Criminally Underrated Games?

[Lord_Selrahc]

Laser League, 100%. Super solid game, it's just that no one plays it.

[NIGHTWING6945]

The Coma 2 and Sayonara Wild Hearts are very VERY underrated imo

[Happy]

I feel like this thread leans a little more into overlooked games than actually underrated ones, but that’s fine by me. Consider checking these out:

 

Darkwood

This game markets itself as a horror game that doesn’t rely on jumpscares. That’s not necessarily inaccurate, but I’d instead call it a survival horror game that leans a little more towards the survival side of that name but is elevated by excellent art direction and sound design as well as great writing. It’s more unsettling than outright scary and has an atmosphere that’s quite unique, at least on console.

 

The Sexy Brutale

A puzzle game centered around preventing increasingly elaborate death scenarios within a time loop. I’ve seen it compared to Ghost Trick, though the comparison mostly lies in the premise. It executes its concept really well considering its budget on top of having an exceptional soundtrack. It is a little on the easy side unfortunately, the game could have really used 1-2 more late game scenarios making use of all its mechanics.

[OpenScars]

On 13/02/2021 at 8:03 AM, Eraezr said:

rain (PS3) - Short but neat game about a boy stuck in a nightmare. Made by Japan Studio.

Really liked this one. Like you said, short and sweet

[Koyomiwa]

If your into crime\detective\Suda51 games I highly recommend 'The Silver Case HD' and its sequel 'The 25th Ward: The Silver Case'

Edited February 14, 2021 by Koyomiwa

[Peaches]

Little Misfortune- A fantastic game with a super sad story. The gameplay is basically point and click/side scrolling. But the story is totally worth it. Also, Little Misfortune may be the most adorable child in a video game. 

 

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark- This is a solid tactical RPG. For anyone who enjoys games like Disgaea and FF Tactics, this is up your alley. Obviously less "anime". But it has good gameplay, full character customization and creation, and lots of skills and classes. 

[bruin-rocks]

Death Road to Canada - This is one of my all time favourite games. Ever. More people should play it. It can be extremely challenging at times, but, with practice and patience, the game can be done. It tasks you with making it from Florida to the Canadian Border during a zombie apocalypse. 
Lumo - This is a gem, another game that can be extremely challenging, but, also with practice and patience can be done. It has you travel through a dungeon collecting Rubber Ducks in the first half, and playing some hair pulling mini games in the second half. It’s rife with references to many other games from the 1980’s. 
La-Mulana Ex - CastleVania meets Indiana Jones, I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s a ton of fun, but it has some crazy difficult trophies, and it doesn’t always respond well on the Vita, but it’s also available on PS4, I have yet to try that version though. It’s fairly simple in controls, but the amount of items, and weapons is complex, and not much is really explained to you, except in riddles that you find scattered throughout the different temples on ruins, it’s a lot of work, but, it feels really rewarding when you succeed. 
Lone Survivor: Director’s Cut - This is a fantastic pixel style Silent Hill game, multiple endings, and tons of exploring. You travel through an abandoned city, trying to escape, while mutants try and kill you, you can choose to kill the mutants(and face the consequences), or sneak by them(and reap the rewards), absolutely amazing game, if you want a chilling horror adventure, this is what you are looking for. 
Mercenary Kings - A fun co-op run and gun like Contra, move fast, and precise and you will succeed. It’s a mix between boss battles, scavenging missions, and rescue missions, you can play with up to four people, and there is tons of crafting, different weapons, knives, mods for your character, and items to personalize your own tent. Reminds me a little of the Borderlands 3 Sanctuary, although 2-D and it’s in the middle of a jungle. 

Edited February 17, 2021 by bruin-rocks

[yellowwindow7]

- Gravity Rush Remastered.

 

- Gravity Rush 2.

 

- Doom 64 Remastered.

 

- Ghost of a Tale.

 

- Days Gone.

 

- Everybody's Golf.

 

- Rocketbirds 2 Evolution  ( even though I didn't liked it that much )

 

- World of Final Fantasy.

 

- Shantae and The Seven Sirens  ( haven't played this yet, but no one is talking about it, at least half genie hero have broke the Internet when it's released back then as everyone is drooling over that giant mermaid boss )

 

- Fat Princess Adventure.

[NOWITSREYNTIME17]

- Zero Escape(999 and Virtue's Last Reward)

- Steins;Gate

-Croc: Legend of the Gobbos

 

[Feral]

Mass Effect Andromeda 

Lone Survivor 

Sleeping Dogs

[dieselmanchild]

On 2021-02-13 at 1:27 AM, milanbarca82 said:

Days Gone  I went into this game with really low expectations due to the mediocre reviews, but I was actually overwhelmed with how great this game ended up being. 
The challenges still suck, though haha.

When it comes to criminally underrated games, I couldn’t agree more with this take. Especially since it’s a big AAA title.

 

I went into this one with pretty low expectations after it got savaged by critics and reportedly suffered from a ton of bugs at launch, but wow... I can’t think of any other game that so vastly exceeded my expectations for a game. I absolutely loved every second of it, and thought the story and character development was surprisingly strong. As a bonus, it’s got a fantastic trophy list as well and remains in my list of the top 5 funnest platinums I’ve done to date. Not liking Days Gone should be a jailable offense, and the critics who prematurely shat on this one should be flogged in public 

[BradRedwoodFox]

Here are the the list of the underrated games I have suggested you guys try it out.

 

• Zombie Vikings

• Erica

• Effie

• Ninjin Clash of Carrots

• ReadySet Heroes

• The Raven

Edited February 15, 2021 by BradRedwoodFox

[steel6burgh]

Mark of the ninja remastered is by far the most underrated game I have played.  Nobody hardly knows anything about it and it is a masterpiece.   Fairly easy platinum to get and you will enjoy it every inch of the way.  It is on sale a lot for 9.99.  

[Joe Dubz]

Rabi-Ribi is the first that comes to mind. An absolute gem in the realm of Metroidvanias! It gets my highest recommendations if you are at all a fan of that genre.

 

Death Road to Canada was another one that comes to mind. It kind of plays like an old-school zelda roguelite, add guns and zombies, with a touch of the Oregan Trail! I know, sounds ridiculous but I had so much fun with that game ?

 

I also wholeheartedly agree OP with your pick of Rain World. That game was absolutely incredible and I enjoyed my time with it immensely ☺️

[Lord_Bane999]

Planetside 2 I don't know what happened but it was one of the largest games for a long time on PC even having the PS4 version originally announced as a launch title. But depsite that it's not played hardly much at all by others let alone spoken of. Especially when compared to games like Battlefield and Call of Duty that tried copying its massive lobbies of players. It features combat on foot or in land and air vehicles with every map taking up literal kilometre after kilometre of in-game terrain to fight and attack objectives through. It's basically if you took a guild vs guild raid from a MMO and threw it into sci-fibfps that in its heyday would see you fighting alongside or against literal hundreds of players at a time in real time.

 

As a bonus and for something much older gonna suggest Radia Senki: Reimmeihen this game while released for the Famicom by Tecmo is a hugely underated and ignored Action RPG. This game released in 1991 the same year as the first Mana game. Does things that many other games that time hadn't. First battles happened onscreen directly where you moved on the overworld, second you party was always on screen for battles and while they are AI controlled they can given custom orders. It mixes Zelda and Final Fantasy in that you get a party with different classes and abilities that level up but like Zelda everything happens in the overworld. Attacking/,blocking or casting magic is real time. Making the combat similar to something like Secret of Mana or Trials of Mana that would come later.

[JourneySilvers]

YES. I welcome the opportunity for a bigger backlog. 

If anyone here is interested in full motion video games, I'd suggest The Shapeshifting Detective (FMV about investigating a murder, where you can transform into anyone you talk to and get more info out of the others) and Late Shift (FMV about a college student working his late shift and getting dragged into a huge criminal scheme). Both are really interesting. 

[Fish613]

Path of Exile

#FunTime

Nex Machina

Tales of Berseria

 

There are lots of games I'm seeing that not many people talk about, but I absolutely love....... but at the same time, can understand other people not liking them. I good example would be World of Final Fantasy. I love that game, but I wouldn't call it underrated because many people have tried and just don't like it. I tried to keep my list short, so those are the 4 I chose above. All great games that I don't see a lot of people talking about.

[Amonares]

Mini Ninjas (PS3) 

 

Such a fun and colorful game from IO Interactive, makers of the Hitman series.

[nationalgaming7]

Sleeping Dogs

Ni No Kuni 1 and 2

All the Metro games

For Honor

 

 

[Darling Baphomet]

17 hours ago, Leo Leopold Leon III said:

idk if anyone mentioned it but Agents of Mayhem is very very underrated because of the state it came out in and since everything is now fixed it's a very fun game with tons of content and you can usually find it for like $5

 

I loved Agents of Mayhem, I think if you don't view it as a Saints Row game it's actually super fun - definitely undercooked, needed more time in the game dev oven (kinda like Battleborn), and the dungeons sucked, but at the core was a fun, unique game with distinct characters each with great gameplay. Only thing I hated was having to search for like 3 hours for the last shard, lmao. I was so done by the time I finished that.

[MyNameIs_Rainman]

On 2/13/2021 at 11:50 PM, Donath02 said:

Agents of Mayhem

The Evil Within 1

Terminator Resistance

The Order 1886

Code Vein

Sleeping Dogs

Dead Island Definitive Collection

Tales From The Borderlands

special mention:
Lollipop Chainsaw for Ps3. (Needs a remaster imo)

 

Now this is just my opinion, but I feel like The Order 1886 really got the PS4 gen off into that cinematic single player realm. I mean, the game is highly cinematic, you could argue there's not much else in between, but in hindsight I feel like it laid the groundwork for many of the big PS blockbusters that carried a strong narrative, beautiful graphics, and emphasis on that storytelling. It was sparse and it's action parts were here and there, but I really enjoyed it..and I think what always gets me is that I find myself wanting more of that world they created. There's so much potential, and I hope Sony doesn't ignore it..they know have the tools and skillset to really bring out the potential of that game and its lore and world building, and who knows maybe the PS5 will be the console where it happens, but I think it's highly underrated and as a PS Fan, it's definitely worth a playthrough because it's still a gorgeous game, blowing many of them out of the water and it was a launch title. Definitely an underrated and highly unappreciated game.

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

Evolve - The online for this shut down a few years ago I believe, so maybe a little redundant, but I deeply enjoyed playing this game with my friends every weekend or so on the Xbox One back in the day. The concept is pretty interesting, it's essentially Monster Hunter but one player is the monster. Plus there's guns. Yeah, it wasn't perfect, it had no reason to have 2 season passes, it was buggy as hell, and overall it kinda felt unfinished. But as far as multiplayer FPS games go, it was a breathe of fresh air for me from all the standard CoD clones. It's just a shame that it likely won't ever get any sort of sequel that vastly improves upon the shortcomings of the original.

 

Ape Escape 2 - I've rarely come across people that have played any Ape Escape game, even if it seems like something that would be right up their alley. Heck, I've even met people that think Ape Escape is just a party game series (maybe because of the PS3 title?), it just seems like the games aren't something that's generally well known about unless you're super into platformers.

 

Anyhow, this game and its predecessor still remain some of my favourite 3D platformer collectathons. I think the thing that primarily makes them stand out is the collectibles themselves, the monkeys. There's different kinds of monkeys that react and behave differently to your presence, and you have to change up your strategy in order to catch each and every one of them. This is something I've always really liked in collectathon style platformers. Maybe it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's definitely something worth checking out if you like 3D platformers at all. The humour is cheesy but amusing (at least the British dubs are which are the versions I've played, no idea why they even dubbed these games twice in English), and while the controls aren't quite as innovative and gimmicky-but-fun as they were in the PS1 game, they're still surprisingly enjoyable, if a bit frustrating at times.

 

The House in Fata Morgana - Maybe not "underrated" per se, it's fairly popular in the VN community, but I feel like it gets overshadowed by a lot of more popular VNs. I only finished it recently and it's easily my favourite VN; I love how it throws out so many red herrings and instead of simply keeping a lot of info a mystery from the reader, it instead has you assume how the events play out, only to reveal later that things aren't quite how they seem. I don't see many works of fiction, and especially VNs, reveal plot twists like this any more, so it's nice to see. The characters are all pretty likeable as well, even the asshole ones. Obviously if you're not into VNs or heavy reading in general I can't really recommend this sadly, especially since it is strictly a VN, and doesn't really have any gameplay aside from choices unlike the more point-and-click/adventure style VNs of Danganronpa and Ace Attorney.

 

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Not a PS4 game, so not sure if it counts, but it's a great game nonetheless. Definitely got good ratings, but it came out late in the Nintendo DS's life and sadly got overshadowed by other games. It's a really enjoyable puzzle game, with a surprisingly engaging plot. Has some trial and error that can be a bit annoying at times, but the puzzles are fun and feel satisfying to complete. Same director/write as the Ace Attorney games I believe, would defo recommend to anyone who's a fan of that series, or just a fan of puzzle games in general.

 

Paper Mario Color Splash - Another non-PS4 game. Probably a bit controversial opinion but... This is my favourite Paper Mario. I've played them all, aside from the latest one on the Switch (which I do have sitting in my backlog), and while I did enjoy the RPG style of the first 2 games, I was honestly never super attached to them. I remember as a kid, I never really liked how the games were called Paper Mario, but you didn't really have any paper related abilities (at least in the first game, especially). This always kinda irked me, I thought I was going to essentially just be playing Mario but with cool paper abilities, something kinda like Kirby 64; still very much a Kirby game, but one in 2.5D. The same, but different, in a cool way, if that makes sense. I got PM64 expecting it to be more like something like Sticker Star or Color Splash, which is perhaps why I enjoy the later Paper Mario games more, because they're more like what I expected and wanted when I was a kid.

 

Color Splash made me genuinely laugh on a number of occasions, and I honestly actually really liked the card based system. I can understand hating your attacks literally being consumables, but it's not like there was ever any shortage of them. It's definitely not perfect, but I had heaps of fun with it when I initially went into it with low expectations due to all the criticism. Yeah, I get hating this game if old school Paper Mario is your thing, I'm not a fan of modern Pokemon for similar reasons (though that obviously hasn't changed as drastically). It's kind of a shame this and the other modern Paper Mario games aren't spin-offs for that reason, but sadly I don't see Nintendo ever going back to the original RPG formula.

[Lordidude]

The Last of Us Part II apparently.

 

lol

[Darling Baphomet]

9 minutes ago, Lordidude said:

The Last of Us Part II apparently.

 

The game was critically acclaimed, most of the people who really disliked it were [those] people - yunno, the easily offended types - but seeing as how it was one of the best rated, best selling games of the generation, it's safe to say it's hardly underrated.

[NaoyaCaelum]

- World of Final Fantasy (the best Pokemon game? xD)

 

- Vampyr (I can especially recommend this if you liked Control. The gameplay seems to have many similarities)

 

- Dragon Quest Builders 1 + 2 (kinda like Minecraft without an unlimited world, not so much "Redstone" stuff but with a story and better looks)

 

- A Plague Tale: Innocence (not sure if this is underrated)

 

- Mad Max (One of the most fun open world games but the platin isn´t obtainable anymore if you didn´t complete a specific achievement yet)