Feel free to list a few video games from different genres. Best is definitely subjective and I’m sure there are many “Best” games for various categories.
Half Life: Alyx for example is widely considered the “Best” VR game. Many would agree it’s the best Action VR game, but it wouldn’t be the “Best” for puzzles.
To make it easier I’ll list the types of Genres for Video Games from Wikipedia. Please do give suggestions for some of the highest quality games you’ve played from various categories:
- Action: Platform games, shooter, fighting, survival, etc
- Action-Adventure: Survival horror
- Adventure: Interactive, real time, 3d, text adventures, etc
- Puzzle: Exploration, trial and error, breakout, logical games, etc
- Role-playing: Action RPG, MMORPG, tactical, sandbox, etc
- Simulation: Management, life simulation, vehicle simulation, etc
- Strategy: Real time, turn based, wargame, grand strategy, etc
- Sports: Racing, competitive, sports games, etc
- MMO: Massively multiplayer online game
- Openworld: Sandbox, creative, open world, etc
Note: Non-exhaustive category list. There are more such as card games, board games, etc. Please check the wiki link above for more categories to get ideas for the “best” games.
I personally would recommend Subnautica (Open World), Half Life: Alyx (VR Action-Adventure), The Witcher 3 (Role-playing), Black Mesa (Action), Titanfall 2 (Action), Portal 2 (Puzzle), Battlebit (MMO/Action), and Half Life 3 (Fictional Game).
Outer Wilds
It’s both a piece of art and a thoroughly enjoyable piece of playable entertainment.
The amount of attention to detail in that game is absolutely insane.
I’ve yet to play it, but I’ve only heard good things! Looking to purchase it next time it goes on sale
It truly is a masterpiece. And one that you only ever truly experience in it’s purest form once.
All the “gates” are knowledge based. So you’re exploring and learning and pulling on threads to various pieces of information and as you do you’re piecing together both the narrative but also the giant puzzle that is the solar system.
Once you know something… you know it. And so there’s always, with good reason, a dire warning to avoid spoilers because you can’t unlearn something.
There’s also a beautifully woven story and the feelings I felt playing that was something else.
I highly recommend it. It’s so masterfully done. I’ve got a list of people I plan on sharing it with when it next goes on sale it’s that good.
Yeah, the person who initially recommended me the game told me to not even watch the trailer. I watched it anyway, but the point he was making was to enjoy the game the first time, as you won’t get that same experience again.
I guess you could say the same applies to every story game, but from what I’ve heard, it applies so much more so to Outer Wilds. Wish me luck on my adventure, I look forward to it!
It’s probably the best game of this decade for me.
Just completed this one myself - and yeah, amazing. I am sooo happy I went in not knowing anything. Figuring out what needs figuring out is half the fun.
Chrono Trigger
The story is great. The music is timeless. The replay-ability of the game is off the charts. You can change the combat style to be time-based instead of turn-based.
Sekiro (RPG).
It’s not necessarily representative of RPGs as a whole, but man, I have never played a game that felt so polished. The combat is immaculate, the levels are beautiful, and more subtly, the power scaling is really well tuned. Because it’s not open world, they were able to hand tune the enemies’ difficulty more closely to match your own progression, and for me, it resulted in fights that always felt challenging but fair.
Its not an rpg
Its just an action game
Amazing combat and bosses though
Seconding this. It’s phenomenal.
I’ve never played a game that felt so challenging while still being fair all the way to the end.
Thirding
The best way to describe it is playing a rhythm game using swords. The swordplay really made you feel like a samurai.
I both love this game and hate that I could never beat the final boss. Even after defeating the “harder” optional stuff. My Dark Souls training is punished hard by the combat system. (I love to hate it though - just so satisfying.)
Hades is perfect. Every single pillar of that game supports each other.
It’s one of the few games I’ve sunk triple-digit hours into. Such a good game.
I had to stop playing it because of the faux “British” accent. It goes right through me. Feels like such a stupid thing to be put off by but it’s just so jarringly unnatural, it’s horribly off-putting.
The way he says “mate”… omg
I remember looking up who did the voice for Zagreus or whatever his name is, and the dude is clearly one of the big dicks at Supergiant. Think he played some major part in the sound design for Bastion or something. Can’t remember.
Anyway, I get the feeling he is senior enough when it comes to sound stuff that he was basically able to decide he would be the voice of the MC and then proceeded to go full Dick Van Dyke without people feeling able to criticize it.
Don’t know if it’s because I’m from the UK that I find it so uncanny and awful, or if it’s just me in particular but it’s probably the most random thing that’s ever completely ruined a (otherwise great) game for me
For me it’s Half Life 2 because I have such a specific and vivid memory of playing it the first time in my rainy London flat in 2004.
It was this exact moment when I had the experience, for the first time in my life, that:
I’m in this world, I am a part of the game.
Funny OP calls out Half Life: Alyx as one of the best VR games, when VR is all about being ‘immersive’.
But for me that moment 16 years earlier will always be the moment I first experienced being ‘immersed’ in a video game.
Half Life is awesome! If I had to choose from all the games I’ve played, the half life series has to be best in my opinion. There are so many small details and world building elements in each half life game that it really does make it feel like you are in the game. And then there is Half Life: Alyx…
It was so immersive, I smashed by head against the wall trying to run away from something lol
Warning Half Life: Alyx Spoilers. Do not read it unless you have played this game. It is a once in a lifetime experience.
I had that moment in Half Life Alyx: at Jeff. No game makes you feel genuine fear as that level did. You felt as you were there physically trying from death. Best gaming experience ever!
For me, it was the first dark section of the game: using the little wrist flashlight, checking out every little noise, trying to keep the headcrabs visible so I could shoot them…
And then I had to reload, and as I reached the hand holding my light behind my head to get the magazine, I suddenly realized the cruelty of them putting the flashlight on your ammo hand.
In terms of games that were so advanced they almost feel like they were made by time travellers:
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Elite (1984) - procedural open world space sim
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Ultima VII (1992) - full NPC schedules, open world and day/night system so you could rob stores at nights, follow people, etc. and awesome exploration. In 1992!
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X-COM (1994) - a voxel-based LOS system, destructible environment, z-levels, natural elevation on terrain (deforming the isometric grid), reaction fire, etc.
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Daggerfall (1996) - a faction system, procedurally generated areas and quests, a lot of options to get to different areas (climbing, levitation, etc.)
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Thief (1998) - a full sound simulation with different materials having different properties, the ability to extinguish torches (dynamic lighting!) and cover metal surfaces, a light system for visibility too (now commonplace).
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Baldur’s Gate (1998) - a semi open-world AD&D2e implementation - with co-op multiplayer! (most modern games don’t manage this)
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Deus Ex (2000) - a branching FPS/RPG campaign where choices matter with a basic stealth system and lots of approaches to each level. It was basically a completely modern game out of nowhere in 2000.
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Runescape (2001) - one of the first major graphical MMORPGs with a full player economy.
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Morrowind (2002) - a fully 3D open world with a lot of options for magic (including custom magic) and exploration.
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Hitman 2 (2002) - first stealth-focussed game with a full disguise system, map, etc.
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Oblivion (2006) - like Morrowind but with some NPC schedules (like Ultima VII), a stealth system (based on Thief) and Havok physics based traps.
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Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) - fully destructible buildings and environments in an open-world campaign.
Those are the ones that really stick out (also Super Mario and Zelda on consoles, especially the SNES, N64 and recently on the Switch handheld). It’s a shame that the rate of progress seems to have slowed down a lot at least in terms of ground-breaking features and simulations.
But who knows maybe Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield will both be on future lists like this.
Ultima VII really sticks out as just crazy though, that game could have released 10 years later and held up.
I would actually also put KotOR on this list. It was the first game that I can think of that had branching side quests for companions and a relationship system depending on their usage. It was basically the precursor to the Mass Effect system.
Good list. Some extra info on xcom, it is basically a remaster of an 80s 8bit game called Laser Squad.
It’s more than a re-master though, Laser Squad was independent missions IIRC? No geoscope
And it also didn’t have elevation, etc.? That said, Laser Squad released on the ZX Spectrum so it’s incredible as is.
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Bioshock is the answer.
Has it aged? Yes. Is it still worth playing? Absolutely.
All the Bioshock games, in my opinion
System Shock 2.
Superman 64 meets the criteria of all categories and is inarguably the best game ever made.
ET for the Atari walked so that Superman 64 could run. Never forget.
Because ET couldn’t run… at the end because of the bug right?
Idk what you mean. That game clearly didnt have any bugs. Anything that you think might be a bug is a feature.
Half-Life was a game changer when it came out.
First-person shooters in those days were basically just spawning in a level, shooting generic bad guys and picking up loot. Half-Life had this insane story and they didn’t use any cutscenes or take away control from the player except to load the map, the whole story was told through the environment you explored and the characters you interacted with.
Even 20 years later, people are still having discussions about who the G-Man works for, or whether Dr. Breen (HL2) was a good guy.
What passed for AI was amazing as well. Found a sweet spot in an elevator shaft where I could patiently pick off soldiers.
“Got you dumb bots now!”
(incoming grenades)
“Well. Shit.”
They realized they were stuck, so they flushed me out! Up till then, enemies engaged on sight, suicidal, wouldn’t stop. These animals would hang back, wait for you to return.
There’s a great map, very small, like a small 2-story office building. Just you vs. the soldiers. The enemy “smarts” makes it infinitely replayable. Sometimes they really get you sweating as they coordinate against you.
All old news now, but that was amazing in the day. Also, you could play HL on about any old crap computer. Used to LAN party with my kids and his friends using junkers I’d cobbled out of spare parts. HL2 was famous for that as well. About any hardware specs at the time would at least get you in the game.
I know right? Valve keeps raising the bar so high you wonder how it can be topped. I can’t wait for Half Life 3!
Absolutely was.
At day 1 of release on a celery 300A overclocked to 450Mhz with SBLive EAX 3D audio played in the dark.
Remember being very impressed with the story, sound, atmosphere and AI brains increase.
Best modern games I have played:
Action: Risk of Rain 2 (Roguelite), Hades (Roguelite), Cuphead
Action-Adventure: Alien: Isolation (Stealth/Horror)
Adventure: Subnautica
FPS: Halo 1-Reach (Story), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Competitive)
Puzzle: Portal 2
Role-playing: Divinity: Original Sin 2
Simulation: Rimworld (Colony), Stardew Valley (Farm/Life), Squad (Military), Cities: Skylines (Builder)
Strategy: Civilization 5 (4X), FTL: Faster Than Light (Roguelite), Stellaris (4X)
Sports: Forza Horizon 4
MMO: Old School RuneScape
Openworld: Minecraft
VR: Half-Life: AlyxSome random games I enjoyed and would recommend:
Prodeus - a retro DOOM-like FPS, really captures the DOOM essence
Tomb Raider reboot: casual action-adventure games, just chill to play through
PlateUp! - a cooking roguelite management game, kinda like Overcooked (which is also a blast)
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes - one person has a bomb, the other the manual to defuse, lots of fun
Planet Coaster - a really good modernisation of the classic Roller Coaster Tycoon games
Sea of Thieves - open world PvPvE pirate adventure game, great fun with friends, wish they had progression though
Satisfactory - a factory building game, like a 3D Factorio (also good), it just needs an ending
Until You Fall - a VR sword fighting roguelite, wish they would expand on it, good fun while your arms dont hurtThis is a good list! I wish we had a Reddit-like save feature so I could never see this comment against.
There is a save feature, at least on the instance I’m using. Press the three dots next to the comment, and then hit the star icon :)
Rdr2 deserves a mention
How do you classify best? Could a 16 bit be considered best if the mechanics and graphics are spot on? I’m thinking of Zelda ALTTP for instance. The game is just flawless in my opinion.
I have to go way back and vote for the Shenmu trilogy. Open world and RPG.
I agree that Half Life for action adventure.
Definitely Portal 2 and the Talos Principal for puzzle.
Rocket League is awesome and so are the Skate games.
Crazy Taxi and Paradise City belong somewhere too
OG Half Life. I should load that up again!
I recently beat Half-Life MMod and really enjoyed it. I was worried it would be too over the top, but I found it just right as something between the original and Black Mesa.
XCOM, XCOM 2 (Strategy)
The balancing of risk/reward, tactics, and roster management spawned a whole genre. The newer XCOMs (Enemy Unknown/Within and War of the Chosen) are still so much fun.
Also, plugging /c/XCOM while I’m here.
Also the original X-COM was so far ahead of its time - a voxel-based LOS system, destructible environment, z-levels, natural elevation on terrain (deforming the isometric grid), reaction fire, etc.
In almost 30 years I’ve yet to come across another game that captures the feeling of turning a corner and coming face to face with an alien when you’ve few movement points left
Not to be confused with X.COM, a different series where an inept alien attempts to take over the world via shite grifting.
The Talos Principle is one of my favorite puzzle games of all time because it actually got me to stop, read, and consider the message
Hades, RoR, and RoR 2 are contenders for best roguelike for me. Not my favorite genre but these hooked me with great replayability
Valheim, while unfinished and full of bugs, was my favorite open world experience with friends but I think Astroneer is a more perfect game. It’s simple and does a great job “directing” you while you make your own choices. The sound design is unmatched for relaxing
I love strategy games but I’m a basic bitch here without a variety of them so Civ6, Cities Skylines, Advanced Wars, FTL, and Into The Breach are my favs
I’d split action into two separate categories: Action and multiplayer FPS.
Tomb Raider (2013) was a pretty perfect action game for me. Probably not flawless but I look back on it fondly
Overwatch remains my favorite FPS even though I stopped playing awhile ago. There’s just no objective-based team shooter with unique roles besides…TF2, my previous favorite FPS
+1 for The Talos Principle.
If you like puzzles, you’ll love Talos.
Great story, too.
I tried out Obduction based on a review that compared it to Talos but…I dunno if I would recommend it. I found the “puzzles” to be unintuitive and had to look up a guide multiple times. Then I’d see the solution and wonder how the hell the game expected me to know i needed an item from across the map.
So if you have any recommendations that are ACTUALLY like Talos, I’d love to hear them.
Yes, Talos II is inbound!
AHHHH WHAT I HAVEN’T BEEN THIS EXCITED ABOUT VIDEO GAME NEWS SINCE…Ok, Cities: Skylines 2. BUT BEFORE THAT…A LONG TIME
It’s been a good month of game announcements for me
