Great Obscure Games

[Vern5]

I am a procurer of games but I hardly every buy mainstream titles unless they seriously impress me. Instead, I have taken to locating different kinds of games, obscure titles that have plenty of entertainment value and wonderful gameplay but little success due to being too niche or just not receiving enough promotion. I'm talking about obscure titles.

Space Rangers 2: a great game that manages to incorporate a lot of different game modes, from RTS to text-adventures. It's clever and unique enough to be a great game, if a little unfocused.

Drakensang The River of Time: Another great game that might remind a lot of players of Dragon Age. However, there are more than a few differences and this game reminds me more of Icewind Dale crossed with Fallout: New Vegas. There is a lot of tactical cRPG combat but more than a few skill-dependent conversations that can open up a variety of options (including talking your way out of quests or fights) in how you approach the game. Love it or hate it, it's definitely not bad.

Startopia: Build up a space station that will cater to the needs of millions of aliens as a rest stop, hospital and prison all in one. Think of those tycoon games. Now think of Douglas Adams. Now think of what would happen if you blend those elements together and you have Startopia.

Uplink: I've been called a hacker a lot (so maybe I've been playing Counterstrike too long) but this is the first time I've ever felt like one. And not like on of those criminal jackasses who mess with facebook accounts and bombard people with pop-up ads. I'm talking about Cinematic thievery like Ocean's 11. This is the best and only game that sets you up as an international hacking Agent and it is probably the most immersive game that currently exists.

Those are the first few off the top of my head. Name some more obscure titles for your fellow escapists to explore.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Defining obscure is hard.

Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus...those AREN'T obscure. That much is certain.

But I gotta mention Lock's Quest for the DS. The biggest publicity that ever saw is a newspost in Penny Arcade.

 

[Sp3ratus]

I'll suggest 2 older titles that are still a lot of time and ones that I have spent a lot of time on, especially this first one:

Lode Runner 2. The goal is simple; collect the gold in the level, avoid being killed and get to the exit. At first it's easy, but later levels become increasingly hard. On top of that, there's a timer and scores to beat and when you beat those scores, why not challenge yourself and see if you can do even better? It's really a lot of fun when you figure it out. I have a review handy here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.258922-A-look-at-the-past-Lode-Runner-2 if you're more interested.

My other game is Moho, about imprisoned criminal robots in the future, figthing for a chance to be set free. Sounds bizarre, but the many different game modes and levels are quite fun and again, there are timers in the different levels, adding a lot to the reload value. Another review, if that interest you: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.259075-A-look-at-the-past-Moho

EDIT: Oh, I just thought of another game. Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood. A great and very fun game. It's a lot like Commandos and Desperados, the gameplay is very much the same as in those two games with controlling characters, avoid the guards/knocking them out, sneaking your way into a place, most of the time a castle and do perform some objective like rescuing a hostage or stealing money or something else. It's not exactly new, but it's not ugly to look at, in part because of the beautiful handdrawn backgrounds. I don't have any review for that, but I would definitely recommend it.

 

[onikaze26]

does advent rising count? awesom

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

Not sure how far back I can go but I'll assume that Xbox is fair game.

Voodoo Vince. Painfully Obscure Xbox Exclusive Platformer which I rank slightly above Beyond Good and Evil and slightly below Psychonauts in terms of "Xbox Platformers."

 

[Nmil-ek]

Defining obscure is hard.

Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus...those AREN'T obscure. That much is certain.

But I gotta mention Lock's Quest for the DS. The biggest publicity that ever saw is a newspost in Penny Arcade.

Obscure enough that if you aren't a game media follower/casual gamer you probably have never heard of them.

The Spellforce games are a fantstic little RTS/RPG combo never played anything quite like them before, but the disc versions had some of the worst copy portection ever.

Throne of Darkness was a decent Diablo clone, really not much to it Diablo with samurais in feudal Japan although there were computer controlled allies you could switch to at any time a little like Dungeon Siege.

Only other obscure title I own is Anachronox a PC sci-fi JRPG that was actually pretty good runs like shit on anything past windows XP though, and La Pucelle Tactics for the PS2 if anyone likes Nippon ICHI titles it's well worth finding despite the price gouging that it's subject to online.

 

[DustyDrB]

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is pretty good game. I just wish the lighting and voice acting were better.

 

[moretimethansense]

The Void:
You play a recently deceased individual that has entered The Void.
The Void used to be filled with colour but the Brothers and sisters squandered it, colour doesn't like to be wasted.
You're givven one of the sisters hearts, a method through which to harvest, and bestow colour, and you must try to pass as a brother in order to avoid your destruction.
This game is very fucking pretty, fairly simple, but remarkebly hard to play as you must keep at least one of your heats filled with colour lest you simply fade away.

Iji:
A metroid style free indie game, where you play Iji, a young woman that was injured during an alien invaion that killed mch of humanity, while she was in a coma her brother and a team of scientists augmented her with the aliens tech so she could be their last hope.

Sounds standard so far doesn't it?
But this game is brilliant, it has a somewhat subtle morality system, multiple endings and and a shitload of text in the form of the aliens diarys and reports, which change dependin on how you play and the desicions you make.
It also has a damn good soundtrack.

 

[bootz]

2001, Anachronox was pretty good CRPG final Fantasy in a Space setting

 

[TornadoFive]

Time Hollow for the DS. A fantastic story about time paradoxes. Admittedly, the gameplay is just "go here, talk to them, click that, move on" and the story is always the same, so no replay value. But the story . . . damn, it's good.

And the kick-ass theme song doesn't hurt either!

Spoiler: The theme song . . if you're interested

 

[Pat728]

Fire emblem 4 and fire emblem 5. Both were for the snes and weren't released outside of japan.

 

[Defense]

NieR isn't "indie game" obscure, but it's never talked about. It's one of those games that once you look past some of their flaws, you'll see the AAA content.

 

[Gill Kaiser]

Sacrifice
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Psychonauts

They're not obscure per se, but they were all commercial failures. And they're all brilliant.

 

[Blemontea]

Indie
The Path

Classic
Drakengard
Mega Man X (personally)

Ipod
Bubble bust
Thief Lupin

 

[scyther250]

Baten Kaitos was fairly obscure, but amazing once you got over the voice acting.

 

[Telumektar]

Sanitarium - It's a point-and-click adventure game released in 1998 I think. I haven't heard much from this game even in gaming forums.
It's a psychollogical thriller, from Wikipedia :

Sanitarium tells the story of Max Laughton, a man who suffers from amnesia after getting in an car accident and awakening in an asylum. As the story progresses, Max frantically tries to unveil the details of his institutionalization and the search for his own identity.

I think it's a teriffic game, the story is great, the way it's told and how it gets deeper and wackier but always being somehow connected to the character's past.

Little Big Adventure 2: Twinsen's Odyssey - It's an adventure game released in 1997, it uses 3D for characters and outdoor locations and 2D for indoor spaces. It may look a bit childish but it's just incredibly engaging, plus, it's graphics are not that outdated.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Secret of Evermore. A Secret of Mana clone, to be sure, but it was still a great game, IMO.

 

[Judgement101]

Ok, I'm sorry but Ihave to ask this: What the hell makes a game "obscure"?