10 Most Underrated Video Games Of The Generation
Sunset Overdrive was a criminally overlooked Xbox One exclusive.
As a new light shines from over the horizon, calling us to march in step towards the progress of a new console generation with sweet heady promises of powerhouse graphics, liquid-smooth frame rates, and the like, it's certainly a time to look forward with excitement and anticipation to the next lineup of stone-cold classics.
However, much like life, the path towards such gleaming futures is often built on the hard work and backs of other titles who gave their all to redefine what games were and what they could be. While a lot of these titles will be propped up in the annals of time forevermore, so many slipped through the cracks and faded into obscurity without getting much love, despite being brilliant in their own right.
So today, let's take a wee rest from our march. After all, it's not like the new generation is going anywhere. Let's dig deep until we've hit absolute gold, and THEN go a bit further to seek out the hidden gems that deserve way more attention than anyone gave them the first time around.
10. Valkyria Chronicles 4 (Or Remastered)
We begin this list with a trip back to that well-worn ground of World War II. Now before you bemoan how so many other video games have used one of humanity's greatest downfalls as a means of delivering morbid entertainment, Valkyria Chronicles is very, very different.
For a start, it's not explicitly set in our reality and more of a "legally distinct" timeline where the forces of Europa team up to fight off an encroaching evil. For seconds, it's an anime.
Yep. It's World War Two from the perspective of an anime, complete with dolt-headed side characters, busty lasses who kick asses, and of course an adorable central cast who have an even cuter dog WHO RESCUES YOU IF YOU FALL IN BATTLE.
This is XCOM meets Eternal Sonata, with each movement costing you a chunk of your action gauge and where you actually get to aim down sights in order to pick off enemies. It's surprisingly tough and shockingly quite moving, and if you haven't caught up on the latest (and arguably greatest) installment, you can pick up the remastered original which is stellar through and through.