With the calendar approaching the end of 2020, I cannot help but look back upon the last 10 years of games, bringing some of the most explosive, emotional and unique experiences that many players could not have imagined in the previous decade.
In honor of these experiences I have looked back and put together the 10 most underrated gaming gems of the last decade, that while may have received impressive critical successes, did not receive the exposure and commercial success they thoroughly deserved.
#10 Titanfall 2
Titanfall 2 still to this day holds up as one of the most fluid, tight and exciting First Person Shooter's. The meat of the multiplayer is in its Player vs Player vs AI matches, where players face-off in classic gaming tradition team deathmatches.
The genius twist is the addition of AI army soldiers flooding the matches while creating a real feeling of a war zone. The players wall-run, jump boost and slide across the battlefield in high intensity firefights, before entering personalized giant war robots -appropriately named 'Titans' to rain down death upon the enemy team on the ground and in the air.
The explosive and refined multiplayer experience is accompanied by one of the strongest single-player shooter campaigns out there, which are not normally known for their good narrative and well designed levels. This makes Titanfall 2 a truly underappreciated gem for any shooter fan.
#9 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
While shifting 5 million copies is truly impressive, Sekiro often remains unmentioned when the conversation involves FromSoftware games, as the conversation tends to focus on Bloodborne or the main Dark Souls series.
While Bloodborne and the Dark Souls games are brilliant, Sekiro takes combat to a whole new level. The combat which is the focus of course in a FromSoftware game stands tall, to be one of the most intuitive and responsive combat designs ever developed.
Sekiro's Swordplay is unmatched in responsiveness. With visually impressive moves and a very satisfying parry system, Sekiro very rarely gives the player the opportunity to blame the game for a player's misfortune.
#8 Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is one of the most blood pumping action packed combat games there is. The majority of the game like many other single-player action oriented titles, is kill the enemies in front of you. But Metal Gear Rising does it better than most, as the combat is fast, tight and most importantly, visceral as it should be when your a cybernetic ninja with a electricity infused Katana.
All of this, backed up by an impressive rock soundtrack, makes slicing a giant robot in half like butter, with heavy metal banging on in the background, incredibly satisfying.
#7 The Witness
The Witness is more a work of art than a video game, since every step you take gifts you with views where you could take a screenshot and it could be hung up on your wall at home.
The world of The Witness is beautiful and breathtaking. Your task is to
explore this world by solving puzzles, scaling in difficulty as you go along. Every area has a new gimmick or twist to the core puzzle mechanic and some areas are truly challenging to even the most confident puzzle solvers.
The Witness is the perfect game for relaxing and winding down from the more stress inducing action packed titles around and should be given a try by players of any age.
#6 Prey
Prey had a troubling trip in 'development hell' before finally being released 2017 since it was first to be Prey 2, the sequel to the original prey back in 2006.
When Prey was originally announced in 2011, the development was cancelled after only 3 months by Bethesda and was formally cancelled in 2014. At least until Arkane Studios came along and picked up the slack.
Prey Came out of nowhere essentially and what a treat it was, the gameplay was brilliant and using the same engine as the Dishonored series, there was little reason for this game to go unnoticed by many.
While the main title was a brilliant game, the real icing on the cake was the Mooncrash DLC that took the exceptional design of the main game and created one of the best DLC's to ever be released providing a truly unique and fun experience.
#5 Transistor
Many have unfortunately overlooked the exceptional Transistor, a more sophisticated title from the minds who developed the acclaimed Bastion back in 2011.
Transistor doesn't hold back and stands next to Bastion with brilliant art design, exciting top-down strategic combat, a well told story and an outstanding soundtrack.
Transistor's secret lies in the fusion of the glamour that defined 'The Roaring Twenties' and a bleak sci-fi world, in a combination that is both truly original and refreshing.
#4 Elite Dangerous
Elite Dangerous is a game which achieves what many other games claim to achieve, that is to be deep enough to be almost considered a part time job. The game is daunting to newcomers, but given the time needed, it delivers an experience like no other and has allowed for a truly unique community of gamer's to grow.
The game features one of the largest maps ever created, simply because it is a 1:1 scale to the Milky Way galaxy and is not procedural generated. To this day since its release in 2015, roughly 0.050% of the galaxy has been explored and the game even has dedicated groups of player explorers since its release - This is the beauty of Elite Dangerous.
When you decide to leave the "bubble" which is the populated area in the galaxy, whatever journey you wish to take is pretty much endless. This massive potential alongside a player driven economy and hardcore simulation mechanics makes it a truly a unique and time consuming experience.
#3 Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch
Before Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, was released many had never heard of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch the love child of a special collaboration between Level 5 studios and the legendary Studio Ghibli.
while Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is no pushover and delivers a great story and a solid game with many new mechanics to the series, such as building/managing your own kingdom alongside an overall stronger albeit more westernised combat system.
The original however, had the narrative power of Studio Ghibli behind it and delivered one of the most authentic fantastical adventures that films such as Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo could deliver on the silver screen.
The art, musical score and characters where enchanting as well as entertaining, which made overlooking the rather slow and odd combat system extremely easy. The Studio Ghibli animated cut-scenes added to the experience, which allowed Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch to tell the emotional and bittersweet story it wished to tell flawlessly.
#2 Outer Wilds
The Outer Wilds could very easily be considered one of the greatest games to ever be made, even though it was developed by a small indie team. Outer Wilds unfortunately released in a similar time frame to The Outer Worlds. This marketing clash drowned out the smaller marketing efforts of the Outer Wilds, as players confused the two games. This often meant that the game largely slipped under players radars, even when it won the BAFTA Game Award for best game 2020.
Outer wilds is extremely complex yet simple at the same time. The player is tasked to discover why they are trapped in a cosmic loop with the sun exploding every 22 minutes, resetting the player back to the start. The player has no guidance just a very well detailed map of their discovered clues, as to where they could possibly go next.
The world of Outer Wilds is just pure bliss to explore.
#1 Kind Words
At 50,000 to 100,000 total copies sold, this is truly the most underrated gaming gem of this decade, possibly even in gaming as a whole medium. Kind Words is a truly simple idea and can be viewed more as a glorified chat messaging service, than a game - but that doesn't matter.
The idea is simple; you sit in a little room, you listen to Lo-Fi chill beats and you literally write 'kind words' to strangers or receive 'kind words' from strangers and that's it.
A deer pops his head through a window in your little room and drops off a letter from another player. The letter will contain a worry or a difficult situation or anything that might be stressing to the anonymous player somewhere in the world. Your one job is to write some advice, some 'kind words' and if you're feeling down, you can send out your worries or troubles and receive some 'kind words' back.
In a year such as 2020, Kind Words truly is a masterpiece and this resides in its utter simplicity, proving once again the best things in life are often the simplest.