Under-appreciated games that you enjoyed anyway.

[mainer]

Maybe a game got mediocre or negative reviews. Maybe it didn't sell well and was a financial flop. Maybe it got trashed on gaming forums or other social media sites. Maybe it had certain technical or gameplay issues. Or any combination of the above. But the one unifying factor is, you were able to overlook the public negativity and/or the flaws, and really enjoyed the game anyway. I'll list a few of mine to start.

Mass Effect Andromeda: The recent PCG article (that I linked in the May 2023 PCG article thread) is what inspired me to make this post. A game with a troubled development, changes in direction, changes in game engine, and overall negative reception and sales, and disappointing when compared to the previous 3 ME games. But the gameplay and combat were excellent, even though the story wasn't as Indepth as the first 3 ME games.

Prey (2017): It's prevalent in my mind now because I'm currently playing it. I don't remember what the original reviews were, but I know it didn't sell well. That's a shame, because it's a very immersive experience (and very RPG-like), but the slow beginning and player progression in the early parts may have discouraged some players, but I'm really loving the experience.

Elex 1 & 2: Piranha Byes games are always getting trashed in reviews, bashed in forums, and often labeled as "euro-jank", a term that I find completely derogatory and regionally-racist. Piranha Bytes has made some of the best RPGs I've ever played, and the Elex games were great open world RPG experiences. Often brutally hard in the beginning, but really immersive as you learned to survive and build your character.

Sacred 2: Why wasn't this game better received? It's a massive world ARPG with multiple environments outdoor and indoor and a variety of choices in character types and skill choices. In my opinion, it's a better game than any of the Diablo games.

Those are a few of mine, what are yours? I'm sure you guys have a few games you've enjoyed that weren't popular for variouse reasons.

 

[Brian Boru]

Far Cry Primal & FC New Dawn are the ones which immediately spring to mind. I suspect it was the lack of guns & explosives which got Primal relatively low scores, because it's a fine game. While New Dawn has the worst antagonists of all FC, it has lots of fun gameplay.

Another possible issue is that both these utilized revamped map portions from FC4 & FC5 respectively. There's a big fetish among reviewers against continuing or repurposing anything which was a success previously—must be different, else it's bad! Pretty silly, but it is what it is.

 

[Johnway]

I'm going to say it, but the thief series was criminally under looked back in the day. TTLG studios made brilliant games and got universal praise and yet it sold poorly. It was tragic.

 

[Zloth]

The Thief games sold poorly!? That's really sad - those were fun and unique!

• Sacrifice. Good reviews but it wasn't as popular as I think it should have been. A rare 3rd Person RTS. (It's also pretty rare that I would enjoy an RTS game.)
• BattleZone. As long as I'm thinking of 3D RTS games. This one is heavy on the action. (On the minus side, it's old school: meaning you just have to keep trying strategies until one works out.) You might be better off with Battlezone: Commander?
• The Last Remnant. A really unique JRPG first made for the XBox 360. Unfortunately, it barely fit on the console. When it came to PC, they improved the game a lot and folded the DLC into the game proper, which worked far better - but it was too late. The word was out that the game was in bad shape and Square didn't seem very interested in the game anymore. Then, a few years ago, they suddenly released a PS4 version, where it did pretty poorly by the looks of Meta. To boost PS4 sales (? maybe?) they halted sales on Steam for PC. What a mess.
• Lost Odyssey. Another XBOX 360 JRPG ... oh wait, that never came out for PC! Never mind.
• X: Rebirth. The X series is already niche, but when this game came out, it was a TERRIBLE mess. After years of additional work, though, plus some DLC, plus some critical mods, the game was quite fun. It's still the game even the niche it serves doesn't like to talk about, though.
• Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 4. Great strategy games that are similar to XCOM but with a much different graphic style, 3D, and a story. I pretty bad story in the first game, but 4's story worked well enough. (2 and 3 were very different games that never showed up in the USA, to my knowledge.)
• Mad Max. This one is becoming a cult hit. You better play it before everyone else does!
• And you all know this one is coming... Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children.

I would have said Death Stranding, too, but Epic keeps giving the game away so I expect most people who would likely enjoy it have at least gotten a chance to play it.

 

[PCG Dash]

Sacrifice. Good reviews but it wasn't as popular as I think it should have been. A rare 3rd Person RTS.

Sacrifice looks great and I'd love to try it. Do you happen to know whether the Steam version actually works on modern hardware or will I be better off getting it on GOG?

 

[Brian Boru]

Sacrifice … Do you happen to know whether the Steam version actually works on modern hardware

Have a look at this, sounds like it could be ok on Steam—but other threads report problems.

Does the game works good on modern systems? :: Sacrifice General Discussions

Or it requires fixes?

steamcommunity.com

 

[Slasken]

Tropico 5. I even liked the campaign.

 

[Frindis]

PUBG. It's not perfect by a long shot, but there is a lot of cool stuff to enjoy. One of them is the glider which is a wonderful tool to use for getting on high ground for sniper positions, for trolling people, or doing stunts like flying under bridges. Me having some fun using the glider:

View: https://youtu.be/cETjOGNAsGQ

 

[PCG Dash]

Have a look at this, sounds like it could be ok on Steam—but other threads report problems.

Thanks for this! Looks like I'll just have to give it a go and see if I'm one of the lucky ones - at least I've always got the good ol' Steam refund to fall back on 😅

 

[Pifanjr]

See also

Question - What are some games you enjoy that are usually panned by players?

What are some games you enjoy that are usually panned by players? Perhaps it’s a “so-bad-its-good” type of game, or this game scratches some particular itch in your brains dopamine receptors that most other people don’t get. For me, Watch Dogs 2 is almost a guilty pleasure game. I know that...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Zimbaly]

Ultima 8 - the game for some reason is so hated, and I absolutely loved it. I just always felt this was the first "Diablo" game to me.

Mass Effect Andromeda - this one for me too. People pan this game, but after the ME3 ending I could care less if things were a little off. I just spent 100's of hours for that ending, through multiple games..... well screw it then. MEA had some room to be crap with me. I still enjoy it.

Far Cry Blood Dragon - no one ever mentions it's name it seems, but to me this is more a Far Cry 1 sequel then any of the other games, FC2 *hated it*, FC3 *hated it*, 4 is meh along with 5, 6 is great so far and I loved primal, but my god.... the vibe, music and stupidity of Blood Dragon makes me appreciate having grown up in the 80's so I could have this game to love later on. One of my fav theme songs for a game.

 

[mainer]

See also

Question - What are some games you enjoy that are usually panned by players?

What are some games you enjoy that are usually panned by players? Perhaps it’s a “so-bad-its-good” type of game, or this game scratches some particular itch in your brains dopamine receptors that most other people don’t get. For me, Watch Dogs 2 is almost a guilty pleasure game. I know that...

forums.pcgamer.com

Yeah, I wish I'd remembered that thread, then I wouldn't have made a near identical post. I looked around before I posted, but somehow missed it. Moderators: feel free to delete my thread if you feel it's too close to being a duplicate

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I think being panned by players is different to being underappreciated. No rule about it anyway, duplicates or similar questions are always going to come up over time. Some answers might be the same or the question might catch someone in a different mood...

Cultist Simulator had a Metacritic of 71 apparently. Fun and as far as I know when it released unique, its a card game with a dreamy ethereal soundtrack and sound design in general which really helps to set the mood. Stacklands had a similar style of gameplay, but I prefered the Lovecraftian weirdness of Cultist Simulator.

XCom Chimera Squad. I didnt care for the story and characters which seemed to be aimed at a younger demographic, but I enjoyed the more tailored mission based progression of the game and the tweaks to the XCom 2 gameplay. Probably lacks some replayability compared to the XCom which people count against it.

Dying Light 2. Critics thought it was OK but Dying Light fans it seems mostly hated it at release. No interest for me in doing anything other than playing through the single player campaign, and as far as that goes it was a good game. The movement including the parkour is still tense and exciting, even if it doesnt feel as threatening as the first game to be out at night.

I liked Tyranny better than most other isometric RPGs in the last 10-15 years, its between that and Divinity OS2 for me. Not many others seem to be as into it, but the story and setting was well written and had some unusual ideas compared to most other stuff in the genre.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Have fond memories of playing through it multiple times with a friend on the Dreamcast. Not really a fan of the series, have dropped in and out of it but seems its the RE game thats basically forgotten about. Very dated now, but so are the first 3 games and people still talk about them more. I also played Resident Evil 5 and thought it was pretty good when it came out.

Shout outs to Ready 2 Rumbleboxing and Power Stone on the Dreamcast while I'm thinking back to that time. Some of the best local co-op games of the time that suffered because no one bought Dreamcasts. Also some people seem to hate on Bioshock Infinite these days, but I liked it a lot on release and played it through twice which is unusual.

 

[Johnway]

The Thief games sold poorly!? That's really sad - those were fun and unique!

i don't have the numbers, but before the time of digital downloads and only released on the pc, lets just say trying to find a copy was tough. i got the gold edition and i felt like a winner as it was so rare. Plus it wasn't much talked about apart from more dedicated pc gamers. hell, in my gaming circles no one ever heard of it. Quake, doom, UT, MGS etc but not thief. I suppose it sold well enough to for a sequel but after that TTLG studios closed up shop and i was devastated.

Sacrifice. Good reviews but it wasn't as popular as I think it should have been. A rare 3rd Person RTS. (It's also pretty rare that I would enjoy an RTS game.)

i saw good reviews for this game and i have played it. For some reason it never really clicked for me. Perhaps it was because it felt really light when it came to the gameplay department. There wasn't really much strategy involved and you were more just casting spells and hoping for the best. it had it moments but meh, wasn't quite an RTS game, wasn't quite a 3rd person action game.

Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 4. Great strategy games that are similar to XCOM but with a much different graphic style, 3D, and a story. I pretty bad story in the first game, but 4's story worked well enough. (2 and 3 were very different games that never showed up in the USA, to my knowledge.)

Valkyria 2 did make it to western shores, but it was a PSP release and it was pretty rare to see a copy. You can buy it for psp/ps vita for like 10 quid. VC3 didn't make it to western shores and was japen exclusive. That said, you can emulate it with an english translation/sub.

I think VC2 and 3 are due a remaster, but the limitations of the hardware would probably suggest a full remake is needed. The maps were tiny, There was a hard cap on the number of units you could deploy in each zone and in battle. The second issue was the repetitive nature of VC2. Each month you had to take part in some grindy missions before you unlocked more maps + story. You'll be visiting previous maps with some alarming frequency. A bit of a shame as there the side stuff like school life was interesting enough. i never finished it as i found it too grindy. I may go back to it one day, but god damn it indestructible knights made the game tedious.

Speaking of VC i have a mixed feelings for that game. Most of it just makes me cringe or just grind my teeth in frustration/embarrassment to play. So much so i was wondering if i could come up with an Imperial faction for an imaginary VC5 where we played as an imperial squad of sorts. Didn't get too far with brainstorming tbh as i was practicing other art stuff.

 

[Frag Maniac]

The main one that comes to mind, because many bashed it just for the at times cheeky dialog it had, is Wolfenstein Youngblood. Mainly because it's one of the titles I've been considering playing again after having recently gone through all of Machine Games other Wolfenstein titles again recently.

At first I was a bit put off by the need to find codes to open crates, and the retracing of areas, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it. I am really looking forward to Wolfenstein III, but I am also very anxious for the Indiana Jones title they are said to be working on.

 

[Zloth]

Speaking of VC i have a mixed feelings for that game. Most of it just makes me cringe or just grind my teeth in frustration/embarrassment to play.

Huh? Why would you...

Well, OK... but at least the 4th one loses the child soldiers! (Mmmm.... bacon)

Thanks for this! Looks like I'll just have to give it a go and see if I'm one of the lucky ones - at least I've always got the good ol' Steam refund to fall back on 😅

The GOG version of Sacrifice works fine for me.

 

[Johnway]

Well, OK... but at least the 4th one loses the child soldiers! (Mmmm.... bacon)

My biggest gripe of the VC series how the whole thing felt like a saturday morning cartoon and with all the flaws that come with being one. The oversimplified PG plot filled with holes, the cheap ideas, meh scripting, the anime troupes, animal mascots, cartoon villains. The times it tried to get some hard hitting / harsh reality credibility (that war was bad just) came across as awfully executed in my eyes. like Faldo's sacrifice at the end was both stupid, needless and unintentionally funny in a crap way. There are were a couple points in the game i could mention that annoyed the hell out of me.

VC2 story i had no problems, it was quite literally school kids waging war. Set 2 years after the first game, Gallia is in the grip of a civil war with rebels who want to exterminate the darcsens and couldn't accept the truth behind the gallian royalty. To top it off it seems like the federation (you know the good guys in VC4) were funding the rebels... The story was much more about school life rather then hard hitting war is bad. But that said, i haven't completed it, so plenty of time to see it all fall apart... That said the characters were much more fleshed out, you could talk to every squad member and they interacted with each other etc, unlike VC1 where they were pretty superficial. VC3 and 4 might have improved things but i'm in no rush to play them yet.

Outside the game, the gameplay mechanics didn't really gel well together imo. An example was the cover system. besides sandbags and tall grass, there was very little else you could use for cover or classed as cover. The real time mechanics seemed flawed as well and the AI seemed to realize this as well. As soon as it would select a unit and was immediately under fire it would immediately end its turn to avoid taking damage. perhaps its to show the unit is pinned/under fire or there's something wrong with the mechanics.

Since i'm here, i'll add another game to the list. World in Conflict by massive. I absolutely loved it and i consider it probably one of my fav RTS games. No tedious base building, manageable controls, a decent storyline and more importantly it was fun. Resources were always trickling in and you were just let loose with special attacks as i deployed cluster bombs, air strikes artillery etc into attacks. Whilst the story wraps up the invasion of the US, the whole WW3 doesn't get resolved, europe is still at war and promised war in the pacific. Shame.

 

[Zloth]

My biggest gripe of the VC series how the whole thing felt like a saturday morning cartoon and with all the flaws that come with being one.

Ugh, yeah, that sort of thing shows up a lot in JRPGs. Even in games that are really not something I would let kids play. It seems like they try to include something for everyone. Here in the West, we take it down to the lowest age, so "fun for the whole family" really means "fun for 5 year old kids with a little nod here and there to adult subjects if you're lucky." In the Japanese games, though, you never know what's going to show up. A soft porn scene could be followed by a cute puppy doing something cute, which gets followed by a hard-as-nails boss fight. Fun for everyone in the family, again, but you might just want one person in the room at a time instead of just having the 5 year old watch while everyone else falls asleep.

 

[Johnway]

Ugh, yeah, that sort of thing shows up a lot in JRPGs. Even in games that are really not something I would let kids play. It seems like they try to include something for everyone. Here in the West, we take it down to the lowest age, so "fun for the whole family" really means "fun for 5 year old kids with a little nod here and there to adult subjects if you're lucky." In the Japanese games, though, you never know what's going to show up. A soft porn scene could be followed by a cute puppy doing something cute, which gets followed by a hard-as-nails boss fight. Fun for everyone in the family, again, but you might just want one person in the room at a time instead of just having the 5 year old watch while everyone else falls asleep.

My guess is fan service and generally thats a bad sign when it comes to anime.*

They could make a mature child friendly story (see studio ghibli's stuff) but because they were hacks, the whole thing was executed poorly. Instead relying on fan service, cliche's (lets call the land Europa!) and naff ideas. Its not helped that the whole subject of war/ war is bad/ this world war is utterly pointless and futile/ anti war etc is a difficult subject matter to do right, even if you were being serious.

* side note: Reminds me of highschool of the dead - brilliant zombie horror, but spread throughout is fan service that it didn't really need. The horror stuff was good enough to hold the whole thing up.