Underrated classic games

Shaodeus

Shaodeus

Still Mildly Glowing
So we're all familiar with the big classical games from the late 90s and early 2000s that are still beloved today, Planescape Torment, Fallout 1 & 2, Baldur's gate etc.

But what of the games from that era have not gotten the attention that they've deserved? Which obscure games do you think deserve more recognition?

You can list games from any genre, whatever they're RPGs or first person shooters.
 
Arc the lad 2
Final Fantasy V
Bmx xxx
Otogi
Bubsy 3D
Conflict Global Storm
Command and Conquer Generals
Soulcalibur 3
Wasteland (but this is gaining love)
Fallout: Brotherhood of steel
 
Small Soldiers Squad Commander
Digimon World 3
Battlezone (Only had the buggy 2 for a short while but 1 looks alright)
Duke Nukem Manhattan Project
Carnivores
 
Kingpin: Life of Crime.
It came at an unfortunate time and got most of its success from its intense violence and profanity, but at its core it is still a solid shooter with some nice additional mechanics like "friendly" NPCs and peaceful hub areas where you basically get quests and can hire additional gang members. You get three options when talking to NPCs, so it's basically like Fallout 4 in that regard.
The art direction of the game was really damn good.

Blade Runner.
Point&Click adventure and in my opinion one of the best tie-in-games. The game offers a new story that sometimes mentions the movie plot, but is otherwise unrelated. The game has some interesting RNG mechanics where it decides at random which characters are replicants, so every play-through is different. There are also some basic shooting/combat mechanics, and the graphics are really cool for its time. They used pre-rendered backgrounds (that are very much like the movie) and used voxel-based graphics for the dynamic characters, which enabled some pretty neat 3D graphics entirely without hardware acceleration. Sadly, the game suffers from some bugs and the annoying habit of making the game unbeatable if something is done out of order.
 
Earthworm Jim.
Legacy of Kain Series.
Jaws unleashed.
Red Dead Revolver.
Scarface: The World Is Yours.
Metal arms: glitch in the system.
Destroy All Humans.
 
Rayman 2

high fantasy that is supposed to be, play and its feel like relieving your most Good dream
 
There is also the LOTR: Return of the King tie-in game for the PS2. It's pretty good for a movie tie-in game and the multiplayer aspect is alright.
 
"Underrated games".. And a lot of the posts are about games that are far from underrated.

Anyways!
KKND Extreme and crossfire AKA krush kill n destroy! To a certain extend i loved these games almost as much as the C&C games.
Redneck rampage.. That game was golden! Redneck shooting rednecks and aliens? What's not to like!
Odium/Gorky17. You guys should really like this old but super gold turn based game. Sadly the steam version at least is flickering and i could not be arsed to finish it again.
Seven kingdoms 1-2, Both games were some of my favorite RTS back in the days. Sadly the 3d one was one of the biggest turs i ever seen. The second one and my favorite is on steam!
Warlords battlecry 2-3, An RTS with interessting story and more playable races than any other RTS i can think of? And heroes you can lvl and gear up? Sign me up!
 
R.Graves said:
Earthworm Jim.
Click to expand...

Awesome soundtrack in this game (as well as the game itself)


Probably not all that underrated in its time, but I absolutely loved the old Prince of Persia game, and it's a fun re-play even now, so long after
prince1-6.gif
 
Most people know about the Command and Conquer games, but there is one that is kinda of obscure for the first Playstation:
  • Command and Conquer Red Alert Retaliation


I also have to agree with @Makta
Makta said:
Warlords battlecry 2-3, An RTS with interessting story and more playable races than any other RTS i can think of? And heroes you can lvl and gear up? Sign me up!
Click to expand...


Is this game underrated? I had never heard of it until a few years ago, I got it on GOG and enjoyed it quite a bit:
It's 85% off on GOG.com at the moment ;-).


Using the SPECIAL system, having Perks and Traits but being real time, I present you:
I love the first half of this game, the second part becomes a generic Action RPG, but I have to recomend this game for its nice first half. The alternate universe lore is solid, the use of historic figures like Leonardo Da Vinci, William Shakespeare, Cortez, Marco Polo, Machiavelli, Galileo, etc is quite nice. The first part of the game is mostly exploring Barcelona city and its surroundings, while talking and gathering lore and information while trying to join one of the three major factions. It is a good balance between RPG and Action RPG, but then the second part of the game becomes pure Action RPG and it is kill kill and kill some more, lost is most of the exploration and dialogue that make the first part great. Still I love to see a fantasy game using the SPECIAL, Perks and Traits system (although this game contains less skills and they are a bit different from the Fallout ones, for example there is no outdoorsman or pickpocket but there are magic skills).
 
kraag said:
Strife
Blood

Played many hours of both back in the day. Great fun and very memorable.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't call Blood particularly underrated, but Strife definitely is. One of the first games to add RPG elements to first person shooters, and on the Doom-engine none the less. Definitely ahead of its time.
Speaking of third party idTech games, I'd say Heretic 1 and 2 are also quite underrated. Especially Heretic 2 never gained much attention with its somewhat controversial shift to a third person perspective and focus on a more action-adventure style of gameplay, but it's actually quite good.
And Soldier of Fortune. Like Kingpin it's a solid shooter that's mostly famous for its incredible amount of gore, but it still is a solid shooter and plays well.
idTech 2 was a great engine.
 
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