Your top underrated games

NewDArt said:
I wasn't a big fan of Cybermage, because it was an Origin release (IIRC) - and Origin was my favorite company back in the day. So, I expected too much from that game, probably.

I believe it came out right around the same time as Shadowcaster - which I ADORED. Black Crypt and Shadowcaster (both by RavenSoft) are two of my all time favorite games - and so I expected something similar from Cybermage. But it was much more of a straightforward action game, so I felt let down.

Still, an interesting mention! :)
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CyberMage surprised me because it had some interesting mechanics (the alternative way of learning spells, for one thing). But then I loved first-person shooter games, anyway.
Shadowcaster was and still is great, and some monsters from Black Crypt ascended to star in the Hexen/Heretic series, another all-time favorite (though hardly underrated).
Strife was underrated ... until the Steam version came out :).
 
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Fluent said:
Risen 2.
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I enjoyed 2/3 of it but got bored towards the end. I think it didn't have anything new in the 3rd act and it was all just padding. They should have got rid of one of those islands.
 
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lostforever said:
I enjoyed 2/3 of it but got bored towards the end. I think it didn't have anything new in the 3rd act and it was all just padding. They should have got rid of one of those islands.
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Well, ok, I have to admit I stopped playing for similar reasons.

That said, I also hated the last third of Risen - and had to force myself to complete it.

But I've greatly enjoyed all PB games, even if I didn't necessarily complete them.
 
I quite liked Darkstone which was a french hack n' slash rpg from Delphine Software. It had a nice cartoon aesthetic for the time which added to its appeal. If it was remade today I can imagine it looking like the art style of the Smurfs with its bright colour palette and simple shapes. It was a relatively simple Diablo-like but that was its appeal to me. You have control of two characters at a time which you could alternate between and allowed you to have some semblance of tactics. I can't remember much else but I don't remember it getting mentioned much by anyone.
 
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Silver said:
I quite liked Darkstone which was a french hack n' slash rpg from Delphine Software. It had a nice cartoon aesthetic for the time which added to its appeal. If it was remade today I can imagine it looking like the art style of the Smurfs with its bright colour palette and simple shapes. It was a relatively simple Diablo-like but that was its appeal to me. You have control of two characters at a time which you could alternate between and allowed you to have some semblance of tactics. I can't remember much else but I don't remember it getting mentioned much by anyone.
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Yeah, I remember this one. It was released relatively soon after the original Diablo - and I loved it.

But, that was more because I loved the Diablo subgenre - and less because Darkstone was all that good :)

There weren't many Diablo games back then. Certainly not multiplayer ones.
 
Dez said:
-Spec ops on the line. the game is so unusual: A military shooter which happens to have an intresting story with multiple endings. I bought it because someone recommanded it here @ watch. I'm not the biggest fan of military shooters and I was really surprised how much I was enjoying this game. The Apocalypse now of the military shooter genre. :)

-Lotr: war in the north is indeed a great action-rpg. The writing is not half bad actually and the gameplay is so well designed. I've finished the main campaign 4 times. Once with each character and twice with the elf since she is so awesome. And yeah there is the new game plus option, so you're free to become stupidly overpowered, but then again enemies gain levels too in each new playthrough.

-Call of juarez series. I don't get how these wild west shooters aren't more popular. First two wild west games in this series are more serious and traditional story driven fps games. The gunslinger however is quite different compared to earlier games as it totally abandons realism, but it is what makes it so brilliant and addictive. :)

-Might and magic: Dark Messiah. I'm not sure if this game is really underrated, but in my opinion it never gained the recognition which it deserves. To this date, I've not seen many games that have executed first person melee combat as well as Dark messiah.

-The Bard's Tale (2004) is not a popular game here and I can totally understand how this game would offend orginal bard's tale fans. I myself have never played the orginals, so I didn't mind playing this casual action rpg. It had some of the funniest dialogs i've ever heard in a videogame. The game really pokes fun of all the traditional fantasy and rpg tropes/cliches. And the narrator in that game deserves an emmy or something as he keeps mocking the main character constantly.

-Ever heard of the game called Requiem Avenging Angel? I'm not surprised if you haven't. This game was released in 1999 and didn't make much noise back then. I found the religious story really fascinating. Devs usually shy away from such themes as they are afraid of offending gamers.

In this game, you play Malachi, one of god's angels who has been sent from heaven to set things right in earth. Mankind is building a leviathan, a massive spaceship which is said to be able to reach the heaven itself. Naturally God can't allow this, so he has sent you to find out what the hell is going on down there (pun intended ;). It was a really fun fps game. Aside guns, you also had all these cool angelic powers such as possession, blood boil, locust swarms, and the ability to turn your enemies to pillars of salt which you unlocked during the main campaign.
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I agree with Dez opinion on The Bards Tale from 2004, it was one of the first RPGs i played for the PS2 and i liked how it took the mickey out of RPG cliches, such as killing a wolf dropping gold coins. It used the snowblind engine which is also used on some other good PS2 RPGS such as Xmen legends 2 and Balders Gate: Dark alliance. I think that people who played the original 16bit Bards tale games weren't a fan of the way the name have been used but if you take the name out its a solid action RPG
 
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Ravenloft Stone Prophet is one of my favourite games of all time. I just love the dungeon design and some of the cool npc's that join along the way (Troll etc). Two immortal mummies locked in battle for eternity, what an ending!

I am also one of the few people who actually prefers Ultima VII part two to the first one! I still rate both as 10/10 though. I just loved the story and how the gameworld changes so dramatically as you play through it.
 
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bjon045 said:
Ravenloft Stone Prophet is one of my favourite games of all time. I just love the dungeon design and some of the cool npc's that join along the way (Troll etc). Two immortal mummies locked in battle for eternity, what an ending!

I am also one of the few people who actually prefers Ultima VII part two to the first one! I still rate both as 10/10 though. I just loved the story and how the gameworld changes so dramatically as you play through it.
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I've often wanted to play the two Ravenloft games. Something about the engine/visuals have driven me away every time - but I love the setting.

Maybe I should give it another shot soon.

I must shamefully admit that I never played Ultima 7. Well, I did - much later - but never played it much.

It came out when I still only had an Amiga.
 
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

Lionheart too , perhaps?
 
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Lionheart was pretty bad imo but PoR:RoMD wasn't too bad once I figured out some way to speed up the dreadfully slow combat animations.
 
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One game that perhaps wasn't undrerrated (don't remember), but didn't receive much attention (I think) is Chronomaster (1995), a sci-fi adventure game taking place in pocket universes. What set this game apart was the excellent writing, as the plot was written by well known sci-fi author Roger Zelazny. It was his last known work, he died before the game was published.

pibbur who wants a rerelease of Chronomaster, and hopes that GOG regularly lurks the watch.

PS: Chronomaster was adapted into a novel in 1996, coauthored by his partner, also an author, Jane Lindskold. I haven't read it. DS.
 
pibbur who said:
One game that perhaps wasn't undrerrated (don't remember), but didn't receive much attention (I think) is Chronomaster (1995), a sci-fi adventure game taking place in pocket universes. What set this game apart was the excellent writing, as the plot was written by well known sci-fi author Roger Zelazny. It was his last known work, he died before the game was published.

pibbur who wants a rerelease of Chronomaster, and hopes that GOG regularly lurks the watch.

PS: Chronomaster was adapted into a novel in 1996, coauthored by his partner, also an author, Jane Lindskold. I haven't read it. DS.
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Interesting. I clearly remember the title itself - and I have an idea of how the box cover looks. But I'm not sure I actually played it.

Will look into it, thanks :)
 
Risen 2 was an odd RPG for me in that I really didn't want it to end, even after the 60 hours it took me to complete it. Generally if I spend 60, or 100, or 300 hours on an RPG, the ending is satisfying and I'm happy with my time spent and ready to move on. When Risen 2 ended I actually thought, "Huh, I want more. I wish it were a bit longer." I suppose that means I enjoyed it quite a bit and it wasn't a burden to play near the end of the game. :)
 
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luj1 said:
And what about Arx Fatalis, it's kind of underrated.
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Yeah masses of modern gamers probably haven't heard of it, so yeah definitely underrated. Arx Fatalis was such an awesome game. I'm still in awe of how much there was to discover in that game and how dynamic the gameworld was. Or how about all those various spell combinations and how spell casting worked. That if something was bloody innovative. Haven't seen anything like that since.

Closest to Arx Fatalis I can think of is the new underworld game they're making…
 
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