Underrated: Jack Orlando all the way. Yeah, you get to carry lots of items and use not so many of them. Yup, there are some action sequences (which can be avoided with the Director's Cut version). As well as some dead-end I believe (can't remember). But hey: this game has THE BEST atmosphere and ambiance I've ever seen in a game (next to The Dig and Chrono Cross ;)), a kick-ass jazzy soundtrack and a really interesting plot since the very beginning.

Overrated: Syberia, which is the best example to prove that a game which has a nice (but alas not so well exploited) atmosphere can't always make up for some other flaws. Because the other flaws are BIG. When a game isn't fun, when a game is plain boredom with a terrible gameplay, bad puzzles and frustratingly big areas, well, they overshadow everything else.

OVERRRRRAAATTTED: The longest journey.
It makes me puke to read another reviewer saying how it was the greatest of all time. The story was good but the PUZZLES SUCKED. They were boring as hell and very repetitive. The 3 final puzzles of the game were using the same item 3 times.

underated: Curse of monkey island. The cartoonish graphics, plot, puzzles were all SPECTACULAR and very fun. I don't think many people remember the 3rd in this series.

I'm with you on that one! And I will probably draw a lot of flak by saying I thought it lived up to the legacy laid down by Ron Gilbert, and those are some big shoes to fill.

For me Fahrenheit was massively overrated. The story turned out to be a right turd, what with all the Area 51 crap going on. And far from being a story I felt there were moments where you really just encountered action sequences because they wanted to make it "exciting".

I got truly sick of trashing my fingers and dying over and over again just to help Lucas deal with his crazy hallucinations. And playing as Miles, while nice, kinda felt pointless toward the end. There were a lot of cool chapters, but then plenty of chapters that added nothing to the story or just felt like another obstacle for the sake of being an obstacle.

Most Overrated Games: (Doesn't mean I don't like them, of course) MYST and its progeny. I prefer 3rd person adventures usually (but there are many notable exceptions)

Most Underrated: In the 1st Degree; and The Last Express doesn't get the love it deserves either.

Overrated: Myst and it's relatives. Still Life. Just finished that, was very unhappy with the ending, and generally unhappy with the too weak and/or too hard puzzles (making cookies, anyone?!). The 7th Guest. I never did get to watch those story segments in order, or in any way which made a coherent story out of it. From what I remember, the ending was a letdown also.

I liked The Longest Journey a lot... but I spaced it out over a few weeks, and didn't mind at all some of the repetitions. The great story and even better characters made up for that, and then some.

Underrated: KQ1-4, especially 4. Grim Fandango... why didn't more people buy it? Incredible game. Curse of Monkey Island - never gets the respect of 1, 2 and 4. And definitely Loom.

Grim Fandango? Underrated? Hardly.

Oh, and welcome to the forum, by the way. :)

myst is brilliant, imo. :P

I totally agree with you!

Also overrated (yeah you can kill me later :9 ) Grim Fandango! There is a reason this game didn't sell well... :9 I really disliked the crappy control system. I don't know why I got so upset, but it was one of the main reasons it took me so long to get back to it and complete it. In addition, some of the puzzles like finding the tunnel (see some posts above) were really bad. Almost as bad as the whole GK-cat-syrup-disguise puzzle. I loved the music and voice overs though.

Overrated: Myst. I bought this game because of a review in PC Review magazine. The game was rated a 9 and hailed as the future of adventure gaming... WHOEHAHAHAHA! Man, I hate Myst...

And again, I totally agree with you. Yes, many Sierra games have crappy puzzles but to me Sierra games were more interesting and more fun. I'm not going into detail why I think Sierra is better but I do :) And indeed; Save early, save often!

Underrated: Quest for Glory IV. Too many bugs and bad technical support destroyed this game! But still, the characters, the replayability, the music and the fact that about everybody new to adventure gaming could complete this game made it a special one of a kind hybrid. Too bad the game didn't have a proper opening and ending...

Also underrated: Toonstruck. This game also didn't sell well. Crappy advertising and reviewers who thought is was a kiddy game really destroyed the small possibilities of Toonstruck being a succes.

The Dreamweb. Don't think many people here have played The Dreamweb, but the mature setting and story really appealed to me. Also, this adventure game was totally unique at the time.

Overrated: Day of the Tentacle.

I'm not saying it's a bad game; it had solid design all around and I enjoyed it. But it just simply doesn't stick in my mind the way a lot of other adventures do, despite the fact that it has a rep of "Best adventure ever" in some circles of this place.

Overrated: Myst.

I also have to agree with this. Myst has the rare dishonor of being one of only two games that I never finished out of sheer boredom. (And considering that SimTower is the other... yeah.)

Underrated: The Dig.

I do think it's the weakest of the LA games I've played, but that's only because LA games in general are so good. Any other adventure game company would consider it one of their top offerings, and it was a good game.

Beautiful scenery, interesting characters (Brink is one of my fave adventure game characters :D ), creative puzzles, and an intriguing story. Oh, and I liked a great deal the cartoony cutscenes that lots of people seem to rag on. :P

Underrated: The Space Bar

Granted, this one isn't so much underrated as it is hardly anyone got to play it. The few who do and review it seem to get overly hung up on the turn limit (which, while definitely annoying, isn't a huge deal if you're careful).

But it has awesomely imaginative graphics (character design done by the same fellow who did the cantina aliens in Star Wars, IIRC), a lot of great voice acting (loved the "villain", the main character's partner, and his PDA's AI, especially), an intriguing plot, a lot of very creative puzzle and character design, and some seriously wicked and funny humor. Not to mention my favorite type of interface.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Overrated:

Most of Sierra´s games (Gabe 1 not included).
The Longest journey.

Underrated:

The Last Express.
Cruise for a corpse.

Underrated among the general gaming populus, just not here where adventure games are the focus! :D

I've talked to a gazillion people who've never even heard of "Grim Fandangle? Fan Dan Go? Fan WHAT?"

And thanks for the welcome!

Possibly, but many I've spoken to that isn't a hardcore adventuregamer, thinks Grim Fandango is the best adventure game they've played.

But then again, they probably haven't played many others. :)

Yup, and even in the most conservative game magazines in Sweden that never reviews an adventure game, Grim Fandango almost always are on their top 50 games of all time.

Yeah, Grim Fandango definitely can't be considered underrated.

The ads I had seen at the time of its release were totally brill. In a "Marge doesn't give you milk - Marge does give you a slap in your face" sorta way. There were several others made in that style for the several twisted toon characters in that game. :D

Overrated: Runaway. I think it was terrible, the story, characters, voices, dialogue...the only thing about this game that I could stand were the graphics and some puzzles were pretty entertaining.

Anyway, I didn't finish this game since it was so terrible but maybe I'll try to finish it someday when I'm extremely bored.

I agree, a little bit...TLJ is overrated but I thought Dreamfall was I loved game, I loved it anyway.

Sure, it's not a perfect game but on the other hand every game has it's flaws. I'd rather say that the great "story, characters and everything" is sticking out enough to call it the best adventure game ever. :)

By, the way I think some puzzles were brilliant.

Underrated: The Tex Murphy games, especially the last 4.

Overrated: The most overrated game I know was Starship Titanic. The only good thing that game had were the graphics, but good graphics does not a game make, as they say ;)

Overrated:
Maniac Mansion
Day of the Tentale
Curse of MI
The Longest Journey
Syberia 1-2
Kings Quest 1

Underrated:
Below the Root
Conquests of Longbow
The Dig
Police Quest 3
TimeQuest (and all other Legend games for that matter)
Tex Murphy games
Shadow of the Comet
Dragon Sphere
Feeble Files
Zork: Grand Inquisitor

Overrated:

-TLJ
-both Syberia games
-most of the LA games

Underrated:

-MI3, the cartoony graphics, the voice-acting, the satire...this is my big exception to the usual LA indifference.

-Zork: Nemesis. People always complain about how dark and scary it was, but I LOVEd the game's atmosphere.

-Sierra games (at least on THIS site, lol)...to me, an adventure involves risk-taking, imaginative thinking used to solve problems, and the ability to provide an experience for EVERY type of player. Sierra did those in abundance. I especially always appreciated how the games appealed to varying interests.

Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest appealed to my humorous side, King's Quest was a series I could play with my young nephews (without having to worry about content), the Shivers games appealed to Dad and I as horror fans...there was always something for everyone to like.

As far as the "deaths" go...I've said it before, but I'll say it again: they are adventure games! Adventures involve risks. Without the possibility of facing a threat around the corner, I'd probably feel the way I did when playing TLJ...pretty world, pretty boring. I mean, it's like saying, "Well, I like rollercoasters...just not the FAST ones." lol

Besides, many of those death scenes were damned entertaining. Where else could I see a knight on a quest get turned into a giant cookie? lol

Overrated:

Broken Sword - Three words: Toxic main character.

The Longest Journey - Lots of dialogue while looking at tiny onscreen characters.

Underrated:

Curse of Monkey Island - Best MI game ever.

Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail - Hilarious, great sound, and an additional text interface.

SpyCraft - A lot of unique gameplay and style choices for the time (FP perspective, CSI-like gameplay). This game was years ahead of its time.

The Pandora Directive - One of the most complete adventures ever. Great story with multiple paths and endings. Full 3D movement with real-time and physical space puzzles. Branching dialogue, humor AND suspense, abstract puzzles (that could be skipped), and a cool conspiracy story.

As for the Sierra vs. Lucasarts debate, I think they're both entirely different and cool types of adventure games. Lucasarts always had that quirkiness and the interfaces were always better. I liked Sierra games because they were more serious. Sometimes I get sick of that whole "aw haha look at me I'm CLEVER!" thing and I want take my stories a little more seriously.