I'd have to say El Shaddai. Beautiful, intriguing, fun, unique...it had everything. A pity it didn't sell well. Same with Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom.
That underrated, forgotten gem of a game.
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I am surprised that not one as mentioned Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines! That game is a great classic and just because it had a lot of bugs and flaws thanks to a studio being shut down... but it is still a worthy game even to this day!
But... To me... The best underrated game I played, own, love, cherish, and elevate every chance I get... is Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. This is the first RPG I ever played in my life... when I was about 7 years old... Too young to really understand the D&D rule sets... But not young enough to just say meh.... haha. I love this game. Nothing so much fulfills that "create your own life, in a game"-game than BG2:SoA.
I really wish the current games could just look at these two games and try to improve on their great points. But oh-noz, they are so old... they have wrinkles... they smell sorta funny... ya? but I love them... and wish games were more like these old gems than some of the quite frankly cookie cutter games that have been coming out lately...
Thank you.
But... To me... The best underrated game I played, own, love, cherish, and elevate every chance I get... is Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. This is the first RPG I ever played in my life... when I was about 7 years old... Too young to really understand the D&D rule sets... But not young enough to just say meh.... haha. I love this game. Nothing so much fulfills that "create your own life, in a game"-game than BG2:SoA.
I really wish the current games could just look at these two games and try to improve on their great points. But oh-noz, they are so old... they have wrinkles... they smell sorta funny... ya? but I love them... and wish games were more like these old gems than some of the quite frankly cookie cutter games that have been coming out lately...
Thank you.
I see your Dark Messiah of Might and Magic... And I raise you, Might and Magic (1-8). Everytime I try to recommend it to someone they confuse it with Dark Messiah which makes me think the damn thing isnt as underrated as people keep saying.ResonanceGames said:
got ninja'd on call of cthulhu, so i'll go with Shogo. Great game with good graphics for that time and cool mecha style warfare. Too bad it got released around the same time as Half Life.
Then there was Pathologic, which surprisingly few people know about. Had a shit ton of bugs, but was very deep story and character design wise and psychologically. A bad translation didn't help the popularity either.
Finally, there was Claw - a 2d platformer. It got released at that unfortunate period when the ps1 and n64 had been released, and everyone was 3d graphics this and 3d graphics that. It was a pretty game, with nicely designed levels which really gave you a hard time. It had multiple weapons, nicely animated saturday morning cartoon style cutscenes, fun boss fights, and clever environment navigation and jump timing based puzzles. It really surprises me how really few people know about this game, even those who claim to be hardcore gamers since , considering it was released by the reasonably well known monolith (who btw also made shogo).
Then there was Pathologic, which surprisingly few people know about. Had a shit ton of bugs, but was very deep story and character design wise and psychologically. A bad translation didn't help the popularity either.
Finally, there was Claw - a 2d platformer. It got released at that unfortunate period when the ps1 and n64 had been released, and everyone was 3d graphics this and 3d graphics that. It was a pretty game, with nicely designed levels which really gave you a hard time. It had multiple weapons, nicely animated saturday morning cartoon style cutscenes, fun boss fights, and clever environment navigation and jump timing based puzzles. It really surprises me how really few people know about this game, even those who claim to be hardcore gamers since , considering it was released by the reasonably well known monolith (who btw also made shogo).
Temple of Elemental Evil
Sure it was buggy initially, but thanks to community patches, it now works as intended
Sure it was buggy initially, but thanks to community patches, it now works as intended
Captive:
EDIT - Damn, no idea how to link youtubes.
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFfPgZOylWA[/link]
It's about 22 years old now, was a lot like Dungeon Master, but this game ate years of my life - I'd be healthier if I just took up smoking instead. It's a masterpiece, by Tony Crowther, old school C64 fans might remember him.
EDIT - Damn, no idea how to link youtubes.
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFfPgZOylWA[/link]
It's about 22 years old now, was a lot like Dungeon Master, but this game ate years of my life - I'd be healthier if I just took up smoking instead. It's a masterpiece, by Tony Crowther, old school C64 fans might remember him.
Vagrant Story
Alternatively,
Champions of Norrath (and the sequel)
Alt; Alternatively,
Dragon Warrior Monsters (and the first sequel)
Alternatively,
Champions of Norrath (and the sequel)
Alt; Alternatively,
Dragon Warrior Monsters (and the first sequel)
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold\Planet Strike I love that game. It was a Sci-Fi FPS put out in 1994 that I played probably to an excessive extent. Planet Strike's main gimmick was that you could blow up any unlocked door with its version of the BFG. Here's some screenshots
Beyond Good and Evil a forgotten, underrated gem? Really? You know I'm not sure what to say to that! Just... no! That's like saying Okami is underrated and forgotten. I mean yeah it wasn't the biggest seller out there but it was far, far from being underrated, or forgotten.
themind said:
Beyond Good and Evil a forgotten, underrated gem? Really? You know I'm not sure what to say to that! Just... no! That's like saying Okami is underrated and forgotten. I mean yeah it wasn't the biggest seller out there but it was far, far from being underrated, or forgotten.
I got one, just perfect for Halloween and "don't play in the dark" kinda scary...Nosferatu, The Wrath Of Malachi. First of all the music and sets...wow, its like being in a 1930s universal horror, complete with spooky strings, the whole nine yards. And EVERY room is randomized, even between saves! This way you have NO idea if you will find an empty room behind the door or walk right into a vamp's crypt. Oh and you are just a normal guy, with turn of the 20th century weapons, they are 300+ year old master vampires. if you walk into a crypt you BETTER have a couple of stakes and you BETTER get them before they wake, otherwise you are soooo dead meat!
A truly scary game, and one very few have heard about. it came out on PC in like 2003 so its system requirements are low enough now pretty much anything will run it. if you want to be scared on Halloween, face off against Nosferatu!
A truly scary game, and one very few have heard about. it came out on PC in like 2003 so its system requirements are low enough now pretty much anything will run it. if you want to be scared on Halloween, face off against Nosferatu!
Painkiller. Sure, it got some popularity after Yahtzee mentioned it, but still. It is a glorious game, and very possibly the most cathartic game I have ever played.
I'm gonna put on my hipster glasses and say that while I adore Majesty, I just couldn't get into the sequel... But yeah, the first one was glorious. Hell, I replayed the demo maybe 20-30 times before I even got the full game.denseWorm said:
My pick is Fields of Fire: War along the Mohawk. I have yet to meet another person who played the game. It was a RTW game with bits of RPG mixed in, set during the French and Indian War. It was developed by a company which made baseball manager games. But it had good voice acting and some really nice hand painted graphics at a time when they were going out of style.
Funny, I never thought of them as underrated, but that's probably because in Poland, they were HUGE.Arfonious said:
I'll go with Two Worlds 2. It's not perhaps the best game, and the story is dumb as hell, but I find that game strangely compelling. The setting was pretty good, combat was fun, if a bit repetitive, magic system was AWESOME (seriously you could do a fireball that homes in on enemy, then explodes into smaller fireballs that spawn Skeletons when they hit something.
This is perhaps the first time I went straight on and played a Mage in fantasy RPG, instead of Fighter.
This is perhaps the first time I went straight on and played a Mage in fantasy RPG, instead of Fighter.
Yes, It was definitely big in our region (Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic), so I too don't consider them as underrated.RyQ_TMC said:
Because it isn't underrated nor forgotten. Any WRPG fan worth their salt knows the game, and half of those people have played it. Really, Vampire is Troika's most well-known RPG. Arcanum gets (close?) second and Temple of Eelemental Evil is the obscure oneSebastian Van Deus said:
No offense, but I'm starting to think you don't know the meaning of underrated nor forgotten. Baldur's Gate 2 is anything BUTSebastian Van Deus said:
Honestly, I'd go so far as to say that BG&E is overrated by its fanbase, though I'd somewhat agree on the game's obscurity factor. That game managed to "wow" me maybe once or twice when I played it a year back, but made me groan 10 times for each of those moments.chiggerwood said:
If a game was seen fit to give it a HD remake for this generation (Beyond Good and Evil, for example) you cannot claim that it is underrated or forgotten.
I'd have to go with Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. I do not actually know a single other person in real life who has ever owned it (as far as I am aware). It was and pretty much still is, the only game to give you decent psychic powers that are actually fun to use. The story was atrocious, but the game-play was some of the best.
It also has an absolutely awesome song.
I'd have to go with Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. I do not actually know a single other person in real life who has ever owned it (as far as I am aware). It was and pretty much still is, the only game to give you decent psychic powers that are actually fun to use. The story was atrocious, but the game-play was some of the best.
It also has an absolutely awesome song.
Arcanum of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. it remains the only fantasy game that goes "what would happen were society actually you know, NOT IN A MEDIEVAL TIME LOCK" and the consequences of that (the growing irrelevance of wizards,discrimation of different races) and it was made by most of the people who made Fallout!
Actually VTM:Bloodlines is often referenced as one of the best Vampire based games and a good game full stop regardless of bugs.Sebastian Van Deus said:
Also the Baulders Gate games are on about the highest pedestal a game can be placed on by RPG players.
A somewhat forgotten/overloooked RPG that came out back on the original playstation and I think is up on the PSN store, Vagrant Story, while it did get good reviews at its release there are a lot of gamers today who have missed out on this gem of a game.
Whoops?Shadowstar38 said:May I present to you...
This is my all time favorite game from the Gameboy Advance. I sunk more time into this than Pokemon Rudy. It's that fucking good.
YES! Majesty was such an awesome game. I can't believe the formula didn't get copied by more people. The gameplay was fun and original, and everything felt so characterful. And the sequel managed to build on the first game without losing any of the charm.denseWorm said:
So that I've actually contributed something to this thread, I'm going to offer up Zoo Tycoon (the original, not the sequel). No, it was never as good (or as loved) as Rollercoaster Tycoon. But it had it stood head-and-shoulders above most of the Tycoon games that were being splurged out at the time and you could feed your guests to the tigers if you got bored.
(I was going to say Theme Hospital, but that game is only under-rated by people who have no sense of humour, or who don't know what fun is.)