I go to thinking recently there are plenty of great games out there that for one reason or another never step into the spotlight.My question is what are your favorite most underrated games?

Here are a few of mine;

Brothers in Arms series
Metro 2033
Alan Wake
Conflict Desert Storm
Conflict Return to Baghdad.

Nehrim: At Fate's Edge (it's a travesty to think that there are Elder Scrolls fans out there who haven't experienced this)
Primal
Zool 2
Sonic Chaos
Delta Force series
PGR 4
Mount&Blade: Warband
Rumble Racing
CoD: World at War (popular, yes... but heavily criticised by fans despite being amazing and perhaps the best in the series)

Okami. Come on, it's one of the most beautiful games of all time, and Buzz outsold it?

Mafia

I don't remember its release on PC all that well, and when it finally made it to consoles a few years later and I seem to recall it being mostly overshadowed by Grand Theft Auto. I thought it was significantly better than any GTA (sans maybe Vice City). I could almost say the same thing about Mafia II.

Agreed Mafia II was a very good game, I never got around to playing the first one though.

It's worth a play. Better than Mafia II in just about every aspect but graphics, and I think there are a few mods floating around to help that a bit.

Ha, I nearly said Mafia. They definitely did the old time cars and setting well.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura on PC
Mischief Makers on N64
The King's Field series on PS1 and PS2

Yes! I came into this thread with the intention of mentioning King's Field IV.

Men of War and it's predecessor Faces of War. I honestly don't know anyone who plays these games except me. MoW & FoW are similar to Commandos* but with more everything!

* kudos for those who played through these games.

Sacred 2 is very underrated in my books.

Legacy of Goku and LoG 2.
Clock Tower 3.
Gungrave.
Jackie Chan Adventures.

Canis Canem Edit/Bully. Compared to some of the ones you posted this may seem a stupid choice but I don't know anyone besides myself who has ever played this game and apparently it didn't sell so good since they never did a sequel :shrug: but imo it's one of Rockstar's best games.

Ah, time for another round of people confusing "underrated" with "poor sales" or "tiny minority of vocal critics".

I thought Silent Hill 4 was underrated. It has its problems, plays awkwardly even for your average survival horror, and has some atmospheric weirdness likely stemming from originally not being planned as a SH game in the first place. However, I also think it's the scariest of the first four, an element that shouldn't be overlooked, seeing as it's a horror game. Its problems don't seem severe to me in comparison to the clunkiness the entire series has, and it always seemed overinflated when people hated all over the game in comparison to the first three.

Also popping into my head, Secret of Evermore. I haven't seen much criticism of the game that isn't whining that it's not Secret of Mana. It had a creative magic system, lots of secrets, and was just as fun to play for me.

Isn't an underrated game basically a game that was "ignored"? A good product that isn't payed the deserved attention...usually this reflects on sales, not exactly on critics though :shrug:

It took a while for me to warm up to Evermore but ended up really liking it. The obligatory maze in every world was annoying and the worlds themselves were also kind of bland. Podunk was probably my favorite area in the whole game and it was only shown in the opening and ending. Square USA had some good ideas with it though, shame they never got to make any other games.

"Underrated" generally means literally that, lower ratings than it should have gotten. I don't think of things like Okami or Psychonauts as underrated, even though they didn't sell well, because they were almost universally praised by critics.

Yup. We're talking underrated, not undersold.

While the term technically applies to actual ratings, it can be used for anything that didn't get the recognition it deserved.... whether that's low scores from professional reviewers, poor sales, excessive/unjust criticism from fans, etc.

A game could get great reviews, but if it doesn't sell well then it's still underrated by the majority and not getting the recognition it deserves.

Temple of Elemental Evil -- Absolutely amazing combat system for a fantasy RPG. Probably the best tactical turnbased combat of any RPG I've played. It can be pretty buggy, so the ratings were poor, but a combination of official and fanmade patches makes it playable, and it sure is something.

I just want to mention how much I love Troika. Too bad all their games were a bit too buggy on release.

I'm starting to think bugs are a trademark of western RPGs.

I agree with you, I really enjoyed Okami. The environment, the gameplay, and the story were all executed excellently.

Wizardry 8.



You do understand that this is a mod for Oblivion? I really don't see how this equates to being an "underrated game".

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, depending on which review it is, was underrated. Some places gave it around an 8, which is what I think it deserves. Others gave it pretty poor reviews, when really the only legitimate problem with it was the characters and story (which wasn't bad, it was just told poorly at times).

It's not really a modification of Oblivion. It's using Oblivions resources to create an entirely different game and experience.