Underrated games?

[prozium]

I was thinking about this because some of my favorite games have only mediocre reviews and aren't that well heard of.

In this thread you post about some of your favorite underrated games, give a description of the game, what makes it good and why you think it has it's current status.

Freedom Fighters - Now this is a game that made a few headlines and got some pretty decent reviews but never really became that popular. It takes a spin on history where the USSR won the cold war and invades the USA. You play part in a resistance and carry out several missions against the occupying forces that are "liberation" to you and "terrorism" to them. The squad controlls are good, the fire fights intense, the story interesting, the ambience excelent and overall is very fun to play.

Where the game falls though is multiplayer and leangth. There is a rather lackluster type of Capture the flag that you and up to 4 players can play (theres only 3 maps) and a relatively short campaign. It's a great game though and can be found cheap.

Shadow Of Rome - Heres a game that didn't make much sound at all despite being excelent and one of the most fun games of 2005! You take the role as Agrippa, a Roman general who falls victim of foul play when Caesar is murdered and you are forced to become a gladiator to help free your father (who is blames for the murder). The gameplay is superb in this game and has a very good combat sustem. The graphics and cut scenes are beautiful and the combat is violent and brutal! Cut of a mans arm and then beat him to death with it!

Where the game falls short is the interval missions where you play as Octavian and do some sneaking around missions that aren't nearly as fun as the gladiator missions. There are a lot of unlockables that are worth replaying the game for but the Octavian missions slow the game down too much.

Psi-ops The Mindgate Conspiracy - Here we have a game that despite introducing an amazing (and ridiculously fun) combat system didn't sell many copies at all. You take on the role of Jack skryer who's memory gap prevents him from remembering his mission  and past. You regain your memory behind enemy lines (and as you regain your memory you regaint he psychic powers you has) and proceed in inflicting lots of pain on the Meat Puppet enemies with a slew of perfectly handles psychic powers.

I really don't know why this game didn't do well. The story COULD have been longer, there COULD have been more unlockables and it COULD have introduced some newer forms of gameplay but the telekenetic throwing of an enemy against a wal repeatedly is almost too fun to stop!

Yours?

[CompanyScum]

I agree for Freedom Fighters.

As for me and my games.

Redline- a fps PC game. (My name comes from this game)
You play as a regular citizen who wants to join the Company gang.
There are a large variety of gangs, The Templars, The Red Sixers (main gang), and some others.
The first couple of missions are the initiation and as you go on, your rank gets higher, and the rival wars get more severe.

There are many missions that are very hard, and I mean VERY hard.
In fact, I had to use cheats.

One of my favorite missions is the final showdown between the Company and the Red Sixers where the Sixers have invaded the Company's base/turf and you have to fend them off for some time.

There's a large variety of guns, vehicles, and missions.

Negative- when you're in vehicles, aiming is a pain, you really have to stop and move around the cursor to get aim.

Sudeki- X-box only.

A very interesting game, you have a group of 4, a magic girl, a scientist with guns, the assassin, and the main guy; swordsman.

Each have multiple specials, there's a lot and they are very brutal.

And in the middle of battles, you can change characters at any time.

Also, the swordsman and the assassin have combos which can kill enemies in 1 hit, if you can pull it off.

I guess, the blood is an additional feature, I don't know, I just prefer blood in games like those.
The cool slo-mo feature when you pull off your specials is awesome, you can see all the blood and guts in mid air, which is pretty nice.

You can also enhance you weapons and armor with augmentations which add additional damage, defense, and other effects, like poison and resistance.

And the story is actually pretty long, I spent a month or so on this game instead of the typical week, or in some cases, a couple of days.

Negative- The music isn't all that great -_- that's all, I guess.

[Jigsaw]

Manhunt - No one talks about this game ever. But when you play, being chased by different games gets your blood rushing!

[Zen444]

Sudeki had the worst AI, ever.

Grim Fandango and Psychonauts.

Most definitely.

[Romero]

Broken sword 1,2 & 3
Shenmue 1 & 2
the .hack games

[Rem]

I'd guess I'd have to say Viewtiful Joe. It's really good, but it's abasically a cult game now despite all the good reviews. I guess the pink and spandex scared some people off.

[Zen444]

I'd guess I'd have to say Viewtiful Joe. It's really good, but it's abasically a cult game now despite all the good reviews. I guess the pink and spandex scared some people off.

If the game was so "underrated" then why did it recieve so many lame sequels and spin offs?

[Si-Lee-Warrior]

Ico
Shadow of the collosus
Dark Cloud
Dark Chronicle
Dynasty Warriors

all these games are japanese obscure stuff that is actuall y really really good

[Rem]

I'd guess I'd have to say Viewtiful Joe. It's really good, but it's abasically a cult game now despite all the good reviews. I guess the pink and spandex scared some people off.

If the game was so "underrated" then why did it recieve so many lame sequels and spin offs?

Look guy, the reviewers liked it, but VJ1 only sold like 500,000 copies worldwide, and VJ2 sold maybe 320,000 copies. It's not doing well relatively. Not a lot fo people know about it, and three-quarters those who do think it's lame, so that makes it underrated.

Every franchise gets crappy spin-offs. They're just trying to mkae that money back, and want to achieve similar success to Super Smash Bros Melee. And it's only natural for a game like that to be transfered to the DS. There are ports, but the only actual "spin-off" that I have seen (and have not played) is Red Hot Rumble.

These days with the ease of which sequels using the same engine can be made, most games that don't get spin-offs or sequels really suck hard, and are so bad that they aren't even underrated.

[Sleepy Snake]

I'd have to go with the Harvest Moon games. They become really hard to find after a couple of months and they always get delayed before they're actually out, but they're usually pretty good. I'll admit, there are a few games in the series that were horrible and a lot of them have typos, but the ones that are good are quite underrated.

[Romero]

Hmm i wasnt too taken with viewtiful joe tbh, it was really good for a few lvls but then got really repetative. As for the harvest moon games i completly agree with you! Those games rock! 

[Rem]

Yeah i know a lot of really manly dudes kind of whisper out of the side of their mouths that they really enjoy Harvest Moon.

[Zen444]

Look guy, the reviewers liked it, but VJ1 only sold like 500,000 copies worldwide

That's a winner in video game terms.

[Jigsaw]

Broken sword 1,2 & 3
Shenmue 1 & 2
the .hack games

Those games are very underrated! I love 'em though.. So underrated they ain't even on the map! LOL! 

[Ace]

I always thought the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series was way underrated.  These are games made by a Japanese company and the setting is second & third century China.  You take the role of a famous warlord or general and try to build up your territories and unify China.

Granted each new version is basically the same game with maybe one or two new features added, but you can burn a lot of time playing them.