Your most under rated gems?

We all do sometimes rely too heavily on reviews and are then following like sheep with a persons opinion, then we also get great reviews that give 12/10 and find it completely obtuse and rubbish when we play it.

Anyhow, share your under rated gems :)

For me I will mention The Lord Of The Rings War In The North (PC)

I did not pay for this game it was given to me by a friend, I thought nothing of it as ever since the PS2 console LOTR has been pretty pants.

We got Shadow Of Mordor which I like, but it get's very samey, however it is highly polished and has great combat amongst other things.

War In The North has everything Shadow Of Mordor does except todays graphical polish, it is to be expected from a 2011 released game, but damn I think it's excellent, however I looked up Metacritic and it only scored 66/100 which I did not expect at all.

Graphically the game looks sound for a 2011 title, it fits well with the lore and offers visual style over visual fidelity, it has de-saturated colours and a good mood from scene to scene which fits very nicely.

I did tweak it with Reshade which is a 3rd party post process application that can be used on a mass array of titles to enhance visual fidelity.

However game play is what really matters and it REALLY delivers this very well.

Balanced enemies, great combat, solid sound, a stat system that's simple yet has enough depth to be meaningful, and fights feel like you are fighting a real enemy, you cannot just pound away enemies with ease like you can in Shadow Of Mordor.

On a gameplay level War In The North demolishes Shadow Of Mordor in depth.

Some images of it (Reshade)

Most recently I played The Order 1886. Game has a 63 metacritic score.

Graphics obviously top notch. But the voice acting is also great. Thought the gameplay was a serviceable third person shooter. Nothing revolutionary but solid.

The story came together nicely as well. Not a 10/10 but a good game.

There's a game called LISA: The Painful that needs to be played by more people. It's not a happy game, but it's entirely unique in its story, tone, and atmosphere and needs more exposure so we can get more games like it.

Any specific platform? or available to all?

I believe right now it's available on PC via Steam. That's how I played it. It may be on PS4, but I'm not sure as I don't own that system.

Ok cool.

It's about ten bucks for a 15 hour JRPG with an incredibly well executed story that mixes really dark humor with some of the most legitimate sadness I've seen in a game. It's not for everyone because it is super, super depressing, but I fucking loved it and think a lot of others would too if they actually played it.

Going by Metacritic ratings... There's The Hungry Horde (PS Vita), Hardware Rivals (PS4), Mad Max (PS4), and Beyond: Two Souls (PS4) that scored a 61, 56, 69, and 70 respectively that I happened to really enjoy.

The most underrated game I played came from last gen, and I think it could have been one of the best selling games of that gen had Activision supported the developer. A shame that it sold under 400k copies because it was a stellar title from start to finish.

That game is Singularity by Raven Software. Honestly I think Activision intentionally undercut this title so they could keep Raven Soft doing support work for the Call of Duty games.

@SoNin360: Mad Max only got a 69? Game is at least an 80-85 imo.

Lost Odyssey, Bionic Commando reboot, and Quantum Break immediately spring to my mind.

must admit i didn't like the order but @suicidesn0wman wrote a review that convinced me to give it another shot. i've reinstalled it but not yet started it again yet.

i've just started mad max. my problem with is it so far (about 2-3hrs in) is appears to be a super linear game masquerading as an open world game. lots of walk here, press this button, now walk there, then press that button, then walk there, then press.... etc etc. it feels a little mechanically simplistic, stealth doesn't seem to be an option and the controls are a bit unorthodox too. i hope it picks up

@suicidesn0wman: That's what I thought. I didn't find anything overly wrong with the game. Sure, the story could have been a little better but the game was a lot of fun to play. Then again, I'm pretty biased when it comes to open world games as I just love roaming around and having plenty of things to do outside of the story.

@Macutchi: The game is a lot more open after the first couple of hours, basically once you get out of the first area. It's definitely an open game. Yeah, the combat mechanics are pretty simple, but the vehicle combat is really fun, especially once you get more upgrades.

@SoNin360: cool. i'll definitely persevere, they're just my first impressions. i think you recommend it to me too, thinking about it, so i'll remain optimistic that it opens up and gets better ;)

I feel like I can go on and on concerning this topic, but for now I will say Grim Grimoire was under appreciated. I absolutely loved this game. The art, story, gameplay... Even the English voice acting cast did great. I was sad to see that it didn't spawn a sequel of some sort.

Edit - I guess the ratings weren't that low for this game, but I still would've given it my 10/10, lol. I LOVED it.

The Legend of Dragoon. It's by far one of my favorite RPGs of all time. I remember a reviewer saying that the combat wasn't original, which is ludicrous since it wasn't like you just pressed the X button to choose commands, you had to master additions effectively to deal some damage.

@allissasaurus: I think the game I mentioned was rated high, but sold poorly, which is why I felt it was under appreciated. I can see Grim Grimoire not getting a lot of attention and ending up missed by many gamers. Gonna have to go look it up now, bet it's expensive these days.

@allissasaurus said:

I feel like I can go on and on concerning this topic, but for now I will say Grim Grimoire was under appreciated. I absolutely loved this game. The art, story, gameplay... Even the English voice acting cast did great. I was sad to see that it didn't spawn a sequel of some sort.

Edit - I guess the ratings weren't that low for this game, but I still would've given it my 10/10, lol. I LOVED it.

Looks very intriguing, may give it a wirl on an emulator, if it's THAT good may purchase it :)

@suicidesn0wman: I enjoyed the first couple hours but then it just becomes rinse and repeat with some very boring looking environments. I stopped playing it.

In the GS community I find the Disgaea franchise harshly underrated.

Despite them being reviewed (usually 8's), beloved by the fanbase, and sell well.

On the og Xbox, Phantom Dust, on 360 I loved Lost Odyssey. Valkyria Chronicles was reviewed well, but doesn't have nearly the profile it should in the general gaming public's eyes. It's a once in a generation game for me, and I basically bought a PS3 because I saw footage of it, among other games.

Alpha Protocol

Received mediocre reviews but, imo, the game is a masterpiece. Didn't buy it at release but apparently it had a pretty rocky one.

Probs Spec Ops: The Line, people were pretty dismissive about it.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, totally.

Amazing game. IIRC it had a poorly-chosen release date, like next to a CoD release or something.

Story in that game is incredible, as was the level design, and the gameplay was solid. Love that game, and even I forget to mention it as "overlooked" or "under-rated".

Phantom Dust was only released in USA & JP, i have a modded console to fully enjoy the game plus my USA version of Shenmue II with Shenmue the movie i got off Ebay like new :)

I personally believe that Spec Ops: The Line was under-rated because from the outside it appears to be a generic bro shooter. I walked past it many times in stores and didn't think once about buying it, until I read all the praise for it. Definitely a case of marketing knocking a product.

@ryan78134: Very true, I believe that is part of the game as for the first few chapters it is masked as a generic shooter but then later flips everything on its head. With excellent insight and commentary on military shooters, it really turns into a critique of what it was marketed as.

Yeah that too. I think that was another reason I overlooked it, totally judged it by its cover.

I remember hearing nothing about that game until I saw it on a Steam sale for like 3 dollars lol. Then I looked it up and the 10 people that did play it were like "OMG AMAZING"...soooooo I bought it and yeah, it's the game I forget to mention now lol.

Also, it was an ugly game. Not just technically but aesthetically as well. I feel sorry for any developer that makes games that take place in sand and/or deserts. Though I recently replayed Dragon Age: Inquisition, and they did a marvelous job on their desert terrain.

Anyone remembers the pitifully underrated turn-based PS2 RPG "Gladius"? That.

Stasis, a dark sci-fi isometric point n click

Bravely Default. It has a metacritic rating of 85, which is exceptional, but the community hasn't given the game its props. I'm aware the game has a gleaming flaw, but despite that it's still one of the best RPGs of this generation.

There's just so many ways you can play the game, and it's as deep as the ocean with tons of jobs, abilities, weapons, spells, abilities, enemies--and the game has tons of options to make the game feel truly yours. Lots of hidden content as well.

• Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse
• Shadow Warrior
• Grey Goo
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Pretty much every driving, fighting, and strategy game.

Also, of course, the captain!

@Cobra_nVidia: +1 for Captain Toad fans.

I'll name three of them and go over them one by one: Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, Blood, and TimeSplitters.

Shogo: a mecha anime FPS developed by Monolith Productions that takes its presentational influences from shows like Patlabor and Macross and blends them with the gunplay of Doom and Quake. An amazingly fun and indelible romp that oozes Japanophilic charm and old-school character.

Blood: a macabre-themed FPS developed by Monolith Productions that borrows its self-referential and bloody formula from Duke Nukem 3D and coalesces it with horror works such as The Phantom of the Opera and Friday the 13th. A highly imaginative shooter filled to the brim with pitch dark humor.

TimeSplitters: an FPS with a time travel premise developed by Free Radical Design that uses the Goldeneye-style formula to great effect with its wide assortment of zany characters and weapons that span multiple centuries, which are complemented with exceptional humor and level design.

Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Resident Evil Revelations 2, Binary Domain, L.A. Noire

Legend of Dragoon

@mrbojangles25: @manic: Spec Ops and Alpha Protocol for sure. AP was a bit rough around the edges but the idea of a Deus Ex style action RPG but as a spy fiction was awesome, and the choices in that game had more agency than a lot of similar games. It wasn't perfect but it did a lot of things very well like the "reputation" system where sometimes making people hate you was as advantageous as making people like you. The various minigames for hacking, lockpicking, etc were all pretty decent, too.

Spec Ops wasn't the best TPS but the whole plot was a deconstruction of the military shooter genre. It's a great example of a game where story can make up for gameplay issues.

I would also add Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines to the list. It's a deeply, deeply flawed game but the stuff that it did right made up for it's many, many issues. Not sure I'd call it underrated, since it has a pretty rabid fan community that continued to patch it for many years after the company that made it went under.

-Byshop

harry potter

"Pocket Bomberman"

It's a really nice action platformer for the game boy original/color.
Very good gameplay, difficult level and music.

@Michformer: I'm not sure you could class Timesplitters as an underrated gem. It was probably one of the most hyped FPS of the PS2 era.

Lumines for Vita. It's like crack.

Under Siege. It's a downloadable titles on PS3 that went mostly unnoticed in 2011. Accessible real time tactics gameplay with a lengthy and challenging campaign, full multiplayer support including custom games, and an impressive editor reminiscent of Blizzard's RTS editors.

Currently playing Dying Light: Enhanced Edition. The core game is a lot of fun and all the DLC which is included really makes it a great game overall. This game is definitely underrated and overlooked by many.

I'd have to say The Saboteur. It is rarely mentioned when people are discussing great open world action games. It has a interesting setting (killing Nazis in Paris?!). The gameplay, although at times clunky, still fun. The map is one of my favourite open worlds, a nice blend of city and countryside. Yeah the stereotypical Irishman was cheesy but he had one or two good lines. it's a shame we'll probably never get a sequel. RIP Pandemic

Maybe Psychonauts. It has gotten a sort-of comeback in later years. But I remember I found it in the bargain-bin at the local retailer. Barely even heard about it at the time. Loved it. I guess it's not for everyone, but I had a great time with it.

Starlancer

I think Yakuza is the 2nd best franchise in existence, and it can't find success in the country with a map, so we only get ports of half of the games and at least 3 years behind the Japanese releases, so... Sorry Yakuza fans that don't speak Japanese or can't afford to import...

Holy crap yes! Man, noooo one played that. I think I met one other guy in college who knew about it.

Another underrated RPG from that era was Baten Kaitos Origins. Game had no right to exist being a prequel to a gamecube exclusive RPG that didn't sell that great to begin with, and was released about three months before the Wii. Reviews were worse than the first one, but I liked it way better. Definitely my favorite Monolith Soft game.

Stuntman Ignition. Sure, a racer/trial and error puzzle game where you play a stuntman is going to be niche, but the first one managed to sell well. And Ignition was better.

Wet. If Max Payne is Pulp Fiction, Wet is Kill Bill.