Nox
Timesplitters
Def Jam 1/2
Amplitude
My answer to that question is always "King of Dragon Pass", a narrative/management game that is unlike anything else out there. It got a spiritual successor with "Six Ages".
I just grabbed it on Steam for $2! Looking forward to trying it out.
Have fun! It's a weird little game, but I am always happy when it finds some new players.
„Robinsons Requiem“, available on GoG.
It’s a survival horror first person rpg with a semi realistic health system. It’s creepy and hard and so goddamn good. I’m am actually surprised that it gets mentioned so rarely because I would not know of any other earlier game with those now so ubiquitous survival mechanics.
Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force.
It also has a sequel, made by another studio. Elite Force II isn't quite as good, but it is still worth playing if you like the original. It loses the female protagonist option, likely because it was 2003 and the story had a love triangle. It's a visual powerhouse though, really pushing the limits of the Quake III engine far beyond what many people likely thought possible.
Ooh I forgot about this. Elite force is one of the few games that I've actually finished. I thought the graphics were gorgeous for the time with lots of believable alien worlds. The characters are engaging and the missions never felt repetitive.
Out of This World and Flashback. Always favorite old school cult classics.
Alpha Centauri. Just reading through all the wonder quotes and worldbuilding is amazing.
Alpha Centauri is the best civ game.
I'd heartily recommend Fallout 1, with a less enthusiastic recommendation for Fallout 2
Just going to be that guy here but Fallout is neither forgotten nor a cult classic.
Edit just to be more productive: Arcanum is a classic isometric RPG that fits the post much more accurately imo.
Oh Arcanum is a great pick!
And you're right, Fallout's not exactly forgotten - although it was a cult hit at the time, and I'd argue the original still is in a way.
I'm gonna agree that the first two are more or less forgotten/less discussed than the newer games.
Happy to see my boy Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura in there.
If you are not averse to 90's isometric PC RPGs, it is a breathtaking journey through fantasy industrial revolution. Think mages, flintlocks, steram engines, and wonderfully elaborate facial hair. But also, think side-quests so good, they'd be the main attraction in some lesser games. Think evocative world-building scored by entirely by melancholic cellos, violins and violas. Think quests without any other markers than the clues indicated in your journal.
It's not balanced by any means, you'll need community patches for it to not die on you the second it launches, combat is good neither in the turn by turn or real time mode, and in the last stretch, the game looses quite a bit of its momentum. It takes quite a game to make all this unimportant in the face of everything else it does perfectly.
I've been playing retro games for the past years, and here's some that might fit the criteria of forgotten cult classics:
All of those games are either in English or have been fan-translated
I’m probably alone in remembering this game but I loved Hardwar back in the day. It’s an Elite style trading game set on Titan. The player pilots a ‘moth’ ,a small flying craft, between craters.
It had an interesting story that played out as you explored with areas blocked out, due to events, and made accessible later on.
The developer closed doors but IIRC at least one member of the team released a patch that had been developed later on.
I played it pretty obsessively and it had a small passionate community but it wasn’t a hit.
Quest for Glory 1 (called Hero's Quest at release) shaped my humor and gave me a lifetime love of fantasy in general, my username is the name of one of the minor characters. I recently spent a couple hundred dollars on a painting because it reminded me of Erana's Peace, a location in the game. Its sequels are great too.
BladeRunner rpg by Westwood studios is fantastic
i have a very specific genre of games that i absolutely adore and i'd suggest anyone interested take a look at them asap. the genre is japanese ps2 horror games, with standout titles being silent hill, fatal frame, haunting ground, rule of rose, and siren
I recently watched a Twitch streamer play through all of the Fatal Frame games. It was a wild adventure. I heard that there's a new Fatal Frame game coming out sometime soon and I'm stoked to check it out.
Fatal frame is kind of hit and miss for me personally, but it's definitely a well treasured part of the ps2 j-horror genre
Blade of Darkness. If you want to see the true origin of the soulslike genre, this is it. Be warned that the controls are extremely janky, though.
I still believe Warzone 2100 is one of the finest RTS games ever made. It is also now free and open source.
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