8 Underrated Video Games That Are Bangers From Start to Finish
Lucas Kloberdanz-Dyck is a writer for Collider. He grew up creating lists, stories, and worlds, which led to his love of anime and video games. He attended Sheridan College where he earned an Honours Bachelor of Game Design. Lucas and his group won 1st place for technical innovation at LevelUp Toronto 2023, and he was also an intern for the Oakville Film Festival of Arts.
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With the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI, it puts into perspective just how popular video games are, becoming a worldwide medium that everyone can enjoy. However, because there are so many famous games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Red Dead Redemption 2, many other underrated titles fly under the radar.
Just because some games aren’t popular doesn’t mean they aren’t worth playing, and that is why this list will feature eight underrated video games that are amazing from start to finish. Based on aspects such as lack of popularity compared to overall quality, fan opinion, design, gameplay, visuals, narrative, and originality, these eight games should be on everyone’s wishlist.
8 ‘Alien: Isolation’ (2014)
Movie and TV adaptations of video games have been getting better over the years, but what about the other way around? Alien: Isolation follows Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who travels to an abandoned space station to find her mother's flight recorder. However, all she uncovers is a destroyed vessel with a Xenomorph lurking in the shadows, making it her top priority to escape.
There are probably a lot of confused fans, because Alien: Isolation is an incredible game beloved by many. However, when it comes to critical reviews, it isn’t as highly regarded. Its Metacritic score is good, but not what it deserves, and don’t even start on IGN's horrific review. This is enough to make it an underrated video game, and while the pacing is a bit long at the end, the overall chilling experience and terrifyingly intelligent enemy AI have made it a nearly perfect game from start to finish.
7 ‘The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’ (2011)
The Legend of Zelda is one of the greatest video game franchises of all time, so it is strange to think any entry in it is underrated, but one does exist, and that is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. This starting point in the franchise is about Link, who must travel to the lands below in order to rescue his childhood friend, Zelda, after she was pulled off the island. Wielding a powerful sword, Link must work his way through dungeons and bosses to defeat the Demon King Demise.
Skyward Sword is still a critically praised video game, but when it comes to fan discussion, it gets a worse rap than it deserves. The biggest polarizing aspect is the motion controls, which don’t always work perfectly. However, that shouldn’t overshadow the rest of the game and its perfection. Skyward Sword is home to some of the best dungeons and bosses in the franchise, with plenty of unique puzzles and challenging battles. The narrative is also a gorgeous tale and a remarkable origin for the franchise, proving that this is actually one of the best Zelda games of all time.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Fantasy World Do You Belong To? Middle-earth · Grand Line · The Continent · Camp Half-Blood
Pick your magic, your crew, where you want to wake up and who you would rather be fighting, and we will tell you which world you actually belong in. Four are open to you: an ancient kingdom living through its last good age, an endless sea full of pirates, a continent that pays people to kill monsters, and a summer camp where the Greek gods are extremely real and mostly a nuisance.
💍Middle-earth(Rings of Power)
👒Grand Line(One Piece)
🐺The Continent(The Witcher)
🔱Camp Half-Blood(Percy Jackson)
01
What kind of power do you want? Every one of these worlds runs on a completely different sort of magic.
02
Who is travelling with you? Nobody gets through any of these stories entirely on their own.
03
Where do you want to wake up tomorrow? The best fantasy is usually just somewhere you would genuinely like to live.
04
How are you making a living out there? Even in fantasy somebody has to pay for the horse.
05
There is something in the woods. What do you do about it? All four of these worlds keep something unpleasant out there in the dark.
06
Who is the villain of your story? The enemy tells you far more about a world than the hero ever does.
07
What do you actually believe in out there? Every world hands its heroes one rule and asks them to hold onto it.
08
A thousand years from now, how are you remembered? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your world.
The Map Is Drawn Your World Is…
Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in return.
Middle-earth
You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.
- This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat, fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends.
- You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost everything you touch is older than your entire family line.
- The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight.
- You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.
The Grand Line
You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is finding out what is over there.
- One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together.
- You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea.
- The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land harder because of that rather than in spite of it.
- You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of it.
The Continent
You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the people are where it all gets complicated.
- Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept.
- You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer.
- The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people.
- You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story got told wrong.
Camp Half-Blood
You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as everybody kept telling you.
- Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners, which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse.
- You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for something nobody thought to test for.
- The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud every time a prophecy tries to get in the way.
- Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.
6 ‘God Hand’ (2006)
Games can be underrated for many reasons, including a poor launch, which is exactly what happened with God Hand, which is now a cult classic. Gene is an arrogant young martial artist who possesses a legendary magical arm, and with his companion, Olivia, the duo fight off hordes of demons who want the power of his arm to resurrect the demon lord, plunging the world into chaos.
God Hand was not well received when it came out, with many outlets bashing it with poor reviews. But decades later, it has found a new audience who can appreciate the deep and complex combat system that lets players customize how they fight. This move set customization is an innovative system that gives the player agency, and they can use it to build multiple styles that suit them. This adrenaline-pumping combat sensation doesn’t slow down, creating a wildly entertaining gaming experience for the entire game.
5 ‘Signalis’ (2022)
Horror is one of the most popular video game genres, but that just means more underrated hits fly under the radar, which is what happened with Signalis. Playing as an android, players wake up from cryosleep on a crashed spaceship, now needing to traverse the cold and hostile terrain. Searching for her missing human and partner, this leads her into an off-world facility that has been taken over by a totalitarian regime. In order to find Elster, players will need to battle mutated androids and other cosmic horrors that are sure to give them nightmares.
There isn’t a more tense survival horror game than Signalis, which sadly didn’t make it into the mainstream despite being a modern classic. It pairs a resource-starved sense of dread with a retro-futuristic aesthetic that blends together to create a haunting atmosphere that fans won’t be able to get enough of. More than just scares, Signalis also has intricate puzzles and an emotional narrative that is as bleak as it is scary. This may not be a good sci-fi video game for beginners, but for anyone wanting a good fright, this is the experience for them, leaving a haunting impression long after the credits roll.
4 ‘Katana ZERO’ (2019)
While indie games are getting more popular and expensive, they are still way more underrated than AAA titles, but just as good. Katana ZERO is about Subject Zero, an amnesiac assassin who will take any contract that comes his way. Set in a neon-lit metropolis, he uses a time-manipulating drug called Chronos to get powers. However, when his next mission involves a conspiracy behind the drug, he must uncover its origins and purpose.
Pixel art isn’t for everyone, but Katana ZERO boasts such a striking art style that it is hard for critics to hate. This visual style isn’t the only thing good about this game, because it has great substance, specifically the lightning-fast gameplay that forces players to pay attention at all times. This gripping combat never loses a step throughout the entire game, and what’s more, Katana ZERO also has a profound narrative with dialogue-heavy moments. By integrating time manipulation into the gameplay and story, it creates an ending video game experience that more fans need to play.
3 ‘Sleeping Dogs’ (2012)
God Hand is an incredible martial arts game, but it shows that the genre is underrated, especially because one of the best in the genre, Sleeping Dogs, also deserves more love. Wei Shen is an undercover cop who infiltrates the triad in Hong Kong, but as he rises through the ranks, the line between his duty to the badge and his loyalty to the gang starts to blur. The dramatic collision of his two lives hurts his job and undercover persona, creating a thrilling time.
There used to be so many Grand Theft Auto clones that people would start to ignore them, but that unrightfully happened to Sleeping Dogs, which distinguished itself with its phenomenal hand-to-hand combat. The brawling mechanics are brutal and epic, the interactive environment takedowns are stylish, and the overall experience is cinematic. Sleeping Dogs is a crime thriller with some of the best action fans will ever experience, proving why it is one of the best martial arts video games. The relentless pacing also adds an unparalleled playthrough that has constant action and excitement to enjoy.
2 ‘Hypnospace Outlaw’ (2019)
There are popular underrated games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and then there are amazing, yet obscure titles like Hypnospace Outlaw. Set in an alternate version of 1999, the player is an enforcer for the titular patrol department. They police a bizarre early-internet dream network that people access while they sleep, helping secure the network by flagging copyright infringement, stopping malware and harassment. But the deeper they dig, the more eccentric users they find, resulting in a corporate conspiracy.
Hypnospace Outlaw is one of the most unique games of all time, boasting its nostalgic '90s aesthetic with an incredibly crafted detective mystery. Niche, innovative, and bursting with originality, this indie masterpiece is the greatest game you haven’t played. The fictional, yet deeply personalized web pages portray endearing characters and stunning environmental storytelling. Starting as an internet satire, Hypnospace Outlaw evolves into an emotionally tense thriller that will have players caring about pixelated characters and the cyber world.
1 ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’ (2018)
As mentioned, indie games are usually more underrated than most, and that also goes for Return of the Obra Dinn. Set in 1807, gamers are an insurance investigator for the East India Company, looking into the strange case of the titular merchant ship. When it came into port with its crew dead or missing, the player must use their pocket watch to view the moment of a person's death. Exploring the ship, the aim is to find the identities of every crew member and uncover the reason behind their deaths.
Return of the Obra Dinn often gets underrated because of its polarizing art style, but this visual masterclass is exactly what makes it such a strikingly atmospheric experience. On top of the amazing style, this game also boasts outstanding puzzles that refuse to hold hands, sending gamers into intellectually challenging and stimulating gameplay. By respecting player intelligence, solving the game is deeply rewarding, helping Return of the Obra Dinn become among the greatest detective and adventure games ever, even if it is underrated.
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