Most underrated games this gen

hanselthecaretaker

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Mafia 3 has to be up there, if we?re also considering the inflated scores of other games in a 5-10 scoring range. I keep hearing about repetitive missions and lots of bugs, but so far after about ten hours or so the gameplay hasn?t gotten old and the only significant bug I?ve had was my reflection freezing in a mirror.

As a comparison, I think the only thing GTAV has on it is more polish, but only in terms of visuals and minor bugs. Mafia 3?s narrative is more compelling by far, and the characters are better animated and the voice acting is far more authentic sounding and enjoyable imo. Nothing seems hamfisted like in GTAV.

In terms of gameplay, the melee is head and shoulders above GTAV especially with brutal takedowns and stealth. Lincoln controls far better than anyone from GTA and is more agile in general. The shooting is also at least a head above, with powerful sounding shotguns that have decent range and very detailed hit response.

The driving is also at least comparable in terms of feel and detail, plus it has two options for physics and handling. Crowds behave more appropriately when driving near them, and the game world seems to be more aware of your presence in general, involving more than a wanted meter for causing mischief. The game also has a good soundtrack, but admittedly falls short on some of the humor next to GTA.

For a game that rests at a 68 meta, next to its closest competition it?s surprisingly low imo.
 

B-Cell_v1legacy

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Prey. althought it dragged towards the end but first half was amazing.

it should have gotten more attention.
 

CriticalGaming

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Under-rated? Jeez that's a good fucking question man.

Let me think for a second here....Looking at the metacritic scores. I think I'd justfy in saying that Final Fantasy 15 was pretty underrated (being at a mid-70's score), I thought it was pretty fantastic, and it only got better with the royal edition release that improved the combat and added a lot more to the game overall. 15 is now easily in my top 3 FF games of all time and that's pretty fucking hard to do considering it had to kick 9 down to 4th overall.
 
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B-Cell said:
Prey. althought it dragged towards the end but first half was amazing.

it should have gotten more attention.
I have to agree. If it weren't for Persona 5, Prey woulda been my GOTY last year. It's everything I wanted out of System Shock 3, TBH.

I also think Styx Shards of Darkness is criminally underplayed. Seriously, it's the best stealth game I've played since finishing the original Thief trilogy, and it's packed to bursting with alternative paths and clever options. It's a shame it didn't get the recognition it deserved.
 

Tanis

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Aug 30, 2010
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As time goes on...I think Gundam Verses is actually fairly decent.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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Utawarerumono Mask of deception/Truth duology. Absolutely excellent Srpg/visual novel hybrids. Sequel to the original Utawarerumono game which came out over a decade ago, with every returning voice actor/actress being the same. It's sad they're niche since the story they tell is amazing.
 

Zeraki

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Gravity Rush 2 (and the series in general) is a big one for me.

Sony finally makes an exclusive IP that is experimental and unique like games were in the PS2 era and nobody buys them, it's a damn shame since those games are probably my favorite new Sony IP in well over a decade. It didn't help that Sony didn't really promote it at all.
 

Casual Shinji

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Zeraki said:
Gravity Rush 2 (and the series in general) is a big one for me.

Sony finally makes an exclusive IP that is experimental and unique like games were in the PS2 era and nobody buys them, it's a damn shame since those games are probably my favorite new Sony IP in well over a decade. It didn't help that Sony didn't really promote it at all.
It also didn't help that the developer doubled down on some of the worst aspects of the original, hardly put any effort into making the gravity combat less frustrating, and actually added even more mistakes. The only real improvement were the visuals and the music -- most everything else was a downgrade.
 

Phoenixmgs_v1legacy

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- Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
The best stealth game I've played this gen. It's a top-down isometric game with a ton of charm to it. You can queue up actions of all 5 characters to execute some pretty sick combinations.

- Battleborn
It is (at least was) better than Overwatch. I liked the more open maps compared to Overwatch in which I was spawn camping in my 1st beta game because of how small the maps are. I also like the more MOBA-ish style of Battleborn. Gearbox nerfed my favorite character Mellka to the ground for really no reason so I kinda stopped playing, and I don't think they ever fixed her.

Zeraki said:
Gravity Rush 2 (and the series in general) is a big one for me.

Sony finally makes an exclusive IP that is experimental and unique like games were in the PS2 era and nobody buys them, it's a damn shame since those games are probably my favorite new Sony IP in well over a decade. It didn't help that Sony didn't really promote it at all.
I really didn't care for the 1st game (the PS4 remastered version). I don't feel like they really nailed the controls, they were functional and all but not really as fun as they could've been. I found the overall gameplay and quests rather repetitive and I don't think they did enough with the concept. I really hated this section were you were falling for at least a half hour straight (maybe even an hour) that just dragged on forever. With that said, I really liked the charm of the game (plus I love cats) but like most games, I didn't find there was a lot of engaging gameplay with quite a bit of filler gameplay as well.
 

Specter Von Baren

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trunkage said:
Watch Dogs 2. It's actually fun

Hollow Knight. 2D insect Dark Souls
Yeah, Hollow Knight had a big blast on scene but then everyone just forgot about it for some reason. It's honestly the best Metroidvania I've ever played.
 

meiam

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I dunno about Prey being underrated, it didn't sell well but was extremely well regarded (as it should be). Same with hollow knight, definitely deserve the throne of metroidvenia and will be very hard to dethrone.

IMO FF15 deserve the middling score, the story made little sense, especially if you didn't watch the OVA and movie (even then it made no sense, the entire leviathan sequence was such a waste). The combat also tended to just become chaotic mess since there's no stamina and agro mechanic, plus every boss could be easily chessed with 4-5x cast magic. The roadtrip part was fun and the environment pretty, but it was kinda aimless.

Battleborn was a tons of fun, for like 2 week then the server emptied up, I just can't get behind multiplayer focused game anymore, whenever I find one I like the server just die. Still sad about the EA lol clone that was awesome.
 

Abomination

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Meiam said:
IMO FF15 deserve the middling score, the story made little sense, especially if you didn't watch the OVA and movie (even then it made no sense, the entire leviathan sequence was such a waste). The combat also tended to just become chaotic mess since there's no stamina and agro mechanic, plus every boss could be easily chessed with 4-5x cast magic. The roadtrip part was fun and the environment pretty, but it was kinda aimless.
I agree completely. It's great for memes but the combat was just complete chaos.

I think all combat after 12 was when FF took a nose dive into "This is not Final Fantasy anymore".
 

Lufia Erim

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Tales of Baseria. It was completely overshadowed by Persona 5. I'm a massive SMT fan, But ToBaseria is superior in everything but combat.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

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Oh, you know what? I'm going to defend Ghost Recon: Wildlands... by saying it's the only good Ghost Recon game in fucking decades.

It's not bad for a sandbox tactical shooter.

It's actually momentarily brilliant. Waiting until dusk to organize your team, fly a helicopter at low altitude to attack a location you've been spying at on the map. Just planning the attack, getting inthere, mixing it up with some fairly tight mechanics, and getting out before you attract too much resistance.

It makes you think when you need to, it makes you strategize just enough as to be tolerable to providing low investment intriguing scenarios, and delivers enough sustained action that planning is rewarded. You knock off a narco-boss or two and put down the controller. Don't play it in long bouts.

And it delivers some decently okay urban combat that muddy the waters of moral complexity. You will start ope firefights between resistance, cartel and Unidad soldiers in order to create enough confusion and increase the number of bodies on the map that less bullets will be flying at you. And the co-op gameplay is fun and fucking hilarious at times.
 

Dalisclock

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Silentpony said:
Little Nightmares. Such a good game, barely anyone has heard of it...
I really liked it. For me it's up there with Limbo and INSIDE for the immersive platformer....thingy that they all are. I haven't played DLC though, just beaten the base game.
 

SckizoBoy

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Xsjadoblayde said:
Gene Rain. It's geneius cannot be overstated. Everybody needs to play it.
Ah-hahaha... dass goot djoek ya...

OT: No disrespect to OP, but questions like this generally boil down to games individuals like that 'others' or the review aggregate sites rate lower than their personal takes, irrespective of a game's objective quality (however spurious a term that may or may not be). Consequently, there're only two categories for 'genuinely' underrated: games you like that were poorly received by critics, but well received by the gaming-public; or vice versa.

However, since I'm a massive hypocrite, I'll just give a game I enjoyed that received little attention/mixed opinions (even though the criticisms were pretty much valid)... Vampyr...
 

Yoshi178

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Metroid Prime: Federation Force

if that spin off game was announced "AFTER" Metroid Samus Returns and Metroid Prime 4, then people wouldn't be anywhere as pissed off as they got about it.

most people haven't even tried the game and just decided to shit on it because of the Chibi Art style. it's nowhere near as bad as people say it is. i had a hell of a lot more Fun with Fed Force than i did with Other M or Metroid Prime Hunters