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.

  • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Magicka - A few months older than <current decade> but who the fuck cares. It's a goofy-ass, isometric, multiplayer wizard adventure where your magic is infamously as dangerous to you as it is to everything around you. Elements can be cast up to 5 at once and interact with a fixed logic, so you can actually whip up effects on the fly once you start to grasp that logic. I have some kind of brainworm that makes me addicted to that shit, I also play Invoker come at me. The humor is a wonderful swedish goofiness with a sort of self-seriousness to it that I appreciate. You can electrocute yourself and wipe the party if you try to cast Revive while standing in water.

    Dead Cells - Difficult roguelike platformer with a weighty sort of combat that's yes like Dark Souls shut up. Everything about it is tight as hell and these guys are phenomenal at making attacks and animations and sounds that feel good to use. It's also made by an anarchist syndicate, although I think the current DLC is being developed by a different group and IDK their setup.

    Monster Hunter in general - 3U, 4U, Gen Ultimate, World, Rise, shit just rocks. Bludgeoning elder dragons to death with a bagpipe. I feel like they've hit on something truly great with Rise's freedom of movement, because this game feels fucking incredible.

    Prey - System Shock 3 when?

    Outer Wilds - Beautiful and bittersweet exploration-mystery set in a free-flight solar system, trawling ancient ruins and some genuinely inventive geology for answers. If you're even slightly interested in playing this game then for god's sake don't look up any more about it than like, the first Steam teaser trailer or something. Your progress is exactly equal to your knowledge, so spoilers very literally steal the experience from you. You can only play it once.