VIDEO Most underrated games of all time?

Great game. Same goes for Quantum Of Solace and Blood Stone, I thought both were fantastic games but they didn't seem to get much respect, and as with any Bond game will live in the shadow of Goldeneye. Even though games like Everything Or Nothing and Blood Stone are basically Bond movies, both in terms of a cinematic experience and style of gameplay, while Goldeneye is just a FPS where you run around shooting people in the face.

 

I suppose when I think about games that are 'underrated' the first ones that come to mind are games that actually reviewed quite well but that I feel were underappreciated for what they were.

Hitman: Bloody Money is sheer sandbox genius. The gameplay is organic and at times emergent, which is all the more impressive when you consider that it is a decade old now. It reviewed well at the time and has been remembered particularly well, especially when compared to 2012's disappointing Hitman: Absolution. However, for me it basically touched video gaming perfection - fingers crossed for the new Hitman coming out next month.

 

The web slinging from that game was perfect (the rest is standard beat-em up stuff though). It's too bad they never brought back it back for future Spider-Man games.

Also, Funiculì, Funiculà will always be known to me as the pizza theme.

 

Shadow The Hedgehog. A lot of people hate on it, mainly because of the guns but I really enjoyed it and it's actually one of my favourite Sonic games.

 

Mission: Impossible on N64 (later ported to PS1). It was clunky to control, but demanded a certain degree of cleverness not common to games of the time, certainly not to shooters or "action" games.

I also want to mention Sleeping Dogs. It is regarded well enough, but I still think of it as a sleeper hit. Well-liked by those who tried it, but not known enough by the public to reach a bigger audience.

 

Sleeping Dogs is fantastic. I don't get why it wasn't a bigger hit.

 

Campy, hard boiled, and also cyberpunk. Tragically underrated game, and sadly forgotten by many. This one deserves a remake. Just direct me to the Kickstarter, i'm there.

 

Interesting shooting mechanics (recoil not elastic, just goes up), beautiful locations, hilariously over the top protagonists, and universally panned:

 

Couldn't stand Kane & Lynch - character skewed to the right, rigid camera, awkward combat mechanics, and too serious for its own good.

 

I also have to give a nod to L.A. Noire, which was very underrated. The general gameplay mechanics were nothing special, which I think disappointed people looking for GTA: 1940s off the Rockstar branding, and the revolutionary interrogation mechanics were undermined somewhat by the last-minute overhaul of the truth-doubt-lie system that left Cole Phelps's responses less than entirely predictable . . . but I think that only takes a little off a game that was really fantastic otherwise. The real appeal of the game, to me, isn't whether I can run around shooting tommyguns all over town -- it's the immersiveness of the world it creates, the ability to essentially star in my own interactive film noir. And in that respect it knocks it out of the park. The period detail is impeccable, and the writing really gets noir -- it captures the mood and atmosphere, the banter and grimness, the psychological horror and understated heroism perfectly. And the story beats are like a noir's greatest hits collection. And it's all carried about by absolutely fantastic performances by a top-notch cast (and brought to us by a technology so good, I still catch myself recognizing actors in bit parts on TV from their L.A. Noire likeness). For somebody like me who loves video games for their ability to deliver immersiveness, to let you really live out a story that you're a part of, I think it's a perfect implementation of the video game as interactive movie. Maybe it's just because it lovingly recreated my favorite genre of film and let me be the star, but I adore the game.

 

Star Wars Bounty Hunter and 007 Agent Under Fire.

 

Although I had fun with Bounty Hunter, I can't agree that it is underrated. IMO, it had no finesse.

 

This game was well-received but man, it doesn't get enough praise for the caliber of storytelling going on there. It's a great game for people familiar with Noire (or for people that just like detective stories.


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While I still think it's underrated, I do agree that it is rough around the edges.

 

This game was just epic on the Xbox! Loved playing it. Anyone know if its backwards compatible with the Xbox One yet?

 

Original Xbox games aren't compatible with the Xbox One, and possibly (likely) never will be.

 

Reynar_Tedros Wishful thinking, I guess. Such a great game

 

It has a great lightsaber combat system. I'd love to see it ported to the PS4 like Racer's Revenge, Bounty Hunter, and Jedi Starfighter.

 

Definitely. The saber duels in this game were incredibly fun.

 

Playstation Vita: The Thread.

Seriously, the system is horrifically overlooked. When people do talk about it it's exclusively about what a great device it is to play Persona 4 on. Which, y'know, it is. However its not all the system has to offer. Few talk about the gems that are tucked away on the platform like Tearaway and Gravity Rush, both of which got HD ports on the PS4 in an attempt to find these fresh, unique IPs an actual audience, or Freedom Wars and Soul Sacrifice.

Sony did such a lousy job of supporting this thing that they should really be ashamed, because it's a great little device that should have had a much longer life span than it did.

 

I don't think there's much more Sony could have done to boost its audience, really.

 

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a very underrated game. It got roasted based on an E3 tech demo of the game being passed off as gameplay, and a whole bandwagon of hate stuck to it based on that. When the game came out it had some bugs that were later fixed with patches, but most people never actually gave the game a chance in the first place because of that E3 debacle. It actually turned out to be quite enjoyable, but no more flawed than most games.

 

It's probably a stretch to call any Zelda game underrated (edit* maybe not - II, The Windwaker?), but I do feel this one is extremely overshadowed by it's predecessor Ocarina of Time (also a masterpiece).

I absolutely love this game. Visually fantastic (especially for it's time). i think this game was the reason i had to by the memory expansion for my n64. It's definitely got an odd, somber tone about it, but the storytelling is strong and fairly emotionally compelling. wonderful soundtrack worthy of the series. The mechanics (having to go back in time and repeat the day) i think were what annoyed people most. the temple designs are amazing, very creative, and challenging. interesting boss battles too. there's also a lot of great optional storylines and side quests that are very rewarding to complete. you get the feeling that the game was crafted with great care and admiration.

 

That may be true, although I personally think that they dropped the ball with the Vita way too hard and way to early. Sony failed to learn from the mistakes of the PSP and, in certain regards, did even worse by never actually finding a solid sales pitch for it. At first it was a place to play 'home console quality' games on the go (A ridiculous promise given no handheld yet on the market can deliver the kind of fidelity such a pitch would leave most consumers expecting), then it just kinda became a glorified peripheral for the Playstation 4 and now it's the place to go to play indie games while on the move. That's not a terrible fate, there's plenty of really good indie games perfect for the system. I'm excitedly anticipating the Vita launch of Darkest Dungeon. However completely losing all major support and, in essence, becoming a legacy device should not have happened so early in its life cycle.

It seems Sony expected nothing less than HUGE numbers from the Vita. They shot for the moon and they missed, and instead of offering continued support, spreading good word through a satisfied customer base, as Nintendo did after their pretty poor launch period for the 3DS, they just left the system to gather dust. The 'Vita has no games' meme really dealt a deadly blow that needn't have happened.

 

Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a console quality experience, no? That was what they were aiming for, but I agree that that could not have been sustained in the long run. But perhaps we differ on what we think are the causes for this. I think the reason is that few people in the age demographic they had in mind justify buying a dedicated high-end (and expensive, especially before the redesign) handheld gaming device when they can buy a phone that does a bunch of things in addition to playing games. I'm referring to the mass market here, or the mainstream if you prefer. Factor in to that the fact that people are spending more on their phones today than they used to, to get the full smartphone experience, and exchanging their phones for newer models more regularly than people did before smartphones. The form factor of the device isn't suited to being carried in the pocket either, like the clamshell DS design is, and it's frankly too big to fit either way. For all of these reasons, it was never going to be a mass market product, but rather have niche appeal. When you have a niche product, it becomes harder to get developers and publishers to take a chance on making games for it. A double-edged sword: it already had niche appeal, and that niche appeal in turn diminishes amount of content, which in turn narrows the appeal even further. Nintendo, being a software developer who's titles are well known and has wide appeal in younger demographics, can more easily reinvigorate a sinking handheld than Sony can. Sony tried instead to give it added value as a companion to PS4, but was not able to create excitement. So, that was my thought process when I wrote that I don't think they could have done more, but your mileage may vary. For what it's worth, I also think Sony would have stuck by it more - even if it was a money drain - if their financial situation was better. But from what I have gathered, they have been in dire straits in recent years. To such an extent that the PS4 was really the only thing that could be considered a notable success for the company.