The barometer of success in the gaming (what you are about to read can also be applied to movies, comics, music and books) is much like a scientific hypothesis. In order to understand the premise of the article the most basic truths must be assumed and correlated with certain conditions in which a reasonable answer can be extrapolated.

These truths are known to be self-evident:

Truth 1; Most people are consumers. Hence they exchange money for goods and services that are considered to be of some intrinsic, artistic, sentimental or entertainment value.



Truth 2: Most consumers, which, by association, represent most people, are stupid. They move through life with no understanding of self-style or worth. They follow the group call instead of taking the time or risk to be their own person, with their own tastes and aesthetic gravitations. They willingly become the sheep, praising what everyone else praises, and condemning what they condemn. They follow the tribe and their instincts and thus cannot be seen as sentient creatures fully capable of following their own thoughts.



Truth 3: The popular games grow and spread to become franchises and series. Games that are considered to have artistic and cultural value generally do not. They are avoided by the masses because they are not able to proliferate themselves within a stagnating medium which favors shallow interactive experience and bombastic, juvenile attempts at maturity.



Truth 4: Games that are considered to have artistic and cultural value can succeed if they present an element within itself which can draw a significant player base (see Bioshock). These will eventually become franchises.



Truth 5: Such valued games that do succeed and become franchises, will have their definitive and unique characteristic imitated and diluted throughout the medium until it is no longer original or even good.



Truth 6: Gamers who often participate on gaming discussion websites often do no fall into the realm of stupidity. These places become refuges for free thinkers, and free trollers, who chose to vibrantly flaunt their understanding of their own tastes in games.



The following truths are pertinent to the article

Truth 7: While some games gain a small cult status that may garner a sequel, remake or spinoff some day, games that are known as being critical darlings, often have a much larger base of discussion, if not sales to back them up. This thus negates the claims that they are commercial failures with only a small contingent of gamers discussing it.



Truth 8: Some Games that are often blasted by the gamer culture actually have extreme bouts of brilliance. These are overshadowed by the screams of the stupid (which include most gamer press). They are often abandoned despite their brilliance, which is decidedly overshadowed by the furor over their detracting points.



Truth 9: Games of the classification as identified in previous truth are not limited to original titles or even ones that can be necessarily commercial failures, but can also be sequels or spin offs to popular games or franchises. This further prevents the game from being assessed objectively.



Truth 10: Such games are forgotten by almost everyone.



That is the thesis of this feature article, games that are forgotten. These are games that were often insulted and cast aside as the better-known games were canonized for their brilliance.

It is such that the following games are not part of this article; Okami, Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil, System Shock 2, Grim Fandango, Riddick, Killer7 and ICO. Such games, while deserve merit for their aesthetic (Okami), intellectual (Psychonauts), and artistic (BGE and ICO, respectively) brilliance. It is wrong to assume these games as inherent cult titles. ICO, SS2, Killer7 and GF have such a massive literary following, these oft not played but definitely discussed titles are so well known that you’ll be hard pressed to find a group of gamers where at least 75 percent have not heard of them. Psychonauts will not be included for the same reasons as well as fairly healthy rate of purchase after it passed into realm of Digital distribution from services such as Steam and Xbox Live Originals. Okami and BGE are oft described as commercial failures but have sold enough copies on PS2 to garner both being granted the greatest hits labels. This may have come from the respectable amount of discussion surrounding it after their initial failure to sell well.



The point of this article is to bring to light oft ignored and forgotten games that were critical darlings but could not even gain a cult status, games that were derided unfairly, and games that no one simply remembers. Some will argue that they heard of them, but remember these two important points: these are games forgotten by ALMOST everyone, meaning that even if they are remembered, they generally have following far smaller than other cult and critically acclaimed games. Furthermore, people on Destructoid does no represent even a significant fraction of gamers and thus, even if most of you have heard of or are fans of the games listed here, you do not represent the norm.



Also, I intend to highlight rather excellent games that are often attacked by gamers and the media without much reason or objectivity. Some games may have sold fairly well in its short run but were forgotten by gamers. Some articles will be much longer, while others will be rather short and to the point. Hopefully, this article will get you to look at these games in a far more positive light and maybe pull them out enjoy for what they are. If I am really successful, you’ll go out and hunt them down.

And such the list proper begins. And will begin, oddly enough, with a sequel.

DEUS EX: INVISIBLE WAR



The furor over this game is a tragedy. Since its release, it has become the poster child for the oft bitched about ‘consolisation’ of classic series. And yes, while it was not a traditional RPG in comparison to its classic predecessor, and contained gameplay elements that some would find unfavorable (simplified customization, and unified ammo for instance). This oft forgot and criticized sequel actually managed to excel above its predecessor in terms of narrative and design.



While some may chock the original game’s more drole style to the limitations of graphics engines back then, which is definitely true, There was a lack of place in the game, it felt dead and sterilized, even for the future. Also, the game suffered quite greatly from its now classic story. While I am not arguing that the game’s narrative isn’t brilliant, the plot of the original game was still locked within the stylistic trappings of a videogame. It had a definable nemesis or negative effect upon the game world that the player had to defeat. The only difference in this game is that it was masking as the good guys. The problem with its story is that it so fully ingrained itself as a vaguely cyberpunk sci-fi story that wallowed in its reverence of conspiracy theories that it missed the points of both genres. Rather than taking a chance with grey areas (the defining mark of both genres), the game simply gave you black and white and failed to tell you which colour was which at the outset.




This brings us to Invisible War, or IW. Here, the game draws back the scope of its predecessor and pulls away many of the over the top conspiracy aspects to really distill the elements of cyberpunk literature. Conspiracies of corporations and secret societies, while still greatly present within the game have instead been substituted with a series of events that lead to a historical moment that rely on several conflicting ideologies. Here, all groups are presented with both positive and negative attributes, with one group representing the natural order of the universe, another representing racism and intolerance, and groups that represent the extremes of human modification and control over others. It plays with moral ambiguity quite freely in comparison to its predecessor and forms a much stronger and more cohesive story as a whole.


From a design perspective this game had a much better design. In IW, places felt real. Design and spatial relations gave the game far more human look to its washed out blocky predecessor.



Finally, the gameplay elements, while simpler than its predecessor, were choices made by the developers to better fit the concept of biomodification into the world. The previous game’s nanomodification system, while greatly referenced within the game world, had a distinct separation from the actual events that occur on screen (referencing the rpg mechanic not active effects you can unleash). Also a world as refined and worked out as this is not and should not be reliant on game trappings such as EXP and separated ammo. The point I am trying to make is that this a world where nanomachines and biomodification are so ingrained in society that they can be bought off the street. And thus they are. A traditional roleplaying mechanic in this case does not make sense. And while I can’t speak for the limited customization options, I side with the game and its choices of how said modification and combat is carried out because it makes sense and is plausible when considering the natural evolution of technology and its role in society and the importance of this theme within the game. With this, the title pulls away from the realm of RPG and makes its way into the area of simulation. And it is more brilliant for it.

As a side note, while the game’s textures are definably ugly on pc, there is an easily attainable texture mod that greatly removes that issue. Though I can’t say much for some of the character models.



ODDWORLD: STRANGER’S WRATH



Ah, the lament of my cohorts and I. We put many an hour into this long lost gem. It became like a religion to us along with the equally stupendous Red Dead Revolver. However, our spirits dropped and our faith in humanity waned when this title withered away.



The cause of this game’s demise was, in fact, EA. Before the restructuring occurred that would cause them to actually try to make ‘good’ games for gamers, EA was notorious for pumping out shit with the exception of games they got subsidiary companies to develop for them (DICE, Criterion, now Bioware and Pandemic). They also did publishing.



Stranger’s Wrath was one such game that EA published. However they put almost no money into advertising for it. This was because the game was exclusive to the Xbox. Due to Oddworld Inhabitant’s programming architecture for Wrath was built for the Xbox (it was originally MS game studios game), it was near impossible to port to ps2 (they tried but it was cancelled) and as a result was considered not worth putting any more advertising money into it than the bare minimum. Despite massive critical success, this bizarre and wonderful title was passed up by the gamers, most likely as a result of low exposure it passed under everyone’s radar and was forgotten.



This game was a visual marvel. Graphically, it was not the best looking game on the Xbox, but it sacrificed complex normal mapping and ultra detailed models in the name of scale and scope. It managed to have some of the largest and most complex levels ever in an Xbox game. It enhanced this effect with some of the most vibrant colours and luxurious lighting in a game ever. Seriously the lighting in this game puts almost every 360, Wii and PS3 game to shame. Furthermore the art style is absolutely orgasmic in its charming ugly weirdness. It took the visual conventions made by companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers in terms of character design and twisted them to a point where the sheer skill of the artistry in this game keeps you from being disgusted with what you see.



Narrative-wise, the game has one of the simplest, yet effective stories in a game ever. A sad and tragic tale that follows the titular Stranger on an odyssey that explores themes of natural conservation, the right of existence and value of life, some parts of this game made you really depressed in a good way.



Gameplay wise, it was a stealth action platformer shooter. Yes you read me right. It was a fully realized third person platformer that could switch at any time into a FPS. This opened up a level of verticality to the game that most other FPSs lack. Also the game encouraged you to be as stealthy as possible for the sake of not having the crap beaten out of you. One would think that the process of creating a game that is two genres in one will lead to an imbalance in one form of gameplay. Surprisingly, there isn’t such an imbalance as both styles of gameplay have been designed to compliment each other.



SHENMUE and SHENMUE II



This one is pushing the boundaries of what is considered ‘forgotten’ but one cannot ignore the abandoned Shenmue series. One of the first games ever to truly exploit in game graphics for emotional effect, this game had fully emotive character models that interactive with each other to an effect that is still impressive to this day.



This game is an oddball, by best definition. It can be described as a quiet revenge drama set in the real world of 1986-1987 Japan. It had a complex 3d fighting engine that focused on skill and execution of martial arts moves while being aware of your surroundings. However this game was primarily story and thus added interactivity to its cut scenes by creating a revolutionary new gameplay mechanic. That’s right, this game invented the modern quick time events (known in this game as quick timer events). However, this game made QTE’s such an integral part of the game that they became good, rather than pathetic excuses to avoid actually programming finisher combos in action games or a fully realized struggle mode (imagine being grabbed by a monster in Silent Hill Homecoming and using the thumb sticks, one representing each hand, to keep the enemy at bay).



Another thing these games were known for was the level of interactivity there was in the world. Nearly every thing in the game can be picked up, examined, collected, eaten or mused upon. This gives the game a distinctly realistic feel that most real world games such as GTA lack.



The stories of these games are equally oddball. Starting with a murder, the game follows Ryo Hazuki’s quest to avenge his father’s wrongful death and his interaction with his neighbors and friends during this adventure. In an almost 180 from other game dramas from Japan, such as MGS, Final fantasy, Okami and so on, this story is completely understandable and plays on the heavy drama between characters without resorting often to melodrama (it is in there but in incrementally small doses), making a real emotional connect with the players possible.



Furthermore, the game deals with the realistic repercussions avenging your father’s murder. Throughout the game, the character of Ryo hardens and becomes determined in his quest. However, rather than strengthening his bonds with his friends and his love interest, the game shows as his obsession slowly and imperceptibly consumes and disconnects the character from his family and friends until he is utterly incapable of forming close emotional bonds and subsequently abandons everyone in favor of his mission. This carries on in the sequel, showing Ryo to still be a lovable hero and good guy, but utterly unable to truly care about anyone or anything else beyond his mission. The second game ends with an earth shattering concept played in a decidedly muted tone, the existence of magic. While this might garner a big oh well from readers, consider this. The game literally spends its entire time making you believe this world works in accordance to real world rules. The denial of metaphysics and the supernatural in the game only to be confirmed in the last moments and leaving you wondering about the unexpected consequences of such a discovery on the character has a profound effect on you. It was extremely dark in its own quiet way


Unfortunately, the poor sales of these games means that fans may never get the last chapters of the series.

EXTERMINATION



A forgotten early ps2 horror game, Extermination was brilliant in its conception. Essentially, it was The Thing as interpreted by the Japanese. Set in plague infested Antarctic base, this game contained one of the earliest uses of player infection in a game. Here, you could get infected, and you could die (i.e. mutate into a horrific monster). It kept tension up, and made the stakes much higher than what resident evil provided. It had a fairly brilliant design and a pretty strong art style behind it, despite its age. Also, a particularly horrifying element in the game was that the majority of the stronger enemies in the game and one somewhat disgusting boss were your friends and confidants. Also it has one of the most haunting game covers ever. Period.

SILENT HILL 4



Ah, the proverbial black sheep of the Silent Hill series, this game has been blasted on all sides for its abandonment of conventional Silent Hill mechanics in favor of a much more simpler, action based game. But anyone willing to put aside his or her preconceptions for a few moments will understand how brilliant this game is.



First off, from a design aspect, this game was far more ephemeral and unsettling in its otherworld and creature design. It dealt less with cryptic translations of your character’s greatest fears and inhibitions and more on the twisted ideologies and emotions of the game’s antagonist, a serial killer. What the game lacks in typical Silent Hill design, it makes up for it by taking the broad strokes of the game and making it far more bizarre and dreamlike, which works in a fairly stupendous fashion.



Also, the game has a story that is more fucked up and unnerving than Silent Hill 2. Seriously, I am not joking. SH2, in its sheer brilliance, played with your psychology and your character’s depth to amazing effect. SH4 does something different. It gives you a character that is an emotionally stunted agoraphobic (fear of going outside), and twists and corrupts the sanctuary of his home, forcing him into even more bizarre and frightening situations, which are outdoors. The character is trapped in this world of negative emotions come to life while fighting to express his own emotions. To top of all this, you are being hunted by a serial killer. The sheer fucked up-ness comes when you realize that the levels are not the game’s otherworld at all, but rather tunnels into the killer’s bizarre and disturbed mind. The real otherworld is your apartment, which due to the serial killers ritual, is being twisted into a malevolent, living being. This is because the killer thinks the apartment is his mother and is trying to give it life. That’s right, the tunnels you travel through in the game are actually fucking umbilical cords between the killer and his ‘mother’, the room.



Despite some fairly bitch-slap worthy game decisions (the ghosts), the game’s simpler presented yet deeper narrative and overall artistic design should set the game much higher on players list



D2



D2 is a bizarre game to talk about. It is technically a sequel to a game almost no one remembers, yet has almost nothing to do with its predecessor. The game is much derided for its random encounter gameplay, and some localization issues. I had no problem, but I have family members who can barely speak English, so I have an intuitive understanding of terrible grammar. I guess I can’t be considered a reliable source then.



What I can remember is that this was a game that first instilled true terror on me visually (silent hill is a different story). It’s complex story involving alien invasion and infection is handled in an extremely mature and disturbing way that really scarred me at certain points. Think of this game as the most disgusting parts of The Thing having a love child with Little Shop of Horrors and Alien and then having David Cronenberg rear the child. Also, it is one of the few games that truly capture how terrifying abandonment and northern Canada (that’s right, one of the downright scariest scifi horror stories in all of gaming is set in Canada, my home turf, bitches) can be.



CRIMSON SEA



Many people remember Crimson Sea 2, as it is fairly highly regarded amongst reviewers and those who played it. Few remember its Xbox exclusive predecessor. Crimson sea was simply bizarre. A long ass RPG with an extremely detailed plot that will draw major comparisons to Beyond Good and Evil, despite it coming first. This was a sci-fi game that really felt sci-fi. It had an abundance of moral ambiguity and visually enticing concepts of the future.



Basically the game was brilliant. It had fairly decent gameplay, a phenomenal story and awesome graphics. Plus you dealt with enemies numbering in the hundreds to even thousands in a few special cases. If you can track it down, you will have a blast playing it.

PARIAH and DARK SECTOR


Pariah is a game forgotten by most. Blatantly considered to be merely average, people decided this game was not worth any further investigation beyond going in and claiming it was derivative, then leaving. Pariah, in reality, superceded most conventions of Sci-fi games by employing an uncompromising vision of the future. It was bleak and disturbing and much of the narrative had truly brilliant set pieces and overall plot if not characterization. Plus it had some really, really, really brilliant visual design. It was plain entertaining to play. It was not fast, as it had a more road trip style pacing that picked up in the right places for the right amount of time. Overall, it felt like a very classic FPS in its pacing and set pieces, rather than the shoddy, mile a minute pacing that never lets up in modern shooters.



It was one of the games that really was science fiction (a speculative look at how human society will function and interact in the distant future) and not just another harebrained militarized Star Wars or Starship Troopers rip off.



Its successor, Dark Sector, employed a fairly ingenious narrative in its own right. Digital Extremes love to claim that it is a superhero origin story. However, it falls more along the line of classical horror sci-fi story of a birth of a monster and its ultimate redemption in its own eyes. That, and it was more entertaining than half the other RE4/ Gears rip offs. Plus it had really imaginative monster design. While Dark Sector sold a decent amount of copies, a lot of people just forgot about it due to an over-saturation of the genre



The brilliance of both these games is the style each game evokes as much as the quality of its story.



ILLBLEED



A game this hard to describe most likely should not be discussed.



This game is set in theme park mimicking classic horror movies that never existed. It has you maneuvering traps while fighting your way through each set piece to save your friends. It was schlocky and cheesy in a very B-movie way (though it had some downright unsettling enemy design) and was just plain fun despite many detractors complaining about the gameplay elements, which were a bit on the simple side. Think of this as a SUDA51 or Quentin Tarantino-esque take on horror games, parodying and referencing its inspiration, but managing to stand on its own right. It has its rough edges, but what you get, conceptually, is brilliant and entertaining in its own right. That and it is a hard game.



VOODOO VINCE



This game had some great platforming, some iffy combat choices and a whole lot of style. But what sent this over the top was a premise and art style that could outdo the two Tims (Shafer and Burton, respectively). Set in Louisiana during Mardi Gras, the story follows Vince the voodoo doll saving his creator. Check it out for its sheer visual brilliance.



ARMED AND DANGEROUST



Monty Python meets an awesome third person shooter genre with brilliant weapons and hundreds of enemies. Enough said for at least a look if not a purchase, no? Plus it has a weapon that turns the world upside down to toss around your enemies.

DINO CRISIS 3



The worst game overall on this list, this game deserves mentioning just for the sheer amount of awesome it contains with its restructuring spaceship and bizarre dinosaur designs. It suffered mainly from an obviously terrible camera. If you can track it down cheap, it’s worth a look. Needs original xbox to play.



PATHOLOGIC



Oooh boy… Okay, first off this game is on the far end of obscure. Recently getting some press thanks to RockPaperShotgun, this game came and went so quickly from gamers that no one realized it won game of the year in Russia. Yes, this game is Russian, this game is awesome. Plus it is often considered the inspiration for STALKER.



But it is nearly impossible to explain. This game is the first of its kind. It’s a game that works despite its limitations. It has a bad translation, but the story is so freaking good that it succeeds despite it. It had “bad” graphics (I found the environment to be quite engaging), but the developers worked every waking moment to push as much artistic style into it as possible. It has rather weak and uninspired gameplay mechanics, but the twisting narrative becomes so integral to the game that it supercedes the importance of its gameplay.



From a gameplay perspective, the game places you in a large town in the early twentieth century (around 1910) over the course of 12 days. Using a first person perspective and shooter mechanics, you navigate through a town, interacting with its inhabitants as bizarre plague threatens to kill ones. But this plague doesn't create zombies. Instead it starts as a normal plague and slowly twists into something extremely metaphysical in its workings. The game has an extremely punishing economic and survival system that will actually have you selling precious ammo and weapons for food and medicine. It has a desperate, unsettling quality in how hard it is to survive that makes you take pause and think. Furthermore, the game focuses on unbalancing your emotional and psychological state through its visuals, sound design, narrative, characterization, backstory and implications. Not the characters, you. And it works. It starts as a slightly bizarre, Lynchian mystery game, then drops into depths of depravity and darkness that literally will eat away at your mental state and soul until nothing is left at all. It is a game that will break your faith in humanity, nature, the universe, god, and any good thought. Even children and the innocence of childhood is twisted and darkened until it horrifies you beyond measure.



The narrative is the defining aspect of this game. It is bizarre and dark and creepy in a very specific, metaphysical sort of way that plays off the concepts of environmentalism, the value of human life and spirituality, individualism, consumption of resources and disease. And let me tell you, it doesn’t hold any theme it has in even the most remotely positive light. It is so dark and grim and horrific in its subject matter that it excels beyond even Silent Hill 2 in how fucked up and creepy it is. This is most likely the game that will make you lock yourself in your basement, write, ‘there is no god’ on the wall in your own blood and hang yourself from the rafters with your recently disemboweled intestines. It is that fucked up. I’m not going to spoil it.



It also happens to be one of the few games that can subconsciously cause players to adopt the personality of their chosen characters (of which there are three playable in the game). This can even lead to conflict with other players that have chosen other characters. These conflicts, quite amazingly, will be mimicked between the two characters in the game. If a game is that good at predictive psychological response, it has got to be amazing in its own right. It is officially one of the few games that are considered art.



CALL of CTHULHU: DARK CORNERS of the EARTH


This game is brilliant. Simply and totally brilliant. It manages this for two reasons. It employs a working, hudless gameplay interface and was one of the few games to truly capture the essence of a writer’s work.



Basically this game is based on the works of HP LOVECRAFT. Different from other licensed material was how amazing and carefully crafted this Dark Sci-fi horror game was. This horror game contained everything anyone could ever want from a Lovecraft game. A dark story that begins and ends masterfully with brilliant pacing and characterization, a dark twisted visual style that fits well within the work of the original writer and managing to capture the feel of 1920s America. Scenarios that pay homage to other Lovecraft stories without blatantly ripping them off to gain the favour of fans in general is worth commendation. It had a brilliantly dark story that quieted you at the end. That and it had amazingly strong survival horror/shooter/stealth mechanics that kept players on their toes.

Essentially, think of this. This is the game the new Alone in the Dark desperately wanted to be but failed to accomplish.

BREAKDOWN

Now this is game that sits on the fence of well known and completely forgotten. The final game on this list is a doozy too.

Set in Japan, it follows the story of an American forces agent as he explores a wrecked facility and the abandoned alternate reality contained in an asteroid that crashed here millions of years ago. Involving alien invasions, super soldiers, insanity and the limits of human consciousness, this game is absolutely mind bending.



Aesthetically, this game is brilliant. It contrasts drab and gray alien and human interiors with egalic pastureland of this alternate reality. Furthermore it conveys the concept of hallucination and bizarre warps of reality unlike any game before or after it. At times reality will bend showing you bizarre, David Lynch style visions (wandering through a burned out building with speaking columns that rot away in a cloud of blood to clear a path for you, backward walking and speaking people, you’re flesh burning away to expose clear white bone, walking through a hall that turns into the middle of a middle eastern desert strewn with abandoned office supplies, cars and corpses in body bags are just a few) that occur real time. Coupled with a mind-bending super soldier story, this game drips style from every orifice.



Gameplay wise, this game was a technical marvel. It was one of the first if not the first to employ a fully realized first person fighting engine. This game was a sight to behold in motion. A level of visceral feel that few other games had was present in this game. Though the gun mechanics were largely undeveloped, they served their purpose and felt at least a little satisfying.



This is what is considered a true forgotten gem. A game that had everything going for it except sales and recognition (despite being made by the Tekken guys). It now gathers dust in the memory of most gamers.

And that’s the list. I might continue with singular articles about other forgotten games but I made the bulk of my point here. Comments? Discussion?

Also I apologize in advance for weirdly cropped photos and strange text formatting. I seriously don't know where this is coming from... Fucking destructoid.