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What are your underrated games of the GTA-sandbox genre?

B

Bittercup

Member
Already mentioned several times...
The Saboteur
for me still the best open world game :)

Quick said:
Might have to stop by a store and dig around for this, then. Thanks.

It doesn't need any kind of pass does it?
Click to expand...
There was a onlinepass but all it does was to make the dancers in the nightclub slightly less dressed.
But EA shut the activation server already down.
 
Fox Mulder

Fox Mulder

Member
antitrop said:
I bought that one at release and put in maybe 5-6 hours but I just couldn't get into it. It seemed decent, but I had a hell of a time trying to find the fun.

I know my opinion is in the minority on that one, because people were raving about it at the time.
Click to expand...

The best way to find the fun in Red Faction was to bump the difficulty down to Easy.

I think Volition even commented on how many people were playing the game this way.
 
E

eggwolio

Member
I doubt that it qualifies for the "GTA-Sandbox" style you refer to, but the Sandbox mode in Toy Story 3 was tons of fun. I've sunk hours and hours into it, just running around the town, catching robbers, doing races, etc.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
GTA : Chinatown Wars

The drug trading element resulted in some of the most intense moments I've ever had in gaming, the missions were amazingly varied, and it's the only GTA game I've ever bothered to play to 100% completion.

Yet it went pretty much ignored by the general population.
 
R

REMEMBER CITADEL

Banned
bkfount said:
The best way to find the fun in Red Faction was to bump the difficulty down to Easy.

I think Volition even commented on how many people were playing the game this way.
Click to expand...

It was a lot of fun on Normal for me, except for the last mission which was insanely hard and I couldn't handle it. Terrible design there, but the rest of the game was great.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Mushroomer25 said:
GTA : Chinatown Wars

The drug trading element resulted in some of the most intense moments I've ever had in gaming, the missions were amazingly varied, and it's the only GTA game I've ever bothered to play to 100% completion.

Yet it went pretty much ignored by the general population.
Click to expand...
Ya, CHINA TOWN WARS! I played the shit out of that at release on the DS and I had completely forgotten about it until you mentioned it here. Very, very good game. I think there's an iOS version as well.
 
L

Lonewolf_92

Member
The Saboteur, as already mentioned. Great game that didn't get the recognition it deserved.
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition is still one of the best games for the Wii, imo, loved the way they fit your character into the story without ruining one of the best movies ever.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
antitrop said:
Ya, CHINA TOWN WARS! I played the shit out of that at release on the DS and I had completely forgotten about it until you mentioned it here. Very, very good game. I think there's an iOS version as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah I played it on the PSP and had ton's of fun with it.
Was very surprised with just how great it was.
 
B

BlazeHedgehog

Member
Kong Fisso said:
I remember completing Total Overdose for PS2. It was pretty cool at the timing having far better shooting than GTA and a combo scoring system.

Oh, yeah, and you had special moves (LOCO moves) as well, such as El Mariachi, where your dude pulls out double machine guns in guitar cases and starts shooting the fuck out of everything. You could also summon a masked wrestler who'd run around and assault people.

I also remember being able to start fights by stealing peoples' hats.

Story and world was kinda meh, but game did some things right. Did anyone else play this?
Click to expand...

Hooray, I was coming in here to post this. Gunplay was great but as I recall the way the open world was structured was super confusing and really dragged it down. If it had adopted GTA's mission system it would've been a way better game.
 
G

Gianni Merryman

Member
Since Simpsons hit and run has been already taken by OP, I will go with No more heroes.

Also Mafia is very good, I wouldn't say it's underrated though.
 
ResidentDante

ResidentDante

Member
InsaneLuchador said:
images


Never mind the crappy sequel, the original was amazing.
Click to expand...

Came here to say this!
 
L

LeadenStride

Member
Is The Saboteur getting any better after the first couple of missions? I bought it about a month ago and thought that the missions were too led by the hand and the story and characters were forgettable and cheesy. It's been years since I've left a game unfinished with no real inspiration to go back.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
LeadenStride said:
Is The Saboteur getting any better after the first couple of missions? I bought it about a month ago and thought that the missions were too led by the hand and the story and characters were forgettable and cheesy. It's been years since I've left a game unfinished with no real inspiration to go back.
Click to expand...

It does once you get out of the beginning race area and "free" your first zone.
I didn't think much of it at first either, but after that the hooks came in.
 
S

Shapingo

Member
Jawmuncher said:
Simpsons Hit and Run was great.
I bet it still holds up pretty well to be honest.


Anyway for me since i'm really just going to go for this gen i'll say
The Saboteur

I bought the game out of the bargain bin for no real reason, but was honestly surprised with just how much fun I had with it. Everything about it was just fun and fresh.
Click to expand...

YES!

Snapping a Nazi's neck, taking his uniform and planting TNT in an enemy camp never gets old. Blowing up search towers and kissing French woman to escape was endless fun.
 
A

Amagon

Member
True Crimes: Streets of LA

I really like arresting people in that game. Hopefully, a Sleeping Dogs sequel will bring that mechanic back.
 
Z

Zampano

Member
On Gaf? GTA4.

In the real world, I quite enjoyed the explosions and chaos in Mercenaries 2. Not a great game but stuff blew up pretty well.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
InsaneLuchador said:
images


Never mind the crappy sequel, the original was amazing.
Click to expand...

Seriously the best atmosphere of almost any "GTA-clone" I've ever played.

The grey, mute skies and the beautiful Michael Giacchino (one of his very best ever) and Chris Tilton soundtrack made me just love driving around doing nothing. I barely even fought NK soldiers, just enjoyed driving around.

God, I wish we could get a proper Mercs sequel without the ridiculousness of Mercs 2 and with the same atmosphere and style of Mercenaries 1.
 
C

ChillWinston

Member
Bully, definitely. It's a better game than some of the main GTA games in my opinion, definitely enjoyed it more than San Andreas. It's one of the very best games on last-gen consoles for me. Think it got overlooked by a lot of people because of how late in the cycle it came out. Replayed it on 360 when they re-released it and it still held up as one of the best games in the genre.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
bengraven said:
Seriously the best atmosphere of almost any "GTA-clone" I've ever played.

The grey, mute skies and the beautiful Michael Giacchino (one of his very best ever) and Chris Tilton soundtrack made me just love driving around doing nothing. I barely even fought NK soldiers, just enjoyed driving around.

God, I wish we could get a proper Mercs sequel without the ridiculousness of Mercs 2 and with the same atmosphere and style of Mercenaries 1.
Click to expand...
*bro fist*

To share some love:

You are a Mercenary ad.

Main Theme

I used to have it but it just wasn't backwards compatible enough. Would always freeze on the second Chinese mission. *tears*
 
R

rdaneel72

Member
Depending on how loosely you want to define sandbox/open-world games...

Go Vacation and Fishing Resort for Wii are both excellent!
 
L

LamerDeluxe

Member
Urban-Chaos.jpg


GTA meets Syndicate and Tomb Raider. Great atmosphere, cool voice acting, great music and sound effects. Varied missions. Climb on buildings, jump from building to building and explore everything. Fight gangs taking over the city. Drive cars, solve missions the way you want, play side missions you encounter. Find level up items. Some missions have you play the bad guys.

This was 3D GTA two years before GTA III.
 
C

c0Zm1c

Member
Red Faction Guerrilla was a pleasant surprise. The destruction is great, though doesn't feel as impressive as the first games Geo-Mod did back in the day. It's the freeform guerrilla warfare that I really like, and within a open world sandbox game, fits the RF universe perfectly. Start a random fight with the EDF and soon after you've got an ally joining in, and before long you have your own little army of randoms following you around giving you support, all without having to purposefully enlist their help or take a predefined mission. The game does have an air of sloppiness to its design, and the physics are quite suspect - you can level a building with the butt of your gun, it just takes a lot longer than driving an earth mover through it! But this was a brilliant direction for the series to go in, and I hope they follow it up with a more refined sequel.
 
R

revolverjgw

Member
The Saboteur. It's fun as hell, has a great setting and premise (so many missions feel like homages to great war movies) and has a great protagonist. I love to kill Nazis. Right up there wtih the inFamous games as my favorite sandbox games this gen.
 
R

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Not just Red Faction Guerrilla, but one specific cheat in it - Super Sledge. Makes me miss cheats in general.
 
L

Liquidus

Aggressively Stupid
I always loved Scarface or PS2/XBOX. It had great controls, great sound, good shooting and fun gameplay. The story was decent too.

I cleared that game to 100%. I guess it got overlooked because it was a "Vice City" rip off but it did a lot of things better than VC.

I'm sure you can find it for a couple of bucks. There's also a Wii version with weapon specific motion control kills if I recall correctly.

I dunno. It doesn't have as much content as a Rockstar game but it shouldn't be overlooked. It's a really fun game.
 
D

dreamfall

Member
So much amazing nostalgia in this thread! Have to agree with GAF on this: Scarface was really brilliant, Total Overdose was pure insanity and The Saboteur is an under-appreciated gem!

But Yakuza 2 to me is perfection. So good, forever my favorite of the franchise.
 
D

disappeared

Banned
LamerDeluxe said:
Urban Chaos

GTA meets Syndicate and Tomb Raider. Great atmosphere, cool voice acting, great music and sound effects. Varied missions. Climb on buildings, jump from building to building and explore everything. Fight gangs taking over the city. Drive cars, solve missions the way you want, play side missions you encounter. Find level up items. Some missions have you play the bad guys.

This was 3D GTA two years before GTA III.
Click to expand...

Yeah the game was really interesting. Each "zone" of the open world felt large for its time and the climbing mechanics were cool. Never finished it, but I have fond memories.
 
J

JDSN

Banned
Scarface: The World is yours.

The mission structure was really limited, but the shooting and the gameplay were great. Then suddenly the game takes you from the generic streets of Miami to an archipelago with open areas, side roads, stronger enemies, hidden caves and cool easter eggs. Oh yeah, the Scarface soundtrack was included with some great salsa and fucking Rick James.
 
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