I am a poor kid, I lived with a family that spent as little as possibly on Christmas and Birthdays just so we can live in a house for rent. So, most of the time I went through the Bargain Bin with my dad to see what game we could fish out. They were under five bucks, so we could afford it without regretting another week without food or electricity. I have played some bad games and sometimes some forgettable decent ones, but there was always a lucky chance that we found a game that we could call better than the rest. Hello and welcome to this underrated countdown.
10. Titanfall 2
I found this game for sale in the Xbox Store, the game was up to 20 dollars in the standard edition as the Ultimate Edition was only 60 dollars I believe. I bought it thinking that I might have found another multiplayer shooter with a crappy campaign. Oh, I was wrong. The game had a great story with great characters that felt so relatable for lack of better words. The multiplayer was stunning to me, having so much to it and an easy to learn play style that can be difficult sometimes. I love this game so much that I sank more than hundreds of hours on this game than Battlefield 1 that came with it.
What is strange and suspicious is how the Executives of the game, EA put the game in the middle of two major games followed by very little advertising. It's a tactic on the developers that producers and executives don't care about. If they don't see that it's going to do well, but they can't say no, they put the game in the middle of famous and beloved franchises or products. It's something that a lot of toy developers do in the business and a lot of people have catched the method. That made the game nearly forgotten and made it a box office bomb. It sucks to know that happen, but seeing that the community is constantly growing and the game is given so much free content, all that can be ignored and become little factoids for fans, even if the awful sales prevented a sequel to ever happen...
9. G-Force the Game
When I was a kid, I hated this movie. It made me feel awkward and strange watching these CG Guinea Pigs do spy work. It was a stupid concept and wasn't fun to watch even if it had a famous cast playing in it. When my dad got me the game of this awful movie, I was worried I might find another strange and awkward moment to never forget, but the game was better than I thought it would be. It was actually a fun game with great mechanics and items. It gave you puzzles that were easy to solve, but were fun doing so. You had all these gadgets to destroy walking coffee machines and toasters, each one being different than the last. You had to find a weakness to each robot and there was a fun to executing techniques to kill each robotic appliance. It was fun and the enemy variety was amazing to me. It got everything that movie did wrong and made it cool and fun.
I know this is a strange pick for this list, but it's a genuinely great game that I could not believe was going in my top favorites. The game was a massive flop because it followed the movie, but had decent reviews, having some that go above the 7 mark. If you have a 360 in your house, you should get this game. It's like five bucks on eBay and I think you can get it in some Game Stops or Best Buys for the two dollar price range, if they have it.
8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
I know this is another movie game that shouldn't be on this list, but god, this is one of those great gems you wouldn't expect. If you are in love with or just enjoy Hack 'n Slash games with awesome gore, this is the game you would love. It follows the story of Wolverine in a great and charming game fashion that my mother loves. In my opinion, the movie was real bad and is one of the worst superhero movies I've seen, but this game cleans everything up about the movie and turns it into a masterpiece. All the abilities and combos mesh so well and each piece of graphical design is surprisingly beautiful. Even for it's time with it's slick look, it still looks good.
The worst part about this game was that it was easy to pirate it, giving the game awful looking sales numbers. I would have to be guilty that I was one of those people who pirated it, it was a glorious piece of art and I wish I payed for the full price in the market. If you want this game, I really suggest to get it on the 360, since the graphics on the Playstation made it look a bit downgraded. It's a bit pricy, being over $40 on eBay and Amazon, but it's worth the price.
7. Bioshock 2
This is a bit of a questionable entry in this list since the game was already known to the public and made it to the remaster, but if you look into the past, the game was considered a disgrace to the game's source material. I don't know why, they considerably made the game better, solving the Plasmid/Weapon switch to an easy duel-wield and made the Plasmid Upgrades do more than just upgrade damage. The enemy diversity was raised to a good three extra enemies, the Brute Splicers, Big Daddy Prototypes and the beloved Big Sister. The enemy redesigns had a better changes than many sequel redesigns. There was even a wider range of characters to see what the world is like in Rapture and how it affected these people. And what I love is that the Player Voice is the same as the original, but with a Big Daddy filter on it. I love it more than the original in terms of game design, but I can say that the narrative is lacking. I hated the 6 endings, but the game was fun.
The one thing that put players off was how they added the unneeded Multiplayer option. The multiplayer was somewhat fun, having some unique gameplay that were actually fun to play with, but the fans hated it and reviewers said that this almost destroyed the game's image. I don't see why, but I thought it was mildly fun. They had awful reviews and the only thing that saved the developers was the toy sales. I love those things. Only if I got my hands on them when they were being sold, they're over my price range now, if you ask me. It did make them remove the multiplayer it from the game entirely in the remaster which is understandable.
6. Destiny
Destiny was... A game... With a Promise. Who hasn't talked about this? It's probably the Zelda of a bad game, everyone knows about it. If you remember No Man's Sky, that game had a lot of promise and so much to deliver. When we got what we weren't promised, we all hated it. This game did the same, but it was a promise for a good and interesting story with great gameplay. We all loved it for a few minutes and then noticed, the story was not there, the gameplay was a boring grinding and what little gameplay we had was so shorlived. Of course, the developers saved the game with DLC, but no one liked that cheeky attempt of a save. You had to pay $15 dollars for one DLC and it was considered an overprice, but worth it since the game gets much better from those four DLCs. They expanded the game greatly and made it much more fun to play with friends or new friends as you play along the way.
The game had some great design, looking so unique to most other games, and the way this game was; the lore, the weapons, the enemies and the lingering questions you ask yourself as you play made the game such a great experience. Of course, the vanilla game is awful as all hell, but the DLCs added make the game fun. I know that I'm one of the many that defend the game for what it was and most of you are probably saying you don't have the money to pay for every DLC. You can buy this game with every single piece of content this game had to offer for $40. Heading a bit towards the pricy side, but still good for how much you are saving considering each DLC is 15 dollars, but who's going to do that when the sequel is almost out?
5. Let It Die
Imagine if Dark Souls had a threesome with Destiny and a Punk Group, you would probably get this game. I love the concept of this game a lot, having the player go through a tower of unknown wonders and death that it feels like hunger games. The look of the world is wonderful and the retro feel to it contrasts so well with the punky vibe. Besides all that, the game has great enemies who are easy to kill, but a challenge to fight. And you can see other player's zombie bodies wandering around the map waiting for the next person to kill. I adore that concept, it's almost ingenious, I'm surprised Dark Souls hasn't done that! And the Death System is so incredible, if you die, you lose everything: your items, clothing, your experience, everything that character had is gone. And to achieve it is awesome, you have to wander back into that area and kill that version of yourself to gain back anything. I love it, but I can see this being a game breaker since you would have to level up your new character to get back to a far area, which increases in difficulty every level you traverse in. That actually is one of the reasons why it got such a low rating, getting below a 7.
I love the characters in it and the player encounters are much better than most of encounters in Dark Souls, not being a heart wrenching event, but more of an accepted challenge. If you ever want to play this game, it's Free in the PSN Store and has a great community and cast of characters, with Mark Hamill playing the Prologue Narrator... He could have been so much more...
4. Halo Reach
Reach is one of the game I grew up with and most games I played then, I hate now. Bubsy being in the list. But Reach was one of those game that I can cry to. Show me the end of The Last of Us? I won't shed a tear. Give me the death of Dom, I will comment about how much that sucks, but no crying. Show me Reach? I'll f**king cry... Each and every bit of the campaign was amazing and heart wrenching, the gameplay had no changes, but with a few weapon redesigns. We were given ability packs and new weapons to play with. I genuinely love this game and every piece of it. The Multiplayer is so desirable and the Firefight mode was enhanced to be better than it was. Shorter, but a lot more fun.
What is strange is that the game was forgotten because of the 343 Controversy. The game had some incredible ratings almost having a straight 10 rating streak, the game was overshadowed for how awful and big Halo 4 was. I have heard some hardcore fans say that this game and the ODST spin-off tainted the games, but I would disagree. The game has a legendary story to it and a perfect multiplayer with little that was changed. If you can get your hands on this game, it's about $15 on Ebay and $20 in the Xbox Store.
3. Dishonored
Dishonored is a game that was advertised for how bloody the game was and how many kills you can do in it ti one person. Of course, the game was hated for not saying more than that. A lot of people hated the multiple endings, most players on the first playthrough getting the bad one, showing them how much of a d**che they were in the game. The game was harder when you played the pacifist route and barely rewarded you for it. I'd say that the developers did a good job with the game, giving the simplest ability so much range for the player to do as the please, letting them crawl on the roofs of the Dunwall City or pawling the alleyways. The game had such simple mechanics and gave the player so much to do with them in the game's map. Each part of the game's maps were well designed for each ability, giving so much free roam to everyone. You want to sneak through the well guarded embassy? You could use your Possession on a fish that's in a pond and swim in a pipe that leads directly into the building. Or you can use your Blink ability to carefully jump on hard to reach platforms that lead you into the building, having an eagle eye view of everyone in there.
The game is great and has such a clever design to it. The artstyle is amazingly stunning and stand against the test of time. I see this game in the clearance bin a lot in Walmarts and Best Buys, so if you see this game in there, buy it. It's worth every cheap penny you spent.
2. Brutal Legends
Jack Black was an awesome musician that inspired many to sing like him. He had a great show that started his band, Tenacious D, and had a decent movie about the band and how they became what they were. When everyone heard he was going to get a game that he was going to make, everyone freaked. It was the pinnacle of his fame, so almost everyone was excited to see what kind of game he was going to deliver. It even had some Rock 'n Roll legends such as Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmister playing their own character in the game. What everyone got was a fun mess that very few liked. The game was fun and had lots of great reviews, but the people didn't like how it was a tower defense game. Not the typical send troops and hope for the best, it was a MOBA like game that had you fight alongside your fellow warriors. Each troop type had a strategy to them, Headbangers were the cannon fodder, but packed a big punch when they horde against anyone. The Razor Gals were the ranged attacks that did massive damage to incoming hordes, but were weak against attacks. The game had some fun gameplay and it was satisfying to play. The multiplayer function was even a great staple of the game, taking some aspects from the Tower Defense part of the game and making it a fun and greatly competitive part of the game.
And the game's design, the Rock 'n Roll Album feel to the game's environment was so cool to stare at. I was so happy that the game was open world, just so you can enjoy the detail the game had. It might be dated today and look too edgy to most people, but it's so unique and so iconic to this game. Even the concept of each Rock Genre is basically fighting each other: Rock fighting Grunge fighting Goth. I love that a lot and the Gothic Grunts were clearly inspired by the Cure. If you like that kind of concept and would love to play a game about it, Brutal Legends is the perfect match right next to edgy skate board games.
1. Condemned: Criminal Origins
I believe this game got me to love the Horror Genre in games. I always thought Horror games were cheesy and dumb, only giving you mild scares, but this game makes you rethink that. The AI chases you by hiding behind corners and pillars, making the player paranoid about losing an enemy or crossing a doorway. The genuine fear you feel in this game is amazing and it really makes you fear abandoned houses and the dark, because that's all the setting is. Every other game I play that tries it's hardest to scare me did so poorly, but this game forced you by shoving crazy hobos at you, sewer monster that can crawl on walls like the god damn Grudge were a constant threat and the sound design was perfect, making random noises in the distance, keeping the player on the edge of the seat, always. This game beats RE7 out of the water by a longshot and has the perfect kind of tank controls to worry the player more.
The game mostly flopped because of the themes it carried and having some elements from Manhunt, so most of the advertising was restricted to gaming magazine ads, making the game mostly unknown to the public eye unless you had a Game Informer subscription. Trust me, if you like horror at its finest, play this game.
Well, that's my list. I know my last one was a bit controversial (especially for my 200th post), but I hope this makes up for it. I hope you agree with most of this and that you never heard of at least one of these games. I hope you enjoyed this and 'til next time...
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