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Most underrated games you have played

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It's only like $5 on DSiWare, too.
 
Trespasser!!!!!!! The JurrasicPark FPS made for the PC on the late 1990s. Most people say it's shit (though most of those same people never touched the game, let alone played it in its day) and make fun of its breast tatto based health meter.

Which is sincerely sad considering how ahead of its time it was. It was a massive world that felt as if it was wide open, had PYSICS before most games and used it for puzzels, and was essentially HUD free.(thanks to that tattoo)

Oh and if you were a fan of JP it was a Brilliant reconstruction of SIte B. I mean I felt like I was there. Only complaint I had was that it was from the film JP universe and not the vastly superior book universe (especially since it's suppose to be a Lost World companion) but I get why they did that.
 
The Saboteur by Pandemic. Really enjoyed it back in 2009, the atmosphere was sublime and blowing up Nazi stuff never got old.
 
Breakdown - a Japanese first person shooter with hand to hand combat. It had a trippy story and some awesome scenes.


Silent Hill 4 gets flack for "not originally being a SH game" (debunked by Jeremy Blaustein ages ago FYI), but to me it's the most disturbing game in the series. The environments and plot are all just really surreal. A serial killer that looks like Brad Pitt believes an apartment is his mother. You also play as a socially awkward dude. The whole thing plays out like a sluggish nightmare.


Book of Memories got a lot of crap for being a spinoff and not a real Silent Hill game. That's what spinoffs are. It was actually a pretty fun dungeon crawler with a lot of fan service. If you can let go of hos super serious you think you need to be in regards to the sanctity of this series, you might have fun. The post release patch and DLC make it a lot better as well.


A much better game than the original. The visuals were great and so was the dialogue of the NPCs. The protag is also hilariously angry and violent.
 
Some of stuff I see here is far from underrated, at least on Gaf.

Meanwhile this game:
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there isn't anyone here but me and a few played it
 
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The greatest co-op title ever made in my opinion, and one of the most interesting takes on the FPS genre (from a pure gameplay mechanics perspective). Between the gunplay, vaulting, and hacking, the combat had a very unique sense of flow that I don't think any other game has quite been able to match. Many people were offended by the title being attached to an FPS and most never gave the game even a cursory inspection unfortunately.
 
Rocket Knight Adventures is one of the best 16-bit platformers out there. After 2 disappointing sequels and a reboot that missed the point, it's long forgetten.
 
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Ninja Five-O (Ninja Cop in Europe) for GBA. Incredible ninja adventure with grapple hook mechanics. Challenging, but never frustrating.

Other picks:

Ghost Hunter (PS2)
Mark of Kri (PS2)
Binary Domain
Astro Boy (GBA)
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii, acclaimed, but I don't feel many played this)
ZombiU (WiiU, same as above)
Blocks that Matter (PC, very smart puzzle game that got mostly ignored)
Antichamber (PC, brilliant mindfuck of a puzzle game, secret goty 2013)
Gunpoint (PC)
A Story About My Uncle (PC, first person platforming a la Mirror's Edge with grapple mechanics)
 
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The only reason it is underrated is because of the vanilla game being extremely underwhelming. Razor's Edge is a masterpiece, best action game of last gen for me with Rising being the only thing that comes close. By quite a bit the best Ninja Gaiden game. I have all the modern Ninja Gaiden games and play them regularly and I still stand by my opinion that it is the best (with 1 being really mediocre and 2 being close second). Maybe all the complains about lagging controls and whatever are from the Wii U version but on PS3 it runs like a dream and the amount of control you have is even better than in two. One of my top 5 game of the xbox360/PS3 era.
 
Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.

Incredible game that tons of people shit on at launch because it's EA so it's got to be terrible right?

But it turned out to be the best TPS I've ever played based around the best micro transaction system I've ever seen.
 
Shinobi - PS2
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Shinobi for the PS2 was an underrated gem for sure. It came out in a time when "character action" games were still primitive and developing into their own. Devil May Cry was released a year earlier, yet it still predated games like Ninja Gaiden and God of War, so I consider the first 3D Shinobi as an important early pillar of what we now call character action games. I think the game is pretty unique in the "old-fashioned" ways that it approached game and level design in a 3D environment. It seemed to really want to take platforming and gameplay elements from the sidescrollers and translate them into a 3D action game in a way that not many other games of this style had done. It's really cool for what it was, and holds up to this day (despite some flaws). And to top it off, it has one of the hardest final bosses I've ever fought in this genre.

Anarchy Reigns
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I think I must be one of this game's biggest fans. To those unfamiliar, Anarchy Reigns was a unique online beat 'em up brawler by Platinum Games. Not many people bought it, and not many critics gave it the praise that it deserved, and it is a shame because the online play in this game is some of the most fun I've ever had playing multiplayer games, and people won't be able to experience that again because I'm sure the game's population is a ghost town. The multiplayer was pure brawling mayhem set to cheesy dope hotblooded hip-hop tunes. Unfortunately, I don't think this type of game will ever be done by Platinum again.

The only reason it is underrated is because of the vanilla game being extremely underwhelming. Razor's Edge is a masterpiece, best action game of last gen for me with Rising being the only thing that comes close. By quite a bit the best Ninja Gaiden game. I have all the modern Ninja Gaiden games and play them regularly and I still stand by my opinion that it is the best (with 1 being really mediocre and 2 being close second). Maybe all the complains about lagging controls and whatever are from the Wii U version but on PS3 it runs like a dream and the amount of control you have is even better than in two. One of my top 5 game of the xbox360/PS3 era.

I'm going to need some objective reasoning for these two statements
 

People keep saying Radiant Historia is underrated but it's not
Not only did this game get lots of good reviews and coverage when it was released it was hard to find because this was the DS game to get at the time. It not only sold out once or twice but 3-4 times across various retailers.
 
People keep saying Radiant Historia is underrated but it's not
Not only did this game get lots of good reviews and coverage when it was released it was hard to find because this was the DS game to get at the time. It not only sold out once or twice but 3-4 times across various retailers.

Well, you can come to Europe and see how much people played it here...
Thank you Atlus, as always.

All fantastic games that deserve better in my opinion.

I would have also put Nier but I think it's kind of highly regarded

Alpha Protocol and Mirror'S Edge get talked about (and appreciated) a lot IMO.


Good one too. Best DS game IMO.


I'd go with Mana Khemia 2.
 
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Seriously probably the best zombie game not called "The Last of Us"

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This game is criminally overlooked. Some of the best MP this generation.
 
i like Nier, Spec Ops: The Line, and even Silent Hill: BoM as much as anyone can, but as far as the "most" underrated?

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The gap between the review scores and how much it sold and the quality of the game, this I find to be the widest. Its just so damn good and I think it even has wide appeal, but not as many people played it as they should have.
It has one of the best FPS single player campaigns ever, its up there with the Metro games or Killzone 2. Its just so damn good.
 
I'm going with Midtown Madness 3.

I had tons of fun playing "tag" with this game. I really didn't expect it to be so much fun but I put a lot of time into this game.

Not sure how much critical acclaimed it received, but I'd put this under an underrated category.

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Edit >

Just thought of another one.

Jet Force Gemini on N64

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Personal favorite single player shooter campaign of the generation. It was underrated when it came out, and thanks to The New Order (which is also a fantastic game), it's fallen even further into obscurity :(

And not available on PC anymore because reasons....
 
Maybe EX Troopers. It's one of my favorite games of last-gen but I rarely hear people mention it, even in the context of obscure gaming sites or games to import.
 
Toss up between Knytt Undergound and Terraria.

Both are really under rated IMO.

Lost in Shadow for the Wii is another.
 
Maybe EX Troopers. It's one of my favorite games of last-gen but I rarely hear people mention it, even in the context of obscure gaming sites or games to import.

Really bummed that the West got the abomination that was Lost Planet 3 instead of this beautiful game
 
Yoshi's Woolly World is going to be one of the most underrated 2D platform games in history.
I just finished it 100% and I found it amazing.
 
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It was advertised... It was well-reviewed and well-received by those who've played it... And it STILL underperformed! A damn shame because this game was great, and does a ton right! And it doesn't help that now the I.P. is in bullshit limbo by a company who just wants to hold onto it and not do anything with it.

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Geist, man... This game may have not done anything spectacular in terms of gunplay and the writing switches between passable and stupid. but damn, it's puzzle mechanics were firing on all cylinders and the game was build around that. But man, did it underperform. Hell, people barely remember that this game was even a thing!

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You know what? I don't care if it's only been a few months. I'm calling it now. Unless this somehow gets the same stroke of a second chances like Advance Wars or Fire Emblem ,(Before Awakening) This is going to be one of those titles. The titles that are for whatever reason was shun by a lot of people at launch, but will still have a core audience that loves it and still supports it. Then many years later when Nintendo tosses it's last fuck to give out the window and copies cost an arm and leg, people are going to want a sequel after ponying up absurd amounts of cash or through other means.

It's a great game that got way too much bullshit at launch. But is fun and has enough potential to expand into a damn good series.
 
Probably Paladin's Quest. One of the best SNES RPGs that almost never gets mentioned when people talk about SNES RPGs. When it does get mentioned, it's usually in a negative fashion (it's a very unusual game which turns some people off).
 

This game was just way too hard for me as a kid.




Underrated? Isn't this heralded as one of the best DS games and won a few GOTYs? I loved it and many of my friends do, I don't think it went too far under the radar.


My vote:

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One of the few mature, AAA efforts on the Wii. Also, the best use of motion plus by far, and most likely the best FP sword fighting game of all time (and doesn't look to be beat). It may have had a rather linear and simplistic structure, but it was arcade-like and fun. This game on hard is also a real test. It's such a shame it didn't sell way, way more.


Also, this thread has convinced me to play Resistance 3. It's literally sitting on my shelf right now, having never been played.
 
Probably Paladin's Quest. One of the best SNES RPGs that almost never gets mentioned when people talk about SNES RPGs. When it does get mentioned, it's usually in a negative fashion (it's a very unusual game which turns some people off).

And this one for me too, very challenging game with a amazing setting and great music. I really really like this game.
 
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