[tifi]

Seeing as we have a thread for everything hyped up and mediocre, why not have one for the virtually unknown little gems we have squirreled away somewhere.


Starships Unlimited
www.apezone.com

A cute little 4x game which is kinda like 'Orion Junior'.
Pretty much standard stuff, colonise planets, research toys, build ships, etc... but I've found it to be rather addictive, and am currently playing 'Pirate' capturing my enemies ships for fun and profit.

Star Controll II aka. Ur-Quan Masters
www.toysforbob.com
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

An old classic ressurected from the pit of death.
Very fun to play, especially if you have someone you can hotseat with - the melee game is a hoot!
The 'campaign' is pretty cool too, and should keep you occupied for a while.

[redsniper]

FS2
Also, Beyond Good & Evil, and Ico.

[G0atmaster]

I knew of an old RPG called "Exile."  It was a trilogy.  It takes place in medieval times, and an empire has control of the known world.  The emperor decides to clense the population, so he sends all the freaks, miscreants, bums, and criminals to a network of tunnels incredibly deep underground via magic.  The tunnel systems were built by several races that have never been seen on the surface.   

It's quite a neat little trilogy.  In the first two, your job is to save the land of Exile (the civilization built underground by the people sent there) and make it to the surface.  In the third one, the Exiles have made a deal with the empire to let them back up, with limitations.  But wierd things are happening on the surface, basically creatures start appearing at random and destroying stuff.  Your job is to get to the bottom of it and save the world.

Check it out when you get a chance.  http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/

All three are shareware.

[Mustang19]

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/SPCamo/wSPMBT/1.htm

WinSPMBT.

Some of you may have heard of SPWAW. It's Steel Panthers I ported onto Windows. WinSPMBT is a similar concept, just for Steel Panthers II, and with many, many gamplay, graphics, AI, etc. enhancements. It's created by the Camo Workshop, two ex-British Army guys working out of their homes. Steel Panthers was an excellent game in the first place for its depth of strategy and gameplay. SPMBT doesn't dissapoint. I love it for the excellent mission/campaign creation tools like I love FRED2 Open. The multiplayer is excellent even though it's PBEM, and for people who love SPWAW they've released winSPWW2, same game engine, just WW2 timeframe.

Both games are essentially donateware. There is a "demo" for both, but it's almost full-featured, and what really keeps the Camo Workshop alive are the people who pay $40 for the "full version" which has a handful of add-ons. Anyone who liked any of the SP or Allied/Panzer/People's General series should give the demo a try. Now two guys working alone to create a great freeware game in a dead genre, you can't get more underappreciated than that...

[Sarafan]

The Earth series (except Earth 2160, that one sucks ), both good strategy games (if only the first would work on XP ). Another one would be Chrome, a decent FPS.

[phatosealpha]

Can StarCon2 really be called underrated?  Under exposed, yes, but underrated?  As far as I can tell, anybody's who's played it has been very, very fond of it.

Even then, since UQM, well...I for one have been nothing short of amazed how many people know who fwiffo is.

[CP5670]

FS2 wasn't underrated at all. The reviews were very positive. It just didn't sell well.

Some such games that come to my mind are Unreal 2 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. They got pretty decent reviews, but I thought they were better than most of the reviews suggested. The latter in particular is one of the best games I've ever played.

[Ransom]

"Exile."

Hey, I didn't know there were SWS fans here. Awesome.

[NGTM-1R]

There's a freeware version of Steel Panthers World at War available.

But what I really want is to find my friggin' Steel Panthers III disc again. I miss commanding my tank battalion.


O.R.B. impressed me deeply. It has the gameplay of Homeworld (the original) combined with a wonderful story. (For some reason it brings to mind the first Ground Control for me always, but I do not know why.) The ship designs ain't bad either. I'm still working on a couple of models inspired by the Alyssian Defender and Starchaser. Maulus ships might make a suitable starting point for primative, or heavily-Terran-influenced, Vasudan designs, but I'm not confidant in my ability to model a Vasudan ship.

[G0atmaster]

Speaking of Earth series, I'm pretty sure a little-known game called Warzone 2100 is in the same series.  It seems to be a somewhat more primitive version of the same game engine, and I'm fairly sure it's the prequel to Earth 2150.

EDIT:  I LOVED Exile.  I spent two years trying to figure it out before I realized you NEEDED the hint booklet or guess the random letter/number combinations to some of the passwords within the next ten years.  Silly me, I was trying sensible things.

For example, the first quest of Exile 2, slaying the Nephilim chieftain.  I wouldn't be able to get the password to go in the back way, so I'd storm the front and die in 10 seconds lol.

[Mustang19]

O.R.B. impressed me deeply.

w00t!

www.o-r-b.com

Decent modding and mission-design potential, also, just no community for it.

[diceman111]

Nesus : The Jupiter Incident

Also Sid Meiers Colonization (NOTE: not Civilisation)

[Dysko]

Speaking of Earth series, I'm pretty sure a little-known game called Warzone 2100 is in the same series.  It seems to be a somewhat more primitive version of the same game engine, and I'm fairly sure it's the prequel to Earth 2150.

I have that fantastic game!!! I don't know if it's part of the Earth series, but it was fun!!! Especially now that its source code has been released and now also for WZ2100 is happening what is happening also for FS2!

[Sarafan]

Speaking of Earth series, I'm pretty sure a little-known game called Warzone 2100 is in the same series.  It seems to be a somewhat more primitive version of the same game engine, and I'm fairly sure it's the prequel to Earth 2150.

Warzone 2100 is not a part of the Earth series (the Earth series is Earth 2140, 2150 and 2160 plus all their expansions), its a different game. But it's also a good game, I've never seen a game with so many weapons to choose.

[G0atmaster]

OOOH sid meier games.  Alpha Centauri was my favorite, followed by Civ 4.  That one wasnt underrated, though, but AC was. 

Also, anyone here heard of Escape Velocity?


EDIT: OOOH I forgot one.  It was a game I got via a PC Gamer (I think) demo disk.  It's called Battlezone.  It's not the old atari game, but this awesome hybrid of RTS and FPS/Tank simulator.  You can read up on it here.

OOOH and another hybrid RTS/FPS/tank game that I loved was Uprising 2.  Cant find any info on it though.

[Mefustae]

OOOH sid meier games.  Alpha Centauri was my favorite, followed by Civ 4.  That one wasnt underrated, though, but AC was.

Alpha Centauri was never underrated. Look it up, it never got below an 80% review on any major site/mag. Plus, any Civ fan knows that it's easily the best pseudo-Civ out there.

Also, anyone here heard of Escape Velocity?

I think I remember that. Were you flying around in a spaceship shooting things on various planets and spacestations, including a big dagger or something?

[brozozo]

Silent Storm (http://www.mobygames.com/game/s2-silent-storm). It's a 3D (with nifty physics!), squad based, turn based strategy game set during World War II. I consider it unique because it doesn't go down the trail nearly all other WWII games have; it dabbles in some alternate history.

[CP5670]

EDIT: OOOH I forgot one.  It was a game I got via a PC Gamer (I think) demo disk.  It's called Battlezone.  It's not the old atari game, but this awesome hybrid of RTS and FPS/Tank simulator.  You can read up on it here.

Battlezone wasn't underrated; it got excellent reviews. That was another brilliant game that didn't sell very well.

[Ulala]

I think that whole FPS/RTS genre is sorely untapped.

[Cobra]

EDIT: OOOH I forgot one.  It was a game I got via a PC Gamer (I think) demo disk.  It's called Battlezone.  It's not the old atari game, but this awesome hybrid of RTS and FPS/Tank simulator.  You can read up on it here.

Battlezone wasn't underrated; it got excellent reviews. That was another brilliant game that didn't sell very well.

Yeah. Battlezone 2 wasn't as good as BZ1 for some reason though.

And BZ1 was bloody ****ing hard on some levels. I barely beat the last level, was on the VERY last bar of health. Plays better with a mouse.

I think that whole FPS/RTS genre is sorely untapped.

What other game like that is in there? Would Republic Commando count as that?