Forgotten Classics, Underrated Romps, Hidden Gems, and Future Icons

Well, good luck. This thread is going to get inundated with forgotten trash from the past, recent cheap crap indie games that don't have any staying power, and generally badly reviewed games that fail to rise above mediocrity.

Forgotten Classic

Castles: Siege & Conquest. I seem to recall this being well received at the time, and it was one of my favourite games. Turn based strategy layer with real-time (albeit non-interactive) combat, castle building, diplomacy, branching stories and - since it was the '90s - FMV. I never really see it mentioned these days, but I'd be surprised if it didn't have an influence over the years - not least on the Total War series.

Underrated Romp

Guild of Dungeoneering. It seems to get a lot of complaints about RNG, which misses the point that the skill of the game is to put the randomness in your favour through clever choices of dungeoneer, blessing, loot and enemy. By tailoring your choices to the situation you face, you can readily overcome a bit of bad luck. Even if you have a horrendous run of luck, you have lost very little - each dungeon run is quick, and dungeoneers are readily replaceable. It's telling that most of the negative reviews are with minimal playtime.

Hidden Gem

The Magic Circle. Clever, engrossing and unique. The writing, voice acting and design are excellent, and the puzzles are logical and rewarding. It got good reviews but sold terribly.

I tend to play games from years ago, so can't really comment on future icons.

Question: does a game like DmC Devil May Cry counts towards underrated romps? The game got bodied by the fans of the series because it dared to change stuff and the admitely cringe worthy dialogue, but the gameplay and art direction were good so the actual act of playing it was an enjoyable experience to me.

NaissanceE is definitely my pick for hidden gem, this game deserves more love, a hard first person platformer that looks like a walking siimulator at first glance (probably why people ovelooked it). This thing comunicates the mood of the moment pretty much exclusively through the architecture and it nails it, not a word of spoken dialogue and nothing written outside of the UI. It commits so hard to the theme that there are explorable rooms, hallways, and semi-hidden corners on the buildings that are just there for the sake of if feeling like a real place.

Hidden Gem: Book of Demons.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/449960/Book_of_Demons/

Part Hack & Slash, part on-rails dungeon crawler.
Looks like a card based game, but the cards are equipped in more-or-less the way you would equip gear in a "traditional" aRPG. But you can have 2 sets of cards equipped, for 2 completely different loadouts and skill sets, instead of just 2 different weapons. The arts style is unique. Paperverse. Hearkens back to tabletop games with little paper figurines you would move around a dawn out map. You play in a world made of paper, of course. Flexiscope. As you progress you unlock the "tool", that allows you to select a longer or shorter session, based on how much time you have to play, or how long your individual attention span is. Snarky, and sometimes memfied-cheesy sense of humor in the game, from the card/item descriptions, to what the characters say, to the silly things the NPCs in town do and say. Lots of nods to other popular games from way back to current games, some funny Easter Eggs to find. Some achievements can be a bit grindy, there are ways to cheese your way through them, if you choose.

Dunno what else to say. I love aRPGs, I love dungeon crawlers. This game is similar to a mash-up of both, but totally unique, and different than either. Just a unique game, that I enjoy, but it is not a game that everyone who loves either genre may enjoy. Devs are fairly active on the Steam forums, and on Twitter, but it is a very small dev team, working on this game (their first one), likely their next "big idea", and living an actual lives.

I also like their "Manifesto" video, about their studio and development process and mission statement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quURg6X1jdo

Forgotten Classics:
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale.
Capitalism Ho! This game is extremely significant in the history of Steam as it's the title that convinced Valve that allowing indie games on the platform was worthwhile. It's also possibly the best game of its type to ever exist (games where you run an item shop). Sadly as Steams library has grown to absurd proportions, this indie darling has been mostly forgotten.
Salt and Sanctuary was also quite popular for a while, but I never hear anyone talking about it anymore. Was one of the first 'souls-like' games.

Hidden Gems:
Recursed. Has one of the most unique and interesting puzzle mechanics I've ever seen. Difficult to explain though, which combined with the art style I think doomed the title to hidden gem status.
Yorkshire Gubbins. One of the only games I've ever played that had me laughing out loud. Short, but definitely funny.
Broken Reality. If only this game had come out in the 90s...my younger self dreamed of games like this, but the closest we ever got was probably "LSD: Dream Simulator" on PS1.

Hidden gems:
Stifled (Played non-VR) - While it's not perfect, I was really impressed with the quality of this indie game. A big mechanic is using echolocation via walking, throwing items or talking into your microphone to see/walk through areas as a story unfolds. A unique, memorable experience.

Forgotton Anne - An immensely charming, beautifully animated & voice acted game. Another immersive one, akin to being an interactive Ghibli film.

Games I think will still be great in 10 years still:
OneShot. I loved it more than I possibly could have imagined and a piece of me stayed with the game the day I played. I'm not the biggest fan of RPGMaker games but this one stands out, really can't say much as it's best going in blind but fantastic game.

Gorogoa: One of the most standout 2D puzzle games I've ever played. Very smooth gameplay cleverly designed. It's basically watching a storybook seamlessly unfold & come to life.

Hidden Gems:
Human-powered spacecraft - $1 clicker, my review.

Forgotten Classics

Sanitarium is a very strange point&click adventure game from the year 1998. The graphics are a bit outdated and because of this some of the interactable objects can be a bit hard to find. Other than that it's a solid if a bit odd adventure game.

Keepsake is also a bit of a hidden gem, but since it's pretty old too so I figured it's more of a classic. Later in the game some of the puzzles get really hard, but all in all a fun game to play if you want to crack some puzzle.

Underrated Romps

Conarium is one of the better Lovecraftian games if you don't play it like it's a horror game. It has one annoying chase scene that feels totally out of place, but besides that it's a solid experience with beautiful graphics and an eerie atmosphere.

Hidden Gems

The Mystery of Woolley Mountain is a hilarious point&click game made by a small team. Some of the animations are pretty ugly and there are some bugs, but besides that it has a cool story and lots of hilarious jokes and dialogue.

Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! HD is a charming and hilarious point&click game made by one man. Before the hd edition it was also apparently voiced entirely by the dev himself (even the women). If that's not enough of a reason to get this game then I don't know what is.

The Ancient Art of War is basically a proto-Total War. It's a RTS, with an overland map where you move your units around trying to capture all your opponent's bases without them catching yours. Terrain can affect movement speed, attrition, supply lines, etc.
When your units encounter an enemy's unit, it goes into combat mode, where the two units fight. The fighting is a typical rock-paper-scissor: archers beat barbarians, barbarians beat knights, knights beat archers. Formation and terrain make a difference.
But what also made the game great is it came with a map editor, so you could make your own campaigns.

Here's a rather monotonous review

Hidden Gem

Break Stuff With Coins- puzzle/physics game
Meridian: New World Single player RTS
Eradicator- Doom/Duke Nukem 3D clone
Nightshade- made by the same people who went on to make SNES Shadowrun.

And if you want some really obscure stuff that isn't on Steam...

Threat, which is a top-down shooter.
Rusty- Castlevania clone
Wolfchild- good platformer

First of all, great thread.

Forgotten Classic

My absolute go to used to be the isometric top down RPGs of old like BG or Icewind Dale, however they've had so much love and remasters recently.

Farenheit - honestly think this would be much more fondly remembered if not for a horrific erd act which jumps the shark big time. However it really was the precursor to an entire genre, things such as Heavy Rain and Detroit Become Human exist because Farenheit exist. I'd suggest everyone play it once, graphics are dated, QTE heavy gameplay and awful 3rd act. However its still a great game, which really speaks volumes about its depth.

State of Decay - want to shout out a game which really captured the zombie genre well, was fun to build little communities and focus on the humans without leaning too heavily on them. It felt like I was playing the early Walking Dead comics.

Hidden Gem

AKIBA's Trip: Undead & Undressed - if you are like me, the title probably put you off. Then the screenshots of you ripping clothes off as gameplay did. However underneath all that lies a pretty decent game filled with character. I loved it, its silly, its quite additictive and just about long enough to not outstay its welcome. The undressed bit actually made sense once you play it and its not porny which is what was putting me off initially.

Childen of Morta - only just come out so potentially too early to say but if you know what you are getting into you'll love this game. It has Bastion-esque quality narration, amazing music/sound in general. It has a rogue-LITE gameplay loop which people are mistaking tor Rogue-Like. It reminds me more of Rogue Legacy in which each death really powers up your next runs with permanent increases depending on your gold rather than Binding of Isaac when one run is all you get then full reset. Only issue I'd say people may have is there is very little in terms of combat variety, however I quite enjoyed the variety given for the time you have to play.

Volgar the Viking - old school platformer, hard as hell, great game though. I'd imagine it could be speedrun in minutes once you optimise and memorise.

Underrated Romp

Primordia - a great point and click with a great story.

Orcs Must Die - as a series on multiplayer, i feel like this deserves waaaay more hype than it gets. I'd imagine it's dull solo.

Emily is Away Too - short but nostalgic point and click type adventure.

Future Icons

Doesn't take a genius to think that Cyberpunk will be there, however my shot in the dark here will be Disco Elysium. Played it at an expo, looks and feels fantastic. Hoping it gets the momentum it deserves and snowballs into a hit, but its obviously hard to tell at this point without it being released.

Underrated Romps

Zanzarah
I feel a bit guilty talking about this game, because as I see, the steam version is really bad, but it is my favourite childhood game. Basically it's a Pokemon game, where instead jRPG fight, you are battling in real time in Quake-like arena. It was super fun, super cute and I won't stop praising it.

Hidden gems
Eastshade
My favourite game of this year. It's a bit rough around the edges. But as my favourite review of it said: "what would happen if you take Skyrim, throw away fighting, and make it as a walking sim". It's such a relaxing game.

Quern
You want Myst? This is Myst. Well, almost, I was able to go through it, so it is definitely easier than Myst, but it is very "mysty". I didn't like the last quarter, when it is changing into linear game, but until then it is very, very good puzzle/adventure game with small, but open world with almost metroidvania feeling (I mean, you are unlocking more and more of the environment and it is so rewarding)

Forgotten Classics
Tzar – I was in love with it when I was a kid. Bought on GOG to replay it someday.
SWAT 4 – I remember I was stunned with it back in a day. I had so much fun with it.
Theme Park World – I started to replaying it a few years ago and it's as enjoyable as it was years ago. Waiting for GOG to bring it back to life.

Underrated Romps
Gorky 17 – well the reviews are quite good but I'm afraid that most people treat it like a shovelware due to many promotions it was given away for free. It certainly has its flows but also something haunting.
CHUCHEL – I can understand you can be disappointed when you're not aware of what it is. Personally, I've had a blast with this game! So much charm despite everything against it: barely any gameplay, simple story, barely any challange, no dialogs. I fell in love with it anyway. It has kind of humor I like. It's not easy to make me laugh but this game took me by surprise!

Hidden Gems
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom – I gave it a try yesterday after a year break from gaming (with 2-3 minor exceptions) and boy it is fun!
Hue – it was in a bundle and so many people give it away yet it is such a fantastic game! I think that lack of interest in this game saddens me the most, speaking about the games from this list.
Volgarr – you either love it or hate it (and even when you love it you hate it). Unforgiving game but top notch classic in its genre.

Future Icons
Baba Is You – the only one I haven't played from the list but the concept is so unique you can't go wrong with this game.
Stardew Valley – charming, well thought game. As soon you think you know everything about this game, it surprises you with something completely new. Crazy!
Antichamber – an uniqe puzzle game. I think it is an icon already.
Pony Island and OneShot – these are role-model examples of how breaking the fourth wall should be made. And it's accomapnied either by great stories or wacky humor.
Night in the Woods – there's something about this game that makes you love it. Magic!
And there are plenty more I didn't play like Hollow Night, Cuphead, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin 2 etc.

Forgotten Classics
Arcanum

Underrated Romps
Pursuit Force & Pursuit Force Xtreme Justice

Hidden Gems
Dead Head Fred

Future Icons
Cyberpunk 2077, i guess.
I could write a shit ton more but im lazy.

Hidden gems:
Puzzles: Six Sides of the World, keyg, EDGE
Point'n'click: Detective Grimoire, All You Can Eat (unique comic format), Supreme League of Patriots
FMV: Tender Loving Care
Indie: Reventure, Indecision.
shoot 'em up: VelocityUltra & Velocity 2X
platformer metroidvania: Super Win the Game

Forgotten classic:
point'n'click — Sanitarium
brilliant puzzle straight from MS-DOS — Supaplex

Forgotten Classic:
Original "Might and Magic" (NOT Heroes strategy spin-off) - first five games that are SHELTEM saga. First two's UI is probably unbearably outdated today, but 3-5 have pretty standard dungeon crawler controls even today, so I highly recommend playing 3, then 4+5 joint campaign. (Speaking of that, why so few games today in series can join into one game? It's such a cool concept!)

"Master of Magic" - it's literally - i.e. it was made with this intent - Civilization with magic and tactic battle screen instead of "whoever have biggest number". Kind of like Age of Wonders or Total War series, but made way before them.

Alien Legacy - playing it right now. Mix of story and light strategy a la Starflight/Star Control.
Star Control 2 itself - one of the best stories I've seen in game ever with very memorable encounters with alien races - both friends and enemies. I simply can't understand how just 2 guys did all of it sans music.