15 Underrated Games From the Last 15 Years

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

Year: 2010 Publisher:  Activision Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS

People sling the PS1 Spider-Man titles or Insomniac’s 2018 blockbuster/ Miles Morales’ subsequent turn when mentioning Spidey’s best video game effort. 

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions deserves respect as an honorable mention. It also earns credit for untangling the complicated web of multiple universes in a humorous way that united past performers 8 years before MCU fans lauded Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

SuperHot VR

Year: 2016 Publisher: SUPERHOT team Platforms: PS4, PC

The ingenious physics of SuperHot pops in virtual reality. Moving your head through slow-motioned bullets before answering to mow down enemies opens the door to the Matrix. Just don’t take anything red from the same-colored beings trying to kill you. A quirky, meta sense of humor allows infinitely more smiles than Neo cracks.

Vampyr

Year: 2018

Publishers: Focus Entertainment Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC

Detractors sink their teeth into Vampyr’s awkward execution of elements outside of the story, writing, and atmospherics. In fairness, those three elements represent the lifeblood of any narrative-based game, which this oftentimes-overlooked gem — or rather gargoyle — knocks out of the park.  

Main character Jonathan Reid belongs in this chaotic, throwback environment and shapes it with a cutting-edge backstory sharpened by choices that truly matter in shaping the potentially twisted world the game hangs with.

Alien: Isolation

Year: 2014 Publisher: Sega

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android

One small step for man equates to one giant leap in real-life octaves when noise detection works in Alien: Isolation. Brilliantly designed AI programming envelops every step and sight players take with bated breaths. Blending a compelling-yet-chilling storyline creates arguably the greatest recipe for video game horror since the first two Silent Hills. 

SOMA

Year: 2015 Publisher: Frictional Games Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Genuine scares without cheap chases, noises, or monsters? Check. Gripping narrative forcing players to grapple with the blurred, bionic line between man and machine? Check. Lasting impact through small details instead of splashy scenes? Check. Underrated? Makes the list!

Prey

Year: 2017 Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Prey holds endless secrets to discover that are well-kept and well-designed. Death guarantees inevitability if bullets remain a secret. The claustrophobic, creative world mandates rare cunning for survival in this genre-bending rarity.

Code Vein

Year: 2019 Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

How does a Bloodborne anime sound? Players fail to find the Steroid Suzukis thudding through most clobbering cartoons, but Code Vein trades triceps for tridents and roll-based timing that’d make Hidetaka Miyazaki proud. The story colorizes the grayness of Souls’ events. Code Vein might even be the first and last game where vampires don gas masks.

NFL Head Coach 09

Year: 2008 Publisher: EA Sports Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360

Who wants to play a football game where you watch the action instead of causing it? Anyone interested in the deepest sports simulation available on console, that’s who! NFL Head Coach 09 offers full ability trees, the deepest, most-dynamic trading and progression system available beyond PC, and remarkably feisty computer-controlled franchises that breathe realism into the league. No other sports game walks a finer line between traditional RPG and sports sim management.

Blitz: The League 2

Year: 2008 Publisher: Midway Games Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360

Madden veterans won’t mistake John Madden for Frank Caliendo’s Madden impression where the comedian declares “I haven’t been hit that hard since I broke into my dad’s liquor cabinet.” Broken bottles and bones swirl in the tornado of debaucherous destruction devastating Blitz: The League 2 screens. There isn’t much you can’t do in this funny parody of the modern NFL’s rigidness. 

UFC 2

Year: 2016 Publisher: EA Sports Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Android

Whether in the Octagon or a hopefully safer PlaySaton disk reader, the best fighters show balance. UFC 2 unleashes wild combinations with an arcadey feel on the feet. The grappling aspects encourage mature, measured movements reflecting the metaphoric chess match of MMA during ground and clinch situations. 

Everything carries a counter, yet top techniques and fighters deploying them feel imposing. Speaking of imposing, you can even pit prime Mike Tyson against tattooed Mike Tyson.

Mirror’s Edge

Year: 2008

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, what’s the fairest parkour game of them all? The answer a.k.a. Mirror’s Edge innovated the industry. Rockstar Games counts itself among the numerous gaming giants to implement elements of pixelated parkour into future releases. 

The originator’s first-person perspective adds a unique balance of player anxiety and exhilaration felt by those able to look past the frustrating timing windows that end countless runs.

Game Dev Tycoon

Year: 2012

Publisher: Greenheart Games

Platforms: PC, Android, Nintendo Switch

A game developed by an indie company where players forge industry connections and improve resources to develop better games. So meta, so unheard of by seemingly anyone not on Steam, so fun!

Brutal Legend

Year: 2009

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Who doesn’t want to play as a Jack Black-voiced roadie where metal vocals and jokes echo through the amplifier-shaped mountains?

MultiVersus

Year: 2022

Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC

Ever wondered what would happen if Shaggy from Scooby-Doo tussled with Batman? MultiVersus solves the mystery while cracking the case of making an entertaining PvP fight game without resorting to violence or sex appeal.

 A lack of new content lost 99 % of the peak player total, but nothing new or old can extinguish the punching precedent MultiVersus hit the gaming world with.

The Impossible Game

Year: 2009

Publisher: Fluke Games

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Android, Microsoft Phone

The Impossible Game breaks brains and controllers at a rate unseen since college roommates avenged stolen pizza slices by picking OddJob in Goldeneye 007. Players fall short countless times through an infuriating simple design requiring precise jumps over geographic obstacles while music that seems equally appropriate for high school Fitness Graham Pacer Tests and adult night clubs blares. 

The Impossible Game remains one of the best virtual ways to pass 10 minutes or $10 to your favorite store’s electronics department.