Your personal biggest underrated game of all time

[UrinalDook]

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

KotOR 2 is pretty much my favourite game of all time even before the RCM. So hell yeah I agree with this. I'm going to assume that being the wonderfully enthusiastic and intellectual gamers I've come to expect reading these forums, that most of you are familiar with this Let's Play [http://lparchive.org/Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-II/]. If you haven't, do it. It's a brilliant discourse on what an absolute tour de force KotOR 2 was for being a commentary on the whole of the Star Wars universe.

Man, I'm really starting to sound like a Star Wars fan boy here... It's always seemed a strange dichotomy to me that some of the absolute best games ever are Star Wars games, while at the same time, so are some of the absolute worst.

It did have a squeal i think. It was a book.

Eh. I take the slightly snooty opinion that an entry in a given medium needs to stand on the strength of that medium alone. In other words, if you've finished your video game story in a book, you haven't finished it. Also, I read the first one, and after seeing the awful things Karen Traviss was doing to both the Mandalorians and the Jedi, I got out quickly.

It made super battle droids FEEL like super battle droids. unlike in Battlefront.

I KNOW RIGHT!? Super battle droids by themselves were tough. That bit on Kashyyyk where you had to take a bridge with two SBD dispensers spewing infinite amounts of the things out? Controller breakingly difficult. The sad thing is that RC came out before Episode 3. When I look back and remember how the SBDs were presented in RC, and how they were then presented in that scene early on (you know the one I mean, the one in the hangar)... God, I miss good SW games.

In the meantime, I have another entry for this. Obviously no longer my 'biggest' underrated game but, well, does anyone remember this?

Because I honestly don't know anyone who does. It was an Xbox launch title, and I think got pretty quickly overshadowed by the likes of Halo and Project Gotham Racing. Didn't do anything to really rock the boat, mind, but it was a solid outing and I got a lot of mileage out of it with some mates in our school common room. These days, I guess it's pretty old school in the sense of being a game built for local - as in splitscreen - co-op. That's pretty much a dead genre in the current gen.

Sad times.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I had said this over several times already but my is Gotcha Force. The graphic was good coming from the Gamecube, had an awesome gameplay and the only con to it was the sound dialogue and the voices made from the characters.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Snip

I liked The Darkness as well, lost my copy so I went and bought the games on demand version before the second game, I enjoyed that too.

 

[Kekkonen1]

FFVIII - It always gets loads of hate for being different from FFVII, but its my favourite FF next to Tactics.

 

[Skin]

Halo:CE's multiplayer will never get the recognition it deserves.

 

[CoL0sS]

Personally I think not nearly enough people appreaciate first two Broken Sword games as much as I do. As for the more recent works, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and The Darkness 2 come to mind. Latter one especially was flashy, gory, juvenile fun.

 

[wolf thing]

Lugaru its a game about ninja rabbits and wolves, it got a really inn-depth combat mechanics, there's even a sequel in the works

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

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.

One of my favourite games on Ps2, I love the dev, Dark Cloud, this, Layton, White Knight and now Ni No Kuni....incredible developer

 

[NorthernStar]

Spec Ops: The Line. Easily the most engaging game I've ever played and one that honestly kept me up at night thinking about it.

 

[zumbledum]

Hmm two lept to mind, Payday :the Heist and Mount and Blade Warblade.

Payday got panned in reviews on the consoles but on the pc its a polished smooth 4 player co op of immense fun.

 

[Vrach]

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.

Aye, but don't forget that SotC predates journey by half a decade at least. But you're right, it doesn't change much, although I think some of the later Colossi have to be approached with very different mindsets to the earlier ones if you're going to figure out how to beat them. Been a long time since I played it though.

Yeah, but we're not talking about triple A games or some amazing concepts brought on by tech advances, Journey, in its gameplay, is remarkably simple, you got walking, flying... and that's it. The graphics are stunning and I'm not blaming SotC on that point (although I have expected more from it, as it was supposed to be a HD remake), but other than that, I think Journey could've been made the same 10 years ago.

And yeah, the Colossi have some amazing ways of approaching them, it's an amazing feeling fighting the flying one, or the diving one and so on, but it's always the same concept once you figure out how to climb onto them in the first place. What I'm bothered by most is the entire lack of story though. Maybe it's better in Japanese (?), but as far as the English subtitles go, the script is cringeworthy and it doesn't just boil down, it is a case of the "go kill the next thing". And with the world that big, I feel it's a crime to have it be so empty.

The game's got a great concept, but I feel it's a bit overrated. Maybe I'm saying that cause I'm playing it 10 years later, it's entirely possible (I could have been more wowed with the graphics back then, or still used to the "all your base are belong to us" translations), but objectively, I don't feel it entirely deserves all the constant praise that it gets. The concept of those boss fights is great, but it's seemingly all there is to the game.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Yeah, but we're not talking about triple A games or some amazing concepts brought on by tech advances, Journey, in its gameplay, is remarkably simple, you got walking, flying... and that's it. The graphics are stunning and I'm not blaming SotC on that point (although I have expected more from it, as it was supposed to be a HD remake), but other than that, I think Journey could've been made the same 10 years ago.

The game's got a great concept, but I feel it's a bit overrated. Maybe I'm saying that cause I'm playing it 10 years later, it's entirely possible (I could have been more wowed with the graphics back then, or still used to the "all your base are belong to us" translations), but objectively, I don't feel it entirely deserves all the constant praise that it gets. The concept of those boss fights is great, but it's seemingly all there is to the game.

Well, at its time I don't think I'd seen any game try to create a world that purposefully feels so bleak and empty. What I meant by pointing out that SotC predates Journey is that it was the first game that I know of with this kind of minimalistic, artsy feel to it, so it paved the way for everything else. In other words, without SotC, there might not have ever been a Journey.
Plus, at its time I don't think I'd ever seen a monster that huge on the screen, let alone one that I could actually go up to and fight.

Idk. Maybe I'd be underwhelmed if I played it again now, but for its time it was incredible.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

Rise of the Triad

While, yeah, it's based on a heavily modified Wolfenstein 3D engine and as a result it's levels can be a bit overly maze-like (much like any Wolf3D-based game), why this game isn't more popular is beyond me. It's got frantic, awesome, balls-to-the-wall gameplay with weapons that are a joy to use. The soundtrack is fantastic. The powerups are very fun and creative. And the whole thing just doesn't seem to take itself overly seriously, which is cool in my eyes at least.

Seriously, if you're a fan of older FPS's, go onto GoG right now and get RotT. Don't just skip out on it just because there's a remake coming this year, just play it! 'Tis awesome.

 

[Austin Mcgough]

Pokemon mystery dungeon: explorers of time/darkness/sky

It's gameplay isn't impressive, standard dungeon crawler with a Pokemon twist. But there is one thing that stands perfect, it's story out matches a lot of games. And that is saying something.

On top of that is one of the best final boss battle songs to date:


I am not joking.

And to top it all off, an ending that is completely unforgettable.

I second this, plus you got to give credit to a pokemon game where the villain tries to dive you to suicide, I'm serious that's a thing that happens.IN A POKEMON GAME!

 

[Spydercake]

Gah, so many!
Persona 4 was mentioned, but I don't think it belongs here. It is anything but underrated, as almost any RPG fan on this site *me included* has a raging hard on for the persona series.
What I will include though is the other parts of the Shin Megami Tensei series. People think that Persona 4 was difficult, I just laugh in their face. Some parts of the original Shin Megami Tensei line have brought me to tears.

Another one would be Corpse Party, though it gained a little attention from some LPers, it still doesn't have nearly as many fans as it should have.

 

[LiMaSaRe]

When i saw the name of this thread I immediately thought of KOA:R. so satisfying to see OP agree. (although shocking faeblades blow those frisbees out of the water)
I raged endlessly at the end of the year when KOA:R couldnt even get on best _RPG_ lists. Its like this game has been completely forgotten already.

 

[Smogger]

I'm gonna post a few games here, some new and some old. The first game that comes to my mind when I think underrated game is The Guardian Legend for NES. It's a hybrid of zelda like adventure and frantic space shooter. There really isn't much like it out there. Another oldie is Illusion of Gaia for SNES. Part of the soul blazer trilogy, it's the first one that I've played and second overall (dang Terranigma not getting a USA release). Wonderful game that I'll always think highly of. The newest game I'll add to the list is Growlanser: wayfarer of time. It's a PSP game that came out last summer. It's a remake of a JP only title that still looks rather dated, but that's beside the point. The story is good and so is the strategy of battle. Sure it can be broken with grinding and such, but I still enjoyed the game. There are some more games that come to mind (like Legend of Dragoon and SMT series) but they've already been discussed. Also, Namco's tales series of rpgs. Played all of them that came out in the USA and they are all pretty good.

 

[Carnagath]

Bioshock 2. The heavy focus on the father-daughter element of the story was, I think, extremely engaging and both endings made me shiver and tear up. It also had several awe-inspiring moments of game design brilliance that I will never forget, like when part of Rapture floods while you are still trying to move forward, or this bloody sequence:
Of course, everyone hated this game, because... I have no fucking clue.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Sanzaru Games has always been a part of the Sly trilogy, however, so I'm not worried about them developing Sly 4.

What do you mean?

Okay my bad, perhaps not always. But Sanzaru Games is the one that put the Sly Collection together. :x I've seen several screens and a couple vids of Sly 4 and it looks really good.

 

[OniaPL]

Mine would probably have to be Dark Messiah Might and Magic... it reviewed ok and has a small but dedicated following of fans but its a game I cannot recommend highly enough.

Tell me, is the PC version somehow radically different? Back in the day I picked it from the bargain bin for Xbox 360 and paid 30 euros for it, and found out that I absolutely hated the game for it was so incredibly mediocre and bland. I still regret the purchase; I feel embarrassed for being cheated into buying that trash.

Then later on I found out that some people actually like the game, but they all always said that you should play it on the PC with lots of mods.