Gothic 1 tops my list. It was pure luck that I happened to buy it - I was looking for a new game to play, found it and thought "why not?" as it sounded promising when I read the back of the box. One of the few games I've bought this way actually, I usually keep my eyes on games for a long time before they are released, and do a lot of research before I buy. I really got lucky with that one.
RPGs that are/were underestimated!
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magerette
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Have to agree.I had a lot of fun with W. & W. I think it was the many and serious bugs that kept it from doing better. And to some extent, that it was very much what today we call "niche".
I second Hidden X on his other picks including Evil Islands. I got Wizardry 8 for Christmas the year it came out and had never heard of it. Same for Gothic, though I'd seen a bit on the net about it.
Kult:HK also gets my vote. Short but quite good and definitely underrated.
And since we're not strictly limited to rpgs, I'll add one of my favorite little action games, Darkstone.
@Cormac
Sometimes your dry sense of humor is rather cryptic.
But I do agree on DivDiv--very underrated at the time, though it has come into it's own since. The name turned many people off.
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Jaz
Play nice.©
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There were no guns in Catacomb 3D or Heretic or Hexen or Witchaven, eitherHow was UU an FPS? There were no guns in the game!!
. Yet all of these do qualify for the FPS sticker.Gothic was a top-selling game here, so I can't name it. Can't think of an underestimated/underrated CRPG right now, perhaps I'll remember one later.
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Jaz, where are you from? I always thought you were in the US, I'm guessing now that you must be in Germany.
txa1265
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Yep, the Gothic as best-seller is a clear indicator of her origin
But here in the US the Gothic series is very much underestimated / overlooked / whatever.
I would also say Nox, which I sort of stumbled upon just over a year ago. Definitely Divine Divinity, as I was back into full hardcore gaming mode and completely missed that one for over a year after release.
But here in the US the Gothic series is very much underestimated / overlooked / whatever.
I would also say Nox, which I sort of stumbled upon just over a year ago. Definitely Divine Divinity, as I was back into full hardcore gaming mode and completely missed that one for over a year after release.
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That was expected by the community. You should've read the common outcry/moan in the forum !
But CDV is a small company that grew up with distributing Shareware games here in Germany. They distributed the full versions of Commander Keen, Duke Nukum (that was the first name) etc. .
In the Larian forum someone made the remark that - although CDV pretends to be a world-wide publisher of some sort - the spirit is still that of a Shareware Publisher - hence the title "Divine Divinity". I hesitate to use the expression that they are "square", but it smells like that to me. At least the boss, who was - according to a rumor - responsible for the name change.
Cynically speaking, I'm almost sure he wouldn't see or admit that his name change (if he really war responsible for that) drove off too many gamers with English as their native language.
And, by the way, the name change was done at a time when a similar sounding game was selling extraordinarily good for CDV : "Sudden Strike".
They truly milked that cash cow.
Lucky Day
Daywatch
its used in philosophy when you shift from one idea type to another. like Karl Marx shifted from being an individualist to collectivism.
I've seen the phrase used for artists as well, I think Picasso is a great example, when he shifts from his pink period to his blue period, then starts defying dimension and invents a sort of cubism.
It sounds to me that that's not the way the expression is used though as you describe it. Are you talking about how its used in German?
Perhaps I should of said Garriot created a whole new Paradigm. But that's so overused. As in, buddy can you paradigm?
Lucky Day
Daywatch
Wizardry 8 got a lot of press and won awards but it never sold well because of limited. distribution. I think it applies.
Of course I'm talking about how it is used in German !
MudsAnimalFriend
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For what it was I’d agree Wizardry 8 got an excellent press reception, overrated in fact. The game was hopelessly dated on release and marred by ridiculously heavy combat. Walk forward five pixels, meet wandering monsters, initiate twenty minute combat sequence (most of it waiting for the CPU), walk forward another five pixels, meet wandering monsters, repeat ad uninstallum. The game was only for the hardest of hardcore CRPGers, with an appeal based mostly on nostalgia.
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magerette
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Alrik, I'd heard somewhere ( can't remember where) that the original title was supposed to be "Sword of Lies" or some such, and that the title decision was influenced by the publisher. Thanks for the inside info.
On another board I frequented at the time of release, a few posters spent a whole thread trying to argue people into playing the game and ignoring the title. All we got from the majority was : "It might as well be called 'Stupid Stupidity", I'd be embarassed to buy it," etc. I've always taken a certain satisfaction in it's later justly deserved popularity.
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The original title was, as far as I can remember it, "Unless, The Sword Of Treachery".
I just guess the folks at CDV never hads the international market in mind when making up that title.
And yes, the folks constantly telling "forget about that title" could've been Larian forum members.
I just guess the folks at CDV never hads the international market in mind when making up that title.
And yes, the folks constantly telling "forget about that title" could've been Larian forum members.
Jaz
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The Gothic sales sure are a giveaway. I'm from (and in) Germany
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Yes if you go waaaaay back to right before the last ice age
but what eventually turned into Divine Divinity was... 1) Project C (working title... the C stood for cash since Larian needed it desperately) --> 2) Divinity: The Sword of Lies (working title no. 2 and intended release title) --> 3) Divine Divinity (CDV's joke release title).Or as Swen "Lar" Vincke, the founder of Larian Studios summed it all up in this interview...
Larian Studios was founded somewhere in 1996, though nobody really knows when, as it kind of just happened. It kinda grew out of a small room/garage start up. The first thing we were making was called Unless, The Treachery Of Death. It was a role-playing game, quite ambitious in scope, but we definitely didn't have enough people or money to finish it. I think there were four of us at that time. At some point, we managed to sell it to a company called Atari. They were forming a PC games division and they were interested in signing Unless.
Unfortunately, the day I was supposed to go to London to meet the guys of Atari, and sign a contract, they announced that they were retiring from the PC scene, which was kind of painful for us. So, we changed this game Unless into something called LMK, and started working on that. After six months of basically living on water and bread, we had a demo ready and started showing it to publishers. Unfortunately, nobody was really interested in a small start up from Belgium with no money whatsoever. They said the risk was too high, and that we had no track record. So in November 1996, we said, ok, if that is the case, we'll prove we can make a game, and we'll make it pretty quick. That was LEDWars. We made that in five months. And when it was almost finished, we signed a publishing contract with Ionos, which is now out of the publishing arena, and in the same week we signed a contract with attic entertainment from Germany for LMK. So LEDWars was shipped somewhere in the summer of 1997 and we continued working on LMK. As most know, something went wrong there, and we were forced to abandon LMK, something which we did very reluctantly.
So in the beginning of 1999, we were again where we started. No money, plenty of ideas, plenty of skills, and no game. The one advantage we had was that we had a much larger and experienced team. We started working on Divinity with a few programmers somewhere in the beginning of 1999, while the rest of the company focussed on trying to survive and bridge the debts that had been caused by LMK. Essentially, we had been funding that title ourselves since the spring of 1998, and by the time we figured out that we were being ripped off, there were several loans and debts that had to be paid. By making a host of what we call "other products" we managed to do that by the summer of 1999, and in August 1999 or so, we started working with the entire team on Divinity, which is what we're still doing right now.
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Yes, again you were right, Moriendor.
With one small exception: "Unless, The Sword Of Treachery" (I think that was the title) was the original title for LMK. Before it became LMK.
But thanks anyway for reminding me. This is all soooo long ago now ... ("Long" in terms of computer gaming ... )
With one small exception: "Unless, The Sword Of Treachery" (I think that was the title) was the original title for LMK.
Before it became LMK. But thanks anyway for reminding me.
This is all soooo long ago now ... ("Long" in terms of computer gaming ... )
LMK- Lady Mage Knight was a game I was following closely at the time. I read a lot on the Larian boards, but only post rarely. I'm hopeful that their next release will make me forget about BD!!
Delirious Nomad
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Anachronox
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Hrm, i feel compelled to name my underestimated RPG, but i will be hung by the neck...
Perhaps its worth it.
POR2
(there is another thread debating its roots and comments be better placed there, but there is alot of mixed feelings about the game in this forum, and most people think it plain sux. Which i understand. But it doesn't help the fact that this game have impressed me most of all the RPG bought the last couple of years.)
Perhaps its worth it.
POR2
(there is another thread debating its roots and comments be better placed there, but there is alot of mixed feelings about the game in this forum, and most people think it plain sux. Which i understand. But it doesn't help the fact that this game have impressed me most of all the RPG bought the last couple of years.)