Best Games No One Else Has Played

[Bond]

There are some games that are fantastic but for some reason never became popular or were overlooked by people. Name your favorites.

The one that comes to mind for me is The Last Express. Innovative gameplay and very interesting story. It is basically a murder mystery modelled after Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

Basically you are a young adventurous rascal who had a run-in with the law and are meeting a contact on the Orient Express. After slipping onto the train you find your contact dead. Your first order of business is to figure out what to do with the body and to avoid getting charged with the murder. Not easy since those pesky police are still after you! After that it just gets more interesting since naturally you'll want to eventually find out who murdered your contact in the first place and the train is filled with all sorts of interesting personalities.

Trying to find out who committed the murder is fun and it has some very interesting twists. It has standard adventure game elements and puzzles but the story and real time development and atmosphere are unique. This is because the story unfolds in real time. Sometimes there is one thing going on one part of the train while another thing is going on in another part of the game and the only way to know what is going on where is to "rewind" your day from a save point and replay. Since it is realistic there are times where you simply have to kill time before things will happen. Nevertheless it may be the only game of it's kind I know of and if it isn't it probably is still the the best game of its kind. Only real drawbacks are the short time to complete the story---and the frustration of getting stuck!

For mystery buffs this should be a must play. Also for anyone else who loves intriguing adventure games and story or someone who simply wants a unique video game experience that is different from what you've come across before. Most adventure games and RPGs are grand affairs where you are there to save the kingdom and maybe even cross dimensions (e.g. The Longest Journey). The Last Express in contrast is very intimate and takes place in a confined space but proves that the adventure need be no less an experience.

I do not usually like adventure games that much but with the focus on story that this one has and the common sense puzzles that have a clear purpose behind them this is my favorite.

[terminus est]

Alundra for the PS1.

It's like Zelda: A Link to the Past but with a somewhat ridiculous story (there's a beach bum who talks in surfer slang, for example), insanely difficult puzzles, quite difficult combat (a lot more strategic than Zelda), and a very long experience that most likely doubles or even triples the length of A Link to the Past. While ALttP gets more acclaim from me for being the first, Alundra has better level design, weapons / items, and a hell of a lot more challenge. Easily one of the best PS1 games and one of my favorite games of all time.

It might be a bit pricy to find it now though, as it's not a very commonly found game, at least to my experiences.

[Endow]

Any and all of my favourites series of vidoegames deserved a better treatment by the big audience :

Myst
Legacy of Kain
Panzer Dragoon



But there are some games that are REALLY unappreciated.Beyond Good and Evil is one good example.

[Keyoke]

Rome:Total War. Myself, I dont know a soul who plays it. And the expansion pack is hard to find as it doesnt sell.

Could be me...

Love the game though.. Been a fan of all the Total War games since Shogun

[Tarn]

Myst? Wasn't that the biggest selling video game of all-time?

For me, it has to be Darwinia. Of which I just happen to have recently written a review: http://www.sffworld.com/grevoff/76.html

Oh, and also the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game, which was cruelly overlooked, at least by PC gamers, who presumed it to be just another sub-par Xbox shooter.

[milamber_reborn]

Return to Zork
Zork Nemesis
Zork: Grand Inquisitor

Tex Murphy games (Martian Memorandum, Under a Killing Moon, Pandora Detective, Tex Murphy: Overseer)

[Ouroboros]

Games reviewers these days scorn turn-based strategy games in favour of their live-action relations. One reviewer commented that when he played recently released turn-based game 'UFO: Aftershock' (Think that was what its called) "it was like the last ten years never happened."

Personally, I like turn-based strategy games. They're more thoughtful and less random than live-action games. Obviously, barring throwbacks like 'UFO: Aftershock' and its prequel, they are slowly going the way of the dodo.

The grand-daddy of them all and still in some ways the cleverest of them: 'Laser Squad' for the amstrad, c64 and eventually the amiga. I suppose its spiritual descendants were the excellent cult classic X-Com games, which remain some of the most addictive games ever put down, IMO.

Then you've got stuff like 'Battle Isle', which eventually morphed into live-action games like 'Command and Conquer', and though we didn't know it at the time, that was probably the begining of a shift away from turn-based strategy games.

Although, it must be pointed out that turn-based fighting has endured in stuff like Final Fantasy, although people do gripe about that as well.

[milamber_reborn]

Grim Fandango - a classic from Lucas Arts that did better in reviews than sales.

[kater]

There have been a few that have seemingly slipped under the radar - including Second Sight, which was just a fantastic, innovative game with loads of action but due to a lack of publicity dropped into bargain bin obscurity. What's so annoying is that the studios and developers who makes these games are the ones that should be getting encouragement and funds, not folding under because a quality product wasn't recognised.

[Shehzad]

the excellent cult classic X-Com games, which remain some of the most addictive games ever put down, IMO.


Those were magnificent. turn-based, but strategy at a different level is of course the magnificent Civilization series.