Favorite underrated video games?

[Book Thief]

Spoiler: SSj_Ness

Streets of Rage suffers from just being a beat 'em up tbh, they're repetetive and dead simple by nature.

I find them good to just tune out and just jam to some awesome beats while you lay waste to hordes of criminal goons. I fully admit the games are "repetitive and dead simple." I don't think anyone picks up a beat'em up for the long-term planning and strategy of, say, the Civilization games.

I'm not really able to fairly judge shoot 'em ups, it's a competent genre I just don't like (as opposed to best 'em ups which I feel are just archaic, you especially feel it in single player).

Given that I've used nothing but Touhou avatars on this site, my bias should be rather apparent. None-the-less, I think the shmups I listed are worth-while.

Since you bring up SNES, I think it's unavoidable to compare now. Stuff like Mega Max X and LttP is on a whole different level compared to everything on that list. It feels console war-y but that's just how big the gulf in quality is as far as I see it. I'm not trying to shit on those games but I think putting Gauntlet on that list is kind of telling.

Opinion is obviously going to vary based on taste and personal experience. The way I look at it, some of the games I listed could be considered "on-par" with either of those titles, and I say this as someone who's massive Zeldafag. This isn't to shit on Zelda or MegaMan, either. They're good games, I just think people are just heavily biased and aren't willing to admit it. If you stripped away the branding on those titles, I'm sure they'd be just as "forgotten" as any of the games I mentioned.

Also, I mentioned Gauntlet because I was looking through my ROM list and just listed off titles that I thought were worth checking out, because the music in that is freaking amazing. It's obviously not an exhaustive list of what I consider "good games" on the Genesis, but those are ones that leaped out to me as I scrolled through.

I'm tired and kind of rambling here, but hopefully I'm making some sense, but even I'm looking at this post and thinking it looks like a retarded Nintendo fanboy rant. I'm probably just wrong lmao

Lol, don't worry about that. My posts probably make me look like a rabid Sega fanboy. It's just that, as a retro game enthusiast, I find the whole "Sega is only good for Sonic" to be a shallow and reductive stance. If someone fancies themselves as a retro gamer, they should be willing to look beyond the first-party titles, and go digging for some buried gems. There's lots of good shit out there that no one's talking about.

@skykiii

Spoiler: skykiii

I for the most part agree with your list (its basically a case of "if there's a game you recommended that I wouldn't, its only because I never played the game in question" which is the case for Panorama Cotton... well, also Ristar and Gauntlet 4. I did play those but not long enough to have a meaningful opinion).

Panorama Cotton's some good ol' fashioned "Into the screen" shmup stuff, kind of like Space Harrier. Ristar's a fucking amazing platformer that no one talks about. Gauntlet is... well, Gauntlet, but it's got some fucking amazing tunes to it. I highly recommend checking them out.

I do question why you left Wonder Boy in Monster World off. Was it just a case of "if I can only have one Monster World game it better be the superior one"? Same for Thunder Force III (I know II is controversial because not everyone likes the overhead stages).

It probably has more to do with Monster World being a series that has a wonky-ass naming convention. For instance, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is actually the fourth game in the series, because there's two Wonder Boy 3's. Monster World 4 just happens to be one that I've played that exists on that system.

And I should really probably hit the library again because I KNOW I forgot a bunch. The funny thing about the Genesis is that I find a lot of the "big hits" (the stuff Sega keeps putting in their millions of compilations) are actually not the best... it tends to be the lesser-known stuff which is where the true gold is.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Who in their right minds at Sega HQ thought Eternal Champions, a bland Mortal Kombat knock-off, was more worthwhile to put onto the Genesis Mini than Sonic 3 or Ristar?

Then again, this is speaking as a proud owner of both a Sega CD and a Power Base Converter. I can play all four Phantasy Star games!

Good shit! I personally own quite a few physical copies of games, including some Japanese-exclusive imports that I managed to snag before the massive price hike over the last several years. I also have an Everdrive that can emulate the YM2413 FM expansion of the Master System, so I can play those games with improved FM synthesis on my Genesis, such as this wonderful ROM hack of Phantasy Star which restores its glorious FM soundtrack for the world to hear.

 

[Local Degenerate]

You're kidding, right? I could make an entire list of "underrated games" from the Genesis library alone. Let me run though some notable games I have on-hand:

• Advanded Busterhawk Gleylancer
• Alisia Dragoon
• The Streets of Rage Trilogy*
• Battle Mania Daiginjou
• Beyond Oasis
• Crusader of Centy
• Earthworm Jim 1 & 2
• Gauntlet 4
• Gunstar Heroes
• Landstalker
• Monster World 4
• Panorama Cotton
• Phantasy Star 4
• The Puyo Puyo games**
• The Shinobi games
• Ristar
• Thunder Force 4
• Zero Wing

And that's without bringing up the Sonic games. Saying that the Genesis library is "only good" for the Sonic games is highly reductive. It'd be like saying the SNES is "only good for Mario," completely ignoring the wealth of RPGs and other great titles exclusive to that platform.

*For the third game, get the translated ROM of the Japanese version, not the USA version.
**Multiplatform, but in my opinion it's vastly superior on the Genesis due to the Arcade versions being very similar in hardware to the Genesis, so there's far less "console port drawbacks" compared to other versions.

To be fair, SSJ_Ness is one of those people where you should just reverse his oppinions on anything game related. If he says it's shit, it's a pretty good bet it's god tier.

Also, big ups for Beyond Oasis, but shame on you for ignoring Dynamite Headdy. Shit was super creative, charming, and fun. Hard as tungsten though. And while it was the Saturn, Dragon Force had some sick ideas, even if it came out a bit...nnooot so great.

---

My pick is Battleborn. Always will be. It gets shit on by Overwatch consoomers, and has Randy Pitchford around it's neck, but the game was fucking phenomenal.

• 
  Amazing roster of characters that were actually unique and creative (even managing to make 'generic soldier man' fun). Hell, the side characters were more fun and memorable than Overwatches.
• The DNA system meant you could adapt and change as the match went on, making each round feel much more varied
• A campaign. Wasn't perfect, but had some great moments.
• You unlocked characters through in game challenges.
• Skins were either earned through challenges, lootboxes (which could only be bought with in game currency), or purchased outright for a reasonable fee (Read 2 USD tops)
• Not owned by Blizzard.
• Edit: Also, the best fucking intro I've seen for anything in a *long* time.
  Spoiler: Fuck Winston, this is the real shit.

Honestly, the only reason it failed, other than it released around the time Bliz could do no wrong, despite doing wrong for fucking years, was that Bliz went out of it's way to fuck over it's release, dropping a 'free beta' on it's release week.

For older releases, Brave Fencer Musashi on the PS1. Amazing ARPG with really fun puzzle solving, with NPCs having a schedule on a day/night cycle back in 98. The music from this game is basically my brains background audio track.
Also, Guardian Crusade. Fucking no one remembers this game, but wandering through a fantasy world with no party but a baby slug monster thing and some wind up murder machines was so unique and mellow. Hard to hate shitty party members when the only one just squeaks occasionally and watches you.
Finally, Vanguard Bandits. One of the two Mech games I actually like. Great SRPG game, where leveling your stats differently unlocked different abilities. Had like, 9 endings IIRC.
I'd mention Legend of Dragoon, but that's a cult classic. Only underrated by Sony.

For the PS2, Shadow Hearts. Another 'no one remembers this' RPG. But running around 1913's Europe as edgy japan boy with a nun, a soviet spy, a chinese master, a vampire, and god only knows what else I'm forgetting, killing demons, taking their souls, and turning into them was just great fun.
I'm also quite fond of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. It's jank as fuck, as all 3d Castlevanias are, and the main villain looks like he'd be run out of a Smash Bros tournament for being a fucking creep, but there's just something great about raising your little devils, getting a guitar, and murdering everything in the area with sick riffs while your demon picks off the rest.

If we want to talk about even older releases, sadly, N64 and earlier, I was still a youngin' who didn't buy my own shit, so I was at the whims of my family, who mostly got pretty standard shit, with the occasional outlier. Headdy, Beyond Oasis, Lufia, all great games I remember fondly.

 

[Book Thief]

Also, big ups for Beyond Oasis, but shame on you for ignoring Dynamite Headdy. Shit was super creative, charming, and fun. Hard as tungsten though.

I actually haven't played Dynamite Headdy, heh heh... Maybe I should, though, since I often hear it in the same breath as the aforementioned Ristar.

 

[Bennytehsmeghead]

SiN. Easily the best game using the Quake II engine despite its odd jankiness here and there.

 

[skykiii]

@Book Thief

The Wonder Boy naming issue is even more fucked up than you realize. Just off the top of my head:

The original Wonder Boy got released on the NES as Adventure Island, which began its own series.

Wonder Boy in Monster Land also has versions where it was turned into a licensed game--a Brazillian version based on Monica's Gang (a comic that can basically be described as Little Lulu but Lulu likes to hit people with her plush bunny) and a TurboGrafx version based on an anime called Bikkuriman. There was also a sort-of clone on the Famicom that turned it into a Journey to the West game.

Wonder Boy: Monster Lair (the other Wonder Boy III) is basically the only one that doesn't have multiple names.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap got released on Turbografx under two names. In America it was Dragon's Curse (which is what I have)... in Japan it was called... you're not even gonna believe this.... Adventure Island. (literally "Adobencha Airando" in katakana.... the games we call Adventure Island are called Boukenjima in Japan).

Wonder Boy in Monster World got a Turbo CD version under the name The Dynastic Hero, which also redid the graphics so that there's a bug theme to the hero's armor.

Monster World IV was a Genesis exclusive and thus avoided the naming issue, up until the remake happened and they insulted poor Asha by calling her game "Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World." Like, don't insult widdle Asha like that.

From what I understand, a part of why all these renames happened was because Sega owned the rights to the "Wonder Boy" names and characters but Westone owned the rights to the actual games themselves, so basically they could publish them on other systems as long as they removed the parts Sega owned. Monster Lair probably got untouched because for awhile Sega was allowing games to come out on the Japanese Turbografx (which also got ports of Shinobi, Golden Axe, Thunderblade, and a couple others).

......

For whatever reason, Eternal Champions actually has a cult following. I recall a video by a youtuber named Kim Justice (who is fun watching if you can parse his speech impediment) where he lamented that for awhile Sega seemed to be trying to bury Eternal Champions and instead always push the Genesis port of Virtua Fighter 2 as their 16-bit fighting game representation.

That said, having played it recently, I can only imagine it was nothing more than a tide-me-over until people got their hands on real fighting games. Mortal Kombat itself is just okay, but I still legit play Street Fighter II and apparently the Genesis ports of various SNK fighters like Samurai Shodown are actually good. But those are more likely to feature in a Neo-Geo collection rather than a Genesis one these days, which is probably for the best.

 

[Mojo Thief]

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy: A surprisingly good movie tie-in that flew under the radar back in 2009. Absolutely brutal fistfights that are faithful to the films, especially when you do takedowns - it's probably the only time you'd be able to beat the shit out of enemies with a book or stab them in the hands with a pen outside of a theoretical John Wick game. It follows the plot of The Bourne Identity pretty faithfully (with some additional missions), and it looked pretty great - plus, the soundtrack was done by Paul Oakenfold. The only part of it I don't remember particularly liking was the shooting, as it was super basic aside from the ability to use your takedown meter to instantly drop enemies with a single shot.

Paint The Town Red: It's a game where you brutally kill people in massive bar brawls. Great for stress relief, and beyond that it also has a ton of content: a roguelike mode with a lot of enemy variety, a challenge mode where you fight increasingly ridiculous sets of enemies, and a Steam Workshop with thousands of levels. Far from a perfect game, but I still pick it up every so often and play a few levels to unwind when I'm having a bad day.

Captain of Industry: It's a city builder heavily dosed with Factorio. If you're an engineering nerd like I am, this game will scratch your itch for accuracy in manufacturing simulation since you'll have to do things like create air separators for oxygen furnaces, smelting iron and copper ore creates slag that has to be either dumped or processed into concrete, and fermenting corn into ethanol to use for fuel and medicine. You'll also have to build industries to support your settlements with food, water, and medicine, and as the game goes on the manufacturing chains for these can get mind-bendingly complicated. It also has a pretty ingenious way of encouraging you to cut down your pollution, by making it so pollution will increase the probability of disease outbreaks that can potentially kill large portions of your settlement. It came out pretty recently and still needs a lot of work, but if you're a fan of Factorio or Anno I think you'd enjoy it.

Terminator Resistance: Another shockingly good movie tie-in from the creators of the infamous Rambo rail shooter. It nails the look of the world post-Judgement Day as depicted in the first two films and Salvation, and the T-800s are as intimidating as they should be and look the part. It's not just a pretty face, either, as it's a tightly-designed game as well. Each level plays like a miniature Fallout world, where you can explore every nook and cranny for crafting material that you can use to make ammo, healing supplies, lockpicks, and bombs and traps to fight Skynet's machines, and you're given the flexibility to fight them as you please: need to take down a Skynet plasma depot? You can go in guns blazing, tossing bombs everywhere, or you can sneak in, hack a turret, and have it destroy everything else there for you. Most importantly, this game does a great job establishing that the T-800s are not to be fucked with, and the first time you encounter them you will have to sneak around them since they are immune to bullets. It's only once you get your first plasma weapon that you'll be able to fight them head-on, and even then they're still tough motherfuckers that can mow you down in seconds if you're not careful. You can absolutely tell the developers are huge Terminator fans and this game does the franchise justice better than anything since Terminator 2. The only thing holding it back is the fact it is still ultimately a budget game, so the sound mixing, voice acting, shooting, and animations could all be better. Talk about a redemption arc.

Also, the main theme is one of the best renditions of the Terminator theme I've ever heard. Just listen to it, it's so badass!

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

The multiplayer for The Last of Us was very underrated for how good it was. It was my favorite thing for a long time. It didn't really feel like it had anything to do with the main game, no zombies or anything like that, was based around two teams of scavengers fighting each other. Have to scavenge supplies to make your bombs, traps, and improvised melee weapons. With Last of Us' slower, clunkier shooting, third person perspective but no auto aim, and the scavenging, it felt like it was some sort of insurgency warfare thing. Hard to put it into words exactly, but the combat had this brutal, intimate, and realistic feeling to it.

The multiplayer for Assassin's Creed games was also underrated for how unique it was. Have a docket of characters, you know who it is youre hunting for, but because the crowds are made out of clones of these different characters you don't know which one is the target, so if you don't want to expose yourself and/or scare them off, you need to try to move as naturally as possible while also keeping a sharp eye, like a detective, out for abnormalities. You could fuck around with gadgets and run on rooftops, and some of the games seemed more balanced towards that and weren't as good, but in general social stealth was the dominant strategy, and was played way better than in any of the single-player campaigns. I don't know if Hitman ever experimented with multiplayer, but imagine that. The characters were also pretty cool (I liked the Castilian swashbuckler in AC4) to learn, like a modern hero shooter.

Was playing Hunt and had an intense siege (half of the rounds do) and I realized, Hunt is the closest a game I've played has gotten to that TLOU feeling I described. There are big differences. As I understand it's part of a new genre called "extraction shooter" which fits in with Tarkov, so it's not even the same as TLOU Factions, and one is third-person and the other first, but what they both have in common is that very vulnerable but still survivable people operating in small units creep around (stealth hugely important) and fight each other in gritty urban warfare with tools being very individually significant things, things like healing yourself with a medpack or throwing dynamite and the individual tools are rare enough to really matter. Plus, they both have setting traps and finding good stuff in your environment in common. The biggest difference being that in Factions you had to scavenge and make the stuff on the fly, contributing to that insurgent-making-an-IED vibe, while in Hunt you buy stuff upfront and playing a game is almost like a business venture (including the option of how hard you want to push it, you can beat a retreat and leave with nothing but keep your character alive and so not lose money, go for just one monster, or greedily try for the whole thing; some people even load in just to PVP or scavenge around the world and not even focus on the monster.)

And supposedly we're getting a multiplayer game for AssCreed in the future, so hopefully that turns out well.

 

[Calandrino]

My favorite underrated video game is every Genesis game except Sonic.

Also: all beat em ups

I'm not trying to shit on those games but I think putting Gauntlet on that list is kind of telling.

What's telling is that SNES is basically the only retro console with no Gauntlet game... I could not blame anyone for concluding that it is a very gay console on that basis

 

[Lathe]

Freedom Fighters. Always thought it deserved a more polished sequel with better AI. Always enjoyed playing capture point versus with a friend.

 

[skjora]

Freedom Fighters. Always thought it deserved a more polished sequel with better AI. Always enjoyed playing capture point versus with a friend.

I loved it! It wasn't particularly deep in either story or gameplay, but it's overall a very well crafted game. Even if the AI is simplistic, it's still one of the earliest shooter games where NPC squadmates actually felt useful imo.

 

[Book Thief]

A series that I think doesn't get enough love is the Summon Night Sword Craft Story games. They're a spin-off of some Japanese-exclusive Strategy RPG games (Think Fire Emblem/Shining Force/Tactics Ogre/etc.). In this small sub-series, however, the gameplay is more akin to a JRPG, except the combat encounters take place in a 2D Fighting game style. The games focus on you being a blacksmith building weapons of varying classes and casting spells using your magical fairy friend that you summoned from an alternate dimension.

There's three games in this little subseries, and in my opinion, the third game is the best one. Unfortunately, that game came out way too late in the GBA's lifespan, and so it never made its way outside of Japan.

 

[Kheapathic]

Crimson Sea

Made by KOEI (Musou/Dynasty Warriors), started off on OG XBOX, as a squad based third-person shooter with RPG mechanics. Very fun. Then it got a sequel on the PS2, became more of a generic third-person shooter without the squad or RPG mechanics.

 

[The Ghost of Kviv]

The Battle for Wesnoth
Approved by Stallman, a Free turn based strategy in an original fantasy setting. Lots of user-created maps, mods and gamemodes. Play against your friends, with them in co-op or all your lonesome.

Battlefield 2142
The better, more fun, and more jank Battlefield 2. Now with flying aircraft carriers, 5 years before Marvel! Paved the way for refined classes in 3 & 4, and added progression that rewarded team play first. The revival community is still small, and mostly in the EU. They haven't fixed the bugs, though, so expect Titan boarding to induce some dial-up gaming horror.

Tyranny
RPGs done right, Obsidian style. I believe Tyranny was the RPG Obsidian wanted to make since KotOR2, just nobody bought it.

Imagine if "evil" won and now your career is to be the stick in the mud that is evil's bureaucracy. Choice matters in this game, choices you make during character creation can lock you into story paths. And you will need to play at least twice to get the full story, as all NPCs are written to be selfish. At best they are unreliable narrators, at worst, hypocrites and pathological liars. Also included is an interesting spell crafting system, that fits well into the world's lore.

 

[TouchFluffyTail]

Final Fantasy 13-2

After the confusing, embarrassing nightmare that was Final Fantasy 13 - story told primarily through written datalogs, hallway simulator level design, takes 20 hours to open up, remember? - I had pretty low hopes for Final Fantasy 13-2.

However, Square Enix did something I've never heard of a modern triple-A studio do before - listen to the fucking fans.

Pretty much every criticism of 13 is addressed and fixed here:
- Linear level design? Nope, semi-linear and you have more freedom to tackle different areas in the order you want
- Combat takes too long to open up? Nope, pretty much all Paradigms are available from the start
- Boring, leaden protagonist (Lightning) whose emotional range is 'wooden' to 'more wooden'? Nope, chirpy, friendly and emotionally open (but not obnoxiously so) dual protags

It's a shame this came after 13, because I can guarantee the amount of people outside of Japan who played 13-2 is probably about ~10% of people who played the original 13.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Final Fantasy 13-2

After the confusing, embarrassing nightmare that was Final Fantasy 13 - story told primarily through written datalogs, hallway simulator level design, takes 20 hours to open up, remember? - I had pretty low hopes for Final Fantasy 13-2.

However, Square Enix did something I've never heard of a modern triple-A studio do before - listen to the fucking fans.

Pretty much every criticism of 13 is addressed and fixed here:
- Linear level design? Nope, semi-linear and you have more freedom to tackle different areas in the order you want
- Combat takes too long to open up? Nope, pretty much all Paradigms are available from the start
- Boring, leaden protagonist (Lightning) whose emotional range is 'wooden' to 'more wooden'? Nope, chirpy, friendly and emotionally open (but not obnoxiously so) dual protags

It's a shame this came after 13, because I can guarantee the amount of people outside of Japan who played 13-2 is probably about ~10% of people who played the original 13.

I wish 13-2 worked for Steam Deck or would get a Switch port, I always hear it's much better.

 

[TouchFluffyTail]

I wish 13-2 worked for Steam Deck or would get a Switch port, I always hear it's much better.

Yeah the PC port is pretty garbage, compared to 13 and 13-3.

FYI if you do ever get round to playing 13-2, I'd also consider 13-3 AKA Lightning Returns, it's also better than 13 (albeit not as much)

 

[Sawamura Simp]

Limited myself to three titles per console to avoid clutter.
For those looking for retro games, might want to check Hardcore Gaming 101.
For those into videogame art, Creative Uncut looks like one of the finest archives.

NES
Tetris (Tengen): Far better than the Nintendo version, faithful port of the Arcade.
Captain Tsubasa II: One of the first "Tecmo Theater" games, outstanding soundtrack.
Trog!: Weird, weird, weird arcade-style game. Plenty of '90s silliness.

SNES
Demon's Crest: Firebrand's rise to icon status, criminally under-utilized anti-hero character.
International Superstar Soccer: Overshadowed by its sequel -Deluxe-, the grandad of Winning Elevens/ PESs.
Cybernator/Valken: Robot suit, lots of weapon modes, Could have spawned a multimedia franchise.

Genesis/Megadrive
Ristar: overall a fantastic game, came way too late on the console's life cycle.
Sparkster: Sequel to Rocket Knight Adventures with far more stable gameplay and better animation.
Comix Zone: One of a kind; rebalanced after Blockbuster standards (i.e.: make the game artificially harder
so morons will rent it more), it would have been a classic.

NEO-GEO/Winkawaks:
Breakers Revenge: 2D Fighter, Sequel to Breakers, many desperation moves per character, great controls.
Art Of Fighting III: Fantastic Pixel art, Huge characters, birthday mechanics (!)
Money Idol/Puzzle Exchanger: Puyo-Puyo with coins and anime. More addictive than crack cocaine.

PSX
Kagero/Tecmo's Deception: Silliest Murder Simulator of its era, multiple endings (PS2's sequel, Trapt, wasn't nearly as good).
Soukaigi: 3-CD, 11 playable character 3D action-adventure, never released in the West. Square's most ambitious game of the PSX era.
Vagrant Story: In-game achievement system, incredible attention to detail, heart-ache inducing mechanics, used every button of the PSX pad.

PS2
Burnout: Revenge: EA Trax highest point, online Revenge mechanics, Crash and Checking Traffic modes will outlive Burnout Paradise.
Hots Shots Golf Fore!: Fuckton of unlockables, game-changing mechanics, funnier than the original "sport". Can be played forever.
Shadow of The Colossus: Until every human being plays this game, it will be underrated.

Honorable mentions
WaveRace 64 (N64) - One of a kind racer, awesome physics integral to gameplay.
AM2R (PC/VBAdvance) - Milton Guasti's Metroid II remake that predated Nintendo's
Samus Returns and allowed him to work on Ori and the WIll of the Wisps.
Bioshock 2 - Gave the franchise the biggest nightmare fuel by showing Little-Sister-O-Vision.

Bonus: Firebranding.

Gotta finish that Patrick Sean Tomlinson porktrait. Fucking hell.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

We Happy Few.

It started off the wrong genre (roguelike that should have never been a roguelike), stayed in Early Access Hell, and by the time it finally lurched to completion nobody was around to care about it. And yet the game is such a product of love. I thought about posting this in the Unpopular opinions thread, because it annoys me when I think that No Man's Sky has gone on to critical acclaim and success after being a scam job fraud, but this one missed out. Wonderful world to explore, excellent production values for what it is, so refreshing to play. An instant favorite.



Edit: Also really like Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. Might have posted about that. I went on a trip recently and was busy with some work and didn't really play much of either for a while. But that one is fascinating. It suffered from having insisted on making everything obtuse and not explaining anything. You have to basically learn how to play beforehand. But it is a wonderful experience. There's something very cozy but engaging about leading a troop of apes, just day to day survival in a setting where it's not all that hard but there is still a sense of mastery and exploration. The treatment of evolution is interesting, all focused on the idea of learning things, the brain as the main focus. 10/10 love my gorilla family

 

[The Feline Solution]

The Battle for Wesnoth
Approved by Stallman, a Free turn based strategy in an original fantasy setting. Lots of user-created maps, mods and gamemodes. Play against your friends, with them in co-op or all your lonesome.

Battlefield 2142
The better, more fun, and more jank Battlefield 2. Now with flying aircraft carriers, 5 years before Marvel! Paved the way for refined classes in 3 & 4, and added progression that rewarded team play first. The revival community is still small, and mostly in the EU. They haven't fixed the bugs, though, so expect Titan boarding to induce some dial-up gaming horror.

Tyranny
RPGs done right, Obsidian style. I believe Tyranny was the RPG Obsidian wanted to make since KotOR2, just nobody bought it.

Imagine if "evil" won and now your career is to be the stick in the mud that is evil's bureaucracy. Choice matters in this game, choices you make during character creation can lock you into story paths. And you will need to play at least twice to get the full story, as all NPCs are written to be selfish. At best they are unreliable narrators, at worst, hypocrites and pathological liars. Also included is an interesting spell crafting system, that fits well into the world's lore.

I'll die on the hill that Tyranny had the best writing and most original worldbuilding of any "modern" cRPG. Shame that it never got a sequel, loved it and beat it multiple times even though i loathe RTWP gameplay. Only Shadowrun: HK has a similar quality of writing and characters and Tides of Numenera equally great worldbuilding but both are based on pre-existing lore.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I got so distracted with Ancestors, and then some other stuff, that I stopped playing We Happy Few for a while, and I got back into it again. It really is top-notch. I also consider it a mark of game quality if I CAN take months off, come back, and enjoy it right where I stopped. Mafia 3 was the same way, the core gameplay loop in that was so repetitive that I burnt out, but the story was as good as ever when I got back in.

The sad thing is that We Happy Few got panned by gamers because of a mixture of the things I mentioned, people having the wrong expectations out of it (not helped by its aimless marketing/development), but most of all sheer pettiness when it came to buggyness.

See, what I've realized is that while everyone was expecting a Bioshock-like (like with Atomic Heart, too), and the devs had their heads stuck on survival roguelike, in the end the product took more inspiration from Fallout than anything, but linear. And you know what? It's good. It's a hell of a lot better than Fallout 4 or Bioshock: Infinite. Fallout 4 had open-ended quests, but the open-ended nature of it was a sham compared to earlier games, and the voiced protagonist was a douche. We Happy Few brought the same basic control scheme and feel of a Fallout game but smooth, stripped of any meaningful RPG elements or branching quests, but polished the story and worldbuilding to a shine. Oh, there are things that aren't great, like seeing the same shop sign twice in a row, but the story it tells, the way it tells it, the physical world itself and the art direction, the lore are all top-notch in a way I don't think I've ever seen for an open world game. Add on that a setting and gameplay that just ooze fun. Highest density of moments that make me smile/giggle.

And unlike Bioshock: Infinite's pretentious themes and over-the-top aesthetic, We Happy Few plays with more subtle and thoughtful themes with more grounding. It isn't really a dystopia with anything specific to say, but you get vibes of Brazil, Brave New World, the real world Soviet Union.

In a just world this game would be a classic up with the very best.


Edit: If you haven't played it this wouldn't mean much, i suppose, and if you'd want to play it it'd be a spoiler, but this ending (to the first protagonist's act) is so good. I especially (as someone who found Red Dead Redemption 2's take on "redemption" frustrating) loved this. To think they weren't even going to have a story mode originally.