The Most Underrated Games of the Decade

[Zetona]

I just posted on a "name the most overrated game of the decade" thread and I figured I'd create its counterpart.

I'll start by nominating Age of Mythology, completely overlooked in favor of the Age of Empires and Starcraft franchises, even though it was gorgeous, had a wonderfully-designed campaign, had four unique, customizable races, and let you use divine wrath against your enemies.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Depends on what you mean as underrated. If you mean something that got amazing reviews but sold really badly, then I'd have to go with...

drum roll please...


OKAMI!

The best Zelda game of the decade wasn't a Zelda game...

 

[Zetona]

Depends on what you mean as underrated. If you mean something that got amazing reviews but sold really badly...

Age of Mythology falls into this category, and I'd also include games you thought were great but which few others seemed to like.

 

[The_Deleted]

For me it's Shadow of Rome.
A Capcom game that was brutal and different. A one off but a game that's stayed with me since the day I discovered it.

 

[comadorcrack]

Oh gosh... well the most underrated I've played recently would be Singularity I guess... But I also thought the Godfather game was really good, but no one else seems to have played it.

 

[supermariner]

star wars: the phantom menace

it wasnt in this last decade
but it was the most underrated game of ALL TIME so deserves at least a sly mention

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

Threadspace Hyperbol. It's only truly terrible flaw is that it's a multiplayer-only game that nobody plays.

 

[The Diseased Toe]

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2... Lol, no. Sorry. I wont even continue.

I agree with the Age of Mythology. I played that game a lot, and it was epic!
Does Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds fall under this category too?

Although, for the Xbox 360, out of the many games I have played I have to say Midnight Club Los Angeles didn't get the media I thought it would.
I played that game to death, got the 1250 Gamerscore and was one of the first to get the Audi R8. Even after that I continued to play it afterwards! It's not as popular as I thought it would have been.

 

[LogicNProportion]

CHROMEHOUNDS!

It was more than just the best mech-experience of the decade, oh no. That title gave pretty much the only mech-experience in the current console generation, and SEGA went and shut down the servers way before they should have. The single-player is god-awful, and it now serves as a $60 paper-weight at the bottom of my game shelf.

I'm jonesin' for a fix. @_@

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Okami still says "Hi!".

Psychonauts and Shadow of the Colossus have had their due, but Okami still hasn't.

And it was ignored TWICE. It even had a second chance.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

X3... while not exactly the best space sim in existence it is the only one to cross over to "next gen" (that term seems to have lost weight)and it did it fairly well.

If there was a chance of the good ol space sim genre getting a reboot, it was through this... it didn't

Also, Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter. A lengthy story with an interesting plot and a good selection of fun weapons. The space combat sections were good too and the transitions were relatively groundbreaking (between space and land combat).

I want the days of Wing Commander back GOD DAMMIT!

Sins of a solar empire

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Spore: Okay, I know, they marketed it to kids after gettign us all exicted, and it wasn't an epic game, but it was amazing in scope and scale, it's editors are unmatched PERIOD outside of mods, and it has an entire GALAXY to explore.

Dark cloud 2/ dark chronicles

Sonic adventure 2 battle: everyone says all 3d sonic games suck, but this was one of the best sonic games EVER.

 

[jakko12345]

The Saboteur imo. It received mediocre reception at best but i thought it was quite brilliant

 

[Singularly Datarific]

*realizes I'm too scared to try games that are not guaranteed to be worth it*
uh- uh- um-
well...
Actually, I really liked Spiderman 2, although it wasn't exactly underrated.
What else-
Hmmm.
I remember I got into those Tony Hawk games waaay too much (2nd is still the best one), and I played a decent amount of Tribes 2, a game entirely overshadowed by HL2.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Depends on what you mean as underrated. If you mean something that got amazing reviews but sold really badly, then I'd have to go with...

drum roll please...


OKAMI!

The best Zelda game of the decade wasn't a Zelda game...

I fucking love Okami. What a little gem. Played it right through twice, all 50+ hours.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

For me it probably was The Darkness, though I'm unaware as to how far the acclaim goes. I find it to be an absolutely stunning game, and one of my favorites on the 360.

It got good reviews, that one. And it seems to be held in pretty high regard around these parts too.

I enjoyed it a lot, very very bleak though... hard to play all at once.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

star wars: the phantom menace

it wasnt in this last decade
but it was the most underrated game of ALL TIME so deserves at least a sly mention

Well you answered it yourself by saying it wasn't in this decade, but I kind of agree. The story is just as shallow in the game, but it makes the movie actually seem like it was good and had some lasting value. It was definitely the best of the movie tie-in games. Good stuff.

Going to have to go with Planescape: Torment. I can't say enough good things about that game. Despite being released at the very beginning of the decade as a show of what this entire new generation of games could be, it seems like we started taking a lot less risks artistically. I not only think that a better gaming experience hasn't been crafted, but there are only a handful of games that are anything like it (Kotor II and Arcanum come to mind, also underrated games of this decade).

 

[zxcxczczx]

I liked TimeSplitters A LOT.

Never got any ps3/360 support.

So that's my vote.