Underrated Games From The Last 10 years

[anvi]

That reminds me, Monster Train, amazing game.

 

[ADL]

It's not out of early access yet but I can already tell Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon would be my game of the year if KCD2 wasn't coming out in February. It's not getting nearly as much attention as it deserves.

 

[Falksi]

Just out of the 10 year range, but this is still an incredibly fun freebie...

https://gamejolt.com/games/avengers-united-battle-force/14591

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Legend of Grimrock II (2014): Prestigious Dungeon Master-like deserves far more play than it received, especially among Codexers.

Did they make their own engine? It's a nice looking game and feels nice to play. Would love a sequel. There is stuff that bothers me about the game, but I really love it too. It is a tough game compared to most I think. My main gripe is that there's no healer. And also the rune clicking... my god. I ended up getting some macro software which lets me press a button and it does whatever shape I want.

Selection of a series of runes on a single screen is a reasonable alternative to Dungeon Master's rune magic system in which the player select one rune out of six repeatedly.

 

[Gregz]

Most of the Codex are aware of these, but they are still underrated imo:

Kenshi on Steam​

Jupiter Hell on Steam​

 

[Reality]

Stephens Sausage Roll (2016)
Accomplishes what few puzzle games can : it teaches the player how to do things, and then it unteaches them - old solutions cause you to get stuck. The game best feature is that it has a kind of abstract purity : no new physics objects are introduced for nearly 3/4 of the game.

Planet Coaster (2016)
Not quite the 2nd coming of rollercoaster tycoon, but still a good faith effort and lots of fun to mess with

Field of Glory II (2017)
I find the company hit or miss. But their flagship is undeniable as long as you do MP as intended.

 

[Valestein]

Pretty much the entirety of AstroPort's library.

 

[Elttharion]

The best game you never played

 

[Kabas]

The best game you never played

Don't watch any reviews, don't enter any forums with discussions on it, ignore trailer and screenshots and just buy the game.
I will keep saying this every time Northern Journey gets mentioned - this game is best experienced if you go in completely blind with zero expectations.


Monsters of Mican is being unfairly slept on i think. It's a solid mix of M&M6-8 with Wizardry 8 with... "fascinating" monster design made through creative asset flipping.
Gets too easy near the end though.


Love this game nuff said. It's criminal that this series isn't that well known.

 

[NecroLord]

The best game you never played

Looks pretty interesting.

 

[Valestein]

'Vania where you play as a cripple piloting a robot.



RTT game set in the Eastern Front in WW2.



Twin stick shooter.



Another such game, that's totally not inspired by Judge Dredd.



And lastly another twin stick shooter with a time gimmick and a soundtrack made by Nightstop.

 

[Alienman]

Syrian Warfare and the DLCs. Great RTS with true line-of-sight, realistic damage etc. Dynamic side-missions, too, that are challenging to complete, but feels rewarding if you do. Both in narrative and gameplay-wise. Can feel bullshit at times, however. It will make you hate ATMs with a passion

 

[Ash]

Darkwood (very successful, but ignored in circles like these ones even though it's probably the best game of the last decade)
Dying Light (absurdly successful, but looked down on on the Codex. Myself and some others set the record straight though. It's one of very few decent AAAs in decades).
Everspace (This game is lightning in a bottle to me. Too bad about the sequel).
Synthetik (as with most genres, the best games are not as popular or rated. This a roguelite top-down shooter and somehow the mediocre 'Enter The Gungeon' is much more popular)
Guns Gore & Cannoli 2 (perfection of side-scrolling shooters/run n gun)
Overload (Modern Descent and it is badass. Will never be rated as it filters people with its navigation/orientation challenges).
Void Bastards (Good for what it is. Better than any Bioshock anyway).
One More Dungeon 2 (Ditto. Scratches half an inch of huge surface area itch that Underworld Ascendant had no chance of touching)
Devil Spire (Ditto. Scratches half an inch of huge surface area itch that Underworld Ascendant had no chance of touching)

 

[NecroLord]

Dying Light (absurdly successful, but looked down on on the Codex. Myself and some others set the record straight though. It's one of very few decent AAAs in decades).

It's alright.
There's something about hacking and slashing zombies that is very cathartic and fulfilling.

 

[Ash]

The combat is fairly good but the platforming (and its melding with the combat) is the highlight, alongside generally respectable, sensible design e.g a 10 sq mi open world content-dense instead of 100 sq mi open world filled with nothing but following objective markers as per modern AAA standard.

It's not the best game ever, but it is noteworthy in the AAA space which is otherwise worthless.

 

[Elttharion]

The combat is fairly good but the platforming (and its melding with the combat) is the highlight, alongside generally respectable, sensible design e.g a 10 sq mi open world content-dense instead of 100 sq mi open world filled with nothing but following objective markers as per modern AAA standard.

It's not the best game ever, but it is noteworthy in the AAA space which is otherwise worthless.

Driving the buggy in the DLC is also pretty cool imho.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

The Expeditions games (Viking in '17, Rome in '22; sequels to Conquistador from '13). Enjoyed playing all of them.

 

[axx]

It was mentioned before here, but +1 for Hob. After Torchlight 2 Runic made this and it flopped, but it's a really neat zelda like game. Interacting with various switches starts transforming the environment around you and it opens up new locations to explore. I tried Tunic after this but it's just a subpar experience.

 

[HansDampf]

games that sort of made no impact but which you think people might have missed and should check out.

Some puzzle games.

Taiji: The Witness 2D. Instead of drawing lines, you have to turn tiles on or off. Not as good as The Witness but worth checking out for puzzle fans.

Filament: I've never seen this mechanic before. You have to activate all the columns by touching them with a cable. But the cable also blocks your path. Hard to describe. There are lots of different gimmicks, and the puzzles get really complicated later on. Ignore the garbage story.

Patrick's Parabox: A mindfuck Sokoban-like with rooms-within-rooms, recursion, and infinities. Gives me some light Baba Is You vibes.

 

[Valestein]

This parkour and bullet time FPS.

 

[Chimera]

A brilliant, consistently-developed roguelite that combines aspects of The Binding of Isaac with the custom spell-creation and adaptation of Noita. Genuinely addictive and reasonably priced, particularly as a game that so easily accommodates those with hectic schedules that require a pick-up-and-play experience.


Fairly typical post-apocalyptic zombie survival gameplay, a la How to Survive or 7 Days to Die... but with destructible environments that are crucial to the robust crafting system. It is a pure sandbox/crafting game, though, so don't expect much by way of a story and, obviously, avoid it entirely if you're averse to mandatory crafting.


Essentially a solo-developer's interpretation of  Terraria as a RPG. Classes, crafting, factions, quests and a rudimentary story lend a unique charm to the usual Terraria-esque cycle of gameplay.

 

[Gostak]

Oh, one more although I guess it did decently thus far (like ΔV: Rings of Saturn):
Unexplored (1).


But its cyclic dungeon generation probably did not quite make the splash that it should have by now.
Excellent stuff.
https://dicegoblin.blog/making-meaningful-dungeons-with-cyclic-dungeon-generation/
In case that goes down, the other referenced sites/ material there:
https://sersavictory.itch.io/cyclic-dungeon-generation
https://www.boristhebrave.com/2021/04/10/dungeon-generation-in-unexplored/

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Action games

They Always Run
The Hong Kong Massacre
Ruiner
Brigador

RTS/TBS

Spellforce 3: Fallen God
Spellforce: Conquest of Eo
Marvel's Midnight Suns (deserves a mention for its turn-based combat system, which is great)

Had a good time with all of these games.

 

[anvi]

I thought of one, Besiege. That was a nice game.

 

[Kabas]

I thought of one, Besiege. That was a nice game.

It's been nine years already, huh? They added a lot more stuff since the days of early access, should definitely come back to it some day.
Let me post a classic.