Name 3 overrated/underrated games.

I think this could be potentially interesting to see the overlaps in taste.

I will start

Over rated

• GTA 3
• WoW
• Skyrim

Under rated

• Deadspace
• Donkey Kong Country 3
• Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts

Now you go.

Overrated:

MGS4

Heavy Rain

Half Life 2

Underrated:

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

InFAMOUS 2

Transformers: War for Cybertron

Overrated:

GTA IV

Skyrim

Every Assassins Creed

Underrated:

Yakuza 3

Metro 2033

Siren: Blood Curse

Overrated:

New Super Mario Bros.
Borderlands
Journey

Underrated:
Amped (Snowboarding) 1-2
Dragon Age II
Madden 13 (by people here at least)

Oh alright, I'll bite:

Over-rated:

• Homeworld 2
  • The original Homeworld was one of my favorite RTSes of all time. I personally felt Homeworld 2 threw away a lot of Homeworld 1's unique feel in favor of being more like a traditional RTS. It had less interesting skirmish AI, a less interesting campaign, horrific formation options compared to the original's excellent formations, less interesting resourcing, etc.
  • Make no mistake- Homeworld 2 was actually not a horrible RTS in its own right. But it was nowhere near the fantastical and unique experience I had with the original.
• Empire: Total War
  • If your game's 'expert' AI is worse than the 'Normal' AI of one of your predecessors (Rome: Total War to be specific), you know there's a problem. Empire: Total War is one of the biggest examples out there of how AI can make or break your game. In the case of Empire, completely break. Thank goodness Creative Assembly at least partially redeemed themselves with Shogun 2.
  • If there's any upside to Empire- at least the Naval combat wasn't bad. :P
• Half-life 2
  • Another example of AI letting a game down. Half-life 2's Combine are some of the most boring enemies I've ever faced in the FPS genre. I won't say Half-life 2's a bad game though- because non-combine engagements are good fun. Its just a shame the Combine are the most prolific enemy in the game. :\
  • Take note- I'm only listing the original Half-life 2 here!
    • Episode 1's superb level design managed to gloss over the Combine's lackluster AI and make them kind of interesting in spurts.
    • Episode 2 gave the Combine an at least partially memorable enemy in the form of the Hunter.
      • (And I'm probably in the minority for thinking the first half of the game- the Antlion caverns- are the better part of the game. :P )

Under-rated:

• Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command
  • One of my favorite PSP games honestly. Yeah sure, its multiplayer died out very quickly and its campaign is quite short. But that campaign is pretty darned enjoyable- I've ended up replaying it on multiple occasions now. The above average enemy AI just makes it for me. :D
  • Well, the AI's above average at least until the campaign's disappointing endgame missions where Chaos Marines are largely replaced by Obliterators- which the AI is nowhere near as competent with. :(
• Wrath Unleashed
  • I rented this when I was younger- and was overjoyed to have stumbled on what is pretty much a spiritual successor/tribute to Archon. :D
  • The level of content within the game is slightly limited, as there's only so many maps and the campaigns are all very short. But again, the combat was good fun and the enemy AI is surprisingly good at the highest difficulty...
  • ..... In combat at least. On the strategic maps, Wrath Unleashed's AI can be ridiculously stupid regardless of difficulty level. :P
• Binary Domain
  • Definitely one of my surprise purchases last year- I bought it on impulse from Green Man Gaming when it had a real nice sale going. And I did not regret it.
  • Yes yes, the story was surprisingly entertaining and all... But unlike most people who remember the game for characters like Big Bo and Cain, I remember Binary Domain for the basic enemy security bots. You should know a game knows what its doing when its able to prevent its basic cannon fodder enemies from ever getting old. :D
  • (It's a pity the security bots are predominantly replaced by the baton and pistol-wielding police bots in the latter third of the game, as their AI actually isn't quite as unpredictable. But oh well. :P )

Overrated:

Call of Duty (anything after 2)

Team Fortress 2

Red Dead Redemption

Underrated:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Singularity

Is the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series rated highly? I know it seems to have a pretty big niche group but I don't think it ever really became as popular as it deserved to be. Those games were absolutely amazing, still the best atmosphere I have ever seen in any game.

Overrated:

• Final Fantasy 7 (someone had to say it)
• Halo 2
• Left 4 Dead

Underrated:

• Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
• Oddworld: Stranger
• Elite Beat Agents

Yes! Let's start a big argument! (i don't wish for it but you know someone will be super pissed at someone else eventually)

Anyway.

Overrated

• The Walking Dead
• Skyrim
• Mass Effect the first

Underrated

• Parasite Eve (greatest game of 1998, yeah that's right)
• Max Payne 3
• Final Fantasy XII (not really underrated as much as it is extremely divisive)

@phatmac: I forgot Half-life 2, though it is a great game, it has to be one of the most over rated games of this generation.

Overrated:

Skyrim - I put in several hours but it never "clicked" for some reason. It's most certainly good, but not the be-all, end-all.

Guitar Hero/Rock Band - as a musician, I just never liked the games.

GTA 4 - I've put in like 20 hours, but never beat the story. I found myself using it as a playground for mods than an actual game.

Underrated:

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force & Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2 - Jedi Outcast - A pair of awesome online contemporaries to Quake 3

Blast Corps - My favorite N64 game

Max Payne 3 - I get the complaints, and respect them; but I loved the game. Sure it had frustrating moments; but I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy myself the whole way through.

These are, of course, just what I'm feeling at the time of writing down names. I'm sure both lists could change completely come tomorrow haha.

Over-rated:

The Walking Dead

Half Life 2

GTA: San Andreas

Under-rated:

Ratchet: Deadlocked

Sleeping Dogs

Need for Speed: Underground 2

@bassman2112: Blast Corps was great.

As for games that are loved by many but I just found sub-par or was dissapointed by:

• Call of Duty 2
• Alpha Protocol
• Fable 2

Call of duty 2 came out the same year as Brothers in Arms Road to Hill 30 and was outdone by it in pretty much every department except maybe multiplayer. Not to mention that Call of Duty 2 just seemed like a HD remake of Call of Duty 1, almost mission for mission. Alpha Protocol is the darling of every video game forum, and I don't know why. Does the fact that few spy RPGs exist make up for the fact that the game seems unfinished and has a dumb story? As for Fable 2, it's a game I learned to love, but initially I found it to be the Hangover 2 to Fable 1. Except the combat was dumbed down and the load times were not fixed despite it being a next-gen game.

I can only think of certain games that get no recognition right now and those games are:

• Driver San Fransisco
• SSX (2012)
• Phantom Hourglass

I'm not talking about metacritic ratings, I'm talking about the general populace and journalists just ignoring how cool these games are. Driver San fransisco is one of the best driving games of the generation, but all you hear about is Burnout, Forza and NFS. SSX had it's issues but it was such pure, concentrated fun, that it made for one of the best snowboarding games ever. And Phantom Hourglass was one of the best DS and Zelda games yet.

When is the last time anyone mentionned these games or talked about being excited for potential sequels?

I'm not doing links cus im lazy like that, and i'm going to go pretty general here cus yeah. laziness again.

Overrated.

Mario- pretty much all of it. its just well played out. hell i could honestly throw zelda in here but at least thats a bit more inventive. Mario hasn't been interesting since i was like 12, and im in my mid 20's.

Metal gear solid- the series. MGS the PS1 game i loved. everything after that has been a convoluted shitstorm of stupidity. its supposed to be this serious story, but you fight a fat guy on roller blades, a vampire, a guy who's evil power is BEEEEES, school girls, and the major bad guy is possessed by a transplanted arm. its SO dumb. its baffling to me how anyone could take this series seriously i mean if they played to the campy silliness of it then it'd be amazing but they play it straight in the worst way possible.

Final Fantasy - i admit i loved 6 and 7 as a kid. yet its just so linear, and so character driven that often final fantasy is just well, awful. like FF10 where the ONLY likable character is the old dude with a gimp arm and a jug of booze that barely talks, thats a serious problem.

Under rated.

Dawn Of War - both 1 & 2. i absolutely loved them both. i can't stand starcraft with all its stupid build order nonsense. where dawn of war is more all about the squad tactics. its also set in the super interesting 40k universe instead of the generic "stolen" starcraft universe. i swear blizzard has to be the most "stealy" developer out there. it made an RTS where the units matter way more than your stupid buildings. thats awesome. plus its damn fun to play. kudos to them.

fallout 1&2: ive played each one at least a dozen times over, ive played Fo1 so much that i know how to beat the game in under 20 minutes. i love the games so damn much. i played the crap out of them and i rarely see them getting praise. no im not one of those crazies that say FO3 or new vegas were bad, i loved both (despite FO3's AWFUL story).

Battlefield 2142: weird one i know. but it was when they were taking a risk, BF2 was super successful and popular why not take a risk right? so they set it in the future. it was AWESOME. way ahead of its time. active camo, mechs, crazy APC's that launched drop pods so troops could get behind enemy lines. massive floating airship bases you had to invade. it was amazing. the game flopped, and i kept playing for a long time even though finding a full server was getting harder and harder. it was great. i'd say it was better than BF2. plus i loved the setting, bleak future with high tech thats actually believable, hell yeah.

Overrated:

Games you like.

Underrated:

Games I like.

/thread

Overrated

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Assassins Creed 2

Street Fighter 4 (all 90 versions)

Underrated

MAG

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

Overrated:

1. Halo 2 - My opinion is probably a little off considering this was at a time where I was playing CS 1.6 10-20 hours a week. Even so, I just couldn't get into this iteration and feel both Halo 1 and Halo 3 were vastly superior.
2. Gears of War 3 - Making TDM the main playlist over execution/warzone just killed the fun for me. Easily poured hundreds of hours into the first 2 titles but ended up dropping 3 after only a couple weeks.
3. GTA IV - Everything besides the voice acting was a disappointment.

Underrated:

1. MAG - Even though it was a buggy mess at the beginning and for this entire past year, there was a period after significant patches that this was a blast to play. Little compares to the rush you feel being the OIC in a close fight, making calls and seeing the dots representing your teammates obeying your orders trying to squeak out a close victory. I'll still keep hoping for a MAG 2 against all odds.
2. Unit 13 - This is the only pure shooter on the Vita worth mentioning thus far. Perfect for the platform with the bite size missions and very addicting due to classic leaderboard chasing. Massive amounts of
3. MGS 2 - Out of every game I've ever played, this was the one that blew my mind the most at release. I'm sure if I was a little older when the N64 launched I would feel differently but even then I'd still hold MGS 2 very highly in showing what a (relatively) new console was capable of. And that opening theme... so good.

Overrated

• Uncharted - I'd put all three games separately but i'll just list the series as one entity.... oh ya the shooting is terrible
• Oblivion/Skyrim - Loved Morrowind, but got sick of the later 2 incredibly fast. I don't know if it's the games themselves or if they're just not for me anymore. At least Fallout was able to fill that void.

• Ocarina of Time - I honestly just don't get it. I don't understand why people still like that game. Now Winder Waker, that's a good zelda game. Link to the Past? Almost perfect.

Underrated

• Prince of Persia - basically anything after sands of time (since people actually do love that one,) especially PoP 08. PoP 08 might be my favorite experience this generation. It's at the least the one that's currently coming to mind.
• Kid Icarus Uprising - so you're right the on foot sections aren'y great, but I think the flying sections and the writing of this game absolutely make up for it.
• Unreal Tournament 3 - It's unfortunate that people stopped playing this as fast as they did. I really do think it's a better game than the originals but I guess everyone else disagreed and went back to previous games.

Overrated:

• Mass Effect
• Spec Ops: The Line

Underrated:

• Crysis
• Mirror's Edge
• Max Payne

Overrated:

Walking Dead

Memelands

MMOs

Underrated:

Freedom Fighters

Freedom Fighters

Freedom Fighters

Yay opinions!

I've never understood the concept of over and under rated. The only rating of a game that matters to me, is my rating. And you don't care about my rating, you only care about your rating of said game. So no game can be over or under rated. Just because the majority of people like or dislike something, does not mean it is over or under rated. That is its exact rating due to everyone who has cast a "vote" for said game. If the majority of people like it, it is a well liked game. It is not overrated just because the other people did not like it. Everyone has their own opinion. Opinions are not right or wrong.

I apologize if this is seen as thread crap or trolling, or whatever. I just had to say it. I've been seeing this on a few sites a lot lately and it just kinda jumped up and bit me on the ass tonight.

Overrated:

Dark Souls

Resident Evil 5

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Underrated:

Mirror's Edge

Super Mario Sunshine

Crysis

Over rated

• Diablo 3 - great critical reception and sales numbers, poor reviews from the buyers.
• Borderlands 2 - enemies have become bullet sponges and the most fun class - the Berserker was taken out.
• Skyrim - a big world that's full of nothing.

Under rated

• Dark Souls PC - it well may be a "shitty port" but it's still the best version of the game around.
• Prince of Persia 08 - my favourite PoP, loved the art direction.
• Metal Gear Solid 2 - loved the gameplay, didn't mind Raiden and the silly story. Snake as an NPC was a badass.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

999

Final Fantasy: VII

These are not overrated games, but simply games that people adore for reasons I cannot understand.

People can like whatever the fuck they want to like.

There is no such thing as overrated.

Over-Rated:
☆ Modern Warfare/Call of Duty - Seriously?
☆ Mass Effect Series - I love the games (I'll admit), but people have to stop complaining so much and making a big deal about its story.
☆ "Half-Life 3" - I know it doesn't exist but I can safely say it's tiring to hear about it. The day people realise it may never happen, the day Valve may actually do someth-- ...
☆ Kingdom Hearts - Because ice-lolly's aren't cool any more.
☆ Halo Series - It's one of those games which have seriously gone on for too long. And we all know Cortana is slightly naked... we get it!

Under-Rated:
☆ Okami - I know everyone who has played it says it's a Zelda rip off, but when you look past that, it's a seriously good game.
☆ Tomb Raider 2 - An odd one, but no one have I ever met has actually liked this game. I'd say, out of the old TR games, this is one of my favourite ones because of the architecture and the places you visit.
☆ Spyro 3 - People started to see that Spyro was loosing it's flare during this point, and when the PS2 games came out, that was it for the Spyro Games. Spyro 3 mechanics are possibly the best out of the three PS1 games.
☆ Dark Souls - Mainly the PC port. As the game is taken a little too far, and people got way too excited for it, I think through that the story and detail people miss out on really ruins the magic of Dark Souls and the game.

Well, to be honest, there are many over-rated names out there... and you could actually class every game as an over-rated name because of fans and fan bases alike.
So I don't know; my choices are just my own. People are aloud to like what they like, as long as they enjoy themselves. c:

Under Rated

• Warhammer: Space Marine
• Killzone(series)
• Fallout Tactics

Over Rated

• Forza(series)
• Final Fantasy VII
• Mass Effect 3

Nah. I fully agree with you. The notion of over/underrated is mostly unreasonable, and stands subject to just as much, if not more, subjectivity than one's general impressions of a single game.

I mean, it's one thing to have positions on a game and that game alone. But comparing those opinions, with opinions you might have of other games, often games of wholly different breeds and genres, totally dismissing your own personal tastes and gaming biases, all that is beyond actual logical scrutiny. It's just nonsense at that point.

Uh oh. This isn't going to end well, especially since I don't really have any underrated games (plenty of underappreciated games, but no real underrated games).

Overrated: GTAIV (boring, boring, booorrrringg), The Walking Dead (I really liked it, but it's deeply flawed), and inFamous (combat is quite stiff, and the mission design is pretty weak).

Underrated: The Saboteur (trashy stylish open-world fun), Eternal Sonata (charming as all hell and good combat), and Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (a great TBS game, the DS version is awesome portable Civ)

No, it isn't...

Stripping any fanboyisms aside, Half-Life 2 is probably one of the most important games of all time, as far as the FPS genre and story-telling are concerned.

Regardless of any issues about lengthy vehicle sections, or what have you, it's a milestone in game development. If HL2 hadn't come out, you can bet that games wouldn't be the same today.

It also came out nearly ten years ago, so it isn't from this generation.

Edit: Also, this.

#28 Edited by HistoryInRust (5883 posts) - 1 hour, 5 minutes ago

Nah. I fully agree with you. The notion of over/underrated is mostly unreasonable, and stands subject to just as much, if not more, subjectivity than one's general impressions of a single game.

I mean, it's one thing to have positions on a game and that game alone. But comparing those opinions, with opinions you might have of other games, often games of wholly different breeds and genres, totally dismissing your own personal tastes and gaming biases, all that is beyond actual logical scrutiny. It's just nonsense at that point.

@clonedzero: I don't understand the inclusion of Fallout 1 and 2 in the underrated category. There are both extremely highly rated and almost universally loved. Undersold compared to 3 and New Vegas then yeah but they were still commercial successes in their time.

Overrated: Shooters

Underrated: Eroge

@geteveryone: It's nice that you feel that way, but I feel that it's overrated.

Overrated:

Fable

Mario Kart (Any)

Torchlight

Underrated:

Summoner

Vanquish

Diablo 3

Also, fuck auto-spacing.

Overrated:

Halo 3

Final Fantasy 13

Journey

Underrated:

The Saboteur

Tokyo Jungle

Resident Evil 6 (it's not as bad as people make it out to be)

Also PS All-Stars is very underrated.

Overrated:

God of War 3

Skyrim

GTA 4 (actually any GTA game, minus San Andreas)

Underrated:

Alpha Protocol

Singularity

Saints Row 2

But as someone has previously mentioned, there are people out there who appreciate popular/unpopular games and who don't appreciate popular/unpopular games. It really doesn't make them over/underrated, IMO.

@geteveryone: And I don't deny that it had a huge effect on FPS games in general, I also don't deny that it was very good, but most of the time I see, or hear people talk about it, they really hype it up like it was the perfect game. It just annoys me, maybe because Halo 2 came out around the same time, people gave it so much flak, even though I think it is safe to say that it influenced online shooters more than any other game aside from COD 4 in resent times.

I am just speaking from my point of view.

Overrated:

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Borderlands 2
• Diablo 3

Underrated:

• ZombiU
• Dragon's Dogma
• Kingdom's of Amaulr: Reckoning

Why not. I'm not big on being so definite as to claim a game is over or under rated. I can think of a few at least.

Overrated:

• Saint's Row the Third ( I had many issues with this game which I rarely heard brought up when people were singing the praises of it)

Underrated:

• Prince of Persia 08 (This game got slammed upon release for the supposed lack of challenge. I don't think that was fair as the game was not easy just had a different and I believe smarter approach to death as it did not waste your time. Similar to Super Meat Boy)

Over: PTI, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger

Under: The Tony Kornheiser Show, Front Mission 3, Kessen 3, Valkyrie Profile 2

@big_jon: GTA 3 is overrated compared to what? The vast number of open world huge city games that came before it? With Ocarina of Time at least Mario 64 towers over it in most achievements.

Most Overrated:

1. The entire Uncharted series (PS3)
2. Super Meat Boy (XBLA)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)

Most Underrated:

1. No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way (PC)
2. Alpha Protocol (PC)
3. Descent (PC)

OVERRATED: GTA series, uncharted series, god of war series.

UNDERRATED: ilomilo, raskulls, left 4 dead series.

Oh yeah.

Except that Half-Life 2 is a last generation title (PS2/Xbox/Pentium 4/AMD Sempron), which only speaks to how important the game was in the chronology and history of video games.

@big_jon: The problem with Half Life 2 is that it innovated in ways the industry haven't really caught up with (like world creation) and the ways it didn't innovate (like in enemy AI) the industry has long since surpassed, because we have come to expect a certain level of this sort of thing, when going back to HL2 it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Overrated -

!. Psychonauts (please don't kill me, Internet)

2. Super Meat Boy and/or any game with a sadistic, gleeful difficulty

3. The Souls series (oh dear Lord, if #1 didn't earn me a bullet, this one will)

Underrated:

1. Suikoden IV (and the series as a whole). I'm not saying IV is my favorite or the best of the series, but a lot of people (probably rightfully so) can't look beyond the ridiculous random encounter rate and sheer ugliness of the game to see the surprisingly decent plot and characters.

2. Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist. Calling it underrated is unfair, as it was pretty universally liked by the people I've talked to who have played it. But it was definitely one of the most underplayed adventure games of the 90's. Man, I love this game.

3. Wild ARMs 4 - While it's not my favorite of the series (that would go to the second one), Wild ARMs 4 put a lot of effort into reinventing the series. It was a cool RPG that practically no one played. Still need to play V.

Honorable Mention - MTV's Club Dead. In all of Giant Bomb's storied love affair with FMV games, not once have I heard this game even mentioned. True, it's nothing short of fucking horrible. But guys, it cries out to be played, to be experienced. This game is batshit psycho nuts, with an extra helping of crazy on the side. It's godawful and hilarious.

Overrated

Mario

Sonic

Mortal Kombat

Underrated

Donkey Kong

Street Fighters

Car racing games.

Overrated:

Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy IV

Dark Souls