What is an underrated/forgotten video game that you think deserved a second chance?
What is an underrated/forgotten video game that you think deserved a second chance?
What is an underrated/forgotten video game that you think deserved a second chance?
Unreal Tournament, the one that was abandoned in favor of Fortnite (eugh). Like sure it would never be a big hit like Fortnite, Arena Shooters are out of fashion after all, but Epic didn't even give it a chance for starters, they basically just rushed it out the door with a skeleton crew, no budget whatsoever and were begging for community members to do free work on the game for them. In retrospect the game was doomed to fail from day one.
It STARTED from the work of community members. Then Epic jumped in and took over with the promise of their backing of the community team. Then once they had control over it they scuttled the ship.
Desert Strike was so cool.
I had forgotten about this game. It was a fun time. I think there was a Jungle Strike also
The last memory I have of Desert Strike going to a local video game and card game place (Heebeegeebees in Ogden, Utah before they expanded) with some of my siblings and buying this for some portable system (GBA?) and starting to play.
I then heard the owner (who was still in the shop back then) say “We can do this the easy way or the hard way”. It had transpired that one of my siblings had tried to steal something. Cops got called, fun times.
For those curious, the rumor was that the easy way was police and the hard way was him chasing you with a bat
Urban strike as well! I think it was urban strike that turned into a kind of top down shooter when you assaulted an enemy base about halfway into the game. 10 year old me could never get past that part.
Super Thunder Blade did this, same era too.
Someone is making a new one. I have it wishlisted on Steam. It is called Cleared Hot. Granted, I heard about it a LONG time ago and it still isn't out.
Soviet Strike was really good. One of the first PlayStation games I played (rented from Blockbuster!)
I remember being blown away by the video cutscenes in a game.
Woah, I didn't even know about this one.
OMFSM YES! I'd forgotten all about that great game!
I could never figure out how to not get blown to smithereens by the SAM sites.
FreeSpace 1 and 2!
Time to install FreeSpace Open again. 😄 For those who have managed to miss that project: it's a completely rebuilt engine for FS2. Together with the MediaVPs from The FreeSpace Upgrade Project it makes the game look pretty modern again. Take a look at https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Getting_started if you need instructions.
I believe even there is even a mod available which allows playing the first FreeSpace in FSO.
These were godly at the time, but due to storytelling, modding community and mission editors. Flight model and combat mechanics were little too "Wing Commnder" even back then. Todays space pilots would need something more in line with Elite Dangerous, Helium Rain and Star Citizen.
I'd definitely play an updated Freespace game.
Btw btw you can co-op the campaigns with 3 friends
Battle for Middle Earth. With the resurgence of RTS games lately, including many older ones getting remastered, I would absolutely love to see a proper remaster and release of BFME2. Unfortunately rights issues mean it's very unlikely to happen.
Total War: LOTR would be pretty neat
I've been wanting this game for a long time
Just a way to legally obtain a copy without paying hundreds of € for an old scratched CD would be nice
It's not really forgotten, but Wing Commander has been abandoned, and a proper modern rebuild of it would be fantastic.
Also, I want a new Deer Avenger.
If you like Privateer, check out Double Damage Games "Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw". Excellent game with a lot of sadly lost potential due to the dev being run out of game development by hostile and entitled "gamers".
Isn't Star Citizen a sort-of spiritual successor?
It was supposed to be. I have to admit I haven't paid any attention to it in many years so maybe things have changed, but it had turned into more of a vortex of ego, fleecing a fanbase, and sunk-cost fallacy, than a spiritual successor to anything.
I don't know if it's forgotten, but it's forgotten to me. There was this ant game where you had a colony of ants that would go collect food, or attack other colonies. There was this very pixelated top-down map view where you could see the brightly colored food disappear pixel by pixel as they ate.
I can't figure out what the game was but I loved it.
Sim Ant ?
Nope, the other commenter got it. It was Microsoft Ants. Sim Ant is what most people guess when I have brought this one up before though. I'll have to try it sometime.
This is what it sounds like to me, and Sim Ant is the game I had in mind opening this post. It was a good one.
Thank you for reminding me of this game. I think it is Microsoft ants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Ants
Oh my God! Finally! I genuinely couldn't track down what the game was for years. Thank you!
Battleborne - I found it enjoyable but because it was superficially similar to Overwatch it absolutely bombed.
Good lord yes. Overwatch is just a corporatized TF2 ripoff, but Battleborn was a creative, unique game with a soul.
Anyone who hasn't seen it should watch the game's intro cinematic, which gives a great sense of just how much character the game had.
I just clicked into this post to say this. I was an ISIC main.
Overwatch
Curiously both titles are dead nowadays, like literally dead.
because it was superficially similar to Overwatch it absolutely bombed.
Sort of, the real issue was it had no advertising of its own, just Randy Pitchford synergising buzzwordsalad on twitter and trying to create a rivalry with Overwatch. Nobody really knew what it was supposed to be from advertising, because nobody thought to just say "FPS MOBA".
Mass Effect Andromeda, the middle of that game dragged, but the first third was pretty good and the last third was amazing, but most people didn't stick through the boring middle to get there. I really wish it got dlc and sequels, I wanted to see where that story went.
Most people saw the facial animations and swore it off before even playing the game. Looking past it's flaws, I always felt it was a fine sequel, though the first game is definitely still the special one.
I'm one of those people that couldn't get past the middle part. Plus, something about that engine gives me terrible motion sickness after 30 minutes of playing.
My whole family loved these games.
Later, I realized Amy Hennig worked on these at Crystal Dynamics before leaving for Naughty Dog where she worked on the Uncharted Series.
Soul Reaver seriously needs a reboot. Soul Reaver kept getting mentioned a while back when Square Enix sold off Cristal Dynamics to pay for NFT scams, but no mutterings of a reboot/remake.
This halogened a while ago: https://www.ign.com/articles/new-legacy-of-kain-looks-likely-as-embracer-receives-strong-fan-response
Definitely Icy Tower
Also, not really a video game, but those desktop destroyer type games. I'm not sure what any of them were called but it was a fun waste of time in my computer class.
I can still hear the jumping sounds in my head! Thanks for the memory!
You're welcome!
If there is one game out there that I think deserves a second chance, it is definitely Alpha Protocol. This game came out in 2010 and was created by Obsidian Entertainment, the makers behind Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. This was the first-of-its-kind 'espionage RPG' with a truly, wholly unique dialogue system that has truly never been replicated since. Unlike mainstream RPGs of the time, you pick from several different 'tones' to speak in, in which gives the game hundreds of outcomes and dozens of endings. For example, according to Raycevick in a recent video, love interest can snipe you after a boss fight, poorly-treated damzels can attack you in the dead of night, contracts you're hired to kill can be baited into their demise through dialogue, and a whole host of other things.
The problem is that Alpha Protocol was lambasted by critics due to its incredibly buggy launch state and unpolished graphics. It never met the sales requirements that SEGA was expecting from it, and so, a few years ago, the game was pulled from all storefronts, never to be played again - until now. That's right. Thanks to the legends over at GOG for their incredible work, Alpha Protocol is back on sale, complete with achievements, localization, modern compatibility, and cloud saves. All without any form of DRM. But, the bugs in the game are still present to this day even in the GOG version, and so you might end up finding some humorous bugs and glitches.
Source: Making a Game Last Forever
Operation Wolf.
Defender of the crown.
Gauntlet (and sequels).
The Settlers.
Syndicate.
Fury of the Furies.
Cooking Mama.
Tongue of the Fatman.
Turrican 1 and 2.
Zool.
Snow Bros. Nick and Tom.
Double Dragon.
Golden Axe.
Rick Dangerous.
Blake Stone.
Antix.
Screamer.
Soldat.
Speedball 2. Brutale Delux.
Lemmings.
Sid Myers Pirates!
Battle chess.
Shadow of the Beast.
Altered Beast.
Agony.
Strider (arcade)
Death Rally.
Stunt Car Racer (msdos)
Can add more soon
Blake Stone. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in awhile
Operation Wolf
I loved that game! Think there was a sequel too, Operation Thunderbolt maybe?
Lemmings
Another classic. You might like the recent game Humanity, similar vibes, although quite different too.
I agree with so many on this list and those I don't, I simply don't recognize. If add 7th Guest Rune Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Sid Myers Pirates! is one of my all time favorites!
I feel like many of these got at least a spiritual successor if not an actual successor. That counts as a second chance right and means they aren't forgotten?
Like Gauntlet has like 9 sequels and the last one released just 10 years ago. There's also many games that are heavily inspired by Gauntlet. Same for The Settlers, which had a new game just last year.
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
An awesome RPG by Sierra (Fallout1+2). It was a bit unfinished, but you had such a great roleplay-experience. A second part was planned using Source-Engine.
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For isometric RPGs Arcanum truly was unique. The dialogue and story was polished to a brilliant shine in a fantasy world going through the industrial revolution. The soundtrack composed entirely of a somber string ensemble added so much to the narrative and feel of the world, as if its magic was slowly dying out to make way for industrial expansion and exploitation. It stands up there along with the original Fallouts and Planescape: Torment. It's a tragedy a sequel was never made. The only modern game that comes close to the aesthetics is the Pillars of Eternity franchise.
F-ZERO. Truly a devastating loss. 99 is cool, but there's no guarantee we'll ever see a completely new title ever again. There was no other series with the same level of snappy controls, character design, music and challenge. It really is in a league of its own.
MechCommander 1 and 2
Spore and Impossible Creatures
Kind of similar but these games are conceptually genius. How tightly Creativity and Strategic Interest are packed together is hardly seen ever again.
And animals are always a good idea. Even horrible games like Pokémon survive just because we like funny little friends.
Age of empires 3. The civilizations are packed full of unique units, cards and mechanics compared to previous games. The card deck mechanics and treasures speed up the early game and allow for a lot more flexibility and adaptivess. The game looks beautiful the 2005 version kind of runs like shit but the definitive version has made a lot of balance and performance improvements.
Anddddd shooting formations of infantry with cannons is fun as.
It's my least favourite of the Age games, but that's only because it's such a highly competitive field. It still ranks very highly with me. Fantastic game.
Star Wars: X-wing vs TIE Fighter
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing_vs._TIE_Fighter
I think this one was surpassed by X-Wing Alliance.
Destruction Derby 2 was loads of fun. I was going to say something like Choplifter, but I saw some video the other day that seems a perfect fit.
Not underrated, but I would love to have a next-gen SOCOM, and wouldn't say no to another Wipeout.
But hey, who doesnt need 43 new JRPGs?
Wildstar
WildStar got done dirty... It hit at the wrong time, but was so much fun. I could never get any friends to play with me. Le sigh.
The original Unreal. For me it was a perfect combination of beautiful graphics (back in the days of course) and a soundtrack which complemented and elevated the atmosphere of that game. And the gunplay was nice, with a collection of somewhat unconventional weapons. A relic from a time where developers were not afraid to experiment a bit.
@Aganim The original Deus Ex also. Its story was brilliant and prophetic in a lot of ways.
As an example of a game, that actually got its second chance: the original Half-Life. Black Mesa is brilliant. I wish, other old games like Unreal and Deus Ex would have got a remake like that.
Yes, how could I forget Deus Ex. Incredible story and again such a wonderful soundtrack, not surprising as it was also composed Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, and Dan Gardopee.
As for Half-Life, that game was also something else. But part of me resents that game a bit because it overshadowed Unreal. 😋
The crazy variety of weapons and their interactions was great. Almost everything was dangerous in the right situation.
Blob gun? Charge it up! Blue laser thing? Shoot the ball form and shoot that for a huge boom! Double pistols? Max DPS in the game with no bullet curve!
The best maps too for CTF. Yeah, I loved that game, especially for in person LAN parties.
Unreal only had a single Automag though, so either you are thinking of Unreal Tournament or you played on a modded server. Some servers did have dual automags (I've still got a mod and mutator lying around to get them in single player as well) and dual Automags (Enforcer in Unreal Tournament) did indeed dish out major punishment.
Psi-ops. That game where you play a psychic special forces guy, fighting against other psychic special forces people, who were apparently your former coworkers or some shit. The ending was a setup for the sequel, but sequel never happened, now I will never know what the story was!
Man imagine this game with a proper modern physics engine.
I mean, I guess it inspired a lot of what we see in modern physics games, so I don't really need to imagine, but still, I would play it.
Well now it actually hurts
I enjoyed Rampart tremendously back in the day. It had a lot of ports, but I'm surprised it hasn't had any remakes or clones in the last 30 years.
I had no idea Woody Harrelson was on Lemmy!
I even remember this as coin slot machine at a local arcade. It had trackballs as controllers. Truly unique.
Sounds s lot more fair than the experience I had at home!
Three kids crammed in front of one computer. One on keyboard, one on mouse and one on joystick. The one on joystick was at the worst disadvantage. A small nudge was a good way to sabotage rebuilding your fortress.
Alley Cat for sure
Cue the tune in my head. Thank you, it's so lovely. 😍
Alley Cat actually got a second chance! Look up "Alley Cat: ReMeow"
Happy to see some fellow Alley Cat fans around!
Hunter: The Reckoning on the original Xbox.
Freelancer
omg YES. Nothing I have found since then has quite scratched the same itch of flying around with a friend on some random dude's server. So much fun!
Word. The closest I found to the feel of Freelancer was X3 back in 2010, but the differences were glaring.
There this Underspace that seems to be a "Freelancer meets Cthluhu", I've yet to play the demo to get a feel of the space.
Dark cloud 2
Dark cloud 2
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner
Blast Corp 64
Metal Arms: A Glitch in the System
Dang. I thought I was the only person who had ever heard of this one. Might have to boot it up in an emulator one of these days and give it a go.
This was a great little game!
Not forgotten or obscure but... Assassin's creed 3. Yeah the main character sucks but I love the missions and map. Also has just the right amount of pirate like missions (in 4 is too much). I don't understand why people loved 4 so much the story of that game sucks lol and the villains are so forgettable.
The main character is pale in comparison to Ezio, but I don't see how he suck.
He gets bitch talked the whole game and he lost at the end anyways lol... Doesn't make for a very enjoyable character. I really like how physically blunt and badass is though.
4 had a lot of issues, bad story, trailing missions and a lot of pacing problems. But it's the best pirate game ever made. And the ship combat was great
Like I said, too much piracy, you're not even an assassin's anymore... Also funny how there's so much praise online for that game yet NOBODY mentioned the villains. They're so forgettable. In the other games, even the bad ones I can remember a face or names, 3 had some of the best actually. 4 is just a blank space.
Blur
Guild Wars 1
GW1 had a great campaign that felt good to progress though. It had some grindy stuff at the end for players that wanted to keep playing past the missions but it wasn't required. Unlike GW2 that just feels like boring grind all throughout.
I don't know if it was nostalgia, or the story, or the gameplay... But, man, I miss that game.
It's still there and playable. I read that NCsoft is currently in some financial trouble so if you want to give it another try, better start sooner than later. ;)
Empire earth
I loved that one so much! The only flaw really was that the tech tree is incredibly massive. It's feels unnecessarily difficult to learn.
Absolver. It was the precursor to Sifu, but with slightly slower and more methodical combat (more like a Soulslike, almost).
The coolest part of it is, as you play and fight players and NPCs, your character will slowly learn and unlock the moves that are used against them, which you can then put into your moveset and chain together with other moves to create your own style. If you don't want to do that, you can join a player-run school, and be given the fighting style of that school's master, which your character will learn as they use it.
The story mode is pretty short. It's mainly about PvP (although, before development stopped, it DID get a free DLC with a co-op dungeon run that's worth killing a couple of hours on). Of course, a PvP-focused game with nobody playing it isn't exactly the most entertaining thing to spend your time on, so- outside of a small collection of diehards- it pretty much stays a ghost town.
It had heart, it had ambition, and it had creativity. My friends and I were really hoping the success of Sifu would mean people might start going back and maybe breathing a little life into it, but that didn't happen. We hoped maybe they'd announce a second one, but that hasn't happened yet, either. It'll probably just be another Sifu. That one was a proven success, so it makes more sense.
The servers are still up for now. No idea how much longer it'll be supported. But, if you've got friends you can play it with, it might be worth looking into and seeing for yourself what the game offered, and what could've been.
Sentinel... From waaay back. Like, Commodore 64 age. I think it would be a perfect VR game, too.
Psygnosis did a remake in the late '90s.
There is also an indie VR game I've played that's heavily based on it, damned if I can remember the name tho. I believe it's on sidequest.
I own the remake, and I actually had a fan site for it... And got to interview John Freaking Carpenter for that fan site, as he did the music for Sentinel Returns. It was exactly as awesome as it sounds.
Wooooooaaaah. I was scrolling through looking to see if anyone was gonna mention this one.
I feel seen today. That game changed me as a kid.
It's not underrated or forgotten, but LOTR two towers.
Drakan series needs reboot. I played Drakan; Ancient gates. That game was so much fun. The seamless transition from fighting on a dragon to fighting on your feet. The next level spell casting where you had to trace out the symbol to cast. The lore felt really deep like there was a lot of secrets they never fleshed out and ever since I’ve had an itch that never got scratched.
Streets of Rage, even if it's just for the music
The original GTA, it somehow has the atmosphere of 80s/90s that only Více City could kind of replicate (and multiplayer was fun)
Streets of Rage
I thought 4 did rather well commercially?
Sigma Star Saga for the GBA. Really creative mashup of an RPG and a side-scrolling shooter, with a cool weapon-configuration system thrown in. Definitely suffered a bit from platform limitations, but there's absolutely more that could have been done with the core concept.
Shockingly good writing, too.
Recently replayed Yakuza & it very much held up
I'm currently playing Yakuza 0 and planning on playing the Kiwami editions of 1 and 2 afterwards. Would you recommend going back to the 2009 Yakuza 3 for the intended story progression after that or skip ahead?
Edit: found out about the 3-5 remasters, definitely gonna do those after Kiwami 2. Guess I have a couple of hours of aggravated assaults and saving damsels left. Gaming too 😛
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Yoku's Island Express. Before playing it, I didn't like pinball or search-action games (metroidvanias). I ended up loving it. I still don't really enjoy pinball on its own, but I now have a deep love for search-action.
It's definitely the best pinball-metroidvania postal service simulator available.
theres a great little pvp wargame sim from the sega genesis era called 'Herzog Zwei'
it was perfect in its simplicity. deserves a reboot.
I loved this game! I'd send swarms of armored cars against my brother.
kenshi is the post-apocalyptic life/ant sim that I never knew I wanted. There is no story other than what is in your head, and that's beautiful.
I want a modern Road Rash or Destruction Derby.
Road Redemption was a Road Rash-esque attempt some years ago. I remember the performance was kinda shitty, but the game was mostly fine.
Ogre Battle. I'd love to play a game like that again. I think Unicorn Overlord took some inspiration from it so I'm excited to check that out.
The original Way of the Samurai. It was really cool and unique little game. The sequels never really followed through on the best parts of the first one though unfortunately.
I want an ogre battle with advance wars theming
@mechwarrior2@hexbear.net @LaGG_3@hexbear.net get in here
wasn't super impressed with UO but I haven't gotten that far in it yet.
I'd love for there to just be more short games with branching narratives like WotS. Short games that are built to be replayed really spark something off in my brain lol.
I'm surprised with auto battler games having a moment that we haven't gotten any Ogre Battle inspired indies - just Unicorn Overlord. Still haven't played it, but it's on my to-do list.
Lugaru and Overgrowth.
xracer - A WipeOut clone (would love some development on this)
https://packages.debian.org/sid/xracer
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Sauerbraten FPS (1990s fps distilled)
I waited to see if anyone mentioned it, but, POD. A old 1997 racing game from Microsoft built by Ubisoft. You can get the gold edition on GoG for rather cheap but I would absolutely love to see a remaster or remake. Unfortunately I would rather it not be made by Ubisoft as I don’t want to be forced into a separate account login setup from Ubisoft.
Fatal Racing
Hell yeah! Never thought I'd see this mentioned anywhere. I'd love a modern take on this.
I wish Toonstruck would get its remaster and sequel.
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits Such a good game with some unique gameplay as far as tbs and rpgs go
Would love a reboot of this game
i love destroying city :)
pure wonderful button-mashy fun with just a hint of strategy. I always look for it when I visit retro arcades
also Dr. Veronica is my waifu
aaah i see, good choice tho lol
Sexy Parodius is a bit sketchy, yes. But, it's easily the most-fun shmup I've ever played. The music is fantastic, too. I've managed to 1cc the game, but I've never beaten the bonus stage which is just so ridiculously difficult, I question whether it's even possible without a very specific strategy or something.
Unfortunately, the best version is the arcade one, and MAME doesn't do the best job with it. Still playable, though.