...by wich i mean not overlooked or "WHY ISN'T THIS AN 89 ON METACRITIC WHEN IT SHOULD BE A 90", but games i do actually regard as underrated as the vocal internet gaming community either hate or don't care about them (In general, not literally all of them).
No Top List, it's unordered. Feel free to name some of your "odd" favorites or try to explain to me why my opinions suck, as long as you keep it civil.
RANDOM NEGATIVE METACRITIC USER COMMENT:
"[...]this game took the ONLY stealth series available and steals it from us. Even if this is the best game youve played this year its still worth considering that because it was released as a splinter cell game it spells the end for the true stealth game genre."
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The entry in the Splinter Cell Series most (in)famously known for having a Level where you absolutely cannot sneak and play a Third-Person-Cover-Shooting interpretation of Call of Duty Modern Warfare instead.
And, yes, that level is awful and from what i've personally played, quite possibly the worst in the entire Splinter Cell Series.
However, most people judged the rest of the entire game also by making it too easy to just shoot your way through the levels and be done with it.
But, once you dare actually play it as a stealth game, you may find that Splinter Cell Conviction actually did a whole bunch of things that modernized what even with the rather unusual "Double Agent" was doomed to become an increasingly stale formula.
Getting rid of a somewhat sluggish but deliberate pace, stupid "Three Strike Rules" and many of it's sci-fi-spy gadgetery, Splinter Cell Conviction was more agile and much more direct, while giving those who still wanted to be stealthy much more clarity.
As a result, the Game had certainly become easier, but for me personally, more interesting to not only finish, but "master".
Sometimes deliberately letting enemies catch glimpses of you only to flank them from where they don't look, quickly making your way from guard to guard, picking them of one by one like a more grounded Batman, or using the cheaty-yet-awesome mark and execute feature to clear a room in seconds...it makes you feel pretty badass.
Also welcome was the depature from a more military setting to a somewhat more personal story (clearly inspired by the "Bourne" Movies, wich Conviction was once even closer to in Style and Gameplay) that led to several interesting, sometimes even urban locations and scenarios, and a robust Co-Op Multiplayer Campaign that never felt like an afterthought, despite being pretty divorced from the main storyline.
Needless to say, i had a lot of fun with it and only could shake my head in confusion when people said that Splinter Cell turned into a Shooter or something. Except when i played that one level, of course.
RANDOM NEGATIVE METACRITIC USER COMMENT:
"This really didn't do it for me. I'm such a huge fan of the original and SH3. This game felt like a step backwards. It was a interesting twist over the original, but average at best. It has a creepy feel to it, but the maze like chase sequences get old fast. The game has no weapons. Graphically is inferior to Silent Hill 3. I would have preferred a remake done in the same vein as REmake with the same gameplay as SH3. That's just wishful thinking."
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Okay, this one actually is a bit more overlooked than actually hated, but being (a) originally a Wii Exclusive and (b) one of the American-Made Silent Hill Games without most of the original Silent Hill team, many just couldn't bother with this one.
For me, this was actually a reason to even buy a Wii, subsequently one of the very few games i actually played to completion on it, and honestly one of my favorite, if not THE favorite Silent Hill game.
In terms of story and setting, this is somewhere between a Remake and Reboot of the very first Silent Hill that not only changed the game in making it look closer to Resident Evil 4 in Terms of Perspective and Controls and trading thick mist for icy snowstorms, but also turning the story around in interesting ways, getting rid of most of the more mythological elements of the series and bringing it closer to the psychological horror of fan favorite Silent Hill 2, leading up to a neat twist ending that, while not being quite as well made as the above mentioned second installment, stands on it's own. (Also, a little shoutout to the cool UI of the Game that imitates the quirks of a late-90ies VHS Recorder and uses this design, among other things, for one of the most subtle and well made introductions in gaming.)
It is also framed as a retrospective story, breaking up the main plot with first person sequences where the player interacts with a psychologist in a therapy session. As you answer questions and play little games to evaluate your personality, the main plot also makes changes to reflect the choices you make in these parts of the game, altering colors and enemy designs or even having side characters that are radically different depending on your choices.
It tends to be gimmicky at times, but it gives the individual playthroughs some interesting flavor and, if you are willing to "spoil the magic a bit" and read up on Guides that document the conditions of the alternating elements of the game, have some interestingly subtle ways to track your Behavior within the game.
The Game also features some of the best uses of the Wii Remote control i've seen, adding interesting (inter)actions with the pointer and movement controls, using the slightly squeaky Speaker in the Remote effectively and even using the Remote for some smaller but smart puzzles on top of giving you one of the better third-person controls in a system that often struggles with the lack of a second analogue stick.
But, to be fair, there are flaws to the game that still must be mentioned.
Many people decried how this game got completely rid of combat. I actually never quite understood that, as i find the combat in the first Silent Hill games awful and more distracting than underlining the sense of dread the series is so well-known for. As such, i welcomed the idea of a Silent Hill game where you either had to run or hide from the monsters that lurk in the town, a gameplay style that has since become a trend in the horror genre. However, in execution Shattered Memories never quite instilled the same terror that games like Alien:Isolation, Amnesia or Outlast excel at.
The rare "UnAction" Sequences of the game feel rather formularic and too obvious as to create any tension, and in terms of controls the running and hiding can feel clunky and tedious at times. There are some actual stellar gameplay sequences in Shattered Memories, but you won't find them while running away from Monsters.
Also, in terms of enviromental design, the game is also not as strong as many of the other series' entries. The sharp, rusty and unsettling industrial designs of other games are traded here for a world that literally freezes over occassionally, and while it makes for some neat effects, it's never as fascinating or terrifying than other "Otherworlds". Same goes for the enemy design, being reduced to pretty much only one monster that, despite changing form based on your "psychological evaluations" to be supposedly more personally terrifying, always feel rather generic and lack the disturbing twistedness of earlier games.
Still as a fan of Horror that goes under the skin rather than jumping in your face, you owe it to yourself to grab a Remote and dust off that Wii/Wii U for this somewhat hidden gem
RANDOM NEGATIVE METACRITIC USER COMMENT:
"Really a crap game made by- and for- people who think mindless swearing and a lack of imagination is cool . 2 points for the look of singapore, or shanghai, or whatever."
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Soo, yeah, i'm not going to defend the gameplay here. It's not as utterly broken some people make it out to be, but it is very generic and mediocre. And yes, the game is extremely short.
But leaving the Value-for-Money Question aside (especially given you get the game for dirt cheap), it's a surprisingly memorable experience.
Many games claim to be edgy and dark in one way or another, but rarely you see a game that is as misanthropic and soberingly cynical as this, especially without it becoming comically dark.
Everything about this game is harsh, ugly, violent and desperate. The characters are rather unlikable, with the only redeeming value of now-protagonist Lynch comes from his attempts to keep his innocent girlfriend out of the messes he makes, wich is really not much if you think about it, especially since the story of the game revolves around the grimy duo messing up big time and failing to make a clean getaway. It's very anticlimatic, wich was one of the main criticisms of the game, but i actually found it to be rather bold in retrospect to deny the player some satisfying heroic setpieces.
I also really liked the Sound Design of the game, as well as making the visuals look like they are coming from a very cheap low quality chinese-knockoff handycam. True, it helps to hide that the game has a very low visual quality, but it is inspired and unique and gives the setting a weird kind of disturbing realism, not unlike the distorted videocam-effects of Manhunt.
If you find yourself tired from heroic gunslingers and want to see a less glorified view at violence in all of it's messy uglyness, than play Hotline Miami, and if you did, keep this game for the next time you need a palate cleanser from more usual Shooter Action
RANDOM NEGATIVE METACRITIC USER COMMENT:
"Speaking of which, it tries to be another RPG like deus ex in more ways than one but lacks the clever detailed gameplay or plot design of that classic. The main character is also vanilla boring and cliche. All in all this is a disappointment but not too bad if you want to be entertained by a silly storyline and some mindless entertainment. The graphics in this game are fairly dated and boring to look at."
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This game recently gets a bit more love than when it first released, and while i once again cannot really game that this has good gameplay, there are so many things here i want to see more of in other games that i have no choice to hate/love this one.
Beyond the Action-Gameplay that feels like it is directly lifted from a mediocre PS2 Action Adventure (in fact, it feels a lot like that one PS2 Spy Game by SWERY whose name escapes me) that is at its most tolerable if you play stealthy until you come across some downright awful bossfights, the game feels revolutionary in its handling of player choice and agency in the story.
It gets rid of some overbearing Karma System in favor of tracking your actions against the individual side-characters you come across during the game, wich not only adds great dynamic to the story (you can often make up for stuff that goes totally against the agenda of a character as long as you balance it out in other action) and may change some levels rather radically, it also fits ingeniously neatly into the whole spy-theme, as you can either act like one of several spy cliche archetypes (The Bourne-esque professional, the suave and cocky Bond imitation or the brutal uncompromising Jack Bauer-ish psychopath are the most common options) or analyse case files and interactions to mix and match your approaches and gain symphathy with telling characters like they want it to hear.
Despite this point that, seriously, needs to be imitated by other games right now, there is a rather good variety in Level and Mission Design, and a cheesy but fun plot, even moreso thanks to the protagonist, who can be a very amusing kind of smug asshole if you want him to be.
RANDOM NEGATIVE METACRITIC COMMENT:
"first thing first.... gaming journalist are big fat liars and are calling us fanboys and "you are all about the hair" that we are haters and so on...
and the ratings... people those "official rating" are too hight and came out all at THE SAME TIME... and all of them are refferring to us like "haters" "fanboys" "afraid of change" even "stupid" or "terrorists"
gee, thanks. never knew was a crime to not like a reboot too much different from the main series now i know... thanks... i will turn myself in cause i'm a terrorist not liking a game
LIES!!!!!
it's not about the hairs it never was.... it was the feel of the game, this game both story and gameplay do not belong in the devil may cry series... "
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So, yeah, i don't feel like i need to say that much about this one. Many people hated this from day one, others tried to give it a shot and still hated it, and i (as well as many others, granted) fail to see the problem, as most of the hate comes from this happening to be named "Devil May Cry".
Listen, i like the old Devil May Cry Games...the first and the third game at least. But i also like Ninja Theory, and they did a good job here.
Granted, it is best played on PC or the upcoming Current-Gen Ports thanks to the framerate, and yes, it does feel somewhat different to other DmCs and is maybe not as deep or whatever.
But i don't care. It plays well, has some awesomely designed Levels, a decent if very unimportant and forgettable storyline. and never bored me once. Yes, the "new" Dante is kind of a dick, but i found that with the "original" Dante too, to be honest, and i can live with playing than a cocky arrogant kid rather than his older counterpart with such an amount of over-the-top coolness that it is silly.
(Also, i find some critics funny who say how awful it is that SPOILER Dante shoots a pregnant woman in the stomach SPOILER...What the Hell? We are talking about a goddamn demon here. It's as if you raise a stink over how Ripley destroys Facehugger-Eggs at the End of Aliens!)
