Most underrated games you've ever played

Klingon Honor Guard.

If you were a fan of Star Trek TNG and/or Unreal, this is a no-brainer. A meaty FPS based on the Unreal 1 engine and plenty of nice environments and faithful design.

It's old now and not without bugs and it doesn't play nice with multi-core processors, but if you can surmount these issues it's good fun.

Melee with a bat'leth and throwing d'k tahgs - what's not to love?

Rise of the Triad.

An unapologetic flawed masterpiece of a game. Sure some of the levels are bland and the engine was dated upon release but boy you can tell the devs had a lot of fun making the game!

I love the graphics and I even like the 90 degree walls. For me, it just adds to the absurd, abstract and bizarre world. In my young brain, El Oscuro was a crazed nutjob who just hated curvy walls! In centuries past people built round churches so that the Devil couldn't hide in the corner... One year in the future, El Oscuro builds a monastery with only right angles so that EVERYONE can hide in corners!!

The soundtrack is super cool and I really like the sound effects and speech. They just all add to the cheesy feel.

I really wish this game got more love these days other than the usual "Yeah, it was fun but dated and got boring...".

Everyone should play through the shareware episode with the EKG cheat at least once... :)

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/last-rites
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/chasm-the-rift
http://www.mobygames.com/game/powerslave
http://www.mobygames.com/game/eradicator
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/radix-beyond-the-void
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/attack-of-the-saucerman
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/battle-realms (Buy it on GOG!)
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/tegels-mercenaries

Ahhh, Chasm. I had a lot of fun with that game, and it ended up being one of the few games I've ever fully finished.

Sub Terrania. Basically the old 8-bit game Thrust but with much sharper visuals and a pumping soundtrack by none other than Jesper Kyd. I played this game to death when I was younger. Same goes for the pseudo-sequel Red Zone.

Silpheed CD. While not as good as Starfox, this game stood out on its own for me as a truly epic shooter, and one of the three reasons to own a Mega CD (the other two being Sonic CD and Thunderhawk). Sure, it had its issues, and for all intents and purposes it was a standard vertical scroller with FMV elements, but some of the set-pieces were very memorable indeed. Recently played through it again on the actual hardware and it's still fun. The PS2 sequel was a dirge, though, despite being developed by Treasure.

Mount&Blade Warband. It had its success with ingoing fans and communities (especially in the modding scene) but in general the game is totally overlooked by the gaming Journalist Industry possibly due to its Indie like style, Unorthodox combat and very basic graphics.

The game has various weaknesses but completely outdoes so many triple A games who advertise "A living world around you" and "your choices has consequences". All of these self proclaimed features are a joke when compared to M&B.

pritch said:

Klingon Honor Guard.

Just looked it up, as a huge TNG fan I absolutely must try this.

StarTropics.

*Lufia: The Ruins of Lore
*Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
*Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (Don't know If I'd call it underrated. But people seem to hate on these 3rd Gen games for some reason.)

I guess Zax: The Alien Hunter is a bit underrated. I wish there were more action-based 2D isometric shooters like this one and I don't mean like Fallout 1/2 which is turn-based.

Several for me :

-Space Colony : Really fun game with nice atmosphere. I enjoyed using creepy music with it.

-Ghost master : Ghost hunting simulation. Really amusing and catchy I found.

-Painkiller : Resurrection. The sole episode I like really in the "non-dreamcatcher" Painkillers. It was flawed but I liked the concept and the atmosphere. Problem : it was WAY too short.

-Jaws Unleashed : It was fun in its way and I loved the underwater graphics. Oh and they made Ecco Defender of the Future.

-Call of Cthulhu : Dark Corners. Flawed but I liked the atmosphere.

-Outcast : Stargate feeling inside. Truly I was a fan of this game. Graphics were awesome.

-Clive Barker Undying and Jericho : Tow great games! Especialy Undying. Hellraiser meets Haunted houses.

-Blood Omen/Legacy of Kain serie : The story was thrilling. So bad we don't hear about it anymore.

-Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 : I have been playing them for hours. Still will play. It's a shame they truly disappeared. I have not played the game inspired from them but oh well.

-Doom 3 : I liked the turn it took. Yet it doesn't replace the classic episodes.

Haunted Castle, aka arcade Castlevania, hard as nails, but has a great soundtrack.
One of the hardest Castlevania games ever made.

Birthright - The Gorgon's Alliance. My favorite turn based strategy game of all time.
It was a really obscure game and didn't get very good reviews. Has steep learning curve too - even if you dial down all your realm options to basic.

Skullmonkeys - Got a PSX and you like challenging platformers? Play this one. Claymation graphics, off-beat humor, and ridiculous soundtrack. This game has it all.

Valkyrie Profile

very unique battle system for an RPG, plus a wide selection of workable characters, plus some interesting plot points. it even doubles as a platformer for dungeon navigation. I've played plenty of RPGs, but never found one as fun as this.

Deus Ex is a weird one to mention. Everyone who's played it only has good things to say about it but people who haven't just pass it off as an old outdated pile of wank because da grafix r bad!!!

Also everyone seems to not like Wolf 3D when they actually think about it because Doom was better in every way but that doesn't make Wolfenstein a bad game. I still like a romp on it every now and then, though only for a short while before I just get really annoyed at how cheap the mutant cunts are and quit.

J.C Denton said:

-Painkiller : Resurrection. The sole episode I like really in the "non-dreamcatcher" Painkillers. It was flawed but I liked the concept and the atmosphere. Problem : it was WAY too short.

I'm going to go ahead and say that Painkiller is an underrated game, period. Yeah it's dumb, yeah it's linear, yeah I get why people point and laugh at it. But I really dug it.

A few more underrated games spring to mind:-

-Hidden & Dangerous
-Hidden & Dangerous 2
-Alien vs Predator
-BioShock (at least in certain circles)
-Watch Dogs

Painkiller 1 and Painkiller Hell and Damnation are definitely highly underrated games which both unfortunately have dead multiplayer scenes, the latter being bogged down by its shitty DLC marketing and possibly being released far too early before the return of classic game reboots. I wouldn't really say that any other Painkiller is "under"rated since they're kinda shit tbh.

-PSX DOOM and DOOM 64
-Serious Sam (If that counts?)
-Blood
-Duke Nukem II
-PaRappa The Rapper Series (It's a cult classic but It's never mentioned sometimes)

There's more, but It's probably too big for this post.

Serious Sam 2 is underrated but it's definitely underrated for a reason.

SavageCorona said:

Serious Sam 2 is underrated but it's definitely underrated for a reason.

I forgot to put Serious Sam SERIES, but I totally enjoyed that game. I can understand why It's forgotten as well *cough*cartoonyasfuck*cough*

Doom 64

People complained about the controls but I can play it on the controller just as fluidly (if not better) than I can play it on the keyboard/mouse setup.

I forgot about 2 really good games for the GBA.
Summon Night and Summon Night 2.

Personally, I think 1 is better than 2

I also forgot to add the Mother series too.

You mean literally nobody has endless praise for those games and thinks they're the second coming of jesus?

SavageCorona said:

You mean literally nobody has endless praise for those games and thinks they're the second coming of jesus?

I think the second coming of Jesus to gamers Is Half-Life 2, fact.

Chezza said:

Mount&Blade Warband [. . .] very basic graphics.

I feel old.

Not to Nintendo fanboys.

Of course not. Mother Is a great game series, but I'm not a fanboy for It or drool on It till It's completely washed out, I respect It, but I think the fans FOR the game are... Sometimes completely fucked, every fanbase has It's ups and downs, right? :V But Mother 1 Is by far WAY more underrated than 2 and 3, Mother 2 Is Mother 1 but better, after all.

Anyways, I found another underrated game:

Psychonauts.

To be entirely honest, I never even heard of It till around 2013. :\