Death Collector - the premise is so entertaining and I believe I’m on my third or fourth replay…still finding things I didn’t even know existed!
Rent-A-Vice - I had to try hard to be a positive person in that game and even then, I’m still pretty cynical. It’s gritty, it’s dark and dreary, but like a rainy day, you still want to cuddle up and try and make the best of it.
I, Cyborg - really enjoyed playing as a non-human more than I thought I would! I still haven’t unlocked all the endings lol.
Honorable mentions for me are: Heart of the House, Welcome to Moreytown and Congresswolf. The former two are games I replay every now and again and Heart of the House isn’t my favorite, but a game I thought should’ve gotten a bit more hype than it did.
Trying to think of what games would be classed as underrated here so might be missing a few, and have a heap I need to finish reading
Metahuman gets mentioned occasionally, but Orpheus ruse by the same author is also great and never seems to get any love. Last monster master is also a nice game that I never hear mentioned. I actually quite like Eerie estate agent too.
From HG I really like Tokyo Wizard and think it deserves more love. Scarlet sails is another one that’s a lot of fun. (For that matter the COG title choice of pirates is also good and used to get mentions, but pirates seem to have fallen out of popularity for some reason.) Highlands deep water is beautifully lovecraftian.
One of my all-time favorite published games is one I don’t hear mentioned often: Deathless: The City’s Thirst. I think I’m just a sucker for tortured protagonists.
Couple others I really liked: Choice of the Petal Throne (a little linear perhaps, but a really interesting setting), Hollywood Visionary, and Fool!
If we’re doing WIPs – ugh, I have so many threads bookmarked, but a few that immediately come to mind:
(crashes through the wall in a shower of debris) DRAG STAR!
…
Okay, so I realize that Drag Star! was actually fairly popular for a while. BUT. I still feel like it didn’t get the recognition it deserved. Maybe this is just my bias because of how deeply I’m steeped into drag culture, but I feel like the game was overlooked despite being an incredibly fun homage to Drag Race and drag culture as a whole.
Another game that was actually pretty good was A Midsummer Night’s Choice. When I played the demo, I actually found it quite engrossing. Even though it’s Shakespearean, it’s not as dense, which was a welcome change when reading something Shakespearean.
EDIT: On the HG side, I adore Love at Elevation. It’s so quaint and the characters are surprisingly complex, which I didn’t expect when I first played through. The Ascot is another one that I liked for its simplicity.
My Day off Work. It’s a unique creature, and presents one of the most entertaining true sandbox experiences in IF. Sure, there’s virtually no gamification to it, but that is part of its charm. Like a deranged older cousin of the original CYOA books. Maybe you strip and go to the beach, maybe you stay in and play WIPs, maybe you’re a hero, maybe you’re Sarah Connor. It’s a title where you know there’s zero chance you’ll run out of different things to do thanks to sheer volume.
Plenty of people have talked about Cannonfire Concerto, and I’ll agree with them. It’s a wonderful addition to the Choice of Games library, and it doesn’t seem to get that much love or attention.
Hollywood Visionary is also great! It’s quite unlike anything in the library, which I think is what draws me to it: there’s a unique way of using stats (your character has an inherent skill and a learned one, both of which are related to film-making), plenty of customization for making your picture and a stress mechanic, that increases the more work you take for yourself. The writing is solid and the characters are fun and engaging, to boot.
A Study in Steampunk is also often overlooked, for Hosted Games.
Keep in mind it is a thread about underrated games. Games like Dragon Racer that achieved a pretty good level of success could still be mentioned, but their omission would not be glaring.
Uh, is that the one written by @Lucid? Set after TLH?
Anyway what I missed was the first Kendrickstone game, I saw the second one on the list but I’d prefer to vote for the first one. Was that one of the more popular ones?
Also I don’t think I saw Sorcery is for Saps anywhere, I liked it’s humor. @jasonstevanhill
The Magician Burden isn’t a @Lucid 's game. You are thinking of Last Wizard.
Magician Burden was written by Samuel Young.
IIRC Hero of Kendrickstone was a major hit, specially in Steam where it sold more than it was expected.
I think the sequel didn’t get the same success as its predecessor.
Probably cos they’re not really underrated. (Over 1k reviews and 10k+ downloads on Google alone.) They just get eclipsed by the author’s more popular series hero’s rise.
Compare that to other nominated games like last monster master and Orpheus ruse which both have under 300 reviews and are in the 1k download category.
The Saga of Oedipus Rex , The Volunteer FireFighter , The Twelve Trials . These are some games that i think are under rated. I really loved playing these .
Hum, I’m new to the forums, so it’s kind of hard for me to tell which WIPs are underrated.
As for games per se… hmm I guess the one I really love and that I consider underrated is Fatehaven. It kind of gets overshadowed by the author’s way more famous Samurai of Hyuga. I mean, Samurai of Hyuga IS one of my favorite choice games, but it isn’t underrated - faaaar from that.
I’ll jump in reviving this old thread. Cannonfire Concerto for me. It always make me melancholy, often for hours, so I don’t read it that often. But the ending (you play through your character’s entire life) is just a powerful reminder of mortality and I always just feel so satisfied with my character’s life. It’s a story that could best be described as bittersweet but it’s honestly pretty powerful.
