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Industry Folks Talk Underrated Games
A topic we've touched on several times in the past here is discussed in the answers to another of Gamasutra's Questions of the week. Underrated games are the order of the day. From the article: "Natural Selection by Unknown Worlds is an outstanding work combining FPS action and RTS strategy elements. NS has gained a great following, but it has been overshadowed by success of Counter-Strike. The game play of NS naturally draws players to work together. I have always found the teamwork in NS better than most other FPS network games. The variety of classes in Aliens and Marines provides a lot of depth of play to experience. The RTS elements in the game were beautifully put together." I've always been partial to Shiny's Sacrifice , a weird little First Person RTS title where you play a mage that summons all of your units. Any titles that you think didn't get the attention they deserved?
If you want to find underground or indie games, I'd recommend sites like
http://www.gametunnel.com/
http://www.madmonkey.net/
http://www.indiegamer.com/
Black Sky
2D Elite Inspired Game
Some games that never quite received the love they deserved:
The Guardian Legend (NES)- the first game to combine an overhead shooter (shmup) with a 3/4 RPG. Interesting puzzles, excellent controlls, and one of the deepest adventure games of it's time.
Rygar (NES) - combining 3/4 adventure with a sidescrolling action, this was one of the few NES translations that was *better* than the arcade version (don't remind me of Double Dragon *sob*). The PS2 Followup was an excellent sequel, God of War before GoW existed, but suffered from a horrible storyline and the worst voice acting ever.
Crystalis (NES) - a 3/4 overhead Action/RPG that was the first true Zelda-Killer, it was one of the greatest achievements of the 8-bit era to go unnoticed.
River City Ransom (NES) - the original Brawler for the NES, the depth of which was quite impressive considering the weak storyline.
Phantasy Star 2 (Genesis) - The greatest RPG of it's time, Final Fantasy be damned. A rich storyline in a futuristic setting, several worlds to explore, and a cataclysmic epic with a truly satisfying conclusion.
Actraiser (SNES) - The unique hybrid of Sidescrolling action and RPG/RTS was constantly changing to keep from getting stale. One moment you're marching through a forest on your way to slay a boss, the next you're building roads and accepting gifts from worshippers, then you're back in a forgotten pyramid. Also one of the most underrated soundtracks, with one theme in particular that sounds very similar to Brian Adams' "Hazard"
and finally
Tetrisphere (N64) - One of the greatest puzzlers ever created, this underappreciated gem was the first to bring Tetris to 3D in a form that I actually enjoyed. An awesome techo soundtrack; smooth, slick two player action, and simple rules that reveal a complex and engaging system made this one of the best Tetris games of all time.
They never, ever, ever said it was going to be Mac-only. Never.
Fact: Halo development started on PC and stayed there exclusively for about a year, until Apple got their 3D shit together. No work was done on Mac Halo until about two weeks before that MacWorld Expo, when Bungie began porting their PC build to the Mac.
-Matt
For many years, I've been a fan of roleplaying Multi-User Dungeons, AKA "MUDs". There are a lot of bad ones, but the best ones combine deep gameplay mechanics, vast, ever-changing worlds, great fantasy settings and an opportunity to roleplay interesting characters of your own design.
WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
Moonbase Commander was a fun little turn-based strategy game that nobody ever played. It was highly addictive, and had a lot of replay value against humans. The balance of units was perfect.
Unfortunately, it was limited to 4 players via IPX. Gamespy allowed you to play it over the net, though. If you have it loaded and open Gamespy, there will always be that ONE other person who has it installed and will beg you to play it with them.
VGA Planets. Quite the obscure title, but if you've got several friends up for an extended play by email campaign combining Diplomacy with Star Fleet Battles, you can have an amazingly good time.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
I have Plok, and it was fun (if semi-strange). It was also pretty damn hard. I could never get past Rockafeller, even on Easy. Or maybe it was the Spider Queen. I can't really remember which came first, but it was hard. I think Septerra Core was a pretty underated game. It had an interesting story and a cool card magic system, but the battles took forever.
Home of the Underdogs, for all those under-rated games of yesteryear.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Presentation
The characters in the game are very stylized, with anthropomorphic animals running about everywhere alongside humans. This gives the game a very "kiddie" feel at first glance. The voice acting is very well done and after a few hours of playing the game you will find yourself genuinly liking the characters after enjoying their banter and interactions.
Gameplay
The gameplay has a strong focus on exploration throughout, and it has much diversity as you find yourself performing many different activies throughout the game (racing, puzzle-solving, ship-based combat, personal combat, stealth). The pacing is very well done in the game, keeping the gameply fresh throughout. The personal combat is probably the weakest aspect of the gameplay, and it is unfortunate that the opening scene of the game is a big combat. Some of the later stealth/photgraphic missions really put the basic combat to shame. The game also uses an interesting partner mechanic, allowing the NPCs toprovide specific help to allow you through some situations.
Plot
As I mentioned earlier, at first glance the game appears marketed towards an 8-12 year old audience. The graphics are brightly colored and the characters appear very cartoony. The plot to the game is surprisingly sophisticated. A war against the "Domz" is happening, and only the "Alpha Squadron" stands between them and the planet's helpless population. The story introduces themes of propaganda and as Jade, you pick up the responsibility of exposing the truth to the public at large. Witnessing the populace of the city slowly change their view as you bring more and more condemning evidence to light is a very rewarding experience.
All in all, I really enjoyed the game and it was one of the first games that I was able to get my journalist wife to play with me (she's since branched out and we enjoy many evenings playing games together). The production values are high, although there seems to be no particular reward for collecting 100% of the items that are strewn about the world (you only need a certain amount of them to buy the final upgrade for your hover-craft), which was a disappointment.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
-Voltaire
- had
to play it. The only problem I could find with the game was that there was never enough people on to have a good game. Oh well. ~jackDay of the Tentacle! Otherwise known as Maniac Mansion 2. There aren't too many games out there that are quite like this one, and how many have you seen that use the word "bitchin"?
While most people were clamoring over Doom, Rise of the Triad was quietly released. ROTT was an extremely fun game with all sorts of humor built-in but it still managed to be a pretty intense game. It was also the BEST multiplayer of its day. Where else can you get Shroom power-ups, people begging not to be shot, God AND Dog Modes, the creepiest hidden level I've ever seen (You Do Not Belong Here), a character named Ian Paul Freely, and all the Ludicrous Gibs you can handle?