to take various approaches in this way. Far Cry 1 did it better though.
 
Crysis could only be considered "underrated" in the context of HL2.net. Outside of these forums and this community and me, it received near universal praise. I think the only game that could genuinely be considered underrated out of those mentioned in this thread would be the singleplayer game of Tribes Vengeance, which was fantastic.

Dynasty said:
Commandos 2. ***k me I loved that game, and the animations, for the time, were amazing.
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How was Commandos 2 underrated? It's a deservedly highly rated game. There's no evidence for it being underrated.
 
I don't follow gaming stuff much outside of this site but I did think that Crysis was universally considered "overhyped but didn't deliver" by the gaming press. That said I never actually read a full review for it so yeah I probably just got that impression from this forum.
 
The Wheel of Time game. Great shooter, overlooked and underrated.
 
Eejit said:
The Wheel of Time game. Great shooter, overlooked and underrated.
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Second this. Awesome game, have fond memories. Got me into the actual Wheel of Time series
 
Samon Fish said:
Crysis could only be considered "underrated" in the context of HL2.net. Outside of these forums and this community and me, it received near universal praise.
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You think so? Sure it got very positive reviews, but we were far from the only community that generally criticized it for being all flash and no substance. Pretty much any gaming site had people complaining about it.
 
Alpha Protocol. For a game that seems to be most known for sub par reviews, I've never actually heard anyone say anything particularly bad about it. It remains one of my personal favorite games of all time.
 
Sanitarium, Nox, N.O.L.F. series, Giants: Citizen Kabuto (despite me hating most British humor), Mischief Makers, Pilot Wings
 
staticprimer said:
Alpha Protocol. For a game that seems to be most known for sub par reviews, I've never actually heard anyone say anything particularly bad about it. It remains one of my personal favorite games of all time.
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I got that for £1.50 on the Steam sale. I heard that if I liked Deus Ex I would also like Alpha Protocol...but it just didn't engage me at all. I got to one of the first mission areas, thought the gameplay was absolutely awful, got bored and gave up.
 
mafia 2 is a horrible game.
 
repiV said:
I got that for £1.50 on the Steam sale. I heard that if I liked Deus Ex I would also like Alpha Protocol...but it just didn't engage me at all. I got to one of the first mission areas, thought the gameplay was absolutely awful, got bored and gave up.
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Yeah, the gameplay is awful- it's how the story is paced and how the characters and plot are delivered excellently that drives the game, if you can bear the horrible gameplay.

Just like Deus Ex.
 
Strange how looking through my collection, I've got plenty of games that once I would have risked calling 'underrated', yet they don't seem anything of the sort any more. The internet is actually pretty good at getting people to play some real overlooked classics, especially considering the best stuff inevitably turns up for tuppence through digital means. This is becoming true even of console games.

I wish there was more modern love* for Puyo Puyo and Fantasy Zone, series perhaps? I think they're underrated by their own license holders and would fit perfectly into a world of Indie games, quirk and retro charm.

*not the Bowie kind.
 
I'm going to say Battlezone (1998 Activision action-strategy game, not the really old Atari game). It wasn't underrated by critics when it came out. It just seems to have been forgotten over the years. Activision doesn't even acknowledge on their website that they ever made this game.

But! it looks like the guy who originally worked on it is still working on it and distributing it freely so you have no excuse not to try it.
http://www.battlezone1.net/home/index.html

p.s. this thread makes me really want to play crysis now
 
Seriously though best multiplayer. The best.

 
I have played that game so many times. It's wonderful. Also the co-op. But less so the checkpoint system, or rather, the complete lack of one.

SKY CAPTAIN
 
dfc05 said:
I'm going to say Battlezone (1998 Activision action-strategy game, not the really old Atari game). It wasn't underrated by critics when it came out. It just seems to have been forgotten over the years. Activision doesn't even acknowledge on their website that they ever made this game.

But! it looks like the guy who originally worked on it is still working on it and distributing it freely so you have no excuse not to try it.
http://www.battlezone1.net/home/index.html

p.s. this thread makes me really want to play crysis now
Click to expand...

DO IT FAGET.

also I have fond memories of watching OTHER people play Battlezone multiplayer (before I had a PC I could bring to other LAN parties). Rave cannon FTW!
 
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