Any underrated MMORPGs out there?

Wicasa

Finally played Neverwinter, all text is voice acted, some really beautiful scenes, joining up for dungeons was easy, action combat makes it unique, mounts feel real... Still play Warcraft, but nice to have something to switch between. Neverwinter (and Warcraft for that matter) don't get much love on this site, but I have yet to find better. Destiny 2 is first person only, ESO is colorless and charmless, FFXIV doesn't really let you play with your friends when the main story is so solo and mandatory... Any underrated MMORPGs out there that some of us may be missing out on?

Tiller

A Tale in the Desert if you like crafting and old school games. Or even Wurm Online. I don't play either of these games, but the people who do swear by it. Maybe give them a try.

Phaserlight

Vendetta Online is probably the best MMORPG you may not have heard of.  I've been a member of that community for 14 years and most certainly will swear by the game.  It's amazing.  Sorely underrated and underpromoted, to be sure.

Try going to r/mmorpg; see r/vendettaonline on the sidebar? Nope, but it's certainly a classic.

Physics-based combat, too; you could say it has more in common with Quake than Ultima Online.  This was more or less unheard of in the MMO space of 2004.  Again, in 2011, being ported to mobile as a cross-platform MMO bringing both PC and mobile together in the same 3D realm, VO was well ahead of its time.  Now the devs have their sights set on VR.

Its development history is nearly as interesting as the game itself.  It's not a miracle, but it is a title acting (to borrow another's phrase) as a David in a world of Goliaths.  You should absolutely, indubitably, and imperatively check it out.

Po_gg

There was an article maybe a month ago, with awards. Some of them were up for debate, but I guess in this there was pretty much a concensus: most underrated MMO of 2017, Wildstar.

https://www.mmorpg.com/awards/mmorpgcoms-best-of-2017-awards-1000012345/page/2

vomomoto

Po_gg said:

There was an article maybe a month ago, with awards. Some of them were up for debate, but I guess in this there was pretty much a concensus: most underrated MMO of 2017, Wildstar.

https://www.mmorpg.com/awards/mmorpgcoms-best-of-2017-awards-1000012345/page/2

Wildstar is pretty darn good. Now that I learned SWTOR may be shutting down, I came back to the game, and am having a lot of fun beating the class stories I did not finish the first time around.

Viper482

Wildstar is rated right where it should be imo....not a good game. I will throw LOTRO out there. Even as old as it is still a beautiful world, the work that goes into the story is amazing if you are a Tolkien fan.

Alomar

Since you put an emphasis on being able to play with friends during a game's storyline, I would definitely recommend SWTOR as mentioned above. The game may not blow you away in every aspect, but the one thing it does right is the story and it's integrated Bioware multiplayer story options makes questing while grouped enjoyable. For example, even in class specific quests party members have the option on joining in on your conversations and entering most instances. While the post-launch content, expansions, have decent story too I'd recommend doing all 8 class stories (1-50) first or at least prioritizing them as they are truly that enjoyable.

Secondly, if you like doing things together rather than solo Guild War 2's public questing system similar to Warhammer Online if you played that might be enjoyable. Rather than your traditional solo fetch and kill x of this quests, events specific to each zone occur where players all contribute together and rewards are calculated upon that contribution at the end. Meanwhile, the open world bosses and post-launch content continue this trend of open world cooperative play.

Scolioz

no they're all shit

dougha1

The first Guild Wars. People have forgotten about it.  But it's still out there.

rojoArcueid

dougha1 said:

The first Guild Wars. People have forgotten about it.  But it's still out there.

And ANET even took GW1 from NCsoft's website and put it together with GW2 on their own site and now you can login to both games with the same account. I would love to see both games supported simultaneously.

KGdio

Warhammer

Gruug

Wicasa said:

Finally played Neverwinter, all text is voice acted, some really beautiful scenes, joining up for dungeons was easy, action combat makes it unique, mounts feel real... Still play Warcraft, but nice to have something to switch between. Neverwinter (and Warcraft for that matter) don't get much love on this site, but I have yet to find better. Destiny 2 is first person only, ESO is colorless and charmless, FFXIV doesn't really let you play with your friends when the main story is so solo and mandatory... Any underrated MMORPGs out there that some of us may be missing out on?

You mentioned Destiny 2 as "first person only". While this is true when using a firing weapon, you are in 3rd person if using a sword. Actually, I don't consider it as much a MMO as I do a grind fest. 

Twilight33

if you want an immersive game check out secret world. i haven't had a chance to try the reboot yet but the original was criminally underrated.

Hariken

Even though i don't like PWE Neverwinter is really a good game. I haven't bought anything in the cash shop either. Star Trek Online is the worse PWE game as far as the cash shop goes. In Neverwinter i have one max level character and working on my second one. 

Phixion13

Tried to make "guides" for Wildstar to get more people interested. Game was mismanaged but after playing pretty much all content, I can say its a huge diamond in the rough. The story is awesome and unique - Scientist path to get more juicy lore bits. The cartoon style can be a bit much but the artist definitely know its style well. I really miss how it played, combat was fast and active - dodging, interrupting, movement abilities, double jump - I felt in full control of my character. Best F2P setup out there - playing gets you currency to purchase stuff from the shop. Since it is F2P, it's worth the try.

Cryomatrix

I played neverwinter when it first came out, i got hooked, but i didnt like that it was a lobby game, it had very little innovation to it, i ended up quitting when i lost interest and i thought the game sucked only because it was shallow and not original.

I did enjoy the raids though and i had one of the higher tanks when i playes, i ended up leveling alts to max and then quit.

I just see no reason to play an mmo that has a little world and is a lobby game and does nothing different than any other mmo. The p2w doesnt bother me that much, just the fact that the game is shallow as fuck


Combat is excellent, but that is about it, i dis like pvp a bit as well.

Cryomatrix 

MightyUnclean

Not an MMO, but a MUD dating back to 1988, I'm having a great time playing Gemstone IV.  It has forced downtime to soak experience at an efficient rate, so people do a lot of communicating, especially roleplay.  Interaction with others is what makes an online game special, in my opinion.

dougha1

rojoArcueid said:

dougha1 said:

The first Guild Wars. People have forgotten about it.  But it's still out there.

And ANET even took GW1 from NCsoft's website and put it together with GW2 on their own site and now you can login to both games with the same account. I would love to see both games supported simultaneously.

So that would mean if I bought GW1 , I can then log into GW2 without having to buy GW2?

EDIT: I checked.  False. One wants to play GW2, one buys GW2. GW1 or not makes no difference.

Wicasa

I guess I don't mind the smaller world lobbyness of Neverwinter because I have a roommate to play with at all times. NW is Fable 2ish almost... Got a womanfriend whos never been into games to start loving them with Fable 2 side by side on the couch, perfect for getting someone into gaming. She now whoops my ass in Warcraft... SWTOR and GW2 are nice suggestions, but don't quite hit the mark. Wish Wildstar looked a little better, we also play to "get out of the house" or "vacation" cheaply, suppose we could pretend we took psychedelics before playing...

Hasen19

Lord of the Rings online for me

Good friendly community, good music, many things to do and it's not Pay to Win

xenonick30

dougha1 said:

rojoArcueid said:

dougha1 said:

The first Guild Wars. People have forgotten about it.  But it's still out there.

And ANET even took GW1 from NCsoft's website and put it together with GW2 on their own site and now you can login to both games with the same account. I would love to see both games supported simultaneously.

So that would mean if I bought GW1 , I can then log into GW2 without having to buy GW2?

GW2 main game is f2p anyway, so no need to buy GW1 for that.

Amathe

Secret World is worth some time.

Phry

There aren't really any underrated games, though there are numerous over hyped ones.
What surprises me is that there are often references to 'games' that 'we've probably never heard of' that may or may not be all that good, chances are if they were any good we would;
a. have heard of them
b. played them.
So if X game from the past is not doing all that well then its probably for a reason unrelated to whether or not people have actually heard of them

cameltosis

Wicasa said:

Finally played Neverwinter, all text is voice acted, some really beautiful scenes, joining up for dungeons was easy, action combat makes it unique, mounts feel real... Still play Warcraft, but nice to have something to switch between. Neverwinter (and Warcraft for that matter) don't get much love on this site, but I have yet to find better. Destiny 2 is first person only, ESO is colorless and charmless, FFXIV doesn't really let you play with your friends when the main story is so solo and mandatory... Any underrated MMORPGs out there that some of us may be missing out on?

From my personal experience, there are no underrated MMORPGs, the vast majority are overrated and the remaining are accurately rated. 

That said, there are definitely MMORPGs that are underrated if you are only interested in one specific thing. For example, SW:TOR is a steaming pile of shit, it's not even a proper MMORPG. The classes are boring, the combat shallow, the group mechanics non-existent, the PvP almost completely ignored, the PvE too easy, the crafting mostly pointless. It's just a thoroughly shit game. 

Unless you only like story. 

Then, and only then, could you consider SW:TOR underrated. SW:TORs story is supposedly better than other MMOs. I disagree, I thought SW:TORs story was also shit. I mean, the game got the most amount of praise when the XP events allowed you to skip 99% of the game and only do the class stories. But, lots of people rate SW:TORs stories highly. 


The same is true for most of the recommendations in this thread. The games as a whole are probably overrated, but each does one or two specific things better than the rest and so if you care about those one or two things then they'll be worth a shot. 


For me, I need the whole package. 

Kyleran

Phry said:

There aren't really any underrated games, though there are numerous over hyped ones.
What surprises me is that there are often references to 'games' that 'we've probably never heard of' that may or may not be all that good, chances are if they were any good we would;
a. have heard of them
b. played them.
So if X game from the past is not doing all that well then its probably for a reason unrelated to whether or not people have actually heard of them

As Phaser said above,  Vendetta Online might be one such under rated game, but I've not tried.

I'm not quite ready to jump back in to space MMOs but when I do it will likely be with ED, mostly due to greater familiarity and has more press and hype than VO.

Caffynated

Dragon Nest is always worth trying out if you've never played it before. It's cartoony but the combat is among the best in the genre. Like TERA but more over the top.

TERA is still good, even if they've overly streamlined everything. It's a good side game as you can jump in and make some gains in a few minutes or get with your guild and play for hours.