MystValkyrie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
It’s impossible to pick out just five of the most important games ever, but I’d try to pick games that have important historical significance, have some degree of genre diversity, all while still being fun and thought-provoking games you’ll always want to pick back up.
- Ultima IV.
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The first RPG that wasn’t a giant dungeon-crawling grindfest where you slay a wizard at the end. It has a big open world, fun NPC interactions, and fun tactical RPG gameplay for the time. Has a really good philosophical storyline that integrated with the game mechanics, and it shows how creativity can form under constraints.
- Resident Evil 2.
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One of the problems with choosing only five of the most important games is that the horror genre and the point-and-click adventure genre both are important in the history of gaming, but there isn’t room for both. Resident Evil 2 blends both genres exquisitely in a really compelling, but also endearing B-movie story.
- Flower.
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The indie revolution was an important era of gaming history, and motion controls were really big back then. Beautiful, subtle story about overcoming depression. Roger Ebert was wrong and video games could be art. Any indie game would fit here, but I picked Flower because, at the time, it challenged what people’s expectations of what a video game was supposed to me. Games don’t have to be challenging or about fighting to be legitimate. Doesn’t have a ton of replay value, but it’s the sort of game you’ll always come back to during hard times.
- Nier Automata.
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A really engaging action-focused game with a good story and tons of replay value. Bloodborne and Bayonetta would have also been good choices, but I ultimately went this one because you’ll spend more time on it, and there’s a co-op mod.
- Baldur’s Gate III.
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I would put an open-world, choice-based game here. Because even though it’s not a true open-world game, it has all the sandbox features open-world players like short of a fun physics system. It’s the third entry in the series, but the game doesn’t expect you to have played the first two games. Great mod support. I didn’t choose other popular open-world/open-zone games because many have paper-thin quests that lack player agency (Daggerfall, Oblivion, Skyrim, Dragon Age: Inquisition), don’t work as a standalone experience (Mass Effect Trilogy, the Witcher 3), are too controversial (Grand Theft Auto, which railroads you into being a bad guy) or have a strong open world and player choices but terrible gameplay (Morrowind). I gave BG3 the edge over Cyberpunk and Fallout: New Vegas due to built-in co-op and endless replay value that would last a lifetime.