Most under-rated games ever?

[Gen Eric Gui]

Also it doesn't use RE style movement so it immediately gets a million bonus points in MY book.

Try playing a game with pre-rendered backgrounds that DOESN'T use that control scheme.  The first Fatal Frame is a prime exmple, since you can actually use either control scheme.  It's nearly impossible to fight ghosts with "direct" analog control, but if you use the RE-style controls it's very smooth and easy.

[Dizzy]

Haunting Ground (PS2) - Released in 2005. 65 or so on Metacritic. A survival-horror game from the same people behind Clock Tower series. Like them there is practically no combat, only (mostly rather) hiding. From what I've read people seem to either love it or hate it. I, for one, loved it. Mostly since it honestly creeped me out. The "horror" from the game comes from the over-sexualised (sp?) undertones from the villains of the game who all seem to want "something" from Fiona (the main character).

I really liked Haunting Ground. It's the no-combat, all-hide, peek-a-boo-i-see-you feel that makes it scary and jumpy.

I agree on both counts. I used to always call it the "Escape a rape simulator" with a bunch of puzzles that can also kill you. :P But yeah, I like the whole no-combat thing. Looking forward to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on Wii for the same reason.

Also, I'm not quite sure how it was received, but I also enjoyed Rule of Rose, despite the awkward controls. That game was pretty cool.

[Hoshino_Kid]

I liked Rule of Rose too.

Code:

Freaky part was at the start when you're going to the house and the vomiting mermaid

Although I wish it had more stages. :P

[MeshGearFox]

Just since I've been playing it, Ragnarok. Actually, it's not so much underrated as it is... well, unknown. The reviews for it are pretty good. It's just nobody's played it. the only real disappointment for me is that I'm not sure you can wield the rubber chicken ala Nethack, and potions can't be tossed and weaponized. DISREGARDING the fact that it doesn't have Nethack's insane amount of interactivity, it does so much unique stuff for with the roguelike genre that I haven't really seen since. Additionally the setting is cool. There are different areas. Large areas. And they're actually different so it's not a ZAngband-style endless sprawling wilderness filled with identical dungeons.

And since I'm playing roguelikes right now, one of the things I really liked about Unlimited Saga was that it gave me the rather roguelike-ish option of bashing the hell out of a chest I couldn't otherwise open. Options I enjoy!!

[Dincrest]

Did I mention Lux-Pain in this thread?  I'm willing to call that the most underrated game I've played in 2009.  It was insanely flawed (clunky interface, atrocious localization) but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It definitely had one of the more interesting stories I've played in a video game this year, and I liked the bonus scenes where Saijo just hangs out with people.  Normally, I'd rant like a crazy man about the game's flawed elements, but I was able to overlook them. 

[MeshGearFox]

I really enjoyed Metal Saga a lot, even if I never got that far in it because of my cripplingly short attention span. I mean it lacked polish and I think I would've preferred a more serious plot because I'm an incredibly unfun person that doesn't like humor (and I think the game had an inherent creepiness to it that might've worked better with a serious story, or maybe not). Also I guess it was unbalanced. However, it was big and had lots of room to just dick around and find tanks. Basically, that, Steambot Chronicles, and Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song were all games that I'd Oblivion had been like, because they provided realer choice in a sense, as well as, uh... well MS and RS had a sense of *spontaneity* in the sense you could trigger some quests with little minimal interaction/they happened randomly, and MS has a lot of mystery and isn't really fully documented.

Everything about it though was like this huge throwback to DOS-era RPGs, like Ultima and Wasteland, too.

[Lord Scottish]

^Seconded. Metal Saga is fantastic.

[Gen Eric Gui]

The moment I fought a unicycle with a knife taped to it as an enemy, I knew Metal Saga was going to be awesome.

I should probably finish that at some point.  I remember I got as far as the Church of Muscle and my game froze, and I never went back after that.  Maybe this weekend.

[MeshGearFox]

I think the humor in Metal Saga may have lent to the creepiness, looking back. It gets a very Star Control 2-esque uneasiness going. I mean, the dogs for instance. You find dogs with guns in microwaves! Cute! Then you go deeper in that dungeon and it turns into SGF Biolab levels of what-the-fuck-happened-here.

Also I want the soundtrack to that game. The overworld theme when you're in tanks is one of my favorite.