Your personal biggest underrated game of all time

[kyogen]

ICO
It's generally overshadowed by SotC, but it's very innovative, interesting, and gorgeous. The controls function well, the environmental puzzles are well designed and nicely varied, and that little jerk in the Dualshock when Ico tugs too hard on Yorda's hand is perfect.

 

[aguspal]

Rayman Origins man. I mean I haven't played that any other game that plays as smooth since DMC3 (which is also underrated).


The art is fanstastic and the key word is here art.A consistent tream of high art that somehow takes level design and fun along for the ride. Sound design, visual design, level design all compliment each other instead of getting in the way. Aside from all the artsy fartsy stuff, It is FUN. It knows what it wants to be and doesn't cover its good parts with things nobody cares (like story).

Yet it still doesn't recognition the sell-out Mario gets. It is sad to think about, depressive even.

LOL.


Okey, its one thing to really love a game, but expect it to get the same recognition as freaking MARIO has from nowhere like nothing? Thats a little... too much to ask. Especially since its just one game.

 

[TheAmazingMediocrity]

Spoiler: This bad boy

An intriguing, engrossing world, compelling storyline, gorgeous environments, even more gorgeous music, an addictive monster synthesis element, and character design by Katsuya freaking Kondo [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuya_Kondo].

Not to mention a sweet-ass intro [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNpRWHXzNiM].

As a series, it had so much potential. Then the second game, whilst enjoyable enough, turned it into a bloody cartoon.

I'd give my left nut for a current-gen remake, or even an anime adaptation. Hardly anyone played it though, so I think I'll be waiting a looooooong time...

 

[VeryOddGamer]

Mount&Blade: Warband, one of the best games. Has a good modding community, great mods, good concept and I still heard people say it's not good. I can't believe them...

God damn it, I can't believe I forgot Mount and Blade.
So yeah, add Mount and Blade to my list earlier.

 

[veloper]

Agreed. Amalur wasn't all bad, but the only way to some challenge out of the game is to play a straight up warrior, with a slow, oversized sword or hammer and without crafting skills or magic.
In the end it's just an action-RPG though.

Dark Messiah and Star control 2 are 2 great titles, but those games are not so much underrated, as simply less well known.

 

[Lazy-Man]

Okay, most of these have already been mentioned, but I'm going to be a badass rebel and mention them anyway.

Just Cause 2: Just awesome.

Alpha Protocol: Choices that actually have consequences.

Knights of The Old Republic 2 with a restored content mod: Better than the first one.

Neverwinter Nights 2, more specifically it's Mask of the Betrayer expansion: Planescape: Torment level story.

...
I was actually gonna say Kotor 2 (with RCM installed) but then you stole it from me! Well ya, I heartily agree. Easily my favourite game ever, love my entire crew, villains are awesome (espicially Nihilus and the lore surrounding him), and the fact that the "villains" on each planet are actually the good guys. Urmf! I just love this game so much.

Also Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm (the first one), while I detest the actual series, I can honestly claim that this game is and was the most innovative game to hit the entire fighting genre. It's a shame that the series is now trying so hard to be the games that it was once so different from.

 

[Vrach]

Gonna say Ico. A lot of people have at least heard of Shadow of the Colossus but hardly anyone seems to have played or knows about Ico.

I've got it lined up to play, but it's behind a lot of other games in my queue and I don't have too much time on my hands atm.

Also SotC didn't impress me as much as I thought it would... don't get me wrong, the general idea behind fighting huge creatures is cool, but it's formulaic as all fucking hell - "next foe is" followed by riding my retarded horse in the direction my GPS sword is showing, followed by climbing up on the monsters and pressing square at the shiny parts. Yes, the fights can be clever, but there's nothing to back them up. The story is nonexistent, the world is empty, and despite being somewhat open, it's essentially entirely linear as there's only one path that has something to show for it at a time.

Mind you, I'm only half way into the game (I think, from what I can tell, ~8 Colossi left), so maybe something changes at some point, but I'm not seeing it yet. So far, Journey knocks SotC right out of the ballpark at pretty much every corner.

OT: Alpha Protocol. Fun game all around, but the dialogue system (and almost everything built around it, like choices) is nothing short of amazing.

 

[WoW Killer]

Dunno about "of all time" or anything like that, but here's a personal little gem that I hardly ever hear mention of: Front Mission: Gun Hazard. It's not exactly best-game-ever material, but it's a tight little number with some unique features for its age. There's a certain 'weightiness' to the controls and movement that's all the rage these days (e.g. MWO or Hawken), but which is rare in a 2D 16-bit game. I'm a big fan of non-trivial movement in all sorts of games (Tribes: Ascend, Firefall), and that's the only example I know of in a side scrolling shooter. Apparently the story sucked, but I don't speak Japanese so it's all good

Ummm, another one, only thought of this because I remember someone on this site mentioning it once (and that's the only time I've heard anybody talk about it for ages): Legend of Mana. It's underrated because the response to it was mostly negative from what I remember, but it wasn't all that bad at all. I remember I was quite disappointed with it myself at the time (the lack of a proper multiplayer was a big deal for me), but looking back it was still a good game. And wow did it have some wacky ideas. What the hell was that crafting system about? That's from back when Square had more money than sense. I think they treated the game as one big experiment and threw as many new ideas as they could all into one basket. Some of them were good ideas too.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm going with Alan Wake. It got high praise from critics and even TIME acknowledged it, but I sure couldn't find a single other person who played it besides the friends that I loaned the game to. I wish it had done better among the gaming community, because I'd really like a full sequel. American Nightmare was nice, but I still have so many questions.

I'll put another one up for Alan Wake. One of the most atmospheric games I've ever played and there was a very uneasy vibe throughout it.

 

[thatguy85]

The original Mafia game I thought was fantastic. I never saw the reviews for it, so I'm not sure if it was underrated or not. Either way, it was fun as hell!

 

[Squidbulb]

Simon the Sorcerer. It's a damn fine adventure game but it seems like barely anybody knows about it.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Rogue Galaxy, on the PS2. You got to be a pirate in space, some of the most interesting companions and worlds I had seen in a while when I played that game. Bosses were fun too and the visual style was unique for an RPG at the time. It didn't go with turn based battles either, enemies would pop up and you would battle them similar to a Kingdom Hearts kind of battle system in the sense that you run around, dodge and whack the enemies yourself, but in my opinion, with more to it. The plot was alright with a few, albeit forseeable twists and such, but it was a nice story, at least to me. No one else I know really played this game.

 

[Saviordd1]

From what I've seen of the Escapist, this might not be considered all that 'underrated', but from how I personally feel about a game? Gotta be:

Sure, it actually received decent ratings when it came out, and both non-fans and fans of Star Wars alike have positive things about it to this day, but I felt at the time it came out like nowhere near enough people played it, and even less appreciated its significance.

Here was a game that proved you didn't need lightsabers, Force powers and Jedi to make a console game feel like Star Wars and stay fun to play. To this day, I can only think of one other that managed it, and that's the first Battlefront (hipster opinion: the better of the two). It had tons of atmosphere, managed to render down that most generic of all Star Wars cannon fodder - the freaking clone army - into four surprisingly different, surprisingly likeable characters, and not only were you able to splatter Geonosian goo all over your screen with a knife (that came out of your goddamn wrist way before Assassin's Creed), it even had a little energy thing to wipe it all off again. Immersion!

Having a gun that was actually three guns was badass, and dat squad AI... Man, at the time it seemed like perfection. Honestly, I feel RC taught lessons that a lot of games today could still stand to learn from. The simplicity of giving orders, the squad being useful... but mostly, the idea that if you can revive squadmates, they should be able to revive you.

Long overdue for a sequel, IMO. Just imagine that game with current gen graphics and Imperial rather than Republic gear...

*Sigh*

Oh god the nostalgia

Sadly Lucas Arts is currently run by this guy

So we might be waiting a while :/

 

[Gearhart]

Final Fantasy X-2, lots of rage directed toward this for some reason. It was fun and light hearted with an excellent combat system, with the exception for the overlevelling issue, but that is not a unique flaw in any case. The story was engaging and was enough incentive to come back to it for a 2nd or 3rd playthrough to try to get 100% completion and unlocking all the dress spheres kept the combat fresh while you were doing it. There were some cringeworthy voice acting moments, but again, not unique for a JRPG.

Perhaps it is blasphemy to have it even associated with the sacred FFVII but meh, there is no sense in flaming something that is otherwise solid on its own terms.

Kinda like Charlie's Angels really; a fun romp with a trio of girls that never gets too serious. My kind of evening... unless you're not into that of course.

 

[Andrich]

ESPN NFL 2k5.

 

[Wardonno94]

Descent, it was released back in 1995 but it was pure awesome. it was essentially doom but if the doom marine was replaced with a space ship. The levels were made so that you could traverse them vertically as well as horizontally. It had that classic style of level design, ie find the key to proceed, where you have to search the map for where to go next. Exploration was vital as there were many secrets scattered across the level. My favourite gameplay element was how after killing the core( boss ) for each level you then had to find the level exit.

 

[Rooster893]

Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.

The first game, Oddysee, was good but it had its flaws. Exoddus took all of those little flaws and beat them into the ground with a rusty pole.

 

[Beautiful End]

Easy. It is also my favorite game ever: Little Samson for the NES.

The game was released when the NES was going out and the SNES was being born. So it was easily ignored. However, it's a great platformer. Simple story, incredible music, fun characters, nice difficulty curb...

Seriously, if you never played it, do yourself a favor and play it. It shows how a simple game can be plenty of fun.

Snip

Oh, I remember that one! In fact, I still got it! I remember thinking it was an original idea. Space pirates? Hell, yeah!
But, unlike KH, it felt like it was dragging on too much. A lot of time was spent from going from point A to point B, rinse and repeat. At least KH kept it short and interesting (At least per world) (Also, I know you did the KH referring to the combat). But still, it was an interesting game.

I'll cast my vote for this one too.

EDIT: And Um Jammer Lammy! 95% of the people I know have no knowledge of this game.

 

[BleedingPride]

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

One of the funniest games ever created, and was a revolutionary combination of different genres at the time. Seriously, why didn't more people buy that game?

EDIT: I'm gonna throw one out there for Silent Hill: Downpour

Okay sure, the monsters could have used more inspiration, controls could have been better, should of been more bosses. HOWEVER. The cult was nowhere to be found. which means in my book +500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 points. Like what was said on ZP, if you put a human face on something it just isn't as scary. It's like the difference between SH2 and SH3, SH2 was just so much better because of how personal the story was for James (not saying Silent Hill 3 wasn't a really amazing, emotional game, it was, this just comes down to preference for me). But they got rid of the cult, made the story personal, and I absolutely loved it for that. Despite it's flaws it's one of my all time favorites.

 

[CityofTreez]

Portal 2.

For the amount of love and award Portal gets, only to have it's sequel improve it in every way only to get overlooked, is a shame.