Most overrated and underrated games

[DeadPoolX]

After reading GamePro's "most influential games of all time" and then looking at "the ten most overrated games," I got to thinking... I'm sure everyone here has some games that fit into both categories.

So what are they? No game is safe and this isn't limited to the adventure genre, either.

I'll go first:

Overrated
1. Grim Fandango - This game has been praised by many adventure gamers for years and yet, I find it barely mediocre. The characters hold very little appeal for me and the controls were horrendous.

2. King's Quest VI - It seems that this title has been crowned "the very best of the King's Quest games." It's a good game, but the best? Hardly. In fact, the entire KQ series is vastly overrated.

3. Gabriel Knight 2 - I despise FMV. It severely limited the ability to actually PLAY the game. I get games to play; not watch. If I wanted to do that, I'd see a movie.

4. Half-Life - Back in 1997, this was a huge leap forward for first-person shooters. It made numerous advances, such as gaming without levels, eliminating "key and door" hunts, as well as placing weapons in realistic areas, as opposed to having them float in mid-air. However, this game has been seen as some sort of "messiah" or whatever. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's not the end all, be all of gaming.

5. Halo - This was innovation? We've had FPS wars against aliens for years. Lots of people claim this title brought vehicular combat into the forefront. They're wrong. The Tribes series included the ability to use all sorts of vehicles five years before Halo was even released.

6. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - This game offered nothing new to the series and played off negative stereotypes. I can't imagine how this title wouldn't be at least somewhat insulting to African Americans.

7. Myst - Oh good... a game for non-gamers. Just what we need. Myst was more of a "Look at me, I'm so cool! I have a great looking game." Fantastic. Is the game play interesting? For something that claimed to be an adventure, it had practically no one to speak to and primarily hinged on puzzle solving.

8. Goldeneye 007 - The gaming industry tends to gush all over this title. Why? It's not bad, but hardly a groundbreaking game. It let gamers shoot enemies in single player and then allowed four-player multiplayer combat. Big deal. This had been happening on the PC for years.

9. The Longest Journey - Not a bad game by any means, but it's nothing particularly new. I think many adventure purists were simply so starved for something other than "action-adventure" that they drooled all over this game.

10. Syberia - Quite possibly one of the least interactive adventure games since FMV was popular. Yes, it looked very pretty, but the backgrounds were non-interactive. Adventure games made in the past had accomplished interactivity with the backgrounds, so why couldn't this game?

11. The Sims - I see this game as fun for a little while, but then boredom sets in. Why raise a fictional family that you have to give instructions to for every little thing. They can't eat or using the bathroom without being told to, which was ridiculous. Eventually, the only thing to do is find horrible way to kill your Sims off.

12. Neverwinter Nights - A slightly better-than-mediocre RPG, hampered by a poor storyline and one of the worst interfaces ever in a computer game.

13. Quake III - Yes, it was one of the best multiplayer games for the time, but that was about it. There was absolutely no single player feature at all. There are only so many times you can fight online, even with the InstaGib modification.

14. Tomb Raider - A moderately decent 3D action-adventure that places the player in the shoes of an Indiana Jones style woman with a love for guns and incredibly large breasts. Aside from that obvious ridiculousness, the main character (Lara Croft) could actually use two Desert Eagle handguns two-handed. Anyone who knows anything about firearms would realize such a feat is impossible, provided they'd actually wish to hit their target (plus Desert Eages have a huge kick and Lara was not a muscle-bound individual).

15. World of Warcraft - Do I really need to discuss this one?

16. Guitar Hero - What was once an interesting idea for a game has turned into a lifestyle for many, producing tons of copycats and even contests between GH players. Far too many GH followers have forgotten that hitting the right buttons in Guitar Hero is nothing like playing a real guitar, but they still prance around as if they're rock stars.

Underrated
1. Full Throttle - Like Rodney Dangerfield, this game "gets no respect." It had a fantastic story, interesting and interactive game play and finally allowed us to play someone who wasn't a loser, royalty or wimp.

2. BioForge - Does anyone besides me remember this game? The entire game focused around figuring out who you were (and there were a number of different people you could be based on your actions) and allowed for multiple solutions to problems.

3. Jumping Flash - This could take the award for being the most bizarre title for the original Playstation. In it, you play a robotic rabbit that has to fight through various stages -- all in a first-person view, as well. I think someone was on a cocktail of numerous drugs when designing it.

4. Ico - Very few people have ever heard of this Playstation 2 game, let alone played it. The game play focused less on action and combat, pushing the player to protect and guide a princess and solve many different puzzles along the way. It was unique, but for some reason, it was passed by on the store shelves.

5. Alone in the Dark - Many gamers credit the Resident Evil series with putting the survival/horror genre on the map. Unfortunately for them, they've forgotten the true originator of the genre. AitD was a 3D polygonal title when most games were 2D and allowed the gamer to choose a male or female character, when games put the player into the shoes of an already-set gender. While combat was important, the primary goal was to escape the haunted house using your wits and ingenuity.

6. Codename Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis - One of the most realistic FPS games ever made, plunking the player into the shoes of a soldier during the Cold War. It was a great title that made us of advanced AI and true military tactics.

7. Clive Barker's Undying - Probably one of the very few mystically-oriented FPS games to ever surface. Magic and mysticism played as important of a role as technology (sometimes more). Best of all, the player could utilize two hands at once, one for magic and the other for a weapon. This game could be quite scary at times, too.

8. Planescape: Torment - Passed over in favor of the Baldur's Gate series, Planescape was unique in it's parallel world setting. It took place in a world of the undead and other creatures, involving the ideas of torment and pain. The decisions made by the main character shaped the game and there was no such thing as "good or bad."

9. System Shock - Not SS2, but the original game made by Origin. While it wasn't the first FPS, it was one of the pioneers in using an FPS engine in an adventure/RPG manner, allowing actions and interactions that no other game of its type had.

10. Loom - Ask a modern gamer (or even someone who's been a gamer for years) what Loom is and you'll probably get a blank stare. This very strange adventure game was probably responsible for more gamers asking, "What the hell is this?" than any other title. The story is so complex and strange that it takes playing it a few times to even gain a hint of what's going on. Even so, it was remarkably different and offered gamers something unique.

11. Shadow of Destiny - Originally released on the PS2, this unusual and fun adventure game was later ported to the PC. Sales, however, were not good. In fact, many gamers passed it over. That didn't change the fact it had an interesting story and allowed the player to travel through time, changing the past and offering multiple endings based on the decisions made.

12. Road Avenger - Probably the best game ever made on the failed Sega CD (an optional addition to the Sega Genesis). The player character had an unbelievably amazing car that he used to take revenge on the criminal gang that was responsible for the death of his newlywed bride.

13. Anachronox - Arguably one of the finest action-RPGs ever created. It has a fantastic sense of humor coupled with unusual characters and a combat system that worked pretty damn well.

14. Target Earth - This has to be one of my favorite Sega Genesis games. A fantastic -- if not a little weird -- storyline that takes place in the future, involving a mech pilot and Earth's military forces. Oddly enough, the player character could be rendered invulnerable if the start button on the second controller was held down. There were numerous plot twists and tons of weapons to utilize. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a game like this since 1989.

15. Psi-Ops - Although beginning with the unoriginal plot device of amnesia, this game managed to pull of the use of psionic powers in a style no other game could match. Telekinesis, pyrokinesis, remote viewing and a whole slew of others turned an otherwise unremarkable game into something that was really fun. This game also had an unusual two-player setup which allowed one player to control movement and the other to direct the attacks.

16. Red Faction - With today's technology the idea of a "destructible environment" is nothing new. When RF was released in 2001, this was a groundbreaking new feature for FPS games. Suddenly hiding behind boxes, pillars and even walls couldn't hide you from enemies. You could also use the environment against your opponents. If someone was on a ledge, destroy it and watch him plummet to his doom. If an enemy was bothering you, blasting a chuck out of the ceiling and squishing him was always an option.

[AndreaDraco]

Overrated
1. Grim Fandango - This game has been praised by many adventure gamers for years and yet, I find it barely mediocre. The characters hold very little appeal for me and the controls were horrendous.

Totally agree.

2. King's Quest VI - It seems that this title has been crowned "the very best of the King's Quest games." It's a good game, but the best? Hardly. In fact, the entire KQ series is vastly overrated.

3. Gabriel Knight 2 - I despise FMV. It severely limited the ability to actually PLAY the game. I get games to play; not watch. If I wanted to do that, I'd see a movie.

Totally disagree, on both of them. GK2 has the most powerful story I've ever seen in a game. Furthermore: one of the most powerful stories I've ever had the chance to enjoy. Regardless of the medium.

9. The Longest Journey - Not a bad game by any means, but it's nothing particularly new. I think many adventure purists were simply so starved for something other than "action-adventure" that they drooled all over this game.

Agree. TLJ was so strongly received 'cause, back then, there weren't pure adventures anymore. Nonetheless, the story was really awesome, particularly when played together with Dreamfall.

10. Syberia - Quite possibly one of the least interactive adventure games since FMV was popular. Yes, it looked very pretty, but the backgrounds were non-interactive. Adventure games made in the past had accomplished interactivity with the backgrounds, so why couldn't this game?

Agree on the non-interactivity, which is always a delicate point (I like to be able to see/look/interact with everything), but the character were pretty strong, as was the story.

Underrated
1. Full Throttle - Like Rodney Dangerfield, this game "gets no respect." It had a fantastic story, interesting and interactive game play and finally allowed us to play someone who wasn't a loser, royalty or wimp.

Maybe I'm the minority, but I found this game totally uninteresting.

7. Clive Barker's Undying - Probably one of the very few mystically-oriented FPS games to ever surface. Magic and mysticism played as important of a role as technology (sometimes more). Best of all, the player could utilize two hands at once, one for magic and the other for a weapon. This game could be quite scary at times, too.

One of the few FPS I enjoyed, thanks to beautiful storyline interweaved by the great Clive Barker!

I like to add a few titles at the Overrated category:

1) Curse of Monkey Island: great graphics and sound, but poor storyline and humor.

2) Broken Sword: any Jane Jensen game can demonstrate what a really history-heavy, rich background can be. The exact opposite of BS1 ridiculous takes on the Knights Templar.

3) Still Life: I recently tried again to play it, intrigued by the mood, but I can't help but feel totally uninterested by the characters!

[abyss]

Over rated: Early Lucus Arts adventure games
I found the interfaces to be very distracting and that's what ruined the experiance for the games. Loom was the 1st scumm game with a good interface. The interfaces they used after that were all good except for day of the tenticle which used the worst lucus arts interface ever. Full throttle just did not interest me. Grim Fandango was a great adventure game and I found it really interesting and fun.
Underrated: Strike Base
There is a lot of strategy in this 3d plane shooter. The team is just you so there is no one to help you. If you wander too far from your base for too long it might get destroyed but the objective is too get too the other base and destroy it but 1st you have to find it in a vast amount of land with tons of enemies trying to kill you. The missions are very long and taking over 1 hour is not uncommon. The game area for a level is absolutely massive. I have never beaten the 1st level. There are so many enemies and you also have to get rid of enemies close to the base before you can go to the other base and destroy to make sure your base doesn't get destroyed 1st. You can save during the level.

[Datadog]

I don't like to say there's any over-rated adventure games since in the eyes of the total gaming community, they're all under-rated.

But then I saw "Myst" on Deadpool's list, so I decided I would agree with that one. After so many years of adventuring with my favorite heroes, "Myst" comes along and drops me into a post-apocalyptic world with no one to talk to, levers to pull, and a whole lot of books to read. In terms of adventure gaming, it was really was a huge step backwards.

It's like "let's play Torin's Passage! Only with no characters! No dialogue! No animation! No inventory! No semblance of a plot! And tons of neat stuff all over the place, but you can only interact with books, levers, and buttons!"
"I found a bear trap! Is this relevant? Can I use it for something?"
"NO!!!"

And yet it became the biggest selling game of it's time. Even my school bought a copy. Everyone played it for a week or two, then went back to playing "Castle of Dr. Brain."

[Taryn]

I'd say that FPSes in general are the most overrated games ever. Especially Halo.

Another game I think is overrated is Myst. It feels like just a slideshow of pretty pictures, with no real story or anything. Most of the puzzles are just boring mazes; generally, the only interesting puzzles are finding out how to access each of the in-game "ages", and even then, it's basically just jotting down notes and pushing the right buttons, blehh. The sequel, Riven, was a much better game, with more challenging puzzles and an actual story with interesting cultures and characters.

As for underrated games...does "every PC game before Doom" count? My dad had a computer in like 1983, and it feels like everyone else only had consoles before the Internet and missed out on games like Boppin', Kroz, Below the Root, etc.

Gah, does this board lack Unicode support? I got an SQL error when I tried to enter something with non-ASCII characters.

[Fender_178]

I totally disagree the KQ series is not overrated and GK2 had a very good interesting and the Fmv were very well done. And the graphics of 2 were alot better than the graphics of Gk3.

Overrated
Grand theft auto series
I think they went too far with this series yes it was fun to drive around and kill stuff. But they went way too far with the sexual stuff in it.

I agree that WOW is overrated I played this game on a private free server and the game was just about as much fun as watching paint dry.

GH I agree with you that there are way too many guitar hero nerds out there that have no life. But GH is fun to play now and again.

Ya I totally agree that Halo is way overrated as a game we had FPS way before that game Look at Quake,Doom, and Wolfenstein3d.

[Taryn]

Ooh, I forgot to mention GTA as being overrated. It's like being in a rap video, blehh. When will people stop glorifying the ghetto gangstah life?

[Collector]

I'll agree with you, DPX on almost all of your picks, but KQ and GK, but you knew that including those with the over rated games here would come with a lot of disagreement. While I, too generally do not like FMV games, GK2 has a depth of story that far over comes any distaste that I have for FMV. Though I really like TLJ, I will even agree with you here. I am willing to admit that I latched onto it as strongly as I did because of the lack of other good adventures at the time. I will especially agree with you about Myst. Borrringgg! I could never see what others saw in those games.

[AndreaDraco]

About Myst... I totally dislike 1st person adventures with transparent protagonist, lifeless and dull environments and no characters; not to mention the total absence of a story...

... But I enjoyed Myst. I still think it was way overrated, but I can share with you - with just a tiny bit of shame - that, at the end of Myst, I cried, 'cause, somehow, the soreness of Atrus really got to my heart.

Ok, ok... I'll go up to the stake myself; you guys can just bring the torches.

EDIT: Collector... like TAwmis before you, you're now at 666 posts...

[Almirena]

DeadPoolX, you do love to stir the pot, don't you? <smile>

The KQ series and KQ6 in particular were not overrated. I've spoken many times about why I love KQ6 so much and why I consider it the finest adventure game ever made, so I don't need to reiterate myself...

GK2 - it isn't a perfect game, but it has a rich storyline and unexpected character developments, as well as plot developments that take one by surprise. The atmosphere, the music, the story, the characters... I forgive the things that aren't perfect because the rest of the game definitely gets it right.

Myst - it was like being the Boy in the Bubble. Hello, world - can I reach out and touch you? No? Darn.

The Longest Journey - I still haven't finished it, so bear in mind that I speak from the point of view of someone who has got about an eighth of the way through and feels no compelling desire to continue. I was so put off by the lengthy cut-scenes... and by the dialogue... that I haven't been able to appreciate the other aspects of the game as much, perhaps, as I should. As it stands, I think it's over-rated.

[DeadPoolX]

I think the idea behind "overrated/underrated" games has been a little confused.

What I've listed as either overrated or underrated is not "the final say" on gaming. The classification of being overrated or underrated is limited to one's opinion and nothing more. Some people may absolutely love a game and think it's underrated, while another may despise that same game, feeling it's overrated.

I bring this up since I'm getting the feeling that some here -- particularly those who love KQ6 and GK2 -- are attempting to state that those games were not, in fact, overrated. That's great if you think so and I am by no means telling anyone else what to play. However, simply because I feel those games are overrated (and you see it differently), does make those games definitively overrated or underrated.

While I thought KQ6 and GK2 were good games, I also feel they've been given far too much credit and fanfare by the overall adventure gaming community. Once again, that's my opinion. I'm sure some here would feel the same about Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, even though I absolutely love that game.

So it's really about preference.

[Akril]

Loom is definitely one of my favorites, probably my favorite LucasArts games.

Another favorite of mine that I considered underrated (which I posted a thread about recently) is Toonstruck. For such an ambitious game, it was quite a commercial flop and remains obscure even today. One of the main problems for the lack of success was the marketing of the project: the cartoony art makes it look like a kids' game, though most of the humor is aimed towards young adults.

[Taryn]

I'm a Loom fan as well. Too bad the sequels never got made...

[Collector]

I think the idea behind "overrated/underrated" games has been a little confused.

What I've listed as either overrated or underrated is not "the final say" on gaming. The classification of being overrated or underrated is limited to one's opinion and nothing more. Some people may absolutely love a game and think it's underrated, while another may despise that same game, feeling it's overrated.

I took you the right way. I just stated that my opinion was pretty much in accord with yours, save for KQ and GK. As subjective as this topic is, how could it be anything more than opinion? As compelling of arguments that one might make one way or another, it will still be just opinion.

[Almirena]

I'm so sorry, DPX - I thought you were making a global announcement that would be enshrined forever in the minds of all gameplayers (other than me - I was wearing the Helmet of Doom which enabled me to resist), so I ordered hitmen to find you and throw you into a very large pool of lava filled with lava-proof crocodiles - hungry ones. It's too late to stop the hitmen. What can I do? Oh no! <exceedingly wicked grin>