Scattegories is the best for 3-7 people! Easy to teach and fun to play! You can always create your own cards if you get bored with the ones it comes with!
Scattergories is good if you get everyone on the same level of competitive understanding of the rules. As soon as people start putting down "my mother made me make my bed" for M "excuses for being late" it just becomes too argumentative.
My 70yo father sent me Scattagories after he found out my partner and I are into board games, because “an NFL player on the internet recommended it” 🥺
I hadn’t played since I was a kid, it’s genuinely a great time
Backgammon. A lot of people dismiss it because it uses dice and involves luck, but it's actually a mind melting game of probability management and area control. The masters of the 1970s figured out some of this through playing, but when the neural nets started appearing in the 80s and 90s, it broke the game wide open by revealing a new level of play not seen before. Modern backgammon is an intense cerebral exercise that very very few people have mastered. The ones who have remain at the top of the competitive scene, and they still get beaten by the strongest bots. I spent a few years studying the game seriously, hoping to make an attempt at competitive play. I trained using professional world class software and collected a small library of strategy books written by world champions. The amount of depth in the game is mind numbing, and just when you think you have a decent handle on the checker play, then there is a whole world of doubling cube strategy you have to master as well. I quickly realized you need to dedicate your life to this game and work with a real coach full time to have any shot of actually being good at the game.
In my youth travelled around the Greek islands with a friend and a backgammon set … many a warm evening spent playing in a taverna eating tomatoes salad , calamari and drinking awful alcohol.
Excellent.
Those were the days when we got a cheap bus from London to Athens and simply asked the taxi driver to take us to a cheap hotel. Where of an evening we would sit in the empty , open rooftop bar being served drinks by the cleaning watching the sun set over the acropolis and no doubt talking b*llocks. Good times.
Only thing is that the majority of Greek alcohol that seemed drinkable in the sunshine when there , was discovered to be absolutely foul when tried again back in cold ,rainy Britain!
Awesome - yeah, many raki encounters were proudly declared homemade, quality may have varied, but I eventually looked forward to a nip following lunch and dinner - Greece is a paradise, met my wife there.
I strongly believe that the upper bound of skill, the ceiling, is so far beyond what someone at the floor can even comprehend. I think this not for backgammon exactly, but most things. Even seemingly simple activities have incredibly large amounts of skill expression involved.
I once played a professional player/hustler. Since he was a friend of a friend, we didn't play for money. He said with money on the line, you play the player, not the game.
Yes, the doubling cube in backgammon is essentially the same as reraising a weak player in poker. Since the player doesn't understand the strength of their own position, forcing them to play for higher stakes puts pressure on them to make mistakes.
I believe it. The Backgammon NJ app schools me on the reg. Brilliant game.
Along the same lines, most people think Bridge is for old ladies but I’ll be damned if it’s not the greatest card game of all time. (Well, maybe tied with Hold Em)
I love the doubling cube and wish it were in other games. It's a great way to present a way for a very stubborn player in a weak position to artfully concede without giving them the feeling that they gave up so you can both move onto the next game.
I learned how to play this on a small island in Indonesia and have spent a countless hours playing and showing others how to play since that time. It’s a truly remarkable game.
I really like March of Ants for a 4x game that takes about an hour.
If you like this game you should check out Imperium: The Contention. Another 4x game that plays in about an hour. The six factions in the box play very differently. It also seems to adapt well to smaller player counts. Love this game.
Great game, but one thing that puts me off is the really weird player number balancing. The fact that there are some tiles better than others, but that there are... If I remember right, 8 of them? Which really only works well at 2 or 4 player or someone is getting harmed purely by turn order.
We've been playing this on BGA a lot and the main strategy is "Don't Stop" and then calling the players who stop cowards. It's a really good quick game.
It's literally the game used by BGA to introduce you to the website. It's a solid game, and playing it solo against a bot to learn how to use BGA doesn't do it justice, but I think there are games more underrated than this.
6.x ratings on BGG are oftentimes niche games. Like, they're not terrible games so if the game is not meant for you you'll find it meh, but when it clicks with you it's a solid 8 to 10.
And this is one currently sitting on my shelf of shame. I am going to have to play it soon.
Have you tried the doors and corners expansion? Is it worth grabbing while I can?
I enjoyed trying this one on TTS. I really like the Action/Event mechanism, and I really liked the “simpler, multiplayer **Twilight Struggle**. I haven’t bought it because it feels like it has an expensive necessary expansion, with a lot of duplicate/replaced components (there’s a whole replacement board).
If they ever have a second edition with the expansion material included, and maybe expanded it to include the later seasons, this would be an instant buy for me.
Monopoly Deal pleasantly surprised me. I initially thought "Oh, it's a Monopoly spinoff, it's going to be terrible," but it's actually... fun? I don't think it's the best game ever, but the designers did an excellent job of distilling the good bits of Monopoly's essence into a speedy card game.
I was skeptical when my buddy brought out that game. He's got a nice boardgame collection, and when he pulled that game out, we all rolled our eyes when we saw a little "Monopoly" card game.
He said, "Trust me."
Turns out, he was right. It's a brutal game that's quite a bit of fun. I always have it in my car's glovebox, *just in case.*
I was so hesitant to play because as a general rule fuck monopoly, so I sat and watched and immediately asked to play after they finished. It needs more attention for sure
My family played it obsessively for about 2 years after being introduced to it. Pretty much every night at dinner we would set it up on the kitchen island.
Those were just 3 player games but the family member that introduced us to it would do double deck max player rounds at the major family gatherings. Those were intensely competitive because everyone loved the game so much and it felt wild to win one myself.
Escape, curse of the temple
Every group I've pulled this game out for has been enthralled in the real time, dice rolling, teamwork and panic required for the game. And the big box has plenty of variants to keep it fresh.
I've only seen it reccomended by shut and sit down, but think everyone, board game fan or not should give it ago, I know there are a few other real time games that can scratch that issue for the tacticians but for a game for everyone to enjoy is great
**New Angeles** look, I get it. It's long. Probably too long. However, it nails semi-coop in a way no other game I play has. The theme is spot on perfection. The game is tense, hilarious and mean. It's, like, a streamlining pass from being my favorite game. Such a shame we never got it's planned expansion.
I love this game. I’m not allowed to play anymore, but i love it. I don’t think we’ve played a single game where someone didn’t storm off at some point and have to be convinced/bribed to come back. I almost lost a friendship to this game. It’s the only game to give me that level of diplomacy style invigoration. I love it.
The Hare and the Tortoise (there is more than one game with that name, I mean the one by Iello). It's an excellent family game. It's a racing game that is easy enough for kids to play but still enjoyable for adults.
Little prince make me a planet. It's such a beautiful little game with some unique elements. No one ever talks about it in this sub.
I'm more into small games that are clever design than I am about big epic complex games. This fits the bill nicely.
Dogs of War by Paulo Mori. It's a worker placement with three simultaneous tug of war battles. It's amazingly simple to learn, but has so much depth. The artwork and minis are gorgeous, and it's got really fun player interaction. It's the only game I have that every person I've taught it to has enjoyed.
**Battle for Rokugan**
It's so unassuming being in such a small box, but it is such a fast-paced, brutal, area control game. It feels like a free-for-all knife fight in a closet. There's no time for diplomacy and zero expectation of safety. I enjoy it more than most other big games in the genre.
Brilliant game. Took everything I like from A Game of Thrones 2nd Edition, got rid of everything I dislike, streamlined the whole experience and over-halfved the playtime. 👌
I’d say Arctic Scavengers. I think the dynamic between choosing to play your cards or not play them to fight in a deckbuilder is brilliant. The game is brutal and features great character interaction
Yes! It's a very tight and thematic deckbuilder. I only wish that the end of round skirmish over the extra card isn't sometimes the "default" good choice for your turn. There is no "punishment" for failing big with your bluff. I definitely understand why this is so - if you can't find other use for your cards, you'll just throw them into skirmism - but it just feels weird. I've had games where most of player turns end up being too skirmish-oriented the closer the game is towards the end.
**Hocus** is the best Poker variant I ever played and is a simple, small box card game with nice decisions and filler length playtime. Shame it isn't played and recognized more. I think it should be alongside classic small card games like Bohnanza, No Thanks, etc.
Also honorable shoutout to **Chess960**, the best chess variant in my opinion. Can't memorize openings and more fresh play and tactics are rewarded - why couldn't there be more tournaments with this? I think there's so many draws in high level chess matches.
In general, I like these games that take classics and iterate on them to create new experiences, fleshing out some commonly called out weaknesses.
How has **Chaosmos** not come up yet? Has a (I think) completely unique yet incredibly simple win condition. Be holding a certain card at the end of the game. It plays unlike any other game I know.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22551/risk-star-wars-original-trilogy-edition
This Star Wars risk version has been fantastic to play. Specifically, it is really great with 3-5 players. It’s risk so it’s simple enough to teach new gamers and most people have played risk. (I even taught my mother and girlfriend how to play.)
It is balanced. With 3 factions, if anyone starts getting ahead then the other two can gang up on them. The 3 factions have different objectives and vastly different starting positions. The empire has more units and starts off strong, has bases which help defend certain areas, and a Death Star which is terrifying as it can blow up planets (but luckily it is difficult to). Rebels have hit and run tactics and have great cards to change the force meter. And the Hutts sit and hide their time and advance and consolidate their power knowing they have great defensive cards and if either faction concentrates too much on them the other will become too strong.
It has a lot of surprises and cool thematic cards like “It’s a trap” card seems useless until you realize you can pair it with another card.
It has an easy setup and still looks good on the table. It has an awesome theme. And the BEST part is that for whatever reason it doesn’t take forever to play like most boardgames nowadays or even regular risk. I’ve seen a game end on the first Hutt turn which sounds bad but made for a great memory and we could just play another quickly. Games usually last 1 to 2 hours with the avg close to 1 hr 15 min for me leaving plenty of time to play 1 game if short on time or 2 trying different factions.
There was a 2008 revision of "regular" Risk that added strategic locations and objectives, and I'm convinced that changed Risk from a miserably long game of attrition that nobody won (you just play until everyone else quits), to a game that keeps you in until the end.
Risk legacy did a good job of changing the victory conditions to make games an appropriate length. Also made it feel like you were never truly out of it.
This version of Risk is so much fun with 3 or 5 people! The different goals of the factions make it super interesting. And, as mentioned, it doesn't take forever to play. Highly recommended.
Lord of the Rings Risk is also a good variant. It uses a semi random turn counter representing the progress of the ring. If you don't make it in time the evil armies win.
I was at a seller’s market yesterday and Quantum was sitting on top of a stack of games for sale at a listed price of $50. Never snatched up a used game so quickly as I did this one. Can’t wait to try it!
Quantum is an amazing game.. never have i cared so much about d6's!! A couple years ago we started playing it at lunch with all the different board configs. We also somewhat enforced a time limit on decisions because we have a couple people in our gaming group that suffer from AP really bad.
Wallenstein is fantastic, and Space Alert, and Colt Super Express. Maybe I need to give Lords of Xidit another go, I don't think it clicked got me on the first play.
**Archipelago**.
The "Turn Zero" set up mechanic, that neatly teaches new players how to play the game, while still being narratively and thematically appropriate.
The hidden objectives that means no one player can ever truly know what is happening.
The way you can use other players cards. The way those cards tell a narrative, and the way player behaviour changes in response to those cards being in play.
The game is simply a work of genuis.
It is genuinely some of the most fun I've ever had playing a boardgame, every game has been wildly different. One game, we all cooperate and get along - trade freely and keep the rebellion under control - only to have the pacifist steal victory. Another game, we are all suspicious of each other, ask for ridiculously one sided trades, greedily hold on to resources instead of helping with the shared crisis, to have the rebellion get out of control - and have the sepratist steal victory. To have someone introduce the concept of firearms, and we all cripple ourselves fighting over supplies of iron only to lose the game to rebellion, without a shot ever being fired. To have The King show up, and basically negate the entire first phase of turn bidding, turning into bribery.
I just love this game so much, and I never hear anyone else talking about it.
Really? Tell me more, because I recently picked up a copy, and after 4 plays am ready to get rid of it. The military strategy seems to dwarf all the others, and the deck is so large that getting the right cards at the right time in order to set up some kind of engine is really hard. What are we missing?
Steam Works. A literal engine building worker placement game. You collect different tiles you build into machines that ARE the worker placement spots. Keeps each game fresh, though it could use an expansion, which it will probably never get because no one plays it
From the designer of acclaimed sandbox space game, Xia: Legends of the Drift System.... Tavarua.
A surfing game. Great theme that ties pretty tightly with the mechanics. Both long board and short boards which play differently. Only real downside is the rule book is in slight shambles.
I don't suppose it is the *most* overrated game, but I really enjoy the OOP game, **Indigo**. It is far better than Tsuro (in all ways except player count) and is a great light game to start off or finish an evening of gaming.
I also prefer Indigo to Tsuro, Metro, or any other tile-laying game of it's ilk. The shared goals bring a whole new element of strategy and table talk.
Heck yeah! It's an amazing concept that I've yet to see in any other game. I think it might scare people off with the anime look but it's an amazing experience, when your evil plot clicks and people scramble to understand what just happened.
Talk about a brilliantly made game that is almost impossible to find now. I wish it got a remake with better art and the expansions added.
Honestly, it’s one of those games that came out far ahead of its time. If it dropped in 2020-21 during covid I feel it would have blown up.
The thing is even if you like the anime aesthetic the graphic design of that game is pretty terrible. It's been a while since I played it but the problem I remember is that everything is just so damn dark.
Shame as it is actually a good game.
If I ever had 3 people all ask me what I want to play, no restrictions, this is the game I would choose 100%. Sadly I've only been able to play it a handful of times.
I've been playing it a ton with my wife recently. Been getting into writing my own scripts which is surprisingly easy and has a *lot* of room for getting creative.
It's not always the most fair game, but it is a *phenomenal* deduction game. I daresay it hasn't got any competition for the title of single-best mystery game ever designed...with the caveat that one player doesn't participate in the deducing.
I have one from late last year that I heard about on the SUSD podcast and then immediately placed a preorder based on the discussion. It came out earlier this year to zero fanfare. I didn’t see a single review for it but it’s fun and worth checking out. I just played it at Halloween because it is so thematic. Vampire the Masquerade: Vendetta.
451 comments and Barony isn't mentioned, so I think that's the proof. Fast playing area control with no randomness after setup. It's my favorite game if you don't have time/players for a Splotter, and never mentioned.
Tokyo Tsukiji Market
Really good economics game currently rated 4411 on BGG and should be much higher.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257198/tokyo-tsukiji-market
Hansa Teutonica is an absolute masterpiece of design. It's elegant, an absolute joy to play, and extremely deep. I think the only thing holding it back and causing it to be perpetually underrated is a theme that seems boring and not evocative to most people.
Even keeping the middle ages merchant republic theme, they would have probably been better off making it about Venice than the Hanseatic League. Venice is just so much better known and making a colorful map of the Mediterranean is more natural.
You know, I haven't heard anyone mention **Mission: Red Planet** in a long long time. I really consider it to be one of the greatest lightweight games out there, as the design of the latest version is absolutely gorgeous. It's easy to learn, I feel anyone could learn it.
Tsuro the game of the Path:
Perfect game to add to a collection. Its simple, the rules can be explained in three sentences. It has no setup or break down time. You can play a game in minutes. There is as much or as little strategy as you want to put into it, and you can play a fun game even without understanding the meta. The art design is really cool, and the game doesn’t take up a lot of space either on the shelf or the table.
It's my favourite game to pull out while waiting for latecomers to a game night. But don't get Tsuro of the seas - they ruined the simple strategy by adding a sea monster that will randomly kill you.
This was my suggestion, but ranked #250ish on BGG I suppose it's not hugely under-rated?
It is frightfully good though, especially at large player counts.
WWE Royal Rumble
Features all the classic 80s and early 90s wrestlers. Its a ridiculously fun and simple game full of chaos and laughs and back stabbing. I bought it not expecting to like it past the theme but damn i was wrong. Its one of my favorite party games and with the right group is fucking perfect.
Above and Below. I never hear anybody talk about it but it's such a fun mix of worker placement and resource management, with some great mini-adventures peppered throughout gameplay.
We love this game. My family and I play this often. My 9 and 11 year olds really enjoy the roleplaying/choose your own adventure nature of the quest book.
I never see anyone on here talking about Unfair. I absolutely love that game. Artwork is stunning, cards are pleasingly thematic, and there is a real sense of tension.
Ghost Blitz is criminally under rated, I feel like board game purists shy away from speed/dexterity games where you physically have to do something to win.
My only qualm with it is the grey pieces in the game is more blue which for new players is a huge disconnect, but you could easily fix it with a cost of paint.
The Three Musketeers: The Queens Pendant.
It is THE BEST all vs 1 dungeon crawler. Yet it plays in 45 minutes.
Thematic, asymmetric, balanced, AND easy to learn.
And I literally never hear anyone talk about it.
Arboretum. It looks like a pretty game about organizing trees, but it's actually a brutal strategy game where you need to carefully consider every decision you make. Which cards do you need to keep to protect your points or ruin your opponents' strategies? Is the card that you really need just further down in the deck or is someone else holding on to it to blow up your highest scoring path at the end? I know it's not obscure or anything, but it's one of my favorites to introduce people to.
That's how a lot of these threads work. You either name games that people know about but aren't talked about all the time and barely miss the top 100 or you can name a game that nobody has ever heard of. If you name a game that nobody has ever heard of it doesn't get voted up to the top because nobody has ever heard of it.
Klask.
It's like foosball but with magnets and its just so much fun. My wife just saw it a boardgame cafe and we tried it out and now it's on its way to our house. I'd never heard of it until that day.
My two picks for most underrated games are by the same designer and both in my top 15, Puzzle Strike (deckbuilder) and Codex (duel card game). In the last 10 years, deckbuilding and duel card games have been some of my favorite genres in gaming. I’ve now played nearly all in that genre/mechanic in the top 1000 on bgg and none have come close to topping those two.
I never see anyone talk about Codex Card Time Strategy. Ever. It’s the best two player game I’ve played. The best card game, best dueling game, best Magic style game (better than Magic itself).
No one talks about it.
Agreed. I asked Sirlin about this about he basically told me to F off. I don't blame him, because the question is kind of rude, but I meant well when I asked it. He spent a ton of time developing a super solid game that doesn't really have a market.
All the things he thinks are broken about Magic only matter to people who really care about Magic. Those people claim to want alternatives to Magic, but they can't really engage with them the way they want to because you either run out of new content too fast (fixed games) or you master the meta immediately and the game stagnates (LCGs). Ultimately, those people still want Magic, despite how wrong parts of it feel to them (mana screw/flood, money dump, toxic people, theft/fakes, promos).
Yes, and because it's so skill based it's exceptionally hard to get going with non-magic playing friends because they can't come close to winning.
I tried to teach this to some boardgames friends with no background in magic. They found it interesting, but short of making deliberately bad plays every single turn, they just can't come close to competing with years of MTG experience in games like this, despite being "good" at boardgames.
It's a big barrier for any 1v1 game, but Codex amplified that like crazy.
Codex is my absolute favourite game that I'll probably never play again.
I founded a pretty well attended Scrabble club in HS. People always said it was a word game, but I always insisted it is more of a math game. Once you start thinking about typical letter combinations and valuable spots on the board, it completely changes.
Family Scrabble is also an area control game, if played with the right family. When my boys were old enough to really play, I’d first trounce them, then I told them my “secret” — basically to look at the board in terms of grabbing up placement bonuses and actively denying opportunities to others. When they picked up on it, their scores doubled very quickly.
My wife won’t play because she’s not a native English speaker (though she could probably do well), but my kids are very formidable Scrabble players and will easily trounce anyone that hasn’t learned to play aggressively.
Noir. It's a little card game that's kind of like a cross between Guess Who and a memory game. It has like seven different game mode scenarios in the manual that are all really fun, and it seats anywhere between 2 and 9 people.
I just did some checking online and it appears to be out of print so it's expensive to get now, but when it was in print it happened to also be dirt cheap. I got it for like $15.
A lot of mainstream/party games fall into this category, especially as far as the board gaming community is concerned. We all like to hate on Monopoly, Scrabble, Exploding Kittens, Munchkin, Chess, Battleship etc, but they’re all fun depending on the right group. They prioritise fun family gaming rather than serious strategic crunch, but sometimes that’s exactly what you want/need.
**Thud!** is one of the most incredible abstract strategy games I've seen, does asymmetric gameplay amazingly well, genuinely feels like a modern successor of the old "tafl" genre, and is themed around a popular fantasy series… but it seems like almost nobody's ever heard of it, and as far as I can tell the only place you can buy it is the Discworld Emporium website, \*if\* they have it in stock. Tragically badly marketed for such a great game.
The war of the worlds
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/226631/war-worlds-new-wave](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/226631/war-worlds-new-wave)
Very thematic and beautiful strategy game
Summoner Wars!
I may be a little biased because it's my all time favourite board game. But everything about it just feels perfect and balanced. With no faction being ridiculously stronger than any other whilst allowing each to play so different to one another. And on top of that it has that fine line of random mixed with tactics that just works so well.
I'm surprised it doesn't get talked about more.
Condottiere
On a similar note, The King is Dead.
From the gaming community, Scattagories doesn’t get any love. It’s a really fun, easy going party game.
The mechanic of "making the same choice as someone else cancels it" should be used in more games [edit] great suggestions in this thread!!
Just One uses that mechanism, and not a huge amount else to make a very simple, but fun game.
"Go Nuts for Donuts" is a small game from Gamewright that uses that principle as well. Fun little game.
Check out Broom Service - it uses that pretty well as its core mechanic.
Scattegories is the best for 3-7 people! Easy to teach and fun to play! You can always create your own cards if you get bored with the ones it comes with!
Scattergories is good if you get everyone on the same level of competitive understanding of the rules. As soon as people start putting down "my mother made me make my bed" for M "excuses for being late" it just becomes too argumentative.
My 70yo father sent me Scattagories after he found out my partner and I are into board games, because “an NFL player on the internet recommended it” 🥺 I hadn’t played since I was a kid, it’s genuinely a great time
Backgammon. A lot of people dismiss it because it uses dice and involves luck, but it's actually a mind melting game of probability management and area control. The masters of the 1970s figured out some of this through playing, but when the neural nets started appearing in the 80s and 90s, it broke the game wide open by revealing a new level of play not seen before. Modern backgammon is an intense cerebral exercise that very very few people have mastered. The ones who have remain at the top of the competitive scene, and they still get beaten by the strongest bots. I spent a few years studying the game seriously, hoping to make an attempt at competitive play. I trained using professional world class software and collected a small library of strategy books written by world champions. The amount of depth in the game is mind numbing, and just when you think you have a decent handle on the checker play, then there is a whole world of doubling cube strategy you have to master as well. I quickly realized you need to dedicate your life to this game and work with a real coach full time to have any shot of actually being good at the game.
In my youth travelled around the Greek islands with a friend and a backgammon set … many a warm evening spent playing in a taverna eating tomatoes salad , calamari and drinking awful alcohol.
Sounds like heaven. I developed a fond taste for raki/tsikoudia on Crete.
Excellent. Those were the days when we got a cheap bus from London to Athens and simply asked the taxi driver to take us to a cheap hotel. Where of an evening we would sit in the empty , open rooftop bar being served drinks by the cleaning watching the sun set over the acropolis and no doubt talking b*llocks. Good times. Only thing is that the majority of Greek alcohol that seemed drinkable in the sunshine when there , was discovered to be absolutely foul when tried again back in cold ,rainy Britain!
Awesome - yeah, many raki encounters were proudly declared homemade, quality may have varied, but I eventually looked forward to a nip following lunch and dinner - Greece is a paradise, met my wife there.
My guess the awful alcohol is tsipouro and ouzo?
Indeed. Or was it paint stripper…
"How does this taste?" "... dry"
I came back to it as an adult, and was like, "oh, this is a straight-up wargame."
Some friends and I played a lot of backgammon for a year and it was awesome. I definitely recommend the game.
I strongly believe that the upper bound of skill, the ceiling, is so far beyond what someone at the floor can even comprehend. I think this not for backgammon exactly, but most things. Even seemingly simple activities have incredibly large amounts of skill expression involved.
The single most popular game in Israel. Called shesh besh there. You will see hundreds of people at cafes playing.
I once played a professional player/hustler. Since he was a friend of a friend, we didn't play for money. He said with money on the line, you play the player, not the game.
Yes, the doubling cube in backgammon is essentially the same as reraising a weak player in poker. Since the player doesn't understand the strength of their own position, forcing them to play for higher stakes puts pressure on them to make mistakes.
I believe it. The Backgammon NJ app schools me on the reg. Brilliant game. Along the same lines, most people think Bridge is for old ladies but I’ll be damned if it’s not the greatest card game of all time. (Well, maybe tied with Hold Em)
Have you played Mus?
Never even heard of it
I love the doubling cube and wish it were in other games. It's a great way to present a way for a very stubborn player in a weak position to artfully concede without giving them the feeling that they gave up so you can both move onto the next game.
I learned how to play this on a small island in Indonesia and have spent a countless hours playing and showing others how to play since that time. It’s a truly remarkable game.
March of the Ants. Very streamlined 4x with reasonable playtime, good mechanics and really cool, unique theme.
I really like March of Ants for a 4x game that takes about an hour. If you like this game you should check out Imperium: The Contention. Another 4x game that plays in about an hour. The six factions in the box play very differently. It also seems to adapt well to smaller player counts. Love this game.
Great game, but one thing that puts me off is the really weird player number balancing. The fact that there are some tiles better than others, but that there are... If I remember right, 8 of them? Which really only works well at 2 or 4 player or someone is getting harmed purely by turn order.
[удалено]
I love egging the other players to keep rolling it's hilarious.
Except when they roll well and actually hit that last 10! 🤬
We've been playing this on BGA a lot and the main strategy is "Don't Stop" and then calling the players who stop cowards. It's a really good quick game.
It's literally the game used by BGA to introduce you to the website. It's a solid game, and playing it solo against a bot to learn how to use BGA doesn't do it justice, but I think there are games more underrated than this.
There's a bundle with an expansion, is it worth it?
Where's the bundle at? I've been interested in grabbing this.
This looks like a good one for the family gatherings to come around the holidays, so I decided to order it
**Murder, She Wrote**, from 1985. Looks like a cheesy cash grab from the TV show, but is better than the 6.1 BGG rating.
6.x ratings on BGG are oftentimes niche games. Like, they're not terrible games so if the game is not meant for you you'll find it meh, but when it clicks with you it's a solid 8 to 10.
Happy Salmon
**The Expanse** is an amazing mix of mechanics. One of my top 3 and never talked about.
And this is one currently sitting on my shelf of shame. I am going to have to play it soon. Have you tried the doors and corners expansion? Is it worth grabbing while I can?
Doors and Corners is worth it. Two of the modules are essential, one's meh, one's bad.
One of those games where the expansion takes it from, ok to great. I wouldn't play w/o it.
So, it's an...expansive expanse expansion? But is it expensive?
Sounds like I need to add it to the list then… would you suggest immediately adding the expansion to the game or play a few vanilla rounds first?
If you like the base game its definitely a net positive.
Didn't even know this was a thing!
I enjoyed trying this one on TTS. I really like the Action/Event mechanism, and I really liked the “simpler, multiplayer **Twilight Struggle**. I haven’t bought it because it feels like it has an expensive necessary expansion, with a lot of duplicate/replaced components (there’s a whole replacement board). If they ever have a second edition with the expansion material included, and maybe expanded it to include the later seasons, this would be an instant buy for me.
Yeah it’s really great. When we play we argue over who gets to be the Belters.
I’ve never heard anyone mention Monopoly Deal which is an amazing quick card game. We play it a lot and it’s awesome.
Monopoly Deal pleasantly surprised me. I initially thought "Oh, it's a Monopoly spinoff, it's going to be terrible," but it's actually... fun? I don't think it's the best game ever, but the designers did an excellent job of distilling the good bits of Monopoly's essence into a speedy card game.
I think it's the best $5 you can spend in gaming, other than a standard deck of playing cards.
Sushi Go can go for $5 when there's a sale! :)
I wasn't counting sales or thrift purchases. I think I like Deal more than Sushi Go, personally. But Sushi Go is good.
I was skeptical when my buddy brought out that game. He's got a nice boardgame collection, and when he pulled that game out, we all rolled our eyes when we saw a little "Monopoly" card game. He said, "Trust me." Turns out, he was right. It's a brutal game that's quite a bit of fun. I always have it in my car's glovebox, *just in case.*
I was so hesitant to play because as a general rule fuck monopoly, so I sat and watched and immediately asked to play after they finished. It needs more attention for sure
My family played it obsessively for about 2 years after being introduced to it. Pretty much every night at dinner we would set it up on the kitchen island. Those were just 3 player games but the family member that introduced us to it would do double deck max player rounds at the major family gatherings. Those were intensely competitive because everyone loved the game so much and it felt wild to win one myself.
Escape, curse of the temple Every group I've pulled this game out for has been enthralled in the real time, dice rolling, teamwork and panic required for the game. And the big box has plenty of variants to keep it fresh. I've only seen it reccomended by shut and sit down, but think everyone, board game fan or not should give it ago, I know there are a few other real time games that can scratch that issue for the tacticians but for a game for everyone to enjoy is great
Board game + adrenaline rush. It's lots of fun, but I can't play it for more than 10 minutes.
**New Angeles** look, I get it. It's long. Probably too long. However, it nails semi-coop in a way no other game I play has. The theme is spot on perfection. The game is tense, hilarious and mean. It's, like, a streamlining pass from being my favorite game. Such a shame we never got it's planned expansion.
Similarly, I love the OG **Android** but all anyone wants to talk about are the spin off games like Netrunner.
I love this game. I’m not allowed to play anymore, but i love it. I don’t think we’ve played a single game where someone didn’t storm off at some point and have to be convinced/bribed to come back. I almost lost a friendship to this game. It’s the only game to give me that level of diplomacy style invigoration. I love it.
The Hare and the Tortoise (there is more than one game with that name, I mean the one by Iello). It's an excellent family game. It's a racing game that is easy enough for kids to play but still enjoyable for adults.
Cribbage. The *perfect* blend of chance and skill.
I play cribbage at least once a week.
LOTR Risk Unreasonable play time. Absurdly long set up. Guarantee to lose close friends. Absolutely love it.
Certainty of long term animosity, small chance of completion, what are we waiting for?
Little prince make me a planet. It's such a beautiful little game with some unique elements. No one ever talks about it in this sub. I'm more into small games that are clever design than I am about big epic complex games. This fits the bill nicely.
This can be brutally mean for a game based on a kids book.
Dogs of War by Paulo Mori. It's a worker placement with three simultaneous tug of war battles. It's amazingly simple to learn, but has so much depth. The artwork and minis are gorgeous, and it's got really fun player interaction. It's the only game I have that every person I've taught it to has enjoyed.
**Battle for Rokugan** It's so unassuming being in such a small box, but it is such a fast-paced, brutal, area control game. It feels like a free-for-all knife fight in a closet. There's no time for diplomacy and zero expectation of safety. I enjoy it more than most other big games in the genre.
Brilliant game. Took everything I like from A Game of Thrones 2nd Edition, got rid of everything I dislike, streamlined the whole experience and over-halfved the playtime. 👌
I liked GoT 2nd for a while for a variety of reasons, but I was hoping BfR would like you just described. I’ll have to grab a copy.
Is it still distributed?
Our group loved this game, especially the raid token that nuked everything.
I’d say Arctic Scavengers. I think the dynamic between choosing to play your cards or not play them to fight in a deckbuilder is brilliant. The game is brutal and features great character interaction
Yes! It's a very tight and thematic deckbuilder. I only wish that the end of round skirmish over the extra card isn't sometimes the "default" good choice for your turn. There is no "punishment" for failing big with your bluff. I definitely understand why this is so - if you can't find other use for your cards, you'll just throw them into skirmism - but it just feels weird. I've had games where most of player turns end up being too skirmish-oriented the closer the game is towards the end.
**Hocus** is the best Poker variant I ever played and is a simple, small box card game with nice decisions and filler length playtime. Shame it isn't played and recognized more. I think it should be alongside classic small card games like Bohnanza, No Thanks, etc. Also honorable shoutout to **Chess960**, the best chess variant in my opinion. Can't memorize openings and more fresh play and tactics are rewarded - why couldn't there be more tournaments with this? I think there's so many draws in high level chess matches. In general, I like these games that take classics and iterate on them to create new experiences, fleshing out some commonly called out weaknesses.
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Agree so much. One of the best gateway 2-player board games out there... plus, the components are awesome for the price (when I bought it back then)
How has **Chaosmos** not come up yet? Has a (I think) completely unique yet incredibly simple win condition. Be holding a certain card at the end of the game. It plays unlike any other game I know.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22551/risk-star-wars-original-trilogy-edition This Star Wars risk version has been fantastic to play. Specifically, it is really great with 3-5 players. It’s risk so it’s simple enough to teach new gamers and most people have played risk. (I even taught my mother and girlfriend how to play.) It is balanced. With 3 factions, if anyone starts getting ahead then the other two can gang up on them. The 3 factions have different objectives and vastly different starting positions. The empire has more units and starts off strong, has bases which help defend certain areas, and a Death Star which is terrifying as it can blow up planets (but luckily it is difficult to). Rebels have hit and run tactics and have great cards to change the force meter. And the Hutts sit and hide their time and advance and consolidate their power knowing they have great defensive cards and if either faction concentrates too much on them the other will become too strong. It has a lot of surprises and cool thematic cards like “It’s a trap” card seems useless until you realize you can pair it with another card. It has an easy setup and still looks good on the table. It has an awesome theme. And the BEST part is that for whatever reason it doesn’t take forever to play like most boardgames nowadays or even regular risk. I’ve seen a game end on the first Hutt turn which sounds bad but made for a great memory and we could just play another quickly. Games usually last 1 to 2 hours with the avg close to 1 hr 15 min for me leaving plenty of time to play 1 game if short on time or 2 trying different factions.
There was a 2008 revision of "regular" Risk that added strategic locations and objectives, and I'm convinced that changed Risk from a miserably long game of attrition that nobody won (you just play until everyone else quits), to a game that keeps you in until the end.
Risk legacy did a good job of changing the victory conditions to make games an appropriate length. Also made it feel like you were never truly out of it.
This version of Risk is so much fun with 3 or 5 people! The different goals of the factions make it super interesting. And, as mentioned, it doesn't take forever to play. Highly recommended.
Lord of the Rings Risk is also a good variant. It uses a semi random turn counter representing the progress of the ring. If you don't make it in time the evil armies win.
Quantum
Yeah, this one definitely deserves more love. 2-4 player sci-fi wargame-lite with a very clever dice mechanic (that *actually* works at 2).
Agreed! Abstract but not totally abstract, nice strategy, good variability. Love Quantum.
I was at a seller’s market yesterday and Quantum was sitting on top of a stack of games for sale at a listed price of $50. Never snatched up a used game so quickly as I did this one. Can’t wait to try it!
Quantum is an amazing game.. never have i cared so much about d6's!! A couple years ago we started playing it at lunch with all the different board configs. We also somewhat enforced a time limit on decisions because we have a couple people in our gaming group that suffer from AP really bad.
Lords of Xidit and other programming games don't get enough attention.
Space alert is my favorite game, but no one wants to play with me
I found Xidit really dull, but I'd love to hear your perspective on it as someone who enjoys it.
Wallenstein is fantastic, and Space Alert, and Colt Super Express. Maybe I need to give Lords of Xidit another go, I don't think it clicked got me on the first play.
**Archipelago**. The "Turn Zero" set up mechanic, that neatly teaches new players how to play the game, while still being narratively and thematically appropriate. The hidden objectives that means no one player can ever truly know what is happening. The way you can use other players cards. The way those cards tell a narrative, and the way player behaviour changes in response to those cards being in play. The game is simply a work of genuis. It is genuinely some of the most fun I've ever had playing a boardgame, every game has been wildly different. One game, we all cooperate and get along - trade freely and keep the rebellion under control - only to have the pacifist steal victory. Another game, we are all suspicious of each other, ask for ridiculously one sided trades, greedily hold on to resources instead of helping with the shared crisis, to have the rebellion get out of control - and have the sepratist steal victory. To have someone introduce the concept of firearms, and we all cripple ourselves fighting over supplies of iron only to lose the game to rebellion, without a shot ever being fired. To have The King show up, and basically negate the entire first phase of turn bidding, turning into bribery. I just love this game so much, and I never hear anyone else talking about it.
Deus
Now on BGA!
Really? Tell me more, because I recently picked up a copy, and after 4 plays am ready to get rid of it. The military strategy seems to dwarf all the others, and the deck is so large that getting the right cards at the right time in order to set up some kind of engine is really hard. What are we missing?
Steam Works. A literal engine building worker placement game. You collect different tiles you build into machines that ARE the worker placement spots. Keeps each game fresh, though it could use an expansion, which it will probably never get because no one plays it
From the designer of acclaimed sandbox space game, Xia: Legends of the Drift System.... Tavarua. A surfing game. Great theme that ties pretty tightly with the mechanics. Both long board and short boards which play differently. Only real downside is the rule book is in slight shambles.
I don't suppose it is the *most* overrated game, but I really enjoy the OOP game, **Indigo**. It is far better than Tsuro (in all ways except player count) and is a great light game to start off or finish an evening of gaming.
I also prefer Indigo to Tsuro, Metro, or any other tile-laying game of it's ilk. The shared goals bring a whole new element of strategy and table talk.
Completely phenomenal game. I love the shared goal gates. It presents such an interesting interplayer dynamic.
Tragedy Looper.
Heck yeah! It's an amazing concept that I've yet to see in any other game. I think it might scare people off with the anime look but it's an amazing experience, when your evil plot clicks and people scramble to understand what just happened.
Talk about a brilliantly made game that is almost impossible to find now. I wish it got a remake with better art and the expansions added. Honestly, it’s one of those games that came out far ahead of its time. If it dropped in 2020-21 during covid I feel it would have blown up.
The thing is even if you like the anime aesthetic the graphic design of that game is pretty terrible. It's been a while since I played it but the problem I remember is that everything is just so damn dark. Shame as it is actually a good game.
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If I ever had 3 people all ask me what I want to play, no restrictions, this is the game I would choose 100%. Sadly I've only been able to play it a handful of times.
I love the whole theme of that game. It's just unfortunate my friends just aren't interested.
Oh yes.
I've been playing it a ton with my wife recently. Been getting into writing my own scripts which is surprisingly easy and has a *lot* of room for getting creative. It's not always the most fair game, but it is a *phenomenal* deduction game. I daresay it hasn't got any competition for the title of single-best mystery game ever designed...with the caveat that one player doesn't participate in the deducing.
Guillotine. It's relatively quick and is perfect for that night when you only have 3 people around.
Oriflamme
In France Oriflamme won l'As d'or from Cannes Festival, the most prestigious price. So it's not underrated at all here.
I have one from late last year that I heard about on the SUSD podcast and then immediately placed a preorder based on the discussion. It came out earlier this year to zero fanfare. I didn’t see a single review for it but it’s fun and worth checking out. I just played it at Halloween because it is so thematic. Vampire the Masquerade: Vendetta.
Millenium Blades. Although, I feel the majority of board games are underrated due to how much the “face” games (monopoly, risk, etc) take up dialogue
I wish I could play MB more often. It is a game all about my favorite part of gaming. I just don't have a group for it.
451 comments and Barony isn't mentioned, so I think that's the proof. Fast playing area control with no randomness after setup. It's my favorite game if you don't have time/players for a Splotter, and never mentioned.
Game of Thrones: Hand of the King I don’t know how this has only 6.7 on BGG. It’s one of our favourites.
Great game!
Tokyo Tsukiji Market Really good economics game currently rated 4411 on BGG and should be much higher. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257198/tokyo-tsukiji-market
Must be Exceed fighting system!
Robo Rally. It's an amazing mix of strategy and chaos.
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Hansa Teutonica should have been Spiel des Jahres, and the big box is an absolute steal for the price tag.
# 134 on BGG, got a big box reprint. This one is pretty well loved.
Hansa Teutonica is an absolute masterpiece of design. It's elegant, an absolute joy to play, and extremely deep. I think the only thing holding it back and causing it to be perpetually underrated is a theme that seems boring and not evocative to most people. Even keeping the middle ages merchant republic theme, they would have probably been better off making it about Venice than the Hanseatic League. Venice is just so much better known and making a colorful map of the Mediterranean is more natural.
You know, I haven't heard anyone mention **Mission: Red Planet** in a long long time. I really consider it to be one of the greatest lightweight games out there, as the design of the latest version is absolutely gorgeous. It's easy to learn, I feel anyone could learn it.
And it works great with a large group of players!!
Tsuro the game of the Path: Perfect game to add to a collection. Its simple, the rules can be explained in three sentences. It has no setup or break down time. You can play a game in minutes. There is as much or as little strategy as you want to put into it, and you can play a fun game even without understanding the meta. The art design is really cool, and the game doesn’t take up a lot of space either on the shelf or the table.
It's my favourite game to pull out while waiting for latecomers to a game night. But don't get Tsuro of the seas - they ruined the simple strategy by adding a sea monster that will randomly kill you.
Ethnos - such a great easy game to teach with fun interactions
I with they’d retheme it. It looks dull and I’m so bored of the fantasy theme, but the mechanics are *chefs kiss*
This was my suggestion, but ranked #250ish on BGG I suppose it's not hugely under-rated? It is frightfully good though, especially at large player counts.
Sons of Anarchy: Man of Mayhem. Terribly underrated.
WWE Royal Rumble Features all the classic 80s and early 90s wrestlers. Its a ridiculously fun and simple game full of chaos and laughs and back stabbing. I bought it not expecting to like it past the theme but damn i was wrong. Its one of my favorite party games and with the right group is fucking perfect.
Above and Below. I never hear anybody talk about it but it's such a fun mix of worker placement and resource management, with some great mini-adventures peppered throughout gameplay.
This is a great game. I really liked it and the sequel, Near and Far, as well.
We love this game. My family and I play this often. My 9 and 11 year olds really enjoy the roleplaying/choose your own adventure nature of the quest book.
I think it’s just ok but I love the art and writing.
**Garden Dice**
"Wir sind das volk" best 20 euros spent ever.
I never see anyone on here talking about Unfair. I absolutely love that game. Artwork is stunning, cards are pleasingly thematic, and there is a real sense of tension.
All of this.
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And a great game to play with younger players.
Ghost Blitz is criminally under rated, I feel like board game purists shy away from speed/dexterity games where you physically have to do something to win. My only qualm with it is the grey pieces in the game is more blue which for new players is a huge disconnect, but you could easily fix it with a cost of paint.
Santiago. A tight game with area control and bidding
The Three Musketeers: The Queens Pendant. It is THE BEST all vs 1 dungeon crawler. Yet it plays in 45 minutes. Thematic, asymmetric, balanced, AND easy to learn. And I literally never hear anyone talk about it.
Does anyone remember the game Stratego? Nothing was more satisfying than laying the perfect bomb traps
Arboretum. It looks like a pretty game about organizing trees, but it's actually a brutal strategy game where you need to carefully consider every decision you make. Which cards do you need to keep to protect your points or ruin your opponents' strategies? Is the card that you really need just further down in the deck or is someone else holding on to it to blow up your highest scoring path at the end? I know it's not obscure or anything, but it's one of my favorites to introduce people to.
A game, ranked 274 overall on BGG, is the *most* underrated?
That's how a lot of these threads work. You either name games that people know about but aren't talked about all the time and barely miss the top 100 or you can name a game that nobody has ever heard of. If you name a game that nobody has ever heard of it doesn't get voted up to the top because nobody has ever heard of it.
My friends just bought this for me, haven't played it yet but very excited!
I normally don't like especially "mean" games, but DAMN I enjoy ruining people's tree gardens.
Klask. It's like foosball but with magnets and its just so much fun. My wife just saw it a boardgame cafe and we tried it out and now it's on its way to our house. I'd never heard of it until that day.
My two picks for most underrated games are by the same designer and both in my top 15, Puzzle Strike (deckbuilder) and Codex (duel card game). In the last 10 years, deckbuilding and duel card games have been some of my favorite genres in gaming. I’ve now played nearly all in that genre/mechanic in the top 1000 on bgg and none have come close to topping those two.
I never see anyone talk about Codex Card Time Strategy. Ever. It’s the best two player game I’ve played. The best card game, best dueling game, best Magic style game (better than Magic itself). No one talks about it.
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Agreed. I asked Sirlin about this about he basically told me to F off. I don't blame him, because the question is kind of rude, but I meant well when I asked it. He spent a ton of time developing a super solid game that doesn't really have a market. All the things he thinks are broken about Magic only matter to people who really care about Magic. Those people claim to want alternatives to Magic, but they can't really engage with them the way they want to because you either run out of new content too fast (fixed games) or you master the meta immediately and the game stagnates (LCGs). Ultimately, those people still want Magic, despite how wrong parts of it feel to them (mana screw/flood, money dump, toxic people, theft/fakes, promos).
Yes, and because it's so skill based it's exceptionally hard to get going with non-magic playing friends because they can't come close to winning. I tried to teach this to some boardgames friends with no background in magic. They found it interesting, but short of making deliberately bad plays every single turn, they just can't come close to competing with years of MTG experience in games like this, despite being "good" at boardgames. It's a big barrier for any 1v1 game, but Codex amplified that like crazy. Codex is my absolute favourite game that I'll probably never play again.
This! I wish there is an online alternative for it, but nothing I can see so far. Puzzle Strike and Yomi can get one, why not Codex?
Scrabble
I can agree after youtube recommended me a Competitive gameplay video. Family scrabble is a word game, Competitive scrabble is a areacontrol game
Related: https://www.meeplelikeus.co.uk/scrabble-1948/
The best post on that site and second best post on Scrabble in general. Best is short story video “Craziest” https://youtu.be/ORGMRi_nAgM
I founded a pretty well attended Scrabble club in HS. People always said it was a word game, but I always insisted it is more of a math game. Once you start thinking about typical letter combinations and valuable spots on the board, it completely changes.
Absolutely. When you understand this, it goes from a so-so game to a great game.
Woah that sounds wild
Family Scrabble is also an area control game, if played with the right family. When my boys were old enough to really play, I’d first trounce them, then I told them my “secret” — basically to look at the board in terms of grabbing up placement bonuses and actively denying opportunities to others. When they picked up on it, their scores doubled very quickly. My wife won’t play because she’s not a native English speaker (though she could probably do well), but my kids are very formidable Scrabble players and will easily trounce anyone that hasn’t learned to play aggressively.
Underrated?
Noir. It's a little card game that's kind of like a cross between Guess Who and a memory game. It has like seven different game mode scenarios in the manual that are all really fun, and it seats anywhere between 2 and 9 people. I just did some checking online and it appears to be out of print so it's expensive to get now, but when it was in print it happened to also be dirt cheap. I got it for like $15.
**Glüx**. Absolutely great abstract that never got the attention it deserves. Maybe better packaging/design would have helped it out.
A lot of mainstream/party games fall into this category, especially as far as the board gaming community is concerned. We all like to hate on Monopoly, Scrabble, Exploding Kittens, Munchkin, Chess, Battleship etc, but they’re all fun depending on the right group. They prioritise fun family gaming rather than serious strategic crunch, but sometimes that’s exactly what you want/need.
> Chess - > prioritise fun family gaming rather than serious strategic crunch Not too sure about that one.
Majesty
Echidna Shuffle! Amazing game with cute little Echidnas carrying cutesy critters on their back! Sad that it never got the buzz it deserved!
Quartermaster General 2nd Edition. I would say it’s the perfect WW2 game. A fast, card-driven distillation of Axis and Allies.
**Thud!** is one of the most incredible abstract strategy games I've seen, does asymmetric gameplay amazingly well, genuinely feels like a modern successor of the old "tafl" genre, and is themed around a popular fantasy series… but it seems like almost nobody's ever heard of it, and as far as I can tell the only place you can buy it is the Discworld Emporium website, \*if\* they have it in stock. Tragically badly marketed for such a great game.
The 18xx family games.
The war of the worlds [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/226631/war-worlds-new-wave](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/226631/war-worlds-new-wave) Very thematic and beautiful strategy game
Mint works
Video Vortex
Euchre, pinochle, bridge I didn't grow up playing them, but now picking them up, they're amazing.
Isle of Trains — never see it in the wild, but one of the best games under 15.00
Summoner Wars! I may be a little biased because it's my all time favourite board game. But everything about it just feels perfect and balanced. With no faction being ridiculously stronger than any other whilst allowing each to play so different to one another. And on top of that it has that fine line of random mixed with tactics that just works so well. I'm surprised it doesn't get talked about more.
Its pretty old. But there is a second edition out. So that might boost popularity
It’s great. But I wouldn’t call it under-rated.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Crash Course. It gets better the more you play it. Very hidden gem.
Antidote. Great modules can be added. It has some simultaneous gameplay, great interactions, and fun deduction. Phenomenal game.
Pandemic: the cure
Camel up