Underrated Games

[Fenixgoon]

Section 8

 

[Elcs]

Hellgate: London - It was great in parts especially the FMV and the best DX10 implementation of any game I have seen to date. They just failed with making the game addictive and fun.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. - A simple arcadey combat fighter game. Cheap and cheerful!

Star Wars: Republic Commando - Great story, amazing game play just carried the Star Wars name (usually means crap game) and was very short (10-16 hours on Hard, I think)

King's Bounty: The Legend, Armoured Princess and Crossworlds - A game that is superior to HoMM3 with expansion packs. I wonder why my Steam tells me that I've spent over 200 hours combined on these things.

Star Wolves 1, 2 & 3 - Buggy games but they mix RPG with RTS in a space-based environment in an open-ended game . Very tactical, pause regularly, save regularly and you'll love it if you enjoy games that aren't easy ... even on easy mode.

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident - Truly the closest we have came to Homeworld since Homeworld 2. A strong story, basic RPG elements and a lot of tactical space-based RTS action make this a must have in any RTS fans collection.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Far Cry 2 was a lot of fun if you didn't take it too seriously, but got pretty badly panned by critics and gamers.

 

[Zhaoan]

also need to add Savage and its sequel Savage II. If you've never heard of it, it combines FPS with RTS. FPS game with a "commander" on each side. You can harvest resources for your commander who can use them to research new weapons and build guard towers.

 

[pmv]

Am tempted to nominate No-one Lives Forever (1 and 2). Doesn't really belong as they actually got rave reviews, but apparently almost nobody bought them. Which is annoying as otherwise there might have been a third one, and I'd far, far prefer to see the comedy and inventiveness of those games than yet another dreary quasi-realistic contemporary soldier-sim (will that genre please hurry up and fade away?).

Could it be that male gamers don't like playing female characters? (Yes there's Lara, but you don't play _as_ her, you stare at her backside, which isn't the same thing). Or was it just the unconventional setting that put people off?

Monolith in general seem to be more inventive than most (Blood, Sin and Fear were good also, in terms of being slightly non-standard stories and settings), yet they seem cursed somehow, something always goes wrong for them.

 

[tedrodai]

I enjoyed Star Wars: Rebellion quite a bit, back in the day. I never understood the bad reviews, cause it was fun to play. Although I was in high school back then and a HUGE Star Wars fan, so maybe I had some blinders on at the time *shrug*

 

[gorcorps]

Far Cry 2 was a lot of fun if you didn't take it too seriously, but got pretty badly panned by critics and gamers.

FC2 was a game you were FORCED to take seriously. Just when you think you're having fun, you have the "realistic experience" of a jammed gun or broken vehicle. Fuck that game

 

[Martimus]

I really enjoyed Doom 3 even though many hated it. I loved the nostalgia of the claustrophobic Doom feeling with demons randomly teleporting behind you.

I also loved Prey, even though many seemed to be disappointed with it.

Finally, I had a lot of fun playing Crysis, and I love the gameplay of the game (the open Sandbox style where you could approach each situation thousands of different ways and succeed (or fail if you did it poorly).)

Actually, Oblivion was another sandbox game that many hated that I thoroughly enjoyed. While I didn't really even start the main mission until I had already played probably 80 hours, I loved how truly open the game was and the fact that side missions were well developed, and didn't get boring or repetitive. (The missions were all very unique, even if the dungeons were not).

 

[zokudu]

I have to agree with another poster on Blur. I got it on steam the other day and its pretty good for an arcady racing game.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. - A simple arcadey combat fighter game. Cheap and cheerful!

I thought of this when I saw the thread. It's really short - I beat the entire thing on the hardest level within a couple days of buying it - but it's fun and there are so many planes available that you get some replay value as well. The graphics are good too. At least, I think they look pretty good, even though a lot of reviews criticized them.

 

[Elcs]

I thought of this when I saw the thread. It's really short - I beat the entire thing on the hardest level within a couple days of buying it - but it's fun and there are so many planes available that you get some replay value as well. The graphics are good too. At least, I think they look pretty good, even though a lot of reviews criticized them.

I was gifted H.A.W.X. 2 recently. Been too busy with World of Tanks CBT and LoL and Forsaken World CBT.... and my website... and my college course

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Actually, Oblivion was another sandbox game that many hated that I thoroughly enjoyed. While I didn't really even start the main mission until I had already played probably 80 hours, I loved how truly open the game was and the fact that side missions were well developed, and didn't get boring or repetitive. (The missions were all very unique, even if the dungeons were not).

It averaged 94%. Hardly underrated.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I was gifted H.A.W.X. 2 recently. Been too busy with World of Tanks CBT and LoL and Forsaken World CBT.... and my website... and my college course

I made the mistake of buying HAWX shortly after release for full price. Should have known that as a short single player centric game (by Ubisoft no less) it would be in the bargain bin within a few weeks.

Oh well, I'll probably get HAWX 2 in a couple months.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I didn't even realize there was a HAWX 2 until your post.

 

[AstroManLuca]

It averaged 94%. Hardly underrated.

Yeah, if anything it was overrated. Although it is one of those games that has a lot of mixed opinions. Reviewers were all "best game ever!" and over the years people's opinions changed. Sort of like COD and Halo games - there's a lot of mainstream love but also a lot of hatred. Makes it hard to call those games either underrated or overrated because they're sort of both.

 

[69Mach1]

Revenant. I played it all the way through several times.

 

[Highmodulus]

Am tempted to nominate No-one Lives Forever (1 and 2). Doesn't really belong as they actually got rave reviews, but apparently almost nobody bought them. Which is annoying as otherwise there might have been a third one, and I'd far, far prefer to see the comedy and inventiveness of those games than yet another dreary quasi-realistic contemporary soldier-sim (will that genre please hurry up and fade away?).

I bought both! Some of the spirit lives on it TF2 imho.

 

[ibex333]

Most games by 1C......

Namely..

Men of War - heavily underrated and mostly ignored game, but one of the best RTS I ever played. The level of detail is astounding, and gameplay is awesome. The cutscenes and voice acting are horrible, but who cares?


Panzers 1 and 2. Both absolutely great games but heavily underrated and ignored.

Act of War. The graphics and the level of detail were so high, that it rivals and often surpasses many games of today. Need proof? Just look at the MLRS in this game. The devs actually bothered to model most stages the rocket goes through as it leaves the launher. Further, you can actually observe the rocket exploding in mid air and raining down multiple explosive charges onto the enemy. Why the hell that game didnt catch on? I still dont understand....

Severance: Blade of Darkness. One of the best, and the most unique games ever, but heavily underrated and mostly ignored.

Command and Conquer 3, and in some ways Cane's Wrath(which sadly was a step back in many ways) So what that it was made by EA? They did an awesome job. Sure, it was the ONLY time they did an awesome job on an RTS because both the RA3 and C&C4 were utter garbage, but that has nothing to do with the gem that C&C3 was. It was awesome in every way, both single and multi player.

The original Sacred+Sacred Underworld Expansion. These were actually pretty good, unlike the garbage Sacred 2 turned out to be.

 

[dpodblood]

I agree with others that said Crysis, and Far Cry 2. Also someone mentioned Flatout 2 which was an awesome game especially for multiplayer.

 

[snewdle]

A game out right now that is certainly underrated is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Made by the developers of Penumbra, it really is a gem. Too bad they barely broke even from the revenue it generated.

 

[Anteaus]

Anachronox. Not so much a bad reputation as no reputation. RIP Ion Storm. Such a great game.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I agree with others that said Crysis

Crysis? Overrated, not underrated. It's the Mecca of graphics but the game is maximum suck.

 

[dpodblood]

Crysis? Overrated, not underrated. It's the Mecca of graphics but the game is maximum suck.

Dunno about that. It reviewed well sure, but every forum I have looked at has ripped on it. Personally I liked the game play. I don't know why everyone seems to hate it so much. At the very least it's above average in the game play department.

 

[Anteaus]

Crysis? Overrated, not underrated. It's the Mecca of graphics but the game is maximum suck.

It didn't completely suck. It only sucked once we left the tech demo and the aliens arrived. That first couple hours of gameplay were top notch.

 

[shortylickens]

Far Cry 2 was a lot of fun if you didn't take it too seriously, but got pretty badly panned by critics and gamers.

Probably because they called it Far Cry 2. If they had called it something else I bet it wouldn't have been assaulted so badly.
Thats the main problem with sequels. People expect everything the first one had only more and better. Often they will miss out on a great game cuz they were too busy thinking of the first one.

I admit I had a hard time loving Elder Scrolls 4 because of that. If they'd called it by a new title I would have enjoyed it as a completely new game and never have been so critical.

 

[StinkyPinky]

CryTek love to ruin their games by having shitty aliens. Far Cry, Crysis...seriously. Why can't they just leave it at a conflict between two human sides and leave it at that. Fuck the aliens.

I haven't looked, but I guess Crysis 2 also has aliens