I’ve recently rekindled my love for Katamari Damacy and it made me wonder if there’s any other amazing cult classics out there that aren’t talked about these days. What are your recommendations?
Dungeon Keeper, Red Alert 2, Unreal Tournament.
You’ve just described my childhood
A blessed childhood indeed!
I’m about to finish the main campaign on Dungeon Keeper, and I’ve tried the New Game+ Campaign with KeeperFX. What a blast I had when I was a child.
The last level on the campaign I’ve never beaten. It’s so horribly grindy!
Beyond Good and Evil.
Alpha Centauri. Just reading through all the wonder quotes and worldbuilding is amazing.
Alpha Centauri is the best civ game.
Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines. Dated, needs mods to run, but the fact that there’s still a community patch being made for it after all this time says a lot. Haven’t really heard much about it since the sequel crashed and burned, which is sad because no game has really given me the same atmospheric vibes. It was (is?) really special
Nothing really captures the atmosphere of a good WoD game quite like bloodlines. The combat is, let’s face it, pretty dogshit, but the writing, worldbuilding, and especially the voice talent and direction are some of the best out there to this day. The game just oozes charisma and flavor, and the pacing of the main quest juxtaposed with the black comedy of so many of the side characters’ goings-on makes it the kind of experience that just pulls you in.
I know Bloodlines 2 will eventually release, likely sometime in the next 2-3 years because paradox just began to spin up their socials again, but even if it weren’t stuck deep in Devhell I get the feeling it just won’t have the same punch B1 did. Granted, B1 was just as rocky on its own day 1 and it didn’t pick up the cult following until well after release, and with the help of a dedicated, loving community that tore it down and rebuilt it from the ground up. We can only hope that community love is still here and willing to make B2 the best game it can be. Time will tell.
I don’t think it’s fair to call it a cult classic just yet since the game is rather recent, but eventually i think Kenshi. It’s a really fun game although very grindy and i’m not even sure which genre it belongs to. Also it’s very moddable to fit even more to your preferences. It’s been quite a while since i played it, but i’ll share a little story: I started the game for the first time and i wanted to make a “waifu squad” consisting of only women so i did. Worked my ass of mining copper and selling it in order to hire more ladies. Eventually my two ladies started to build a base near where i was mining copper and then one day, the “prayer day” (or whatever it was called) came and an army of crusaders came to spread the word of god. The bishop asked my main lady if there was any men in this settlement and of course i answered no there is none. To them it was blasphemy to not have any men in a settlement and the army slaughter my two ladies like it was nothing. Too bad i lost this save since i’ve gotten a new PC because i would’ve wanted to go on with my vengeance story, but maybe i’ll fire it up again.
It’s a really fun game although very grindy and i’m not even sure which genre it belongs to.
Absurdist sandbox?
It’s a game I’ve never managed to get into, but it can be rather wild to watch others’ antics.
Was the experience you described multiplayer or were those NPCs?
They’re NPCs. Not sure about mods, but the base game doesn’t have any multiplayer.
One of the later SNES games called Secret of Evermore!
It’s kind-of a spiritual successor to Secret of Mana, but with a more sci-fi bent.
I love this game! Always loved how the dog changed to match the setting.
Black and White.
EarthBound for the SNES is one of my favorite RPGs. Very original for its time in terms of setting and battle mechanics. Also, Ness from Smash Bros. is in it!
Have you played Eastward? Unless I’m mistaken Earthbound is part of the game and plot. If you like Earthbound you might like Eastward. I enjoyed it even having never played Earthbound but I’m sure I missed a lot of references / analogies.
I played Eastward and really enjoyed it, even though I thought the ending was bittersweet.
I’ve heard reviews compare it to EarthBound and I guess it reminds me of EarthBound stylistically, but plays more like Zelda or something.
There’s a game within the game called Earth Born that plays like a fast-paced Dragon Quest. It’s an interesting game. :D
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
Jade Empire.
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy.
Sid Meier’s Pirates.
So much time spent playing Sid Meier’s Pirates! I think there was a remake that was faithful to the original with updated graphics, and it was great times. Capture ships, attack forts, trade goods.l… just a great game.
Capture ships, attack forts, trade goods.l… just a great game.
I love games in that genre, they’re so endlessly playable. The Mount & Blade series is kind of like a more recent take on that same idea. And X4 Foundations is like that but in space.
That was such a cool game! I remember I had this really weird fixation on marrying the Governer’s daughter from Curacao.
Came here to say jade empire. I had completely forgotten about it until someone mentioned it in a post on another lemmy. I promptly found it on a rom site and loaded it on to my steam deck.
Sands of Time was so cool. That series was flawed (Warrior Within was the emo-most game in an era full of emo sequels as the original audience reached adolescence), but I’m sad that it essentially got canceled by warping into AC.
Agreed. I was pretty upset that the series progressed the way it did and the third one…we just don’t talk about that.
Sands of Time has the most beautiful cutscenes, that was my favorite part of the game.
I don’t know if Gothic 1 and 2 qualify as true cult classics or not, but clunky controls and interface aside, these are two of the best games I have played in my life. Gothic 2 especially. The games offer an atmosphere like nothing I’ve ever played. The soundtrack, themes, and overall color pallete provide this rich and stirring ambience that always manages to make me feel as though I’m exploring an ancient pine forest on a dark, rainy day. See for yourself.
You can feel the spirit of the entire franchise contained within the first two minutes of that audio track, perfectly encapsulated. It was an entire world apart and years ahead of its time. If it resonates with you, then these games are absolutely worth the initial difficulty of figuring out those ridiculous keyboard controls. But if you’re really struggling with them, just read up on the Gothic 1 storyline and then skip straight to Gothic 2. It picks up right where the first leaves off. You won’t miss a tremendous amount, and the controls and gameplay are infinitely improved. However, sticking G1 out long enough to figure out what you’re doing will make G2 far more rewarding when you reunite with various characters and revisit previously explored areas.
A studio is remaking Gothic 1, but everything I’ve seen of it so far is about as faithful to Gothic 1 as The Dark Tower movie was to the books. They’ve massacred it. So stick with the originals.
To latch on to this: the first Elex, a game by the same studio as the Gothic series, is, despite the average reception by critics, THE definition of a flawed masterpiece! So many things to criticize (too difficult early in the game, bad cut scenes, flawed combat) but the main focus of the game, the open world filled with tons of monster and people to interact with, is just great! I loved how exploration is encouraged and rewarded, how there are meaningful desicions and characters that can be killed off. The world is huge and all though the general atmosphere is post apocalyptic, the developer somehow managed to fit a middle age type fraction and a science fiction type (Clerics) fraction in to the game. Also smaller groups you can’t join.
Elex has a very special place in my gamer heart and all though I can’t flat out recommend it to everyone I would say if you have a soft spot for open world games that do not play like the average Ubi game and don’t hold your hand the whole time, I say: check it out, it’s pretty cheap in most places!
Is that the one where you draw signs in the air with your mouse in order to cast them?
I never played as a Bezerker - the fraction with magic - so I’m not sure actually!
I was thinking of Arx Fatalis. I could have just looked that up in the first place, but for a moment I forgot about search engines.
Loom
A very unique game for the time, fun adventure with a great story and game play mechanics.
What is this, the SCUMM bar? 🏴☠️🐒
- Shenmue: Rereleased with a wonderful port on PC/Xbox One/Playstation 4 in 2018, it’s an investigative adventure game that takes place in a small town in Japan in 1986. The thing that sticks out to me about it is how unlike any other game in its class before or since, it feels like an authentic depiction of a regular-ass suburb from that period, from people who lived in similar places growing up.
- Freespace 2: Space dogfighting game that gets right to the point, feels intense, and while you’re there you find yourself in the middle of an excellent sci-fi radio drama. Holds up great today when you pair your purchased GOG copy with the fan-maintained Freespace Open Source Project engine. Joystick + Keyboard control recommended, but Mouse + Keyboard is fine!
Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force.
- It’s a first person shooter from a venerable studio in the genre, Raven Software.
- Put out during their “golden age”, before Wolfenstein and Singularity flopped and uncle Bobby sent them to work in the Call of Duty mines.
- Really cool selection of sci-fi guns, some of them pretty unique.
- Campaign is essentially a prototype for Quake 4. It was built by the same internal team at Raven.
- It has a more interesting story than Quake 4.
- It’s an early example of a game that lets you choose your sex. NPC dialog changes to reflect this.
- The whole cast of Star Trek: Voyager lends their voice talent to the game, including Jeri Ryan.
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.
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.
Spot on! There’s also some voice acting, which I’ve heard some people criticize but I think it’s phenomenal.
Ultima Underworld 1 and 2. These are ancient RPG games going right back to the dawn of PC gaming. The first one was the first PC game with a true 3D world where you could look up and down and there were two slopes rather than just steps. The control scheme takes a little getting used to as it was before WSAD+mouse look had become established. Spells are made by combining runes which you find about the place. It also has things like repairable weapons and armour, the need to sleep and eat as well as the normal RPG stats and levels.