mine has gotta be Super Paper Mario. i mean, sure, it didn't have most RPG elements, and that one chapter with the whole code thing was tedious as hell, i gotta commend it for having a good story in my eyes. like seriously, it was pretty engaging for me. i also like how it took place in widely different environments, space, land of the cragnons, and let me remind you that a WHOLE chapter got destroyed in the story, it was a pretty creative plot twist and a bit relieving too. i also liked the Pixl concept, but i feel like some ended up being underused or not used at all after you met them. i rate this at least an 8/10.

so, what do you think is an underrated video game and why?

Sprocket (aka Robot on Wheels) was really well produced for the time, and the mass/inertia/friction puzzles still hold up as some of the better examples of integrating different challenges without changing the gameplay.

I just now noticed the antagonist Jojo the Raccoon was probably an early proto-version of Sly Cooper

Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse

As much as I hate the show and it's obvious that the game panders to its fans, it's still really fun and the combat is very fluid. I did also snicker at a few jokes.

Marathon. Introduced a lot to the FPS genre. Was one of the first to focus on storytelling instead of giving you an excuse to blow shit up. Still fun as hell. Unfortunately, 2/3 games were Mac exclusive and DOOM II hit shelves right when Marathon debuted.

NEOscavenger, turn based "survival" game done right. Hardly anyone knows about it.

KOTOR2 gets more flak than I think it deserves

Metro 2033 is another one.

Live A Live. It's a batch of Square RPGs that have a neat bonus once you beat all of them.

Dante's Inferno

Furrin_Gok said:
Live A Live. It's a batch of Square RPGs that have a neat bonus once you beat all of them.

actually, iirc that was just one RPG with several storylines (each focusing on a different main character) that eventually tied into one main plot towards the end. Rudra no Hihou (treasure of the rudra if i remember the translated title correctly) used that same setup. and had that unique spell system where you could just make up random words as spells.

i guess one game i could point out would be Rendering Ranger R2 for snes or would just be a less commonly known game?. it's a platformer with some side-scrolling shooter parts too and iirc you can even turn your ship to face left or right in that section. as well as multiple weapons you could switch between freely. i think it was made by the same creators of the turrican games.

The masterpiece Cry of Fear is certainly not getting the attention it deserves. It's with no doubt the most affecting and impressive game I've ever played.

Cry of Fear is a psychological horror game set in the mind of Simon who gets permanently paralysed during a car accident at young age and has to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. This sets off immense depression on top of his already depressing existence, so his doctor tries a new method and prescribes him an empty book in which he is supposed to write about how he feels.

The special and unique thing of this game is that how you play reflects Simon's thoughts. You play "in his head," and all the horrific enemies, bosses and obstacles represent one of his many struggles. If there's one game who can put the life-draining monstrosity that is depression into a relatable image for those who suffer(ed) from it, it's Cry of Fear.

If it wasn't for the things mentioned above, then it would be for the graphical and aural presentation. The ambient and atmosphere of this game are dark, sinister, disgusting and black. The environment is really immersive. It does an amazing job at simulating what depression is like. And the music, those sweet soundtracks...

I believe this game was the sole reason for an actual depression I experienced during summer 2013 (returning and clinically treated in 2015).

I still remember how enthusiast I was when I found out the developers put my comment on complimenting this game on YouTube on their official Facebook page.

The game is free, so if you want to try it: http://store.steampowered.com/app/223710/
Warning: this game is one of the scariest ever and might make you feel empty.

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. Despite being a DS game, it's one of the most graphically impressive games for it. Has some different combat mechanics as well that focus more on grabbing and throwing instead of hacking and slashing.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. Both are graphic novel games for the DS that have you hold the system sideways as if reading a book. Has spectacular stories and makes each individual character important.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. An M-rated text-based DS game that centers around nine people playing the "Nonary Game" to escape a sinking ship before they are killed in nine hours. Focuses on multiple endings, puzzle solving, and actually won Best Story by IGN at the time.

GameManiac said:
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. An M-rated text-based DS game that centers around nine people playing the "Nonary Game" to escape a sinking ship before they are killed in nine hours. Focuses on multiple endings, puzzle solving, and actually won Best Story by IGN at the time.

God yes. My friend streamed that for me and another friend, and we were absolutely blown away at how amazing the story was.

GameManiac said:
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. An M-rated text-based DS game that centers around nine people playing the "Nonary Game" to escape a sinking ship before they are killed in nine hours. Focuses on multiple endings, puzzle solving, and actually won Best Story by IGN at the time.

nonary game? can't say i've tried this game before or heard of this "nonary game" thing. mind explaining that a bit?

treos said:
nonary game? can't say i've tried this game before or heard of this "nonary game" thing. mind explaining that a bit?

from the sounds of it, i'd say its a good thing you've never tried it

http://zeroescape.wikia.com/wiki/Nonary_Game

basically anime SAW

king of dragon pass.

I'm not sure exactly what counts as underrated. Good games that received bad ratings, or good games that nobody has heard of? Either way, I don't see how any of the Paper Marios qualify.

Solatorobo and King of Dragon Pass seem like good candidates, though both did receive great reviews. It's just that hardly anyone has played them.

I'd nominate Alpha Protocol. It got terrible reviews, but that was because it was advertised to the wrong crowd and many tried to play it as a first-person shooter. Whereas RPG-gamers tend to like.

I feel Space Engineers is one for this! It's *kinda* well known, but for the effort the devs put into the motion physics, build mechanics and general features of the game, I feel it deserved a lot more recognition...

With the time the games been in Beta, it feels like it's been abandoned by the devs (despite weekly feature updates). One of the main things users want to see implemented is a total rewrite of the games netcode. It's too buggy for reliable online play - The issue seems to be that the game hasn't quite hit the popularity to fund this kind of development.

It's a shame. I feel it really does have potential, and never quite got the recognition it deserved!
-> MyTwoCents xD

NuclearAssault said:
God yes. My friend streamed that for me and another friend, and we were absolutely blown away at how amazing the story was.

Dat Morphogenetic Sorrow. It still gets to me.

treos said:
nonary game? can't say i've tried this game before or heard of this "nonary game" thing. mind explaining that a bit?

Rustyy said:

basically anime SAW

Rustyy, that's just about accurately describes 999.

There's two sequels for it as well. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (3DS/Vita) and Zero Time Dilemma (3DS/Vita), the latter of which will come to US on June 28th, 2016.

I think the underrated flash game is Plazma Burst 2
It has an amazing level editor full of great trigger actions and quite a lot of freedom. (This matters to me a lot because i allways liked creating game maps and other stuff) Well it doesn't have a story but, i think the whole game is pretty fun and it has 40 levels. So i recommend trying it out.

I think the most underrated pc game is Cossacks. Cossacks is a quite old strategy game but, the best strategy game i have ever played, and with just a little bit of development it could be the best strategy game ever. It also has a great level editor.

Hexdragon said:
I think the underrated flash game is Plazma Burst 2
It has an amazing level editor full of great trigger actions and quite a lot of freedom. (This matters to me a lot because i allways liked creating game maps and other stuff) Well it doesn't have a story but, i think the whole game is pretty fun and it has 40 levels. So i recommend trying it out.

I played that too. It's a pretty cool game. I especially liked the slow-motion shots and ragdolls that flew away.

Rustyy said:
Metro 2033 is another one.

I do not think that Super Paper Mario or Metro 2033 count as underrated. Super Paper Mario was actually pretty decent in it's own merits, but after that it got downhill super fast. I mean at least real time combat was fine, collecting stickers to slam onto enemies slowly just to get new stickers to fight with next enemies? Burned that game after hour of owning it. Metro 2033 was one of the first games recommended for me along Bioshock and Mirror's Edge when I was starting PC gaming and Metro Last Light seemed like big hit.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die was one game that I have never even heard of until I talked my friend about it, then I actually got it from humble bundle from all the places. Game is amazing and I think that would be even more amazing with motion controller, but I guess that's the exact reason why it was underrated: people have really bad experiences with motion controls and do not want to give them another change. Really shame and because of that game isn't finished, but still really great experience.

Talking about PSP games, for some reason Half Minute Hero I don't recall being spoken much outside of super enthusiast fanbase which got the second game to steam with the best main menu song.
Orcs Must Die! franchise is amazing, but they basically brute forced themselves on sales and bundles for everyone, even I still have three extra keys for the game.
Deponia is really well done HD point 'n' click series with really fucking dark humor, but it seems like nobody has ever heard of it.

It's really hard to recall games when you have hundreds of them.

GameManiac said:
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. Despite being a DS game, it's one of the most graphically impressive games for it. Has some different combat mechanics as well that focus more on grabbing and throwing instead of hacking and slashing.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. Both are graphic novel games for the DS that have you hold the system sideways as if reading a book. Has spectacular stories and makes each individual character important.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. An M-rated text-based DS game that centers around nine people playing the "Nonary Game" to escape a sinking ship before they are killed in nine hours. Focuses on multiple endings, puzzle solving, and actually won Best Story by IGN at the time.

You stole my whole DS list >:(
Especially Solatorobo I do not get, maybe it was because of so late release, but that game is really fantastic altough bit easy.

DS also had good rhythm game library. Jam with the band, EBA and OSU and rhythm heaven.

GameManiac said:
There's two sequels for it as well. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (3DS/Vita) and Zero Time Dilemma (3DS/Vita), the latter of which will come to US on June 28th, 2016.

VLR can be played without knowledge from 999, but it was bit better experience with 999 being played. Also bit heads up for whoever is getting the games.

999 on iDevices is only the visual novel part with majority of stuff cut out and no puzzles. Just play the DS version if all possible.

With VLR, 3DS version has game corrupting bug that most likely will never get fixed, europe only has japanese audio (if someone actually wants english audio) and stereoscopic mode is completely busted - everything outside characted models will give you eye cancer for either being broken or badly made stereo image. Get the game for Vita if you can or read about that corruption bug before playing with 3DS version.

Also thanks for reminding about zero time dilemma, just need to research did they slam together the 3DS version again so I can just get the vita version instead or wait for PC version.

Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom
I think most shrug this off because it's a licensed game based off a kids show, but overall it's a really solid platformer. The controls are like butter and the environments/levels are a treat, especially if you're a fan of the series. Plus the soundtrack's pretty good too.

"Loved"

I can't say anything about it because that ruins the whole game but you should just play it. Just remember to be honest.

https://ocias.com/loved.php

Mystic Heroes.

treos said:
actually, iirc that was just one RPG with several storylines (each focusing on a different main character) that eventually tied into one main plot towards the end. Rudra no Hihou (treasure of the rudra if i remember the translated title correctly) used that same setup.

Treasure of Rudras at least made it obvious that the seperate stories were connected, as you would cross paths with the other teams all the time. Live A Live kept it secret until you beat the first bonus--which was only unlocked by beating every chapter beforehand.

and had that unique spell system where you could just make up random words as spells.

Of note: While there were unique strings that would result in specific effects (Element, cost, strenght) you could also enter words like "Sap," or "Drain" for hp/mp stealing, "Flood," "Inferno," "Quake," etc for powerful elementals.

GameManiac said:
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. An M-rated text-based DS game that centers around nine people playing the "Nonary Game" to escape a sinking ship before they are killed in nine hours. Focuses on multiple endings, puzzle solving, and actually won Best Story by IGN at the time.

i've played that before and it's underrated imo also.

mvpm8 said:
ive played that before and its underrated imo also.

Unrelated: I noticed that you are using a back quote () instead of an apostrophe (') for shortening words, so you activate DText formatting. You might want to switch over to the latter symbol to prevent errors :p

HotUnderTheCollar said:
Unrelated: I noticed that you are using a back quote () instead of an apostrophe (') for shortening words, so you activate DText formatting. You might want to switch over to the latter symbol to prevent errors :p [/quote] yeah, my keyboard switches languages occasionally. i'll edit that lol

SirBrownBear said:
Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom
I think most shrug this off because it's a licensed game based off a kids show, but overall it's a really solid platformer. The controls are like butter and the environments/levels are a treat, especially if you're a fan of the series. Plus the soundtrack's pretty good too.

Holy hell, yes. For being a licensed game, it was really damn expansive and enjoyable. Very reminiscent of Super Mario 64.

Mario69 said:
With VLR, 3DS version has game corrupting bug that most likely will never get fixed, europe only has japanese audio (if someone actually wants english audio) and stereoscopic mode is completely busted - everything outside characted models will give you eye cancer for either being broken or badly made stereo image. Get the game for Vita if you can or read about that corruption bug before playing with 3DS version.

Also thanks for reminding about zero time dilemma, just need to research did they slam together the 3DS version again so I can just get the vita version instead or wait for PC version.

Is the 3DS version of VLR really that bad? Critically, it's better received than the PS Vita version.

And that's also the first time I've heard of a bug. Although it seems to be a bigger problem for the EU version, not the US version. Lucky me, I suppose, considering I live in the US and already downloaded the game from the Nintendo eShop...but have yet to play it because backlog.

I know the transition from 2D to 3D was a challenge for them, but...

Furrin_Gok said:
Of note: While there were unique strings that would result in specific effects (Element, cost, strength) you could also enter words like "Sap," or "Drain" for hp/mp stealing, "Flood," "Inferno," "Quake," etc for powerful elementals.

right, i forgot to mention that part. complete spell customization in an old snes game. and boy were there a LOT of possibilities in that system. in fact, i think theres a guide for said spell system on gamefaqs that might have the entire list of potential spells listed and it is a VERY long list of words and gibberish.

GameManiac said:
Is the 3DS version of VLR really that bad? Critically, it's better received than the PS Vita version.

And that's also the first time I've heard of a bug. Although it seems to be a bigger problem for the EU version, not the US version. Lucky me, I suppose, considering I live in the US and already downloaded the game from the Nintendo eShop...but have yet to play it because backlog.

I know the transition from 2D to 3D was a challenge for them, but...

If you count in margin of error which comes from differend amount of reviews from differend sources, 4/100 would be well withing that margin :p

If you do not use stereoscopic at all, are fine with japanese dub in EU and don't encounter/use workaround with save corrupt bug (which they never fixed), then that version is still most certainly playable as I played the game with 3DS first until my save got corrupted.
But if you have the choise of playing it with Vita instead, I would strongly suggest so. There shouldn't be any game breaking issues, you can import US version if you want english audio (3DS is region locked without some hacking), you get trophies and it has far better quality graphics and audio.

Vita also has save backuping to external device or cloud, 3DS didn't have such nice feature back when I played that game and even now it only supports backing up to SD card.

SWAT 4. The game's one-shot one-kill policy, and the levels changing the enemy locations every time you start them makes the game very tense.

I'd still say it's Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Although I'm aware roguelikes aren't everyone's thing, they as a genre are also underrated.

• Massive variety of playstyles, almost all of which are lots of fun.
• Good for concentration (if you win without sustained concentration and strategizing, you're pretty damn lucky) and learning to think things through really carefully.
• Scrupulously minimizes tedium and grind (illustrated by, for example, having a function to search through all items you have ever seen -- and travel to them -- , by name or keyword).
• Avoids no-brainer choices (ie. there are very few choices you can make that are 'simply better' than the alternatives.) and cheesy strategies.

destiny. I'm gonna get hell for saying this.

Star Control ll. I grew up with it. It's a rare sort of game, with great looks, story, lore, and amazing 80's style soundtrack. It was originally played on DOS and ported to the short-lived 3DO system in 1993, and then was ported to PC when the source code became public domain in 2002. It was then renamed The Urquan Masters. The Urquan Masters Project has since ported the game to all these platforms. It has elements of RPG, resource gathering, adventure, diplomacy, and combat, all seamlessly sewn together.

Plus, it has blue-skinned space babes, instead of green, which are so much more attractive :D

theinfamoose said:
destiny. I'm gonna get hell for saying this.

Not from me. It does have a bunch of stupid bullshit sometimes but it absolutely is fun.

Wasn't nearly as good at release though.

theinfamoose said:
destiny. I'm gonna get hell for saying this.

It's not a bad game, I just haven't gotten it because aiming with controllers sticks in first person is super annoying and MMO isn't my thing, but how is that underrated in any scale?
It sold really really well and so many seemed to love the game to death. Critisism I have seen about it is for it's lack of story which I guess they put behind DLC(?) and MMO nature.

Speaking of roguelikes, Elona+ seems underrated.
http://wikiwiki.jp/elonaplus/#q11e8183

It can be incredibly unfair and grindy at times, but worth a try if you find random weirdness fun. ...it is also borderline NSFW. Prostitution, marriage, bestiality, etc. (Bestiality? Well, you can tame and marry any non-boss mob in the game. Even if it's a gigantic dragon or a xenomorph that just burst out of your chest.)

The site is in Japanese, but the game itself is 99% translated. Just fiddle with the options until you find the language setting.

Genjar said:
Speaking of roguelikes, Elona+ seems underrated.
http://wikiwiki.jp/elonaplus/#q11e8183

It can be incredibly unfair and grindy at times, but worth a try if you find random weirdness fun. ...it is also borderline NSFW. Prostitution, marriage, bestiality, etc. (Bestiality? Well, you can tame and marry any non-boss mob in the game. Even if it's a gigantic dragon or a xenomorph that just burst out of your chest.)

The site is in Japanese, but the game itself is 99% translated. Just fiddle with the options until you find the language setting.

There are English articles on it, y'know.

Furrin_Gok said:
There are English articles on it, y'know.

Not really. Most are for Elona, not for Elona+. And tend to be badly out of date. The site I listed is the sure way to get the latest version.

Disclaimer: this post will bear several similarities to my other gaming posts because I hardly try new games anymore.

Genjar said:
I'm not sure exactly what counts as underrated. Good games that received bad ratings, or good games that nobody has heard of?

Yeah, "underrated" is somewhat difficult to define or set parameters for video games. Many lesser known games that are rather well made or fun would seem to earn an expected aggregate approval rating and popularity after one takes into consideration the games' marketing and niche demographics. In simpler terms, many good and better games are relatively obscure, yet they do roughly as well as anyone would expect. Are they underrated?

For instance, I've now clocked 350 hours into Tales of Maj'Eyal (PC), yet I know the game still offers many more classes I haven't tried that would provide distinct playthrough experiences, which are multiplied if I ever decide to try the harder difficulties. I consider this a fun game that, like most or all other roguelikes, is generally unknown to the gaming masses, but very likely sufficiently acknowledged by roguelike gamers. Similarly, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (PC) was the first roguelike that came up when I tried reconnecting with the genre since playing Castle of the Winds (PC) years prior. For that matter, I think Tales of Maj'Eyal comes much closer to replicating my experiences with Castle of the Winds than Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

How about Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES), a game which I only got into and immensely enjoyed after its heyday? I've gotten the feeling that it probably wasn't underrated in any sense around its release, but now it's all but forgotten and entirely overshadowed by the more prominent titles of the Mario universe. There's also games like ActRaiser (SNES). I've gotten the impression that it didn't entirely fly under the radar in 1990 either, being more of a dark horse or cult hit, but I highly doubt gaming initiates from the past 20 years would even know to give it a backwards glance because it doesn't have an acclaimed franchise to prop it up, unlike Megaman, Sonic, or Metroid to name a few.

Was this thread even intended to bring up these 20- to 30-year-old games? I doubt it. lol
_____________________________________________________________________

As for games from the current century that I've played, Darkspore (PC) was, I feel, under-appreciated by reviewers and the gaming masses alike who much anticipated a true Spore successor rather than the ARPG that they got. It was a fun and relatively simple game that works much better as a co-op experience, but unfortunately the randoms that I got quickmatched with were amazingly bad without exception.

Unreal Tournament 3 (PC... not meant for consoles despite console releases) had a weak launch for a variety of reasons in spite of its sound gameplay and realized, nearly unlimited skill ceiling. Now the game is all but dead. I fully respect current esports, but UT is just as difficult and competitive, if not more so, than current offerings. The Unreal Tournament franchise should command near total name recognition from gamers for its past (UT99's) contributions to gaming alone, yet many UT3 players will claim that UT3 was unfairly maligned at large, thus being critically and irrevocably underrated.

I doubt most people realize the best part of Mass Effect 3 (PC, XBOX360, PS3, Wii) is arguably the multiplayer and not the single player experience that the series is very well known for. That aspect of the game should be viewed as highly underrated in proportion to the rest of the game's and its series's fame, yet the quickmatch experience is still alive and well, if not booming as it once was.

Darkest Dungeon (PC) is a new game that I have not played, yet I was very impressed with the single gameplay video of it that I saw. I bought Natural Selection 2 (PC) during a Steam sale, but I just don't think I'll make the jump to immersing myself in it. Based on the reviews alone, it very much seems to rely on realtime tactical decision-making in an FPS package, which is among my favorites aspects of UT3 (that seems critically underdeveloped among my peers), and I'm sure it deserves mention in this thread. Aarklash: Legacy (PC) is an ideal mention for this thread, and we have Factorio (PC alpha) chugging along in development.

For what it's worth, Demon's Souls (PS3), The Witcher (first one; PC), and Monster Hunter (PS2 online) were all highly underrated games before their sequels brought their franchises to the mainstream, and even so I'm sure all three of those games are still highly under-appreciated, if no longer entirely underrated.

k
post is long enough, and I feel the text limit looming

savageorange said:
I'd still say it's Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Although I'm aware roguelikes aren't everyone's thing, they as a genre are also underrated.

• Massive variety of playstyles, almost all of which are lots of fun.
• Good for concentration (if you win without sustained concentration and strategizing, you're pretty damn lucky) and learning to think things through really carefully.
• Scrupulously minimizes tedium and grind (illustrated by, for example, having a function to search through all items you have ever seen -- and travel to them -- , by name or keyword).
• Avoids no-brainer choices (ie. there are very few choices you can make that are 'simply better' than the alternatives.) and cheesy strategies.

Heck yes. I used to play that game way too much, mostly in Wizard Mode (cheats). I notably sucked at it but once had a honest run of collecting 3 runes. I also spent a good time reading monster descriptions because they are in exquisite English.

Speaking of roguelikes, I was pretty good at Pixel Dungeon (I no longer play it though, mainly due stupid updates that made the game not fun anymore). I still have a screenshot of my list of highscores consisting of only beaten games (because in roguelikes, beating a game is really difficult: 99% of the time you die, if not higher).

abadbird said:
I doubt most people realize the best part of Mass Effect 3 (PC, XBOX360, PS3, Wii) is arguably the multiplayer and not the single player experience that the series is very well known for. That aspect of the game should be viewed as highly underrated in proportion to the rest of the game's and its series's fame, yet the quickmatch experience is still alive and well, if not booming as it once was.

Oh man, the lore of the story was awesome, but I gotta admit, as much as I hate multiplayer shooters, Mass Effect 3's was fun. Maybe it's the fact they add in those RPG-like abilities to classes rather than relying purely on your ability to shoot stuff in the head (Even if that's what I mostly do anyways).

CoCoRon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNaFy6mwv_Y

Qmannn said:
Didn't watch the video because I'm too tired to focus on anything right now, but I did look it up.

A Mega Man clone by one of the creators of the first Mega Man? Gotta check both this and Little Samson out.

Little Sampson fucking rocks. I love playing the little dragon dude.

Orion:Prelude had a really rough start but today it's way less buggy and a blast if you have friends and $4.

HerkDerkDerk said:
Orion:Prelude had a really rough start but today it's way less buggy and a blast if you have friends and $4.

That game had really bumpy ride indeed. Releasing in unacceptable state without much optimization, bad gameplay, tons of bugs and renaming and rereleasing game couple times, with accusations of dirty tricks and censoring.

So I wouldn't be surprised if there are some who refuse to touch that game even with long stick. It has gotten to the point where it has been patched to be much more playable, which is surprising they could do that with 1€ price tag and actually bough 4-pack with 0.49€ on sale. So it's most definitely worth trying.

But even after all the updates, I do not find it that enjoyable even if it does have dinosaurs. There are just so many cooperative and competitive shooters that it sinks at the bottom of that list and price point doesn't matter to me.

TimeShift. Innovative chronokinetic mechanics, especially for a 2008 video game it had pretty good graphics + cutscenes as well as time-based puzzles and combat.

(now if only it would work on my computer.. >:I)

Ryuzaki_Izawa said:
TimeShift. Innovative chronokinetic mechanics, especially for a 2008 video game it had pretty good graphics + cutscenes as well as time-based puzzles and combat.

(now if only it would work on my computer.. >:I)

Oh, I actually played through that game when my friend lent it to me. I was under the impression that he was the only one who knew it existed.

Damn, that was such a long time ago.

I didn't like the game that much though, despite its very cool gimmick. My friend swears it was amazing, but I think that's the nostalgia talking.

Codename STEAM. Poor game got shat on when it was announced because it wasn't Majora's Mask 3D nor Advanced Wars and since then hasn't been in good light.
As one of the few people who played the game though, I really rather like it.
Great gameplay, challenging, and funny concept with all the characters being based on historical figures or fictional characters of Americana.
It's a game where the Lion from the Wizard of Oz, Randolph Carter from Lovecraft, Tiger Lily from Peter Pan, and Tom Sawyer fight lovecraftian ice aliens; also you get to pilot a giant Abe Lincoln mech.

Need I say more?

abadbird said:
For instance, I've now clocked 350 hours into Tales of Maj'Eyal (PC), yet I know the game still offers many more classes I haven't tried that would provide distinct playthrough experiences, which are multiplied if I ever decide to try the harder difficulties. I consider this a fun game that, like most or all other roguelikes, is generally unknown to the gaming masses, but very likely sufficiently acknowledged by roguelike gamers. Similarly, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (PC) was the first roguelike that came up when I tried reconnecting with the genre since playing Castle of the Winds (PC) years prior. For that matter, I think Tales of Maj'Eyal comes much closer to replicating my experiences with Castle of the Winds than Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

i've played all 3 off and on at some point. sadly, with windows 7, i can no longer play any 32-bit games. unless gog happens to rerelease one as they tend to fix them to where they work on newer systems. and no, compatibility mode doesn't work on my laptop. nor does that virtual machine stuff you can download off microsoft's website.

:( theres several or more old games i'd love to play again but can't due to them being too old. another one is Mordor: Depths of Dejenol.

treos said:
...nor does that virtual machine stuff you can download off microsoft's website.

You've probably already tried it, but if not, give VMWare player a try. It tends to have better compatibility.

treos said:
:( theres several or more old games i'd love to play again but can't due to them being too old. another one is Mordor: Depths of Dejenol.

I remember playing that for something like 200+ hours, then losing my characters by getting stuck inside a wall because of typoed coordinates. Urgh.

Demise: Ascension is the newest version and runs on modern systems, but it's even more grindy and occasionally unfair. ...one of my characters got banned from all guilds by trying to teleport from the wrong location. Worse than getting stuck in the wall.

treos said:
i've played all 3 off and on at some point. sadly, with windows 7, i can no longer play any 32-bit games.

Logically, that means you should be able to play CoTW: It's 16-bit ;)

(in DosBox with a win3.11 installation, if nothing else)

abadbird said:
In simpler terms, many good and better games are relatively obscure, yet they do roughly as well as anyone would expect. Are they underrated?

Anything that gets significantly more marketing than the experience bears out is overrated, anything that gets significantly less is underrated. Opensource (as in most roguelikes) or indie games generally get little marketing, so it's easier to qualify.

The real complicating factor is subjective preference, of course: an FPS fan might find roguelikes totally boring. Or a roguelike fan might find ToME boring (me).

Genjar said:
You've probably already tried it, but if not, give VMWare player a try. It tends to have better compatibility.

don't think i have actually. i'll at least check it out.

I remember playing that for something like 200+ hours, then losing my characters by getting stuck inside a wall because of typoed coordinates. Urgh.

Demise: Ascension is the newest version and runs on modern systems, but it's even more grindy and occasionally unfair. ...one of my characters got banned from all guilds by trying to teleport from the wrong location. Worse than getting stuck in the wall.

and i don't think i've tried that, Demise: Ascension, game before. as for the wall thing, yeah...all magic users know not to do blind teleportation due to such risks. :P but banned from ALL guilds in the process? ouch, now that's harsh.

edit: ok...well, i have vmware player installed but i haven't a clue what to do with it. and no, i do not have an install disc for windows xp. i'm not even sure we still have the OS install discs for any of our computers anymore, tbh.

Well it probably doesn't count as an underrated game but rather a game a lot of people just never played but I would have to say Thousand Arms for the Playstation by Atlus Games.

It was a anime blend of RPG and Dating Sim that also had "relationships" that were required in order to forge better weapons. It was pretty unique to combine the 2 elements and though it did have a somewhat weak story I still found it entertaining and knowing that you could play through and romance another character for a different weapon build had me playing it through several times.

There's also singularity, it's a puzzle fps based on time travel and paradoxes.

treos said:
i've played all 3 off and on at some point. sadly, with windows 7, i can no longer play any 32-bit games. unless gog happens to rerelease one as they tend to fix them to where they work on newer systems. and no, compatibility mode doesn't work on my laptop. nor does that virtual machine stuff you can download off microsoft's website.

:( theres several or more old games i'd love to play again but can't due to them being too old. another one is Mordor: Depths of Dejenol.

Wait, what?
32-bit games should work with all 32- and 64-bit OS versions. Actually 99% of PC games are still 32-bit, usually bigger and newest titles only come with 64-bit executable. It's 16-bit stuff that doesn't work with 64-bit systems anymore because of security risks and the amount of support it would require.

DosBox is usually best approach with 16-bit only games, if that doesn't work then VMWare. They should also work pretty well with Linux using WINE if I remember correctly.

HerkDerkDerk said:
There's also singularity, it's a puzzle fps based on time travel and paradoxes.

I actually have physical copy because it was 1.95€, never put it in my computer. But that does sound like my jam, maybe should install it.

Qmannn said:
You guys are talking about this, right?

If that's the case, then how did you get it for nearly 1/15 of the Steam price? I know that it's nearly 6 years old, but most physical console games don't ever get that cheap, at least here in the US.

Cheapest digital seem to have been $5 at legit resellers. Actually surprising to see from activision published game.
https://isthereanydeal.com/#/page:game/price?plain=singularity

Physical copy did not include steam key, it uses secuROM DRM. Because of that and the fact that physical PC games do not sell that well to begin with, so it's pretty usual to see such games on dirt cheap price. Stores basically trying to get rid of really old stuff from taking space. Cheapest has been Prince of Persia 2008 for 0.80€. Last buy was Arkham Knight, even all this time after release it had all the preorder goods included for 10€, because how bad the port was and all included 5 DVD discs were useless when it basically downloaded same amount of data after installation.

Console games never get that cheap, rarely even second hand.

Mario69 said:
Wait, what?
32-bit games should work with all 32- and 64-bit OS versions. Actually 99% of PC games are still 32-bit, usually bigger and newest titles only come with 64-bit executable. It's 16-bit stuff that doesn't work with 64-bit systems anymore because of security risks and the amount of support it would require.

DosBox is usually best approach with 16-bit only games, if that doesn't work then VMWare. They should also work pretty well with Linux using WINE if I remember correctly.

o_O then why does the shareware version of mordor which you can get at braindead's fan site...or used to be able to get there...seems the domain for the shareware version download expired (i already have it downloaded thankfully). why does it give the following error when i try running the game?

"The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher."

that same error message comes up a lot when i try playing games from the 90's (1995 in this case) like mordor if their not dos games (pfft, dos, what doesn't run dos? lol).

actually, if you check the forums on braindead's site, a fair number of people tried but could never get it running on windows 7. looks like they too wound up having to go the virtual machine route just to get it to run on newer PC's.

as for linux and WINE, i don't use linux.

underrated? hmm

maybe Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders.

Hella intense RPG/RTS hybrid for the original Xbox? Fuck yes. Maybe it falls under 'underappreciated' though.

TheHuskyK9 said:
Dante's Inferno

even though I enjoyed it, it was just God of War with a biblical theme.

TheHuskyK9 said:
Dante's Inferno

porn! no, seriously, have you seen any screenshots of lucifer in that game? lol iirc the devs made him that large on purpose cause they could.