Games no one else has played but you

[Drathnoxis]

Nastyman Gold.

This game is so obscure all I could find was this screenshot of the title screen to show it off.

Spoiler

It's a indie isometric adventure game from the 90s with bad voice acting, terrible art, and atrocious spelling and it all comes together to be almost genius in it's retarded humour.

If you walk into a wall, the character, Nastyman the DJ, will complain about bumping his head, and if you do it repeatedly he will die. The first puzzle is to escape a prison cell that you were locked into because everybody hated your music; the solution is to feed a bean to a mouse so that it's explosive gas blows open the door.

It's almost like a parody of a badly made adventure game, and it's short enough that it doesn't become frustrating or boring.

 

[TheCrapMaster]

Konung: Legends of the North

It´s a viking RPG in a scandinavian myth setting where you get to choose 3 different heroes and there are 3 classes. The gameplay and story was pretty bad, but the setting of the game and the idéas the game had were great.

The main feature it had was raiding and village managing. Scattered around the gameworld there were different villages, and you could controll these and build afew buildings like merchant housing, smith, barracks and etc. You could take controll over these villages by either be on good terms with the faction and do quests, or in good old viking fashion raid the village and seize controll. The village once under your control would train NPC to be better warriors that you could take on your journey and etc.

The game itself as i typed before was pretty bad, but the fact that you could take command of different settlements and manage them in a RPG was a very nice mechanic and i havent seen that to often in games, to my urge for looting and pillaging was sated once Mount & blade came out

 

[Remus]

Decent was awsome back when the playstation came out.

So was summoner and summoner 2.

Anyone remember Street fighter : the movie: the game? No ? Count yourself lucky.
What about : chaos legion? It was a dmc clone on the Playstation 2.

Chaos Legion! The graphics in that game were beeeeautiful. The industrial sections were gray and depressing, nature areas foreboding and a little claustrophobic. I loved gaining new skills in that game - every one mattered and you could come out of the later stages with either nearly game-breaking skillsets or a severe handicap depending on what legions you leveled up and equipped. Plus the story reached a level of weird that has only ever been touched upon by the likes of Hideo Kojima. I beat it multiple times and would play it again if I hadn't sold my backward-compatible PS3.

On my list: Overblood. It was an old Ps1 game where your character wakes up in a lab with no memory and a facility full of experiments gone bad. It has all the brick controls of an old-style Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Monster fighting involves a lot of grappling as you attempt to break the creature's neck. An absorbing story and tense atmosphere carries the game past its clunky controls so I don't regret playing it through to its plot-twist conclusion.

 

[Llil]

Expeditions: Conquistador. It's a kind of tactical RPG with some survival elements and a pretty unique setting.

The overworld part plays a bit like Heroes of Might and Magic, where you have a certain movement allowance each day, you can collect supplies from the map, and encounter enemies or other events. The combat is turn based on a hex grid, with stuff like cover, flanking, and attacks of opportunity.

One of the best things about it is how there is no game over screen as far as I can tell (except maybe when all of your partymembers die permanently, which hasn't happened to me). If you lose a fight, the story just continues, taking that into account. Also, the partymembers you choose at the beginning of the game all have their own little background stories and personalities, which might change how you react to the different events. Like if you fill your expedition with all the racist, aggressive and greedy members, that's probably how you'll want to play so you don't piss them off. Or you can go the complete opposite route.

If you like turn based tactical combat, you should take a look at this.

Spoiler: Here's some gamplay

This is game is bloody amazing and should set an industry standard for a new wave of Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale type games. Sadly, nobody besides me seems to know that it exists and the people who have bought it complain because they thought it would be like Diablo III. Morons.

Spoiler

I really like that one. The combat feels more like MMO raids than Baldur's Gate, though, with all the cooldown management and such. One thing that I like a lot is how important positioning is. A good example is the first healing skill you get, which is a directional shot that heals the first thing it hits, friend or enemy. It's also really difficult, at least on the higher settings.

 

[Meatrod05]

There was this game I ended up with, I'm not even sure how, but it was a black white disc with the the title N2O written on it in permanent marker. After a quick search, I found a video of it, so it might not be that obscure, but I never heard of it anywhere before or since. Here's a quick gameplay video in case someone recognizes it.

 

[shrekfan246]

This is game is bloody amazing and should set an industry standard for a new wave of Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale type games. Sadly, nobody besides me seems to know that it exists and the people who have bought it complain because they thought it would be like Diablo III. Morons.

I should play that again. I really enjoyed the mechanics and the way they implemented the different character classes; the only real problems I had were how... limited? things felt. I didn't get too far in, admittedly, but it didn't feel like the areas had a lot of exploration in them and the items/skills weren't as fleshed out as it seemed like they could have been (though the effects of the abilities and how they split down along the talent trees was pretty cool).

OT: I dunno, I don't really have that "obscure" of a gaming history... I mean, at least not with games that really made a lasting impact on me. There are games that people don't really talk about anymore which are part of series' that they do still occasionally talk about, or games that haven't received a lot of attention but I've still seen one or two other people bring them up, or games that I had been following when they were obscure but then they got featured on a Youtube channel so people found out about them (though whether they decided to play the games or not is another subject entirely, I suppose), and... yeah. I guess I could bring up some of those?

Series' People Still Talk About:
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - One of the first shooter games I ever really played while growing up. Loved it, because hey, you got to be a Jedi (or Sith) and swing a lightsaber around! And there were all kinds of secrets, and it was 3D, and it was Star Wars! It is notoriously difficult to get running on modern PCs these days, unfortunately, but still some damn fun once you get past how hilariously 1st-Gen 3D the polygons are.

Worms 2 - Whenever I just wanted to mess around and have a laugh, this was my go-to game. I'm convinced that absolutely nobody has ever learned how to effectively use the bazooka, in any of the games, but one thing I particularly loved about Worms 2 was the sheer amount of customization you could do with all of the weapons. You could change their fire rates, damage, blast radius, wind resistance, number of clusters, fuse length, number of bullets, all sorts of things that could end up creating hilarious situations like having miniguns which could destroy the environment of the entire map with a single volley.

Games People Occasionally Talk About:
Gunpoint - Just a bloody brilliant game in every way, if you ask me. It's a 2D stealth-puzzle-hacking-platforming-punching-people-in-the-face kind of game, and I'd conservatively say that it's basically what Watch Dogs would've been like if Watch Dogs hadn't been so much like Grand Theft Auto or Assassin's Creed. Also, I find the dialogue to be fantastically funny, as it has an absurdist sense of humor that gels with me just right.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin for Sega Genesis - I actually haven't seen this one ever really brought up around here, but that could just be because topics involving Sega don't really appear very often to begin with. It's not exactly hard to find it on Youtube so I can't really say the thing is obscure, but I do have to specify which platform it's on because it's actually an entirely different game than the SNES version by the same name. They're both brawlers, of sorts, but the Genesis version is much more arcade-y and focuses more heavily on projectiles and constant movement. It's also bloody damn hard, and to this day I've still never beaten the Mad Hatter's level.

Endless Space - A 4X space game with possibly on of the slickest strategy game UIs I've ever seen. It really brings me back to the days of... oh, actually, that game might be one I could use too... "the good old days", then. The combat mechanics are pretty simple rock-paper-scissors in a way (it is slightly deeper than that, but not by too much) but the style of it is what really drags me in. It grabs me and pulls me into that "one more turn" mentality perfectly, because it's just so polished.

Games Which Have Been Featured On Youtube Channels:
Cloudbuilt - This is another relatively new game, but TotalBiscuit and Jim Sterling both did videos on it at least, so I'm not sure how "unknown" it is. It's probably the only game I can really pull the hipster card of "I was following it before they did their videos" for, though, as it caught my eye when it first came to Steam Greenlight. It's a third-person 3D speed-running game which combines a lot of Mirror's Edge and Megaman with some genuinely amazingly cruel level designs and fantastic music. Another insanely hard game, though.

Buh, it's too late for me to think up another one that fits this category. But I've got two I haven't seen anyone else except for me really talk about in the last few years!

Freedom Force - I actually recently repurchased this on Steam, though I haven't installed it as of yet. It was a game I had probably about a decade ago now, and I never really got far in it but I liked trying to mess around with some of the sillier things like seeing how easily one of the superheros could level city buildings in some empty maps.

Star Trek: Birth of the Federation - Probably the first strategy game I ever played with any sort of understanding for its mechanics, it's also one I still occasionally play to this day. It's a lot like Masters of Orion 2 (and in fact was called by some a spiritual successor after Masters of Orion 3 was released and everyone hated it) except it's Star Trek. Unfortunately it does suffer from a few bugs and balancing issues; it's got one hell of a memory leak on games that run past a few hundred turns, even on modern PCs, and the Federation indisputably have two of the most powerful starships in the entire game by the end-game. And cloaking is insane if you're not the one using it. Random Events can completely destroy a game, as well, if the Borg decide to show up before the first 100 turns or so have transpired. There's actually a separate line of code within one of the game's configuration files that you can change to specifically turn the Borg off while leaving Random Events on, because the Borg Cubes in BotF are so insanely powerful. They rip through fleets like tissue paper, and destroy half of the population in a star system per turn while they're occupying that star system's spot on the galaxy map. Still love it.

 

[iwinatlife]

Decent was awsome back when the playstation came out.

So was summoner and summoner 2.

Anyone remember Street fighter : the movie: the game? No ? Count yourself lucky.
What about : chaos legion? It was a dmc clone on the Playstation 2.

I remember Chaos Legion it was really fun the whole carrying an army around concept seemed unique

 

[Uratoh]

Xardion. SNES game about giant robots with RPG elements.


Yes, it's my video. But I'm also one of the only people on the internet who seems to recall this thing exists >_<

 

[Signa]

Apparently, I'm the only one that has beat Descent, and has moved on to Descent II. Just played it 2 nights ago.

Now, are any of you Descent players using the Rebirth mod? If you're not, get on that. It's WAY better. It's like ZDoom (or pick your variant) for Descent and Descent II. Also, how are all of you binding your controls? I found what works for me, but it's difficult picking out controls that modern gamers would feel comfortable with.

 

[LobsterFeng]

I just thought of another one. The Dune RTS games by Westwood. They were generally known for the Command and Conquer series and rightly so but I quite liked their Dune games. Plus Dune 2000 had live action cutscenes with fucking John Rhys-Davies in it:

Apparently, I'm the only one that has beat Descent, and has moved on to Descent II. Just played it 2 nights ago.

Now, are any of you Descent players using the Rebirth mod? If you're not, get on that. It's WAY better. It's like ZDoom (or pick your variant) for Descent and Descent II. Also, how are all of you binding your controls? I found what works for me, but it's difficult picking out controls that modern gamers would feel comfortable with.

I haven't played it in a long time. I think I still have the original CD for it somewhere but I doubt I could get it to work. I remember there was a cheat code for unlocking all of the weapons at the beginning but even then I don't think I ever made it past level 3. Also I was like 5.

 

[Diplodocus462]

Temporal. It's a puzzle game where you have to go back in time and interact with (and team up with) your past selves to solve puzzles. It's like a cross between Braid and Portal, but 2D. It's also freeware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_(video_game)

 

[MetalShadowChaos]

I feel like I'm the only person I know who played and loved Consortium. It's a source engine game on steam with some fantastic character interaction and a fascinating world experienced entirely from aboard a single ship. Plus it gets pretty damn meta, the whole thing is supposedly that you the player have take control of someone from this alternative universe via a satellite create by the game devs through he 'Consortium' computer program. And then it's possible to let the characters in on this and so some weird shit.

Conversely, they will call you out for not acting like they believe you should. Think they have life-sign scanners and are worried they might use one against you? 'Would also like us to beam you up Scotty? Yeah, those don't exist.'



Until recently I was the only person in my group of friend who played E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy, until it went on sale for 50p and I got it for a friend on his birthday. It's hilariously complicated. It has a fantastic art style and the story is interesting, but obtusely handled and boring to sit through all the lines of non-voice acted text when I could just be you know, playing the game. Still, worth the 3 quid I paid for it, definitely worth 50p.



Sometimes I feel like the only person that player Virtue's Last Reward, though I do know I'm not. It's one of my absolute favourite visual novels thanks to it's phenomenal story and the way it integrates the Visual Novel Decision format into the story AND gameplay(There are puzzle rooms as well, that serve plot purposes and allow for some decent puzzles. And some terrifying fairground horse riding armoured men).

 

[jamail77]

Recently got a game I think Steam recommended to me. Though, perhaps I just saw it one day. Either way it was on sale and it's a nice Devil May Cry like game with a school girl execution. It got old kind of fast and it can be meh, but it's a fun distraction gameplay wise.

 

[Robert Kalmar]

What about : chaos legion? It was a dmc clone on the Playstation 2.

Chaos Legion was my first japanese hack and slash game. I thought back then, that it's the best game ever... The legions idea was pretty neat, even, if other parts of combat was very simplistic. And those long cutscenes... I just loved it.

OT: Knights in the Nightmare anyone? It's one of my favorite NDS games ever. It was pretty innovative, combining JRPG, SRPG and Bullet Hell into one amazing package. It's the only game, where the gameplay was so addictive, that i skipped every cutscene. I was kinda dissapointed with Sting's next game: Gungnir for being such a damn straight forward SRPG, after KitN.

 

[GentlemanJ]

PSI-5 Trading Co on the C64 (it was out on other platforms but I think C64 was the best version)

It was really a "Captain Sim" rather than a "Space Sim". Had to manage your crew managing power, repairs, attacks, etc.
Do you shoot at a ship first before you confirm it's hostile for the advantage, what non critical systems do you disable for that extra engine speed, got time for those repairs? All the time your crew hard working away and chatting back.
It had massive amounts of personality, the best was turning on your emergency battery for the last leg, engines to full, being attacked on all sides and getting what's left of your ship to its destination.

Still to find someone else in the wild who played it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yre8waZlJSI

 

[Saulkar]

Spoiler: I have a few.

The first is the South Korean side scrolling action game Rebel Runner: Operation Digital Code:
The game is so obscure in fact that I cannot find anyone who managed to pass the game because I cannot!!!

Next up is Machines: Wired For War:
The first and possible best RTSFPS game in existance. There was supposed to be a modded sequel but it never saw fruition and fell into obscurity.

Dark Reign 2:
Just total win, forgotten but total win!!!

AbominatiON: The Nemesis Project:
Simple looking game that has a surprising amount of depth for a purely action game.

Redline: Gang Warefare 2066:
An early FPS Combat Driving hybrid with an awesomely dark yet colourful atmosphere and just ooses style. Plus the soundtrack does not hurt.

Treadmarks:
Arcade tank action back when it was cool!

Lastly, Shattered Steel:
My favourite mech game in existence. There are much better ones such as Mechwarrior and Heavy Gear but Shattered Steel was the first one that I played.

 

[SexyGarfield]

I feel like that whenever I try to talk to someone about a freeware game. Iji is one I hear it about that I think is pretty alright though. The graphics aren't much to look at but The controls, branching story, and writing are awesome.


Eternal Daughter is good for it's soundtrack story and gameplay and I don't know a soul who has played that.

 

[Jason Rayes]

King of Dragon Pass! It's available on GoG but I still have the box and original CD somewhere.

*snip*

Still have a hardon for this game.

I'm old enough to have actually played the board game this is based on, now sadly out of print

OT: This is an old turn based Mech combat game, it borrow heavily from the Mechwarrior universe but where as they had the big 3D mech sims, noone else was doing turn based games with the same idea at the time:


I also really like Driftmoon, a small indie RPG developed by a husband and wife team. It lacks a little in polish from a technical perspective but given its basically two people making the game Im willing to cut them some slack:

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Never really heard of anybody talk about Odin Sphere or Grim Grimoire (RPG and RTS on the PS2, both from 2007), or for that matter a Vanillaware Ltd. that wasn't Dragon's Crown. It's a shame, they're amazing games and Vanillaware is a pretty awesome studio.

 

[El Pwnz]

Operation: Inner Space


A really neat top-down spaceship game, that uses the directories on your computer as levels. You're tasked with collecting icons, which you use as currency to buy repairs and upgrades. Other ships would compete with you to collect these, and each ship would remember you from previous levels, causing them to be friendly or hostile according to your respective factions and your past interactions.

The game also had plenty of ships to choose from, the ability to customize your own ship, several races, and a recurring boss fight.