Maybe Shenmue and maybe Unreal Tournament 2004 :D

Nox

Timesplitters

Def Jam 1/2

Amplitude

I still believe Warzone 2100 is one of the finest RTS games ever made. It is also now free and open source.

https://wz2100.net/

„Robinsons Requiem“, available on GoG.

It’s a survival horror first person rpg with a semi realistic health system. It’s creepy and hard and so goddamn good. I’m am actually surprised that it gets mentioned so rarely because I would not know of any other earlier game with those now so ubiquitous survival mechanics.

i have a very specific genre of games that i absolutely adore and i'd suggest anyone interested take a look at them asap. the genre is japanese ps2 horror games, with standout titles being silent hill, fatal frame, haunting ground, rule of rose, and siren

Hybrid Heaven on N64. Great game with a super interesting battle mechanic. I've never played anything else quite like it. Maybe The Surge would be the closest system, wherein you can target specific body parts for interesting effects. But you can't suplex an alligator in The Surge.

Alpha Centauri. Just reading through all the wonder quotes and worldbuilding is amazing.

I'd heartily recommend Fallout 1, with a less enthusiastic recommendation for Fallout 2

I've been playing retro games for the past years, and here's some that might fit the criteria of forgotten cult classics:

• ScummVM:
  • The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth: It's a funny and interesting point and click game, use a guide though, there are some obtuse puzzle and pixel hunting
• TurboGrafx CD:
  • J. B. Harold Murder Club: a straightforward but interesting crime mystery game
• SNES:
  • Ihatovo Monogatari: an interesting no combat top down adventure game
• Sega CD:
  • Snatcher
• Sega Saturn:
  • Policenauts: I like Policenauts more than Snatcher, but both are interesting sci-fi visual novel like by Kojima
• Playstation:
  • Mega Man Legends
  • Mega Man Legends 2: both MM Legends have heartwarming light hearted stories and okay gameplay
  • Tail Concerto: similar to MM Legends, but gameplay is bit more basic. Features tons of cute anthropomorphized cats and dogs. Very lighthearted
• Playstation Portable:
  • Remember11: The last game in Infinity series, co created by Kotaro Uchikoshi who went on and created Zero Escape trilogy. Out of the Infinity series, this is probably the best one, it is more sci-fi than romance/dating visual novel, there's no longwinded slice of life section.

All of those games are either in English or have been fan-translated

Out of This World and Flashback. Always favorite old school cult classics.

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force.

• It's a first person shooter from a venerable studio in the genre, Raven Software.
• Put out during their "golden age", before Wolfenstein and Singularity flopped and uncle Bobby sent them to work in the Call of Duty mines.
• Really cool selection of sci-fi guns, some of them pretty unique.
• Campaign is essentially a prototype for Quake 4. It was built by the same internal team at Raven.
• It has a more interesting story than Quake 4.
• It's an early example of a game that lets you choose your sex. NPC dialog changes to reflect this.
• The whole cast of Star Trek: Voyager lends their voice talent to the game, including Jeri Ryan.

It also has a sequel, made by another studio. Elite Force II isn't quite as good, but it is still worth playing if you like the original. It loses the female protagonist option, likely because it was 2003 and the story had a love triangle. It's a visual powerhouse though, really pushing the limits of the Quake III engine far beyond what many people likely thought possible.

I’m probably alone in remembering this game but I loved Hardwar back in the day. It’s an Elite style trading game set on Titan. The player pilots a ‘moth’ ,a small flying craft, between craters.
It had an interesting story that played out as you explored with areas blocked out, due to events, and made accessible later on.

The developer closed doors but IIRC at least one member of the team released a patch that had been developed later on.

I played it pretty obsessively and it had a small passionate community but it wasn’t a hit.

Sweet Home on the NES; it's had an English fan translation patch forever now.

For those that might not be aware, it's frequently cited as the inspiration for Resident Evil and you can certainly see it, although it's more of an old school RPG. Don't let that dissuade you though, the RPG mechanics are light and relatively easy to manage although you'll want to look up a table for weapon values because it's super obtuse. You take control of 5 characters, each with a unique ability or item that will help you work your way through the manor. You can split them into any number of parties with a max of 3 members and move them around independently. You'll have to actively look for clues and solve a lot of item based puzzles which are pretty engaging and clever, though not difficult. Stuff like having to pick up wooden boards used to strategically bridge gaps in the rotten floor. When characters die they are permanently gone, so you'll have to find items that can be used to replace the ones they carried. While it's true that making anything 8-bit truly scary is difficult if not impossible, there's a very real tension while playing the game and the overt horror themes still set an engaging mood, even if they can't outright spook you.

I think about this game all the time, it only takes 8-10 hours on a first playthrough, probably less if you want to use a guide. Give it a try and I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

For a follow up, check out Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead on the TurboGrafx-16 which also has a fan translation patch available. While I don't think it's ever been directly cited as an inspiration for Resident Evil 2, it's impossible not to see. Lila, a member of S-SWAT, is the spitting image of Claire Redfield ... if Claire had nuclear green colored hair. The town of Chaney Falls is being overrun by occult horrors and it seems related to the old Browning family. There's a mystery to uncover. This one is a lot rougher around the edges and gets weighed down by some tedium, definitely use a guide to help you get through this one. Still, it's worth a look. I have a fascination with these retro horror RPGs.

BladeRunner rpg by Westwood studios is fantastic

Quest for Glory 1 (called Hero's Quest at release) shaped my humor and gave me a lifetime love of fantasy in general, my username is the name of one of the minor characters. I recently spent a couple hundred dollars on a painting because it reminded me of Erana's Peace, a location in the game. Its sequels are great too.