What is THE single most underrated game of all times?

[Morenatsu.]

Fun fact: Richard Guy, one of Azrael's Tear's designers/artists, also worked on Battlespire. It's all connected!!!!!!11

 

[Zarniwoop]

Total Annihilation

 

[Shaewaroz]

Celtic Tales: Balor of the Evil Eye



https://www.myabandonware.com/game/celtic-tales-balor-of-the-evil-eye-2cu

Works in Dosbox without issues.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Hogs of War

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Illbleed is probably the most underrated game I own. Really fun weird little game on the Dreamcast. Maybe the funniest game I've ever played too.

 

[gurugeorge]

There are actually quite a few in my book:-

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. If I had to pick just one, this would be it. An excellent squad shooter mech sim (more like iron man suit actually) from Looking Glass studios. It did get some critical acclaim but it was a huge project that didn't sell well enough. Mind you, it's possible that they spent time and energy on the FMV that they should have spent on further refining the gameplay and optimization (although now in retrospect, the FMV is quite charming). But I think as a pixellated game with heavy system requirements for the time, it just arrived in the wrong time frame, when everyone was going crazy about Quake, Voodoo 3-d, etc.

Realms of the Haunting. Extraordinarily creepy and atmospheric horror RPG shootery type thing.

Several years ago I might have said Arx Fatalis, but in recent years, with the success of Arkane studios, that's gotten more of its due in terms of kudos.

Agree with some above who have mentioned Azrael's Tear. Wonderfully atmospheric, with a quirky premise.

Deep Space Nine: The Fallen. Maybe the best Star Trek game ever made and hugely under-rated.

At the moment, Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children. Although it's getting its due in terms of critical acclaim it's not getting the sales it deserves.

Honorable mention to Bethesda's early Terminator shooters. Solid games, but again, system reqs somewhat foreclosed major success (given the franchise). (IIRC you actually had to have a Matrox Millennium - the top 2-d card at the time - to play it without jumping through an unconscionable number of DOS hoops. IIRC I actually learned my "gamer's DOS" skills getting the second game to work on my brand spanking new Pentium 90 with generic 2-d card.)

 

[Terra]

Silver

I thought of this as well. Would be my vote, but ultimately I just need to give it to LBA2 - Twinsen's Odyssey. Possibly the single greatest action adventure game ever made and the biggest review on Youtube has 28k views.

At least this has 57k views:



My God I love this game so much.

I just wish they'd stuck with the pure isometric aesthetic for LBA2 like with the first game. At least it's still there for interiors but I actively disliked the camera in LBA2's exteriors, so much so that I never finished it despite loving the first game.

 

[DraQ]

There are actually quite a few in my book:-

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. If I had to pick just one, this would be it. An excellent squad shooter mech sim (more like iron man suit actually) from Looking Glass studios. It did get some critical acclaim but it was a huge project that didn't sell well enough. Mind you, it's possible that they spent time and energy on the FMV that they should have spent on further refining the gameplay and optimization (although now in retrospect, the FMV is quite charming). But I think as a pixellated game with heavy system requirements for the time, it just arrived in the wrong time frame, when everyone was going crazy about Quake, Voodoo 3-d, etc.

I actually thought - and still do - that it looked pretty awesome.
Some of the effects the did in game were pretty surreal to have been doable at all on the machines of that time.

As for the FMVs - they do have some charm, but they must have been a huge resource sink, sadly this was the "We have an entire CD! let's fill it to brim with FMVs!" era.
Other than getting overshadowed by way more accessible, dynamic and crisper Quake and Build engine games (one advantage they did have was supported resolutions), TN had three particular downfalls:

• Extremely obtuse, non-configurable controls. They should have polished that aspect especially knowing that almost the same controls already caused issues in SS1.
• Gameplay. There was a lot of wondrous complexity to TN, but it just happened to cancel itself out pretty neatly to the point where you could win most battles using ingenious strategy of running backwards and firing particle beam while splashing with GL/RL/MBA/MBC.
  
• Length. You could beat the entire fucking game in how many hours? 4?

 

[Morenatsu.]

• Gameplay. There was a lot of wondrous complexity to TN, but it just happened to cancel itself out pretty neatly to the point where you could win most battles using ingenious strategy of running backwards and firing particle beam while splashing with GL/RL/MBA/MBC.

Pretty much. I'm lazy and only use 1% of my brain power in games, and I could complete most encounters just by circle-strafing. The game is kind of a waste, honestly.

 

[gurugeorge]

• Gameplay. There was a lot of wondrous complexity to TN, but it just happened to cancel itself out pretty neatly to the point where you could win most battles using ingenious strategy of running backwards and firing particle beam while splashing with GL/RL/MBA/MBC.

Pretty much. I'm lazy and only use 1% of my brain power in games, and I could complete most encounters just by circle-strafing. The game is kind of a waste, honestly.

Umm, isn't that how you can "beat" any shooter?

I do agree very much with DraQ's point about configurable controls though. Indeed, important details like that might have been part of the cost of a small company spending so much time and resources on FMV.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Honorable mention to Bethesda's early Terminator shooters. Solid games, but again, system reqs somewhat foreclosed major success (given the franchise). (IIRC you actually had to have a Matrox Millennium - the top 2-d card at the time - to play it without jumping through an unconscionable number of DOS hoops. IIRC I actually learned my "gamer's DOS" skills getting the second game to work on my brand spanking new Pentium 90 with generic 2-d card.)

There's a reason why most of the '90s ones are forgotten, they're just not that good. The 1990 one, if you can get it to run, is buggy, difficult to control and not that fun playing it the normal way. The Wolf-clones are just bad and the final batch just aren't that interesting beyond the surprisingly modern control scheme.

 

[DalekFlay]

Watch Civvie's Bethesda Terminator videos on Youtube rather than play the games yourself. They're very interesting at least.

 

[gurugeorge]

Honorable mention to Bethesda's early Terminator shooters. Solid games, but again, system reqs somewhat foreclosed major success (given the franchise). (IIRC you actually had to have a Matrox Millennium - the top 2-d card at the time - to play it without jumping through an unconscionable number of DOS hoops. IIRC I actually learned my "gamer's DOS" skills getting the second game to work on my brand spanking new Pentium 90 with generic 2-d card.)

There's a reason why most of the '90s ones are forgotten, they're just not that good. The 1990 one, if you can get it to run, is buggy, difficult to control and not that fun playing it the normal way. The Wolf-clones are just bad and the final batch just aren't that interesting beyond the surprisingly modern control scheme.

YMMV ofc, but I found Future Shock very enjoyable at the time, and innovative (in what other game at the time could you switch from on-foot to vehicles and an aircraft?).

 

[Matador]

ELEX

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Thief 3: Deadly Shadows.

This game is basically reaching F:NV levels of sequel sweetness. New Vegas is exactly the perfect comparison, where the engine is basically the only shitty thing about it.

 

[Fedora Master]

Viva Pinata.

No, really. It actually looks cute and unique, there's no degenerate shit in it, the gardening is fun, the music is relaxing and it's overall a joy to play.

 

[DaveO]

Scott Adams Adventure series by far is woefully under-rated. I played and completed Adventures 1-12, and have fond memories of several of them.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Viva Piñata is a very weird example of Microsoft building up a franchise, and then just totally forgetting about it. They made a few. At least the ones like the first game were well received. They looked great. They seemingly did really well. They had a cartoon. They were selling merchandise. And then Microsoft just totally fucked off in that series. Just looked now and the cartoon went a year longer than the games.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Severance: Blade of Darkness


Excellent action game with great fighting mechanics. It has lots of Sumerian mythology influences, deadly traps, bosses and you can sever enemies limbs and thrash them with it. You can play as four heroes, so don't worry about replay value.

I'll have to side with this one as the only possible right answer.

Severance is still, 20 years later, the best third-person hack'n slash action-adventure game.

 

[luj1]

Crusader No Remorse
Star Trek Bridge Commander
Little Big Adventure

 

[Mexi]

Harvester. It's a bit janky and the entire Lodge segment was bad, but one of those rare adventure games that made me feel uncomfortable.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Harvester. It's a bit janky and the entire Lodge segment was bad, but one of those rare adventure games that made me feel uncomfortable.

Harvester is evil. But of course the cucktard is going to recommend it.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Actually, seeing your username makes me want to change my vote.

It's Unreal. 100% Unreal.

It was so far ahead of its time that like half of games out today still use its graphics engine and no shitlennial modern "gamers" even remember it. Some might remember Unreal Tournament but even then they're usually talking about the 2003 version, not the OG.

 

[Mexi]

Harvester. It's a bit janky and the entire Lodge segment was bad, but one of those rare adventure games that made me feel uncomfortable.

Harvester is evil. But of course the cucktard is going to recommend it.

What's with the furry avatar?

 

[Mexi]

Actually, seeing your username makes me want to change my vote.

It's Unreal. 100% Unreal.

It was so far ahead of its time that like half of games out today still use its graphics engine and no shitlennial modern "gamers" even remember it. Some might remember Unreal Tournament but even then they're usually talking about the 2003 version, not the OG.

Quake III is better so not underrated, just not as good.