Underrated games

[Wastelander]

So, let's discuss some criminally underrated, mostly indie, games.

• Yume Nikki is a free Japanese.... game where you control a girl called Madotsuki in her dreamworlds and try to find some.... stuff to eventually get a disappointing ending. Really trippy experience. There's a load of theories what the game is actually about but the creator purposely stays silent on the subject matter.
• The Disgaea series. I have only played the first two games, and the first one was recently released on steam. PC controls are a bit wonky, but you've got all the time in the world. Really addictive tactical RPG-gameplay, and at least the first one has a nice story to back it up. Downsides are that some classes are insanely hard to level up, especially healers. This was fixed in Disgaea 2, where healers got XP based on the amount of health they restored, thus making them some of your higher levelled characters  
• Urban Terror: Basically a free Counter-Strike, with an interesting bleeding mechanic, high-speed gameplay and a surprisingly non-toxic community.
• Open Arena: A free clone of Quake 3. Love that insta-gibbing railgun!
• Eclipse Phase: A pen&paper science-fiction/cyberpunk role-playing game with the core-rulebook available as a free download. The world is insanely detailed, especially around the economics of a post-scarcity world. Even if you don't play it, the rulebook is very well worth a read if you have the time. There's also a boatload of other stuff released for free - payment is encouraged, but optional. Check it out here.
• Day of the Tentacle also got a free release!

Did I miss something? Did you like this list? Do you have anything to add? Any experiences with those games you wish to share? Let us know 

[Felli]

 

 

7 hours ago, Wastelander said:

So, let's discuss some criminally underrated, mostly indie, games.

• Yume Nikki is a free Japanese.... game where you control a girl called Madotsuki in her dreamworlds and try to find some.... stuff to eventually get a disappointing ending. Really trippy experience. There's a load of theories what the game is actually about but the creator purposely stays silent on the subject matter.
• The Disgaea series. I have only played the first two games, and the first one was recently released on steam. PC controls are a bit wonky, but you've got all the time in the world. Really addictive tactical RPG-gameplay, and at least the first one has a nice story to back it up. Downsides are that some classes are insanely hard to level up, especially healers. This was fixed in Disgaea 2, where healers got XP based on the amount of health they restored, thus making them some of your higher levelled characters  
• Urban Terror: Basically a free Counter-Strike, with an interesting bleeding mechanic, high-speed gameplay and a surprisingly non-toxic community.
• Open Arena: A free clone of Quake 3. Love that insta-gibbing railgun!
• Eclipse Phase: A pen&paper science-fiction/cyberpunk role-playing game with the core-rulebook available as a free download. The world is insanely detailed, especially around the economics of a post-scarcity world. Even if you don't play it, the rulebook is very well worth a read if you have the time. There's also a boatload of other stuff released for free - payment is encouraged, but optional. Check it out here.
• Day of the Tentacle also got a free release!

Did I miss something? Did you like this list? Do you have anything to add? Any experiences with those games you wish to share? Let us know 

Day of the Tentacle! Seeing the remake of that, made me yearn for a remake of Maniac Mansion. That was one of my favorite games and I still play the old NES and C64 versions to this day. I would gladly pay for a remake of that.

My underrated games list is long, some were found on steam in bundles or older games i played when I was a kid. Either way they may not all be overrated, but you don't hear much about them anymore.

 

1. Maniac Mansion - This one gives you so many ways to solve the puzzles, and just as many ways to die doing it. It was horror gone hilariously awry. (I was the only one between me, my mother and my grandmother, who DIDN'T blow up the house)

 

2. Spirits of Xanadu - A tiny but really well made indie game found on Steam. It was created as an homage to System Shock and is incredibly good at being creepy and atmospheric without the need for fancy graphics. It looks like the early polygonal/VR games of the 90's. The story is one you piece together yourself through exploring the ship. The voice acting is superb in it and it throws in a little bit of shooter action along the way.

 

3. Star Ocean: Til the End of Time: Not really indie, but his game was criminally underrated and didn't get a lot of the attention it should when it came out in 2003. It hasn't gotten much attention from the gaming crowd outside of those into JRPGs. It's got a ton of faults typical of a lot of JRPG games but it's not afraid to tell a bold story. It hits you like a ton of bricks once you figure it all out. Fans of the simulation theory would get a lot of mileage out of it. The whole Star Ocean series kind of got overshadowed by the juggernaut that was Final Fantasy, especially when Enix was bought out by them. I'm not really a big fan of JRPGs but the entire series Is a huge homage to Star Trek while also being unique. It also had a remake of the first two games that came before it, but since it was only released on Playstation Portable, pretty much NO ONE played them. My only gripe that really needs to be stressed, is the method in which the voices were dubbed. Instead of the typical English translated lines, they forced the voiced actors to speak the English lines to sync up with the Japanese mouth movements. As you can imagine it led to some really, really horrible lines, with strange pauses, long, awkward pronunciations and squeaky vocalizations (especially in the case of Sophia and Peppita). 

Games in the series: Star Ocean: First Departure, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. The 4th game Star Ocean: The Last Hope, was meant to be a kind of prequel to the other three even though it was written much later.

 

4: Kona - This is the early access title from a small team called Parabole. I believe it's set in Quebec in 1970. I've seen a lot of references to it looking like The Long Dark, but they're two totally different games. It's more of a narrative or adventure game that follows a linear style. You can only play the first maybe 30% of the game now (the rest is blocked off until release) But it's really well done for such a small team.

 

5. J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars - Cant you tell I love Sci Fi games? This ones more of a point and click, where most of the story is revealed through puzzles and ship logs. However, this was done really well. They used a pretty interesting approach to puzzles and some of them were really rough to figure out, but it was totally worth it.

 

6. Cradle - This one made a lot of people who purchased it angry, just because of the story's abrupt end. I'm a huge fan of story elements being hidden, and having to search for the answers, rather than simply go from point a to point b to move it along. This game required you to read EVERYTHING. Every scrap held something pertaining to the story. It's another game with really deep and heavy themes, not good for people who like action or shooters. The game also has some mini games thrown in that are so jarring they pull you right out of the immersion (again done for story effect). The disjointedness, along with the obscure clues and strange ending, it wasn't well received. I loved it. I understood the story and I recommend it to everyone who asks for underrated games.

 

7. Miasmata - Made by two people a few years back. It's another survival game with a story. Instead of building bases though, you're searching for specific plants to make antidotes and serums for a plague you suffer from. It's set back in the past so no technology to help you out. There's only one thing hunting you and you can't kill it. You have to figure out a way to outrun it, distract it, or scare it off in order to progress. You have a fever that must be kept under control with medication and fluid, so you can never be too far away from medicine and a water source. The harder part is your space for carrying the plants and medications you need is limited. Move too fast down a slope or try to climb a hill too steep and you end up tumbling head over heels down the hill, dropping things and having to pick them back up.

It's also got a great cartography system that allows you to map the island your on via visual landmarks. It was a really unique game that could give a lot of pointers to people looking for interesting game mechanics.

I'll stop here before this list spans 3 pages. 

[Wastelander]

1 hour ago, Felli said:

1. Maniac Mansion - This one gives you so many ways to solve the puzzles, and just as many ways to die doing it. It was horror gone hilariously awry. (I was the only one between me, my mother and my grandmother, who DIDN'T blow up the house)

 

First point & click I ever played, good taste 

1 hour ago, Felli said:

3. Star Ocean: Til the End of Time

I played the first Star Ocean on the PS1. Back then, voice acting was sort of new, and I really enjoyed it. Again, great taste!

1 hour ago, Felli said:

7. Miasmata -

LOVED the map-making mechanic on this one!

1 hour ago, Felli said:

I'll stop here before this list spans 3 pages. 

No, don't stop, I love it when people fill my gaming backlog