'The most underappreciated videogames you've played' thread

[seed]

Hm, probably Batman Akham Origins, AvP 2010, the original SW (of course), Contra Force (it's usually considered to be the worst Contra game, but I had, and still do have fun with it), Doom 3, the original Death Rally.

 

3 hours ago, geo said:

I've seen arguments that Morrowind or Oblivion is the best and I've seen Morrowind or Skyrim is the best. Since its argued still to this day as being the best or one of the best I doubt its underappreciated. Then again since Skyrim has been around for a decade, Morrowind and Oblivion will be forgotten. Both great games for their era, but even as someone with hundreds or thousands of hours in both, I feel no need to return to either one.

 

The combat was pretty terrible in Oblivion and Morrowind, so if there's something that prevents me from visiting their world is this. Skyrim's combat was just so, so much better in comparison.

 

Also A:CM not as bad as the controversy made it be? Wow. Just wow.

[Vermil]

The battle arena Toshinden series.

[Poncho]

The original Serious Sam games. Yes, I know they're not particularly liked on these forums (but are generally loved by a lot of people), but the reason I'm putting the first two here is because not that many people have really heard of the games, and thus makes them underappreciated. Most FPS' that people go on about are shite like COD, Battlefield, Star Ward Battlefront, and even other franchises like GTA and whatnot get more attention.

 

Zelda 2 and the original Mega Man (on the NES) deserve a mention as well (the latter game is typically overshadowed by its sequels).

[ShoDemo]

Sanitarium: My favourite top down puzzle game. Dark and very interesting story, appropriate music and places to visit beyond anyone's imagination.

 

MDK 2: Really fun action game with comedic elements and very fluid gameplay.

 

Giants: Citizen Kabuto: Again, very funny game (even funnier than MDK), with average to good gameplay.

 

The Neverhood: One word. Claymation. That and a lot of humor (some aspects of the gameplay can become a little bit annoying, but I forgive the game for being so nice overall).

 

Psychonauts: Again funny 2000s platformer.

 

Brutal Legend: Most metal game out there.

 

Beyond Good & Evil: I still don't know why it sold so poorly. The fact that it was being given free for a while, if you would buy some mozzarella was ridiculous.

 

Vampire Bloodlines: I know it is considered a really good game, but I rarely see it mentioned, unless it is in some favourite RPG list. So I thought I would include it here. And what can I say about it? Vampires, character customization with a lot of depth, beautiful nighttime environments, mostly in cities, with some of the greatest ambient music I have ever heard playing on the background, downright creepy locations here and there and of course a well thought story, where your choices actually matter for the outcome of the story. No wonder I played it for 40 hours, completing the main story, coupled with every side quest I could find.

 

Hexen/Strife: Both are very innovative games that perfected the use of the Doom engine in different ways each. But because of their release date being kinda late, they never got the attention they deserved. Hexen is more well known than Strife, but still not as much as most id games. And it is a shame, because it has nice combat (although it is somewhat slower compared to Doom) and a shit ton of puzzles, which I like, while Strife manages to have RPG elements in the Doom engine. That by itself is amazing.

[Danz]

Dungeon Keeper (both 1  & 2) and Populous: The Beginning.

[Rook]

There are two third-person action games that I have championed for a long time, and which were released in very much the same era.

 

The first is Urban Chaos, which I really think is one of the best games made in the UK. It came out in 1999 but has a fully-3D, psuedo-open city environment, driveable vehicles, and a mix of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat. You mostly play as a rookie cop called D'Arci Stern - very probably the first ever playable black woman in a game, and not at all sexualised - fighting crime in Union City. You begin with trivial street crimes, encounter a virulent gang, and then the story really escalates from there. Some elements of it are quite crude now, but it's remarkable how ahead of its time the game is, having been released well ahead of Grand Theft Auto III. You can choose to arrest the criminals you encounter, and it's often very funny. It's on sale for about a quid on GOG, currently, and I can't recommend it enough. Sadly, its developer Mucky Foot did not last long.

 

The second is Oni, a semi-forgotten game made by Bungie and put out in 2000. I'm not really an anime enthusiast but the Japanese stylings are used really well in this game. It's very indebted to Ghost in the Shell, but has a very compelling and unsettling story of its own with excellent characters and voice acting. Like Urban Chaos it has a female protagonist, this one called Konoko, and a mix of gunplay and martial arts. The guns are very much secondary and quite clunky, but the fighting is like nothing else you could get on the PC at that time. There's a huge moveset and each enemy type even has their own extensive selection of attacks (they're playable via cheats as a remnant of a scrapped multiplayer mode). The environments are notoriously bland and yet interesting in their own way, because they were ostensibly based on input from "real architects" (!). Sadly, its sequel was scrapped but some test footage has emerged. It's not on any digital platform, but boxed copies can be found second-hand.

[GarrettChan]

11 minutes ago, Danzadan said:

Dungeon Keeper (both 1 & 2)

Oh, I like these 2 games even though I'm not a fan of RTS. I recently bought them from GOG. It's kind of sad that Bullfrog, which is one of the most creative game developing companies in the history, didn't last for long

[geo]

Dungeon Keeper 2 is awesome. At the time when it first came out people were up in arms that it was too much like Dungeon Keeper 1... and that feels completely wrong. Different engine. The first one feels archaic to the point I try to play it and say... nope on to Dungeon Keeper 2. If anything, my own hatred of Dungeon Keeper 1 would make it underappreciated.

 

Back to Morrowind... yeah the combat was terrible, but Oblivion improved it, just not to the Skyrim level.

 

I suppose Alien Vs Predator 2010 would be underappreciated. When it too came out people disliked it compared to Alien vs Predator 1999. I didn't see what was wrong with AvP 2010. Playing AvP 1999 in single player felt unplayable last time I tried. Like the only reason people would play it is the multiplayer or something. AvP2K10's marine campaign is better and has more impressive and inspiring xenomorphs than Aliens: Colonial Marines which really lived and died by that second movie. With A:CM the big feel to the levels was "oh this was from the movie, that was from the movie, yay movie!"

 

Brutal Legend is also awesome, I plowed through it in 2 or 3 days. I want that to have a sequel.

[seed]

@geo Same for me. AvP2010 got positive to mixed reviews at the time, but it seems people liked it quite a bit even then, yet still prefered the classic over it.

 

I've played the classic and, although it is indeed pretty damn interesting and fun, I find the 2010 version to be slightly superior in most respects, especially that Marine campaign, overall gameplay, and so on. One of the more questionable design choices for me was the first person view for the Xenomorph. It sounds cool on paper without a doubt, but feels a bit awkward in action and even confusing sometimes, especially when running on walls, but I think the devs did their best, given the nature of the beast there isn't really any other way to make it better first person wise. I suppose they wanted a first person view for all playable characters, but the Xenomorph could've definitely benefited from a third person view instead due to its abilities.

[geo]

I think as time goes on, good games will be enjoyed no matter if they're hated at initial release for $40 - $60.

 

While I'm here...

 

Bionic Commando 3D is another hated game at launch mostly because you couldn't stray off course due to poison gas and the fact that the 2D NES game is better. I too hated the first hour of it. I felt the swing buttons were alien. Then I got used to it. The poison gas is never bad and it felt like you had to go well out of your way to fall into it. Like be so much of a coward. The game feels intense with the swing, coupled with the need to flank or get shot out of the sky. There are a lot of facets beyond the normal cover shooter.

 

I might as well mention Bionic Commando: Rearmed is less fun than the NES game that its remaking. Its still a fun game that deserves a play through. If a game's only sin is that its not as good as the original, that's not a bad thing. The boss fights are a lot better as they are with most or all Capcom remakes. The soundtrack is still one of the most replayable and energizing soundtracks I've ever heard.

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

4 hours ago, Agent6 said:

The combat was pretty terrible in Oblivion and Morrowind, so if there's something that prevents me from visiting their world is this. Skyrim's combat was just so, so much better in comparison.

Uh, oh, now I'm about to say something contradicting this statement.

 

Part of my problem with Skyrim (there aren't too many problems with it, it really is a good game, I just think its ridiculously overrated, primarily) is I thought the combat was too slow. You could be level 80 and still take way too long to kill a singular low level bandit, whereas in Morrowind, you'd one-shot the bastard and keep going (though, at Morrowind's max, which tended around level 75, you were powerful enough to kick the shit out of everybody in the world if you wanted).

 

In Oblivion, only in theory, though, you'd be able to do the same thing, though Oblivion's leveling (world leveling) system was so broken that after not-very-long, the entire world was twenty levels ahead of you using gear you should find at level 40 when you're a measly level 15 or something.

 

But Skyrim? You just slowly swing that sword/axe/mace/hammer/spell/whatever again and again at your enemy until he dies and it takes so long to swing again. Realistic? Probably. But it's too slow for me, the combat feels like more of a chore than something letting me know what a badass I am.

 

My opinion, though.

[Simon666]

For first person shooter i would say Rage, the shooting portion was kick ass.

For rpg, i think 7th Saga probably for its insane difficulty.

For shoot em up, the Thunderforce serie is up there with R-type imo.

[KVELLER]

1 hour ago, geo said:

Playing AvP 1999 in single player felt unplayable last time I tried.

 

Uh? How is it unplayable?

[geo]

44 minutes ago, KVELLER said:

 

Uh? How is it unplayable?

I need to go back and play it to see what exactly I meant. I'll install it and give it a go.

 

* edit * Played 15 minutes worth of the marine campaign. The darkness, having to throw flare after flare. Aliens games should have darkness, but this was excessive. Perhaps the last time I played it, I didn't think to increase the gamma correction. Unplayable was the wrong word to use on my part, although I do remember now why I called it unplayable. Last time I played it, the game kept changing the resolution sizes on me from cut scene to menu, to game. Each time it would do so, the game would minimize. On this monitor / hardware it didn't do that. Then again it may have had an update as I don't remember GOG connect being a feature on the preloader.

 

As for the first level, going through similar hallways and corridors didn't help. It was cool dropping in on one of the space jockeys, but overall the map felt empty and vacant. Like I could drive a car through the hallways. Then again, a tight hallway would offer the xenomorphs no ability to move and dodge.

 

It could get better like a lot of games do, but this first level experience wasn't exactly inspiring me to keep playing. The game is legendary... so it must be worth a play through. Then again, maybe the legendary part comes from the multiplayer.

Edited June 7, 2018 by geo

[seed]

45 minutes ago, Aquila Chrysaetos said:

Uh, oh, now I'm about to say something contradicting this statement.

 

Part of my problem with Skyrim (there aren't too many problems with it, it really is a good game, I just think its ridiculously overrated, primarily) is I thought the combat was too slow. You could be level 80 and still take way too long to kill a singular low level bandit, whereas in Morrowind, you'd one-shot the bastard and keep going (though, at Morrowind's max, which tended around level 75, you were powerful enough to kick the shit out of everybody in the world if you wanted).

 

In Oblivion, only in theory, though, you'd be able to do the same thing, though Oblivion's leveling (world leveling) system was so broken that after not-very-long, the entire world was twenty levels ahead of you using gear you should find at level 40 when you're a measly level 15 or something.

 

But Skyrim? You just slowly swing that sword/axe/mace/hammer/spell/whatever again and again at your enemy until he dies and it takes so long to swing again. Realistic? Probably. But it's too slow for me, the combat feels like more of a chore than something letting me know what a badass I am.

 

My opinion, though.

 

Skyrim slow? *brain bluescreens*

 

No, from my experience with the previous 2 it's much, much faster and less awkward/unfun. Some weapons might be slow such as maces, warhammers and battleaxes, but then these things deal a lot of damage and maces also ignore armor so they'd give you an unfair advantage over the enemies if they were faster. Swords and especially daggers on the other hand are pretty fast, the daggers ridiculously so with a perk if I'm not mistaken, I still remember how insane was dual wielding with daggers, ya don't dare fuck with me with these things equipped.

 

I think it all depended on how quickly you got used to the mechanics of the game and your own style of gameplay in the case of Skyrim, my experience was quite the opposite of yours, except for when I wanted to sneak upon the enemies, that's bound to be slower regardless of weapon. But hey I didn't need to be faster anyway since I knew how to create unfairly powerful equipment and by level 70 (a level I'd rarely reached for the mere reason that I was a fucking ruthless beast and there was virtually nothing to threaten me at that point, 2 dual wielding attacks would kill a Legendary Dragon just so that you understand what I'm talking about). AI overhauls such as Revenge of the Enemies combined with Immersive Creatures were a must to keep things interesting at the very least. Heh, what a Daedric Sword could do in my hands, almost 500 damage per hit, just imagine, and totally legit by the way, no cheating involved. Glad I created such OP characters only a few times (such as a VL Altmer), I want to face a challenge when playing something, not one shot everything, there was nothing fun in that. Those characters were more like "What if I was a god in Skyrim?" than anything serious.

 

Heh, I miss my time with that game, but I'm not quite willing to bother with its instability and forcing myself to finish Dawnguard at the end thanks to a retarded bug introduced by the expansion which causes the game to become crash happy after a point once again. Ah, and my lvl 61 VL Nord... my most balanced character in that game... Good times...

Edited June 7, 2018 by Agent6

[yakfak]

giggle if they'd made the combat engine's dice rolls in morrowind visible they'dve saved themselves a lot of trouble

the fact that you can swing the weapon at different rates tricks you into thinking it should act like real time combat but it's really just an abstraction of what's happening behind the scenes. i mean this has been the case since skyrim -3: Arena but you could say Morrowind felt modern enough that some players would expect something other than a rpg dice roll comparison battle system

 

still, tough luck. i guess i played enough dungeon master-style games that I don't get mad when I click attack and nothing registers in particular.

 

i don't like Skyrim's combat because it feels like a sort of naff action game where you can exploit everything, gets your opponents wedged places or make your opponents fight yr semi-invincible cohort or whatever. i'd rather it was crap but honest rpg combat giggle

[Rook]

4 hours ago, Danzadan said:

Dungeon Keeper (both 1  & 2) and Populous: The Beginning.

 

You reminded me about The Beginning. What a wonderful, unique game that is. I had a boxed copy which I bought at a car boot sale just as it was released - it was an unwanted competition prize, apparently! I'll pick up a copy on GOG, it's a paltry 69p right now.

[[McD] James]

Contra: Shattered Soldier - Best game in the series.

 

Mega Man x Street Fighter - Almost as good as Mega Man 2.

 

Strider 2 - Too easy, but still a blast to play.

 

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - Perfectly balanced difficulty. Comes close to SOTN.

 

Shinobi (PS2) - Critics whined about how hard it is without saying anything useful. I have no idea how falling into pits was ever an issue for anyone. It also has my favourite boss battle in any video game.

 

Wizardry 8 - It's long, hard and good. Probably way too complex for mainstream RPG fans. The enemy encounter rate is murderous.

 

Hagane - Looks and plays beautifully. 

 

Alien versus Predator (arcade) - Why was this game never ported?

[Cruduxy Pegg]

1 hour ago, Ajora said:

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - Perfectly balanced difficulty. Comes close to SOTN.

Don't think it is as underrated as harmony of dissonance. Both cotm and HoD are amazing though.

[[McD] James]

15 minutes ago, Pegg said:

Don't think it is as underrated as harmony of dissonance. Both cotm and HoD are amazing though.

 

HoD is good, but a little on the easy side. It suffers from poor audio quality. There's also way too much backtracking, and everything feels padded out. Best thing about the game is probably getting to play as Maxim. 

[Chezza]

In regards to AvP, I'm a fan of the game franchise. I Played plenty single and multiplayer of all 3.

 

AvP 2010 has the best singleplayer but the multiplayer is a imbalanced fuck fest. For Aliens you ought to sprint around people and spam the instant backstab interaction, although in the old aussie community we had a rule of none of that, rendering Xenos pretty damn weak!

 

AvP 2 was good multiplayer and single player. I have a soft spot for the Alien lifecycle mode, starting from facehugger, moving to Xeno dependant of who you impregnate and after a killing streak you became a Queen! Although it sucked when I morphed into narrow hallways and got stuck.

 

The AvP aged and best mostly for nostalgia. I also remember being so fast as a Xeno online that I could do 10 second laps around the entire map.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Chezza

[geo]

Legendary is an Unreal Engine 3 FPS that's often on sale for $1 and seems to be trashed... I guess for not being AAA enough and short despite its cheap price. People have trashed Spec Ops: The Line for being short, but I think people must be playing on the easiest difficulty or something. Legendary seems good and enjoyable on a lot of fronts. Enemy AI will attack rival factions without being scripted to. It turns into an interesting dynamic. Freeing werewolves to see them kill enemies... always a good time. Its something Far Cry 3 does so well... yet Legendary isn't Far Cry 3. Enemy design feels fresh compared to other standard shooters. Its always interesting to see Greek mythological creatures destroying giant American cities. Short isn't a bad thing. It stayed fun.

 

Marlo Briggs and the Mask of Death was never famous or popular, but its a hidden gem that people like to hate on for being Microsoft's budget answer to God of War. What's that? A game follows another game's formula but has a different theme? Well then... let's burn it to the ground. Zero publicity put into Marlo, and its a fun 9 hour ride for 500 MB and a dirt cheap price since it failed to take off. Its AAA on a budget and a lot of fun with diversity. It must have failed big, because it would be a good game for a sequel.

[Vermil]

I keep meaning to try Legendary. Thanks for the reminder.

[Deleted_Account]

Chasm: The Rift

Dead Space 1 & 2

Doom 3

Silent Hill 4: The Room

Sonic The Hedgehog 1-3

 

 

[Mr. Freeze]

2 hours ago, Ex Oblivione said:

Dead Space 1 & 2

Sonic The Hedgehog 1-3

 

bruh

[Deleted_Account]

15 minutes ago, Mr. Freeze said:

 

bruh

Do you appreciate them?

Edited June 8, 2018 by Ex Oblivione

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

3 hours ago, geo said:

What's that? A game follows another game's formula but has a different theme? Well then... let's burn it to the ground.

Wait, CoD and Battlefield follow very similar formulas and have very similar themes. Is that why they're put on ultra high pedestals?

Hope they fall. I'd gladly sweep up the pieces if it meant I could watch.

[Starkiller]

3 hours ago, Ex Oblivione said:

 

Dead Space 1 & 2

Sonic The Hedgehog 1-3

 

 

You have strange tastes on the underappreciated topic. Dead Space is boring & unscary, and the original Sonic games are memorable only for their opening levels and music tracks, with them having cheap death traps and rage fuel level design. 

 

To each their own, I guess. 

[snapshot]

3 hours ago, Ex Oblivione said:

Dead Space 1 & 2

Sonic The Hedgehog 1-3

 

lol I think these belong to the overrated videogames thread.

[Swalzi]

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

This game severely needs a sequel or a reboot. Hopefully, not shitty and keeps the core mechanics. I remember editing some stuff within the game files and adding two new NPC companions that are fully functional but don't have extended stories behind them. Randall Wisbee, a former Caladon guard who turned to adventuring for whatever reason. Tyler Jenkins, a newly divorced gnome inventor who spends most of his days at the brothel in the city of Tarant. Locked in a deep depression and pissing away what's left of his earnings. Nearing the last of his coin, he is considering about copulating with the brothel sheep. That's when the player comes in to recruit him.

I have a major soft spot for that game.