8 Most Underrated Story-Driven Games

Not every great story-driven game gets the attention that it deserves. There are plenty of titles out there with a great narrative, 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.

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The game design and genre of these titles also plays a part in them sometimes 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 some underrated story-driven games that deserve a lot more love.

8

Tales From The Borderlands

Metacritic: 85

Tales From The Borderlands

Released: November 25, 2014
ESRB: M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
Engine: Telltale Tool

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 work. It might just be the best game in the entire Borderlands series, rivaled closely by Borderlands 2.

The characters and story here are very well written, and it greatly expands on the lore of Borderlands’ planet Pandora. A sequel titled New Tales From The Borderlands was released in 2022, this time being developed in-house by Gearbox itself, although it’s best to ignore that one.

7

Mad Max

Metacritic: 73

Mad Max

Released: September 1, 2015
ESRB: M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
Developer(s): Avalanche Studios
Engine: Apex Engine
Franchise: Mad Max

Even though Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the biggest and most acclaimed movies of 2015, the Mad Max game didn’t quite receive the same universal acclaim. It was released on the same day as Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, which took away a lot of immediate focus and attention from it.

Despite this, the game is a solid open-world experience with a very strong narrative that greatly expanded on the lore of the character and the wasteland. It showed how a lot of the various characters lived in the apocalypse and what they had to do to survive.

6

Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy

Metacritic: 84

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

4.0/5

Released: October 26, 2021
ESRB: T For Teen Due To Language, Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
Developer(s): Eidos Montreal
Engine: Dawn Engine

The Guardians Of The Galaxy is another game that, despite having a lot of MCU synergy, was underlooked. A big reason for this was the underbaked Marvel Avengers game, which affected this game’s pre-release expectations.

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It came as a surprise to many just how stellar this game’s narrative was. It showed a different side of Peter Quill from the MCU movies and was a lot more nuanced and complex. Each member of the Guardians had a well-written character arc and had their time to shine in this game. It even won Best Narrative at the 2021 Game Awards.

5

Disco Elysium

Metacritic: 97

Disco Elysium

4.5/5

Released: October 15, 2019
ESRB: M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Violence
Developer(s): ZA/UM
Publisher(s): ZA/UM
Engine: Unity

It’s very hard to stop praising Disco Elysium. It has left a big impact on the RPG genre, with several spiritual successors already in development by various former developers of the game.

Since it has no combat and everything is dialogue-based, the narrative is as strong as it could be. Everything happens through conversations, skill checks, and choices, and all of these are very well done. It has some of the absolute best writing and dialogue ever put in a video game form, but it still feels underrated.

4

Jade Empire

Metacritic: 89

Jade Empire

Released: April 12, 2005
ESRB: M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes
Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios
Engine: Aurora Engine

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 a lot of its DNA with that game. Although, releasing at the end of the original Xbox’s lifecycle instead of the start of the Xbox 360 did diminish its popularity.

Set in an ancient Chinese-inspired world, you play a martial artist who is destined to stop an evil emperor. The story leans heavily into Eastern mythology with some great storytelling. You can choose between different martial arts styles and even align yourself with either good or evil ideologies, much like KOTOR.

3

Batman: Arkham Origins

Metacritic: 76

Batman: Arkham Origins

Released: October 25, 2013
ESRB: T for Teen: Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, Local Co-Op
Franchise: Batman

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

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It features a brand-new prequel story that was pretty good and showed a younger, less experienced Batman. One of the game’s standouts was the eight antagonists that were hunting down Batman, with each of their boss fights being a highlight.

2

Sleeping Dogs

Metacritic: 83

Sleeping Dogs

Released: August 14, 2012
ESRB: M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
Developer(s): United Front Games
Engine: Havok

Sleeping Dogs has received a lot of deserving acclaim since its release more than a decade ago, but it still doesn’t feel like quite enough. There aren’t many games that have tried to either compete with the GTA series or take massive inspiration from it in recent years.

But Sleeping Dogs does a few things better than a lot of GTA games, such as having a neon-soaked atmosphere with some great immersion. The action-movie-inspired writing and storytelling really shone here, with some complex characters.

1

Mafia 2

Metacritic: 77

Mafia 2

Released: August 24, 2010
ESRB: m
Developer(s): 2K Czech
Engine: physx, illusion engine

Speaking of GTA-inspired games, Mafia 2 doesn’t hide its GTA 4 inspirations but still manages to tell a great mafia crime story that could very well remind you of The Godfather or Goodfellas. You play as Vito Scaletta, an Italian-American immigrant who gets pulled into the criminal underworld.

The story spans from the 1940s to the 1950s, and the world feels alive thanks to the atmosphere and music of that time period. The open world feels more like a backdrop for the story, rather than a sandbox playground like some other games in the same genre, but that actually works in its favor since it focuses much more on the narrative and not the repetitive open-world activities.

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