8 most underrated history -driven games

Not every good history -driven game gets the attention it deserves. There are plenty of titles out there with a big story, characters and writing that often fly under the radar for various reasons, including the circumstances of their release period or their connections to other games and franchises.

The game design and the genre of these titles also play a role in being overlooked, along with a lack of marketing. Either way, they have still left a big mark on those who have played them. Here are just a few underrated history -driven games that deserve much more love.

8

Stories from the boundaries

Metacritic: 85

Although Telltale has several critically acclaimed games like The Walking Dead: Season 1 and the wolf among us, Tales from The Borderlands is their most underrated works. It can only be the best game in the entire Borderland series, rival close by Borderland 2.

The characters and history here are very well written, and it expands strongly on Lore of Borderland's Planet Pandora. A sequel entitled New Tales From The Borderlands was released in 2022, this time was developed internally by the gearbox itself, although it is best to ignore it.

7

Mad Max

Metacritic: 73

Although Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the biggest and most acclaimed films in 2015, the Mad Max game did not get the same universal praise. It was released the same day as Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, who removed very immediate focus and attention from it.

Despite this, the game is a solid open world experience with a very strong story that expanded heavily on character and wilderness. It showed how many of the different characters lived in the apocalypse and what they had to do to survive.

6

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Metacritic: 84

The Guardians of the Galaxy is another game that, even though they had a lot of MCU synergy, was subject to. A big reason for this was the underage Marvel Avengers game, which affected the game's expectations before the publication.

It came as a surprise to many how amazing this game's story was. It showed another side of Peter Quill from the MCU films and was much more nuanced and complex. Each member of the Guardians had a well -written character arch and had his time to shine in this game. It even won the best story at the 2021 Game Awards.

5

Disco Elysium

Metacritic: 97

It is very difficult to stop praising disco Elysium. It has left a major impact on the RPG genre, with several spiritual successors that have already been developed by various former developers of the game.

Since it has no battle and everything is dialogue -based, the story is as strong as it can be. Everything happens through conversations, competence checks and choices, and all of these are very well done. It has some of the absolute best scriptures and dialogue that has ever put in a video game, but it still feels underestimated.

4

Jade empire

Metacritic: 89

Jade Empire is probably one of Bioware's most underrated games. It came out in 2005, two years after Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and shares much of its DNA with that game. But releasing at the end of the original Xbox's life cycle instead of the beginning of the Xbox 360 decreased its popularity.

Located in an old Chinese-inspired world, you play a martial artist who is intended to stop an evil emperor. The story leans heavily into eastern mythology with a great story. You can choose between different martial arts styles and even adapt to either good or evil ideologies, just like Kotor.

3

Batman: Arkham Origins

Metacritic: 76

The Arkham series is extremely popular, but Arkham: Origins never managed to reach the same levels of popularity as the other games. It is more of a mega expansion to Arkham City, which reuses most of its assets and animations and even the entire map.

It has a brand new prequel story that was pretty good and showed a younger, less experienced Batman. One of the game's awards was the eight antagonists who chased Batman, with each of their boss struggles was a highlight.

2

Sleeping dogs

Metacritic: 83

Sleeping Dogs has received very deserving praise since it was released more than a decade ago, but it still does not feel enough. There are not many games that have either tried to compete with the GTA series or take massive inspiration from it in recent years.

But Sleeping Dogs does some things better than many GTA games, such as having a neon soaked atmosphere with a little big immersion. The action-film-inspired script and story really shone here, with some complex characters.

1

Mafia 2

Metacritic: 77

Speaking of GTA-inspired games, Mafia 2 does not hide their GTA 4 inspirations but still manage to tell a great mafia crime story that may very well remind you of the Godfather or Goodfellas. You play like Vito Scaletta, an Italian-American immigrant drawn into the criminal underground.

The story extends from the 1940s to the 1950s, and the world feels alive thanks to the atmosphere and music from that time period. The open world feels more like a background for history, rather than a sandbox playground like some other games in the same genre, but it actually works to its advantage as it focuses much more on the story and not the repetitive open world activities.