5: Sekiro - One of the best modern works of gothic horror in any medium (yes better than Bloodborne and Souls). A tight central narrative tied into a much deeper lore than is apparent at first glance. Also informed by Buddhist morality, which is pretty cool.

4: Ark - You can shoot a rocket launcher at robots from the back of a Giganotosaurus. What's not to love?

3: Spec Ops: The Line - A controversial game, but one of the only shooters in existence to actually critique the bloody imperialist power fantasy that all modern shooter games inherently are. It spat on Call of Duty and gave the finger to every ooh-rah Marine dipshit who thought they were buying another game to fellate themselves with.

2: Disco Elysium - self explanatory

1: Journey - Less a game and more an interactive therapy tool. Helped bring me out of a major depressive spiral way back when. Play it on mescaline and it becomes a spiritual experience. Also a playable deconstruction of The Hero's Journey story framework, which I just enjoyed aesthetically.

  • Waldoz53 [he/him, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    #5 Hitman, the newer trilogy starting from 2016 - It's just an incredible sandbox. Yeah there's a plot and a proper way to kill the rich targets but fuck I just enjoy throwing an explosive duck at someone while wearing a Santa outfit. The levels are huge and stunning. You murder rich people. The AI is dumb enough that wacky shit can happen if you fuck up. I basically ignore the plot and just try to improvise a way to kill each target. THEN I do the "proper" high scoring way to kill targets. It's just so much fun.

    #4 Dark Souls 3 - I know DS3 is a little less well liked compared to 1 and 2, but I've always loved it. (I haven't played Bloodborne or Sekiro ) I prefer it over 1 and 2 because it...yknow runs at 60 fps and doesn't make my eyes bleed trying to play it. It's a pretty game and I think its the only Souls game that I played 100% blind, besides looking up hints on finding secret walls and loot to 100% the game. The DLCs though, I fucking LOVE those. The first DLC is short as h*ck but has one of my fav boss fights in all of the Souls games I have played, and the 2nd DLC is STUNNING. I just loved looking at the Ringed City. My mind was BLOWN during the cutscene just before the Gael fight. The Gael boss fight is GORGEOUS and its one of the few Souls bosses I beat on my very first try.

    #3 XCOM2 War of the Chosen - Fighting fascist aliens and overthrowing them is great, but once again like Kenshi and Rimworld, its about my created character soldiers who live or sacrifice themselves trying to overthrow the aliens that have taken over Earth. Seeing my high level medic die fighting one of the aliens' Chosen felt like I got stabbed. Seeing one of my coolest dressed soldiers shoot and destroy the final portal in the last mission of the game was an INCREDIBLE feeling.

    #2 Kenshi - Almost the same thing as Rimworld, but less random events and more just...sandbox exploration. Lots of exploration to do, enemies to fight. You can be a merchant, slave or slavER, a bandit, you can try to overthrow the little empires of in each nation. It's just a lot of fun. When I discovered that getting caught freeing slaves labels you as a terrorist, I knew what I had to do: free every slave I could, no matter what. It's hard and brutal and so many of my characters died trying but I fucking love it

    #1 Rimworld - The AI creates chaos, really. I love building a colony and watching it crumble because of either my stupid mistakes or a random event that exacerbates problems in the colony I've built. I love seeing my colonist interact with each other. I love how the stories of each colony is essentially generated at random, but still end up being so memorable. I love attempting to manage my colonists when a massive raid of bandits tries to attack while I'm launching my ship off the planet. Its a brutal game, but I don't think I've ever played a game that makes me as emotional playing it as Rimworld does. Mods also just expand the game in ways that the devs didn't, its wonderful.