Top Five Underrated HG Games — 2022

You may choose THREE options.

  • The 3Games
  • Academy of Disaster
  • The Aegis Saga
  • Apex Patrol
  • Attack of the Clockwork Army
  • The Butler Did It
  • Captive of Fortune
  • Comrade or Czar
  • Courting of Miss Bennet
  • Critical Mass: The Bridge
  • Dancing with Demons
  • Diamant Rose
  • Divided We Fall
  • Doomsday on Demand 2
  • Double/Cross
  • Elemental Saga
  • First Year Demons
  • The Floating City
  • Foundation of Nightmares
  • Founders Saga
  • The Harbinger’s Head
  • Interstellar Airgap
  • The Iron Destinies
  • Kepler Colony: Evactuation
  • Knight of the Fellowship
  • Lost in the Pages
  • Machinations: Fog of War
  • The Mage’s Adventure
  • Marine Raider
  • My Day Off Work
  • No Proper Thief
  • Paradox Factor
  • Paths to Greatness
  • Planetary Quarantine
  • Raiders of the Icepeak Mountains
  • Saga of Oedipus Rex
  • Score of a Lifetime
  • A Sensei’s Story
  • Seven Bullets
  • The Shadow Horror
  • Silent Gear
  • Starship Adventures
  • Super Star Soccer Striker
  • Swamp Castle
  • Sword of the Elements
  • Too Different
  • Trial of the Demon Hunter
  • The Twelve Trials
  • Tudor Intrigue
  • The Volunteer Firefighter

0 voters

23 Likes

Man, the Kepler series had so much potential.

13 Likes

A Sensei’s Story is one of my favorite HGs of all time – it is a humorous and accurate depiction of what it’s like to live and work in Japan as a foreigner.

It’s sad to see it appear on this list… :crying_cat_face:

15 Likes

That’s how I feel about Paradox Factor. It’s a tricky little puzzle box of a game that’s so much fun to unravel you almost forget that it’s all about grief. And it’s so beautifully written. And pragmatically I was a little surprised to see it here, just because it got a Steam release last year and I assumed that meant sales had been good. Then again, I believe this list is based on total revenue, and Paradox Factor cost all of a dollar until recently, when it went up to two dollars, so maybe it’s just the low price keeping it below the threshold.

15 Likes

I think that’s one of the criteria but it’s also listed as 5k+ downloads on google play and it’s been out a really long time. That would definitely qualify it as an underrated game, particularly from such an otherwise very popular author. (Interestingly, it’s probably my favourite out of all the games by this author too.)

Edit: BTW, thank you so much to everyone that put in a vote for Oedipus! It’s lovely to hear it’s on some reader’s fav underrated game list.

9 Likes

Paradox Factor is a true work of art, but I can understand why it isn’t universally beloved. My first time playing it was such a horror of confusion I actually got a migraine doing it. Even five years later, I’m not sure I’m ready for a second go.

7 Likes

One of my favorites too…

7 Likes

I wholeheartedly believe that Academy of Disaster is extremely underrated. Its very well written with the mc actually having a customisable personality while still being semi-defined, kinda like Samurai of Hyuga. It’s also one of the best murder mysterys I’ve ever read, on par with the Sherlock Homes books imo. I think what caused it to flop was its complete lack of romance options, meaning the majority of people who play these games ignored it, as they are mainly looking for romance based games. So my vote is cast for the (in my opinion), criminally underrated Academy of Disaster.

11 Likes

I’m curious about the criteria for this list. Trial of the Demon Hunter has sold more copies than any of my other works, some of which aren’t on the list, and has made more royalties than most of them. :thinking:

12 Likes

I’d have to say Apex Patrol is probably the most underrated imo. Think it’s one of the oldest HGs but the story was so good from what I can remember about that.

5 Likes

Swamp Castle is literally one of the best, more replayability than most, and helped spawn off more same universe games.

6 Likes

Agreed. Do we know whatever happened to the follow-ups?

5 Likes

From what I can remember, it was a multi-author collaboration, and only one ended up actually writing a game.

3 Likes

I truly love The harbinger’s head! It’s not the longest game and it’s fairly linear but the story and writing is delightful. It reminds me of a fairytale in many ways. I honestly think it’s one of my favourite hg games

7 Likes

These polls are sad but also good because there are a lot of good games on this list but they’re just not as big or as well known as the other games so they shine a light on these games and more people can enjoy it.

5 Likes

Going through a list and recognizing nearly none of the games seems so weird to me, I have played a decent chunk of both the steam libraries, is it because a lot of these games aren’t on steam?

6 Likes

Yes. Quite a few Hosted Games releases don’t come out on Steam, since there’s extra effort and expense that goes into a Steam release. Games that don’t make it to Steam are generally shorter, less polished, and less popular in the WIP stage than those that are released on Steam, but many of them are still pretty good and well worth playing on the CoG website or smartphone app.

13 Likes

The Iron Destinies :heart_eyes: by @davidaberner
The title suggests a sword tale, but it’s actually more creative: the chemical and astronomical adventures of an Iron atom. It’s poetic science in prose. And sci-fi! And labyrinths!

4 Likes

Still in the works…

15 Likes