Most Underrated Title of 2013?

[Lictor Face]

And two special awards for games crucified by the media that when I played them I found them not to be too bad at all:

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Batman: Arkham Origins

Arkham origins was alright, not as great as it s predecessors, but still alright.

Aliens on the other hand. Oh boy. The first Serious Sam game had better gameplay.

 

[The Night Shade]

Ahhhhh....ummm...Splinter Cell Blacklist?

Didn't do amazing with the fans and critics were generally warm with it, but I loved it a lot. The SvM wasn't anything like the old (and better) ones, but goddamnit, after the mess that was Conviction, Blacklist did an amazing job fixing the Splinter Cell series. I loved it, and I reckon people should give it a chance.

But hey, I'm someone who liked Double Agent, what do I know?

Totally, this game is what conviction should have been, it has a few issues specially with Sam Fisher, he doesn't feel like him he has changed to much, not only his voice but his personality, also he looks so young like a 30 something year old.
But the best part is the gameplay is fast and exiciting it can get a bit frustating in some charlie ops, but the best thing it did was the score with panther,ghost and combat differences so you can change your gameplay style whenever you want.And the sneaking is great the best i've seen in a while, i'm hoping a sequel with more interesting missions and story.

Edit: A few additions, Call of Juarez Gunslinger is awesome best fps of the year, and The Wolf Among Us really good adventure game with different ways of completing it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

And two special awards for games crucified by the media that when I played them I found them not to be too bad at all:

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Batman: Arkham Origins

Arkham origins was alright, not as great as it s predecessors, but still alright.

Aliens on the other hand. Oh boy. The first Serious Sam game had better gameplay.

While I'll agree that Colonial Marines was a terrible terrible game, Serious Sam was by far better received and actually playable, fun and not advertised as something else. Also SS got extremely good reviews and is considered a PC classic by MANY gamers. So... I don't get how you can compare a shooter from 2001 to a that crapfest.
Sorry but your comparison is a fail.

 

[mysecondlife]

Soul Sacrifice.

I loved its lore and the story/gameplay based around equivalent exchange.

The game can get kind of grindy which is why I think it falls short of getting credit it deserves.

 

[balladbird]

Shin Megami Tensei IV is my number one most underrated game. It didn't quite capture the iconic imagery of nocturne, but it was a long, well-written game with deep mechanics and more variety than even a pokemon game.

Ni no Kuni got a pretty rough shake, too, so honorable mention to it.

Ah well, handhelds and Jrpgs are always underrated.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Revengeance (clever name, 11/10)...

Over the top, decent game with decent polish, and a neat spinoff that expanded an already psychotic universe into something sequel worthy.

And since we're still talking about 2013 Platinum Games, the kings of underrated classics...
Wonderful 101.

Spoiler

You did good Platinum.

You did good.

Also SMTIV, praise Atlus for convincing me into getting a 3DS.

 

[Timedraven 117]

Xenonauts. I already got one person to buy it and another is waiting for a sale.

Its the original Xcom with highly updated graphics and put in the Cold war after Vietnam. It is still technically in Beta but the developers are shooting for the new years release. The game is fun and interesting and new, with isometric ombat and interceptor combat.

 

[Hawkeye21]

Call of Juarez Gunslinger, it's such a fun little shooter
Such a shame that no one seems to remember it existed this time of the year

I had stupid amounts of fun with this game. Best FPS I've played in years (well, that and Shadow Warrior). Sadly, yeah, it didn't get nearly enough attention.

 

[sXeth]

Puppeteer, fun little platformer, great art style. Somewhat unique mechanics. Granted, its very much in a Nintendo-esque kid-oriented area, a PS3 exclusive, and at least at the local EB (Gamestop) here, they weren't even displaying it, you had to ask for it.

Shadow Warrior, as several people have covered above.

Call of Juarez : Gunslinger, and Far Cry : Blood Dragon both seem to get heavily overlooked, or perhaps are thought of as DLC, despite being full games.

 

[xyrafhoan]

I was kinda sad that Fire Emblem: Awakening and SMT: IV weren't on the list. Seems like none of the games I played this year were AAA console games, just like last year.

These were the two games I was going to suggest. Seriously, besides two friends and a few people on this site, it doesn't even seem like people know what Fire Emblem is. And don't get me started on the MegaTen series, the only people that I know that DO know about it only know about the Persona games, so I can't even talk about them about any games besides that in the series.

Speaking of great RPGs on the 3DS, Etrian Odyssey 4, anyone? It came out a few weeks after Fire Emblem but it's one of the greatest titles to come out this year (disclaimer: If you like 1st person dungeon crawlers at least). Etrian Odyssey Untold also came out this year but it's abundantly clear that 4 is, mechanically speaking, much better designed than even a remake of 1 no matter how much stuff they add in.

I lament that we never got the PSP version of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment as that likely would have come out this year. While Persona 3 and 4 have a lot of attention, 2's duology is really special in its own right. The version of EP on PSN only highlights the clunkiness of its menus, making me even MORE sad that we didn't get the update.

 

[GiantRaven]

Gunpoint. I've barely seen a single person talk about Gunpoint but it's one of my top games of the year.

Alternatively read that again but with Antichamber instead.

...or Monaco

 

[FoolKiller]

Ahhhhh....ummm...Splinter Cell Blacklist?

Didn't do amazing with the fans and critics were generally warm with it, but I loved it a lot. The SvM wasn't anything like the old (and better) ones, but goddamnit, after the mess that was Conviction, Blacklist did an amazing job fixing the Splinter Cell series. I loved it, and I reckon people should give it a chance.

But hey, I'm someone who liked Double Agent, what do I know?

You know a great deal. I thought the Perfectionist difficulty was a brilliant addition to the series. Let them have their accessible crap from Conviction while giving the die hard fans the difficulty they desire.

Yes because splinter cell has always been such a difficult game trollololol.

The older ones were quite challenging especially if you wanted to sneak through the entire game and never be spotted. Also, Conviction added several things to make the game require almost no skill.

Blacklist is still riddled with FPS Call of Duty tropes. So be it lens flare, multi-player and the emphasis on GRAPTHICSZ!! with the addition with "streamlined" stuff like removal of interrogations, investigation and exploration.

While you may be right about lens flare, the unique multiplayer versions in Splinter Cell have been around for a decade. That's hardly based on a Call of Duty trope when there wasn't even a good console Call of Duty till the Xbox 360.

Did they improve on the graphics? Yes
Was that the focus? Hardly

It was a means to achieve the desired gameplay. I'm quite good at the game and it is almost impossible to play that game on an SDTV. You don't have the graphical fidelity for the precision required in the game.

I'm not sure how exploration has been removed. Each area is cleverly crafted with some of the most diverse paths. In most cases, there are at least 3 or 4 ways to move through a level to get to the goal.

Finally, based on your list of complaints, it is clear that you played it using a Call of Duty mentality. Which is why the game was great. You could run and gun your way through it if you chose to do so. However for the fans of stealth, the real challenge lay in beating it on Perfectionist difficulty without being seen or killing anyone.

Aaaand lets not forget the fucking checkpoint system.

Umm... what about it?

 

[EyeReaper]

Hey, I've enjoyed pokemon before, and would like to see what it's heavily inferior to. So what does SMT stand for? (though, at a guess I'm going to say super monster trainer.)

SMT stands for Shin Megami Tensei, a ballsdiculously hard rpg that started back on the Super Nintendo, if I remember correctly, although recently spinoff series Persona has usurped it's popularity.
It shares many common elements with pokemon, turn based, heavilly focused on an elemental tables and hitting the enemies weakpoints, and travelling around with a group of deadly monsters.

There's big differences too though, a moral choice system, usually a intriguing story, the player him/herself fights alongside the beasties in the party, and most importantly, the fusion system. you can fuse two of your monsters together to make better monsters. It's a hellofalotta fun, and I would heartilly recommend Shin Megami Tensei IV for the DS, don't worry about it being a sequel, as far as I can tell, the stories aren't connected

 

[Username Redacted]

I suppose Persona 4 Arena. I know I really, really, really, really, really, really, really love Persona 4 and an expansion to that is like the best thing ever anyway but Arena is brilliant on a purely mechanical level too.

Ummm...unless you live in Europe Persona 4 Arena came out in 2012. The next version of the game won't be out on consoles until ~2050 (just kidding; probably more like 2014 but seriously ASW can fuck off with how little they care about non-Japanese markets). I will also agree that from a mechanics perspective the P4A is one of the best games that Arc Systems Works has made it's just a shame IMO that from a balance perspective it's one of their worst entries. While game balance cannot be 100% predicted it is something that can be worked on and P4A is the least balanced ASW game since the original BlazBlue.

----

My nominee would probably be Saints Row 4. Eclipses SR3 in every way possible and was just a ton of fun.

 

[Sir Pootis]

No One Has to Die

This is mostly because not many people have heard of it, but that seems standard for a lot of flash games. It wasn't that great of a game mechanically, but it still managed to be engaging enough to make me play through it in one approximately 1.5-2 hour sitting, and I don't regret doing it. To me, it deserved more attention than it got, and it is probably the only game this year that I would say that about.

That game melted my brain. Passcode turkeys... *collapse*

But yeah, I agree. The game didn't get as much attention as it should have.

And I suppose Pokemon fans still haven't quite realised that their beloved franchise is heavily inferior (flameshield) to the game series that started the whole genre, so SMT:IV went mostly ignored by the general gaming community.

SMT4 was probably ignored because it STILL HASN'T BEEN RELEASED IN AUS/EUROPE. Yes, I'm bitter.

OT: As has been said, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and Shadow Warrior. Two very solid shooters with excellent gameplay.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I'm thinking...i'm thinking.

You know, i can't think of any good games that have come out this year at all. It's been a year of games with no difficulty...graphics over gameplay...hyped up shit games. I've been pushed to my limit and have many times considered calling time on my old hobby that in the last 2-3 has become so easy as to be no longer challenging or entertaining...probably why i'm reading the library out of books nowadays. Even when i play games with other people i end up doing most of the game for them...it's getting silly.

I think i might have a month off completely in January and see if i can rekindle the old flame...or maybe break my wrist to make it all challenging again

 

[The Wykydtron]

I suppose Persona 4 Arena. I know I really, really, really, really, really, really, really love Persona 4 and an expansion to that is like the best thing ever anyway but Arena is brilliant on a purely mechanical level too.

Ummm...unless you live in Europe Persona 4 Arena came out in 2012. The next version of the game won't be out on consoles until ~2050 (just kidding; probably more like 2014 but seriously ASW can fuck off with how little they care about non-Japanese markets). I will also agree that from a mechanics perspective the P4A is one of the best games that Arc Systems Works has made it's just a shame IMO that from a balance perspective it's one of their worst entries. While game balance cannot be 100% predicted it is something that can be worked on and P4A is the least balanced ASW game since the original BlazBlue.

----

My nominee would probably be Saints Row 4. Eclipses SR3 in every way possible and was just a ton of fun.

And I *do* live in Europe as a matter of fact, otherwise why would I mention it here?

How is P4A the most unbalanced? I would say BlazBlue is but then again I could never get a foothold to judge anything because I got into Continuum Shift a year or two late so the only people online were y'know, good. Fucking TAGER. No, totally balanced character, cannot control your own character's movements, cannot half health you with one grab then immediate reset with another grab, it's not like every grab is unblockable at all. 10/10 fair and balanced character, good job ArcSys.

As for P4A, I know Elisabeth is Garbage Tier fit to be a great noob-stomper at most. Kanji is broken but I can at win if I turn my entire style on its head and play Zoning Labrys. Ugh. Fuck you for making me do this Kanji, no self respecting Labrys should have to stoop so low.

Everyone else is good but with their own weaknesses, Akihiko is like the best pressure character ever conceived *if* you let him in but he relies on a predictable set of tricks, Labrys is best girl, Shabrys is the hardest to pick up but is lethal once you get good with her, Naoto is insufferable with clever use of traps and projectiles, Yu is your jack of all trades who can do a side of everything and so on.

 

[Bobic]

Hey, I've enjoyed pokemon before, and would like to see what it's heavily inferior to. So what does SMT stand for? (though, at a guess I'm going to say super monster trainer.)

SMT stands for Shin Megami Tensei, a ballsdiculously hard rpg that started back on the Super Nintendo, if I remember correctly, although recently spinoff series Persona has usurped it's popularity.
It shares many common elements with pokemon, turn based, heavilly focused on an elemental tables and hitting the enemies weakpoints, and travelling around with a group of deadly monsters.

There's big differences too though, a moral choice system, usually a intriguing story, the player him/herself fights alongside the beasties in the party, and most importantly, the fusion system. you can fuse two of your monsters together to make better monsters. It's a hellofalotta fun, and I would heartilly recommend Shin Megami Tensei IV for the DS, don't worry about it being a sequel, as far as I can tell, the stories aren't connected

Oh, I have seen that name mentioned a few times around this forum, though never really investigated any further. Sadly, I don't own a DS (nor do I own a working PS2, I checked to see what other consoles they had appeared on). So I guess that's another game to add to the list: 'Should I ever get a DS, these are the awesome games I want'. Ah well, thanks dude.

 

[Username Redacted]

And I *do* live in Europe as a matter of fact, otherwise why would I mention it here?

Just checking. At this point I cannot fathom why Europe even bothers supporting ASW games with how badly they've gotten dicked over with regards to release dates.

How is P4A the most unbalanced? I would say BlazBlue is but then again I could never get a foothold to judge anything because I got into Continuum Shift a year or two late so the only people online were y'know, good. Fucking TAGER. No, totally balanced character, cannot control your own character's movements, cannot half health you with one grab then immediate reset with another grab, it's not like every grab is unblockable at all. 10/10 fair and balanced character, good job ArcSys.

Most unbalanced was maybe going a bit too far. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (BBCT) probably still holds that title. That said BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (BBCS) had some serious balance issues. Ignoring BBCT for the terribly designed mess that it was BBCS had its fair share of issues. Its top tier while less outright retarded than what was found in BBCT was, in general, no less oppressive when matched up against the lesser characters in that version. I also sincerely hope that you're referring to more recent versions of Blazblue in your assessment of Tager as the BBCT version of Tager might very well be one of the worst, relative to the game that the character is in, fighting game characters ever created (no favorable matchups; no even matchups; multiple essentially un-winnable matchups). The BBCS version isn't much better. It wasn't until BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II that the character was even (realistically) able to compete is most matchups.

As for P4A, I know Elisabeth is Garbage Tier fit to be a great noob-stomper at most. Kanji is broken but I can at win if I turn my entire style on its head and play Zoning Labrys. Ugh. Fuck you for making me do this Kanji, no self respecting Labrys should have to stoop so low.

Everyone else is good but with their own weaknesses, Akihiko is like the best pressure character ever conceived *if* you let him in but he relies on a predictable set of tricks, Labrys is best girl, Shabrys is the hardest to pick up but is lethal once you get good with her, Naoto is insufferable with clever use of traps and projectiles, Yu is your jack of all trades who can do a side of everything and so on.

There are five characters "worth" playing in P4A; i.e. a top tier after which there is a decent drop off in competitive ability. IMO there isn't really anything outright broken in P4A but the top characters tend to have few gaps in their tools and just be generally quit oppressive when matched up against the rest of the cast. You also only named one of them (Yu Narukami). The rest are Aigis, Chie, Mitsuru and Teddie.

 

[The Wykydtron]

And I *do* live in Europe as a matter of fact, otherwise why would I mention it here?

Just checking. At this point I cannot fathom why Europe even bothers supporting ASW games with how badly they've gotten dicked over with regards to release dates.

How is P4A the most unbalanced? I would say BlazBlue is but then again I could never get a foothold to judge anything because I got into Continuum Shift a year or two late so the only people online were y'know, good. Fucking TAGER. No, totally balanced character, cannot control your own character's movements, cannot half health you with one grab then immediate reset with another grab, it's not like every grab is unblockable at all. 10/10 fair and balanced character, good job ArcSys.

Most unbalanced was maybe going a bit too far. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (BBCT) probably still holds that title. That said BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (BBCS) had some serious balance issues. Ignoring BBCT for the terribly designed mess that it was BBCS had its fair share of issues. Its top tier while less outright retarded than what was found in BBCT was, in general, no less oppressive when matched up against the lesser characters in that version. I also sincerely hope that you're referring to more recent versions of Blazblue in your assessment of Tager as the BBCT version of Tager might very well be one of the worst, relative to the game that the character is in, fighting game characters ever created (no favorable matchups; no even matchups; multiple essentially un-winnable matchups). The BBCS version isn't much better. It wasn't until BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II that the character was even (realistically) able to compete is most matchups.

As for P4A, I know Elisabeth is Garbage Tier fit to be a great noob-stomper at most. Kanji is broken but I can at win if I turn my entire style on its head and play Zoning Labrys. Ugh. Fuck you for making me do this Kanji, no self respecting Labrys should have to stoop so low.

Everyone else is good but with their own weaknesses, Akihiko is like the best pressure character ever conceived *if* you let him in but he relies on a predictable set of tricks, Labrys is best girl, Shabrys is the hardest to pick up but is lethal once you get good with her, Naoto is insufferable with clever use of traps and projectiles, Yu is your jack of all trades who can do a side of everything and so on.

There are five characters "worth" playing in P4A; i.e. a top tier after which there is a decent drop off in competitive ability. IMO there isn't really anything outright broken in P4A but the top characters tend to have few gaps in their tools and just be generally quit oppressive when matched up against the rest of the cast. You also only named one of them (Yu Narukami). The rest are Aigis, Chie, Mitsuru and Teddie.

To be honest, the year wait for P4A was Atlus' fault. They have a shitty track record with EU release dates of their own too. :/

I played a bit of Calamity Trigger because I picked it up for under £5 in a bargain bin and BB always looked sort of interesting. I decided to pick up the most recent version after and that's the only one I play so yeah, most recent Tager.

I think one of the reasons I play nothing but Mu-12 in that game is because she's the only one who can half deal with Tager. Christ just try playing Makoto vs him and see how far you can g-dead lol. (I cannot get my head around boxing characters to save my life) I have a feeling Mu isn't going to be very high on anyone's tier lists though, a grand total of one person plays her on XBL in a sea of Ragna, Jin, Lambda, Hazama and Tager mains. I suppose her kit is a bit... Unorthodox? She's squishy as fuck too. Put some damn clothes on woman.


As for Persona, I do remember people saying that Mitsuru is the best one but everyone else is at least viable in their own way even if some characters have stronger kits. Well apart from Elisabeth. I main Labrys because she's adorable and my direct sub is Shadow Labrys because I have a thing for her brand of evil. Then I play a little bit of Yu, Aigis, Naoto and Chie

I never really bother selecting my characters over tier lists and stuff. I'm interested to see what the community thinks and what the pros say but I play what I feel like playing regardless. All you people going on about viability have no clue what real underpowered characters are. I played Phoenix Fucking Wright, the outright worst character in the game by miles in UMVC3 for over a year straight. I can deal with any disadvantage your conventional underpowered character has after that trial. If PW ever downs one of your characters before he hits his power up mode you're laughed out of the fucking building.