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Since I just finished it for the third time the other day, ECHO.

One of the so-called "indie AAA" - or just "AA" - games released two years ago (the other major one being Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice).
Developed by now defunct Danish studio UltraUltra (made up mostly by former employees of IO Interactive, iirc) ECHO was and still remains one of the most unique takes on the TPP stealth genre, mainly for its core mechanic:

"ECHO's gameplay revolves around an adaptive AI function. The game's world is a Palace which creates copies of En, the player character. En calls those copies "Echoes". Echoes serve as the game's main enemies, which the Palace modifies to adapt to En. The Palace undergoes a five-minute cycle constantly, at the end of which there is a Blackout. While the power is on, the Palace records all of En's actions. The player is notified of their actions being recorded by En leaving a bright outline of herself behind when she performs an action the Palace is unaware of. Once the Blackout occurs, recorded actions are taught to the Echoes, and previous known actions are deleted. For example, if En is seen shooting her gun, vaulting a low wall and opening a door, the Echoes will do the same at the next cycle, but if En does not do any of the above during that cycle, they will have forgotten how to do so by the next one. During Blackouts, the Palace cannot record En's actions, leaving the player free to act as they wish. However, existing Echoes can still kill En."

Which ties in just perfectly with the aesthetics as well. The so-called "Palace" (an ecumenopolis or planet-wide structure) combines outdoor Giger'esque biomechanical environments with indoor 2001: A Space Odyssey art deco-architecture for an unusual but at the same time surprisingly coherent and believable sci-fi setting.

Last I heard an adaptation for the big screen is still in development, and who knows, if it's done right it might raise enough interest for the IP to be picked up again, maybe by another studio for at least another installment in the same universe.


The other relatively unknown game I'll never tire to recommend picking up, is Battle Brothers (and its expansions, Beasts and Exploration and Warriors of the North).

Which is what you get if you take the mercenary management of Jagged Alliance, the rogue-like aspect as well as a morale system similar to Darkest Dungeon, a Heroes of Might & Magic-like turn- and hex-based battle system (with environmental factors like elevation) and have it play out on seed-based procedurally generated world maps (with random encounters and optional wildly differing start conditions for each campaign), all set in a low fantasy, grimdark Darklands-like alternate version of medieval Germany.
Rocket Jockey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZIWbfOkw34

Apparently a REMAKE is coming out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNsRXsGQVTE
I was looking through games in the Black Friday sale and saw Ether One, and it made me realise that it's a thing no one talks about. It seems to be something that was buried under a pile of other first-person adventure games, but that game is also real good.
Demigod - I've had a lot of fun playing this one, in single-player, against the CPU.
low rated
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Vendor-Lazarus: Harbinger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbinger_%28video_game%29)
A Sci-Fi H'n'S.
I think it's the only Science-Fiction diablo-clone I've come across..Ever.
If anyone know of another one, please let me know!
While being rather short, and the levels a bit bland, the voice-acting and humor goes a long way.
I love this game so much I bought it on Gamersgate while waiting for it to maybe come here...decent game, imo.
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DavidOrion93: My pick would be Blaster Master for the NES. I bought mine from my best friend after many borrowings and rejected buys. I never did find another physical copy anywhere from flea markets and thrift stores pre-Internet.
I remember back in the days my brother would play that all day and eventually lose all lives/continues by slipping in the ice areas of level 6. That game was long enough that it should have had a password system and/or unlimited continues.

A few of my favorites that no-one ever really mentions:

Secret of Evermore
A Squaresoft Action RPG for the SNES, developed in North America. It involves time travel and beating your enemies with a weapon called the "The Bone Crusher".

Brave Fencer Musashi
A Squaresoft Action RPG for the PSX, where you play as a child warrior who has to save a kingdom from some kind of evil force.

Magic Knight Rayearth
A mostly cute anime style Working Designs Action RPG where you play as three girls.

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Darkside
This was Sega's answer to Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. The Sega CD version improved on the Genesis version in practically every way.

Double Switch
The lesser known successor to Night Trap, it improved upon the original in every possible way.
Post edited December 03, 2019 by djdarko
I enjoyed MegaTrraaeller: The Zhodani Conspiracy. A. simple RPG by today’s standards but in depth for the early 90’s

I also enjoyed Road Trip for the PS2. An addictive RPG racing game.
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Tallima: Hardwar was one of those games for a long while.

Do people still talk about hardwar now? It had a resurgence for a while.

It was an open world game set on Titan. You start going a rinky-dink ship called a MOTH that is basically a hover ship.

Corporations left everyone stranded in Titan for ages and you're trying to get off the moon. Every person had an AI script that runs and everyone has different factions and objectives. You'll think you had a great stroke of luck by finding some very valuable toot only to find yourself pursued by a dozen ships.

It had a story to follow or you could do your own thing. And folks set up persistent online worlds with it.

It failed. Hard. I bought it for a penny at EB Games. I just loved it.

Then maybe 4 more years later, suddenly a bunch of people somehow heard about the game and it had a resurgence.
This. Loved the concept and atmosphere, but perhaps it was just a bit ahead of its time. It's similarly strange that you don't hear about G-police that often, which is 'kind of' the pure action version of hardwar. Though that at least I think was very popular at the time.
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kai2: What game(s) do you love / enjoy that others don't seem to know exists?
Ring of Red. All I have to say is: dieselpunk mechs fighting the Cold War in the Japanese countryside.

Zone of the Enders: Second Runner. For games published by Konami and developed by Kojima, these have been pretty overlooked. Yet this game is just awesome and would probably make my top 5 for the system.
Apidya - a Shmup in the veins of R-Type which came out when the Amiga was already in it's decline. Developed by Kaiko who were an offshoot of Factor 5 (of Turrican fame). Brilliant gameplay, a very silly setting (hero transforms into a bee to battle (at first) moskitos and spiders and later ghost fish, robot insects...) and a fantastic soundtrack by legend Chris Huelsbeck.

And "love" might be a bit much, but Demonworld was a very decent turn-based strategy game based on the German Warhammer clone of the same name. I don't think this game has seen a release outside Germany at all.
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Swedrami: Since I just finished it for the third time the other day, ECHO.
Echo is a fascinating game. Wow, I wasn't aware that Ultra Ultra was dead. Sad.
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visconteprimus: Two years later, Sleeping Dogs: maybe the most underrated title in this last decade!
Sleeping Dogs is a great game! IMO it perfectly bridged GTA-style gameplay with something like the Yakuza series gameplay. Really sad that the both Sleeping Dogs and True Crime are dead ATM.
Trust me. If you can (and if love titles with mechs, spaceships, etc. of course!), give a chance to War Tech Fighters. You won't regret it! :)
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Tallima: Hardwar was one of those games for a long while.

Do people still talk about hardwar now? It had a resurgence for a while.

It was an open world game set on Titan. You start going a rinky-dink ship called a MOTH that is basically a hover ship.

Corporations left everyone stranded in Titan for ages and you're trying to get off the moon. Every person had an AI script that runs and everyone has different factions and objectives. You'll think you had a great stroke of luck by finding some very valuable toot only to find yourself pursued by a dozen ships.

It had a story to follow or you could do your own thing. And folks set up persistent online worlds with it.

It failed. Hard. I bought it for a penny at EB Games. I just loved it.

Then maybe 4 more years later, suddenly a bunch of people somehow heard about the game and it had a resurgence.
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Matewis: This. Loved the concept and atmosphere, but perhaps it was just a bit ahead of its time. It's similarly strange that you don't hear about G-police that often, which is 'kind of' the pure action version of hardwar. Though that at least I think was very popular at the time.
I tore up some G-Police, too. I completely forgot about that game. I think Hardwar had better controls, but I remember some great action moments in G-Police.