Professional reviewers play a whole lot of games: good ones, bad ones, generic ones,
boring ones.
Every once in a while, they're even lucky enough to play a great one.
In all that criticism, though, sometimes a game falls through the cracks: a lesser known
jewel that's doomed to mediocre scores, forever saddled with a yellow or even - gasp! - red
number on MetaCritic.
Maybe the game was too far ahead of its time, or just too plain weird for the reviewers
to understand what they were looking at.
Whatever the reason, these are the underrated titles that deserved better than their bargain
bin fates.
Deadly Premonition - MetaCritic: 68
Deadly Premonition is a spectacularly, gloriously, even disturbingly bizarre game.
The lead character, special agent Francis York Morgan, frequently talks to his imaginary
friend Zach and receives clues about his cases from his coffee.
"Did you see that, Zach?!
Clear as a crisp spring morning.
F-K… in the coffee."
The supporting cast includes the likes of a lady obsessed with her talking cooking pot
and a suspiciously jolly sapling salesman, among many others.
Its graphics were already dated when it released in 2010, and, to top it all off, its controls
were as crisp and responsive as a block of concrete.
Most reviewers, naturally, were unkind.
IGN said it was a system seller - in the sense that it made you want to sell your system.
But then an unexpected thing happened: the game became a cult phenomenon.
Sure, there was no saving the crummy graphics or numb controls, but the unapologetic strangeness
of the game came to be seen as a feature, not a bug.
Like a piece of absurdist theater, Deadly Premonition's very wackiness became the reason
to play the game.
What tied it all together was the fact that the game never, at any point, compromised
its vision: it wanted to be the most gonzo headtrip adventure it could be, and by golly,
it was!
In the end, Deadly Premonition earned enough of a following to warrant a Director's Cut
release, which fixed some of the bugs and tightened up the overall experience.
Which was still weird.
It retains a devoted fan base to this day.
"You don't want to hear anymore?
That's a shame, isn't it Zach?
I was just about to get to the good part too."
EVE Online - MetaCritic: 69
EVE Online is a strange MMO: On the surface, it's a starship-based game in which you fly
across the universe, battle pirates and other players, and upgrade your vehicle.
But when it first released in 2003, it didn't seem to do even that very well.
Between the simplistic combat and the glacial upgrade pace, most reviewers saw EVE Online
as a title with gorgeous visuals, but little else.
What those reviewers appear to have missed was that, secretly, EVE Online isn't about
space: it's about spreadsheets.
The true heart of the game is in its sophisticated, player-driven economy, which is affected and
influenced by player-controlled corporations set up within the game.
Handling, modifying, and speculating on prices for various items and gear make up the bulk
of time spent playing EVE.
The spaceships are fun, and players still enjoy exploring and battling around the galaxy.
But cutthroat capitalism is the true wargame inside EVE Online.
Mafia III - MetaCritic: 68
Mafia III isn't without its problems: its graphics are dated, its controls are clunky,
and its combat design is straight out of the previous decade.
So the poor reviews from 2016 weren't necessarily "wrong," in the sense that reviewers had to
give consideration to these genuine flaws in the game.
But even the critics gave credit to one aspect of the title - an aspect that, over time,
has risen to be its defining feature: the story.
From its 1960s Louisiana setting, to its head-on confrontation with racial issues in the American
South, to the raw portrayal of its main character, Mafia III dealt with themes and subject matter
that most major releases wouldn't dare touch.
The cinematics and performances were first-rate, dripping with vengeance, regret, and operatic
melodrama.
The cherry on top?
Mafia III is one of only a few games featuring a black protagonist, played with depth and
broken humanity by Alex Hernandez.
Strictly as a game, its flaws will prevent it from ever being considered a true classic.
But as a story that touches on loyalty, betrayal, and prejudice in the 1960s American South,
Mafia III is one of the most memorable and thought-provoking titles we've seen in some
time.
SimCity (2013) - MetaCritic: 64
SimCity had a small problem on release: namely, it didn't work.
A game that most people would only enjoy as a single-player experience had to connect
to Electronic Arts' servers, for some reason.
Yet for the whole first week, it had trouble doing just that.
And so the game wouldn't let anyone who paid for it actually play it - not to mention,
it was riddled with a variety of bugs and poor design decisions, such as a playspace
that was too constricted for most cities to build into.
In layman's terms, it was a disaster.
Critics were swift to slam EA, ever the punching bag of the gaming industry.
SimCity 2013 became one of the most reviled releases in the franchise's storied history.
But over time, EA patched up the various bugs, and eventually disabled the online requirement
altogether.
Though a few design decisions, such as the small playspace, hold the game back from joining
the series' greats, the vast bulk of the issues that reviewers had with the game are now gone.
As it stands, the 2013 SimCity is a perfectly acceptable entry in the franchise, one which
will forever be saddled with a poor MetaCritic score that is, frankly, for another game that
no longer exists.
James Bond 007: Blood Stone - MetaCritic: 62
Licensed video games have a pretty poor reputation among gaming circles.
It comes as no surprise, then, that 2010's James Bond 007: Blood Stone was going to face
an uphill struggle.
And indeed, Blood Stone wasn't without issues: its mechanics were derivative, its missions
were repetitive, and the driving was just flat awful - and this from Bizarre Creations,
makers of the Project Gotham Racing games!
But Blood Stone wasn't some cheap copy of a much better movie: it featured its own story
written by Bruce Feirstein of GoldenEye fame, with marquee names like Daniel Craig and Joss
Stone voicing characters.
Even critics who were harsh on the gameplay admitted that Blood Stone nailed the tone
and feel of a Bond film just right.
In other words, Blood Stone was actually an authentic Bond experience: it was just being
judged by a game-focused press.
Other titles might have better combat or driving, but for people who like globetrotting, mystery-solving,
and martini-drinking, Blood Stone was a more than worthy addition to the 007 lineup.
Warframe - MetaCritic: 64
Warframe was released in 2013 to little fanfare, appearing to be just another power-armor-in-space
shooter.
The developer, Digital Extremes, had never produced a major hit on its own.
The fact that it was free-to-play didn't seem like a sign of quality, either.
Reviewers declared it a mediocre output, a faceless product in a sea of better competition.
Eurogamer said "the only reason this game is free to play is that nobody would pay money
for something so scrappy and generic."
But - funny thing about that scrappy, generic game - years after its release, it's one of
the most-played games on Steam.
Digital Extremes has continued to develop, improve, and add content into the game, turning
the flimsy launch product into one of the deepest and most rewarding titles on the market.
Polygon now calls Warframe a "perfect game," which isn't bad for a game they originally
scored a 5 out of 10.
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