Top 5 Underrated Games (+ 1 Honorable Mention!)
This list compiles 5 of the most vastly underrated games I can think of. These games were either quickly forgotten about, abandoned or disregarded by game journalists and critics.
List items
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Being that this is my first Prince of Persia game, I may have some natural bias towards it. Regardless, a lot of people missed out on this game.
Prince of Persia is a reboot first and foremost. It has simply beautiful graphics, an amazing soundtrack, and a story filled to the brim with potential. The game also introduces a semi-open world structure which works well with the rest of the overall experience and doesn't get in the way of what makes a Prince of Persia game so unique.
Unfortunately, Prince of Persia has some issues. Firstly the combat sections were too easy since you practically can never die in this game, the Prince character here is in essence just another Nathan Drake wannabe, and then you have the DLC which includes the ending to the game that doesn't really resolve anything - leaving the story on an inconclusive cliffhanger.
It seems that this game went under the radar shortly after release. Perhaps this game's sad demise was to do with the success of the Assassin's Creed series later down the road. If only we could get a real ending to wrap things together...
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A bit dated to say the least, but a strong proof of concept nonetheless.
Call of Juarez had a lot going for it, and is on-par with games like the original Far Cry in terms of depth and value. The storyline is easy-to-follow yet fulfilling and works well alongside the 2 playable protagonists. Some missions offer memorable set-pieces and the graphics look quite good for the time it came out.
Granted there are some things here in this game that don't work so well, some missions offer cryptic objectives and the stealth mechanics are not too great. There's also some sub-par voice acting here and there that sounds straight out of an old-school Western movie - but perhaps the whole point was to be a homage to the genre.
When it first released, Call of Juarez received lukewarm reception to say the least and faded into obscurity by the time it came out on Xbox 360. Whereas the prequel (Call of Juarez 2: Bound in Blood) is more well-received and is much stronger overall, its best not to ignore the original that started it all.
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This game is quite polarizing for me, I love the concept but hate the execution.
Test Drive Unlimited advertised itself as a MOOR (Massively Online Open Racing) game, and offered a sizeable map and plenty of in-game content to utilize. You can customize your own character, buy rides suited to your tastes and even buy homes - sort of reminiscent of social simulation games like Second Life.
While I admire the game's social aspect, especially during its heyday, its practically pointless now since the game's official servers have been down now for several years. This game is clear-cut proof that online games do not last forever, which is why the online component for a game should be a minor factor towards a game's longevity. Personally, I've always believed that single-player always triumphs over multiplayer - despite multiplayer being a great way to connect with friends and meet other people.
Test Drive Unlimited released to mixed reviews across the board, and would quickly befell under the shadow of practically similar games such as Project Gotham Racing and Midnight Club. In spite of this, TDU has a semi-active community that is consistently updating this game through mods and patches. Maybe online games aren't so bad after all.
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If you forget the fact that this is a Banjo-Kazooie game, you'll find something pretty good here.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts has extensive vehicle customization on the same level as LittleBigPlanet, and has a good graphical style that I know may put off some old-school N64 gamers, but I feel is close in spirit to what we had back then. There's also some good fourth wall breaks here and there that didn't fail to make me laugh somewhat. This is one of the few games on Xbox I can think of that really inspires you to think creatively, which is a key reason as to why I placed it on this list.
Regardless, this game has some glaring issues. Banjo-Kazooie was not made to be a vehicle customization game, and platforming here is next to non-existent. There are also some issues with the customization system / navigation being a bit confusing as well as the tacky multiplayer component.
As with most of Rare's first few games on Xbox (i.e. Grabbed By the Ghoulies and Viva Pinata), this one also didn't perform so well commercially - and forced the company to restructure itself into making Kinect games for a period of time. Unfortunately, we may never see a true sequel to Banjo-Kazooie ever again. It seems however that Rare never forgot about this game (or the series in general), and decided to include it with the Rare Replay collection on Xbox One. I urge anyone reading this to give it a try if you haven't already, you may be pleasantly surprised - but not before playing the classics that this game came from.
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Maybe not as underrated as I thought it would be, but sort of had a poor reception at launch so I'm making it count on the list.
Just Cause 3 is pure sandbox mayhem and a significant improvement over the previous entries to this series. A large open-world map to explore freely, a huge variety of vehicles and weapons available to use, and on top of everything else - a wingsuit combined with a grappling hook and parachute. For the hardcore open-world / sandbox lover like myself, what's not to love?
Obviously this game is not perfect, especially so at launch. This game was notoriously buggy and poorly optimized for consoles - significantly for Xbox One. The game's story is just a complete rehash of the previous two games despite the interesting characters and setting.
Shortly after release, Just Cause 3 had some fame and coverage on YouTube then its popularly slowly died off. There was also an in-game challenge which would reward a "lucky" player with a real-world island that would cost much more than was worth. Despite this, Just Cause 3 is surprisingly well liked among the Just Cause community and still receives attention to this day. So I guess this game is not as underrated as I thought it would be, hence why its the lowest game on this list.
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(HONORABLE MENTION)
I'm a huge movie buff more so than a gamer nowadays (I don't often play modern games, I tend to stick to stuff from my era), so it's always a treat to play games where you can make your very own movies.
- More to be added -
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