Underrated classic games

Jikashi · 09-07-2014 10:19am

tok9 wrote: »

Only thing I disliked was the very end.. considering [Beyond Good and Evil] is 10 years old and nothing has come out since.

It sold very poorly when it came out, eventually building in popularity later. The sequel has been in development hell for years now

09-07-2014 10:30am

jonny24ie wrote: »

Actually one that was underrated somewhat at the time was "Soldier of Fortune" on the PC, me and my brother got countless hours out of that game.

Soldier Of Fortune got great reviews & sold well...not underrated.

09-07-2014 10:33am

tok9 wrote: »

Finished Beyond Good and Evil there. For some reason I assumed it'd take me a long time to finish but it's actually a relatively short game.

Only thing I disliked was the very end.. considering the game is 10 years old and nothing has come out since.

Now.. might just pick up God Hand. It'd be nice if SCEE had more PS2/PSP sales.

You sir, are in for a treat. Just be patience and you will be rewarded. Takes a while to get the hang of the control system.

Then it's about fine tuning your attack setup.

And wasting time and gold in the Casino

I'm going to start my 'Hard' play-through.

Kimbot · 09-07-2014 1:19pm

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Soldier Of Fortune got great reviews & sold well...not underrated.

I remember not alot of people even heard of it at the time. Altho I just loved the way you could blow parts off everyone haha

leesherwin · 09-07-2014 1:22pm

Wanted the game i taught was a good game and was fairly underated

Glebee · 09-07-2014 4:40pm

Enslaved:Odyssey to the West
Spec Ops:The Line
Alan Wake
Warhammer 400000:Space marine
Singularity
Crysis:Warhead
Call of Juarez Series(Maybe not "The cartell")
Bulletstorm
Far Cry 2
Conan MMO
Beytrayor

All for PC

Probally named before

TerrorFirmer · 09-07-2014 6:34pm

Most of games on that list are critically acclaimed and commercially successful!
Singularity was definitely under-appreciated though.

Soldier of Fortune and SOF2 were incredible (I preferred the SOF2 MP to Counter Strike and COD), shame they made such a cheap, crappy budget job of Soldier of Fortune 3.

CiDeRmAn · 09-07-2014 6:43pm

I think the team that made Singularity, Raven, have made a lot of games that failed to light fires to be honest.
A lot of sequels and derivatives of other peoples work/game engines.

gizmo · 09-07-2014 6:50pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I think the team that made Singularity, Raven, have made a lot of games that failed to light fires to be honest.
A lot of sequels and derivatives of other peoples work/game engines.

As a studio they previously worked pretty closely with iD, using various iterations of their engines for most of their titles. The result was a series of absolutely cracking games throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Things started going slightly awry after that with some solid if unspectacular releases as well as the odd flat out disappointment. The development issues related to Wolfenstein (2009) and Singularity led to a massive team upheaval and seem to have seen them related to a Call of Duty add-on factory now which is a crying shame given their lineage.

um7y1h83ge06nx · 09-07-2014 6:55pm

Just did a Google there, my under rated game The Lost Vikings was developed by Silicon and Synapse.

That team later changed their name to Blizzard! Good pedigree!

Duggy747 · 09-07-2014 7:15pm

Sandra Fit Write-off wrote: »

Just did a Google there, my under rated game The Lost Vikings was developed by Silicon and Synapse.

That team later changed their name to Blizzard! Good pedigree!

Loved that intro music on the SNES :pac:

Great game

gizmo · 11-07-2014 10:47am

Hostile Waters.

Possibly one of my favourite PC games from the early 2000s, Hostile Waters was like Battlezone crossed with Carrier Command. Using your carrier, Antaeus, as your base, you scavenged for resources built up your fleet of customised units, both air, land and sea based, and fought an enemy across an archipelago in the Pacific. The story, written by Warren Ellis, was actually pretty damn good too.

Alas, while critically well received it didn't sell the best, like many of RAGE's later titles.

It was recently made available on Steam too having been on GoG for the last while. Definitely give it a shot if you're a fan of the above games.

11-07-2014 10:53am

Herzog Zwei for Sega Mega Drive. Miles ahead of its time in terms of RTS's. Incredibly complicated compared to most games released on that system. It also had split screen 1v1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EO53h7nWEU

I just found its spiritual successor!

Kiith · 11-07-2014 12:05pm

Sacrifice.

Not sure how underrated it is, but i almost never hear anyone talk about it. Kind of like an RTS, where you directly control a wizard who sides with one of five gods. They grant different spells and creatures to control. The gods were brilliant, and siding with one would lock out another. It was also really funny from what i remember.

tok9 · 20-10-2014 11:38am

Bought God Hand off one of the PSN sales relatively recently and started playing it over the weekend.

Bloody hell it's tough. Played it for about 4 hours now and I've made it to the 4th chapter but man.. I get my ass handed to me quite a bit (especially in that fight against Shannon)! Getting better now.

Took me a while to realise levelling up makes the game harder which is honestly a brilliant idea. Haven't managed to hit the die level yet.

Unsurprisingly it's chugs a bit here and there but it's still very playable.

How long is the campaign?

20-10-2014 12:43pm

tok9 wrote: »

Bought God Hand off one of the PSN sales relatively recently and started playing it over the weekend.

Bloody hell it's tough. Played it for about 4 hours now and I've made it to the 4th chapter but man.. I get my ass handed to me quite a bit (especially in that fight against Shannon)! Getting better now.

Took me a while to realise levelling up makes the game harder which is honestly a brilliant idea. Haven't managed to hit the die level yet.

Unsurprisingly it's chugs a bit here and there but it's still very playable.

How long is the campaign?

It only get's better, every fight makes you a better player.
My first time round it took around 25+ hours if I can remember.

I had mentioned this in a previous post about the difficulty;

'But the great thing about the difficulty is that it's fair. There is never anything cheap about it. If I ended up dying it's because I wasn't good enough and had to get better, or learn a particular enemy attack pattern to dodge and attack.'

tok9 · 20-10-2014 12:54pm

Ya true. Once I learned her move sets I was well able for the fight.

Fate Amenable To Change · 20-10-2014 9:17pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Body Harvest on the N64 was clunky, reviewed averagely yet I loved it

It was unreal for the time, tanks, airplanes, talking to NPCs, walking around open world and getting to fight aliens. I can't see how it was rated averagely I remember a load of the N64 mags raving about it. Most also done gameguides for it spanning weeks which only happened for things liek Zelda and Mario at the time.

da gamer · 20-10-2014 9:41pm

Anyone ever play cold winter on ps2? I found that to be a good fps that didn't get much hype at the time.

Alien resurrection on the ps1 was another underrated classic and the best alien game imo (haven't played isolation yet)

Fate Amenable To Change · 20-10-2014 11:44pm

da gamer wrote: »

Alien resurrection on the ps1 was another underrated classic and the best alien game imo (haven't played isolation yet)

That one went on forever, class from the get go though

who_me · 21-10-2014 3:00am

I loved the Saboteur, in spite of all its flaws. Yes, the voice acting was hammy, the graphics were very low-res and murky, the storyline was cheesy, the cars were tricky to handle and the character animations were a bit stilted.

In its favour: an Irishman - a racing car driver and spy - running around war-time Paris, killing Nazis, blowing up Zeppelins, winning races in gorgeous old cars and generally being a badass. He even lived in the backroom of a cabaret bar where he could peek into the changing rooms with topless dancers (I ship you not). It was just silly fun.

One of the things I loved about it was the achievements/perks. Unlike some games (collect 1000 of these items, get a "trophy") in the Saboteur the perks were always fun to achieve (stealth kill 3 generals. Kill 2 soldiers with 1 bullet. Steal a Tiger tank...) and gave you something useful in-game: easier to use bombs, better guns, faster cars.

I'd love to see it re-made (or a sequel) in a modern game engine. Assassin's Creed - WWII?

Danonino. · 21-10-2014 7:32am

Body Harvest was epic at the time.
Fighting Force. I think it was called, an early PS1 streets of rage/final fight but 3d job, I remember it being great fun.
Conan on the 360/PS3 was actually a brilliant slash em up with boobies and still plays great today.
Rocky on the cube/ps2/Xbox was also fantastic.
Eternal Darkness is one of my top 10 memorable games, loved it.
Astro Boy on the GBA was proper brilliant too.
Sonic Rush on the DS, probably the only sonic game I enjoyed since the megadrive days. SHOX (ea big) haven't played it since it was released but remember this being something special, off to find a copy now

I can think of more but they probably enter the old and almost forgotten not underrated category

Special mention to Vanquish and Castlevania Lords of shadow. Both are far better than people seem to give them credit for.

Edit: shox is PS2 only

da gamer · 21-10-2014 11:16am

Alice madness returns Xbox 360
Enslaved Xbox 360
Driver San Francisco Xbox 360
Ghostbusters Xbox 360
Mystical ninja n64
Castlevania 64
Jersey devil ps1
Music/music 2000 ps1
Duke Nukem time to kill ps1
Nightmare creatures ps1
X111 ps2
Haunting ground ps2

gizmo · 21-10-2014 11:20am

da gamer wrote: »

Mystical ninja n64

Oh, how did this compare to The Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES?

Maximus Alexander · 21-10-2014 11:26am

Danonino. wrote: »

Think it was called fighting force, an early PS1 streets of rage/final fight but 3d job, I remember it being great fun.

I only remember having played Fighting Force 2, but it was great fun! Would enjoy a game of that sort nowadays with all the bells and whistles.

Retr0gamer · 21-10-2014 11:26am

gizmo wrote: »

Oh, how did this compare to The Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES?

Not as good but way more bonkers. It played a bit like a completely insane Ocarina of Time. There was a second N64 game as well that played more like the SNES version. It's a kind of hard to find an a can go for a decent amount.

Retr0gamer · 21-10-2014 11:28am

Fighting Force was meant to be a Streets of Rage game until Core wanted to release it on PS1 and Saturn and that fell through. Can't say I hold the same love for the game though, I found it an incredibly mediocre brawler with awful camera isues.

CiDeRmAn · 21-10-2014 11:47am

da gamer wrote: »

Anyone ever play cold winter on ps2? I found that to be a good fps that didn't get much hype at the time.

Alien resurrection on the ps1 was another underrated classic and the best alien game imo (haven't played isolation yet)

With the former I have mentioned it on this thread and elsewhere as being a genuine hidden gem, a pure belter of a game and, now, cheap as chips.
link
At only €2 it is actually cheaper than chips!

As for the latter, not really underrated, I think it sold well although the far poorer Alien Trilogy was a massive seller too, despite being lackluster.
I have Alien Resurrection myself and it's brilliant, works well with the PS mouse as well.

Generic Dreadhead · 21-10-2014 11:51am

Every time I go to post something here I get cold feet cause someone will invariably interject and go "that wasn't underrated, it was a classic, and was considered a commercial success for the time cause of these sales figures"

But sure I'll give it a go:
Rage was a great game, great engine, balanced play, some of the best weapon upgrading and cusomtisation and was hampered by a lack of content which obviously was meant to come as DLC before everyone got pulled to work on Doom 4: The Doomening

da gamer · 21-10-2014 11:53am

Cormac... wrote: »

Every time I go to post something here I get cold feet cause someone will invariably interject and go "that wasn't underrated, it was a classic, and was considered a commercial success for the time cause of these sales figures"

But sure I'll give it a go:
Rage was a great game, great engine, balanced play, some of the best weapon upgrading and cusomtisation and was hampered by a lack of content which obviously was meant to come as DLC before everyone got pulled to work on Doom 4: The Doomening

Totally agree with you, rage was a very good game

Nerdlingr · 21-10-2014 11:57am

Two games that I enjoyed back in the day :

Severence : Blade of Darkness (PC)
Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver (PS1)

muppetkiller · 21-10-2014 12:40pm

Nerdlingr wrote: »

Two games that I enjoyed back in the day :

Severence : Blade of Darkness (PC)
Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver (PS1)

Severence was never really under-rated though ..It's an all time classic.
Wish they would do a HD Remastering of it.

Nerdlingr · 21-10-2014 12:48pm

muppetkiller wrote: »

Severence was never really under-rated though ..It's an all time classic.
Wish they would do a HD Remastering of it.

Is it? Didnt realise. I dont play PC games that much so wouldnt know anything about them to be honest. I just remember playing thinking "this isnt half bad..and it only cost 4.99 !!"

Generic Dreadhead · 21-10-2014 12:53pm

Nerdlingr wrote: »

I dont play PC games that much so wouldnt know anything about them to be honest. I just remember playing thinking "this isnt half bad..and it only cost 4.99 !!"

There's a quote that sums up PC gaming pretty well IMHO :pac:

gizmo · 21-10-2014 12:57pm

muppetkiller wrote: »

Severence was never really under-rated though ..It's an all time classic.
Wish they would do a HD Remastering of it.

With Codemasters more than likely owning the IP, the chances of that happening are somewhere between slim and none.

On the upside, the original developers, Rebel Act Studios, became MercurySteam who went on to develop the rather excellent Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. While it's different to Severance in many ways it's still a pretty excellent and challenging third person action adventure.

CiDeRmAn · 21-10-2014 1:33pm

There may be an misunderstanding of "underrated"
I suppose there are those games that no on in your circle played, in my case quite a few as gamers were thinner on the ground back in the early 80's, so we might be thinking of Star Control 2, a well received game but not well known outside of 3DO fandom and even then it's format as a 2D space battle/rpg made it not on the wave of 3D shooty-ness, maybe others like Rage as mentioned, but that was a big release with massive marketing behind it but it compared poorly to Fallout 3, it's closest equivalent, despite having a very similar premise though with FPS/Driving front and centre. Fallout 3 was superior though with it's customisability and expansions imho, but Rage was never underrated I reckon, still a decent game though.
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is the epitome of an underrated title, it didn't have a big push behind it, few people heard of it yet those that own it love it, in general, and it's a cracking game with some interesting mechanics, many of which people imagined might also be seen in The Last Guardian, a game that never turned up.

WeleaseWoderick · 21-10-2014 2:58pm

Danonino. wrote: »

Body Harvest was epic at the time.
Fighting Force. I think it was called, an early PS1 streets of rage/final fight but 3d job, I remember it being great fun.
Conan on the 360/PS3 was actually a brilliant slash em up with boobies and still plays great today.
Rocky on the cube/ps2/Xbox was also fantastic.
Eternal Darkness is one of my top 10 memorable games, loved it.
Astro Boy on the GBA was proper brilliant too.
Sonic Rush on the DS, probably the only sonic game I enjoyed since the megadrive days. SHOX (ea big) haven't played it since it was released but remember this being something special, off to find a copy now

'(

Definitely agree about Rocky on the Gamecube. Had some epic battles with a mate at this game. I remember picking it up for €10 not too long after it came out.

Generic Dreadhead · 21-10-2014 3:00pm

Cormac... wrote: »

Every time I go to post something here I get cold feet cause someone will invariably interject and go "that wasn't underrated, it was a classic, and was considered a commercial success for the time cause of these sales figures"

But sure I'll give it a go:
Rage

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

There may be an misunderstanding of "underrated"
...
maybe others like Rage as mentioned, but that was a big release with massive marketing behind it but it compared poorly to Fallout 3, it's closest equivalent, despite having a very similar premise though with FPS/Driving front and centre. Fallout 3 was superior though with it's customisability and expansions imho, but Rage was never underrated I reckon, still a decent game though.

I told you :pac:

Retr0gamer · 21-10-2014 3:05pm

Well something can hardly be underrated if it sold really well and was critically well received like Rage.

Generic Dreadhead · 21-10-2014 3:11pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well something can hardly be underrated if it sold really well and was critically well received like Rage.

It was only €20 within days/weeks of launch, hence the well selling, everyone i knew and their dog got a copy of Rage that christmas :pac:

richymcdermott · 21-10-2014 3:20pm

Tombi is the most underrated platformer n the history of everything.

Retr0gamer · 21-10-2014 3:30pm

richymcdermott wrote: »

Tombi is the most underrated platformer n the history of everything.

I don't know about that. Klonoa has a good shout for that as well but yeah it's well up there.

Everyone played and loved the demo but nobody bought it.

richymcdermott · 21-10-2014 3:32pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I don't know about that. Klonoa has a good shout for that as well but yeah it's well up there.

Everyone played and loved the demo but nobody bought it.

I was one of those people

Ken Shamrock · 21-10-2014 3:34pm

Legend of the dragoon PS1
Stronghold Crusader PC
Crash Team Racing PS1 (Not underrated at all really but forgotten about too early imo)

Retr0gamer · 21-10-2014 3:34pm

I'd like to add Megaman Legends and the two sequels Megaman Legends 2 and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. MML still looks gorgeous and it's the closest videogames have ever come to replicating a Studio Ghibli film. It's pretty much an Ocarina of time and it uses a control scheme very similar to Ocarina of Time... except it came out a good few months before Ocarina of Time. Critics were quite harsh on it at the time since they didn't really get what type of game it was until Ocarina of Time came out and it was mostly ignored by consumers. It's only now getting recognised as a classic. I'd go so far as to say MML2 is a far, far better game than Ocarina of Time.

richymcdermott · 21-10-2014 3:35pm

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

Legend of the dragoon PS1
Stronghold Crusader PC
Crash Team Racing PS1 (Not underrated at all really but forgotten about too early imo)

Oh UOH!!! Retr0 not going to be happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7C-uQ6pPKQ

Retr0gamer · 21-10-2014 3:36pm

richymcdermott wrote: »

I was one of those people

Me too. The price of it now sickens me!

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

Legend of the dragoon PS1

That game reviewed badly on release for one reason, it sucked. In fact I'd go so far as to say that it wasn't dealt with harsh enough since it was released at a time when all RPGs got decent marks no matter how bad. Thrash like LoD and Beyond the Beyond managed to score in the 6-7 range. It's pretty much up there with Beyond the Beyond as the worst RPG on the PS1 for me.

As for Crash Team Racing, it was always seen as a half decent Mario Kart clone but nothing special, it's only recently that people have been claiming it's an amazing game. It's decent enough it it isn't that great.

Ken Shamrock · 21-10-2014 3:59pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Me too. The price of it now sickens me!

That game reviewed badly on release for one reason, it sucked. In fact I'd go so far as to say that it wasn't dealt with harsh enough since it was released at a time when all RPGs got decent marks no matter how bad. Thrash like LoD and Beyond the Beyond managed to score in the 6-7 range. It's pretty much up there with Beyond the Beyond as the worst RPG on the PS1 for me.

As for Crash Team Racing, it was always seen as a half decent Mario Kart clone but nothing special, it's only recently that people have been claiming it's an amazing game. It's decent enough it it isn't that great.

It didn't receive that bad of a reception from most critics tbf. I think it was tough at the time for it to make an impression with FF9 coming out just before it and FF10 coming out a few months after it, it was easily lost in the mix as it fails in comparison to both of them games.

It certainly wasn't anything special but i really enjoyed it and felt it had great potential, just my take, i understand the hate.

CTR got amazing reviews and rightfully so, again it had the problem of being so similar to Mario Kart but imo it blows Mario out of the water. I'm not a fan of Crash,spyro etc or of racing games in particular but there was something about CTR that i just loved, i lost/sold it prob around 03 and bought it again in 06 to see if i'd still enjoy it and it was just as good as i remembered.

Lost/sold that prob 08ish and bought it on psn last year, still play the thing to this day. As for the recent praise? I don't know anything about that I've always sung it's praises.

Not familiar with Crusader?

Nerdlingr · 21-10-2014 4:03pm

Defenders of Oasis on the Gamegear...
Probably the first game that got me into RPG's and possibly one of the best soundtracks to a game ever, I can still remember the theme tune 20 years later.

Fate Amenable To Change · 22-10-2014 11:23pm

DOn;t know how people felt about them but Smash TV and Greendog were two of my favourites form the Sega

Underrated classic games

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