Hidden Gems

[UtopiaV1]

Hmmm, hidden gems? You tried Ground Control? Nearly a decade old and still is better than 98% of all strategy games out there.

Well, the first one was. The second was a rip.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/nov07/g004.jpg

 

[Luke5515]

Amazing Island

 

[NuclearPenguin]

There is a fine line between hidden gems and well loved classics. The older Microprose (MoM, MoO, X-Com) and Looking Glass (Thief, System Shock I/II) were all popular enough at the time that they only count as hidden insofar as most of the current generation has never played them. My problem is that I always fall into this trap. Disclaimer now out of the way. . .

Most Atlus PS1 and PS2 (Brigandine, Tactics Ogre, Disgaea I and II) have serious cult followings and are always hard to get your hands on after the first release. Arcanum for the PC, a steampunk RPG done by the team that did Fallout. Summoner and Summoner 2 rarely come up in conversation but were both very good RPGs.

Arcanum isnt a hidden gem. Its a gem. Its a bloody diamond, but not a hidden gem.

 

[RobbinHood]

I'm gonna sport some Bungie love and bring up Oni. I may as well put Myth down also.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Contact for the DS. It's a nifty little RPG with some pretty cool ideas, not to mention some great artwork.

Is it? I almost bought it the other day for a ten spot. I might have to go back and pick it up.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Also, let me humbly suggest everyone reading this thread to do whatever they can to get copies of both "Freedom Force" games. So amazing. This is how comic book games should be done.

 

[Americana12]

Phsyconaughts and Beyond Good and Evil were good games that were never widely popular

 

[Jhereg42]

Arcanum isnt a hidden gem. Its a gem. Its a bloody diamond, but not a hidden gem.

Most of the time when I talk to other gamers they've never heard of the thing. I guess "hidden" is all a matter of context.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Arcanum isnt a hidden gem. Its a gem. Its a bloody diamond, but not a hidden gem.

Most of the time when I talk to other gamers they've never heard of the thing. I guess "hidden" is all a matter of context.

Extremely popular afaik

 

[The Real Sandman]

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Spoiler

Hells highway isnt a hidden gem. Saints Row 2 Isnt a hidden gem. S.T.A.L.K.E.R isnt a hidden gem.

 

[sarcastic]

For 360 owners: Check out 'Slingstar' in the indi games section.

PLEASE KEEP READING.

It's like if you crossed Geometry Wars with Peggle, but in no way derrivitive like that might sound.

I'd recommend it to anyone, particularly fans of anything like Geometry Wars who are looking for something different. Within that genre, it's about the most innovative thing I've seen in a long time. And it's a dollar. It looks nice, simple and fetching. Please buy it.

And no, I didn't make it. I pimp it because it's a great game and the makers should be appreciate for it.

Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1v-l2JhFCI

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

dk if its really talked about or been mentioned..but

star wars : shadow of the empire for n64

i loved the game and the ship levels i easily played a 100 times over, although the ig-88 battle was ridiculous as he had the most obscure jumps i have ever seen and WAY OP flamethrower while your left with a little laser pointer of a gun..

 

[senorcromas]

Jump Ultimate Stars. It's hidden, all right... behind a LANGUAGE BARRIER.

 

[lvl9000_woot]

"Torchlight: The hidden gem at E3 2009."

In all honesty, I could list countless games that not many people have heard of, but it would be irrelevant. Many games that aren't popular are generally for a reason - the good ones usually have their occult following, like Okami and Shadow of the Colossus.

That said...

Tachyon: The Fringe - I'd call it a gem, but that's personal taste. It had its problems, but they didn't matter to have a real successor to Wing Commander. The storyline was a bit generic, but in 2003, it was pretty sweet.

Freekstyle - This game was basically SSX Tricky on dirtbikes, which if doesn't strike you as awesome, it had a great combo system to encourage variation in tricks, better than SSX's "do flips and spin this way while grabbing, do flips and spin THAT way while grabbing..." at a competitive level (ie: perfect play.)

Original War - I cannot express how awesome this game is. It's an RTS where your buildings don't magically produce an infinite number of clone armies and your clone army goes against enemy infantry that are abstracted to the cost of 100 tiberium credits or 50 minerals. All of your soldiers are soldiers. If they die, they die. They have stats, skills, you can change their roles around (ie: send one into a barracks to equip certain weaponry, send one into a factory to start building a vehicle, etc.) and the theme is great: Russians vs the rest of the world in a time-travel battle. The characters start to grow on you over time, and a lot of the gadgets your units build/research/equip are pretty cool.

X-Com is fairly popular here, as are its sequels.
Same with Heroes of Might and Magic.

However, Master of Orion doesn't get enough love, neither does Master of Magic. MoM feels more like a civilization mod while MoO I and II were the predecessors for games like Armada 2526, Sins of a Solar Empire (to a point), and Galactic Civilizations.

Jill of the Jungle and Commander Keen...
Raptor: Call of the Shadows...
CyClones - very innovative FPS for its time (1993? 1994?), your mouse aims the crosshair, not where you turn. the numpad 4568 is turning, 7 and 9 are strafing, so you can turn right while strafing left while moving the mouse to circlestrafe a target that isn't directly in front of you. If this sounds complicated and painful, it is, but once you get used to it, you wish it caught on... I changed the controls to WASD and QE for strafing.

CornCob 3D doesn't really stand up today, but I loved it.
OH!
Warlords 2, there's a good one. All people cared about was Warlords Battlecry, and even that's kind of a 'hidden gem.'

Also, people saying WoW's world is big, or Oblivion's world being big... They need to play Daggerfall, end of story.

I think I've said enough, no one will read and care, but I could go on and on and on...No one plays shit I like.

Go Bruce Campbell! I enjoyed that game too!

Also, the games:

Odium http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-games/odium-pc/4505-9696_7-30975298.html

Nox http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/nox/index.html

Good stuff IMO

 

[madman485]

custom robo arena
final fantasy: crystal chronicles
and two of my favourite genesis games (dont know if you'd call them hidden gems, but they were when i played them)
road rash
california games